I will try yet again to make a fanfic. This one should be interesting. To save the effort of Ctrl-C Ctrl-Ving, the full story can be downloaded here: http://www.4shared.com/file/146645262/8 ... ctory.html

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Chapter 1
First Assignment

CE 3845

An atmosphere of pride and success enveloped the room of graduates. None were more than 20 years of age, and their backgrounds ranged from the darkest African to the palest Scandinavian. Satisfaction, happiness, joy, these were the emotions etched on the faces of the soon to become officers of the United Earth Federation. Only two lacked these emotions, and only annoyance and anger was on their faces. They were Alex Mirandi and Granger Selver, and each constantly exchanged venomous gazes from across the room.

They paid little attention to the speech given by their trainer, a man who had been a constant of the two years they had spent at the training facility. But he would of course phase out of their lives as the next batch of trainees came through. The only words that they heard from his speech was that most of the graduates would be assigned to a relatively high ranking officer to develop their skills further.

Alex Mirandi was easily one of the most popular members of the training facility, a position ensured both by his lineage and his social skills. He was the adopted son of General Erwin Mirandi, a man who had held considerable military and political power before his death, and this power seemingly lived on in Alex.

Granger Selver was almost the opposite of Alex. He had never stopped working to get to where he had come. He had had no life in school, but had achieved some of the highest test scores in his grade. He was used to his own company, and while he was highly respected, he had no friends to speak for him. But there was little doubt that he and Alex were the most talented of all twenty of the students of the training academy.

They were soon all dismissed, and were told that they would receive their first assignments soon.

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"Permission to speak freely General?" Alex asked.

General Samantha Clarke, highest ranking officer in the United Earth Federation, said, "Permission granted Lieutenant."

"Well, sir, you can't put me with Selver! Why can't you put him with some other Colonel or General or something?" Alex protested.

"You two are the most talented graduees we've had in a while," Clarke replied. "And you are therefore being put together under Colonel Peter Zemenov to learn from each other."

"But..."

"The decision has been made, Lieutenant. You will be gated to Capella at 1300 hours, where you will receive your Armoured Command Units." Her face disappeared from the comm screen, replaced by the blue sigil of the UEF.

Alex turned around to face Granger, who was sitting in a corner of the room. Granger's sulking gaze met Alex. "Looks like we'll be stuck with each other for a while."

Granger nodded silently in agreement. "Perhaps we should attempt to reconcile our differences?"

"I don't think that will happen," Alex replied.

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Granger could find no words to describe the behemoth that towered over him. The enormous biped was almost forty metres tall, with enormous shoulders from which hung piston-like arms. At the very top was a head, the complex that would house the pilot of the Armoured Command Unit.

This ACU was the very pinnacle of weapons technology. Hundreds of such colossi oversaw the war against the relgious fanatics of the Aeon Illuminate and the virus-infected half-man, half-machine symbionts of the Cybran Nation. Each Armoured Command Unit had an insanely powerful cannon that matched the firepower of all but the most potent units of the UEF arsenal. Additionally, it possessed a protosynth, a contraption that could materialise entire armies out of heavy metals. But, most importantly of all, the Armoured Command Unit was the only war machine capable of being gated through the Quantum Gate Network to virtually any location without a receiving gate. The only restriction was energy costs.

Before long, Granger found himself in the ACU. The cockpit was bigger than the dormitory that he had shared with another student at the training facility, and included a small single bed, and a small food synthesiser. But the most significant part of the cockpit was the machine that he would use to control the ACU itself. It was like a chair that fitted his body perfectly and closed around him like a mechanised type of medieval armour. The armour would constantly monitor his life signs and stimulate his muscles to prevent cramp and deep vein thrombosis. His legs went into a pair of boots that were used to manually control the movement of the ACU.

Only his arms and face were free. He quickly put on a pair of gloves that would allow him to control the touch interface of the ACU. Currently the interface was off, though the forward display, known as the forward Heads Up Display or HUD, was on and showed him a commander's view of the hangar. Men rushed around below him, and it was not long before they cleared away and he was given the all clear to get going.

Granger pressed his gloved right hand to the touch interface for a few seconds before a computerised voice demanded, "Voice identification please."

"A cheese-cake might walk, but never talk so long as the Moon is full," Granger replied.

"Voice print identification accepted," the voice replied. "Welcome, Lieutenant Granger Selver."

Granger heard a deep rumbling around and under him. For a moment he imagined what the others below him would see as the ACU came to life. There would be the straining of servo motors as they worked for the first time to bring the arms of the ACU up, and a series of lights would have shined. Last of all the six eyes would shine.

The interface now showed a rough approximation of the hangar from above. It was a simplified tactical map that he would use in the future to control his units. He decided to move out of the hangar automatically using waypoints instead of manually. He therefore set a waypoint for the ACU just outside the hangar. The right leg stepped first, creating a small earthquake as it stepped forwards, followed by the left.

The ACU, despite being one of the slowest units of the UEF arsenal, could easily attain a lumbering gate approaching 150 kilometres an hour, but Granger knew that if he were to do so here, the whole hangar would probably shake itself to pieces. He therefore activated a setting that made the ACU step as lightly as possible.

He met another two ACUs outside, instantly recognising one as Alex and the other as Colonel Zemenov.

"You took your time," Alex said on the comm channel.

"Enough pleasantries," Zemenov ordered. "We will be gating to a backwater world where you two will try building some units and getting a feel for things."

Both Granger and Alex replied, "Yes, sir."

"Another thing," Zemenov continued, "there is a solar storm predicted right after we get there. This solar storm while interfere with the Quantum Network, and will prevent any enemies gating in to find us, but also prevent us from gating out for at least an hour. It will also unfortunately prevent long distance communication for the first ten minutes or so. Will that be a problem?"

"No, sir," both Lieutenants replied.

"Good then. Let's move out."

-------

The experience of gating with an ACU for the first time had been jarring for both of them. The moment they stepped into the portal of light and electricity, they had felt a gut-wrenching feeling, and were now quite nauseous. The quantum wake that had followed their arrival had cleared the immediately area of trees and left an enormous black scorch-mark below them.

They noted that Zemenov had immediately begun building structures, and had already build a land factory, a couple of power generators and two mass extractors. Granger and Alex began building their own units, following the standard build order of economic structures first, followed by a land factory.

Power generators were small buildings that produced power and energy for the construction and maintenance of buildings and units, using small quantum sphincters to send their twenty units of energy produced per second to the ACU's inbuilt energy storage. Mass extractors provided the other main resource - mass, a mixture of heavy metals and silicon that could be reassembled through protosynth into almost any form. Similar quantum sphincters gave their two units of mass excavated per second to the ACU's inbuilt mass storage.

It was not long before a land factory, a factory capable of producing vehicles and other land-based units, was assembled in each of their bases. Engineers, units that were also capable of constructing buildings, were soon built and constructed other mass extractors on mass deposits scattered in their immediate vicinity.

Air factories, factories capable of producing aircraft, were soon built as well. Zemenov observed that both commanders were expanding their economies well, and had begun constructing mass fabricators to supplement their income. Mass fabricators were specialised buildings that gobbled up large amounts of energy but were capable of scavenging small amounts of mass from almost any terrain, no matter what it was made of. But much to his dismay, he noticed that they were competing, often sending taunts to each other about how they were expanding slower or faster. The battlefield was no place for such hooliganry.

Zemenov had upgraded his radar, and it soon showed him his target. It revealed a number of buildings in the distance, appearing as grey squares on his interface. But he was then surprised to see a trio of aircraft take off and begin moving towards his position. He sent his own air scout to find out what these planes were. He widened his eyes and his mouth fell open as he saw what they were. Hastily, he ordered his ACU out of his base, and it lumbered away as quickly as possible.

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Granger and Alex saw it at the same time. It was unmistakeable - a nuclear detonation. Both realised that this wasn't the type of explosion from a nuclear missile, but rather that of an ACU being destroyed. When an ACU's armour integrity dropped to critical levels and weapons fire could penetrate it, its enormous power core would instantly go critical and explode.

Alex tore his gaze from the explosion in the distance and turned to Granger's face on the comm screen. "Didn't Colonel Zemenov gate there?"

"Yes, he did," Granger replied, still shocked by what had happened. "His ACU, and all of his units are, well, gone. He's dead."

Alex ordered one of his air scouts to check out the area. They found the characteristic scorched crater that an ACU explosion left behind, as well as a pillar of smoke and dust from the meltdown. The passed officer's units had self destructed a few seconds later, unable to reach their command unit. The scout circled around, showing them the wreckages of the land factory and air factory, of the mass extractors, and the power generators. But then it found something else.

"It seems to be an air unit," Alex observed. "But it's pretty big and mass-rich for an air unit. I'm guessing it could be a Tier 3 air unit."

"That's not possible, silly. You can't get Tier 3 air units without upgrading your own air factory to Tier 2, then to Tier 3," Granger replied. "And his air factory was not upgraded at all."

"And the wreckage is fresh and smoking, like it just crashed a few moments ago. It was probably destroyed in the ACU explosion." Alex cocked an eyebrow. "There are another two here. Could they be enemy units?"

"Damnit, I've got incoming," Granger said. His own radar, unupgraded and still at Tier 1, was registering the movement of about ten land units. He sent his own air scout, but it was almost immediately shot down by a volley of light missiles. Nonetheless, it showed who the units belonged to.

"Cybrans!" Alex exclaimed. "There are cybrans here!"

