Devils Whim

by shadowvincent

The Pioneer 2 has finally arrived. Teams of Hunters have been dipatched to the planets surface. It all seems so idilic, but theres a catch... Theres something on the surface already, and its very, very angry.

The 'Pioneer Project'

--A plan conceived in desperation in response to the imminent destruction of their home worlds.

As plans for evacuation began, unmanned probes were sent out into deep space to find a habitable planet

When a potential site was discovered, the first interstellar transport ship, Pioneer 1, was sent to establish a colony.

Pioneer 1 confirmed that planet Ragol was a suitable location, and the colonists began preparing the planet for the main wave of refugees, beginning with the construction of the Central Dome.

7 years later...

Pioneer 2 completed its long voyage with the main wave of refugees aboard.

But as Pioneer 2 entered orbit and opened a communications link with the Central Dome, an enormous explosion shook the planet.

All contact with the thousands of men and women aboard Pioneer 1 was lost.

Wren turned in his seat from watching the projector screen giving a brief outline of the tragedy aboard the new planet to speak to Nova, the Racast sat next to him.

"What do you think happened down there? I mean, do you think everyone was killed or just their communicator was knocked out or what?" he said in an undertone. The Ranger replied without turning his head to the bright red Hucast.

"I dont know. No-one does. They wouldnt have called in the Hunters unless it was serious though..."

Rex, on the end of the row, motioned for quiet.

"Guys, shut up!" He hissed.

"Why? We dont need to read this stuff, its been up there for the last...uh..." Wren paused for a second as he checked his internal chromatograph "27 minutes, 14 seconds since we got here" he concluded.

"I know, but someones about to come on stage. I could hear them coming a mile off." The Fonewmn flicked one of the long ears sticking out from under his crown-like hat. Just as he finished speaking, none other than Principal Tyrell, the head of the Pioneer 2 came on stage. Behind him, the projection screen faded to black.

"Hunters, Rangers and Forces of the Guild" He said. "We need your help. As you know, there was an explosion on Ragol a few hours ago. We need your help. You represent the most skilled of the Hunters Guild. We want you to investigate and find the cause of the explosion, and if possible to neutralise it. All of you will be issued with a scanner. It is linked up to the data that the colonists gathered before we got here and transferred just before the explosion. It should be able to tell you what a lot of the things down there are. Each of you has now been cleared for use of the teleporter to the surface. You will each be put into groups of three, one Hunter, one Ranger and one Force. The shops are at your disposal for anything you need. A focus point for temporary teleports such as Telepipes has been set on Pioneer 2. Each of you will carry a modified version of a Telepipe connected to your body. If your vital signs begin to fail, you will be warped back direct to the hospital. A storage space has been reserved for each of you in the instant transmission area of the bank. You can teleport anything from there directly to your hand. Please put anything you wish to take with you without actually having to carry it around in there. Are there any questions? Yes, what is it?"

The Fonewearl in the front row who had put her hand up asked, "There were Hunters aboard the Pioneer 1. What happened to them?"

The Principal looked pained for a moment, then replied

"We dont know. It could be a simple electrical fault that broke the communications link. You were hired to find that out. The meeting is now adjourned. You can pick up your new equipment as you leave." He left the stage a little too quickly.

Wren looked at Nova and Rex as they queued for their new equipment.

"He seemed to pull up pretty fast after the hunters of Pioneer 1 were mentioned"

The other two looked at him sharply before the Racast spoke.

"Oh, of course, you wouldnt know. The Principals daughter, Rico was a Hunter posted on Pioneer 1. Her mother died the year after she was born. If anything happened to Rico, I dont think the Principal could take it."

The Hucast nodded. He was a brand new model, only a week old. While technically inexperienced, he was the most advanced model of android so far, having several abilities roughly equivalent to techniques, and had the combat experience of several other androids, including Nova copied directly into his silicon mind. Nova was one of the oldest models of Racast, but therefore one of the most experienced. Rex, like all newmans, had been grown in a vat. He was the oldest of the trio, but was still only 12, though due to his altered genes he was at the physical and mental development stage of an 18-year-old human.

The new equipment took the form of a tiny camera implanted in the optical sensors of androids or on a contact lens for the humans and newmans. The camera broadcasted everything to the Pioneer 2 where it was checked with the data from the Central Dome. The emergency Telepipe was connected to the electronic brain of the androids or the heart of the organic hunters.

Once equipped, the three set out for the main bank and placed a number of items each in the instant transmission area. The other items they carried with them.

Lastly. They made their way to the main teleporter. The guard checked their section Ids with a handheld scanner before letting them past and activating the teleporter, sending them down to the planets surface.

When the blurred vision and dizziness from the teleportation had faded, the three hunters found themselves in a forest with large clearings, presumably made by the colonists, and steel gates with security locks, certainly made by the colonists. Nova was packing a Yasminkov 7000V, which he was extremely proud of and always kept in perfect condition, while Wren carried a Stag Cutlery which he had borrowed from Nova, having had no time to find weapons of his own. Rex was unarmed to improve his casting speed.

The trip through the forest was uneventful. For about thirty seconds, before a flock of giant yellow chickens fell from the sky. Rex groaned and slapped his forehead.

"We dont need that scanner to tell us what these are. The colonists must have brought them over with them for food. Speaking of which...anyone for roast chicken?"

The Fonewmn thrust out a hand, palm toward the Rappies and unleashed Rafoie. The bloodthirsty chickens wavered in a heatwave for a second before the explosion engulfed them. When the smoke cleared the three hunters were surprised to find not a half dozen portions of crispy fried Rappy, but the bodies lying on the ground without so much as a charred feather. Nova walked over curiously and picked one up in a huge metal hand, his shotgun dangling casually from the other. He looked at it closely for a few seconds before turning to the others.

"Its not dead. Not even injured. Your Rafoie didnt do the job."

"What?" Replied the indignant Force, "That spell should have burnt it to a crisp! Theres no way it should have survived that!"

The Racast shook his head.

"Dont worry about it. Rappies are tough. They just absorb damage. They know when to quit though. Watch."

He dropped the Rappy back on the ground and backed off. It opened one eye and looked around for a second, then shot for the safety of the trees like a bat out of hell, or at least a chicken out of hell. Nova hit it perfectly with a shot from his Yasminkov, but it just shrugged off the impact with a surprisingly menacing hiss and kept running until it was out of sight. The others quickly followed suit and scarpered.

Wren, having never actually seen a Rappy before, whistled.

"Man, if thats all there is to this, this mission will be a pushover."

Nova gave a robotic frown, the entire top of his head tilting forward slightly.

"Come on Wren, you may not have had your first oil change yet but you know better than that. No way would the Government call in the cavalry for a few escaped Sunday roasts. Be on guard. I get the feeling we havnt been told the whole story here."

The other two nodded. Nova was the unofficial leader of three on the mission, having far more combat experience than both of the other two combined. Being a seven foot tall walking tank with a shotgun didnt hurt his commanding presence either.

The way ahead was apparently blocked by a series of blue scrolling lasers. The two androids scanned it, Wren as the more advanced model finishing almost a full millisecond ahead of Nova. Slightly smugly, he declared it harmless.

"It looks like it deactivated when we those Rappies headed for the hills. It activates when any wild animals are around, to stop them sneaking into the living areas. Come on, its about a mile to the nearest teleporter."

With that, he walked through the scrolling blue lines and emerged unharmed on the other side. The others followed him and found themselves in another clearing, well over twice the size of the last. Lurching around it were several bear like creatures. They stared at the creatures for a few seconds before green words began scrolling up in front of their eyes.

Booma, the words read,

Juvenile. Feeds mainly on insects and plants. Seems to actively enjoy the company of humans. Harmless unless subjected to extreme provocation. Always gives a warning by raising its arms and roaring before attacking. If this warning is given, it is suggested that you back away.

Right on cue, the Boomas raised their arms skyward and roared.

"Uh, Nova...how exactly do you define 'extreme provocation?'" asked Rex in a slightly nervous tone as the bear like creatures lumbered toward them.

"I know how I define it, but either the guy that wrote that entry had a really short temper or somethings wrong here. Wren, you ready to try out that shiny new body of yours?" Replied Nova.

The Hucast nodded and flicked a switch on the handle of his borrowed Stag Cutlery and the twin beams of red light flared into life. He spun it experimentally from one side of his body to the other, faster and faster until he seemed to be cocooned in a sphere of red light. Abruptly he stopped and settled into a stance with the weapon in one hand stretched out in front of him and the other arm stretched out behind him.

Rex gave a low whistle-as both a Force and a Newman he was always impressed by great shows of physical skill in much the same way that Androids were impressed by his powers to incinerate threats at will. He frowned. If Wren was going close combat, hurling techs around would be no use. Instead he contented himself with casting Shifta and Deband, temporarily boosting both the offensive and defensive powers of the group.

The Boomas were only a few seconds from reaching them now.

Wren attacked.

He swung the double ended saber up, slicing the lead Booma neatly in two like someone cutting bread, then swung it up over his head and grabbed it with both hands, spinning it above his head at speeds only a Hucast could generate. Since the Boomas stood almost a foot taller than the Hucast, the tops of three heads hit the ground like the tops of so many boiled eggs next to the bodies of their previous owners. It was creepy in a way, Wren hadnt swung at them, they had just walked straight into the spinning photon blades without even hesitating. It was like they had no mind of their own at all. Only five Boomas remained now. The leader looked as though it was about to join the boiled egg brigade when Wren swung the blade down in a massive arc, slicing the Booma straight through from right shoulder to left hip. It stood for a second before the top of its body slid to floor and left the bottom half just stood there, but by then Wren had moved on. The next two, stood side by side actually managed to attack, swinging a claw down, but Wren held the Stag Cutlery out horizontally in front of him and all the Boomas got for their troubles was an instant claw trim. Before they could swing again, Wren jumped up an impossible height right over their heads and landed behind them, then still holding the weapon horizontally, he somersaulted backward between them, clutching the handle of the blades to his chest. He became, essentially, a spinning ball with a photon blade sticking out of each side, passing between two meaty objects. Picture the result. That left just two and a half Boomas standing, and the half was not likely to pose a threat to even the most incompetent hunter. By the time he landed, the last two living Boomas had surrounded him, one on each side of him, one in front, the other behind. Both swung for him. Wren blocked the one in front of him with his Barrier, but the other caught him on the left shoulder with a claw, leaving a dent in the metal. Wren, calmly ignoring the hit, did something faster than the eye could follow, but somehow flipped upside-down and spun on his head, legs outstretched and Stag Cutlery held by his chest, which was now at the Boomas knee height. The upshot was that he sliced the Boomas off at the knee and kicked them in the chest in the same movement, sending the bodies flying off in two different directions and leaving the feet standing there alone. One of the de-footed corpses flew over to the other two hunters, but Nova blew it out of the air with a shot from his Yasminkov, showering the area with blood, guts and other less identifiable squishy things. The whole thing took about twenty seconds from Wrens first swing to the instant meat shower.

Rex blinked and stood absolutely still for several long seconds before slowly reaching up and pulling what looked to be an appendix from one of the spikes on his hat.

"Wren..." He said after dropping it to the floor, "How did you do that? Ive seen Hucasts fight before, and none of them could do anything like that. Sure they were strong and fast, but none of them could flow like that."

"Simple," replied the Hucast, walking over and turning off the Stag Cutlery with a flick of his thumb. "Im a brand new model, as you two are so keen to remind me. That means I get all the latest gadgets, and one of them is an internal gyroscope. Means that I can balance perfectly at almost any angle. Plus I get all the latest targeting and combat systems. I still have a load of stuff you havnt seen yet, but if everything goes down that easy, I wont have to break out the heavy artillery. You mind giving my back a shoulder of Resta though? One of them managed to catch me with a claw."

The Force nodded and a circle of golden sparks surrounded the trio, restoring them to the peak of health. The dent in Wrens shoulder popped out and the scratched paint healed over.

