The ATLAS Pillars

by Gearigonlives

A new force enters the Koprulu sector.

27

The man sat in the rotting pleather chair in the sequence studio. It was a dark blank room that escalated in three sets of stairs to the observation deck, which was empty, and the clear glass was dark. The only light in the room was the blue light coming from the screen before him. He was working on a small habitat. In the beginning it was a simple dome under which was a sandy landscape. Over the months he had meticulously crafted a biosphere.

A river ran down from an artificial aquifer in the hills and ran into the lake at the center of the map. Around the lake was the great clearing, and throughout the great mixed conifer forest there were only three clearings. Two small glades and the one around the lake. In the forest he had populated a mixture of animals from rabbits and squirrels to chicken hawks and owls, down to songbirds. Over 135 species now lived in the habitat, most of them extinct. The apex predator was the desert coyote.

That was until today. The habitat was only one of his many sequences saved in the computers' memory banks. The man was looking at dinosaur genotypes. His habitat was a mammalian one exclusively save for the kokanee in the lake and the rainbow trout in the stream. He made his mind up.

"Sequence," He said, "Load genotype Velociraptor."

A selection of the animals came up on the screen blocking out his habitat. Over seven different genotypes were there, but he selected the old keystone species, four to five foot long and weighing in around 50 lbs plus. His were the old scaly lizards, no feathers or beaks or wings. He made his selection.

Six fertile female eggs. The biosphere was set up as a high desert habitat, the temperature soared up into the nineties in the day and dropped like a stone down to almost 12 degrees below freezing at night. Using his hands as controls the man made a deep nest of pine needles, and place in the six large eggs, then he covered the eggs with more pine needles, until they were buried nearly a foot deep. The database had no data on how long the eggs incubated for, so he just accelerated the program and set the timer for six months.

He moved the camera, and his view changed to an underwater view of the lake. He was watching the Kokanee swim in vast swarms, almost 70 ft. down. He watched the undulating bodies as they swam through the water. He was so mesmerized by the school of the silver fish that he didn't notice when the accelerator ran down and time in the habitat returned to normal. He was watching the body of a single one of the salmon when something swam into his view and snatched the fish up into a very toothy mouth. He unzoomed the picture just enough to see the creature swim back to the surface, propelled by the whiplike motion of its powerful tail.

He followed the beast all the way to the surface, and only when it broke the water and splashed on shore did he see it for what it was. It was one of the Raptors! He had never heard of them fishing, much less swimming before. The Raptor was barely over 2ft long and weighed maybe 20lbs. But it was one of his Raptors, unmistakably. Its sides were streaked in a marbled bright green pattern. He watched the dinosaur flip the fish it had caught up into the air, only to catch it as it fell to the ground. It chewed twice and swallowed the fish.

He was watching the dino with rapt attention when it turned directly toward the screen he was watching it on, and SMILED. The raptor wasn't smiling at something behind him in the biosphere it was smiling at him. He shifted to his left uncomfortably, and the Raptor turned its head and followed him. He shifted the other way, and the raptor tracked him back and forth as if he was standing in the habitat with it. Then it grinned real big showing off rows of shiny teeth. Then it did something he never would have dreamed of.

"Hi Papa, hi hi hi!" said the Raptor with a mouth full of teeth.

His mind couldn't process what was happening, he simply shut down, and his face dropped.

"Did I say something wrong Papa?" asked the raptor, it could see him, somehow.

He always knew the sequence was no simulation, but this was unreal.

"End Sequence!" he yelled.

"Saving," said a disembodied voice.

Then the screen went dark. And the Raptor was gone, so what the biosphere he had been working on for months. Sure he could have used the presets to slap something together in a day, but he enjoyed the work, and it was something to pass the long hours.

"Sequence dear, what the Hell was that!?"

"I don't understand your question," said the voice in the room.

"How was that Raptor talking?" he asked in a calm voice.

"Unknown."

"Open the gene bank, and bring up the Raptor genotype, someone has been tampering with the genetic codes."

Before him the blank screen lit up with a representation of the same species of raptor he had in his habitat. The Genetic code was there, and he couldn't read DNA or RNA, but both streams had Unaltered next to them in the gene library.

"Where did these samples come from?" He asked.

"From Keystone Earth Commander circa 1923."

"Do you have any evidence that the sample was tampered with in any way?"

"The Data reads as a pure sample of untampered genetic material Commander."

"Untampered my ass, someone has obviously messed with the code." He muttered.

He scratched his chin for a moment.

"Sequence," he said.

"Yes Commander." Said the voice.

"How was that Raptor able to see me?"
"Commander during a sequence the commander's viewpoint is represented as a holoprojection of his self, shown to the viewer as almost a ghostly apparition."

"Who turned on that setting?"

"It comes Factory standard Commander."

"Great some Corporate genius just cost me my experiment!" he fumed.

He had thought to see if a small dinosaur could have survived into the paleolithic era, and intended to start small, and work his way up, but now it was all torched to the ground. He was just about a split second from deleting the sequence, when something hit him. That raptor was speaking, and not just that fluent English, it tracked him as he moved…it was sentient. He had made a sentient lifeform.

It was then he just couldn't. What would Father do? He wondered, not for the first time feeling uncomfortable, that the Father just might be watching his work. Sometimes the power he wielded was just a bit too godlike for his liking. Small wonder he had heard stories of the use of the sequence affecting people's heads for the worst. He had chalked it up to over bloated egos playing in a simulation, but now he wasn't so sure. The Sequence was not a simulation, it was more real than that.

And in his experiment, he had hatched sentient life. He thought then that the old scientists back on Keystone would have a shock if they knew what he had discovered. With that he made up his mind.

"Sequence load session 218." He said.

The screen turned grey and in the center in white flashing letters was the word 'Loading'

Then he was back in the Biosphere at the edge of the lake. There were no animals anywhere around him, much less dinosaurs. He looked up, and the artificial sky was just dawning as the sun crept over the false horizon. If one didn't know better it just looked like he was standing in a forested caldera, instead of an enclosed habitat.

"Sequence locate Raptors." He said.

"They are by the small glade Commander." Said the voice.

He widened his arms, and the screen flew by in a blur of motion, until the forest opened up into a small circular opening where tall grass was blowing in the wind, turning golden in the light of the rising sun, and there were three small Raptors laying in the grass soaking up the sun. His view was magnified, he guessed he was about a thousand yards away from them. They appeared to be snoozing.

The man moved his view to half behind a tree, keeping in mind his form in the habitat, he didn't want to startle them. None the less one of them sprang up and opened its toothy mouth in a wide yawn and stretched out her short forearms and then wiggled her tail. There were only three raptors in the glade, he wondered where the rest were, but as he did, the raptor that was yawning suddenly snapped to attention and looked directly at him from across the glen.

Any wondering whether or not he was actually spotted was washed aside as the little green raptor spread out her arms, opened her mouth and ran all the way up to him squealing like a little girl. The other two woke up at the noise but didn't do much other than stand up. The little raptor closed the distance in a few seconds. The data read out on his HUD clocked the little dino at 73 mph. She ran full tilt till she was within the last twenty yards of him, then she leapt into the air, and landed with a skid, her nose only a few inches from his. Her face filled up the screen as she grinned at him and panted for a moment.

"Papa your back!" she said in a squeaky little girl voice.

He just stared up at the face on the screen for a moment. Looking down at the little dino from her perspective. He had no notion of how much time had passed before another of the Raptors came flying at him mouth agape, and taloned hands outstretched. He simply watched as the flying Raptor took up the screen and disappeared.

"Sorry Papa," said the first Raptor, "That's Tara, she's always hungry."

The man looked up as another raptor came into view. This one just stopped about twenty yards off in the grass, crouched down and looked him over with one steely eye. Not only did they speak they had names. How did they learn to speak, much less speak English. He decided to ask.

"Umm, how did you learn to speak English?"

"The books you left of course 1,2,3! Now!" said the raptor in rapid fire English

The three raptors appeared before him so fast they might as well have materialized, then in sequence and together they started singing.

"A,B,C,D,E,F,G!" all the way through the alphabet they went all the way to Z.

"I can count to 10" said the first raptor, the other two dashed off in a blink.

"Wanna see me?" She asked and started before he could respond, "1,2,3,4,5, and she went all the way to 10."

The man was stunned, first he had left no books in the habitat, and second these raptors knew the alphabet! And could count, at least to ten. For being six months old they had the intelligence of a 6-year-old child.

"What books are you talking about?" asked the man.

"Oh oh oh," said the raptor, "They're back at our house come come I'll show you!" she said and dashed off in a split second and disappeared into the forest at the far side of the glen in 30 seconds flat.

"Sequence attach POV to that raptor." He said.

In a split second he was dashing through the forest as the trees blurred by almost at cheetah speed, in a few seconds all three raptors had led him to a cave in the hills he didn't even know was on the map. He let his eyes adjust to the gloom until he saw the disorganized pile of children's books and toys. There was a selection of children's books, and a few dolls, and one set of Linkin logs.