Granger moved his ACU to intercept them. The Tier 1 units were slaughtered in moments by the blue-tinged biped's heavy plasma cannon. "Goddamnit, we've only got Tier 1 unit schematics unlocked, and we're probably facing some sort of veteran Cybran Commander. This is not good."

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Chapter 2
Embattled and Enlightened

Another wave of Mantises - the basic unit of the Cybran Tier 1 land arsenal - tore into Alex's base. Mass extractors and power generators were destroyed before the units were repelled. He looked over his smoking base, almost completely ruined by the continual waves of the Mantis-class bots.

"Goddamnit, my base is dead," Alex cursed.

"I could transfer some resources to you if you'd like," Granger calmly suggested, without looking up at Alex's face on the comm screen.

"That's impossible!" Alex replied. "How the heck can you be doing better than me?" He looked over at Granger's base, and saw groups of power generators and mass fabricators, and significant patrols of MA12-Strikers, the UEF tank equivalent of the Cybran Mantis. Most importantly, a series of walls that had been scattered around caused the enemy Mantises to break formation and scatter, wasting most of their combined firepower as they came in one at a time.

"I'll tell you the answer," Granger replied. He finally turned his gaze to Alex's. "With ease. Now, do you want those resources or not?"

Alex let go of his envy for the moment, and replied, "Yes please."

Several hundred units of mass was immediately transferred his ACU's empty storage, and he quickly began rebuilding. His mass extractors were soon up again, and his power income was rising again. All the while, his own army was increasing in size.

It was then that he saw yet another attack of Mantises on his tactical interface. The enemy force was at least twice the size of his own force, but he knew what to do. He rapidly built ten Mech Marine-class light assault bots. The Mech Marines were small and fast and had almost as much firepower as the UEF Striker, but were severely lacking in armour. But in the hands of an expert, their maneouvrability more than made up for this.

Granger observed the strike force of enemy units approaching Alex's base, and considered sending some air units of his fledgling force of bombers, but remembered that this was Alex. Not only would he scoff if he was offered help, but he probably did not actually need it. He observed the Mech Marines, each moving this way and that, almost as if they were breakdancing. The Mantises tried to aim at the Mech Marines, but only one shot out of three hit their mark. Meanwhile, the Mech Marines continually fired their Tomcat Machine Guns, while Alex's ACU and Strikers hammered away at the enemy force. Soon the Mantises were gone, leaving only smoking piles of scrap.

Alex immediately brought in his ACU and reclaimed the wreckages. Each of the wreckages was disassembled and reconfigured into a useable form of mass. His storage was supplemented enormously.

"Granger, when did Zemenov say that we'll be able to communicate with EarthCom?" Alex asked, referring to the headquarters of the UEF military.

"It'll be about five more minutes," Granger replied absent mindedly as he ordered his units.

"In that case, we need a plan," Alex replied. "Damn, I remember there was an exam question about Cybrans, but I can't remember it."

"You're pathetic," Granger said, shaking his head. He looked up again. "The question was: 'When fighting a Cybran, what should one first do?' The answer was: 'Search for predictable attack patterns.'"

"Jeez, you are such a nerd. Well, was there anything predictable about what he just did?" Alex pondered. "The attacks have stopped."

"Yes, they have," Granger replied. "My guess is that he's figured out that a direct attack on our base is useless. With your unit management and my skills at economy, he's finding it hard to get through."

"So what will he do next, O Predictor of the Cybran Mind?" Alex sarcastically asked.

"My guess is that there will either be a bomber attack against our base, or attacks against the mass extractors that we have outside our base," Granger said. "We should build interceptors."

"But we can't just sit here for five minutes waiting for orders. We have to scout, find a weakness, then exploit it."

"Fine, you do that," Granger replied, turning his attention back to his own units.

Alex sent several air scouts north, towards the direction that the Cybran attacks had been coming from. He quickly observed several small bases consisting of just a few mass extractors and a land factory or two. But then he observed something most unusual about ten kilometres north of their position. It seemed like a larger version of a UEF land factory, except for the fact that it was building Cybran units.

Granger noticed this as well before the air scout was shot down. The others were shot down by roving Cybran interceptors.

"Well, that was wierd," Alex observed.

"Okay, we've scouted, now we need a plan," Granger said. "I have a few air transports, and I think that I can airdrop some air units near the stealth bases and take them out. Can you try to attack that factory thing? I have a feeling that it is something important."

"I think I can take it out, but the problem is that an all out attack like this will leave us defenceless."

Granger smiled. "But there won't be anything to defend against if this works." Alex slowly nodded in consent.

About seven Courier-class light air transports moved out, each filled to the brim with MA12 Strikers. Six of each unit was dropped at the small bases, while 18 were dropped near the strange UEF land factory building Cybran units. But much to their surprise, about three Cybran Renegade-class gunships - Tier 2 air units, arrived and tore the attacking force of Strikers to pieces with their powerful Iridium Rocket Packs.

Alex glared at Granger. "Thanks a lot," he said. "My entire army is gone, but most of your is still alive and on the way back. This is all your fault. And now we're probably going to be attacked by a force of gunships."

Granger shrugged. Alex almost began walking his ACU towards Granger's base a kilometre away, but stopped himself. He forced himself to build another power generator and suppressed his anger.

Granger knew that he was not to blame. It was not his fault that the enemy had air units and Alex had not built any mobile anti-air units. But despite his seemingly calm expression, he was not happy either. Alex's behaviour was infuriating sometimes, and it was all he could do to not lash out in anger.

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About a minute before their ACUs' computers predicted that they would be able to communicate with the outside world again, a number of air units approached their bases. Land units were unloaded by the enemy transports before the transports fled. Both felt that they were ready to take on the enemy units, though it did not occur to them that something might be different. If they had checked their radars properly, they would have noticed that the group of five or so units that approached each base were much larger than the Mantises that had attacked before.

"Always trust a retard to mess up predictions," Alex commented. He turned to Granger. "Don't worry Granger, if this guy was a good commander, your predictions would have been correct."

Alex suddenly turned back to his tactical interface just in time to see four large missiles crash into his force of Strikers, immediately destroying two or three, and heavily damaging several others almost to the point of collapse.

"Those aren't Tier 1 units!" he exclaimed in surprise as he and his force advanced on them.

"Yes," Granger replied, seemingly busy with his own enemies. Several bombers of his were unloading their Napalm onto the enemy units, and many of them died almost immediately. One large bipedal bot however persisted and destroyed one MA12 Striker after the other. But he brought his own ACU into the fray and fired the Overcharge Cannon, a short-ranged but immediately powerful device that could destroy most units in a single shot. Only ACUs were protected from the power of the Overcharge Cannon.

The enemy units died, as they did in Alex's based. They immediately began reclaiming them and built even more structures.

"Great, now our enemy has Tier 2 air and Tier 3 land," Alex stated in protest. "There's a limit to what massed Strikers can do. We're done for."

Suddenly a familiar commanding voice was heard in both ACUs. "What's going on over there?" General Samantha Clarke asked.

Both ACU pilots looked to their comm screens in glee. They immediately explained the situation.

Clarke shook her head. "I feared that this might happen. Zemenov is dead. Well boys, it's time you learned."

She told them why they had really come here. Zemenov had been instructed to retrieve a piece of technology, but had requested backup. The classified nature of the technology meant that any commanders that gated in with him would have to be told the full story. It was thus perceived that a pair of talented newbies would suffice, as they would be of the opinion that they are on a training mission.

"But General, what is this piece of tech?" Alex asked.

"I was about to get to that," she replied. "It is a factory, you might have seen it, powerful and advanced enough to construct all land units, Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3, but only slightly more expensive than a standard land factory."

"That's incredible," Alex said. "With a factory like that, we'd have an enormous advantage in any battle."

"Precisely," Clarke replied. "A group of our scientists was commissioned to construct this Factory here seven years ago, and recently messaged us that they have achieved results."

"So why didn't they transmit the schematics of the factory?" Granger asked.

"The Factory is far too complex to be sent in low bandwidth transmission without the possibility of interference, human or otherwise," Clarke answered. "At the very least, a Quantum Gate would be required, or it could be stored in the memory banks of an ACU."

"Wait, one other thing," Alex said. "We saw the factory, we know where it is, but it was building Cybran units. How can a UEF factory construct Cybran units?"

The General shrugged. "I'm not a scientist, but the principles of protosynth construction are similar in the UEF and Cybran Nation. The Factory does not possess schematics of actual UEF units, so it is likely that this Cybran uploaded his own units."

"So, what is our objective, sir?" Granger asked.

"Your objective is simple, Lieutenant," Clarke replied. "The two of you must immediately capture the factory and store its schematics in one of your ACUs. Secondly, I have a feeling that your Cybran enemy has already taken the schematics, and is only using the Factory because he has not yet upgraded his own factories to Tier 3. You must destroy his ACU within 50 minutes, before he can gate away and take the schematics to the Cybran Nation. EarthCom will stay in contact and provide intelligence as it is available. Clarke out."

Both commanders suddenly heard the mechanical voice of their ACUs announce, "Schematics downloaded." They observed that every unit up to Tier 3 was unlocked. They immediately set about upgrading their factories and built large groups of mechanical engineers to speed up construction of their units.

The path before them was now crystal clear. They knew what to do.

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Chapter 3
Deception

There were thirty minutes left. Continual raids by Cybran Tier 2 gunships slammed into the walls of anti-air that both Granger and Alex had built. Further Tier 3 ground units sent by the Cybran came against Titan-class siege assault bots, and were swiftly torn to pieces.

