Kale could feel his heart racing and wasn't sure if it was because of the mission or because he was excited to try this armor. They took the lift down to the Armory and walked through the door to see Omall and Rotabu checking over the equipment they would use during the mission. They had everything laid out on a table beside them. Kale recognized the scanners and side arms but there were a couple of weapons that he hadn't seen before. Both of the men were in full body armor with the exception of their helmets.

"Gentlemen," Kale greeted them on sight. Omall smiled and Rotabu nodded before holstering an odd shaped blade to his back.

"So that body armor is something you're constructing, Kershala?" said Omall.

"Yes, it is for Kale. Human bodies are not as resilient as the Daora. They need additional protection," explained Kershala as he walked to the console controlling the armor modification unit. Kale could see the nanites buzzing in the bottom of the glass tube on the floor.

"That's a shame, Kershala. I feel like you may be missing out." Omall smirked at his own comment and Kershala didn't seem to get what he was saying though Kale caught the drift quite quickly.

"There's been no complaints so far," Kale laughed.

"Well if you are as ferocious in the bedroom as you are on the battlefield…" Omall continued.

"Omall that's enough," said Rotabu looking over his rifle. Omall smiled at Kale as he scanned over the equipment on the table. Kershala smirked discreetly at Kale before operating the console in front of him. The door to the chamber opened and Kershala walked up to it and collected the nanites before he picked up the armor. He brought it to a nearby table and Kale joined him.

"I hope to be joined to someone someday who makes me an amazing suit of body armor," Omall commented. Kale hadn't really had a chance to be in a casual setting with Omall yet and he already liked him. He hadn't seen much of the sarcastic funny side of the Daora and he was refreshing to be around.

"Man after my own heart," said Kale. "Alright so how do I get into this thing." To Kale's surprise the armor seemed to be made of a flexible fibrous material resembling Kevlar the helmet sat beside the main base of it. He could see the small meshed patterns but there was also full plating in some parts of it.

"Pick it up," said Kershala.

"What?" Kale was caught off guard.

"Pick it up, see how it feels." Kale shrugged and picked up the armor it was lighter than he expected but still quite heavy duty. It seemed to be in two pieces. The material was cold and metallic to touch something else he didn't expect since it looked more like cloth.

"Feels good, I guess. How do I get it on?" Kershala took the piece from him and sat it on the table and passed him the other part. It seemed like a pair of pants with plates hanging around the legs.

"I wanted it to be familiar to you. It will go on right over you body suit."

"Okay then." Kale quickly fit himself into it and it seemed to be a little loose. "Is it supposed to fit like that?" Kershala picked up the top piece and passed it to him.

"Put this on and I will show you." Kale quickly slipped it on over his head suddenly reminded of getting dressed to go to school as a little kid putting on snow pants and a winter jacket. The armor was on and in place though everything still seemed loose. Kershala took Kale's hand and put it on a plate on the chest piece. "Tap here twice and stand up straight." Kale did as he was told and Kershala smiled as the armor began to tighten and fit to his body almost perfectly. It was a weird squeezing sensation at first but it slowly relaxed and Kale was able to breath and move normal. The suit reminded him of the compression gear he used to wear to the gym.

"That's something else," he laughed looking over himself.

"The nanites used your measurements to create it so it will allow you your full range of movement while in combat. Tapping the chest plate polarizes the plating in the titanium weave, energy taken right from your body heat is used to power it." Kale picked up the helmet and looked it over while Kershala talked. "You will notice that the armor plates are strategically position to protect your vital organs and body systems." Kale looked at the plates and noted their positioning around his abdomen and chest, forearms, and shoulders, as well as his crotch and legs were protected. His hands were also full gloved, the backs of his hands protected as well.

"Crazy. This is awesome Kershala."

"One more thing before you put the helmet on." Kershala picked up a weapon from the table Omall was working at and fired it at Kale three times in succession. Kale quickly shielded his face but was unable to really jump anywhere but back as he did two of the shots still landed. He thought it would hit him in the chest when an energy field came up and absorbed the blast.