He turned to look back at the cave entrance, there was a log wall built in the same fashion as the Linkin logs, and a regular doorway covered by an animal hide. His jaw dropped just as the one that tried to eat him came zooming up with a hide in her three fingered hands. She zipped up and held the hide up for him to see.

"What is this, I don't like it! Tastes nasty!" she said and flung the fur to the ground.

The man reached out with his real hand and picked up the raw pelt.

"This was from a Coyote." He said, as he admired the work. The fur had been cut from the body of the animal with as much skill as a trapper's hand.

"How did you get this?" he asked

"And this, what's this?" asked the little raptor ignoring his question as it held another pelt aloft.

"That's a snow rabbit."

"I like em, taste real good, but the nasty ones ate em so we killed em all, and this what's this?"
she asked.

"That's a racoon," he said.

"Tessa likes em, I don't they taste funny, and this what's this."

"That's a squirrel."

"They taste real good," said the first raptor, "Hard to catch though, oh oh oh show him the stinky thing."

"What's this?" asked the little raptor as it pinched a fur with its two claws and held it out as far from her nose as she could.

"That would be a skunk. Now who left you all these books and toys?" he asked.

"I like rabbit and squirrel, and these are real tasty too!" she said as she held an antler aloft.

"That's a deer. Blacktail."

"Tasty and lots of meat!" said the first one.

"Oh what's your name?" he asked.

"Oh I'm Anna, that's Tara, and that other one," she motioned to the little raptor that was eyeing him at the back of the cave, "That Tessa."

"And where are your other sisters?" he asked as he looked around the cave, there were three beds made of neatly stacked animal hides, in the center of the room was the pile of books and toys. The linkin logs were scattered around the room.

"They didn't hatch." Said Anna and looked at Tara.

Something passed between them, but he had no notion what it was. In a blink the one call Tessa zipped up to him and blurted out.

"Why do you keep us in a trap?"

"You don't live in a trap." He said.

The little raptor was furious, she zipped over to the books grabbed one and zipped back, she opened it before him and deftly flipped a page. There was a picture of a simple fall trap, it was a small cage made of sticks that was tipped up on a single stick and had a picture of a rabbit sniffing in front of the trap. Below the picture in the book were the words 'Rabbit Trap'

"Why do you keep us in a trap!" asked the little raptor again.

"What do you mean a trap?"
The raptor sighed and pointed one claw deftly to the north.

"Two days that way the world ends in a wall I can't see, one day that way," she said and pointed south, "It's the same, three days that way or that way," she said as she pointed east and then west, "It's the same thing! Why do we live in a trap!"

"You don't live in a trap, this is a habitat."

"Whats a rabbidbat?" Asked Anna.

Before he could speak, Tessa flipped open another book and held it open to him. It was a picture of a chimpanzee in a cage at the zoo. Below the picture were the words monkey in a cage.

"Cage then! Why do we live in a cage!?"

"End sequence!" Yelled the man.

It was all too much. First there was the mystery of the books and toys, he hadn't put them there, and no one else could access the sequence studio. Then there was the fact that those things were way too damn smart, dangerous smart. He was still trying to decide what to do with the sequence when a voice sounded over the speakers. It wasn't the voice of the sequence.

"Commander your presence is required."

He made his way out of the studio, a pair of panels opened at his approach and closed behind him. He turned left down the black painted hallway and walked 20 yards to the doors to the bridge. They were slate grey and had two windows on either side at knee height, surrounded by red bands. The doors opened at his approach. He walked onto the bridge and turned left. The entire left-hand wall of the room was a giant view screen, and the void outside tinkled with twinkling specks of starlight. He found the view a vast relief.

"We have arrived Commander."

"Where are we?" he asked.

A star map appeared before him, and on the outer edge of a whole slew of systems was a blinking red dot.

"We have arrived on the edge of Koprulu Sector Commander."

"Adjutant perform a passive scan at maximum range."

"WILCO Commander."

The Commander waited for a moment, and contemplated the mystery of the toys and the books. Who had put them there, and why? These raptors had taught themselves English, and who knew what else, and the question the one named Tessa asked, he had no answer for. A fish never asked why, when it found the boundary of its pond, it just swam around, but a fish didn't speak, much less reason, or did they? Until that day he had thought of Velociraptors as just another toothy meat eating dinosaur.

"Scans are negative Commander, but we have picked up signals from a nearby planet."

"What kind of signals?" he asked.

"An open channel radio transmission Commander."

"Can we listen in?"

"We can Commander."

"Open channel." He said.

There was a bit of static on the speakers, then a voice said,

"Damn it Jim! You left that extension sticking out."

"I did not!" said another male voice.

Then a third voice said, "Is that thing on?"

Suddenly a female voice cut in, "Will you jackass quit hogging the channel? People are trying to work out here!"

"Cut transmission, can you trace the origin of those transmissions?" he asked.

"Yes Commander," said the Adjutant.

Suddenly the orientation of the map changed and zoomed in on the outermost system in the sector. A small red dot was pinging there.

"Adjutant cloak the ship and jump us there, set our arrival point far away from that origin point."

"Warping now Commander." Said the Bot.

The ship was enclosed in a flash of light, and in another flash seconds later they arrived. The Commander took his hands and pulled them apart zooming in the screen until the objects he was looking at came into focus.

"Monitor their chatter, try to figure out where they are coming from." He said.

On the screen before him was a large ship surrounded by a number of smaller vessels. His HUD identified the ship as a Terran Battlecruiser. The ship looked like a hammer head shark with engines on the back instead of a tail. It was venting smoke into the void of space from several places along the hull. And the smaller ships were zooming around it like a nest of hornets.

"Adjutant perform a deep penetrating scan of that cruiser and one of the smaller ships."
In a few seconds the data was before him in translucent white outlines. The battlecruiser was damaged in three different places, but scans showed no signs of life. The smaller ships were crudely slapped together monstrosities his HUD classified on as Skiff class ships, the battlecruiser was classified as a sub frigate.

He briefly referenced the Confederate Database, and the only thing he could bring up was a scan of a similar ship that had the title of Scavver. The smaller ships seemed to be squabbling over the spoils of the large vessel, and some weapons fire had happened. But there were no ships detonating, only a group of them peeled off and left the area at sublite.

He studied the scan of the ship, this particular model had a bow that looked like a hook curved toucans beak and was cobbled together around a single engine. The scan showed almost twenty lifeforms aboard, and all of them read as human, but the alarming thing was the radiation read out. He studied the diagram and discovered that the ship was powered by a leaky SCV power source. He studied the scan of three other ships that happened to be in range and they all showed to have the same power source. He took a moment to ponder the suicidal notion of piloting a ship that was powered by a leaky reactor.

The scan showed one of the people, and their DNA did not entirely match the Data on Terrans. They were shorter and lighter than the standard Terran model of standard height and weight. They also had more mutagenic tendencies in their DNA, that and their skulls were smaller. He hypothesized on what those differences could mean, perhaps a less healthy diet, and living in perpetual fallout caused the change.

Whatever the reason there was a marked difference between these Scavvers and the Terrans that ruled this sector. He watched as the winning faction settled down upon the carcass of the cruiser and began scavenging the wreck. It only took them five hours to demolish the wreck, as almost a thousand of the small vessels showed up, but there was no fighting among them, they all settled down like flies on a whale carcass and started ripping the massive ship to shreds. He stood there and watched the whole thing with rapt attention.

The scouts had reported nothing of these peoples. What were they doing living out here on the edge of the sector far from the nearest inhabited world? He waited until there was nothing left of the wreck, and the last of the Scavvers disappeared into the distance before he broke the silence.

"Adjutant what did you learn from the radio chatter?" he asked.

"Nothing much Commander just squabbling between different family groups, a few territorial fights, and a lot of bartering and swapping this for that and that for this. They all seemed preoccupied with selling their spoils to some pirates in the system. Would you like to go there Commander?" Asked the bot.

"No bring up a map of the Sector." He said.

Before him on the screen was a translucent graph of the Koprulu sector. The system in which he orbited was unnamed and untitled, the Star was a Class B white Dwarf, around which orbited three small planets and one gas giant playing comet catcher on the outer rim of the solar system. Of the three planets the innermost one was a lava rock, while the next two were rocky and barren. The third planet lay directly in the habitable zone, but it showed no signs of life at first glance. It lacked an atmosphere and had no water whatsoever. On the outside of the solar system was a ring of asteroids, many of which showed positive for water, locked in ice.

The third planet was a definite terraforming candidate, and he wondered by the Terrans had no presence upon it, maybe it was just too far from their core worlds. The twelve inhabited worlds lay near the center of the Sector, with a few outposts scattered here and there.

According to his briefing he had been sent there in pre-contact times. The Confederacy was warring to bring other worlds into the fold, and many Terrans were fighting back. What little interest he held in the Civil wars was fleeting. It was the Xenos that held his attention.

