I

I am burning. My limbs, being torn apart by the tongues of disaster. But it is more a disaster to them than to me, and that gives me great pride, it gives me great stregnth.

I lay here, buried in iron, seared by flames, with more joy than I have even known. I have done what thousands of my kind had failed to do, stop these plagerous creatures from contining there 'mining expidition' to this volitile planet.

I lay here, knowing I have completed my purpose. I have given my life for a cause. I have destroyed the heart of those who would destroy my hive, our sanctuary. Us all. The thousands. They believe it was us that started this war, our anger our 'primative aggrassion'. Our nature. Our 'evil' 'conquering' nature.

They think they are coming here for a good cause. They think they have come here to solve their energy crisis. They think they have come here for these crystals to liberate their people.

Why do they believe these crystals are their saviors? They have torn apart their own planet with their greed, and now they want to expand their realm. Going to this red planet with their destructive machines, mining energy crystals and sending them back to their homeworld.

But then what?
Not even the crystals are in infinte supply. Their hunger for power, both for electrical power and controlling power, will bring them to a new crisis. They will suck in more and more, and will expand their reach, destroying countless worlds in search of energy.

We began by peacefully telling them to leave. We did not ask for this war.

And then there is the matter of their internal wars. They are the angry race, not we. Not I, now. They cannot even be a coordinate themselves as an effective race.

And that brings us back to power again.

As I think these last thoughts, I feel great pride. I feel great pride. We feel great pride. The spirits of all those who have died before me, each one of them a seperate being, killed mercilicelly by the humans.

We feel warm inside.

I feel warm as well, as the flames cause my skin to melt and burn, bubbling crazilly.

This is the end for me, but I fear some terrible things are just getting started.

Miner collapsed on a rock several hours later. It was beyond his own personal belief that he was able to run so long and so far. Mission Commander slowed to a stop behind him.

"It's a good things most of the people have been working over and Alpha command at Olympus, or we would have lost everyone in there.", he said.

Miner mumbled something.

Mission Commander reached for his radio, punched something in and called, "Mission Commander to Alpha Command."

"Yeah, we're here.", came the casual response, "We picked up a large shockwave of energy coming from your direction. What happened down there.".

"Eagle Command is... destroyed.", Mission Commander said sadly, "We have three casualties. Only Miner and I made it out of there alive.".

There was a moment of silence.

"Have you seen any aliens exiting or entering the remains of the hive lately?", the commander asked.

"The only thing that has gone in or out of the hive lately has been us. We have been keeping a ridiculously good eye on it. Really, the its just a big crater now. Whatever was left after the battle is now destroyed; we've been letting the trainees use it for target practice."

Mission Commander looked at the ground. Apparently they weren't going to be any help with this matter.

"Maybe this was the last alien on mars.", Miner offered.

"We need to be picked up. Miner and I are lost in the middle of the martian desert.", the commander said.

"What's you location?", crackeled the voice.

"I said we're lost.", the commander restated.

"Oh... ok.", the voice said dimly, "We'll have to pinpoint your location using your radio signal. We'll be over to pick you up in a little while. Alpha out.".

The radio cracked as the transmission ended.

Miner and Mission commander looked at each other, then Miner sat down on the rock, gazing around, keeping a sharp eye out for other aliens. The last thing they needed right now was to be attacked.

Alpha's 'little while' seemed to drag out longer and longer as the sun passed over them, with an occasional wind sweeped by. Neither of them said a word to each other, each caught up in their own thoughts, their own memories.

Then, their rescuers arrived. The crystal reaper camed barreling over the rocky terrain from the horizen untill it finnaly reached them.
An astronaut walked out of the onboard lab and walked toward them. They followed him into the lab. Just in time to; a sandstorm was beginning to whip up around them.

As the crystal reaper headed toward Alpha base, the crystal reaper bumped up and down like a roller coaster ride, with the sound of the wind whipping againts the sides of the vehicle. Then, the crystal reaper shuddered to a stop.

They could here some grumbling and obcenities coming from the cockpit.

The door opened into the lab, and the driver came lumbering out.

"We're stuck.", he groaned. "We're going to have to wait untill after the sandstorm and dig our way out.".

Nothing else was said for about a mintute, when the driver began speaking again.

"So, rumor has it you were attacked by aliens, and the old Eagle got blown up. Is that true?"

Mission Commander nodded his head sadly.

"So, we're stuck fighting aliens again?"
"Nobody knows.", Mission Commander replied, "It's possible that it was the last alien on mars."

"That was my idea.", Miner piped in.

"That was Miner's idea.", Mission Commander added.

Miner pulled walked to the fridge and pulled out some odd energy bar, and began chewing on it as the others began to talk.

"Did you see what kind of alien it was?", one of the astro scientists asked.

"What kind?", Miner asked curiously, as he pulled the bar out of his mouth.

"You know, a drone or a commander, and what it was flying, a striker or and infiltrator.".

"It was a drone flying an infiltrator.", Miner said.

The scientists turned to each other. "Well.. that's not possible.", one of the scientists stated.

"Why's that?"
"Because drones aren''t smart enough to pilot infiltrators. It must have been a commander."

"I know the difference between a drone and a commander!", Miner said, irritated and insulted that they would thing he couldn't tell the difference between a drone and a big hulking commander, especially at the snail resembling speed the infiltrator was going at.

"I'm just saying, you must have made a mistake.". Miner started shaking.

"I saw it too. It was a drone.", Mission Commander added.

"Um... well." The scientist didn't have the nerve to tell Mission Commander he was wrong.

Despite his toughness, Miner looked like he was about to start crying.

Nobody said a word.

Silence filled the air, except for the whisteling of the sandstorm outside. It was almost a solid day before the storm passed, and they all went out to dig the crystal reaper out of the sand. It was nearly completely buried.

Mission Commander's radio crackeled. "We've... got... bad... news.", the voice choked out.

"What is it?", Mission Commander asked.

"Looks like five alien motherships just entered the upper atmosphere.", said the voice, with a hint of panic.

"Five?!", Mission Commander said in frightened disbelief.

"We've detected five.", the voice confirmed.

After all the damage only one had caused before... creating the hive, how could they possibly stand againts five!? To make matters worse, they were weakened. They didn't have a hope.

"Hurry, people.", Mission Commander said. "We've got big trouble."

Without a word, the team began shoveling away at the sand around the crystal reaper, knowing it was in vain, but they at least had to try.

Here I burn. Here I die. Here I hold hope for the future.