"The hell are you doing?!" he yelled the surprise ever present in his voice.

"Kinetic shielding," Kershala said plainly.

"You couldn't have just told me what it was?" said Kale. "You still want him?" Kale looked over at Omall who just laughed, neither he nor Rotabu even seemed put off by the display.

"I had to show you, look at the read out on your left arm," Kershala instructed. Kale looked at the small four-inch display on his forearm, there were several numbers displayed there in English. "The blue one." The number Kershala directed him to was reading at seventy percent, after several seconds the number began climbing toward one hundred. "Its regenerative. As long as it doesn't fail completely it will replenish itself, in normal combat conditions." Kale just shook his head unable to think of anything other than the armor he had only seen in video games that was even remotely similar to this.

"What all will it block?" he asked.

"Anything energy based which includes all weapon projectiles and most types of shrapnel."

"What do these other numbers mean?" Kale walked over to Kershala and held up the display to him.

"The red is a reading of your vitals, blood-pressure, heartrate. The blue is the shielding as you've seen. The green is oxygen levels. Put on the helmet." Kale smiled before putting the helmet on, as it touched the base of his neck, he could feel it seal around the other piece of body armor. It had an air of familiarity about it that he wasn't really sure it came from. He could still feel the air from the outside coming through the face, he didn't feel crowded in it and could breath easily. There was a small visor around his eyes that lined up perfectly so he could see through and looked at Kershala. Kershala touched the side of the helmet and the mouthpiece sealed causing the suit to revert to oxygen reserves. Kershala gestured to his arm and he looked it over, the oxygen level displayed at ninety-nine percent. Kale looked back up at Kershala who had deployed his own suit in full. "Can you hear me?" he spoke. It took a second to realize that he could only hear Kershala, the helmet was a contained environment.

"Yes." He looked at Omall and Rotabu who were discussing something amongst themselves.

"Good, this is our private channel that I can activate voluntarily from my implant. They can't hear either of us right now."

"You really outdid yourself." Kale shook his head and smiled at him even though he didn't know if Kershala could see him.

"Locate the button on the right side of your helmet and you can switch it to allow you to hear around you. The helmet will automatically detect the air around you and if it is toxic or not to you and protect you from it. On the left side there is a comm link you can activate to talk on normal frequencies with the ship or Anubis for example. Touch the button around your jaw to unseal the mouthpiece." Kale used the function to unseal the helmet and to open the sound to his surroundings before taking the helmet off. "Also check the pouch on your hip." Kale looked down at his hip and could see the pouch he had brought from the Typhonus with the medical nanites present. The capacity had been reduced to four. "You can be my medic, since my suit doesn't allow for me to carry them conveniently."

"Okay, that's kind of what I expected to do anyway."

"I tried to give you enough with this armor to function as a watered-down version of my suit. It isn't as advanced, but you should find it quite effective against most Shironian weapons and soldiers. As long as you are careful." Lenari walked through the entrances assumedly reporting to get suited up.

"That armor looks protective," he said. "You can actually use some of that combat training you have now Kale."

"Using all along, it's just gonna be that much better now."

"Kershala please come to the command center, boarding team be ready for teleport in the next fifteen minutes," said Atondra. Kershala's helmet retracted as he headed for the lift with Kale behind him.

They walked onto the commander center to see that the entire crew had dawned the combat armor Omall and Rotabu had been setting up. Ralu was at Rotabu's usual station and Zaree had taken over for Omall. Elara was standing beside Atondra at the command station and Jelani was flying the ship. Kershala could see through the main view screen that the ships sensors had brought up an image of the mining station. They were entering the defense grid meaning that if everything went okay, they would be boarding the facility inside the next twenty minutes. The image changed to that of what was directly ahead of the ship.

"Was the intel accurate on the defence grid?" asked Atondra looking over at Zaree.