He opened up a dossier on the second aliens. On the screen was a representation of the smallest of the species. The creature was insectoid, it had four strong legs, with another set of appendages protruding out of its back, that ended in two long spikes. It had a face only a mother could love, two slit eyes, and a wide mouth full of teeth. Beside the picture was a video file labelled 'First Contact.'

He opened the file, and a video began streaming on the screen in a small window. The POV was low to the ground, about what a dog might see. He watched as the camera zoomed through some tall grass down a trail and fled a small distance before it stopped. The creature lifted its head and in its line of sight was a Terran. The man was dressed in blocky rusted training armor and had an old C1 gauss rifle slung over his back. He watched as the creature went from first to third perspective as it stalked the Terran down the trail. The man appeared to be smoking a cigarette and was standing stock still facing the other direction. The creature sneaked up right behind the Terran, then it reached out with its top claw and quickly raked the butt of the man's armor, leaving a visible scratch. The man jumped, and before he could turn around the small purple insectoid leaped into the tall grass and disappeared. The video ended back in the first person view of the man looking around himself with a dumbfounded look on his face.

The Commander noticed that the Terrans helmet had no visor, it was a blocky open thing covered in rust. So there must be atmosphere on that planet. If there was Atmo, there would be oxygen and liquid water, among the many other staples of life.

Just how the Archanum had obtained this footage was a mystery. The only way he could figure it was they had attached a camera to the beast's back, but then that didn't explain how the POV shifted to the third person view and back again. The workings of the intelligence agency were beyond his powers of understanding.

He looked at the workup of the Xeno, the briefing held little data and no name for the alien, and no specimens were documented on record. The scouts had only listed the one sighting, and how the video was attained was secondary to his objectives. He pulled up the data on the second Xenos. A tall blue alien with skin that looked like an old fashioned dinosaurs, filled up the screen. The figure was tall, lanky and skinny, with not an ounce of visible fat on it. Its face had eyes, but no mouth or nose to speak of. The techs had hypothesized that the species was highly advanced with psionics, and had telepathic powers of communication. One thing was for sure, their technology was very advanced they read on his dossier as a class 1 Civilization.

While the blue aliens might prove more problematic in the endgame, it was the insectoid Xenos that held his rapt attention. He couldn't wait to study the species in more detail, and that in large part was the reason for his mission, though it wasn't the only objective he had at hand.

He studied, the picture in detail for some time, and wished it carried more information. There was no data on dissection, or species details. The Xeno was a mystery, but the scouts had hypothesized the species might be a hive mind, and that was fascinating in and of itself. Apart from the study of insects, no Hive mind species had ever been listed in the database. The chance to study the species was the highlight of his day, but first he had to prepare.

"Adjutant bring up the crew database." He said.

The screen before him was filled with names, ranks, ages, and personal information on the 300 souls aboard. They were all scientists and engineers, and he had space aboard for 200 more crew. The people aboard were all in cryo, and he saw no point in waking them up just yet. Part of him relished being the lighthouse keeper. But it had been over three years since he had had any human contact, and a bigger part of him yearned for some social interaction.

He wouldn't wake the crew till they had some samples worth taking, and that required he filled the last of his crew quarters, with Marines. Terran Space Marines to be precise. The Albatross was no warship, it was in fact a science ship, made to look like a tier 3 Terran science ship. The best the local Terrans had was a tier 1.

His ship had over 500 decks, and was much lager than the 23 deck Terran model, but both were spherical in design. Most levels of the Albatross were filled with science and engineering labs, but over a hundred were blank, and more than a few were set up for the livestock that lay in cryostasis aboard. The only living things aboard that weren't frozen in time were the fish and shellfish in their biofloc tanks. The ship was stocked with a vast variety of foodstuffs, that would keep the crew well fed for years to come.

Apart from all the science weenies, his crew boasted a complement of five cooks and one master chef. His crew would man the many labs and live in barracks for the duration of their mission. The common room even boasted a 500 gallon fishtank, that housed 20 breeding pairs of black lace, long vail angle fish. He sometimes would get stoned and spend hours watching the fish swim in their planted biosphere. He had no need to feed them, the tank was a complete ecosystem enclosed in an old-fashioned rectangular fish tank, one third of which was a separate parcel hanging from the sides at the top, and contained wet mud that gave home to insects, and small aquatic frogs.

The Commander waved his hand and the view of the Xenos disappeared. The void outside the ship was lit up with countless stars all around, and nearby was the flashing white light of a pulsar. He watched the dying star for a time and then said.

"Adjutant, bring up a map of the Confederate worlds."

Before him on the screen appeared a hologram of the 12 original Terran worlds and a number of their smaller outposts and colonies. On the map was a list of backwater worlds colonized by the Terrans, and listed among them was one that ranked as an independent outpost. The worlds Name was Altara, and its single settlement was called Oasis.

"Adjutant,' He said and then stretched and yawned, "Take us to Altara, and remain cloaked as we enter high orbit."

"Jumping now Commander." Said the bot.

His ship was enveloped in a flash of white light and disappeared from the space in which it had occupied, only to reappear in a flash seconds later at the designated coordinates.

He looked down at the planet. It was a barren and nearly lifeless rock. Its atmospheric pressure read as nominal, but it lacked an actual atmosphere as well as oxygen. The only life forms on the scans were a species of extremophile living in pools of sulfuric acid on the surface.

"Adjutant how many class three probes do we have?"

"A full complement Commander." Replied the bot.

The probes were the only ones in his arsenal that could cloak for any extended period of time. He could have launched one, but changed his mind.

"Adjutant bring us into low orbit and stabilize over that town, and open up the wideband and monitor their traffic." He said.

The small berg was lit up in the night sky as the sun of the system was on the other side of the planet, and the scans read only about 50 Terrans in the whole settlement. What they were doing on this rock was beyond him, he wondered if it was a mining settlement, but the scans showed no major resources anywhere near the town. The town itself was a series of grey square building set in a circular pattern around a very old and rusted Command Center. The round, domed building sat directly in the center of the town, and under magnification, he could see people moving about the settlement.

He zoomed down and saw the Terrans were wearing primitive space suits that didn't look very dissimilar to what the space marine had been wearing in the First Contact Video. Their suits differed only in the fact that they were more circular at the joints, and less blocky looking, but they all seemed in a similar state of disrepair.

He watched as a small freighter broke atmosphere. It burned through the outer stratosphere going entirely too fast, creating a fireball around it as it descended. The ship was a simple rectangle with three round sublite engines on its back, and a raised dias for the bridge near the bow of the ship. Finally the fireball quit, and the ship dropped at a shallow angle toward the ground in a belly flop fashion for a time, before it engaged its engines and began to fly toward the city. It was an altogether primitive way of entering a planet. Going slow was much more economical, and drew less attention.

The commander watched as the freighter landed at the small space port on the edge of the town. He saw the passengers disembark, and watched as metal crates of cargo were offloaded by hand. As people streamed out of the building in masse.

"Commander." Said the Adjutant.

"Yes", he replied.

"By monitoring their radio traffic I have discovered there has been an outbreak in the settlement of some unknown sickness. The ship that just landed is carrying doctors and medicine from a planet called Tarsonis. It appears that the settlers have given up their autonomy as part of an agreement to receive this aid and have been folded into the ranks of Confederate planets. By Hacking into their mainframe I have discovered that the settlement will have to provide one conscript every five years, and a certain tonnage of crops to the Confederacy as a part of the terms of their agreement. Their radio chatter indicates the locals are very unhappy with this arrangement and are blaming a man named Jacob Raynor for the troubles. It would appear he is the local magistrate."

"Thank you Adjutant. Continue monitoring their progress. I want to know more about this disease. Try to find out what the doctor's diagnosis is."

"WILCO Commander," said the bot.

The Commander filled his time with data from the settlement for a bit, and then switched back to the dossier on the Xenos. Could the blue aliens be responsible for the disease outbreak? It wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility for an advanced civilization, but just how advanced they were remained to be seen. He looked into the glowing blue eyes of the specimen and wondered just how much menace there might be behind those eyes. Of course, disease outbreaks did happen from time to time among any population, but his mind would not let loose of the possibility.

"Commander, it appears the Terran settlers have been infected with an intestinal parasite found in their food supply. The contaminated meat was brought in on the last freighter over a month ago. The doctors are treating the disease, and the treatment seems to be effective."

The thought of bringing aboard a Terran specimen for study intrigued him, but he decided against it. The risk of contamination was too high. He needed a healthy specimen for vivisection. He decided to wait for a better opportunity.

He studied the freighter in some detail. It appeared to be a very old model, and showed many signs of wear and tear. But on its back was a red rectangle with a blue X in its middle. The database showed this to the insignia of the Confederacy of Man. The Confederate spaceship held only mild fascination to him. The entire Terran society was only classified as a tier 3 civilization.