"Come on." Said Nova, speaking for the first time since Wren made pizza toppings out of the Boomas, "We need to get going. We want to finish the mission before nightfall, most big predators are nocturnal."

The others nodded and began walking away to a massive steel door on the other side of the clearing. It opened automatically for them as they approached. It was empty, but the door on the other side was locked. While Wren and Nova tried to get it to open, Rex stood deep in thought. Finally, he spoke.

"Guys...Theres something thats been bugging me about this..."

The two androids, expecting some revelation, turned away from the obstinate door and walked over.

"That entry on the Boomas said that they mostly eat insects, right?"

Not noticing Nova franticly waving his hands in front of his face and trying to mouth 'Shut up! Dont say it!' he pressed on.

"Well, why would they need claws like those for a few mosquitoes?"

Nova slapped his face into his hands with a loud clang.

"Oh, God," He moaned, his voice slightly muffled by an inch and half of metal covering his mouth,

"You had to go and say it, didnt you. Why am I stuck with a Force with the survival instincts of a depressed lemming? I give it...three seconds before we find out why they need claws like those. Three..."

A low drone, almost like an air raid siren came from above

"Two..."

A massive thing, like a balloon full of water hanging from three legs that met above it dropped slowly out of the sky.

"One..."

The thing reached the ground and the tips of the legs dug into the soil like roots.

"Zero. Hello, insects of Ragol!"

Dozens of mosquitoes flew out of top of the sack. Big mosquitoes. Mosquitoes a foot long. They swarmed around the three hunters, forcing them away from the hanging sack. They didnt seem to care whether they bit and stung flesh or metal. To make things worse, the scanner leapt into action, making it even harder to see.

Mothmant

Flying insect, feeds on blood sucked from larger organisms. Have a symbiotic relationship with the Monest, which serves as a nest and means of long range transportation. Should be avoided due to feeding habits. Will swarm anything that attacks the Monest.

The only things that could be heard over the furious buzzing of the giant insects was the occasional yelp of pain from Rex and the two androids swearing, fortunately in binary code. That was, until Rex finally snapped and let loose with Gizonde. One minute the air was filled with flashing wings and stings, the next it was filled with so much ash and soot. True, it did little for visibility, but it did a great deal for the general health and well being of the three Hunters.

When the ash finally settled, coating everything in the immediate area in a fine black powder, the Monest could be seen, looking decidedly vulnerable without the Mothmants to protect it. Nova was first to see it, and blew the narrow support for the hanging sack apart with a shot from his Yasminkov. It fell to the ground between the three legs and for some reason burst into flames and melted.

"Damn!" Said Rex, healing their wounds with Resta and as an afterthought throwing a casting of Anti in, just in case, "Whatever those things feed on must be huge!"

Wren spun round quickly as soon as Rex began to speak. "NO!" he grated, trying to dislodge soot from his loudspeaker at the same time.

"What? Of course it must be! The scanner said they feed on things larger than themselves and they travel in swarms. Anything with that much blood would have to be big!"

Nova turned to face a handy tree and began slamming his metal forehead into it, incidentally taking large chunks out of an endangered species. He counted down between each impact.

"Three (thud)...two (thud)...one (thud)...zero (OWWAAGHOUHTHUD!)"

A pair of massive horned apes dropped out of the sky, one of them crushing the remains of Novas tree and the other landing neatly on Nova, who dived away from the first and received the second in the top of his back, squashing him down into the soft earth.

Wren ignited his Stag Cutlery and spun it in front of him, waiting for the ape, which the scanner identified as a Hildebear to make the first move. Rex, backing away from the one that came after him threw a few Foie balls at it but it just ignored them and kept right on coming, at least until Rex changed tactics to ice and froze it solid with one good Gibarta stream.

Wrens Hildebear looked down at what appeared to be a large red disc in front of and swung a fist at it. It was surprised to find that what had a minute ago been a massive horny fist was now a dozen slices of low-grade salami. Wren stopped spinning the Stag Cutlery and swung one end at the Hildebears waist. It cut, but not all the way, and the Hildebear reacted by sending another punch with its other arm, picking Wren up and depositing him in a large bush. The Stag Cutlery went spinning away and deactivated when it hit a tree. The Hildebear rounded on Rex, who managed to freeze it with another wave of Gibarta, then ran over to Wren to help him out of the bush.

The Hucast tore himself out of the offending shrub and seeing his Stag Cutlery over the other side of the clearing, started to run over to get it. However, the Hildebears had other ideas, and chose that moment to thaw out, moving over to corner the two Hunters. It looked as though things would get very, very messy from there onward until a voice from behind the two Hildebears roared:

"HEY! UGLY! LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE!"

Nova, pushing his chest and head out of the ground, still with his Yasminkov in hand, loosed off a shot into the Hildebear already injured by Wren. The heavy slug took a chunk out its waist, and the Hildebear gradually leaned over sideways and fell over. The remaining one turned to face this new threat and began knuckling toward Nova, who quickly dialled a number on keypad set into his wrist. The Yasminkov vanished, teleported back to the bank, and was replaced by a massive red photon launcher. Hoisting it onto his shoulder, Nova set his eye to the crosshair on the side, centring it exactly on the approaching Hildebears tiny head and pulled the trigger.

The Hildebear vanished. Or at least, most of it did. Only the massive fists and tiny legs were left on the ground. The rest of landed on Rex, several hundred pounds of smoking meat falling out of the sky and burying him.

As soon as Rex managed to force his head out, Nova clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Now listen." He hissed in the Forces ear, "When we dig you out of here, you are not going to say anything, you understand? Do not ask why they need those big claws, do not ask what there is thats big enough for them to eat, do not even think the words 'I think were safe now' or 'I think we lost them'. If you do, I will personally see to it that whatever turns up seconds later turns you into a kebab, and Ill even provide the smoky barbeque sauce. Got it? Good."

As a direct result of Rexs silence they had a much easier time reaching the teleporter that would take them deeper into the forest, near the Central Dome. The trip to the Central Dome was also pretty uneventful until they reached the large concreted area surrounding it. Then things got a little more interesting. Wren, as the close range combat specialist was taking point, covered by Nova, now back with his trusty Yasminkov and the pair were backed up by Rex, providing Shifta, Deband and Resta when needed. At least, until a yellow claw tore its way up through the ground and latched onto Rexs platform shoe. I was closely followed by another claw which latched onto the other shoe, and a head, complete with a set of teeth which latched onto the Fonwmns rotund backside. Understandably, Rex yelped and tried to jump, but fell over due to the claws gripping his feet. Nova, unable to get a clear shot, had to be content with pointing and laughing. Wren, on the other hand, could jump clean over the Force and crush the yellow head chomping merrily on Rexs behind. Instead, he joined Nova in pointing and laughing. Rex would have pointed and laughed had he not been the butt of the joke, as it were. Instead, he just pointed behind him and fried the head with a massive bolt of Zonde. After walking away a few steps, shaking ash from his clothes as he went, he fried the two laughing androids with a casting of Gizonde-not enough to severely damage them, but certainly enough to trip out their internal circuit breakers and leave them immobile for a few seconds until they rebooted, and no android likes that.

After a minute or so, during which the two androids came back online and apologies were exchanged, another set of claws forced their way out through the concrete and revealed themselves to belong to creatures very much like Boomas, but with yellow rather than brown fur. The scanner identified them as Goboomas, the adolescent form of the juvenile Booma. Once they had been variously splattered, sliced or fried, Nova turned to Rex, who was obviously trying to avoid saying something.

"Its alright, you can say it." He said wearily "Theres no way we were gonna get through the mission without seeing them anyway."

The Force looked relieved and spoke to the forest in general.

"If those were the adolescents and the Boomas were juveniles, where are the adults?"

Exactly three seconds later, yet another variant on the bipedal-bear-with-big-claws theme, the Gigobooma, forced its way out of the ground. Looking basically the same as the younger Gobooma and Booma except for the horn on its nose and its fur, which was a vomit-inducing shade of purple, it lurched toward the three Hunters, claws outstretched, until Nova turned its head into a crater with a shot form his high-powered shotgun. If you really want to know what it looked like, take a watermelon, place it on a hard surface and hit it with a sledgehammer. It was messy.

The Gigobooma seemed to have been the last enemy nearby, because when it died its splattery death, a massive square teleporter fizzed into life behind them. Nova shrugged and walked over to it. Once the three of them were stood on the pad, he activated it. It came out in what looked to be the inside of the Central Dome, but it was deserted. No people, no buildings, nothing, the walls and floor were coated in rock, which looked to have been laid on as a liquid.

Nova gave a metallic sigh and switched from his Yasminkov back to the Red Scorpio.

Noticing the looks the other two gave him, he explained,

"We are in a big area with no exits. That means something huge lives down here which we will have to kill before we can get out." When the other two continued staring, he added, "someone called me cynical once, but he got eaten. Heads up!"

Wren and Rex spun round to find a massive Dragon descending from the ceiling. It shook the floor when it landed, and opened its mouth before a bolt from Novas Red Scorpio cut it off mid roar. Wren ran over and began hacking away at the beasts ankles while Rex sent wave after wave of Gibarta cascading over its head. It tried to turn away, but when it tried to put its weight on one leg it fell over. Wren, narrowly avoiding being crushed as it fell, ran over to its head and began making mincemeat out of it. Nova just kept firing his photon launcher into its side, leaving great black craters in the red scales. Rex, meanwhile, clambered right on top of its head and started sending waves of Barta all the way up its back. Assaulted from all sides, it gave up and collapsed. Dozens of item crates appeared all around the room, along with a teleporter. While Wren and Rex broke open the crates and took the contents, Nova waited by the teleporter. Once the other two finished looting the room-Rex picked up some more powerful techs, while Wren found a nifty special sword-Nova activated the teleporter, taking them back to the Pioneer 2.

"Wow" said Rex, blinking in an effort to stop the Pioneer 2 spinning in front of his eyes (jumping hundreds of miles via teleporter upsets the balance organs in much the same way as spinning round quickly does) "What was that thing?"

Nova shook his head. "I have no idea, and neither did the scanner. The colonists hadnt seen that thing before, or at least, none of them had seen it and survived."

Rex looked thoughtful-despite his tendency to absent-mindedness, he was the most intelligent of the group, having been genetically engineered for it. "That doesnt make sense. That thing would have to be above tree level to fly and someone would have spotted it." He looked down and exclaimed "Hey, what happened? We were covered in blood just now and now were clean! What happened?"

Nova shrugged. "The main teleporter has a scrubber built into it-anything that isnt either android, human or newman gets scrubbed out of the teleport, and that includes blood. Its just an extra precaution to stop animals getting into the Pioneer. But yeah, youre right about the dragon, someone would have spotted it. So I guess it must have lived somewhere the colonists never explored. Possibly underground...there was a spout in the top of that room that could have led to the caves system, and the colonists never explored them."

"Well come on then! What are we waiting for?" Wren said, "We need to get to the caves! You two go see the Principal, I need to find a Tekker to have a look at this sword."

Nova nodded. "Alright. Meet us by the teleporter as soon as you can."

He set off for the Principals office with Rex in tow.

The Principal, as it turned out, was expecting them.

"The...the Dragon? Did it attack you?"

"What?" Exclaimed Nova and Rex together, "How do you know about that?"

"You were the second team of Hunters to make it that far. The first team are already in the Caves, but theyve hit trouble. Go back them up, fast!"

Without even stopping to answer, Nova turned and ran back to the main teleporter, his huge metal feet thumping on the concrete floor. He shouted to the guards as he passed them,

"Tell Wren to follow us into the caves! Team one needs backup!"

He teleported and began running through the caves without even pausing for a second, hitting his shoulder on the metal door and leaving a dent in it before his vision cleared. Rex, hot on his heels, stopped for a second before following.

"Nova, wait up!" He yelled at the Racasts retreating back before finally catching up as Nova reached a junction and stopped, unsure which way to go. Rex stopped with his head cocked for a second before running down the left path. "Come on, I can hear them down here. We must be close!"

