Cortez watched the space station grow smaller and felt his future shrink with it. In the

short reverie after his victory against the Timesplitters, the machines in the year 2243 had

used Crow's time travel technology and crashed the celebration, leaving Anya, the

General, and countless others, dead. As the last of the human soldiers had died, Cortez

had ran to his ship as robots warped through time and shot at him. He narrowly avoided

them and set off. His destination was Tyrvor, a planet that, last time he had been there,

had given him the need for his bio-goggles, permanently fused with his skin. It was his

first career-defining mission. This is how Cortez got his goggles.

Year 2388. Tyran rebels, organized by disillusioned surgeon Yakhov Crewe, have been

releasing toxins into major water supplies on Tyrvor, turning the population into

shambling plague zombies . They are threatening to hijack the water transport ships and

use the toxins on other planets unless Crewe is elected Grand Unifier of Planets. A squad

of new soldiers has been dispatched on a training mission to liberate Tyrvor. The ship

landed on the outside perimeter of the city. Cortez wiped the rain from his face and

checked his rifle. Only 22; he was the youngest in the group of 16 soldiers, most of them

new transfers. His commander was not pleased over having to 'baby-sit a bunch of

rookies who don't know which way is forward!' He walked off the ship's ramp and

looked at the landing zone. It was a graveyard.

"All right, listen up", said the commander, "the rebel group is stationed in a disused

hotel in the city. This graveyard is far enough away to keep us hidden. How, you say?

Well maybe they'd see us just by lookin' out the window. Keep it down, people I don't

wanna have to tell any mothers their little boy ain't comin' home. Now move it! Quick

and quiet!" They passed through the city seeing nobody along the way. In a short while,

they had reached the door of the hotel, Cortez's heart was racing with adrenaline. The

commander kicked down the door and the soldiers ran in.

"I want three covering the elevator doors. Ten of you, use the stairs, check all floors and

break into rooms. Two, with me in the elevator, we'll check the roof. GO, GO, GO!!"

bellowed the commander. Cortez ran up the stairs with the other soldiers and looked in all

the rooms. They found no-one until they climbed to the roof. A soldier by the name of

Carl Gordon was halfway off the roof ladder before being torn through with machine gun

fire. Cortez quickly climbed past Carl's corpse and rolled to the right to dodge the next

salvo of bullets. Holding the gun was a man who's face was covered in rotting ulcers and

sores, leaking black and red mucus. Then he spoke, with a horrible low, grating voice,

like a drowning man.

"It's too late for you. This world is mine. I have promised these people the cure, and they

believe everything I tell them. You will be ripped apart by them. Your training ends

here." A groan rose up from the hotel as thousands of staggering mutants swarmed the

building. Cortez looked over the edge of the building and gasped. All the dingy streets

and alleys, once abandoned, now pulsed with muted horror as millions of the monsters

shuffled towards the hotel. Cortez turned around to see a mutant climb up to the roof. He

shot at it and was shocked to see his bullets went right into it with no effect. The mutant

lunged forward and pushed him off the roof he fell back and screamed as he fell into the

mutant horde.