Both Granger and Alex continually issued orders, expanding upon their economies by building more higher tech power generators and upgrading existing mass extractors. Groups of engineers toiled away at the battlefield, reclaiming every last scrap of debris left by destroyed units. That was when they noticed an incoming on their tactical interfaces.

"Granger, you got an incoming," Alex said.

"I see it," Granger replied, immediately sending a number of interceptors to destroy the rapidly incoming group of air units. He widened his eyes as soon as he saw the nature of the air units. They were Revenant-class strategic bombers, arguably the most powerful air unit in the Cybran arsenal. Each could drop a bomb capable of destroying large groups of even the most heavily armoured ground units in the mainstream UEF arsenal. And there were a good fifteen of them.

Granger's interceptors immediately began firing upon the intruders, but a few were immediately destroyed by combined fire from the anti-air autocannons on the strategic bombers. Even his anti-air could do little against their heavy armour, and four survived to drop their powerful ordnance on Granger's ACU. It would have been more than enough to completely vapourise him.

The only thing that saved him was the Heavy Shield Generator that he had just completed. Its blue energy field intercepted two of the bombs from the immense aircraft, before a third caused it to collapse. As it hummed and disappeared, the final bomb struck Granger's ACU straight in the chest. Alex watched in horror as the massive biped was thrown backwards, its entire front scorched. Sparks flew from it as its self-repair system tried to fix the damage.

The ACU was still alive, but there was no way to be sure that Granger had not been knocked out by the sheer explosive force of the detonation. Alex opened a comm channel to Granger.

"Hey, you there?" Alex pleaded. "Don't make me do this all by myself."

Much to his relief, the ACU began to pick itself up, using its arms as leverage. It was battered but still functional. Granger replied to the transmission. "Jeez, you sound like you were concerned for a moment there."

"Good to have you back," Alex said, a smile spreading across his face. "I can't do this alone."

-------

With 25 minutes left, a surprise call came in from EarthCom. "We've detected an anomaly that you guys might want to hear."

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"Our database on Cybran units tells us that the Revenant-class Strategic Bomber is capable of hiding itself from radar vision," the man said. "Yet the units you were attacked by were clearly not using their stealth ability."

"Thank you EarthCom, your input is always valued," Granger replied. He closed the channel with the briefer. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, let's think about the fact that he has only used Tier 2 units against us so far," Alex said. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, its clear that he did it to surprise us," Granger replied. "That guy almost got me there."

"But according to what he has done so far, there is almost no way that he could have built that many Strategic Bombers in the time that we think he has been at T3 air."

"He could have sped up the construction with lots of engineers," Granger suggested. But he ruled this out immediately. "But to do that he would have needed a lot of energy income. And he clearly didn't have the energy income to even stealth the bombers."

"Does that mean that he's somehow been using the Factory to build Strategic Bombers?" Alex pondered.

"It's possible," Granger said. "That must be how he killed Zemenov. With the bombers."

"Does this mean then that the two Tier 2 power generators he has near the factory are pretty much the only power he has?" Alex said.

"It's possible," Granger agreed. But before he could say anything, several air transports scooped up most of Alex's land units and landed them just outside the factory. They only managed to take out a single power plant before groups of enemy Loyalists tore his units apart. Even before the last unit was destroyed, engineers appeared and began reclaiming the mass-rich wreckages.

Alex turned sheepishly to Granger. "Sorry," he said.

Granger simply shook his head.

-------

The battle was going south for the Cybran fast. Despite his years of experience, and the enormous pile of mass that was rapidly being reclaimed, the two UEF newbies controlled far greater amounts of resources, and it would not be long before they got through his lines of firebases and found him. He had the schematics of the Factory, now all he had to do was to survive for fifteen minutes before gating away.

He thus used several mechanical engineers to upgrade his ACU with a Tier 3 Engineering Suite, allowing his ACU to construct powerful Tier 3 structures. Additionally, he also upgraded himself with a Resource Allocation System, increasing his ACU's resource output immensely without compromising his armour integrity. Gathering some fighters and a few Tier 3 Loyalist-class Siege Assault Bots, he loaded everything into a transport and began flying away.

As for his remaining bases, he ordered mechanical engineers to construct new resource buildings in every one of his remaining firebases, so that he would have the mass and energy output to construct and then use a Quantum Gate. Defensive units would also be built to slow down the UEF advance. He made sure once more that everything was in order.

He looked once more at his tactical interface as the transport landed. He immediately began building a few defensive structures, before turning his protosynth to a Quantum Gate. Its spidery form immediately materialised before him.

-------

Even as Alex's ACU arrived to capture the Factory, there was a sudden explosion as it collapsed on itself. Another explosion tore it to pieces.

Granger announced on the comm screen, "We failed."

"Negative commander," EarthCom announced. "New orders from General Clarke: reclamation of the factory may provide valuable information. Do so immediately. And the Cybran must not get away. We are still working on the identity of this particular commander. You still have ten minutes left."

Alex did not hesitate to turn his protosynth towards the remains of the Factory, which was quickly disassembled and disintegrated. But every layer that was eaten by the ACU was carefully scrutinised, and information was saved on the Command Unit's computer.

Granger's units had destroyed yet another firebase, but there was almost no visible reduction in the numbers of the Cybran's continuously incoming forces. Tier 2 and 3 land and air units came in almost continuously, never penetrating the defensive lines of either UEF commander, but slowly whittling down on their forces. However, the speed at which new units were built and promptly transported to the front lines was greater than the rate at which units were lost. One of the many scouts scanning the battlefield revealed another base, hidden from radar by a stealth field generator.

"Alex, my scouts have found another base to the east of your forces," Granger said. "We need to take it out."

"How many more of these bases are there?" Alex said in exasperation. "There's just more and more! Where is his real base? Where is the centre of his resource income? We need to find it."

"Well, the moment you find a way for our scouts to get past this guy's wall of anti-air, let me know," Granger replied, calmly moving his forces to the most recently detected enemy base.

Both newbie commanders noticed something flashing on their comm screens. They activated and met a most repulsive face. It was the Cybran, a black-haired, black-skinned freak with gleaming wires tunneling in and out of the side of his face. His eyes gleamed wildly, but concern was in them.

"Hello commanders," he said. They perceived an almost mechanical quality to his voice. He pronounced and intoned every word perfectly. "I have a problem."

"Get lost you freak," Alex shouted, almost turning off the transmission.

"Wait, Alex," Granger suggested. "Let's hear what he has to say."

"Alright," Alex replied.

"Well, gentlemen, my plan to escape has hit a small snag," he said. "It seems that my ACU is defective and its power core is leaking. My computer estimates that I have only two minutes to live. I just wanted to bid you farewell."

"What? You're going to die?" Alex said in surprise.

"GIve us the schematics of the Factory then," Granger demanded.

The Cybran shook his head. "I can't do that. Farewell." The transmission ended.

They noted that the attacks halted. There was a two minute silence as they thought about what was happening. Nonetheless, they readied their forces to defend against some sort of final attack. But nothing came. And two minutes later, just as the Cybran had said, an enormous thermonuclear explosion was observed to the north. Five seconds later, further small explosions were observed as the tens of units that the Cybran had commanded shut down and self destructed.

"EarthCom, can you confirm that that was an ACU explosion?" Alex requested.

"Affirmative, sir," the man briefing them replied. "The damage done to the surrounding area and the size of the explosion matches previously recorded Cybran ACU explosions. Your enemy is dead. New orders are coming in from General Clarke: peruse the landscape and see if you can recover any further information. You are due to return in about seven minutes. It is suggested that you build Quantum Gates."

Granger and Alex both transported their ACUs to the site of the ACU explosion in an attempt to recover any pieces of the Cybran ACU's memory banks. Nothing was found save the wreckage of a large base that had been at Tier 3. There was even the ruin of a Strategic Missile Launcher containing an incomplete nuclear missile. Both Alex and Granger felt fortunate that the Cybran had died before the missiles were launched.

Despite everything, the circumstances of the Cybran's death were extremely suspicious. There were no pieces of the ACU to be found, only an explosion. Air scouts and more advanced Tier 3 spy planes scanned the landscape, and continually found more and more wreckages of firebases.

"Well, the Cybran is dead," Alex said. "We had best start building Quantum Gates and make ready to get out of here. We have about five minutes left. You heard EarthCom."

"I don't know, Alex," Granger said, carefully inspecting the explosion in the Cybran's former base. "This doesn't seem right."

Chapter 4
Chat

Alex had a number of air transports on hold, each filled to the brim with Titan-class Siege Assault Bots. Each transport held enough Titans to take out any of the Cybran's former bases. Granger did have a point. Something was wrong, and they both felt that the Cybran was still alive.

Another call came in from EarthCom. "We've identified the identity of the late Cybran," the briefer said. He looked for a moment at a different screen before turning his gaze to the two newbies. "His name is Chat, apparently from the Swieb Node. Of his conflagrations against the UEF, each resulted in either a Cybran victory or escape. He is a master of deception. And it says here that he is a modder too."

"What's a modder?" Alex asked.

"I don't know, sir," the briefer replied.

Granger answered the question. "A modder, short for modifier, is someone with the technical knowhow to be able to hack into their ACU's memory banks and modify its unit blueprints. I have never heard of a UEF officer who has done it, and we have never seen an Aeon do it. It is possible that there are Cybrans capable of it."

"Is it that hard to break into the memory banks and modify the blueprints?" Alex asked.

"The encryption codes would theoretically take months to break without the key, and that is something only the highest ranking officers can access," Granger said. "Assuming you've done that, you would need to write a program capable of reading and modifying the blueprints. It's not like these are just straight text files and models with textures. Each blueprint explains the exact location of every seam and rivet, probably a tiresome read."