Sure enough, there was a Humar in the next chamber, pinned against a wall by some kind of massive insect. Behind the insect were the bodies of a Racast and a Fomar, which telepiped away automatically as Rex and Nova entered. The Humar was putting up a good fight, swiping away with a pair of photon blades, but he had no room to dodge and it was clear that the insect, which the scanner eventually identified as a Grass Assassin was getting the better of him, slicing with a pair of photon edged forelegs. Not hesitating for a second, Nova raised his Yasminkov and blew a hole in the middle of the insects back. While it certainly didnt appreciate that, it would take a lot more than that to take it down. It shuffled round and began to charge toward Nova, obviously intent on flattening him. Nova put a stop to that with another round from his Yasminkov, and when it stopped the Humar jumped up onto its back and began clawing his way up to its head, digging his photon blades into it as he climbed. Locking his legs around the Grass Assassins thorax, he swiped the two blades of his Musashi toward each other, neatly decapitating the outsized mantis. Unsurprisingly, it collapsed and died. Nova ran up to the Humar, who was led down on his back, breathing heavily

"Genesis! Are you alright? What happened?"

"The Humar, Genesis, looked up. "Nova? What are you doing here? I havnt seen you in ages!"

"We were sent down here to rescue you. Come on, we need to get you back to the Pioneer. Rex, you mind helping out?"

The Force nodded, and a second later the three of them were surrounded by the light of Ryuker.

Nova carried Genesis to the hospital, where the nurses, actually a Force specialising in healing techniques patched him up. Now looking much healthier, Genesis asked the nurse how the rest of his party were.

"Oh, you mean the Racast and the Fomar? Theyll live, but they need to stay here for a while. You should probably get added to this group until the rest of your team recover."

Genesis nodded. It had been too long since he had last hunted with Nova. The two had joined the Hunters Guild at the same time, when Nova was first constructed. They had hunted together right from their first mission, back on their home planet. Three years later, they had been selected as being two of the strongest hunters in the guild and had been placed on Pioneer 2. However, due to a lack of anything much to fight in deep space they hadnt hunted together for seven years.

Swinging himself off the hospital bed, the Humar followed his old friend out onto the deck of the Pioneer 2. Rex was waiting for them alongside Wren, who had apparently turned up just in time to see them Ryuker out. After introductions and explanations had been exchanged the four set out for the Ryuker to take them back to where they were. As they materialised and equipped Mags-Rex and Nova favoured Nidra, while Genesis would hear no word against Varaha. Wren was still raising his, but judging by its diet it would become an Asparas, Genesis pulled out his trusty Varista. Nova rolled his optical sensors in exasperation. The Humar used no other weapon unless he really had to, when he usually switched to the Musashi. He refused even to use the more powerful Bravace, which Nova had offered to give him. Catching his glance, the Humar grinned. They had been through this countless times before.

Running on ahead, Wren was the first to encounter the mutated creatures of the Caves. The scanner had no information on them other than the name, which it was hesitant to produce, since the mutation had altered the appearance of the beasts.

As he entered the room, the thick steel door opening automatically, he saw no signs of life, but the door on the other side of the square room was locked. Hoisting his Dragon Slayer to shoulder height, ready to swipe at anything that moved, he walked forward to the door and examined it. It seemed to be functioning properly, but remained stubbornly locked. Turning to walk back to the rest of the group, he found the way back also blocked, this time by a solid wall of fangs, photon blades and dangerously short tempers. The gang of Evil Sharks lumbered toward the Hucast, probably not intent on offering him tea and cakes and showing him to his room.

Suspending a subroutine in order to give maximum runtime to his combat systems, Wren swung the Dragon Slayer across the gang as they approached, neatly scoring a long green line of mutated blood at chest height, which seeped out onto the floor. Swinging back again, he decapitated the entire row, where the bodies melted away into the floor, leaving only green puddles of blood behind. Again swinging his massive sword, Wren this time hit the photon edged forearm of the first Shark, deflecting his strike up into the Sharks outsized chin and splitting its face cleanly, or rather messily in two. Predictably, it collapsed, but before Wren could recover and swing the sword again, the Sharks were on top of him, slicing away at him and leaving long gashes in his metal hide. No space to use the sword now, and certainly no time to dial up a different weapon, Wren dropped his Dragon Slayer, where it landed on the foot of one of the Sharks, causing it to hiss in pain. Taking his opportunity there, Wren clambered on top of the Shark, intending to jump off it out of the scrum. The Sharks skeletal system, however, had other ideas. Already weakened by having had a giant photon sword dropped onto one of its feet, it collapsed under the weight of just over one metric tonne of Hucast with a series of squelching and cracking sounds. Wren, sprawling onto the mob of sharks, effectively crushed another two. Getting to his feet covered in green blood and various organs that the crushed Sharks almost certainly didnt need any more, Wren shrugged. It may have been inelegant, but it worked. Stomping heavily on the foot of the nearest Shark, which howled in pain as several bones were smashed beyond recognition, he climbed up onto its head and repeated his Shark-crushing bellyflop onto the next group. Now free of the mob, he watched as the sharks tried to turn around to face him, cutting each other with their claws. Grabbing two sharks by the head, he slammed them together and dropped the corpses to the floor. Only a dozen or so left now, but they had finally managed to turn round and were slowly advancing again. Flexing his fingers, Wren circled round them until one of them was close enough to hit him. When it tried, Wren sidestepped the strike and, grabbing its shoulder, spun the Shark around to face its colleagues. Gripping both of its arms from behind, just behind the photon blade, he tore its arms off, resulting in a makeshift weapon. The rest of the Shark he kicked in the small of the back, punting it forward into the others. Activating tiny windscreen wipers to clear his optical sensors of green sludge, he drew back his Shark Blades and waited for the Sharks to approach. They did, and were instantly cut down by Wren, jumping forward while spinning like a top, blades outstretched. The last Shark left standing didnt stand a hope, and ended up having the back of its head invaded by a metallic fist and its brain kneaded into what can only be described as mush. Place a lime-flavoured jelly in a food processor if you want to see the general effect for yourself.

The other three Hunters arrived to find him knelt down in an ankle deep pool of green blood, searching for his dropped Dragon Slayer. He was, by this point, completely unrecognisable, being green from head to toe, and Nova almost put a bullet in his central processor before Wren looked up and saw them.

"Where have you guys been? I nearly got buried alive in monsters!"

Nova blinked. "Wren?" He said in disbelief, "What the hell happened to you? You look...well, take a look for yourself."

Walking over to the Hucast, who straightened up, Dragon Slayer in hand, he stared directly into Wrens sensory array and opened an IR communications link to transmit an image file to him. Wren, after receiving and opening the file, looked as surprised as android with an immobile face can.

"Wow. I never realised how messy this job got you..." He said after looking his own body up and down and trying to scrape the worst of the gunk off.

"Neither did I till I saw you, and Ive been doing this for years." Nova replied. "Oh, hold still a second..." He peeled a spleen from Wrens back and tossed it away.

"Does he always do that?" asked Genesis in a slightly unbelieving tone.

"Only when I get left to fight dozens of monsters filled with green goo by myself." cut in Wren before Nova could answer.

Rex, healing the dents and scratches covering Wren with a long burst of Resta and powering the group up with Shifta and Deband, suddenly looked up and pointed over to the other side of the room. There, by the other side stood a pair of giant flowers.

"Hey, look! How did they get there? I dont remember seeing those there before..."

Wren looked over at them and compared what he saw to the images in his memory banks.

"They wernt there before...and those things that attacked me came out of nowhere too...whats going on here?"

Genesis shrugged and walked over to the nearer of the two flowers. It remained motionless until he got close enough to reach out and touch it. Lunging forward with its 'face', it pecked viciously at his shoulder. Genesis yelled and tried to grab it by the stem, but it twisted and tried to bite his arm, stopped only by the hilt of the Varista being brought down heavily on its 'beak'. Jumping back, Genesis levelled the Varista at it and fired. Then he fired again. And again. Finally, when there was nothing left of the plant but a smoking vegetarian stew, he shot it some more. The other plant turned its stem round to face him. Seeing this, Genesis, never one who could resist taunting an opponent, no matter how many times it got him injured, stood well out of pecking range and kicked the slurry that was all that remained of the first Lily at it. It responded by spitting at him, a massive green wad of foul-smelling sputum that caught him full in the chest. Seeing its direct hit, the Lily giggled infuriatingly. Wiping mucus from himself and flinging it to the ground, Genesis pointed his trusty Varista at the giggling plant and flicked a switch on the handle.

"Filthy habit." He exclaimed, before pulling the trigger and sending a bolt of photons laced with a charge designed to block nerve impulses, effectively paralysing the target. The Lily froze in place, helpless, while Genesis walked over to it. Holstering the Varista, he pulled the Lilys petals out one by one, heaving on them until they snapped, then got to work on the beak. Gripping the top half, he bent it over the back of the Lilys 'head' until it snapped, then did the same to the bottom, leaving a yellow tongue lolling down the stem. Finally, he bent the stem over his shoulder and heaved on it until the roots pulled of the soil. Dropping it, he put a steel soled boot on its stem and fired into it until the Varista started to overheat. Given the efficiency of the handgun, this took several minutes.

Turning back to the others, who were looking on in astonishment, he shrugged and said,

"What? One bit me, the other spat on me. If theyd just died quietly, I wouldnt have bothered."

"Yeah, but you...oh, never mind. Lets get going. Well be here all night otherwise." Replied Nova, shaking his head. "Wren, Genesis, you go on ahead. Ill cover you. Rex, you back us up."

The other team members nodded and made affirmative noises of some kind. The two Hunters moved through the now unlocked door, Wren slightly ahead with his Dragon Slayer, Genesis pointing his gun at anything that moved. Nova followed them after a few seconds with Rex just behind. In the next room, a circular cavern, they found how the Altered Beasts of the Caves managed to sneak up on them so effectively.

The room was apparently empty. Walking over to the middle of the room, they stood in a square, back to back, watching the whole room for any signs of monsters with big claws. They found them when a group of conspicuously purple Sharks somehow teleported into the room around the edges, forming a circle around the four hunters. Nova blasting away as soon as they appeared, but Genesis seemed to hesitate for a second before shaking his head as if to clear it and firing. Wren charged forward and rammed one with his shoulder, slamming it into the wall with a bone-shattering crack. It dropped to the floor lifeless, and Wren grabbed the corpse by a foot before it could dissolve into the ground, spinning it around over his head and hurling it into the next Shark in the ring. It would have taken a surgeon to separate the two corpses. The Sharks not already crushed, splattered or in one case overcome by a sudden heart attack were fried alive a few seconds later by Rex, demonstrating superb use of Gizonde by sending it screaming around the ring of Sharks. They collapsed; tiny sparks of electricity flashing over them and making them twitch in a slightly disturbing manner.

Genesis blinked. His Varista was lying on the floor, but he didnt remember dropping it. Bending to pick it up, he staggered into the wall and landed heavily on his side.

Nova clumped over and extended a hand to help him to his feet.

"Genesis? What happened?" His voice seemed faint to the Humar, as if from coming from a long way away. He tried to grip the proffered hand, but found he couldnt see it properly. His vision was blurred, and his limbs seemed sluggish, like trying to move through water.

The last thing he remembered seeing there was a pair a yellow lights, Novas eyes, before they faded into darkness.

He opened his eyes to find himself staring at thick purple mist. Something felt very wrong. He had no idea where he was, but knew that wherever it was, he didnt want to be there. He reached for his Varista, but found it missing. Where was it? Where was any of his equipment? Even Varaha was gone. He walked onward, but the mist was too thick to see where he was going. The floor was black and felt like stone, and the mist was somehow drifting up out of it.

The mist swirled suddenly off to his left. Was that a shadow moving? Was someone here with him?

"Hello? Whos there?"

No reply

"Where am I? What is this place?"

Still no answer. But there was something now. A dull, rhythmic thumping...a heartbeat?

