THEMAKEROFLIGHT: well here we are again for another boring installment of...I can't be bothered, anyway, here's some responses to the reviews.

Godmorninbeautiful2005: thank you for your review, and I do plan on continuing my rate of updating, but am beginning to slow down from the origonal momentum of my first story.

jakndaxluver: actually Keiras age is never announced, but since she is born after little Jak gets sent back to sandover, she must be about three or four years younger than him, and a friend in naughty dog tells me that Jak is thirteen in jak one, making Keira nine or ten, so on and so forth.

I would like to take some time to try and put myself out of business by recommending some other authors and stories, I recommend Dark War by Cyrex, Risen demon and its sequel by redmage04, and anything by lightecosage. Now on with the show.

CHAPTER TEN: THE LONG MARCH OF HAVEN

Six days had passed since the appearence of Jasen and his lost company of KG, and they had been initiated into the FL to open arms, Haven council had argued that any men still loyal to the Baron should be sent to the islands just like Veger. But were put in their place by Jak when he said, "But that would make us like the Baron, and any who suggested it would have to be exiled just the same."

Both Jak and Keira were getting pretty nervous at this point, it was only two days ntil their wedding, and already it was looking as if they would have to postpone it, Haven was planning to move their forces into the islands and perform not just a colonisation, but a mass extermination of all hostile life, and both the King and his fiance would be needed for their gifts.

Jak had asked Sig and Rayn for any help in exchange for a portion of the islands, although both had accepted heartily, Jak knew that it still wouldn't be enough if there was more than one of those demons. And had swallowed his pride low enough into his boots to ask Haven's neighbors Chairen and Morien for assistance, and at this point it was looking like Haven wouldn't have that much land for themselves in the end, but Jak had managed to muster over 10.9 million for the invasion.

Fly-over reports indicated that there was close to 48 thousand islands, each about three square miles, stretching in a long band seperating the mainland from the Hora-dailan, the main faculty of genarals and commanders were scared stiff that there would be metal-heads there as well, but Jak assured them that the metal-heads were too scared of the eco creatures to come anywhere near the islands, which just made them more uneasy

Allow me to explain ow the invasion was planned, I have drawn a map of it myself so I know all the latitudes and longitudes and what direction all the forces come from, but to you it'll sound like I'm whistling in the dark. Imagine there are two vertical lines, the line on the left is Have and the surrounding countries, and the line on the right is the islands stretching down vertically as far as all the countries, Havens forces plan to spread out in a line as long as the islands, and land their men at the same time to allow them to spread across the the other end of the islands and kill anything in their way, simple really.

But before that Jak had been sent with Jasen to try and liberate the old tank factory. Many patrols had been sent in there, 500 men went in, one came out, gabbering about the dark animals, the entire place was thought to be infested, the Baron had lost it to the metal-heads when Krew's peircer bomb went off at the top, many people had been lost because he was too lazy to attempt to get it back, and Jasen was still amazed that he could have belsived a man like that was honest, much to his disgust Jak told him about the dark warrior program, how he had been injected daily, beaten, and even raped by Errol in the confines of his cell.

"I can't beleive it, I trusted that bastard with my life, he didn't give a yekows cock what happened to me did he?"

"Nope, not in the slightest, he also tried to get off with Keira when he learned that I knew her, and her using him to make me jealous didn't help my self esteem at the time."

The guards in front of them chuckled derisively, and got a swift jab to the head with the butt of Jasens rifle. "Knock it off you sorry bunch of losers."

Through the teams chatter and footsteps Jak heard something, just a little crack, like the breaking of a stick behind him, nothing too important, but when he heard that his ears automatically tuned in, he could hear scrabbling, soft breathing, the clank of metal on metal, he edged his hand towards his blaster, not being too obvious in case the person saw it, he could hear the breathing coming closer, he judged the distance to be about three to four metres, just a little closer, a bead of sweat ran down his face, and he swung the blaster around to see...Keira standing there in a combat outfit, looking profoundly terrified at having her boyfriend point a gun at her.

Jak lowered his gun with a look of rage on his face, he yanked her aside to a tree and whispered. "I cannot beleive you, I tell you to stay behind, that your place is with the others praparing, but you still disobey me and show up here, I can't beleive it, do you really want me to have a heart attack, the mere thought of you being here makes me terrified that I'm going to lose you, I can just see the metal-heads coming up towards you. I can't keep you completely safe all the time Keira."

"Well isn't it my decision if I come or not, I can help these people, they may all die if I'm not here, I know you can handle yourself but the rest aren't as experienced, besides, you don't control me." She retorted.

"I know some may die which is why its too dangerous for you to be her..." But he was cut off by Keira giving him a long passionate kiss.

"If we can't get through a deep dark old factory filled to the brim with spiky death, then how are we gonna survive marriage." She giggled, and only then noticed the FL trooper poking his head round the corner of the tree, who quickly scarpered once he realised she could see him.