"It has not changed, the pattern we expected is intact. Jelani I will send you the pattern you will need to follow." Zaree tapped a few commands into her interface.

"I've got it, should I proceed Atondra?"

"Yes. Let's get this underway I do not wish to remain here any longer than necessary. Zaree drop our power output to decrease the detection radius. I don't want any room for error here." Atondra looked back at Kale and Kershala and acknowledged them silently.

"The good news is that if you do get detected you will have six seconds to correct it. The detection grid uses an alternating sensory algorithm," said Elara looking at the sensor overlay in front of her.

"What does that mean?" asked Kale.

"It will conduct sweeps with four different sensor arrays if the first part of the grid is triggered. It was designed to filter out space debris and background radiation."

"Taking us in," said Jelani tapping several points on her navigation console. The ship began to move slowly and smoothly through the invisible grid. When the facility was Daoran operated the defense-grid was activated to alert them of Shironian vessels which were much less maneuverable than the Sironia. The facility was visible in the distance, it was positioned along the outer orbit of a Blue Giant, the light would be normally blinding but the viewer automatically filtered the light to a visible level. It used the star as a source of power, its power core was one of the only of its kind in existence, its creator died a long time ago and no one else took up the research as it was deemed dangerous. "Something's wrong." Jelani brought the ship to a full stop in the midst of the detection grid.

"What is it?" asked Atondra an urgency present in her voice.

"The grid seems to have reconfigured, if I take the route originally plotted, we will pass right through the detection field." Kershala stepped forward and looked through the viewer using his implant to try and get an analysis.

"Anubis can you get any information on what's going on with the grid?" he asked.

"Yes Kershala. It would appear that the grid has been modified to change its search pattern every forty-five seconds it seems to be a recent modification," Anubis explained.

"Is there anyway you can make it visible?" asked Jelani looking back at the AI core.

"I can release a small burst of plasma particles from the thruster matrix. Kershala you will be able to pick this up with your implant if I tie the ships sensors into it, but you will be required to pilot the ship," said Anubis.

"Do it," said Atondra, "Jelani let Kershala take your post."

"It is done," said the AI as Kershala traded positions with Jelani. Kershala tilted his head to the side as Anubis opened his implant to the sensor array of the Sironia. It was a lot of information to process and he could feel that his implant was working at capacity, something he wasn't used to the sensation of. He put his hands to the tactile interface and began manipulating it with his hands. He looked through the main viewer but could basically see a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree angle around the whole ship by taking the sensor information. Kershala could see the defense grid around the ship being translated by his mind as a blue matrix of lines and shapes all around them. He looked ahead and could see the facility and where he had to go. He began to move the ship with his hands, he hadn't flown the Neori class or anything as big as it was, but it seemed to feel natural to him. His hands glided across the tactile interface like he had been doing it his whole life. The matrix changed its shape again and Kershala reacted bringing the ship to a full stop in a vertical position to avoid the grid that was now behind him. They would be inside teleporter range very shortly; the AI analyzed the grid and he began taking the ship through it once again. Kershala was starting to feel strain on his mind as the ship's sensors were starting to gather more information on the facility as they got closer, performing constant sensor sweeps of the area.

"Stop… the… sensors…" Kershala strained to speak.

"Shut it down Elara," said Atondra. Kershala could feel some of the strain lift as Elara shut down the passive sensor system. The grid shifted again and Kershala reacted accordingly the ship shifting to head in a more vertical direction. As the ship began to move forward again a proximity alarm sounded, Kershala hadn't noticed that the wing of the ship moved through part of the grid.

"Hold on to something!" he yelled. Everyone in the room listened to him grabbing onto something to hold them in place, and he initiated a partial barrel roll positioning the ship upside down. "Anubis cut main power!" The ship went dark and Kershala's connection to the ship sensor array was broken. They watched as a patrol ship approached from somewhere beyond the facility it was smaller likely only a two-man craft. "Anubis initiate a dampening field." The entire command center stayed quiet as the ship passed seemingly within meters of the Sironia. The tension in the room was thick and Kershala felt a bead of sweat form on his forehead as the ship did another pass. He knew he managed to get the ship out of the way within the six second timeline, but the patrol ship was something they hadn't counted on.