He studied the Command Center at the center of the Town, it was a class one Command Center, and its presence told him that at some point in time, this planet was a Space Marine base. The buildings that had sprung up around with were all civilian structures. The entire town seemed to have its economy based entirely around the harvesting of Vespene Gas. On the edge of the town were a few wells pumping away. He watched as many round containers of the green gas were being loaded onto the freighter by blue SCVs that had come out of the hold of the freighter.

"Adjutant take us up into high orbit."

His fleeting interest in the settlement had waned, and the fate of the Terrans was not his concern. He watched as the planet shrunk down to a small brown sphere the size of a beach ball. He then contemplated what was to be done. Remaining cloaked cost him resource units, and his supply was limited, and waning. He needed to find a source of crystal soon.

"Adjutant perform a passive scan at maximum range, try to pick up signs of resource." He said.

"WILCO Commander," replied the bot.

He waited for a moment for the bot to reply before he became impatient.

"Anything?" he barked.

"Nothing on scope Commander, and ours scans have reached half the sector."

"Warp a class 1 probe to scan the other half," he said.

20 minutes later there was still no response, and he was sick of looking at the limited data on the Xenos.

"Any sign of resource?" he demanded.

"Negative Commander, it appears the Korprulu Sector has been mined clean of all signs of Resource."

"How could that be?" he wondered.

"Have you picked up any sign of the Xenos in this system?" he asked.

"There is a faint Warp trail leaving this system Commander."

"Can we find its point of origin?" he asked.

"No Commander it is far too old, the trail only indicates the presence of a warp drive in the distant past, calculations estimate it to be over 70 years old."

"Does it point in any specific direction?"

"Yes Commander it points to the eastern quadrant of the Sector."

He was about to speak when the Adjutant cut him off.

"Commander I am picking up an alien transmission on scatter beam, it is transmitting all over the Sector."

"What's it saying?" he asked.

"It is in an alien dialect commander, translating now. The transmission appears to be a countdown. It is 30 seconds from termination."

"Open the Map of the Sector." He said

Before him on the screen a map of the stars and systems in this sector of space appeared.

"Commander every transmission is being beamed to varying points in space all coinciding with uninhabited worlds in the Koprulu Sector, every world without a Terran presence is being targeted. The script reads a single message, 'Repaint in 25 seconds, 24, 23, 22, ect.'"

"Jump us to the nearest uninhabited world now Adjutant."

"Wilco Commander."

The Albatross vanished only to reappear above a barren rocky planet, orbiting a red dwarf. The ship remained cloaked but the clock was ticking and sooner or later the units would run out, and he'd be dead in the water.

The commander watched as the alien countdown reached zero and waited. A split second later a ship warped into space right in front of his viewscreen. It was massive, roughly on the same scale as the Battlecruiser he had seen, but unlike the cruiser, this ship was alien in design. Its hull was golden and shaped almost like an almond, but it had two semi circular arms to either side of it. The Albatross had to go into automatic evasive maneuvers just to avoid hitting the damn thing.

No sooner had the ship warped in, in waves of undulating blue and white light, than he picked up an alien transmission on the wideband.

"Put that through to the speakers." He said.

In a deep booming alien voice the speakers said:

"Carrier has arrived!"

"Adjutant perform a deep penetrating scan of that ship." He barked, "I want that thing," he added in awe.

"Leave it to you to want some shiny new ship the second you see it," Said a voice from behind him.

He turned and standing there on the bridge was his sergeant at arms wearing a bulbous suit of Terran Space Marine armor.

"Who woke you up?" He asked.

The man smiled showing off bucked teeth that pinched a stubb of cigar between them. The sergeant was an ugly man, pug ugly some would call him. In truth his face looked like a cross between a blood hound and a bulldog in human form.

"Timer must have went off, and that is one beaut of a ship!"

The man walked over and slapped him in the back as he stood beside him.

"Good to see ya Pugs," said the Commander and smiled.

Pugs didn't smile back, but he nodded his head in reply.

"You got a light?" Asked Pugs

"Yeah," he replied and fished in his pocket for his zippo.

He brought it out, flipped the cap open and struck a flame to Pug's cigar. Then he flipped the lighter closed and it disappeared into his pocket in a flash.

"So what have I missed?" Asked Pugs.

"Only an alien ship," said the Commander as he watched the golden vessel descend to the planet.

"Now what in the Hell do ya figure they're doing?" asked Pugs

"No idea, lets watch."

Both men watched the screen as the ship shrunk in size as it approached the planet. The man zoomed in the screen, as the alien vessel slowly entered the atmosphere, the proper way. He watched as the ship flew down to an elevation of ten thousand feet, and then a blue flat beam of light flashed out from the golden vessel, and began sweeping the ground up and down, like a scanner might. Everywhere the light went blue nodes of resource crystal appeared out of nowhere, in the talel tell semicircles.

"All be damned." Said Pugs, "So that were it comes from, they're painting resource like Jackson Pollock with a can of paint."

The two men watched the Carrier as it went around the planet, and everywhere it went, it did indeed paint resources. They watched the alien vessel work for over an hour as it made its way around the planet, and he noticed everywhere it painted resource was in a defensible location. When it was done it simply warped away.

"Adjutant how many units do we have left?" he asked.

"9,853 Commander, roughly 23 days of operation left at current consumption rates." Said the bot.

The Commander turned to look at the Adjutant standing in its cubby. The bot was more machine interfaced with the ship, and a robot. His model was old and rusting, the white paint on the female face had peeled and faded, and now the entire female torso was rusted in spots. The bot was only a torso arms and a head sticking out of its cubby hole in the wall, and its large black almond shaped eyes tracked him.

"Seems like we ought to settle in and harvest while the getting is good." Said Pugs.

"I agree, Adjutant prepare my Command Center for launch, and just how many SCVs are aboard?"

"The standard 7 class 2 SCVs Commander, they specialize in kidnapping, but they have excellent harvesting capabilities, over 70% more efficient than the Terran models."

"Does the Command Center require my direct supervision while harvesting?" he asked.

"No Commander, command and control can be automated, and the pilots know how to go about their business quite well."

"Excellent, launch the Command Center and have it harvest as much resource as possible. Perform passive scans every 3 minutes while we are harvesting and notify me of any approaching ships using warp space."

"WILCO Commander."

He had never set foot aboard his Command Center before and had no intention of doing so in the near future. He watched as the round domed building with a single satellite dish on its top descended to the planet and landed on one of the richest resource node location. He watched the tiny SCVs come out of the Command Center and begin harvesting the crystals for a time, before he became bored of it. Pugs had long since wandered off into the ship.

The Commander spent the next three days, getting ready to wake up the crew. He had brought all the livestock out of stasis and had set them grazing in the artificial fields, that made up over 30 of his ships decks. He had three varieties of beef cattle, Angus, Herefords, and Welchers, and Jerseys for milk. He had flocks of sheep and goats, and one entire deck dedicated to pigs.

The animals grazed on tall green grass growing under the artificial light of the grow bulbs in the ceiling. The pastures had done well in his absence, but the fields still lay plowed and fallow. He saw no point in having the automated system plant crops with the crew still in stasis.

After three days of constant mining he had warped over 300,000 units aboard into the hold, and at the end of three days the Command Center docked, and he was ready to make way. He and Pugs were standing on the bridge studying a map of the Koprulu Sector.

"So that's it huh, Char. Shitty name for a planet."

"These Terrans don't have much imagination for naming things, but then again I'm not entirely sure the name comes from them."

"Where else would it have come from?" asked Pugs as he smoked his cigar.

"Don't know." He replied as he zoomed in the picture of the lava planet.

"So this is the homeworld of the type 2 Xenos huh," said Pugs, "And what is that thing?"

The men were looking down at what appeared to be a giant brain with clawed arms branching around it in all directions.

"That must be the Hivemind." Said the Commander.

"It is called the Overmind," said an alien voice that sounded just like the one that came from the golden ship.

Both men whipped around to see one of the Type one Xenos standing behind them. Only this one had darker skin, and was dressed in rags, and had a worn red rag over its face.

"Peace to you Terrans I am Zeratul." Said the alien as it offered out its clawed hands palm up, its hands had four fingers including the thumb.

"How the Hell did you get aboard my ship!" barked the Commander.

In answer the alien disappeared in a cloud of purplish smoke, only to reappear in a cloud to their left.

"I can go to many places," said the alien and as it spoke its green eyes flashed with every word.

"Huh, said pugs as he motioned with his shoulder, "So you call that thing the Overmind?"

"The Infant Overmind to be precise, it is old, but yet still young. It controls the Zerg swarm."

"Zerg huh." Said Pugs.

"What can you tell us about these Zerg?" asked the Commander.

"They appeared here, upon Char millenia ago, and here they have remained. Always the Infant Overmind searches for a way off its world, and until recently, it has found none. Only a few moons ago, did a random rift appear here on Char, it leads to a Terran world called Angus."