Alex nodded. Suddenly, understanding dawned within him. "Is it possible to mod the missiles built by Strategic Missile Launchers?"

"Theoretically," Granger said. "What are you thinking?"

Alex stroked his chin. "You remember the Launcher that we found in the Cybran's base, and the incomplete missile?"

"Yes," Granger confirmed.

"I noticed as I was reclaiming it that even though it was near completion, it was missing its warhead," Alex said. "I think that the Cybran, this Chat, might have modified the warhead to be weaker, and removed it from the missile so that it would explode more like an ACU explosion than a simple nuclear detonation. And then, five seconds later, he self destructed his base."

"Are you saying that he detonated the warhead from a strategic missile and faked his death?" Granger asked. Alex nodded. "I must say, I'm impressed," Granger said.

"Well, I'm not always a complete moron," Alex said, beaming happily.

Air scouts went further and further north, and while they continually found ruins of other expansion bases, they did not find the Cybran ACU that they were looking for. But on a hunch, they sent their air units south. Much to their surprise, they found an enormous outpost, filled with point defences and anti-air flak turrets, all covered with shield generators and hidden by stealth field generators. The last scout imaged the Cybran ACU, busily constructing a Quantum Gate.

A smiling face appeared on their screens. It was Chat. "Looks like you guys found me. It doesn't matter anyway. My Gate will be up in a minute, charged in another minute, and I'll be gone by the third minute. You don't have the units to break through, of that I am quite sure."

"We'll see," Alex said. All of his transports immediately began moving towards the Cybran base. Granger's air force took off and began moving south.

Tens of gunships, mainly Tier 2 Stingers but also numerous powerful Tier 3 Broadswords, opened fire on the Cybran base. Granger micromanaged his gunships to move under the shields and attack the generators, causing several to fall within moments. Several anti-air turrets were already gone and the remaining ones were falling as Alex's transports arrived. Not one was destroyed as they dropped 15 Titans around the Cybran ACU.

The ACU almost calmly assigned the construction of the Gate to a number of engineers before it turned on the approaching Titans. Alex could only watch as three were destroyed in a single overcharge bolt and several others were torn to pieces by continual laser fire from the Cybran point defences. The Cybran deftly dodged the shots of the Titans, wowing both UEF officers through his incredible micromanagement.

"So this is what they meant when they said that when all else fails - dance," Granger said, almost hypnotised by the display.

He was startled when the ACU strode straight up to one Titan and battered it with a volley of kicks and hits. The Titan Seige Assault Bot was well protected from enemy ordnance by a personal shield generator, but the melee strikes from the enemy ACU went straight through and tore it to pieces. The Cybran picked up the wreckage of the Titan that was thoroughly knocked out, and threw it headlong at another Titan, bowling it over.

Another Titan approached it, firing both of its arm mounted cannons. The Cybran's protosynth flared for a moment, creating a wall section right in front of the Titan. The Titan tripped over the wall and was not able to get up.

Granger and Alex, gaping at this display, were startled when the Cybran opened up a comm channel. "Finally, the Gate is done," he said. "I had some fun, but it's time to end this."

The Cybran ACU stopped moving and turned to face the last group of five Titans. Alex micromanaged these Titans not to go to close to the Cybran ACU, knowing full well what had happened last time. But it made no difference as the ACU's chest split open and a terrible shriek was heard. A cherry-red laser erupted from the Cybran's chest, quickly overloading the shields of each Titan and destroying them. They were destroyed within moments. Only the fallen Titan remained, showing Alex and Granger that the Gate was complete and charging.

"We have to do something!" Alex said, panicking. "If he escapes, we lose!"

"No Alex, there is nothing we can do," Granger said. "But I have an idea. If we can capture the Gate, we can hack into it and find out where he went. We might be able to stop him."

"We can't just send an engineer in there," Alex said. "It'll get torn to pieces."

"That's why I'm going there," Granger said.

"But you'll get yourself killed!" Alex said.

"Relax, my air force got most of their flak turrets and I have a personal shield upgrade," Granger said. "Plus, as soon as he leaves, I'll only be under fire for five seconds. And the second my capture ray hits the Gate, it will be prevented from self-destructing."

Alex nodded in agreement, knowing that there was nothing else he was going to do. He smiled. "Still, you should leave these kind of reckless plans to me," he said.

Granger felt his ACU being lifted by the tractor beams of a C-14 transport, and it rushed over the landscape. Granger found that he had not really noticed the landscape at all since he had come to this world. The composition of the atmosphere was close enough to Earth, but the landscape was mostly featureless rock and sand, with only a few small hills here and there.

He looked to his forward HUD to see the approaching Cybran base. The Cybran ACU at the centre of the base dropped its upgrades, which quickly disintegrated into featureless piles of mass, and walked into the Quantum Gate. The ACU was engulfed by waves of lightning, and flashed once and disappeared. The Quantum Wake began spreading. Granger had five seconds.

5 seconds. The first flak turret turned and began firing at the transport. Granger heard dull bangs outside his ACU, and his tactical interface indicated that the transport was taking heavy damage.

4 seconds. He realised the transport would not survive, and neither would he. He overrode the safety systems on the transport, causing it to let go of his ACU at full velocity.

3 seconds. He put his ACU's arms and legs below him as he crashed into the ground at over 700 kilometres per hour. His ACU's arms and legs absorbed much of the force of the impact, but he was for a moment knocked out. The ACU rolled towards the Quantum Gate.

2 seconds. The ACU crashed into a Cybran Cerberus-class point defence, completely destroying it and significantly slowing him down. Other Cerberuses continually fired at him as he came to a stop next to the Gate.

1 second. The ACU automatically righted itself and Granger woke up. He coughed, spraying blood over his interface and turned to face the Gate. He, almost completely dazed and almost unconscious, readied his protosynth.

0 seconds. Alex saw tens of explosions as the last of the Cybran's units self destructed. Every unit that had belonged to the Cybran self destructed, except for the Quantum Gate. Granger's ACU had halted its self destruct algorithms and began hacking into it.

Granger smiled weakly as the coordinates of the destination of the Cybran's escape appeared before him. Relaying them to EarthCom and to Alex, he passed out.

-------

Granger opened his eyes wearily, his gaze immediately resting upon Alex. Alex smiled.

"Good to see you back, buddy," Alex said.

"How long was I out?" Granger asked.

"It's been about 12 hours since you passed out," Alex said. "You bit your tongue pretty badly, though we fixed that up, and you hit your head too. You'll be in bed for a while."

"I really wanted to get after that Cybran again," Granger said groggily.

"We traced him to some backwater Cybran world. Or should I say you traced him there. Anyway, some Major General or somesuch and his squad is after the guy. Oh yeah, I remember now, it was Desjar or something."

"Wow, they got a whole squad after him?" Granger said. "That Cybran is good."

"No doubt about it," Alex nodded in agreement. He looked up at Granger again. "But hell, that was some stunt you pulled," he said incredulously. I still can't believe my eyes. Whatever that Cybran was doing with his dancing was nothing to what you did. I hear the footage is going to be aired in the news."

"Wow," Granger said.

A woman with a scar under her left eye walked into the room, immediately causing Alex and Granger to stand to attention. "At ease," General Clarke said.

"Boys, your failure is of the greatest concern," Clarke said. "It is possible, though unlikely, that despite Major General Desjar's efforts, the Cybran may have already transmitted the blueprints."

Alex and Granger let her continue, knowing it was best not to interrupt her while she was talking. They knew that she had more to say.

"If I had not watched the battle closely, I might very well have considered separating you two and putting you on probation on some backwater planet with some Colonel where you two can't get in trouble," the General continued. Much to their surprise, a small smile tugged at her lips. "But the fact that you were able to recover at least fractionary information from the reclamation of the Factory's ruins, and that you managed to determine the location of the Cybran makes me change my mind." She looked to Granger. "Ignoring for now what you just pulled.

"You will therefore be assigned to duty as soon as possible," she said. "You have demonstrated the ability to perfrom well under pressure, and such skill cannot go wasted. Both of you will be deployed to back up Major General Desjar's squad in 24 hours. I suggest that you use this time to recover and ready yourselves."

The General left the same way she came, in silence. Both knew that she was always busy, and that it was likely to have been a stretch for her to have visited them. But they were glad that they were to be deployed so soon.

Chapter 5
Rest

Alex had left Granger for the rest of the day at the EarthCom medical bay. The doctors had assessed that his head was fine but wanted to keep him under surveilance in case they missed anything. They had stitched up his tongue long before he had even woken up, so that would not be a problem tomorrow morning. He would be released in a few hours.

He immediately made his way to one of the male officers' locker rooms and changed out of his uniform. It wasn't recommended that ACU pilots go out in their uniforms when not on duty, so as not to attract too much attention. If UEF society had the equivalent of rockstars, they would be ACU pilots.

Alex noted the time. It was still mid-morning and therefore not the best time to head to a bar or nightclub. He certainly did not want to go home, shuddering at the thought of meeting his mother.

For a few moments he admired the sturdy architecture of the EarthCom building, the home of the thousands of tactical officers and symbiont analysts that assessed intelligence and constantly kept commanders on the battlefield in the loop. It rose like a laser light shot into the sky, seemingly endlessly tall with its hundreds of stories. The surrounding government and office buildings, none quite as tall as the EarthCom building but colossal nonetheless, combined to blot out the Sun and most of the sky, leaving only patches of blue sky and white cloud here and there.