"I know youre here! Who are you? ANSWER ME!"

Still no answer, but the heartbeat was joined now by a rushing wind that blew the mist back and forth. Genesis realised something with a shock..

He hadnt taken a single breath since he woke up in this place.

He placed a hand on his chest. No heartbeat either.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME!?" He screamed to the air, throwing his head back. This time, he received a reply.

You know you want this

"Who are you?"

You know who I am

Genesis almost recognised the voice...it seemed so familiar, one that he heard every day, but he couldnt place it.

"What do you want?"

Freedom

"Freedom from here?"

Freedom from this shell, freedom to take back what is mine

"What is yours?"

Everything

The purple mist closed around him, but not before he finally recognised the voice.

It was his.

The last thing he saw was two red lights glowing before they faded to darkness.

He opened his eyes to find himself slumped against the wall of the caves with Nova kneeling next to him.

"Wh...what happened?"

"That plant wasnt just spitting at you. Its called a Poison Lily. It spits a toxin that first slows your reactions, then blurs your senses and finally knocks you into a coma. It would have killed you eventually, but Rex managed to flush the poison out with Anti and patch you up with Resta. You were asleep for about a dozen beats."

"I was asleep? I didnt...go anywhere?"

"No. I think you were dreaming. You were talking in your sleep."

"What was I saying?"

"The last things you said were 'freedom from this shell, freedom to take back what is mine' then you waited a second and said 'everything'.

Hauling himself to his feet, Varista back in hand and Varaha supporting him, Genesis froze.

"I...I said that?"

"Yep. Im guessing some guy owes you money. A lot of money by the sound of it."

"Uh...yeah...yeah, thats right..."

"You okay? You seem a little woozy...you want to head back to the Pioneer 2?"

"No! No, Im fine. Just a little dizzy. I think I caught my head on something when I went down."

Shaking his head to clear it of an image of a pair of glowing red lights shining out of a purple mist, Genesis walked on through the nearest door. A few twists and turns later, he caught up with Wren and Rex, who were working on clearing a room filled with yet more Sharks. Genesis made a beeline for a Poison Lily in the corner, though something in his manner suggested that his intention was not to delicately sup of the plants nectar before ferrying a handful of pollen from the stamens of one plant to the stigma of another to ensure the survival of the species. Perhaps it was the cold glint in his eyes, or the sense of purpose in his stride, or then it could have been the way he tore the Lily from the soil and ripped it apart with his bare hands. Either way, the end result was the same.

Pulling his Varista back out of its holster, he began to fire into the melee of Sharks and Wren, somehow missing the Hucast by inches with each shot and hitting a Shark in what was invariably a vital organ.

Wren, ducking and diving and swinging his Dragon Slayer back and forth through the never-ending sea of Sharks, finally seemed to snap. He gave a robotic scream of rage and frustration and leapt straight up into the air, slamming his foot into the jaw of the Shark in front of him and sending its head pinwheeling away across the room, where it exploded against the wall like an overripe melon. Swinging the headless body by one arm, he hurled it into away into the army of beasts, knocking over a wide path of them like giant green dominoes. Except with more teeth and claws. Trampling over the fallen Sharks to a nauseating series of underfoot squishes, pops and crunches, he reached a place of relative safety.

Turning to face the Sharks that remained uncrushed-of which there were a lot-Wren stood for a second with his arms outstretched, then with a sharp snap his hands flipped back at the wrists, leaving the backs of his fingers lying against the top of his forearm. In the cavity where each hand should have been was a steel pipe, coated on the inside with ceramics.

In the pipe was a pilot light.

The sea of Sharks was engulfed in flames, great torrents of burning gas and liquid spewing from Wrens arms.

The room was clear in seconds, the sea reduced to a swamp of bubbling, melting flesh and charred bones. The twin flamethrowers winked out and Wrens hands snapped back into place over his wrists. Flexing his fingers experimentally, he waded through the swamp to the unlocked door.

Nova slogged right on through after him, followed by Genesis. Rex chose to pick his way around it, carefully avoiding getting waist deep in flambéed Shark.

Nova caught up with Wren in the corridor. The Hucast seemed to be walking a little too quickly, as if trying to avoid having to talk to the other Hunters. Nova moved in front of him, blocking the narrow path with his vast steel body.

"Wren, just what the hell was that?" He enquired in an oddly calm tone.

Wren looked annoyed, but somehow worried. Though his immobile face couldnt show it, it somehow came through in his tone and the way he held his body. Eventually, after a few long seconds of silence, in which Nova was tempted to repeat his question, he answered, or at least replied.

"...I cant tell you. Its classified."

"Classified!? How can it classified? You just roasted a room full of Sharks with it and you cant even tell us what it is!?"

Wren gave a metallic sigh.

"I guess youre right. It doesnt make any difference now anyway. That was one of the prototype features built into me. The technical name for it is 'chemical ignition repression system', but its commonly called Flare. You wernt supposed to see it."

"Flare?...I heard rumours that androids always used to have features like that, but that was thousands of years ago."

Wren nodded.

"Thats right. Some of the Hunters on the Pioneer 1 explored further than we were told. They found the remains of an ancient civilisation, and in there was the schematics for an ancient android-technically a cyborg, since he had some organic parts. The data was transmitted back to the Pioneer 2, and the lab started working some of the features into a standard Hucast frame. The result was me, prototype Hucast model Ruin01, designation Wren."

Wrens BEE system beeped, and he paused to access it. After reading the message, he looked up.

"Its a message from the lab. Im to be dismantled for releasing classified, sensitive information to unauthorized personnel. Its been nice fighting with you. Goodbye, Nova, Rex, Genesis." He turned to the other two Hunters standing behind him as he said their names.

Nova reached out to grab the Hucast, but before he could reach him there was the bright rainbow light of a Telepipe and Wren was gone.

Nova blinked, his yellow headlamp eyes dimming for a second, then slammed a massive steel fist into the stone wall.

"Dismantle? Why cant they call it what it is? Its murder. We have to get to the lab before they do it!"

Genesis nodded.

"I agree. We may need his skills to get through these caves."

Novas eyes dimmed again for a second before he answered.

"Thats a attitude to take. Whats got into you? Youve been acting kinda strange ever since you woke on, we need to get to the lab."

He enveloped himself in the light of Ryuker, carrying himself, Rex and Nova back to the Pioneer 2.

They arrived back on the Pioneer 2 instantly, though due to the effects of high speed travel it seemed like several seconds to them. There they took another teleporter to the area known as the lab, where Wren was stood in front of a team of scientists with facial expressions ranging from 'mild irritation' to 'freaking livid'. One of them, who was probably at about 'indignant rage', was holding a large monkey wrench. It was sent spinning out of his stinging fingers by a shot from an antique firearm, wielded by Nova, who was midway between 'cold fury' and 'red mist descends'.

Nova, holding his smoking shotgun to his shoulder, his normally calm yellow eyes narrowed to red slits, illuminated in a hellish red light by a massive ball of Foie that Rex held between both hands, was certainly an imposing sight. The gangling scientists certainly thought so, backing away from the hulking android, their faces instantly switching to 'abject terror'. Only Wren stayed where he was, turning his head to look at his rescuers.

"Why are you here? You cant just break me out of here. Youll be killed too."

"I dont plan to just break you out. I plan to get you out by entirely legal means."

He turned his attention to the gaggle of quivering scientists.

"Alright. I have a proposition for you."

The scientists nodded mutely as a group, glad for any option that meant they got to keep their internal organs internal.

"You obviously want to keep the little upgrades that you built into my friend here a secret. The only ones who know about them are me, Genesis and Rex here. You release Wren and we see it stays that way. And he gets total freedom. No behaviour control from you at all."

One of the scientists, probably the head of the project judging by his position at the back of the group spoke up in a voice that shook only slightly, shielded as he was by the others.

"And if we refuse? We can have security up here in seconds."

"If you refuse, I broadcast everything I know about Wren to every vidscreen on the ship. Plus, of course, you will be unidentifiable without DNA analysis."

The lead scientist seemed to consider this for a second. In reality, he was considering his chances of surviving while shielded under the rest of his team. Then he remembered the monkey wrench.

"Alright. You three sign an agreement not to disclose any information on the Wren project to the general public and we let him carry on working with you."

The agreement was signed.

Back in the Caves, Wren was now free to use the full extent of his abilities. He seemed almost to fly, wielding his Dragon Slayer with indecent skill. Confronted by a group of Sharks, he just tore through them like an 8lb lump hammer through damp tissue paper. Nova, Rex and Genesis fought pretty much the same as always, which isnt to say they didnt get their own share of kills. Unlike Wren, they were all capable of killing from a distance, so the rampaging android often found a target collapsing or spontaneously combusting as he reached it.

Unfortunately, they wernt the only ones able to rack up a kill without leaving their guild hoverchairs, which three of them had taken to cruising around the Caves in due to the lack of anything getting close enough to land a hit.

The purple beam hit Nova dead centre on his chestplate, knocking him backward in his hoverchair and sending him flying back across the room. Looking up, he found the owner of the beam, a rather small grey dragon flying around the ceiling of the room, making strafing runs on the four hunters. He dived out of his hoverchair just in time to avoid another purple beam, which hit his unfortunate steed, causing it to fizzle out in a spray of green photons. Looking round, he saw that the chairs of Genesis and Rex had suffered similar fates in yellow and blue respectively. Genesis was already pumping shots from his Varista into the overgrown lizard, while Rex was busying himself with a shower of Resta to heal Novas battered chestplate.

Raising his trusty Yasminkov, Nova unloaded a single powerful round into the Nanodragons right wing, causing it to spiral headfirst to the floor, landing with a crunch that buried its entire head in the rock floor.

On closer inspection, it hadnt. Its entire head had in fact been buried in its neck. Not a pretty sight, particularly for the Nanodragon.

Looking at the corpse, the four hunters found to their surprise that it had an entry in the scanner.

Nanodragon

Immature. Adult form not yet registered.

Feeds exclusively on other lizards such as the Sharks, appears incapable of digesting warm-blooded creatures. This does not prevent it from attacking them. Highly aggressive, even against other Nanodragons.

Nova shrugged.

"I guess the adult form must be that fire-breathing lizard we saw a couple of days ago. Come on, we have company."

He turned around to find the area deserted.

"Thats weird. My motion detectors say theres something right about there."

He pointed his Yasminkov at a perfectly ordinary and boring area of floor, distinguished only by a distinctly lonely-looking Guil Shark foot which stood there, devoid of its owner, who was several feet away from it. And several feet away from that. And on the ceiling.

Rex ran over to the indicated place, kicking the foot aside with a platform shoe. Flattening one pointed ear to the ground, he listened intently for a few seconds before clutching his ears and yowling in pain. The reason for this was that Nova had started to walk over, the massive androids clumping footsteps thundering through the Rexs sensitive aural tract like a thousand stampeding wildebeest celebrating a football victory.

"OAAUUWWGHHH!!! WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?"

"Do what?"

"THOSE DAMN METAL CLODHOPPERS OF YOURS JUST BURST MY EARDRUM!"

"Oh..."

Nova ran forward and poured a Monomate into the Forces right ear, repairing the burst membrane, though the ringing in ears took several hours to stop.

"You okay now?"

"WHAT?"

"Hey, theres no need to shout..."

"IM NOT SHOUTING!"

"...Okay...can you hear anything down there yet?"

Rex, thankfully silently, placed his ear on the floor again, glaring at Novas massive feet. After a minute or so, he looked up.

"THERES SOMETHING MOVING DOWN THERE!"

Of course, in accordance with the laws of comic timing, it quickly became something moving up there. The ground shook for a second and weirdest sight ever to meet the eyes of anyone in the Caves leapt up out of the ground. It was vaguely rectangular in shape, with a stubby little leg at each corner. One half of it was orange, while the other was blue, and on each side was a large pincer-like claw, protruding from the end. There were a pair of green shapes, one on top of the other on the front of it. On top of it was Rex, led down in exactly the same position as he had been before it jumped up out the ground he was led on.