"Have we been detected?" asked Atondra.

"Not yet," said Anubis. The ship did another pass around them and headed back to the facility.

"Anubis wait until they are out of range and give me full control again. The grid is going to change again soon," instructed Kershala. In a few short seconds the ship was out of sight and Kershala felt the link being re-established. He could still see the plasma particles as he began to move the ship again when, as suspected, the grid changed. It was becoming less elaborate the closer they got, and it wasn't long before they were out of the grid all together. Kershala felt the connection to the ship drop and he stood up and turned to face the others. "With any luck we will not have to do that again."

"Our proximity to the star will make it incredibly difficult for them to detect us," said Jelani retaking her station.

"Take us as far into the star as the outer hull will allow, Jelani," Atondra ordered taking a step forward. Kershala knew that the Neori class was meant to operate in extreme radiation conditions due to its original scientific nature. "Atondra to Rotabu." Atondra spoke activating the com system.

"Yes Atondra," Rotabu responded.

"We are through the grid, have your team meet Kershala and Kale at the teleporters."

"We are already here." Rotabu sounded eager for the mission, Kershala knew that he would likely be seeking vengeance for Sashir and could only hope he wouldn't lose his rationality over it. Kershala looked at Kale who had already slid his helmet on and headed for the door.

"Kershala, when you board the facility we will not be in range of our connection. I will not be able to assist you remotely. Only our communication channel will remain active," warned Anubis.

"I will be fine." The door to the command center opened and Kale walked out ahead of him and the two of them headed to the teleporters. He could feel an anxiousness from Kale that was normal for the mission they were about to undertake. Presumably Kale felt the same thing from him as he looked back and smiled with his eyes through the visor in his helmet. It wasn't long when they were walking through the door to the teleporter room. Lenari, Rotabu and Omall were there and all three had suited up in their armor. Lenari took a weapon from the nearby workstation and passed it to Kale.

"You forgot this on the ship when we got to the Typhonus," he said holding it up to Kale.

"Oh right, I had almost forgotten about it with everything that's been going on." Kale took the weapon and looked it over.

"Hold it to your back, there is a magnetic holster," said Kershala. Kale did as he instructed, and the weapon locked to his back. "Once we teleport over, be ready to dive into cover just in case there are unsuspected circumstances."

"Be ready for anything." Omall unholstered a large weapon. "This thing will blow a hole in the side of that facility if I want it to."

"Save that for after the mission," said Kale. They stepped up on the teleporter and Ralu walked through the door to operate the console.

"We are ready," said Rotabu.

"May Zarai watch over you," said Ralu operating the console. Kershala activated his helmet as he felt the teleporter activating and it wasn't long before they were standing at their destination, the waste disposal system. Everyone was quiet and ducked immediately behind nearby walls as Kershala got an idea of their surroundings. The smell was incredibly pungent, and they were almost knee high in a dark putrid liquid that seemed to be flowing from somewhere. The waste was stuck to the walls and ceilings and walls as well. It was likely that they would dump everything down here from toxic waste and dead bodies to actual humanoid excrement. Kershala was thankful he had a full breather in his helmet protecting him from most of the smell.

"We are clear," said Kershala. He and Rotabu took point with Kale and Lenari behind them with Omall bringing up the back. Anubis had downloaded a map of the facility to Kershala during the mission briefing and so far, it seemed to be accurate. Kershala also knew it was unlikely that they would run into any changes in the waste disposal system as it would take a very low priority as long as it functioned.

"How much further before we get out of this mess?" whispered Kale as they trudged through the liquid waste.

"Fifty meters this way," said Kershala pointing.