This was despite the fact that Alex was on the highest platform perched among the buildings of Earth HQ over 700 metres above the surface. Tens of such levels existed, each a few tens of metres higher than the one below it. People lived, worked and shopped in the levels.

EarthHQ had been planned as the first megacity. Over a hundred million people resided within it within only a few hundred square kilometres. Urban consolidation had never been undertaken on such a scale. Other such megacities existed in Asia, but none had a population density anywhere near that of EarthHQ. And most amazingly of all, all of the people in EarthHQ had more than enough space.

Alex felt a pang from within the deep recesses of his stomache. He needed to eat. Reflecting on the matter, he realised that he had eaten almost nothing since he had graduated a few days ago. He resolved to find a small fast food store.

-------

Alex found much to his disappointment that the queue was five people long. He would have a while to wait. He did not take long to decide what to purchase and readied his card. Soon he would have a large beef breakfast burger inside him. He felt that he could already taste it, and his mouth began watering.

He noticed that someone joined the queue directly behind him. He quickly glanced around to survey the person, and found that it was a woman about his age. She had black hair with blonde streaks and grey eyes that scrutinised the list of foods that could be purchased. Her gaze seemed almost noble, as if she thought herself better than everyone else.

She quickly noticed his attention. "Hey there," she said.

"Oh, sorry," Alex replied. "I didn't mean to stare." He continued, "So, what are you getting?"

"Just a salad," she replied.

"You on a diet?" Alex queried. "Who gets a salad for breakfast?"

"A vegetarian," she replied matter of factly.

"Sorry," Alex said again.

They were both soon able to take their orders and Alex insisted that he sit with her. She didn't particularly care.

"So tell me, did it hurt?" Alex asked her ambiguously.

"What?" she replied, taking a fork and sticking it into the salad.

"You know, when you fell down to Earth?" Alex continued. "Coz, you know, I thought that with a face like that you're an Angel or something."

"Ha ha," she said, a smile coming to her face. "Does that ever work?"

Alex smiled as well. "It made you smile, so yeah, it does work." He extended his hand across the small table. "Name's Alex."

She took his hand and shook it. "Cate," she said. "It's nice to meet you. You seem smarter than the average guy I find."

"I probably am," Alex said. "So, what do you do for a living?"

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you," Cate said almost jokingly, but Alex could tell that she was quite serious. "What do you do?"

"Well, I don't think that I'd have to kill you if I told you," Alex began, "but the guys who I work with would probably track you down, so I'm not talking."

Cate smiled. "Well, Alex, if that is your real name, it was nice meeting you."

"Well, can I have your number if it was so nice to meet me?" Alex asked.

She shook her head. "No thanks. I'm not in the mood. Anyway, I think we'll meet each other again."

Alex soon left, disappointed that he had failed.

-------

After a short walk, Alex returned to EarthCom. He immediately made his way to the medical bay, but found much to his surprise that Granger was not present. He had in fact left over an hour earlier than he should have.

Alex rapidly strode through the near featureless corridors of the EarthCom building, wondering where Granger could have gone. He however found himself unable to even guess where Granger might be, and his personal comm was non-responsive. Worry began collecting within his mind.

He walked straight into a room of EarthCom intel officers nearly constantly assessing probalities and guiding the ACU pilots on the battlefield. Several such officers gave a quick glance his way, startled by his impetuous entry. Five or six symbionts sat in a corner of the room busily working away at their computer terminals, but Alex paid them no heed. He immediately made his way to General Clarke's office.

He knocked on the door, and much to his surprise, it was a male voice that ushered him in. Before him stood a grey-haired man with an unkempt beard and a messy uniform. He quickly realised that it was a colonel, not a general that stood in front of him. Alex saluted him nonetheless.

"Sir, where is General Clarke?" Alex asked.

"General Clarke has gone to meet with the President," the Colonel replied. "She has left me in charge for the duration of her not being here."

"Sir, if I may, that does not make sense," Alex protested. "If General Clarke is not available, the next highest ranking officer on duty should take her place. Is that not Lieutenant General Stevens?"

"Shut up Lieutenant," the Colonel replied. "Anyway, what do you want?"

Alex was confused by the lack of protocol, but he didn't care. "Sir, a colleague of mine was admitted to the EarthCom medical bay at 1900 hours yesterday, and was due to be released at 1000 hours today. He has however left much earlier than usual, and I cannot contact him. I fear that he may be in some sort of trouble."

A look of complete blankness crossed the Colonel's face, and it immediately became clear that he wasn't actually supposed to be here. Alex heard footsteps outside and the sound of the door behind him opening. He soon afterwards heard Clarke's astonished voice behind him.

"Colonel Arnold, why are you in here?" the General asked.

"Hell, General, ma'am, my buddy's out there fighting some crazy Cybran and I'm not even allowed to watch?" Arnold protested.

"May I remind you that you are on probation?" Clarke retorted.

"For what? For badmouthing Riley? He isn't what you'd call an angel, Sam."

"Don't call me that," Clarke said icily. "Now get out of my office before I have you sent back to Leanthar."

Arnold cringed as if from a bad memory and hastily ran out of the office. Alex turned around to watch him leave, and saw him immediately start badgering an EarthCom officer for his computer terminal. A smile came to his face. He wondered why he had never heard of this Colonel Arnold before.

"Get that smirk off your face, Lieutenant," Clarke said, the icy tone still in her voice. "Are you looking for Lieutenant Selver?"

"Yes, ma'am," Alex confirmed. "I think he's in trouble."

Clarke shook her head, a rare smile coming to her face. "What made you think that? He's just over there."

Alex followed Clarke's finger and saw to his shock that Granger had manned one of the computer terminals, donning a pair of headphones and constantly clicking away. He even seemed to be talking with the pilots on the field.

-------

Alex's rest was over. Granger had informed him that Major General Desjar's squad had gone with 3 ACUs, but they hadn't been able to catch him, and the Cybran had escaped.

"He's more slipperier than a rural Bengali thief," Alex commented.

"What?" Granger asked.

"Oh, a friend of mine once told me that in rural Bangladesh thieves used to go about their thievery wearing almost nothing and having well oiled themselves, making them the slipperiest thieves in the world," Alex explained.

"Uhunh," Granger said. "Anyway, moving on."

They had managed to trace Chat's ACU to another remote Cybran world, and Desjar's squad had already arrived. Alex and Granger were to leave to help them bring the rogue Cybran down immediately. They were to leave immediately.

Chapter 6
The Swieb Node

Blood red mountains covered the land. Or they would have if the mantle of the world hadn't insisted on depositing enormous amounts of magma just underneath the landscape. Enormous sections of mountain had sunk into the land, devoured by past eruptions, and lakes of boiling water had collected there. But world was a cold one, and these boiling lakes constrasted heavily with the cold air of the night, causing ground hugging clouds of fog to arise and wander the land. It was quite an inhospitable place, though thermophilic bacteria had collected in the boiling lakes.

It was next to a small boiling lake that sparks of electricity could be observed emanating. A funnel in spacetime was opened, sucking air in before violently casting it out again. A Cybran ACU was visible as soon as the fog cleared. It turned its protosynth to the nearest mass deposit and began construction on a mass extractor.

Simultaneously, its pilot opened an open channel on his comm. "Anyone out there?" Chat said. He was about to repeat his message when a face appeared on his comm screen.

"You have some nerve coming here," the woman said. Red and pink facial circuitry lined the right of her face. A bored and impassionate gaze emanated from her blue eyes. Her normally waist-length dirty blonde hair was tied in an odango with pigtails.

"It's nice to see you too Mala," Chat said sarcastically.

"I've notified Commander Nickal and Commander Jander to prepare for immediate attack," Mala said. "I've already ordered the Mayor to evacuate everyone." She sighed. "Of all the places you could have come, you came to your home Node."

The Node was the Cybran equivalent of a city. The name "Node" had originated when the very first symbionts, serving the Earth Empire, the precursor to the UEF, had been organised into work groups called Nodes. These symbionts had been the very first to undergo the twining process, invented by Doctor Brackman, the leader of the Cybrans.

These Nodes generally consisted of a few residential buildings and agricultural centres combined with standard Tier 1 and Tier 2 power generators. They were however home to often tens of thousands of Cybrans, capable of evacuating themselves in minutes. It was indeed rare that the UEF or Aeon Illuminate would find a Cybran Node.

Five lights lit up nearly simultaneously on the horizon. Mala glared once more at Chat before closing the channel. The UEF had arrived.

-------

Even as the five UEF pilots began their standard build orders, a tactical map appeared before them on their comm screens displaying aspects of the terrain and the placement of mass deposits in the area. Their area was surrounded by mountains, with a ring of dry land surrounding a boiling lake.

An intelligence officer from EarthCom immediately spoke up. "The area around this lake is rich in mass deposits, and there are about 9 mass fields really worth controlling," he said. "We've landed you guys at five such mass fields, leaving four other mass fields for the enemy. We do not know if Commander Chat is the only Cybran commander here, or if there is a Node or Nodes here."

The EarthCom briefer looked down for a moment to remind himself of a piece of information. "At night fall in forty minutes, the temperature will drop very quickly. This area will be filled with fog in minutes, severely restricting the visual radius of your and enemy units. Radar will not be effected, however. Be advised of this fact, as such conditions may advantage Cybran mobile stealth technology. EarthCom out."

It was not long before scout planes began scouring the land. A Node was found on a small peninsula reaching into the lake, constantly enveloped by a cloud of steam from the boiling lake. Chat was found in his base about eight kilometres north of Alex and Granger's positions, north west from the lake. Three other Cybran bases were found scattered in defensive positions around the Node, but ACUs were nowhere to be seen.