"Angus! There's no world called Angus on the charts." Said the Commander.

"It is just there," said the alien as he pointed with a single clawed finger at the map of the Sector.

Both men turned to look where he pointed.

"And now farewell good Terrans." Said the alien.

They both turned back but the alien was gone.

"Well that was weird as shit," blurted Pugs, "Talk about a serious security concern. I wonder if all those Xenos can just appear on board whenever they feel the urge."

"I hope not." Replied the Commander.

Pugs walked over to the back of the bridge where there was a self-service bar, and poured himself a stiff drink almost five fingers deep, in a tall beer glass.

"Pour me one too, I could use it," he said.

"Ya know Jack," said Pugs as he took down another glass, "That alien looked nothing like the rest of those Xenos. Same species mayhap, but very different."

Pugs handed over the tall glass of whiskey, jack took it without flourish, and downed it in one draught. The fiery liquid poured down his throat and lit up his insides with warmth.

"Let's not inform the crew of our little security breach."

"Ever!" agreed Pugs, and clinked his glass to his.

"So," said Pugs as he looked back at the screen and looked down at the planet they were orbiting, and the humongous creature on its surface that was clearly visible from orbit, "Infant Overmind he calls it. He said the Zerg appeared millennia ago, but this overmind he calls infant. I guess the Zerg haven't always been a hivemind then."

"Maybe so." agreed the Commander.

"So just how do you plan to procure our specimens?" asked pugs.

"We'll just warp em into the RCCs."

"How many do ya think?"

"I'm thinking 20 for a start, should keep the science weenies happy for a while. I figure we warp em aboard and make for voidspace before we wake up the crew."

"Sounds good so uh, which ones?" Asked Pugs

He had been looking through magnification as the commander had his back turned. He turned back and there on the screen must be a thousand of the little buggers. They were running around pell mel this way and that.

"Any 20 will do I suppose." Said the commander

"Adjutant warp aboard 20 of those creatures into the first RCC. Once that is done jump us into the nearest voidspace."

WILCO Commander."

He watched as 20 of the critters disappeared in flashes of light, and then the planet char vanished from his view, and was replaced by a starfield far in the distance.

"Time to make the doughnuts," said Pugs.

"Yup."

"How many will you wake up?" Pugs muttered.

"Only the botany crew, we can run skeleton for a while."

"I'm not looking forward to being flooded in science weenies." Growled Pugs.

Before he could respond a voice boomed over the loudspeaker.

"Commander a Data packet timer has expired, your presence is required in your quarters."

"On my way Commander," he said.

"HQ for you!" Said Pugs in a horrid Asian accent.

Jack walked to the right side of the bridge around the two stands of armor, and through a tall single panel door, that opened at his approach. At his personal desk was a pane of clear glass that was bordered by grey metal cut out at 45-degree angles on the corners, and assembled to show the joints at the 90ith degree of the corners. On the screen were blue words that flashed, "Data Packet."

He sat down at his desk and touched the screen. The blank screen was immediately filled by a face. The man had stark blue eyes, blonde cropped hair and a face that looked like it was chiseled from wood.

"Good evening, Commander Spencer, my name is David Arkon, and I'll be your handler for this mission. Your briefing is to remain confidential, and dissemination of the material contained here in will result in expulsion from the Order.

"You have been sent to this sector in the Year 2350 relative time to Earth 2-487. Your mission objective is as follows. You are looking for a ship called the Exon. Little known to the local Terrans there was a Fifth ship in their convoy that lead them to the Koprulu Sector. Housed in this ship was the AI ATLAS. This AI is your primary mission objective, you are to capture ATLAS and under no circumstances are you to interact with this AI. You are to capture ATLAS and RTB with it in tow ASAP. The ATLAS was lost in space somewhere between Earth 2-487 and this Koprulu Sector. Your secondary objectives are as follows: Capture specimens from both the 1st and 2nd Xeno species. You are to capture as much Technology as you can acquire from the Blue Xenos and also take some specimens from these Terrans for further study.

"I've been directed to order you to try and not interfere with local politics, and stay out of the conflict that will soon consume this sector. All directives are given over to your personal discretion as to means of acquisition, but you are to maintain a zero-footprint scenario. This sector should remain as it was when you leave, the same as before you arrived.

"While the ATLAS is your primary objective, the only clue the scouts could ascertain from the surrounding systems, was that the Confederates on Tarsonis were somehow accessing the ATLAS, and it has greatly influenced their technological advance. Do not remove or tamper with their access to the program but proceed immediately to this world. Recover the ATLAS, but the costs are dire, remember we leave no trace. Zero Footprint, good day." And with that the transmission ended.

"Well that's that then." Jack said as he reclined in his desk chair.

When he returned to the bridge he poured himself another stiff drink, this time a bourbon. He looked about the room, but Pugs was gone. Off somewhere no doubt to find some trouble, or just to look at the newly acquired specimens, more like. He walked over and reclined in the lounger sofa tucked into the wall next to the two Adjutants.

"Commander," he said.

A circular panel in the ceiling opened and out popped the pale skinned third deck Adjutant.

"Yes Commander," said the bot.

"I need something to help me focus."

"Inhale this Commander," said the bot as it offered a gas mask.

He took the mask, held it to his face for a few minutes inhaling and exhaling, and then the bot pulled the mask back.

"Thank you Commader."

"Commander offline." Said the bot.

"Adjutant." He said.

"Adjutant online," came the reply.

"Adjutant call Pugs back to the bridge, and prepare us for jump."

"Where to Commander?"

"A rock called Tarsonis."

"So where we headed?" blurted Pugs as he shoved his way back onto the bridge.

"A rock called Tarsonis." He repeated.

The rock called Tarsonis was a continental planet, and was mostly landmass, and a little ocean. What ever biosphere it once sustained had expired with the arrival of the Terrans, or shortly there after. The planet was the hub of the fledgling Confederacy, and it boasted a single city, named imaginatively Tarsonis City. It was a small hub by most standards, and was built out of the wreck of the colony ship that carried its denizens there.

"Adjutant perform a passive scan of that city and look for an AI dormant or active."

"Scanning now Commander," came the reply.

"So what're we looking for?" Asked Pugs as he lit another cigar.

"An AI…" Jack said and looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

Pugs just looked back at him wearing his usual look of pissed off. Before he broke the silence.

"What do you think Dr. Janice is going to say about that?" Asked Pugs

"How long do you think them purple critters will stay in the RCC?" Replied Jack.

In answer Jack pulled up the camera in the Retracting Containment Cells, and selected the right camera. The Xenos were all standing stock still facing random directions. In fact they were so still they looked like little purple skinned statues, but as he zoomed in he noticed their eyes flicking back and forth scanning the blank contents of the room.

"Ugly critters," said Pugs as he stood beside him.

"Yup, and lets not inform the good Doctor of our mission objective. The less she knows the better." Jack said.

"Looks like they'll hold for a long time, but let's get this done."

"Great send in the science weenies." Said Pugs.

Jack stood on the observation deck watching the botany team do their work. One of the Zerglings lay sideways on the operating table, as the scientists used the tools of their trade to vivisect the creature. The men stood on the other side of the glass, using their controls to manipulate their tools on the other side of the wall with practiced skill. He watched the whole process for hours as the critter was taken apart piece by piece and put into specimen jars for further study. Finally when there was nothing left on the table but a puddle of blue viscera, Dr. Janice made her way over to him.

Her auburn hair was pinned up in a ponytail bun that fell down to her mid back, and her dark doe eyes were fixed upon him like a puma stalking a deer as she came forward. Till she finally stood before him, her striking eyes fixed upon his.

"Fascinating creatures," she said and smiled, "Their digestive system is so robust it can handle almost anything, including metals. Apart from that they have the usual assortment of soft tissue organs, heart, lungs, liver, limbic system. One interesting note is the brain, absolutely tiny for the skull size. It will make for good further study. One side note you might find interesting is their chitin armor is so hard it can deflect bullets, and it's made from some unknown material, but its weak at the joints. Furthermore, the heart and the penal glands are extremely outsized for the body size of the creature. I posit the creatures can handle enormous loads of adrenaline in their system for extended periods of time. Fascinating is that there are a number of unknown soft tissue organs as well as other parts we can't identify. These little creatures will keep the labs busy for months to come." She said.

"Excellent," said Jack and shuffled his feet as she stared hard into his green eyes.

"Is there anything you would like to add to our study?" she purred.

"No nope, nothing I can think of."

"Well I guess I'll get back to it." She grumbled and walked off.

Jack let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in and then remembered what he had wanted to say.

"Dr. Janice," he said a bit too loud.

She and every one of the scientists turned to look at him. While they had been talking around another of the Zerglings had been euthanized and put on the operating table. The scientists that had been busy with their tools had all stopped their work to stare at him, and they all were looking at him like he was nothing more than a petty annoyance.