"Let's get a move on shall we, it's hard to tell if we set off any alarms when we teleported in," said Omall.

"Okay, try to keep up," said Kershala. They began moving quickly through the corridors following the map Kershala had in his head, they came to an access hatch that would lead them to a storage facility according to the map. "This is the closest way out of this place. A storage area lies above us." Kershala climbed the ladder and opened the hatch quickly jumping up into the room and looking around. It was lit barely enough to see but there didn't appear to be any movement and his implant didn't detect anything live. Rotabu and Lenari were up the ladder and Kershala bent down to pull Kale up by the arm, Omall followed shortly after and shut the hatch behind them. Lenari took out a scanner and began scanning the area. "Lenari do not use anything too invasive, we do not want them to detect our equipment."

"It's a passive scan but you should know I've picked up Daoran blood." Kershala felt a pit in his stomach he had prepared himself as best he could for the horrors he was sure the slaves here went through; but he still wasn't sure he was ready to face it. Kale walked ahead of them and unholstered his weapon, he had figured out that there was a light on the top of it and used it to shine around the room. Kershala scanned again with his implant and was picking up the blood Lenari spoke of. There appeared to be vast amounts of it about ten meters head.

"Arm yourself," he whispered. Rotabu unholstered his weapon and Lenari and Omall both took up sidearms as they walked cautiously forward. Kershala crouched to an offensive stance as they moved. Nothing in the room moved and Kershala could hear his heartbeat inside of his head the silence was becoming deafening. The source of the blood was crawling toward him as he moved, and it was starting to become clear to him what they were going to see.

"Oh my god," said Kale stopping in his tracks. They had found the source, in the corner of the storage there was a pile of Daoran bodies. They had been thrown in with no respect or care for them at all. Kershala could see all ages of men women and children. "They must be the slaves." Kale took his helmet off and ran a few feet from the pile and began to throw up from the site. Kershala felt a rage building inside him as he could see it in the others as well but felt a certain pang of relief at the fact that they no longer suffered. "Sorry." Kale walked back to them having secured his helmet back in place. "I've never seen anything so terrible before." Kershala could feel Kale's sadness permeating their bond to the point it washed over him like a wave. The rest of the group stayed silent and Omall walked over to take scans.

"At least they are at peace now," sobbed Lenari.

"After we are done here," Rotabu spoke quiet and with rage flooding his voice, "Their deaths will not be forgotten."

"Can you take their memories back to Anubis like before?" asked Kale.

"It is too far away. There needs to be a remote connection."

"It wouldn't matter anyway; the implants appear to be in the same state that Ashal's was in when we found his body." Omall bent over and rolled one of the bodies over to face him a young woman, there were visible burn marks on her chest. "It appears that some of these people were used as test subjects for the weapon. They would have required testing to narrow down the proper frequency to…"

"That is enough Omall," Kershala interrupted him not wanting to hear another word of what had been done. "They are at rest. We must move on." Kershala followed the map to the exit of the storage area and walked through the door not really caring what he was going to find on the other side. At this point he just wanted to be out of the room. Kale followed him quickly and the others were right behind him. They were into another corridor that split, according to the map would one path would lead them to ore processing and the other led to one of the mines.

"Are you okay?" Kale whispered before the others were in ear shot.

"Yes." Kershala looked at him and as the others approached. "We should take the path through the mines; the ore processing facility is the other direction. I suspect we will encounter more resistance there. Although the path to the labs is shorter through the processing facility."

"It bears to reason that if the Shironians made any changes to the facility then it would be the ore processing, the mines will likely before very similar to what the map projects," said Omall. Kershala nodded and they began their route toward the mines. They walked for about twenty meters before they started seeing the rock structure of the mines coming through the bulkheads of the walls; almost like the rocks had began reform around the facility itself. Most of the ceiling had been left as the natural rock that formed asteroid the facility was build into, but the floors and walls had been manufactured. Kershala found it odd that they had gone so long without any type of resistance; but considered the fact that the Shironians were overconfident in their own security system to think that it might fail them. They continued walking and the closer they got to the mine the more the rock took over the walls to the point that only the floor was made of a metal construct. They had come to a large metallic door that would lead them into the mine.