Desjar spoke up. "Remember, our objective is to destroy Chat's ACU. We will not hesitate to take out the other ACUs or that Node if they get in the way. He cannot be allowed to escape. Alex, Granger you focus on Chat. I will construct a Gate Nexus and will support Major Weisman and Flinn who will hold off the other three Cybrans. Desjar out."

The four other commanders acknowledged the command and immediately set to work.

-------

The air scouts had been quickly shot down by the first few interceptors that she had constructed, and Mala was rapidly building up, readying herself to mass produce higher tech units. She was directly north of Swieb Node, while Jander was to her immediate west and Nickal was to her immediate east. Chat was of course much further to the west. Both Chat and Nickal were scouting the UEF bases and poking around with a few light bots, looking to take out mechanical engineers here and there.

Mala contacted all three of her subordinates. "We must use our advantage of being here first to full advantage. If your ACU is cloaked, do not hesitate to use it offensively. Chat, you will directly attack the UEF commanders to your south, and Jander will support you in any way he can. Nickal, you and I will attack the other three UEF commanders. We will all need significant naval and air forces if we want to have a chance. Mala out."

Mala closed the channel for Chat and Nickal, but kept it open for Jander. Her eyes softened for a moment as they gazed at him, before returning to their normal state. "Be careful dear," she said, closing the channel.

-------

Raids of Mantises were constantly swinging around Alex and Granger's defensive units, using their superior speed to outrun them. Granger and Alex found themselves needing to almost continually construct new engineers to replace the ones destroyed and to build new mass extractors and other destroyed buildings and reclaim the wreckages of their units and enemy units.

Granger was the first who began constructing a wall with his ACU that stretched from the mountain to the boiling lake. It was only broken by gaps needed so that their own units could get out. The Cybran did not immediately realise this and soon found many of his raids trapped and quickly torn apart. Alex and Granger knew that he would rapidly adapt his strategy as he had always done.

Thus it was that they adapted their own strategies. They began construction on interceptors and began upgrading their factories and their economies to Tier 2. Just as they expected, several air transports soon arrived and attempted to drop new raids of Mantises over the Mantis-proof wall, but were immediately shot down. Engineers rapidly reclaimed the wreckages, fueling the construction of Tier 2 power.

The first raid of Tier 2 enemy units was immediately taken out by combined fire from Flapjack mobile missile launchers, Pillar Tier 2 tanks, and Scorcher bombers. They began sending air scouts to poke around the Cybran bases, looking for weaknesses.

The battle was however rapidly going south for Desjar's squad. Despite their flawless teamwork, Cybrans had camped submarines in front of Flinn's base, temporarily preventing him from constructing naval units, Desjar was having a hard time gaining air superiority in the face of numerous interceptors that were flying over his base, while Weisman was constantly trying to personally fight off airdrops Mantises and Tier 2 Rhino Tanks.

Alex rapidly recognised their problems, and began working on solutions. Flinn would probably shortly find his under heavy bombardment by frigates, and possibly even destroyers. Desjar's lack of air superiority would allow the Cybrans to bomb him with impunity, and Weisman was unable to expand his economy, leaving him completely helpless.

Desjar was relieved as a squad of Alex's interceptors shot the Cybran Prowlers out of the skies. UEF submarines sunk their Cybran counterparts, allowing Flinn to begin construction on his own fleet. Interceptors shot air transports out of the sky, and airdroped MA-12 Strikers were assigned to guard Weisman's engineers.

-------

Clarke surveyed the battle, as well as many others. Intelligence was continually forwarded to her on the state of the war, and it was up to her to decide what should be done. She was a busy woman, and annoyance came to her face when she saw that she had a call. Her eyes however widened when she recognised the identity of the caller.

"President Riley, this is an unexpected pleasure," she said.

"General, may I ask why a pair of newbies on the battlefield for only the second time have been sent in the places of two more experienced commander?" the President demanded. "Other members of Major General Desjar's squad should be down there."

Clarke sighed. Riley's insistence to interfere in military matters was most annoying. Presidents of the past had allowed their Generals and Lieutenant Generals to organise the war effort, but Riley's former position as General led to his involvement. But he was the President and he deserved the truth.

"Sir, I simply ask you to examine their performance," Clarke said. She sent a live feed to Riley's office of the battle, as well as a certain file. "Additionally, examine this file," she said.

The President opened the file and began reading it. He cocked an eyebrow as he began reading it. "The most potent Cybran commander in history? Captured? Then escaped? Very interesting." He continued reading and suddenly widened his eyes enormously. "I think I understand," he said, nodding his head. He turned his gaze back to Clarke. "Destroy this file at once. If either of them were to find out about this, there is no telling what they would do. If our enemies were to find this, they could use it against us. This secret must be kept from them no matter the cost."

"Yes, sir," Clarke said. Riley's face disappeared from the comm screen, and she ordered the file's deletion. A confirmation dialogue box appeared, causing her to hesitate. She nonetheless clicked yes, and the file was permanently deleted. She then noticed a message that had been flashing on her comm screen for a while.

-------

Alex and Granger were both producing far more than they could expend. As well as their numerous mass extractors, each fully upgraded at Tier 3 and at maximum efficiency through placement of adjacent mass storage buildings, they each had several Tier 3 mass fabricators, powered by at least as many Tier 3 fusion reactors.

They only had limited amounts of storage that could be improved upon, but if production exceeded storage capacities, the resources were wasted. It was with this fact in mind that they contacted EarthCom.

"EarthCom, can you give us the schematics of experimental weapons and strategic missile launchers?" Alex asked.

The officer frowned. Generally commanders on the field received the schematics as was necessary, they did not ask for them. "I will have to crosscheck with General Clarke first," he said.

It took a surprising reply to get through to the General, but when he did, she said yes. Before long, the outlines of Fatboy Experimental Mobile Factories and Atlantis Submersible Aircraft Carriers formed in both of their bases.

-------

It was the fortieth minute of the battle, yet neither side looked to yield. Flinn, Weisman and Desjar were struggling. They built unit after unit, but no matter what they did, the enemy continually outproduced them. Seemingly random bomber strikes against radar installations were followed by enormous offensives. Walls of units rushed against their defences, which held, for the moment.

It was thus with utter incredulity that Flinn looked over to the bases of Commanders Selver and Mirandi. "Hey boss, check this out," he said to Desjar.

The Major General, reclaiming new wreckages from the latest Cybran assault, knew that it was a war of attrition. Every Cybran attack pushed deeper and deeper towards their bases and it was only a matter of time before they overran them. The fact was simple, that the Cybrans controlled more resources and that Desjar's squad wasn't able to invest in more resources, as the slightest drop in unit production could spell their doom.

His eyes widened when he saw their bases and what was being constructed. A smile soon replaced it.

"Should we ask them to lend us some resources?" Weisman suggested.

Desjar chuckled. "No, I know what they're doing. And once they've done it, we won't need the resources."

He looked to his forward HUD for one of the first times in the battle. The white Sun of the system was setting. As its last light disappeared, wafts of fog began rising from the lake. A warning light flashed on his tactical interface, and the sight range of his units rapidly dropped.

Chapter 7
Cold Vengeance

"So, what's the plan?" Alex asked. His Fatboy was near to completion, as was Granger's Atlantis.

The Atlantis - the pinnacle of raw submersible firepower could fire numerous powerful Angler torpedoes capable of of eating even the most heavily armoured battleship. It was also more than capable of removing airborne threats with its Surface to Air Missile launchers. But most notably, it had air staging capabilities, capable of carrying up to 150 aircraft.

The Fatboy, on the other hand, was land-based and had been described variously as a continuous fireworks show and weapons platform of death. As incredible as it looked when firing, its sheer firepower was indeed deadly. Its four triple barrelled Gauss cannons could lay waste to any army at range, and a pair of Hells Fury Riot guns ensured any unit that got too close was rapidly torn apart. It also possessed an engineering suite that allowed it to stop and construct any mainstream UEF land unit. The Research & Development centre at EarthCom had even managed to fit a pair of air-staging pads on it. And this was all forgetting its ability to tranverse large bodies of water.

"Well, the premise is simple," Granger replied. "Once your Fatboy is ready, I'll send my Atlantis with it and we'll attack the Cybran base next to Chat."

"Why him?" Alex asked. "Why not Chat?"

"Recon has showed that Chat's base is far too well defended even for an amphibious attack," Granger said. "The second the Fatboy came out of the water, numerous stationary artillery shells and tactical missiles would impact its shield. It would be torn apart in moments. On the other hand, the Cybran next to has primarily been relying on his navy to defend him. However, that navy is attacking commander Flinn as we speak, and there is almost nothing protecting his base. I doubt that we'll get this kind of opening again."

Alex nodded in agreement as his Fatboy was completed.

-------

Jander watched with glee as yet another shield generator in the UEF commander's base collapsed. A Tier 3 fusion plant exploded spectacularly, taking out numerous adjacent structures. Jander knew that the loss of even one enemy commander would improve their odds drastically.

A quick glance to his base revealed a radar blip that had appeared on his tactical interface. The fog meant that his air scout was shot down before it actually saw the enemy unit, but its cameras functioned long enough to capture an image. As it crashed into the ocean behind the enemy unit, Jander saw that it was a Fatboy Experimental Mobile Factory. He panicked for a moment when he realised that he had nothing in his base capable of taking it out, but quickly brought himself under control.