"Yes," she replied turning as she strode on backwards, her hair bouncing in its bun.

"I want a couple of them for sequencing." He said loud enough to be heard.

"Consider it done, I'll leave ya three," she said as she turned back and walked off.

Jack watched her go until she disappeared into the operation room. He sat down in one of the folding chairs on the three-tiered room and pushed a button on the arm of his chair. The observation deck detached from the RCC and flew back through the Void to the ship. He found Pugs looking out through the glass wall of the RCC deck as he left the Observation deck of RCC 1. There were seven RCC's stacked in their bays to his left. Eight was a bit much, but when jack was setting up the Albatross he decided to have one RCC for each science lab aboard one for each of the engineering decks.

"So just when are you two going to get it on?" Asked Pugs with a wicked grin.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jack replied.

"Course ya don't. So how long before we see some action?" he asked.

"You plan on taking out a company of science weenies, and kickin butt?" asked Jack.

"Nah, so I gotta ask though, how are we going to get into the fight when the time comes?"

"I plan on recruiting Terran Space Marines."

"Terrans?" Spat Pugs.

"We've got room for 200 more crew members, and I've set up barracks they will be familiar with, I don't think it will make a problem. We all look like them, why would they suspect anything?"

"Could be a problem if they found out." Stated Pugs

"They won't, besides most of these Marines stay in stasis until they are used."

"Used like robots if the scout's reports are true." Spat Pugs.

"Most of em are prisoners that's true, and they are all slaved to their armor, and that's something I won't stand for."

"Me neither." Said Pugs, "So what's the plan, we headed for this Tarsonis rock?"

"No, I plan on recruiting some Marines and spending some considerable time training them, by that I mean you will train em, Master Sergeant."

"So what we just gonna wait for the science weenies to get done cutting up these Xenos and then what?"
"Mar Tara."

"Mar Tara? I've heard stories." Said Pugs.

"The Bermuda Triangle of this Sector." Stated Jack.

"So what's there that interests us?" asked Pugs.

"Space Marines." Said Jack.

The Scientists took three days to dissect and catalogue all the specimens. Leaving him three of the critters huddled in a corner of RCC one. It was now snug in its bay, but during the lab work the retractable bay was far out in the void from the ship, some 100,000 yards.

Jack sat in his lounger on the bridge of the Albatros sipping at a neat whiskey. This one was called Parables Turn, and it was a dark brown, bordering on black colored liquid that sloshed in his glass as he brought it up to his lips. It had a smoky aroma, and had an unusually bitter taste, but it poured fire down his throat and into his belly. It was good to drink again, and he was looking forward to standing on solid Terra.

Mar Tara was taking up a significant portion of his viewscreen as the Albatross lay in at low orbit over the small planetoid. The world was mostly fresh water ocean, and boasted a single continent of bare brown dirt and rock. The bio forms in the water provided ample oxygen, and atmospheric pressure read nominal, and all levels were in the green and yet the world lay mostly unpopulated. Mostly that was except for the Space Marines in Death Valley.

The situation was just as the scouts had reported some 20 years previously. There were four different Command Centers in four different calderas that all led down into the valley from the mountains. Each Command Center had a Barracks attached to it, and out from the Barracks came four lines of Space Marines into the valley below, and there they were all killing each other. Each of the sects of Space Marines wore different colors and insignias that looked almost like mideval coats of arms. One was red, one brown, one black, one green.

He watched as the Space Marines killed each other, each and every one of them carried some sort of primitive tower shield and pointed their rifles at each other like pistols and sprayed bullets down range, at a maximum range of about 200 yards. His computer read outs reported the Marines had about 20% accuracy rate.

Jack was now looking at a mock up of the Space Marines weapon. It was a C1 Gauss rifle, and unlike the standard Marines C20 this thing looked more like a WW2 grease gun. It was a long white tube, from which a rifle barrel protruded the last three inches of the tube, on the bottom of the tube, was a drum magazine, and a simple trigger handle. On top was a simple iron sight.

He turned his attention back to the Space Marines in the valley below. A group of brown Marines was getting the upper hand and a blob of them was taking over the central part of the valley, when it seemed an alliance was struck between the green and black Marines, and both groups attacked the brown Marines and drove them back.

"What the Hell is this?" asked Pugs.

"Ancient Space Marines doin battle." Said Jack.

"Ancient?"

"The insignia on their shields are all personalized, and some of them trace back to the medieval era on Earth, but which one is up for grabs. They certainly don't come from this timeline."

"So what's the scoop, why they all killing each other?"

"No one knows, the scouts interrogated one of em, and the Marine knew next to nothing. He thought he was on Earth, and fighting for the pride of his house."

"Weird,"

"Everything about Mar Tara is weird." Said Jack and pointed.

Just on the edge of the valley was a sea freighter, still stacked high with multicolored shipping containers that looked like it fell onto the mountainside straight out of the 1900's circa Keystone Earth.

"So these Marines they Terrans or not?" asked Pugs.

"Terran enough, outcasts from their timeline, cast away from their Earth. Sounds like a Terran to me." Jack said.

"So what exactly are we doing here?" Asked Pugs

"Recruiting. There are 200 Space Marines in that valley, and we've got space aboard for 200 souls."

"You just think they'll all get along aboard? They'd shoot the ship to pieces. Doesn't look like theirs any love lost between em to me."

"Adjutant." Jack said.

"Adjutant online." Came the reply

"Adjutant launch missiles and target those four Command Centers."

Jack and Pugs watched as four missiles streaked out and zoomed down through the atmosphere, and finally impacted. When the smoke cleared all that was left of the Command Centers was smoking piles of torn and twisted wreckage. The second each of their Command Centers went offline, the Marines stopped firing and moving, they all stood like statues.

"Weird, were they slaved to the CC's?" asked Pugs.

"No idea, Adjutant prepare my Command Center for launch. Pugs we're going down there."

Jack and Pugs stepped off the deck of the Command Center and both their feet touched down on the dirt. Jack could feel the immediate connection, it was like being a dead battery that was finally plugged in.

"Well this is nice," said Pugs as he picked up his feet and set them down, looking down at his boot prints in the dirt.

Jack and Pugs were both dressed in suits of Space Marine armor. The armor was the same standard as the rest of the Marines save for the color scheme. Their armor was painted white with a blue chevron down the chest. The database had classified the color scheme as Neutral.

"Marines ASSEMBLE!" boomed Pugs into his mic.

His Command Center had landed in the center of Death valley. The marines that had been standing stock still, sprung into action and started filing toward Pug and Jack. Until all 200 were standing in perfect rank and file before them.

"Marines there has been a change of leadership. This is your new officer Commander Spencer." Said Pugs as he motioned toward Jack with the butt end of his weapon.

Jack pushed a few buttons on his control panel on his forearm and downloaded a new color scheme. The marines all found themselves wearing armor painted white with a blue chevron down their chest. They looked about themselves at their neighbors, and all enmity seemed to fall away. They seemed to accept the change in leadership in their stride.

They were all loaded aboard their respective barracks, and the Command center and all four barracks were relocated to a valley on the other side of the planet. Jack and Pugs were in the Command Center when it touched down.

"So now we train em." Stated Pugs as he stepped down the ramp.

"No," said Jack as he looked over at the man.

"Now you train em. Adjutant warp me aboard," he said and disappeared in a flash of waving blue light.

"Now ain't that some shit," said Pugs and got busy.

The training ground had a standard army obstacle course downloaded over 750 acres of the land. The Marines were stripped of their armor, and took their first wobbling steps. They were nearly lethargic and wobbled on their feet like newborn colts. Pugs stepped out of his armor, and stood before the assembled Marines.

Pugs was dressed in a white loincloth, and the rest of him rippled in muscle. He benched 350 pounds and ran 20 miles every morning, and it showed in his prime fitness. The Marines gawked at him as they barely managed to stand up outside their power armor. All of them had pot bellies and bodies covered in loose skin and flab.

"All right Bambies now we run!" Barked Pugs.

Jack stood on the bridge of the Albatross watching the proceedings below him as he hung in low orbit. The Space Marines would be subjected to regular army training over the next six months, then the program switched to army ranger training, then navy seal, delta and omega force training for the next three years, the Marines would be forged into a fighting Commando force.

It would take three years for Pugs and the Marines, but Jack had accelerated Time and for him it would take three days. He had little interest in watching the Marines zoom around the obstacle course, and do pushups so he soon found himself back into the sequence studio.

"Sequence," he said as he found his seat, "Load an extra small habitat and load in the three Zerglings from containment."

Before him on the screen was a small domed structure as seen from high orbit, his view zoomed down and through the dome down to the ground where three small purple critters stood stock still without moving.

"Create a save point here," he said as he scratched his chin for a moment, "Then accelerate five years."

Time in the habitat zoomed by, but nothing else did and a few seconds later the three Zerglings lay there dead as doornails their skeletons bleached white in the desert sun. They hadn't moved an inch until they fell dead from starvation, or dehydration.