After some amount of trekking through corridors and tunnels they came to the main production room for vehicles and transport, the machines were still stuck in place in the same position they were when they were shut down. Jak's sharp eyes spotted a cluster of metal head egs in the corner, and he hurled a red eco grenade into its midst, making scorpoins scuttle out from the darkness only to be blown apart by a hail of fire, the grenade exploded sending out a wave of red fire and disintegrating the eggs. Behind them was another dor that had been half melted by the eco covered sacks, the team set off down it, checking each and every passage as they went past it, so far there hadn't been any casualties, but Keira's ears were tingling, womens intuition was playing up, and she trusted that greatly.

The team came to a broken elevator shaft, Jak recognised it as the one that led to the landing pad where Krew's bomb had gone off, a young and stupid private stuck his head in and looked up to see a pair of mandibles staring back, he didn't even have time to scream before his head was ripped from his neck, Keira gasped slightly, but nothing more. Jak stuck his blaster in and aimed randomly, squeezing off six shots and sending the cloaked metal-head careening down to the bottom of the shaft, Jak risked a peek into the opening and declared it safe to climb.

He bent down for Keira to latch onto his back, and hoisted himself up to the rusted ladder, then the privates followed, with Jasen brining up the rear.

Keira heard a wolf whistle from down below and someone muttered. "I would be complaining if the view wasn't so enjoyable." And realised with horror that her trousers had been slipping down to reveal her pink knickers. She hastily pulled them back up and kicked hard at the top of the privates helmet.

They came to a dead halt and everyone bumped into the person above. One of them shouted, "Hey, whats the holdup!"

"We've hit a dead end, there's some debris's fallen down and gotten lodged, there's a passage to the left, I'll take a look down it." Jak replied, and then to Keira. "You stay here, if you follow me you may well get killed, I can handle myself, so I don't need your gift for this."

Keira reluctantly agreed, and perched herself on a rung, just waiting.

He had been gone for fifteen minutes when Keira declared, "Somethin must have heppened to him, I'm going in." And was just about to do so when something tugged at her trouser leg.

"Hold on there sweet cheeks, no need to rush, I think its time you and I got aquainted."

Keira tried to kick out, but he held her leg firm. "I hope you realise that you're attempting to rape the future queen of Haven, and that Jak'll kill you when he gets back."

"Oh I don't think blue-briches is coming back, he's probably dead, and that means no interuptions. I've been stuck out there for three years, no women on the regiment, gets kinda lonely." The soldier chuckled and was about to have his evil way before he in turn felt something tug on his ankle, ad was dragged from the rung and thrown into the darkness below, and in his place was Jasen, who made a rude gesture in the general directon of the falling man.

"And that goes for the lot of you, this woman is not to be touched by anyone, under pain of death."

Jak chose that moment to arrive through the hatch, panting, a dark stain on the side of his face. He gestured for them to come through, oblivious to the commotion the had just occured, Keira told him about it on the way, and expressed her feelings towards this little band of people, Jak hadn't heard her swear so much since her racing days.

Jak's main plan was to turn on the old security system, every old Haven building had three basic security measures, motion sensing turbo canons, for when invaded by metal-heads, a poisoness gas released into the air that targets specific areas, for when whole sectors are overrun, and the most lethal of all, a dark eco purge. This sends a massive eco shockwave through every room except the one with the trigger itself, that was what Jak was aiming for, from old maps Torn had shown him, he was about fifteen minutes away from the control room.

The shaft they were in widened into a corridor, making it possible to stand, the members of the group had long been put in place by Jak, and they no longer looked at Keira in case he or their commander took it the wrong way.

Jak heard a soft clang from above him and whipped out his gun, twirling it and giving the signal for the rest to do the same, Jak and Jasen kept Keira between them, protecting her from every side, she herself had come prepared, and surprised everyone by brining out a peacemaker she had borrowed from Sig, the young girl was dwarfed by the weapon, it was almost taller than her!

The band circled as the clanging a bashing got louder, they could hear a ticking trail of footsteps in the ducts above, the less experienced members began to panic, breathing heavily and shooting at nothing. Jak heard a cry from behind him and whirled round to see a peir of flailing legs disappear into the duct above. A lone soldier screamed at the sight of his friend being brutally slaughtered and ran off from the gruop in the direction they had came, he didn't get far. A four legged blaster metal-head dropped through the ceiling and landed on top of him, tearing away chunks of flesh, the man screamed for a second then realised that there was no pain, a ball of blue lightning slammed into the side of the creature, sending it flying into the wal where its skull gem popped out and its body disintegrated.

The man stood up and looked down at his wounds, they were knitting before his vey eyes, he wiped blood from his skin and found no cuts underneath. He stared over at the young woman who was concentrating on healing the pain and found a new respect for her.

More and more metal-heads were dropping on either side, Jak and Jasen guarding the group from the bigger ones, while the others took out the smaller ones. Keira stepped forward and shot a low charged peacemaker shot at a large group of bouncing leapers, sending a cascade of electricity through each one.