His ACU held both stealth and cloak upgrades, and was almost completely invisible. He would be quite safe to jump under its shield and give it an overcharge bolt in its side. That would be more than enough to destroy it.

-------

Alex watched in horror as a bolt of energy tore straight through his Fatboy's armour and caused its power core to self destruct. It was soon nothing more than a smoking pile of wreckage.

"The attack failed," he said to Granger.

"No it hasn't," Granger replied. Alex could only watch as the Atlantis quickly surfaced and released a trio of Ambassador Tier 3 Strategic bombers. They dropped their bombs around the area that the overcharge bolt had come from. One of the small yeild nuclear bombs clearly hit something, and a Cybran ACU flickered as its cloaking field oscillated under the heavy damage. The bombers came around for another pass, rapidly annihilating the Cybran ACU. They were thrown away in the explosion like a plastic bag caught in the wind.

-------

Chat and Nickal both quickly opened channels to Mala. They both knew that Jander was her little brother, and losing him would have been jarring for her. While they had never lost anyone, they had heard what the sudden onset of grief could do to people. Some might go on a sudden suicidal rampage in their anger, while others would simply shut down. The grief would block their sensory inputs, effectively turning them into vegetables.

"What are you sitting staring at me for?" Mala asked, surprising them both. "We are in the battle of our lives, gentlemen," she continued. "Chat, get an engineer down there and reclaim that Fatboy. My submarine force is about to take down the Atlantis. Reclaim that too. And build something with the extra mass."

She turned to Nickal. "Prepare for another airdrop. We will not lose this battle."

They both nodded in acknowledgement. The battle wasn't over yet.

-------

"Well done both of you," Desjar said to Granger and Alex.

"Well, it was mostly Granger," Alex said. "I mainly just provided the distraction. He found and killed the Cybran."

"I feel bad about giving them the wreckages of the Fatboy and Atlantis though," Granger said. "Who knows what they might be able to build with all that mass."

-------

"Chat, new orders," Mala said to him. "Use the mass to build a nice big wave of Loyalist bots covered by mobile stealth field generators. Attack with them. Their defensive artillery will be useless if they don't see you coming. In particular, see if you can take out Commander Granger, the guy who killed Jander."

"I doubt that even a hundred Loyalists would be able to break through," Chat said, sceptical of Mala's plan. "But I might as well have a go."

After closing the channel, he ordered as many engineers as he could to assist his land factories as other engineers began reclaiming the wreckage of the Fatboy. The sudden rise in mass income as the wreckage began to be dissassembled and converted into mass was siphoned away and pumped into his land factories. He was soon producing Loyalists almost every few seconds.

He however thought carefully about what Mala had told him to do. He knew that if the attack failed he would be defenceless and would leave enormous amounts of wreckage outside the UEF base. They would recover much faster than he and he would not be able to survive. Mala knew this, and yet she had ordered the attack. Something wasn't right.

An idea began forming in his mind as he considered what Mala might really be doing. His suspicions were confirmed as a number of her engineers were dropped outside his base. They immediately began constructing tactical missile launchers. His attack group was soon ready and he ordered it south. He then prepared himself for the inevitable.

-------

Alex had just completed another small artillery post at the front of their bases when he saw a strange blip appear on the radar. Five newly built Klinkhammer Tier 2 fixed artillery installations began turning around to fire, but the blip disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the artillery clueless. Alex readied his overcharge cannon and began striding towards the approaching enemy.

He closely watched his forward HUD for any signs of the enemy. The fog reduced his line of sight to a quarter of its usual value, and all he could see was a blank wall of shimmering white fog. He however saw a large black shape appear in the distance almost as large as his ACU. He instinctively fired his overcharge cannon, immediately frying the unit. Much to his surprise, an EMP blast washed over his ACU as the Loyalist Siege Assault Bot collapsed on itself.

Alex called forth his and Granger's Titans and suddenly found himself in the thick of a battle. His and Granger's force of Titans was exchanging fire with an enormous assault group of Loyalists. They both quickly recognised that the attack was an act of desperation. If it failed, victory was assured.

Alex's upgraded guns destroyed Loyalists whenever it could, otherwise overcharge bolts were peppered into the enemy formation. A personal shield generator ugprade ensured that his ACU's armour remained untouched. He however saw that the Loyalists did not break formation to engage him or their Titans. They just kept walking and a group of them had already brought down a number of his mass extractors.

He and the Titans gave chase as over fifty of the enemy assault bots walked straight into his base. Shield generators fell and factories and power generators were torn apart. A trio of Tier 3 fusion plants exploded in unison as their explosions set each other off. Much to his joy, Granger had completed a Fatboy and it was continuously spraying shots at the Loyalists.

The attack force was soon dealt with, but Alex's base lay in ruins. He immediately began reclaiming and rebuilding. He suddenly realised a most unusual fact. He knew from the beginning that there was something different about the attack, and he was quickly able to hazard a guess as to what it might be.

"He wasn't micromanaging his units," Alex said to himself. "Why wouldn't he micromanage his units? His micromanagement is flawless and deadly, but he didn't do it."

"Maybe he was distracted by something?" Granger suggested.

"Maybe," Alex replied. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. The fact that he attacked with so many units means that his base must have almost nothing in it left. If it had, he would have attacked with it. If we can reclaim these wreckages, we'll be able to build a nice big force capable of taking him out. Spearheaded by a Fatboy or two, we can't lose."

Granger nodded. He immediately queued up his engineers to build another Fatboy as well as more Titans. Alex continued reclaiming and rebuilding. He would probably no longer have an impact on the battle.

-------

Mala thought carefully about what she was about to do. The Gate Nexus that the civilians of the Swieb Node had escaped through long ago was still to her south, and she and Nickal would undoubtedly be able to escape. Additionally, Chat had already transmitted the blueprint files of the Factory, so he would no longer be a concern of theirs. It was time to end the battle.

She saw on Chat's radar that an enormous land force was approaching from the south and would undoubtedly annihilate Chat's base. He had nothing capable of dealing with it, yet he did not move his ACU in an attempt to escape. He had embraced the fact that he would shortly die, but he did not know that it would not be by an officer of the UEF.

She saw that her first volley of tactical missiles was ready, and she opened an open, unencrypted channel. She made sure that every ACU pilot on the battlefield was listening in before she spoke. She turned to Chat.

"Chat, it is time for this battle to end," Mala said. "The schematics have been transmitted, and your purpose has been served. Goodbye."

She launched four tactical missiles at Chat's ACU. He was too dumbfounded to do anything as the missiles approached his ACU. The shield generators in his base registered the missiles as friendly, letting them through. He widened his eyes as the missiles approached.

"You will pay for this, you traitor!" he said as all four missiles connected solidly with his ACU. The enormous explosion engulfed half of his base, and his structures self destructed moments later.

As Granger's forces moved into Chat's now destroyed base, he and the other UEF commanders watched the exchange between the two remaining Cybrans.

"Why did you do that for?" Nickal asked. "He was a good pilot."

"No, he was reckless and insane," Mala said. "He has taken numerous good pilots to their deaths on meaningless missions, and today, he, he killed my brother." Nickal was about to protest, but Mala interrupted him. "Don't dare argue with me. It was because he came here that the UEF came. It was because he came here that Jander is dead. It is his fault, and he deserved to die."

Nickal argued with her no more, and they began moving their ACUs to the Gate Nexus to the south of Mala's base. Alex, Desjar, Flinn and Weisman closed the channel, but Granger kept it open. He knew that conversing with enemies was not encouraged, but he did not care.

"I am sorry it had to be like this," he said.

Granger's sincerity softened Mala's hostile gaze for a moment. "It was not your fault," she said, her facial circuitry gleaming. "You were following orders. He knew the risk, and yet he came here. There is no court in Cybran, UEF or Aeon territory for people like Chat."

Mala's face disappeared from the comm screen and was replaced by static. The explosions from the self-destruction of tens of Cybran buildings and units was registered as she and Nickal gated away. The five UEF pilots exchanged gazes.

"It's over," Alex assessed. "Chat is dead. We're going home." The other UEF pilots nodded in agreement and readied their transports to take them to Desjar's Gate Nexus.

Chapter 8
Epilogue

A week later...

A pair of ACUs stood in front of an enormous structure. At the structure's centre was a UEF quantum gate, generating a wall of plasma that acted as a window through spacetime. But around it were numerous structures, including power generators and energy gathering buildings. It was a Gate Nexus, a quantum gate specifically designed to nearly eliminate the effects of the quantum wake, allowing commanders to gate in quick succession. It was set to the coordinates of Burne, a planet with a large civilian population being threatened by the Aeon.

General Samantha Clarke's face appeared on their comm screens. A map of the area appeared, identifying the locations of other UEF commanders, and enemy Aeon commanders, as well as civilian hubs. "You will gate in around the vicinity of this city," she said, as the screen zoomed in on the immediate area around the city. A pair of flashing UEF signatures appeared, indicating their landing zones. "You will immediately deploy defensive units around the city, and search for and destroy the Aeon commanders that have been sending attack groups towards the city. If possible, you will reinforce any fellow commanders in the area. Major General Hasker is the commanding officer in this mission, and his word will be law."

Clarke was about to close the channel when she remembered something. "You have both been promoted to the rank of Captain for exemplary performance on the battlefield. Well done." Her face disappeared.

Granger and Alex looked to each other and smiled. They walked into the Quantum Gate.

-------

Doctor Brackman, one of the most sought after men in human territory, leader of the Cybran Nation, and scientific genius, examined the blueprint files of the Factory. As infamous as he was, Brackman's 'normal' form was nothing more than a crude hologram. His real self was on the centre of the room, a human brain and spine suspended in a glass cylinder. Symbiont implants reached through the spine and into the brain, flashing as the man thought.