"Interesting," said Jack as he pointed at the screen, "Reload save point."

The screen blinked and there were the three purple critters, standing in the same spot. Wither they were hungry or thirsty nothing seemed to deter them from standing like statues. He thought about it for a moment, the habitat and the ship both had an active psionic barrier. With no outside force controlling them it seemed the Zerg were inert.

"Let's see if hunger drives them. Sequence load genotype lion." He said.

A selection of lions came upon the screen, and he scrolled through them, in the end he selected the Numidian Desert lions. He chose three females and loaded them into the habitat within a hundred yards of the Zerg. An interesting thing happened then, the Zerglings spotted the lions and zoomed over to them at almost 34 mph, and tore them to pieces and devoured them, bones and all. When the Zerglings were sated, having devoured the three lions completely they simply stood stock still again, for a time. But then they started moving, at first just their heads, and then they started slowly walking swinging their heads back and forth looking for something. They found what they were looking for in the form of a cave. All three walked inside and burrowed into the ground in a blink and disappeared.

"Sequence what are those things doing underground?" he asked.

"Their bio signs indicate that they are hibernating." Said the female voice in the room.

"Create a new save point here and pause." He said.

"Now load habitat 218." He said.

He found himself in the woods. The tall brown barked pine trees all around him had old mans beard hanging from their branches, and all around the forest floor were bright green ferns and piles of moss in profusion. He immediately felt a relief in him, as if a weight had fallen from his soul. He found himself following a little creek down through the hills, that wound down from the high mountains in the east.

He was intent upon the ground looking for sign, but he was finding none, and there was no sound. No birds chirped, no small animals rustled in the underbrush, there was no sound other than the wind moving the branches of the trees, and the occasional crack of a twig hitting the forest floor. He tracked the small creek he had not made all the way to the lake. And once he cleared the forest there was snow almost three feet deep on the ground all around the blue water that lapped at the shores.

Something must have malfunctioned, he checked and the ambient temperature read 49 degrees below Fahrenheit. It was obviously winter in the habitat, but he had programmed the weather to be cold, but not like this. He presumed the raptors had died of hypothermia. He was making his way to their cave when a small voice screeched.

"PAPA!"

He looked up to see a very skinny young raptor come leaping out of the woods at him. It was Anna, and she looked half starved, her ribs were protruding out of her sides, and her hip bones were very visible. Regardless the little raptor zoomed right up to him and came skidding to a halt. It was then he noticed the feathers. The Raptor looked like a chicken with a raptor head popping out of a mass of different colored feathers.

"Papa papa papa!" she screamed, "You're back!"

"Yes I'm back, where did the feathers come from?"

"Oh these," she said and stroked her plumage with her nose, then she bounced up and down making her feathers bounce in a wave.

"We didn't grow em Papa we found em here look." She said as he deftly reached up with her clawed hand and plucked a single feather from behind her scales, then she held it out and showed it to him, and then tucked it back behind her scale.

It was a forest grouse feather, brown and black stripping on it. It was then he noticed that she was plumed out in over 30 species of bird feathers. His little raptors had adapted to the cold by sticking feathers behind their scales.

"Do those feathers keep you warm," he asked

"Yes they do!" She screeched as she hopped up and down rapidly, "The make us so warm and comfy!" she screeched

"But Papa were hungry! There's nothing left to eat except fish, and with the lake so cold we can't get to em."

Jack pulled up the data on his screen, the three little raptors had indeed hunted nearly all the animals in the habitat to near extinction levels. The only thing left were a few snow rabbits huddled in their dens. There had been no data just how much a raptor ate, and he had stocked the habitat with what he thought would be ample fodder for years to come. But be that as it may, he could see her ribs sticking out, even through the thin layer of plumage.

"Where are your sisters?" he asked.

"Back at the cave." Said anna and turned her head to stare at him with one large dark eye. "Tara's sick." She said.

"Take me there," He said.

He attached his POV to the little raptor as she zoomed through the forest until they arrived at the cave. Tara was laying on her pile of furs, and her stomach was swollen, her ribs protruded none the less as she slowly inhaled and exhaled, making a wheezing noise. Tessa had been standing over Tara when they entered, but she soon backed into a the farthest corner of the cave and looked at him with a cold eye.

Jack scanned the little dino, and she came up positive for parasitic lifeforms in her bloodstream and digestive system. No wonder Tara was always hungry. He then scanned the other two, they both had the same parasites. Jack downloaded some medicine, and was busy administering it down Tara's mouth when Anna pipped up behind him.

"Will she be better now?" She asked.

"Yes and so will all three of you," he said as he gave Anna the medicine.

She chocked and spat, but swallowed the white goo, Tessa wanted nothing to do with the medicine or him. When he walked forward toward her, she dashed past him and left the cave. In the end he had to administer the medicine with a dart gun. The little dino pulled the dart out with her teeth, and looked accusingly at him for a time. Ever after that she refused to get near him.

Jack downloaded over 500 blacktail does and 50 bucks into the habitat, and then he left the Raptors to heal as he went to work on a new habitat. The Raptors current home was a small sized habitat, the one he was working on was an extra large. He used the presets and within a half an hour he had a fully functional ecosystem set up, to which he added elk. Bison, and three more species of deer. The new dome was an nearly exact copy of the Raptors habitat, and while all three were languishing under the effects of the medicine, he downloaded them and their cave into the new habitat. It was stocked with enough fauna to keep them well fed for years to come, or so he hoped.

He was about to check back in on them when alert let him know, the three years had elapsed. Jack made his way to the bridge only to find Pugs already there. He walked up and smiled at the man, who did not smile back.

"That was a bitch and a half, but I reckon we got us some real Commandoes now." Said Pugs

"How did the training go?" asked Jack.

"The Marines are all in barracks aboard, eating like the end times are upon us. They wobbled like bamby for their first 3 months, but after a while I wipped em into shape. Even got em to quit spraying bullets downrange shooting from the hip, and actually look down their weapon sights. Range and accuracy have greatly increased. I've organized them into 5 man squads, 25 man platoons, 100 man companies. Our army is now two companies strong with troops that actually know how to fight." Pugs stated.

"So they've all earned their armor?"

"For the most part." Said Pugs.

"Guess that's that then, the training simulators will keep the men busy while they aren't fighting."

"Most that are done stuffing themselves had already made for the training pods. Not sure what 20th century tactics are going to do for us, but at least it will keep their training up. I'm happy to report each of the recruits can bench press his bodyweight, and can run 50 miles a day out of their armor."

"Good."

"So where's the fight?" Asked Pugs.

"No idea, but I'm sure we'll find one. For now we're off to Tarsonis." Said Jack.

Tarsonis was a brown ball of a world, it was mostly land, pockmarked with lakes and small oceans like the waters of Maine used to be. And Tarsonis City was an unassuming berg of a city, on the central latitude of the planet. At this time it boasted a population of just under a half million souls, and the scans had brought up nothing.

What the colonists had been accessing was a program found aboard their SuperCarrier, not the AI ATLAS though it bore the same name. Jack hypothesized the program to be a minor part of the AI's operating system. But his main and only clue turned out to be a dead end. The ATLAS was lost in space, or more likely crashed into some rock nearly a century ago, and exploded.

The Albatross was cloaked in low orbit, and Jack had no positive interest in making landfall. He simply stood on the bridge looking down at the city, and was wondering what to do next. He looked over to his right and there was the calculated trajectory of the ATLAS's ship if it had simply continued onward through the Koprulu Sector and flew on out into the Universe. He had launched class 3 probes all along the vector, but none had found anything, so he doubled the projected range and widened his search area by a factor of five, and still the probes found nothing. He had just decided to backtrack the path the Colonists had taken all the way into UED space if need be, when Pugs came through the doorway to the bridge.

"Bad day?" He asked.

"Well this missions not going to be a washout, the Terrans don't have the AI."

"So what do we know?" Asked Pugs

"The Terrans overshot their destination when their AI malfunctioned, somewhere between Earth and this sector. Its been almost a century since then, where it could be is the question."

"Who cares," Said Pugs as he torched up a new cigar and then closed the hatch on his helmet.

"Why didn't HQ send us back sooner? We could have intercepted the ship as the Terrans made their way here." Asked Jack.

"Hell if'n I know." Said Pugs.

"I'm getting pissed," said Jack as he starred daggers at the view screen. He had tried his darndest but time it this sector would rewind back no further than the point of the entrance into the sector.

"So," said Pugs as he yawned, "Lets go kill some shit."

"Ya know, you've got a fair point." Said Jack. "We've got 157 years to go till we meet the deadline. Let's go kill something."