"Based on the maps information the mine will be very open. We will be easy targets for weapons fire so be ready." Kershala walked up to the access panel punched in a code that was contained in the map data to open the door. He was unsurprised to find out that it didn't work, and he would have to hack it with his implant. "I will hack the door the rest of you get ready." The group readied their weapons as Kershala activated his implant and attempted to force the door open. He had to be careful and take his time, if he was too invasive it would trigger the internal security net. He sat very still for several moments before he started making any progress breaking through security.

"Kershala what's taking so long?" asked Rotabu. Kershala shushed him and continued what he was doing, the door released and began to slowly ascend into the frame. Kershala jumped back to where Kale and Omall had taken cover. The door opened and two of the reptilian guards were standing watch they were looking over the doors wondering what had triggered it to open and before they even knew someone was there Rotabu and Omall hit them with their energy weapons causing them to vaporize. Kershala looked at both of them confused why they were using their weapons on such high-power settings.

"We need to get access to their occupational computers, turn down the power setting on your weapons," he said.

"Sorry, we were testing them before we left the ship to make sure the power regulators were optimized," explained Omall as he tweaked the setting on his weapon. "I guess it is." Kershala could see a smile form in Omall's eyes the rest of his face covered by the armor he wore. The group of them slipped into the mine and were faced with a massive structure ahead of them. The door shut behind them and they took cover out of sight. "I am detecting hundreds of Daoran's in this area." Omall referred to his scanner as his smile quickly faded. The road ahead is what Kershala did not look forward to crossing. They could see several Daoran's working with different tools extracting the mineral from the rock walls. Several transport carts were in place and moving in an assembly line as the Daoran slaves filled them. Kershala attempted to communicate with their implants, he could tell they were active but the reading he got from them was not what it should be. The signals had been modified and were being interfered with from somewhere in the cavern. Kershala looked around and could see the brutish Shironian task masters patrolling throughout the cavern.

"Rotabu, the patrols," he said simply. He gestured toward the patrols and Rotabu acknowledged what he saw. They had counted only three.

"Kershala why is there only three guards patrolling here? How can they keep so many Daorans at bay with so few of them?" asked Kale. Kershala thought briefly not able to answer the question just yet but he knew they would likely be coming across an answer soon.

"Let's go, we will deal with the guards maybe one of them will have what we are looking for," said Rotabu stepping forward. "It will be best for us to take them out at the same time, this will prevent them from communicating our presence to their command structure."

"Agreed. Rotabu, take the upper patrol. Lenari, you and Omall will deal with the mid level unit and Kale and I will take the one on the bottom of the structure," ordered Kershala. Rotabu nodded and took off right away. Kershala watched as he holstered his weapon and scaled the rock face to get to the top level. Lenari and Omall took a set of nearby stairs up a level and proceeded. "Signal when you have begun your attack." Kershala spoke over the communicator in his helmet to the others as he and Kale proceeded to track their own target. As they moved, they could see that the tools the Daoran slaves used were actually augmented to their bodies, none of them had a normal Daoran body anymore. They seemed to be ignoring them completely as they moved through them. All of the slaves had been altered to serve the purpose of mining in some way or another. Some of them had been equipped with retooled arms with different mining tools attached to them. Others had modified legs and spinal columns presumably for heavy lifting, some didn't appear to have any modifications at all until you were close enough to see that their eyes had been removed and replaced with scanners to detect mineral deposits. Some were even modified with all of the above. Kershala couldn't imagine what these poor people had endured at the hands of the Shironians, but it was becoming more evident that the Scientist was likely running the facility and performing the experiments. Kershala was doing his best not let his sadness get the best of him. With Kale around he had found it easier to supress certain emotions, he wondered if it was because Kale was human.