The scanners, after a few seconds work, identified it as a Pan Arms.

Pan Arms

Almost invulnerable to physical and photon damage. Aggressive, but so slow as to be considered sedentary. Fires two varieties of energy beam. Composed of Migium and Hidoom. Little else is known about this rare creature.

Ignoring the scanner, Nova, Genesis and Wren began laying into the Pan Arms with a vengeance, but stopped when their attacks had no more effect than a fly hitting a windscreen. The Pan Arms responded by gurgling internally for a second, then firing a sort of wide, close range energy beam in the same shade of blue as one half of the creature. The energy wave knocked the three hunters back, but did such feeble damage that even Genesiss weak Resta could, and did take care of their wounds.

However, this still left Rex in what is best described as a predicament. Nova, his voicebox set to maximum volume, yelled over to the Force to try a few Techs, but was unable to make himself heard over the ringing in those pointed ears. He turned to Wren instead.

"Anything you can do with those flamethrowers of yours?"

"Not a thing, unless you dont mind roasting our cloth-eared Force."

Nova looked thoughtful before shaking his head.

"Looks like its down to you then, Gen."

Genesis nodded and pointed his free hand-the right, since he was left handed-toward the Pan Arms, which was shuffling slowly around for some odd reason, and gritted his teeth to send a Foie tech lazily wandering toward it. It was supposed to go screaming toward it, but like most Humars, Genesis was more than a little inadequate in the Tech department. The impact, however, had more of an effect than all the Varista shots he could have pumped into it. The Pan Arms gurgled in pain and reared up onto its hind legs, sending Rex rolling off the back, where he got carefully to his feet-not because he was injured, but because six-inch tapered platform shoes make it impossible to leap elegantly to your feet. The Pan Arms, in the meantime, was emitting some rather disturbing squelching noises, and suddenly tore itself in half along the orange/blue division, each half getting one of the green shapes each. A massive photon blade shot out of each of the pincer claws, and the two now bipedal creatures began lumbering around in small circles. One of them, the blue, spotted Rex and began to charge at an alarming rate.

Before the Force could move, it ran him right though with its photon blade.

Nova roared and charged forward, but was stopped by a swipe to the chest from the orange half. Genesis and Wren, however, made it through. Wren grabbed the orange halfs arm as it swung at Nova, preventing it from cutting too deeply, while Genesis piled shot after shot from his Varista into the other, blue half. To his surprise, the shots had an effect, and the blue half collapsed backward. The orange half turned to face its departed colleague, carrying Wren with it. As it stood there, unmoving, it was blown apart by a Foie tech from Rex, sent screaming across the gap by the prone Force. Genesis closed his eyes and muttered under his breath.

"Showoff."

Nova ran over to Rex, speaking slowly and calmly.

"Dont panic, well get you to a hospital. If you can cast Resta, do it. Wheres the wound?"

He began to check over the Forces body, looking for a ragged hole through him. Rex grabbed his metal hand, his grip as weak as a newborn kittens. When he spoke, the weakness showed in his voice, lowering it to a normal volume.

"There isnt a wound. Im fine. I just feel...so weak..."

Wren looked up from scanning the two halves that had been the Pan Arms.

"The scanner says these things are called Migium and Hidoom. Hidoom-thats the orange one-does damage, while Migium only causes Jellen and Zalure. Youll just be weakened until it wears off."

Rex grunted.

"No way am I staying like this till it wears off. Gather round, people."

The other Hunters gathered around him, and Rex feebly extended a hand and croaked,

"Shifta."

The red glow of the strengthening tech surrounded them, adding extra power to muscles and extra pressure to hydraulics. Rex, suddenly going from day-old-kitten to god-among-men, leapt to his feet, managing to control his platform shoes due to the infusion of strength.

"DEBAND!"

A blue glow surrounded them as well, providing them with skin like steel, or in the androids case, titanium.

"ALRIGHT! LETS GET MOVING!"

The next area was a beautiful room, unusual in the drab décor of the caves. Huge crystals hung from the ceiling in pink and ice blue. The occupants of the room, however, were not so pretty. More Sharks.

These Sharks, however, didnt even seem to notice them. They were too preoccupied with writhing on the floor in agony. Noticing that Wren was about to charge in, Dragon Slayer drawn, Rex put a hand out to stop him.

"Wait. We were sent down here to investigate what happened. This looks like something happening."

A few seconds later he regretted those words. The Sharks began changing, splitting out of their scaly skins to reveal a much bigger, much more threatening form beneath. The long photon blades that made up a Sharks forearm were replaced by three huge photon claws attached to the end of arms in which muscles bulged like sacks of coconuts.

"Uhh, you know what? Forget investigating. Just kill them."

The new mutated forms, which the scanner refused to identify as Vulmers, didnt bother with the slow lumbering of their previous bodies. They sprinted toward the four Hunters and took massive swipes with their formidable new weapons. Fortunately, one of the few things they still had in common with the Sharks was brainpower, which was about equal to that of a block of wood. By the time they brought a claw down, the four Hunters had taken a casual step back out of the way, leaving the Vulmers to swipe at thin air. Then, Wren began slicing and dicing with his Dragon Slayer, Nova and Genesis began blasting, holding off attacks with carefully timed shots, and Rex decided to give the Caves a taste of their own medicine with a burst of Jellen and Zalure. Facing off against the powered-up Hunters, the suddenly weakened Vulmers stood as much chance as an egg in a hurricane. Those that managed to avoid the photons met with Rexs Rafoie, burning them to very large cinders.

The next challenge they faced appeared right in front of their collective eyes and optical sensors. Looking very much like Genesiss favorite flower, the Poison Lily, but in an ungodly shade that cannot be described in polite company. They were vomit orange. Genesis, of course, made his inappropriately-described beeline for the group of three, which drew back their heads in the all-too-familiar spitting. Genesis, leaping aside to avoid the impending poisonous mucous, found himself dodging not a little green ball of phlegm, but a hail of Megid balls. Quickly turning to make sure his companions had managed to get out of the way of the dark technique, he barely turned back in time to avoid another volley. Falling back out of range, he decided to rely on his trusty pistol instead. Nodding to Nova, he drew and raised his Varista. Next to him, Nova did likewise with his Yasminkov, and the two of them began some serious long-range pruning.

The plants, of course, were well on their way to the great compost heap in the sky in under a minute. Even so, they put up a remarkable amount of resistance, taking several shots even from the high-powered Yasminkov before they gave up and died. The next room was, fortunately, another giant red teleporter, at the sight of which Nova and Genesis exchanged glances and began checking that they were in perfect condition. Nova began slotting fresh shells into his Yasminkov, checked the mechanism and finally switched it for his Red Scorpio. Genesis changed the power cell on his Varista and replaced the old one in his pack. Shrugging, the two less experienced Hunter followed their example. Rex healed them all to the peak of health and renewed their Shifta and Deband, then gulped down a Trifluid, clearing the feeling of mental exhaustion that was starting to creep up on him. Wren checked both his Dragon Slayer and Stag Cutlery.

They went through the teleporter.

They emerged on a metal raft, travelling at high speed down a sewage tunnel. This fact, though unpleasant, was not actually physically threatening. The huge worm that reared out of the green liquid, probably best described as 'water', now THAT was physically threatening.

It gave a sound that was unmistakably a battle cry, halfway between a roar and fingernails-down-a-blackboard as it reared out of the 'water' before plunging back down and swimming alongside the raft, obviously easily within its power. Nova and Genesis began blasting away at it, Nova with his Red Scorpio doing rather more impressive damage. Rex tried a few techs before deciding on Rafoie as both his favourite and the most effective. The strain of keeping up such a stream of high-level techs showing in his face, he began continuously casting it, massive fiery explosions bursting from the worms back, sending bits of exoskeleton flying. Devoid of anything to do, Wren summoned his purple hoverchair and sat down, scooting around the floor on it casually. His scanner barely managed to register the worm as being called De Rol Le before it sank beneath the green waves.

A few seconds later, it surfaced again, and his scanner barely had time to register it as now being called Dal Ra Lie before it attacked. It sent a barrage of purple energy spheres flying across the raft, which Wren cheekily avoided by turning his back on them and allowing his hoverchair to absorb the damage. Quickly standing up before it faded away, he found he had nothing to do until he could reach the new, improved colossal sewage worm. After a few seconds wait, he was rewarded. Dal Ra reared up out of the 'water' and sank its tusks into the side of the raft.

Wren, seizing he chance, ran forward and began slicing away with his Dragon Slayer, standing by the side of the worm to hit as many segments as he could. Genesis, switching to his Musashi, began slicing away at the head, while Nova stood right in front of the twisted skull-like head and began sending massive bolts of superheated photons directly down the long body. Rex stuck to his castings of Rafoie, taking a second to weaken the giant arthropod with Jellen and Zalure. It was just as well that he did, because a second after that, he was hit in the chest by a tentacle, sprouting from Dal Ras head, which would have skewered him and left him as a trophy on the tentacle had the strike not been weakened and his own resilience built up by Deband. As it was, it knocked him over. Getting up, he resumed his castings.

Eventually, after a few more stabs from the tentacles, which were easily sidestepped, Dal Ra managed to unhook his tusks from the raft and swam up ahead. Still under the onslaught from the three Hunters with long range attacks, it raised the back half of its body out of the murk and let loose with a spray of spiked...things. Any Hunter who plans on living knows that when trapped on a tiny raft with a number of spiky objects, the best course of action is to get rid of them pronto. Especially if they start to flash, which these did. Being the only one not already occupied, Wren busied himself with taking care of the spiked things. Since they had extremely tough shells, he found it easier just to hit them with the flat of his Dragon Slayer, sending them flying off into the 'water' than to actually try to destroy them. Just as he was about to knock the last one off the side, he was struck by an idea. Lining himself up with Dal Ra, he raised his Dragon Slayer, and with a cry of "FORE!" he swatted it toward the troublesome worm, which was not pleased to have its gift returned, especially when said gift exploded and knocked it up out of the water, where it landed upside-down on the raft, almost capsizing the tiny craft, but snapping each and every one of Dal Ras tentacles under its own massive bulk.

Wren decided on a different, rather more effective method of attack this time round. While the other three continued blasting away, he ran over to the giant worms mouth, dropping his Dragon Slayer, and jammed both arms up to the shoulder in Dal Ras circular mouth. If the creature could show surprise at this, it would have. It would have shown more surprise when its body burst into flames from the inside, courtesy of Wrens Flare. Dal Ra, while heavily armoured enough on the outside to survive virtually anything they could throw at it, discovered that very few creatures have asbestos intestines. Since internal organs are mostly water, and water expands when heated, the pressure built up inside the hard exoskeleton until it had to take the only available exit point.

The entire contents of Dal Ras body exited through its mouth, absolutely covering the raft and all its passengers with green mutated blood, half-cooked and recently exploded internal organs and of course the creatures last meal, who turned out to be a scientist from the Pioneer 2.

Dal Ra Lie finally vanquished, the little raft was filled with item crates, which Rex and Wren set about opening and plundering the contents of. While they did so, Nova turned to Genesis.

"Did you ever figure out why that happens whenever you kill something big?"

"Why what happens?"

"Why all those boxes full of handy items pop up out of nowhere."

"Meh...I always figured the Pioneer piped them down."

"So why not just give them to us?"

Genesis shrugged.

"It just happens. It doesnt need a reason."

"Right. Are we ready to go?"

The question was directed at Wren at Rex, who had finished smashing the boxes and were waiting in the teleporter that had appeared out of nowhere for equally unclear reasons. The two old friends walked through the wreckage of the ex-boxes and joined them, sending them back on their way to the only home they had known for seven years.