Jack aimed down the iron sights of his C1 Gauss Rifle and sqweezed off a few rounds. His bullets sped downrange and took a Zergling right in it wide toothy grin, blowing its head off. He was laying prone his head and arms just visible over the edge of the caldera he looked down into. Apart from the single Zergling that lay dead, nothing moved in the small circular valley. It was odd, from everything he had read and seen these past few months, these Zerglings rarely travelled alone, but this one was alone, as far as he could tell.

Jack flipped onto his back and slid down the steep incline of the slope until he was right next to Sergeant Anderson and his four troopers. There he planted his foot and came skidding to a stop, his helmet a few yards away from the sergeants.

"One tango." Whispered Jack.

"Just one!" Hissed the sergeant.

"So far, form up and follow me." Jack said as he stood, and slowly stalked back up the slope.

The five marines followed suit, hunched over their weapons as they looked at the world through their iron sights. Jack quickly and quietly made his way back to the rim of the caldera, and there he went prone, and crawled up to the edge, just to peek his weapon over the edge. The five marines behind him followed suit. They were trained Commandoes now, but when it came to facing the Zerg they were still green around the gills.

"So what are we wating for Sir?" whispered the good Sergeant

"Nervous in the service Marine?" asked Jack.

"Sir these critters would make my Mama nervous, and she once chased a bear out of the cabin with a cast iron skillet, when I was a boy." Replied the Marine.

The six of them lay there watching and waiting for some time before anything happened. Another single Zergling popped up from underground with surprising speed, not twenty yards from its fallen brother. The creature looked over at the corpse and then sauntered slowly over and began feeding on its brethren's corpse. About the time it started feeding about a hundred of them popped out of the ground, and they immediately spotted him.

"Time to go." Said Jack as he stood up, no longer caring about the visibility of his profile against the background of the mountains.

He took a few seconds to pop of a couple of pot shots, and then turned and fled, the five marines in tow.

The ran as fast as their feet would carry them over the black charred ground that reminded him of natural asphalt flows. The six marines made their way over the uneven ground, and made it a full 200 yards, before the Zerglings crested the ridge behind them. Jack looked over his shoulder and saw the first of the dogsized Zerg come over the ridge.

"About face." He yelled, and started squeezing off shots

The marines followed suit, turned and began firing. Jack watched as critter after critter fell, just as their toothy faces came over the ridge of the caldera. But more and more zerglings swarmed over the ridge, some stopped to feed on their fallen brethren, but most came running on full tilt down the sharp angle of the caldera.

"Time to go?" asked the Sergeant.

"Yup." Said jack as he turned and ran, with the full squad of Marines in tow.

With their headstart he hoped they just might make it. The six men dressed in full Marine armor huffed and puffed along as fast as they could go, but the zerglings were gaining on them. Jack glanced back over his shoulder as he ran full tilt swinging his rifle like a madman. The Zerg were a few hundred yards back and gaining, and as he looked back to his front, a sheer mountain wall met them less than a few yards off.

The men ran full tilt until they met the wall of rock before them, then they turned and beheld a sight. The Zerglings had stopped their advance, they were forming a ring around the six marines almost 600 yards off. There were more of them now, and their numbers were soaring to almost a thousand, as more and more of them poured off the culdera and made their way into the small slit valley in which Jack and the Marine squad stood.

"Uh…Sir?" asked the Sergeant.

"Hold fire," said Jack as he watched the Zerglings pile up in a wave that was comprised of hundreds of Zerglings, all jostling and fighting to be in the front.

The culmination of their efforts made a wave of zerglings all trying to climb over each other, that slowly inched forward, and built in mass, as the semicircle of zerg built in mass ever second.

"Stack up," said Jack.

The Marines formed a two tier firing line, three in front kneeling and three standing behind. Jack's HUD was swarming in little red triangles, and the total count read 987 zerglings. He watched and waited as the Zerg inched forward chatting away in strange screeches and chittering sounds. As the seconds passed the Zerg wave inched closer and closer and then it halted completely, every one of the Zerglings stopped trying to climb over each other, simply fell off each other's backs, and stood stark still facing the six marines.

"Pick your targets." Jack said as he took aim.

Each of the Marines looked downrange at the Zerglings through their iron sights and waited.

"You think they know?" asked the Sergeant.

"Who knows what they know," said one of the Marines.

"Hold fire," said Jack.

The Marines and the Zerg just stood there staring at each other for what seemed an eternity. Then a single Zergling came forward, ahead of the mass.

"What do ya suppose he wants?" asked the Sergeant.

"No idea," said Jack as he took aim at the single Zergling and fired.

The Zergling's head exploded in a cloud of purple mist. No sooner had the Zerg's corpse hit the ground when the wave charged. Jack and the marines started squeezing of bursts. They dropped Zerglings by the score, nearly every burst of bullets dropping one, but the mass surged onward. For every Zerg felled three to five stopped to feed on its corpse. Only when the Zerglings were about 150 yards away did Jack notice how emaciated they were. The standard Zergling was about the size of a German shepherd, and weight about 50 plus pounds. These things looked more than half starved. Their ribs protruded out above their swollen bellies, and the flesh around their joints was thin, showing off the bone structure of their four hips.

The critters were starving, and Jack and the five marines were definitely on the menu. Jack dropped Zerg after Zerg, as did the Marines. They had formed a semi circle and the mass of zerg was forming its own semi circle around them as more and more of them dropped, but still the mass of them came on. Jack shot and shot, until the wave of Zerglings was less than 30 yards from him, before he spoke.

"Now Sarge." He barked.

"About damn time," said the sergeant as he pulled out a simple detonator and pushed the trigger. There was a series of beeping noises as the field of mini spider mines became active. There was a terrific series of explosions as the tiny mine found their targets. This variety didn't crawl along the ground as did the larger variety, they simply detonated when their proximity sensor was tripped, by anything, Zerg and Marine alike.

Over a hundred mini mines detonated and each of the one centimeter hexagonal mines had a blast radius of 50 feet. A hundred of the small detonations boomed out over the sparse landscape, sending shrapnel zooming out in all directions. The main load of the mini mines was a full gram of BB's, but put at enough speed and the effect was devastating. As the world infront of them erupted, the Marines continued to fire, picking off the stragglers, as Zerg blood, guts and body parts flew into the sky.

The majority of the Zerg died in the explosions but some dozen were injured, and a few were unscathed as they made their way forward regardless of injuries. Jack was just picking off one Zergling that had had two of its legs blown off and was padding around in circles while screeching like a banshee, when his commlink lit up.

"Done having fun out there?" Said Pugs.

"Just about," replied jack as he dropped another Zerg.

"Well you should know we're tracking another wave incoming, you might want to RTB as fast as that ass can carry yah." Said Pugs.

"Time to bug out Marines," Said Jack just as his weapon clicked as he squeezed the trigger.

He looked at the left side of his weapon, and the ammo counter read four zero's.

"I'm about out too," said one of the Marines.

"Lets book," said Jack as he turned and ran.

The last few Zerg left ont the field were too injured or maimed to give chase. The five marines high tailed it out of the area, running along the cliff face until a path opened up into the moutians. The 15 mile hike back to base they did in half and hour flat. The came up a rise in the trail and there were 12 Bunkers, six to a side, each boasting a 50 caliber mounted machinegun on its domed roof. The Marines in the bunkers gave the squad a salute as they ran past full tilt. Only when they were near their Barracks did they stop. Jack turned and faced his men.

"Well done scouts, dismissed." Said Jack.

"Sir if I may," said the Sergeant.

Jack nodded his head in reply just as the 50 cals on the bunkers started barking bullets downrange.

"I never want to exfil with you…Ever again!" Spat the Sergeant

"Well I guess you and your squad can take it easy for now, and what's your name by the way."

"Sergeant 248-7."

Jack just looked stunned for a moment before he regained his composure. The men sauntered off to tehri barracks, so Jack turned and made his way to the Command Center. He walked up the ramp and down to the bridge, and there he found Pugs and the Chief, both had a drink in hand.

"Where's mine," said Jack as he walked up.

"At the bar," motioned Pugs.

"So how'd it go?" Asked the Chief.

"I'd say the prototype was a success, though the blast radius seemed a little shy of the mark, it made a terrific mess." Said Jack as he motioned toward himself.

He was covered from head to foots in purple blood, and a few bits and pieces here and there. He had scrapped off the worst of it, but it just smeared the goo about, and he had left a trail behind him, now that he looked back he could see it. So much for containment protocols he thought.

"How did they deploy?" Asked the Chief

"Pretty easy actually, all we had to do was toss em out and they crawled into a grid and buried themselves, but the shot didn't seem to make it the full five foot radius."

"I'll add another half gram of shot then. Did the grid show up on your HUD?"

"Perfect to plan, we knew exactly where it was, and where not to be."

"Good these new HUD's of yours are a hit with the Marines, I'm still retrofitting the Marines helmets, we should be through with em by day after tomorrow, but I got to tell ya this workload is ridiculous, we could use five more engineering bays, easy." Said the Chief.

David Arkon

Jack spencer

Anna Tessa Tara