"What the hell are they doing here?" whispered Kale. Kale had stopped to look at one of the slaves that had their legs and spine augmented. "They don't even seem to be aware of us."

"We will investigate later, Kale for now we must find our mark." Kale turned back to Kershala and caught up to him with his weapon drawn.

"Omall here, we are in position." Kershala found their mark as well the task master having just turned a corner was now walking toward them.

"I am in position as well. Ready on your mark Kershala," Rotabu spoke from the communicator. Kershala looked back at Kale who was right behind him and gave the signal to attack.

"Go!" Kershala rushed the brute who was now only about fifteen feet from them and jumped into the air dropping down on the brute's head with his foot. It reacted much quicker than Kershala had anticipated and actually grabbed him and threw him into the wall. Kale jumped from around cover firing several pulses at it with his rifle. It wasn't long before Kershala realized something was different about this one, it was not the typical of its species in that it was much faster and resistant to energy weapons. Kershala ran at it as it took another step closer to Kale and took into a combo of fist attacks landing at least two hits under its chin and to its throat. All the while Kale timed his shots as he got the openings. The brute stumbled back a step and reached behinds its back and pulled out a bladed weapon, it came at Kershala swinging. He was quick to dodge now that he had a chance to re-evaluate his opponent. Kershala took jabs where he good and he could see the creature becoming effectively slower as he whittled it down. The brute brought up a large foot and kicked him sending him back a few feet before jumping at him and bringing the blade crashing down on him with all of its might. Kershala only had enough time to throw up his forearms and block the attack. He could feel the blade cut through the nanites in his suit and he could suddenly feel blood running down his arms. Kale fired on their opponent again this time landing several shots in its head and face. It stumbled back and Kershala had enough time to form one of his daggers, he jumped into the air and plunged it into the giant's head. It staggered as it grabbed at him and he gave the dagger one final twist, it went still as it fell to the ground with a loud thud. Kale ran to Kershala to make sure he was okay and Kershala went over the coms channel. "They have been modified be careful."

"Are you okay? That was crazy, why was it so strong?" asked Kale.

"I am fine, I am worried for the others." Kershala ordered the nanites to reorganize and shielded the wound his suit's integrity was sitting around eighty percent, he could already feel the blood drying.

"Modified didn't save him from having a big hole in his chest!" called Omall from above them. Omall and Lenari jumped down from the walkway they stood on and Omall held up the massive pulse weapon he brought with him. "This took care of everything just fine."

"We could not find any devices on the one we defeated to gain additional access," said Lenari as he began to search the one Kershala had fell. "There's nothing here." Lenari stood up and took out his scanner as if double checking to be sure nothing was there. "Rotabu, can you hear me?" There was no response. "Rotabu, were you successful?" Worry was starting to form in Lenari's voice. "Rotabu…"

"I am hear boy! I will be along shortly." Rotabu's voice was frustrated.

"Did you find one of the devices?" asked Kershala.

"Yes, I have it." Rotabu sounded injured Kershala could hear it in his voice.

"Lenari be ready to treat an injury he sounds hurt." Lenari nodded to him and sat his case on the ground and opened it up. In the meantime, Omall had walked over to the nearest slave to take scans of it. Kershala walked up behind him. "The Scientist?" he asked. Omall looked up from his scanner the look in his eyes seemingly confirming his suspicions.

"She is likely the one who came up with the weapon. It would make sense for her to… occupy herself in between weapons experiments." The man Omall was scanning had been modified with implants in his chest and both arms. He seemed to just be standing there awaiting his next task. "Can you hear me?" Omall whispered not really expecting a response. "Kershala see if you can get anything from your implant now that we are closer." Kershala walked over and began to scan the person who remained still. He took down his helmet and tried to get a clearer reading of the mans implant, at the sight of Kershala's face the Daoran had tears form in his eyes. Kershala could feel his heart breaking for the man as tears began to stream his face. "I'm not detecting any changes in him."