Rex, ever the unintentional clown of the group, staggered as they rematerialised on the deck of the Pioneer 2, suddenly shorn of around 20lbs of dead weight in the form of Dal Ra Lies half-cooked no-longer-internal organs. In the few seconds it took the Force to recover from the instant dry-cleaning, Nova and Genesis exchanged a glance. Dal Ras last meal had been a scientist, specifically one from the Pioneer 2. That meant that at some point, either a scientist had gone through the Caves to be eaten, or Dal Ra had escaped from the Pioneer 2, taking a hasty working lunch along the way. Neither were pleasing prospects. The brief glance between the two old friends managed to convey all of this, along with the fact that Genesis was suffering from a slight headache while Nova needed to synthesise some fresh shells for his Yasminkov. They did, after all, know each other very well, and it was a very concise glance.

Rex having managed to steady himself on his platform shoes, the group set off, led by Nova and Genesis. Trotting up level with them, Rex pointed out that they had missed the turning for the Principals office. Turning his head 180 degrees without stopping walking, a very strange sight, the hulking android replied,

"That's because we arent going to see the Principal just yet. I want to find out what the hell that thing we just cooked was, where it came from, and how it got there."

"Oh! Because it ate someone you mean?"

"Not just anyone. That guy was wearing a lab coat, and the only guys I know of who wear lab coats work in labs on the Pioneer 2."

"Oh...didnt you notice?"

Nova gave another of his mechanical frowns.

"Notice what?"

"That guy wasnt just wearing a lab coat. I had a quick look at him when I was searching through the boxes. He had a Ramar suit on under the lab coat, complete with section ID."

"What!?"

"Yup. Its a bit battered, but it should still work."

He produced a bright blue disc from his pocket, a Skyly section ID.

"We can get it checked out at the Guild counter."

Nova stopped waking and turned his body until it faced in the same direction as his head.

"Rex..."

"What?"

"Why didnt you tell me this before we walked halfway across the Pioneer 2, when we were stood outside the entrance to the Guild?"

Rex shrugged.

"I didnt want to interrupt you. Besides, I assumed you knew what you were doing."

Rolling his optical sensors and muttering something in binary with practised speed, Nova began the walk back to the Hunters Guild, Genesis moving up beside him again and Wren and Rex bringing up the rear.

"Hmmm...Mome, Dr." Said the receptionist at the Hunters Guild as she scanned the ID.

"Ramar, clearance level 12, Skyly section ID. Joined the guild only a few days ago. Is he a friend of yours?"

Nova shook his head.

"No, we just found his body in the Caves. Do you have any other information about him?"

"Yes, one moment please...he worked as a full-time researcher for the Pioneer 2 government in the field of genetics. He joined the guild because he needed clearance to go down and investigate the Osto-Hyle research. Until this morning he had a quest open, but he closed it and went down to the surface solo. His first and last trip to the surface was to the Mines, area two."

She lowered her voice a little and leaned forward over the counter.

"And between you and me...he was the most incompetent Ranger Ive ever come across. It took him three attempts to hold his gun the right way around. I wouldnt trust him to hit anything further away than his own foot."

"Can you give me the address of the lab he worked in?"

"Certainly. Just enter these coordinates into a local teleporter and it should take you straight there."

She handed over a data capsule, which would be plugged into the teleporter terminal to upload the coordinates.

"Thank you," said Nova, turning his body to the door while leaving his head facing the receptionist, "Youve been most helpful."

"Hmmm...Dr. Mome...yes, he works here, but hes not in today." Said the scientest who greeted them at the other end of the teleporter. "Why, do you need him for something?"

Nova shook his head.

"No...Im afraid youll have to take him off the payroll. Hes been playing at Hunters and lost."

The scientist sighed. He was a Newman, with a look about him that suggested he wasnt the average lab-dwelling researcher who couldnt tell one end of a Sabre from the other.

"So, hes been and got himself killed...hes no great loss really. He had no business being in a lab anyway."

"You mean he was as incompetent a scientist as he was a Ranger?"

"Incompetent? No. He was good enough at what he did, though not a patch on my own skills, but he was too...well, greedy, to be honest. Anything that couldnt be used in some way should be eliminated to make way for things that could. He was totally blind to the needs of others. Unless it could somehow benefit him, he didnt want to know."

"Do you know if he had anything to do with Osto-Hyle?"

The Newman blinked. "Osto-Hyle? You mean the researchers on Pioneer 1? Well, Dr. Osto was a genius almost of my own level. I would be surprised if they hadnt made a great deal of research into the creatures of Ragol, and the explosion would have left all their data just lying around. Someone like Mome could never resist that kind of opportunity. I expect he just went to try and grab all their data for himself and sell it to the highest bidder."

"Do you have any idea what kind of research Dr. Osto was conducting?"

"Well...I did hear a rumour that he was genetically modifying the native wildlife for military purposes. I have to say I find that likely, it sounds like exactly the sort of thing he would do."

"Thank you, Dr..."

"Montague. Jean-Carlo Montague."

"Thank you, Dr. Montague. Oh, one more thing...does the name 'De Rol Le' mean anything to you?"

"De Rol Le? Yes...I remember reading something about that...Ah! I remember! I read it from Dr. Momes desktop! Ill go see what I can find there, Im sure he wont mind..."

As expected, the deceased Dr. Mome raised no objections to Montague breaking into his office and rummaging through his desk. Admittedly, at one point an upturned glass slid across the desk and smashed on the steel floor, but that was probably due more to Wren sitting on the edge of the desk and crushing the legs to splinters than to any supernatural intervention. Finally, after a good half hours searching, the good doctor came across a hidden panel in the back of one of the desk drawers, concealed behind which were two data disks and a Rappy mayonnaise sandwich. Placing the first of the disks in Dr. Momes computer, which had somehow managed to avoid falling off the slanting desk, and taking an absent-minded bite out of the sandwich, Montague began tapping away at the keyboard with his free hand. Within minutes, he had finished both breaking the encryption code on the disk and eating the sandwich.

After scrolling down the screen at a phenomenal pace, scanning the contents of the disk for anything relevant, he stopped and read through a paragraph or two slowly, or at least what passed for slowly for the genius newman.

"Well," He said after a minute or two of reading, "it seems that De Rol Le was the common name for the project known as Beta 772. But as for what it is, that will take a bit of explaining. You remember I told you that Osto-Hyle were conducting genetic experiments on the native wildlife?"

There were a series of nods along the line of attentive listeners, creating a rather nice ripple effect.

"Good. Well, Beta 772 went a step beyond that. Its...a whole new life form. Genetic blueprint built up totally from scratch. Ive never seen anything quite like it. Apparently, the original form looked like a sort of giant centipede, about a metre long, but it was prone to spontaneous mutation. After the explosion, it went out of control. The rate of mutation increased, and it began to grow. By the time it reached ten metres long, it was completely out of control. It broke out, injuring and killing several of the staff, and escaped down the waste pipe. The notes say it also had the capability to cause mutations in other creatures by injecting them with some kind of fluid. I would guess that Dr. Mome went to look for it, and it found him first. Something like that would be worth billions to the right buyer."

"How about the other disk? Whats on that one?"

"I dont know. Lets find out."

Just had he said, Montague ejected the data disk from the computer and inserted the other disk in its place.

It turned out to be the visual/audio log from Momes scanner.

The video showed a long corridor, metal and glass, almost like the Pioneer 2 corridors, but with none of the throngs of people that crowded the ship.

The viewpoint was unsteady, shaking around, occasionally looking back as it shook down the brightly lit corridor at a run. Heavy breathing could be heard in the background, presumably that of Mome. From behind him came the dull thumping of metal on metal. The sliding door at the end of the corridor opened to reveal a long rectangular room with a locked door at the far end.

The viewpoint sprinted toward it, looking down at the floor as Mome lowered his head, running headlong for the door. Behind him, there was a kind of mechanical whirr, and then the metal-on-metal thumping, gradually getting closer. A keypad came into view, and a hand began tapping frantically away at it, the whirring and thumping growing closer before the door smoothly slid open and the viewpoint tumbled through in a confusion of limbs. The viewpoint hit the floor hard and dissolved into static.

Montague fast-forwarded through the static, explaining to the listeners than the contact lens camera was designed to self-repair if it was damaged, so the signal would eventually be restored. Sure enough, after a minute or two of scanning, the static resolved into the all-too-familiar raft with De Rol Le rearing up silently out of the green murk, the audio signal still not functioning. The viewpoint stumbled and sank back, as if Mome had fallen over backwards. The self-repair systems finally managed to restore the audio signal, just in time to hear a terrified scream before a long tentacle stabbed down in front of the viewpoint and there was a red spurt of blood. The viewpoint was slowly dragged over toward the gaping maw of De Rol Le and the signal winked out into blackness.

"So..." Said Montague, after a few seconds of horrified silence, "That was De Rol Le..."

"Yes. That was De Rol Le." Replied Nova.

"Dr. Mome never stood a chance..."

"No. He never stood a chance."

"What else has Dr. Osto been doing down on Ragol? It doesnt bear thinking about..."

"No. It doesnt. I vote we go down to the Mines area where Mome went and find out."

"Right. Ill see you by the Hunters Guild at 200 beats tomorrow."

"What!? Youre coming too?" asked an incredulous Nova.

"Of course!" Replied the surprised Doctor, "You didnt think Id let you go alone did you?"

"Well...you saw what happened to Mome!"

"Oh, I see! Im not just a researcher! Im also a very competent Force, and I am more than capable of looking after myself. Im not just some idiot pretending to be a Hunter..."

"Well...ok then. 200 beats it is. Guys, you hear that?" Nova said, turning to his fellow hunters.

"Yeah."

"Right."

"Ill be there."

It was a bright morning on the Pioneer 2 at the beginning of the next day. Of course, it always was, the light being artificial. In fact, there were no real mornings. The lights in the individual cabins were controlled by the owner, and the main lights were always on. Everyone pretty much kept their own personal sleeping and eating patterns, some going to bed just when others were getting up. It was as though hundreds of different time zones were contained in one small area.

Four of the five Hunters were clustered just outside the Hunters Guild in what passed for morning in their own personal schedules, which fortunately were more or less the same. The missing member of the party was Genesis, who teleported in exactly as the clock display on the wall of the Hunters Guild clicked smoothly over to 200 beats. Once greetings had been exchanged, the quintet headed on through the main teleporter into the area under the planets surface known only as the Mines.

The Mines, of course, were the brightly lit tunnels that Mome had been running franticly through so soon before he had his fatal lunch meeting with De Rol Le.

The first thing the group noticed was Montagues unusual choice of equipment. Catching the stares from the four Hunters, the eccentric doctor cocked his head to one side.

"What? I told you I was a Force!"

"No...its not that..." explained Nova slowly, "but...what the hell is that gun? Ive never seen anything like it. And wheres your Mag?"

"This? Oh! Well...I made it myself. Its my speciality. I call it the Bringers Rifle. And my Mag is in my workshop undergoing repairs." His tone of voice very much suggested that the line of enquiry was over, dead, buried, and had moss growing over the headstone.

"Right. Hey, look! A change of subject! Wren, your Mag evolved at last!"

"Yep!" Said the proud Hucast, "I sat up all last night feeding him!"

He fondly patted his new Asparas, which bobbed up and down happily.

"Anyway," He continued, "we should get moving, or well be here all day. Or night, whichever this is."

The group moved out of the tiny entrance room and out into a massive long room, just like the one Mome had decoded the lock in. Unlike that room, however, this room had a line of robots, five of them, blocking the path ahead in a neat line across the width of the room. They were crouched down when the group entered, gangly metal arms almost touching the ground, but as soon as the five Hunters stepped into the room, they hauled themselves upright as though they really couldnt be bothered with all this and began slowly bumbling toward them. Montague clapped his hands together gleefully.

"Gillchics!"

"Huh?"

"Gillchics! Basic Osto-Hyle worker droids!"

"Oh...you mean theyre harmless?"

"Well they wouldnt be much use in combat, no, theyre far too unbalanced, but-AGH!"

