"...out of your mind! It's suicide!"

The angry voice of Colonel Bradshaw was the first touch of reality I felt. Then a rising sense of aching in most of my body. I began to feel the smell of oil and metal and sensed the stale air of the base.

"Listen Colonel, we're outta options here. We've no choice!" General Blake's welcome voice met my ears as the darkness lifted from my eyes and a crazy blur swam before my eyes.

My senses were slowly coming back, but I couldn't remember what had happened. The last I remembered was the overpowering stench of crud and hearing Blake's voice over the radio – something about a trap?

I groaned and the blur began to focus itself. I found myself in a rudimentary infirmary inside a cleaner section of the base.

"Well, well, looks like your little soldier hero has woken up!" Bradshaw's voice cut sarcastically through the air.

"What the Heck happened?" I asked groggily.

Blake approached me, he was limping slightly and blood spatter in his side showed that he had been wounded, however, he had obviously been treating himself of the wound so it was evidently not as bad as it had been.

"I was able to get your sorry excuse of a soldier's ass outta the Sewage Treatment Facility, since you had to go and fall into a trap," he smiled wearily.

"You had taken several stun blast hits, and you also got some buckshot into your body, so it was no small wonder you ended up unconscious," Bradshaw added, a little more friendly this time, apparently regretting his cold outburst before.

"It's a miracle you survived, Captain. You had suffered some heavy blood loss from buckshot hits. Good thing you had that quality armor or you'd have been dead fer sure," Blake told me.

"All right, so what are your orders, Sir? What are we gonna do now?"

"That's what we're discussing right now, but first I'd like to ask: What were you doing at Sewage Treatment?"

"Why, Lieutenant Colonel Manning ordered me there! Said I needed to seal any inlet and outlet to prevent the beasts from further infiltrating the base," I responded puzzled. My mind was still swimming and I wasn't quite able to think clearly.

"Oh he did, did he?" Blake asked, his voice lowered to a hoarse whisper that barely contained his suppressed anger.

"It would seem that the good Lieutenant Colonel Manning thinks a bit too highly about his own judgment to just order our men about without our council," Bradshaw added coldly.

General Blake, eyed him briefly, his eyes narrowed to two, thin lines in his ragged face.

"Acting without council of superior officers can be forgivable in certain situations if the situation call for it, but it seems that our 'dear' Manning didn't have our best intentions in mind."

"You mean... Manning's a traitor?"

"Isn't it obvious? Though it beats me why he would turn on us. These creatures evidently wish to destroy us – he's read all the reports. Why would he try to stop us, why would he side with them?"

"All I know is that he's got a good deal to answer for...when I find him!" I snarled, suddenly entering the little conversation between my superiors.

"We'll have to stop Quake first," Bradshaw grunted.

"No," Blake responded flatly.

"No?"

"No!"

Bradshaw stared bewildered at his superior, but Blake began to speak before the Colonel could open his mouth.

"If Manning is indeed a traitor, then we must stop him first. He can do much harm to any attempt on our part to stop Quake. There's no telling how much damage he can do with his influence. We must find him and ascertain that he truly intended to betray Ranger."

"Yeah, even if it means beating him to a bloody pulp to get the answers outta him," I gruffed, slamming my right fist into my left palm.

"We don't know where he is," Bradshaw retorted. "The man could be anywhere, and maybe he doesn't know that Ranger is still alive. We could use that to our advantage, maybe even lure him out of the dark."

Blake and I looked at each other. There was a hint of a smile in Blake's mouth.

"Not a bad proposal, Colonel, I'm inclined to agree."

"I'm still not comfortable about you assaulting the slipgate directly General, we need you to command the troops… those that are still alive,"

Assault the slipgates directly? I thought. My mind was beginning to clear.

"Colonel, we need a distraction. I'm only going to confuse them, while you and Ranger reestablish communications and send for reinforcements."

"Hold on! Hold on!" I interrupted with some slight irritation. Both Senior Officers looked at me.

"You mean to tell me that you, a General, are going to assault the Slipgates directly?"

Blake eyed me, his expression was grim.

"Listen son, I may be nearing old age, but I still know how to kick ass. And a General without an army is useless, so I'm gonna take the mantle of assault trooper…"

"But you have an army, Sir," I responded hotly. Blake looked at me with suspicion in his eyes.

"You have me, and if you and the Colonel send for reinforcements, you'll be in a better position to assume command of a larger army than if you've gone and got yourself killed and you'll be a useful General with a proper army with which you can kick this filth back into the Abyss or wherever these bastards came from."

Blake hesitated, looking from me to Colonel Bradshaw. The Colonel nodded, I thought I saw a slight smile on the Colonel's face.

"The kid's right General, Ranger's trained for frontal assaults, but we need you here to command the forces against Quake."

Blake stared grimly at me for a second, then he suddenly grinned. "See? Now this is the reason I've put such trust into you, Captain. I always knew you held potential. All right, you fake an assault on the Slipgates and while those bastards are occupied with you, Bradshaw and I will head for communications and get some reinforcements to help our beleaguered men as well as try and get a bead on Manning's location. I'd greatly prefer to do the bastard first, but we gotta take what we can get. The situation is too much out of control for now."

I stared past the General, unsmiling.

"I'm prepared to take the battle to their freakin' homeworld if I have to. I've a feeling this Quake's got enough up his sleeve to take care of eventual reinforcements. This is a unique opportunity to hit him where it hurts, while he's occupied.

The General's smile faded, but he nodded without a word.

I grabbed my double-barreled shotgun that Blake had salvaged from the Sewage Treatment Plant and took stock of my ammo. It wasn't much, but I was confident that I'd find still more within the base, before I made my excursion to the other side.

As I hoisted my equipment and started for the door, I stopped and turned halfway around, addressing the two officers.

"Give my regards to Manning if you see him and make it a good one!"

As I exited the makeshift infirmary and heard the General mumble: "You bet soldier, don't worry..."

…