Jak heard a roar from down the passageway and turned cautiosly towards it, then yelled for his companions to run on to the control room, he could see the corridor breaking up in front of him, something huge coming down it too big for the tight walls, he grabbed Keira and hurled her bodily through the open door to the room, which they had now reached, and slammed it shut.

Keira tried to get through the door before it closed but Jasen stopped her, "Jak can defeat that thing himself, its not worth you getting killed."

Jak turned to face the beast, from the depths of his mind he remembered this thing as the same kindthat had tried to kill Sig all that time ago in the underport. The thing reared up its head t strike down on him, Jak pirroeted out of the way and brought out the beam reflexor, the shafts of yellow light bouncing off the close walls and spearing burnin holes in the things flesh, like Sig had sai, it only made it madder.

Inside the room people were scurying to get the pulse operational, cogs and wheels being turned here and there, not many of them even knew what they were pushing, but they did it all the same. Keira had located the valve to turn the power on, but needed help from Jasen to turn it, even that small delay she knew was one more second until she felt the life force on the other side of the door give out, she was rapidly healing his wounds through the metal as she felt them happen, it wasn't long until she couldn't keep up anymore.

The young man that Keira had saved turned out to be an expert mechanic and quickly found the switch for the pulse, calling to Keira to come help. In a few more seconds the power would reach the conduit, it might be too late by then though, thought Keira.

Jak ducked to avoid a jumping wolf metal-head and turned to shoot it before it reached the door, he couldn't hold out much longer, more and more creatures were arriving by the second. And then he felt the wave building and gasped, he hadn't felt that much eco in one place since being on the dark maker ship. Knowing what was coming he crouched down beside the door and braced himself.

A force of opure eco emmited from the walls, electricity played over all it touched, Jak felt himself burnin, he couldn't breathe through the eco, entire ranks of metal-heads were melting into nothing by the second, the great beast that everyone had feared so much was felled in less than five, but Jak held on, his skin raging with the full power of the wave. Making it turn a purplish hue, his voice became a roar as the demon inside took over. And then it stopped.

Keira gingerly opened the door and looked out, masses of metal-heads had been caught off guard, many had tried to escape once realising what was happening, only to be caught in mid air by the delayed shock wave. And then she saw Jak, a bit charred, but alright, smiling at her. Her eyes brightened and she hugged him tightly, kissing all over his crisped face.

"Are you OK." she said.

"I'll be fine." He answered. "A little pick-me-up at the Naughty Ottsel and I'll be ready to fight again.

After a week of production at the factory Havens fleet now had over 3 000 tanks, an extra 10 000 helcats, and a seperate part of the building never shown to anyone but the Barons most trusted advisors revealed 5 000 battle-ready bomb-bots in full working condition, apparently the Barons plan was that if ever the factory was overtaken he would blow the explosives and stop the metal-heads getting hold of his precious technology.

Haven port had become a bustle of activity with cruisers and frigates coming and going from Kras, Spargus, Chairen, Morien, and what was left of Shassa had helped too, and had managed to conince Mamoron's government to supply troops and tech. Most of the force had already gone ahead to Damas to set up a temporary base for invasion. Jak was in the middle of asking Brutter if they would help, the lurker baloons would come in very handy for reconaissance and reinforcements, the old war lurker had accepted before Jak had finished his sentence, the lurkers owed him a great debt for freeing all those lurker brothers from the clutches of Baron Praxis.

Jak was jst about to move out to his flagship when he saw Keira. She looked extremely egitated.

"Keira! What's wrong." He said as she fell into his arms, tears streaming down her face.

"It's daddy, hes gone, I've looked everywhere, and even Shorine doesn't know where he is, I think he might have been captured somehow." The young girl couldn't take the stress and fell apart, shuddering with confusion and sadness.

"Sshh Keira, we'll find him, don't worry, even if he has been captured the kidnappers would need him alive, and you havn't felt any death lately, not since you noticed his abcence." She shook her head. "Well that means he must be fine, we will find him, it's OK, Keira, it's OK." He consoled the young woman, cradling her in his biceps, he lifted her onto the flagship and told the captain to push off. They were away, on the long march, the allaince had finally been realised, all of the world was united, against the eco creature, and the metal-heads.

in the depths of an ancient citadel

The old mans head was acheing, he had obviously had a little too much booze, but then he remembered that he hadn't had any booze, e was just about to go on a long journey, he hadn't wanted to be drun in case of an emergency, then he realised he could feel iron rings around his ankles and wrists, shackles, why were they there. He opened his eyes and peered through the half darkness, two familiar faces looked back at him.

"Hello Samos old friend." Said a wheezing voice. "It's nice to see you again."

That was all he heard, before he blacked out again.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: well that was it, quite a long chapter for me I must say, but I did it in the end, I hope you all don't hate me or anything, cos I'm about to do another cliffhanger, but stay on the line, I've got a nice juicy twist for you.