The cause of the doctors unusual exclamation was that during his brief discussion with Nova the Gillchics had been growing slowly closer until one of them swung a couple of vicious punches at his midriff. The first he blocked with his shield, but the second caught him right under the ribs and he staggered away gasping for air. The remaining four Hunters sighed or made metallic whirring noises closely approximating to a sigh and readied themselves to fight. Nova raised his beloved Yasminkov to his shoulder, Wren lifted his Dragon Slayer, Genesis his Varista and Rex settled into a vaguely martial-arts-like stance, hands raised to chest height, palms flat and elbows cocked ready for action. Then, on an unspoken word of command, they began blasting, swinging or zapping away at the huddle of robots. For the first time, Novas Yasminkov wasnt particularly effective, sending the little droids flying backwards from the sheer force of around 10lbs of lead slamming into them at high speed, but the heavy slugs simply couldnt penetrate the metal casing of the robots to hit any vital components. Genesis was faring little better, his Varista leaving smoking craters all over the Gillchics but no real damage. Wren was causing far more impressive damage, sending metal arms and heads pinwheeling away all around the room and ricocheting off the walls and occasionally the ceiling. The five little robots never stood a chance and were soon consigned to the scrapheap, but the door at the far end of the room remained locked. Taking advantage of the peace, Nova checked up on Montague, who was bent double and wheezing, leaning against the wall for support. Waving away Novas hand, he forced one deep breath down into his lungs, then breathed out deeply.

"Ow."

"You okay doc?"

"Yes, I think so. Just winded me. Damn robots. No offence." Replied the wheezing Montague to the hulking Racast

"None taken. So, what else can we expect to see down here?"

Montague shrugged, then pointed down to the far end of the room.

"Well, those for a start. Canadines."

"Canadines. So what do they do?" Said Nova, turning to face the group of ovoid bots that glided slowly toward them twenty feet above the floor.

"Oh, just basic surveillance and a little security. They disable any intruders with electric shocks."

"So theyre basically flying cattle prods?"

Montague gave a surprisingly girlish giggle before answering

"Hee Hee! Well, yes, you could put it like that. If it starts targeting you with a red laser, move fast, cos those shocks hurt. Better still, shoot them now."

As he spoke, Montague raised one hand and unleashed a bolt of Gizonde, sending several thousand volts streaking toward the unfortunate little robots, which fell sparking to the floor, shortly to be crushed under the massive weight of Nova, who stepped on them like so many empty drink cans.

Looking thoughtful for a moment, the Racast stored his Yasminkov back in the bank and lifted one of the crushed Canadines, prising it up from the floor and hefting it like a Frisbee, albeit a heavy, metal Frisbee with sharp edges. Now, a target...

His gaze roved around the room, settling contemplatively on Rex for a moment before moving away and finally locking onto the fresh group of Gillchics that teleported in at the far end of the room. He wound his arm back, spun on one massive steel foot, swung his arm forward at an eye-blurring speed and let fly with his impromptu missile. The crushed Canadine spun down the room at an incredible speed, just a slight curve to its flight path that ended abruptly after a magnificent journey through the steel necks of three Gillchics when it hit the wall at the far end of the room and half-buried itself in it. Nova, seemingly pleased with the result, and quite rightly so, prised up the remaining Canadiscs and stored them in his inventory, keeping one in his hand ready to throw.

There was a stunned silence from the onlookers for almost a full three seconds before Montague spoke, a great achievement with the doctor around.

"Well, well...that was certainly a very...inventive way of attacking. I dont believe Ive seen that one before."

"Well my Yasmins pretty much useless, what am I supposed to do? Shout at them?"

"Right."

Raising his Bringers Rifle, Montague fired a stream of dusty brown energy at the one of the two remaining Gillchics, which fell back with a smoking hole in its chest. Rex, feeling left out, took care of the last with a massive bolt of Zonde, overloading every circuit in the unfortunate robots body. The door at the far end, next to the Canadisc, unlocked, and the group made their way toward it.

The next room, and the next after that, for the next half hour or so, went pretty much the same as the first. Nova perfected his throwing style, Wren sliced, diced, and generally spilt a lot of machine oil, Montague and Rex zapped and Genesis kept popping away with his precious Varista. At least, until whatever it was that kept teleporting bots in to be dismantled began to sit up and take notice. The next set of bots looked vaguely like the Gillchics, albeit an upgraded battle-Gillchic. They were a rather attractive cream colour with red bands across their shoulders. They had no legs like the ponderous Gillchics, instead staying afloat by some kind of gravity repulsion. They had to be twice the weight of the Gillchics, being heavily armoured and far stronger than their weakling counterparts. They didnt slowly limp along like the Gillchics either, having no legs to limp with. Instead, they had a distinctly menacing glide that suggested they would just keep on coming no matter what.

There were four of them, and they were gliding deceptively fast toward the Hunters.

Nova was the first to speak.

"Uh, Doc? What are those?"

"Those, Nova, are Gillchichs. Security drones for when things get too out of hand for the Canadines. Go careful, because these ones are tough. Plus, they have a wrist-mounted laser, so they dont need to be able to reach you to hit you."

One of the Gillchichs took its cue from this, pointing a three-clawed hand at Montague and pressing a button on its wrist with the other. Its hand glowed an aggressive blue-purple for a second before a long beam in the same colour flew out of it, burning through the air where Montague would have been had he not moved as soon as he saw the droid pause.

"You see? Now get them, quick!"

He raised his weird gun and began blasting away with those dusty rays of energy. Unlike the Gillchics, however, these were not going to give up after a single shot. They took the hits without even flinching. It took a swiftly thrown Canadisc, Novas last one, to so much as knock one over. The fallen Gillchich didnt remain fallen for long, pushing itself calmly upright with terrifying ease. The other members of its group, meanwhile, had met with the Hunters, and coincidentally also with the blade of Wrens Dragon Slayer, which hammered into the first, sending it sideways a few inches before whatever system kept it off the ground reacted and stabilised it with a sword buried an inch deep in its side. Before he had time to pull back the sword, the Gillchich swung a pair of vicious punches at him, denting his chestplate and side. The others also gathered around him, since he was the closest, sending shards of metal flying everywhere from their onslaught. Nova grabbed the closest one from behind, pinning its arms and wrenching upward until its stabilisers gave way and it parted company with the ground. Transferring his grip to the base, Nova swung the robot headfirst into the ground and stomped heavily on its head until it stopped moving. That was one taken care of, but it was obvious that Wren would be nothing but a few shattered scraps of metal by the time he could repeat the process on another, let alone three more. Things, in a word, looked grim, particularly for the unfortunate Wren.

That was, until the Gillchichs suddenly froze. Not only in the cessation of movement sense, but also in the sense that they were suddenly encased in ice. Crawling out from a gap between two miniature Titanic-sinkers came a very battered looking Wren. His chestplate was hanging loose on one side and he was dented all over and sparking from every joint on his robotic body. One of his optical sensors was smashed and the other cracked, but even so, he was alive. Holding his loose chestplate in place with one hand, he looked up appealingly at Rex, who needed no further encouragement to provide the poor Hucast with a long shot of Resta, not stopping the flow of golden-green sparks until every dent was popped out, every hole sealed, every bit of scratched paint restored to its former glory. It took a while, but the Gillchichs were going nowhere, at least for a few minutes.

Leaping back to his feet, the healed Wren turned to face the frozen robots, which stood there like an exhibit from modern art gallery.

"Thank the Light for Freeze Traps..." He said in tones that, had he been human, would have been called breathless.

"That wont hold them forever though..." Replied Nova, trying to hide his relief.

"No problem. I know just how to deal with them..."

"Right. So go to it!"

Wrens shoulders popped open, revealing a pair of strange devices which unfolded into a pair of small satellite dishes. These swivelled on their housings to point at the Gillchichs, which finally managed to break free from the ice and resumed their advance, and then...

Nothing happened.

At least, nothing that could be seen. The Gillchichs, however, certainly noticed something. They stopped moving, tiny sparks flashing on them, and then dropped to the floor, devoid of power. After a few seconds, they exploded for no readily apparent reason. The three organic hunters just gawped, unsure what to make of this, but Nova slowly raised one hand and banged the side of his head with a massive fast as if trying to shake something out of an ear, had he had ears. The resultant sound was rather like a large bell being rung.

"Ow. Watch where you point that thing, will ya?"

"What? Oh. Sorry." Replied Wren, his shoulders closing neatly to conceal the gadgets once more.

Montague was the first non-android to work it out, being both the resident genius and the robotics specialist.

"Ha ha! EMP! Of course!"

"PMT!?" This was Rex.

"No, EMP! Electromagnetic pulse. It completely knocks out any electricity, so it should come in very handy here."

"Yes. Its called the Hijammer. Another of my little extras." said Wren.

"Extras?" Queried a bemused Montague.

"Yes, extras." He then, of course, had to explain about the civilisation on Ragol and the schematics found there. Montague seemed unsurprised at this.

"So, there was more hidden in the Ruins than I thought...I should have had Elenor explore further...oh well. It cant be helped now."

Nova blinked.

"Wait, you knew about the Ruins? Why didnt you tell us!?"

"Well of course I knew! Thats where this gun came from. Its made from the arm of one of the monsters down there known as a Chaos Bringer. And I never told you because you never asked."

"How could I have-oh, never mind. You can tell us about it later."

"Okay. Ill tell you about it when we get back to the Pioneer 2. Now then, Hijammer...I know Ive heard that name before somewhere...Oh! It was in an old book of forgotten arts I was reading! The lost skills of the ages...apparently, all Hunters used to have unique skills like Wren here, even humans and newmans. Let me see...what were the others...ummm...Ah-ha! Tandle! That was one of them!"

"Right. What did it do? Just the name isnt gonna help, doc."

"Well, essentially, it was a boosted form of the Zonde-series spells. Very, very powerful, particularly against robots. I think with two Fonewmns here we just might be able to pull it off if we work together. Let me see..."

The Force closed his eyes and held his hands out in front of him, beginning to charge a massive ball of lightning between his hands. Rex did the same, but drew the ball of lightning out of Montagues hands to leave it hovering between them, sparking and spitting as it tried to earth, or rather Ragol itself.

The ball of lightning between them grew until it was blinding to look at, glowing such an intense white that it shone straight through closed eyelids. Finally, the flow of mental power telling them was the time was ripe, the two Forces moved, pushing their palms toward the far end of the long room, away from the other Hunters, and the ball tore itself apart, one great fork of lightning screaming toward the wall, melting the mechanisms for miles around.

The lights went out. They didnt come back on again.

The only sound was a metallic voice in the total darkness, which said

"Oh well done, you two. Remind me to call you in whenever I feel that wandering round a strange lab filled with insane robots just isnt challenging enough when I can see where Im going."

As it turned out, the lack of any working electrical component outside Wren and Nova wasnt as bad as might be imagined. This was because the locking mechanisms on the doors and whatever device teleported the various metal unwelcoming committees in both came under the heading of "electrical components", the upshot of which was that all the doors were unlocked and the rooms and corridors were deserted. Again, this is misleading, because the mechanisms for opening the many steel doors came under the same category as the mechanisms for locking them. This, of course, meant that each door had to prized open by the two androids, to the accompaniment of whirrs of effort and much binary cursing against all pointy-eared fools in general and the pair of pointy-eared fools standing behind them in specific. For those who dont know, binary being recited at the rate of several thousand digits per second sounds very much like an extremely annoyed bumblebee on industrial strength steroids.

Other than the multitude of less than cooperative doors, the journey for the next hour or so was entirely uneventful. The floor was so smooth and flat that even the two Forces in their ungainly shoes could walk through the near-total darkness without so much as a stumble, much to the disappointment of the other Hunters.

There was, of course, still some small pleasure to be derived from the combination of absent-minded Forces, almost complete darkness and an android with a very large metal back. It involved the Racast, who shall remain nameless to protect his identity, stopping suddenly and the unfortunate Force walking nose-first into the aforementioned Nova-er, Racast.

Due to the lack of light, the events that ensued will have to be described in sound only.

Clumpclumpclumpclumpclumpclump-pause...

Crunch...

"Ow...Nova, will you stop doing that! It really hurts!"