"I will try to link with him." Kale stepped forward and put his hand on Kershala shoulder.

"Are you sure that's wise, you don't know what these people have been through, do you really want to relive it?" asked Kale. Kershala pondered for a few seconds and took a deep breath, Kale was right.

"I have to try Kale, I will not link completely with him as you and I have, I will only try and communicate with him."

"Okay," said Kale satisfied that Kershala wouldn't endanger himself. Kershala put his hand to the Daoran's implant and began to initiate the Jadak'tora. At first there was nothing as Kershala's and the other Daorans' markings began to light up, the slaves markings had been disfigured and damaged beyond any type of identification. Kershala began to get memories at first but blocked them before they became visible.

"Kershala!" the slave yelled aloud. "You… must… stop… her…" Kershala could hear the voice in his head as clearly as it echoed through the halls of the mine. "We… are… already… dead…" His voice was haunting and almost robotic his voice strained. "Trapped… in… our own… mind…" Kershala could feel his emotions coming to a head as the emotional transference took place. "You… cannot… save… us… end… suffering…" Kershala had taken all that he could and pulled away. The fear and helplessness were unbearable, and the sadness flooded his mind in ways he almost hadn't imagined. Kale was right behind him as he turned away from the slave and put his arms around him.

"These people have been enslaved in their own minds. They are aware of us, but they are not in control of their own actions. They cannot be saved. They suffer, Kale," Kershala cried, "they suffer!" Kershala found solace in both Kale's physical and emotional strength, this was why he needed him to be there, he knew what he faced but he didn't know how he would be able to get away from it. "How did he know my name?"

"It's okay, I'm here, Kershala. You need to be strong. You can't save these people; we have to do the next best thing," Kale comforted.

"We end their suffering," said Lenari sadness permeating his voice. "Once we destroy this place that will end their pain." Kershala felt Kale's arms tighten around him, listening to Lenari made his heart ache but he knew that what he spoke of was right. There was no other way to help these people they had had their body and souls destroyed by the Shironians and they were beyond getting it back. Kershala took a deep breath as he gathered his thoughts.

"We can get back at the ones who did this Kershala. I promise we will," said Kale. Kershala stood up straight and took a step back.

"Pull yourself together boy," said Rotabu from behind them. Kershala turned to see the old warrior walking toward them with a deep wound in his shoulder. He could see that he had likely taken the bladed weapon in force. The violet blood ran out over his armor, one hand he braced over the wound the other carried a device. Lenari ran over to with his medical scanner in hand. "Pishar got the better of me, it was much quicker than I expected it to be." Lenari began scanning him and but Kershala could tell it was worse than he was letting on.

"That happened for us too. I believe the guards here have been modified they are not normal we must be on our guard," Kershala quickly pulled himself together. He took the device from Rotabu and looked it over, scanning it with his implant. "If we try to hack this device remotely then it is going to erase itself. Omall can you see if you can get into it?" Kershala passed it over to Omall who seemed eager to take a look at it. He turned his attention back to Rotabu Lenari put his scanner down.

"I can't fix this kind of wound here. It's too deep. You will need to return to the ship if you are going to save your arm," explained Lenari as he dabbed the wound with an antibacterial solvent from his med kit.

"Maybe get Ralu to take his place," said Kale.

"I would prefer not to have another inexperienced warrior with us. I will have Anubis teleport Rotabu back and the four of us will continue." Kershala reformed his helmet and opened his private com channel to the AI. "Rotabu has been injured and must be extracted, can you pull him back with the teleporter?"

"Standby," said Anubis.

"Rotabu stand by they are going to get in shortly." Rotabu nodded and looked at Lenari, Kershala could tell that he was worried about him but decided to say nothing, he could sense Rotabu did not want attention drawn to it.

"Be careful," Rotabu spoke low and with concern when light began to swirl around him seconds later, he was gone.