QAI, a galaxy-spanning artificial intelligence had decrypted the schematics of the Factory, but Brackman saw that there was a serious problem. The core of the Factory's technology was not human technology, it was Seraphim. The UEF scientists that had constructed the Factory had somehow found the technology, and observed that it created a quantum field. They were able to install this alien device into a Tier 1 land factory, allowing it to construct any unit up to Tier 3. They had not truly understood how the technology worked, let alone how to reproduce it, and neither did Brackman.

The scientists had clearly lied when they had said that the Factory could be constructed by an ACU, most likely due to limitations in time they had been given.

Brackman quickly observed that what little they knew about the technology might allow them to increase the build rate of their factories without making their factories more expensive. The ACU might be able to expand its onboard mass and energy storage, and possibly even reduce the power of its meltdown detonation.

If the piece of technology had been with him, Brackman would have been gleeful. He might have been able to install quantum fields on every unit on the battlefield, giving it greater structural integrity and allowing it to regenerate armour after it had accrued a certain number of kills, improving the effiency of its onboard computers. Even further in the future they would have been able to construct factories similar to the Factory, capable of constructing even the most complex of units.

But most exciting of all, was the possibility of the quantum fields on units being used to instantaneously improve units from a distance. At a fixed total cost, units on the battlefield might be able to suddenly increase their armour or firepower without having to build them anew. The Tier 1 Mantis could be thus upgraded and kept in use throughout the entirity of the battle, growing in power as more was invested in it. Brackman stroked his holographic beard as a smile came to his face.

The smile however quickly disappeared. As exciting the possibilities were, he did not have the technology. And he doubted that he would ever have the technology in his hands.

-------

Temperatures rose quickly as the white Sun rose above the peaks. Fog danced around the peaks of a massive blood red mountain range, rising sharply thousands of metres above the surrounding landscape. The chiselled knife-like peaks might cause people to imagine they would cut themselves if they got too close. No man or machine had ever come to that sector of the planet, knowing that it was thoroughly inhospitable and any resources were completely inaccessible.

As the fleecy fog was caught and torn away by the morning gale, an observer might have been able to spy a spidery structure clinging to the side of one of the mountains. Beside the structure they might also see a low flat structure on the mountainside. It was shaped like an aircraft, a Cybran aircraft, complete with missile launchers and decorative barbs and spikes.

As the winds subsided, the Cybran aircraft unlatched itself from the peak. Hooks and landing clamps withdrew themselves from the mountainside, destabilising a patch of rock, sending it tumbling down for miles and miles. The aircraft hovered free from the mountain for a few moments, before it suddenly rose away and flew blindingly fast. It circled the mountain three times, seemingly searching for any threats, before it came to a stop on the flat top of a nearby peak.

The other spidery structure unlatched itself from the mountainside as well. It quickly uprighted itself, hovering next to where it had been resting. Its tail moved outwards, ten hooks hanging from it, on which hung four Tier 3 Cybran mechanical engineers. The other Cybran aircraft circled it once before they began moving.

A course was plotted to the nearest group of mass extractors, just outside the mountain range. The fixed wing aircraft circled the air transport as they began making their way to their destination.

The air transport was of course the Dragon Fly, the most potent Cybran air transport in use. It possessed limited air-to-air capabilities, as well as an air-to-ground laser capable of paralysing ground units. Its defining feature was however its ten transport hooks, allowing it to carry up to ten units to the battlefield at high speed.

But it was nothing compared to the unit that circled it. The angular fixed wing craft was none other than the Gemeni Tier 3 Air Superiority Fighter. Possessing enormous amounts of armour for an air unit, a few hits from a anti-air flak turret would not faze it, and it flew so quickly that most anti-air turrets had trouble keeping up with it. Its Nanite Missile Launchers almost never missed, unlike wayward UEF and Aeon counterparts, and its ability to hide itself from radar turned it almost into a psychological weapon. These craft would swoop in out of nowhere and decimate even most massive fleets of Tier 1 interceptors.

Due to the lack of energy income, the air superiority fighter was unable to stealth itself. The lack of radar and the fact that the sector had not been well mapped meant that the fighter had to continually go ahead of the transport and find a way through the mountains. The transport was having enough trouble carrying four Tier 3 engineers, and it could not ascend very high at all. Normally, the fighter would just fly over the mountains, but the transport did not allow it to.

After many long hours of journey, the two Cybran units arrived at their destination. The air superiority fighter landed, followed by the transport. The four engineers were freed and began their work. One began hunting down trees and rocks to reclaim and boost their income, while another began constructing mass extractors. The other two immediately began on a number of Tier 1 power generators.

Small engineering drones were released and began circling the construction site. The engineers beamed mass and energy to them, allowing them to fill their targets and allow them to come to life. With minutes, the first land factory had produced numerous Tier 1 engineers, and they began assisting the construction of a Tier 2 power generator. It was not long before a small base came into existence, powered by a Tier 3 energy economy and a network of Tier 3 mass extractors.

Contrary to the design of normal air superiority fighters, this one had what appeared to be a cockpit. An airlock on the side of the craft opened with a hiss of equalising pressures, and a tall figure in a pressure suit emerged. He took out a remote control and pressed a button, causing a Tier 1 mechanical engineer, a vehicle several times the size of a normal transport vehicle, to approach him. He climbed up the side of the vehicle and pressed another button. It turned around and began approaching the base.

It passed a mass extractor, an enormous cylindrical building supporting a drill that turned around and pulled itself up, continually feeding mass into the economy. The man saw an enormous Tier 3 power generator, an Ion Reactor. There was a continuous defeaning crackle of the static electricity it produced at its top, and bolts would often arch up into the sky. He observed other engineers bumping into each other in their attempt to get in range to construct a new Tier 3 power generator that was slowly coming to shape. Shaking his head, he noted that pathfinding needed to be improved.

He soon came to the very centre of the base, a Tier 3 land factory. Its titantic superstructure was surrounded by sixteen Tier 1 power generators, each reducing its need to spend energy to bring in power. The man jumped from his perch on the engineer, landing on the ground with a solid thud. The engineer soon rolled away, having been assigned to a new construction project, but the man paid it no heed.

He walked to the Tier 3 land factory, each footstep solidly thudding against the tarmac that the engineers had laid. A door opened in front of him, leading to an elevator. He walked in, the door silently closing behind him. He verified that the atmosphere in the elevator and other parts of the building would allow him to survive before he removed his helmet.

His eyes gleamed almost wildly, contrasting with his near jet-black skin and night black hair. Flashing red wires tunneled in and out of the side of his face, appearing almost as if they had been forced in from the outside. It was of course Chat.

As the elevator ascended, he thought to himself, "When will people realise that getting me is not easy. Mala will be pleasantly surprised when I return."

The doors of the elevator opened, revealing a small control room overlooking the inside of the factory. Another Tier 3 engineer was being constructed, its frame being fed by numerous protosynths scattered around the factory. Chat cleared the construction orders as soon as the unit was completed. He removed a datachip from his pocket, and inserted it into a slot.

A screen quickly displayed an image of the schematics of the unit. It was a red and black, almost demon-like unit. It had four horns on its head and an array of glowing red eyes. Spikes came out of its shoulders, making it appear far larger than it was. Its two arms held a protosynth, a molecular ripper cannon, and a self repair matrix. It was the ultimate weapon of war.

This unit was soon under construction. Mass was almost painted into it, using enormous amounts of energy to carefully place every component and every rivet and bolt. Chat smiled as his new ACU began forming in front of him.

Nice start on the story. It's got good readability and good action so far. I'll wait to see where you're taking this before I make any further comments.

Keep up the good work,

Marc

Thanks.

You might have noticed that I'm including information about SupCom such that even someone who has not played it before will be able to understand. Sorry if anyone finds this tedious, but it will taper off as the story progresses.

I wish the game were really like this.

Very good start! Nicely written. It's too early to say much about the story, though, so I'll keep reading.

Thanks again.

The next installment shouldn't be too far away. I'm going to write as much as possible in this story while I'm still enthusiastic.

Chapter 2 is up.

Can you put ch2 in one of your reserved spots? It would make it much easier to find.

That's actually one of the great things about your story- i can tell that you're trying to do that, but it's not interfering with the story at all. Then again, i've only played the game like 4 times, so i actually need a lot of that information.

Hit Ctrl-F, and type Chapter 2.

That's what I always do

That would be too smart for me.

Good job. The story is getting interesting. Let's see what these guys can do.

Marc

Chapter 3 - Deception is now up.

You will soon understand what all the deception is about.

Good chapter. The debrief on this mission ought to be a bitch. The action is good and the story line is developing. I think we could use a little more character background on our heroes.

Keep up the good work,

Marc

Chapter 4 - Chat is here.

If only Swieb were still here

Edit title?

Oooooooh, reading time!

That was definitely different. Good job. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Marc

Awesome! There is little else I can say.

I don't quite get why the cybrian had to fake his death though. Why not just leave when he could?

I know I don't need to justify myself as Cybrans always know best (what with their implants and all), but I might as well.

The combined forces of the UEF would get into his main base before the solar storm (or whatever I said was blocking quantum gating) would clear.

Alternatively, if he had built a gate and they knew about it, they would likely have been able to take it out no matter where due to the gunships they had.

Faking his death bought him an extra minute or two, and probably would have even allowed him to get away without them having a clue had they not realised that his firebase was on the other side of his main base.