"What? If you keep walking into me because you cant see then its not my fault..."

"Look, me and Montague both said we were sorry! Now please, its not funny any more..."

"Well, I would, but-oh look! Another door! The mechanisms broken, so Ill just go over and prise it open with my fingernails, at least if I had fingernails...Excuse me a moment."

There was a sound very much like a very old, very rusty gate being hit repeatedly with a tomcat, to the accompaniment of a string of annoyed buzzing.

"Now then, on we go!"

Clumpclumpclumpclumpclumpclump-pause...

This was a rather longer pause, which was broken by the voice of a smug Fonewmn floating through the darkness in front of the Racast.

"Nova, hurry up...we need you to prize the doors open."

Crunch.

"WREN! Thats not funny!"

"Whats that? I stopped to see what the shouting was about and you assaulted my chestplate with your face. Your fault, not mine."

There was a sound like a dog discovering that it had in fact stolen a vegetarian sausage, if the dog was a very short-tempered poodle. It came from the direction of Rex.

"grrrrrrrrr..."

Clumpclumpclumpclumpclump-crunchcruchcrunch.

"Oww...Nova...owww"

"Oh, Im sorry Rex, did I trample you heavily into the ground? Im sorry, I cant see where Im going, you see, and you stopped in front of me. Accident, I promise."

There was a sound as might be produced by a Racast neatly sidestepping a Hucast to avoid trampling him and continuing merrily on his way.

There was some muttering behind him, as might be produced by a pair of Fonewmns plotting in secret, and then there was muffled whumph, and the room was illuminated by the flickering glow of a fireball, which Rex held in one hand, it was quickly followed by another, this time from Montague, then a third and a fourth, which left the Forces with no free hands, but enough light to avoid having to cast Resta on their olfactory protuberances every few seconds. Of course, a man clutching a roaring fireball in each hand can hardly be considered defenceless.

There was, in fact, just enough light to for the two androids plus Genesis to see the robot drop down from the ceiling, turning in midair to land on its feet. Between the two groups of Hunters. It was a large robot, a dull blue in colour, and it looked built for combat. Not merely adapted for combat, like the Gillchichs, but built with the single aim in mind to cause a great deal of pain and injury very quickly, with an added option on death. It had a pair of glowing red eyes that shone through the half-light and appeared to lock onto something, which turned out to be Genesis. It started to advance, a distinctly aggressive walk toward the Hunter. Nova, raising his Yasminkov, started putting some sizable craters in the metalwork, but the robot just kept on coming, jerking sideways with the force of the shots, but no more.

So Nova tried a flying tackle instead, launching himself forward with arms held out to grapple and claw. A few pounds of shotgun shell is one thing to shrug off, albeit a impressive one for those not covered in steel plating over an inch thick, but around two tonnes of flying android is quite another. It is, therefore, unfortunate that the robot, hereinafter referred as the Sinow Beat thought similarly, and leapt backward with surprising and worrying speed, leaving Nova sprawling on the ground. As he scrambled back to his feet, Wren charged in on the Sinows new position, while Rex and Montague each launched off one of their Foies at it. Genesis just stood where he was, swaying very slightly, his Varista hanging loosely from limp fingers. Those fingers went limper still just a few seconds later when the Sinow leapt clean over the Foie balls, charging Wren and Nova, who was waiting ready to receive an attack, but not one that passed clean over his head.

The attack came down on Genesis. To be precise, it came down on the side of his neck, a metal fist slamming into the nerve centre. Genesis crumpled to the cold steel floor like a rag doll, but not before a second brutal punch hammered into his throat. And then he was gone, caught by the emergency telepipe before his head hit the floor. There was a sound, an animal sound from Nova, and then a metallic scream of rage as the Racast threw his head back and screamed to the steel sky of the Mines. Then, the scream stopped, and the head snapped back down, eyes changed from mellow yellow to blood red, and Nova charged. The Sinow turned and a lethal photon blade sprang out from each welded fist as it crouched to receive the attack.

There was no science or tactic in the assault, it was just pure fury in physical form, hands, knees, feet and head slamming into it in a sheer attempt to beat it into scrap. There were no second thoughts or doubts here. There were no thoughts at all, just the destructive anger of a dear friend lost forever. Then suddenly, the anger was gone, and all that was left was the single thought, this thing will die. The Sinows photon blades were stabbing away at the Racasts back, at least until Nova grabbed it by one wrist, spun on one heel and flung the Sinow over his shoulder. It was, however, more than equal to that and landed on its feet with fluid grace, spinning and sweeping a foot at ground level into Novas ankles and sending him to the floor, where he grabbed the Sinows own ankle and twisted it till it broke. The Sinow limped back a pace or two, then slowly leaned and fell over, scything at Nova with its blades. Standing back up, the Racast looked down, his eyes changing again, this time to a cold blue, and stepped around the flailing blades, putting one massive foot in the Sinows back and hearing the popping of rivets and welds tearing apart under his massive weight. He knelt down, putting his knee right in the small of the robots back, and grabbed its wrists, pulling them back behind its back, until with a screech of metal they came apart, still with the photon blades active, which Nova stabbed into the back of the Sinows head. It stopped struggling and lay still, until its automatic nanobots sprang to action and disassembled it into dust.

Nova got slowly back to his feet and made to throw the Sinows hands away before Montague placed a hand on his arm.

"Nova..."

"...Yes?"

"Dont throw the arms away. I can make something out of them, a weapon."

Nova laughed harshly.

"Do it. Genesis would appreciate that, I think...

He pushed the arms into Montagues chest, and Rex, dropping his fireball, Ryukered them back to the Pioneer 2.

The teleportation seemed to last for longer than normal to Nova, but not by more than a few years. Finally, the tunnel of blue rings, an illusion generated by brains and processors alike in an attempt to understand what faster than light travel looked like, faded and deposited the remaining four hunters back on the deck of the Pioneer 2, leaving Rex and Montague blinking in the sudden brightness. Unexpectedly, Nova did not charge straight off to the hospital, instead pausing for several seconds before clumping slowly off through the white doors, which hissed smoothly open at his approach.

The interior of the hospital had no right to be so clean and calm, he thought. There should be doctors and nurses frantic with worry, trying desperately to save Genesis, not just this once bored-looking receptionist leaning half-asleep on her desk...

He didnt even notice when his body walked forward of its own accord, clamped a massive steel hand around the receptionists waist and lifted her out of her chair and up to its eyes. He vaguely heard a metal voice. Whos was it? He had no idea, but all it said was one sentence, repeated over and over.

"Where is he?"

"Ummm..."

"Where is he?"

"Im sorry, sir, if you could just-"

"Where is he?"

"Er, you mean the Humar who was brought in just now?"

"Where is he?"

"Um, ward 3, sir. Just through those doors."

The other three hunters, creeping in through the hospital door, saw Nova drop the receptionist back into her padded chair and walk slowly off through the indicated doors.

Slowly, but with all the determination and stoppability of continental drift.

Genesis was indeed in ward 3. He was lying on a hospital bed, one of those generic hospital beds designed to be as comfortable as a rock stuffed with needles. Genesis, however, was in no position to complain about the bed, or anything else for that matter. His eyes were closed and his mouth was open, but his chest was slowly and almost imperceptibly rising and falling. Then, with an audible snap, his mouth closed, his arms moved, apparently without their owners consent, and drew themselves up by his sides. His closed eyes stared straight up into the ceiling, and his breathing slowed until even Nova could barely sense it.

Almost as an afterthought, the multitude of doctors standing around the prone Humar came into focus, like the last item on a shopping list that always gets forgotten until the very end.

"Um...are you the rest of his party? Hello?" One of them asked, apparently after several previous and unsuccessful attempts to break through Novas daze.

"What? Oh...yes."

"What, all of you? Parties are supposed to be made up of three individuals. No more, no less. I see five of you."

"Yes. He was added to our party after the other members of his were incapacitated, and Montague here wanted to see something down on the surface."

"Right. Well, hes in a bad way, Ill tell you that. He should be dead, but somehow he isnt. Hes...not exactly unconscious, he just wont wake up. Ive never seen anything like this in all my professional life."

"So what are you going to do for him?"

"Well...theres nothing we can do, really. Hes not injured, so my best guess would be to wait until he wakes up. I have no idea how long that could take, Im afraid."

"Right. Ill wait here until he wakes up."

"...You know you could still go hunting without him? You still have your original party..."

"I said Ill wait here for him."

"Right...very well...Ill see what I can do. Im afraid a visitor staying for any length of time is out of the question, but I could probably put you on the registry under observational equipment."

"Do it. Ill wait here."

Genesis opened his eyes to find himself staring at dark mist again. He checked himself over, and found, just as he had expected, that his weapons, armour and Mag were gone. He was clad in his basic white Humar outfit and nothing else.

So, you return here at last...

The voice, Genesiss own voice, seemed to come from everywhere, and yet from nowhere. Devoid of anything else to do, Genesis replied.

"So it would seem. Where is 'here' anyway?"

You should recognise it. Its your mind.

"Right...if this is my mind, what are you doing in here? Come to that, what am I doing in here?"

This is my mind as well. And you are here at my...invitation.

Something in the way that the voice said 'invitation' suggested that this was not the kind of invitation that could be refused. It sounded, in fact, very much like an invitation to a vampires castle for lunch. Genesis, however, was more concerned about the fact that he was apparently sharing his mind with a mysterious voice.

"And just who the hell are you to decide you want a piece of my mind?"

You gave a part of your mind to me a long time ago.

"No I didnt. Id remember a thing like that."

There was a sort of silent noise, and air of smugness that contrived to suggest that the unseen voice was smiling.

I think you will just have to see for yourself. Seeing, it is said, is believing.

There was a movement in the dark purple mist, a swirling, and then a dim shape could be seen walking forward until the shape resolved into the form of Genesis, and he was indeed smiling.

Genesis stared at the...the other Genesis, who stared back mockingly.

"Ok. I dont know who or what you are, but stop using my body and get the hell out of my mind!"

"No can do. This is my mind, and my body."

"Either you start talking sense and give me some answers right now, or I pound your face in. Your choice."

The other Genesis cranked his smile up several smugness levels.

"So, you havent worked it out yet? I shouldnt be surprised. This is rather a small mind. Im you. Youre me. Like...different sides of the same coin, different aspects of one person. The difference between us is, I have been awakened to the truth."

"So...youre my...conscience or something?"

"No. If anything, you would be my conscience. I am...your dark side, perhaps. Every thought of greed or violence or anger this mind has ever had has come from me, every thought of charity or...love, that came from you."

The other Genesis spat the words, as if they left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Youre lying. You have to be."

"And why would that be?"

"Because right now I want to smash you into the ground, whatever you are, and you cant tell me thats a good thought. And because you know all this, and I dont."

The other Genesis shrugged.

"You might want to, but you cant. You only have those thoughts because I have given them to you. And I know this because, as I said, if only you would listen, I have been awakened to the truth."

"What truth? And by who?"

"The truth that I could rule this body. I have been told, by the Great Darkness. He saw the power within me, that I was already halfway to ruling this body, and he awakened me."

"If you think youre taking over my body-" snarled Genesis before being cut off by his other half, who sneered derisively.

"You just dont get it, do you? This isnt your body. The body is controlled by this mind, all the thoughts you see whirling around you like mist. You and I are just...opposite sides of the consciousness that makes up this mind. You are the angel on one shoulder, I am the devil on the other."

"Youre lying."

"Thats it? Your comeback? Just 'Youre lying', no justification?"

Genesis, or the part of Genesis that still thought of itself as so, shrugged.

"So what? Doesnt mean youre right."

"Well, well see. Enough chat, I think. Time for action!"

One of the halves of Genesiss subconscious moved into a fighting crouch, expecting an attack, but the other just spread his arms out, and a pair of great red lights shone out of the mist behind him. The lights grew brighter, until they seemed to fill the world, and then Genesis awoke with a start to find himself staring up the white ceiling of the hospital.

He smiled.