Sector - 1783 - Barren desert, An allience strike team has arived here.

[VincentW]

Vincent and his men ducked, ran, combat rolled, scattered! Anything to dodge the oncoming strafing runs from the Krynian Space Force. 40% of the platoon survived the strafing runs, using their opponents as body shields and momentum to get out of the way. The skirmish was a bloody one, but Vincent expected casualties to be high. Ever since the loss of his arm his regard to life was at an all time low. Having total disregard for protocol or practical battle tactics. The Field Marshall resorted to chaotic warfare to confuse and instill fear into the enemy. As for Leumas, two Klamathian Infantry flanked him on either side with their rifles at the ready picking off any Krynian who dared to harm him. Of course, the strafing run and carpet bombs had dismembered one of the cybernetic soldiers, leaving him legless. A spray of hydraulic fluid and limb wires were scrambled in a fray where his calf's should of been. Still, the wounded shoulder laid in the prone position firing his A4 in a last ditch effort to fulfill his orders to keep the Spirit Guide alive. The difference between the Zerian infantry and Klamathian infantry other than body parts and cybernetics was that the Klamathians never harms Leumas, or taunted him. Instead, the warriors stayed silent around him, and gave him a reassuring nod when he came within eye contact.

Vincent and the remnants of his 505th company shot down the retreating Krynians, and fired personal rocket launchers at the service drones who extracted the ore.

The Klamathian Field Marshall looked back at Nikana through the grenade blast. His protective mask kept his hearing from going earshot, and deaf.

"You've been here for TWO days! You've should of had a FUCKING army with you god damnit!"

He was cut short in his rant as he fired off the last of his .44 clip into the back of a retreating Krynian officer.

[Leumas]

Despite the cover the cybernetic soldiers provided, the possessed Leumas would still take heavy damage...thankfully not losing any limbs. The "bracelet" he wore lit up, and a strange blue energy began to envelop Leumas' form. A temporary shield formed around him. "The boy's wounds are too numerous. Anything more, will probably kill him. I am going to deposit him near the medics.." The spirit spoke through him in a monotonous voice, and did just what it said it would do-it headed back.

[Phenexian]

The Orb reapeared. The boy was wounded - now was the time. Flying towards him a long tentacle progected out if it and touched the Star Seed. A flash of fiery light eminated from it, nere by troops were all dead (and fortunately not Zerian). Leumas was now in some sort of bubble a mile away 'Fear not master you will feel better in no time' said the orb.

[Lezz Markon]

His troops were holding out well, and now they could leave. 'Get the charges ready, we want to blow up anything that could make them realise what the metal is for'
As he said that there was a huge explotion, he turned to see the wreckage of their escape ships - no gun could have done that - then it dawned on him 'WHO LEFT THE CHARGES BY THE SHIPS!' this wasn't good they couldn't destroy the evidence and they couldn't leave.
'DRONES! Find Sam tell him we need the aid of his ship - he has to take the Gravmitite to the Queen, I'll catch up when I can.

[Lezz Markon]

Lezz Pulled out a Huge Sawd, It looked fairly low tech but attached to the hilt were gene extractors - the venom that was corupting his body would poisen anyone who was stung by his blade.

He leapt in to the battle field, In a mad rush of blades and Cannons he cut a huge hole in Zerian forces.

[Phenexian]

The drone looked at Leumas's wounded body, hmm, the phantoms have actualy been using him like a wepon. He needs rest.
The orb tapped in to his mind 'Listen Phantoms - and you, you strange artifact - he is hurt, if you have any thing for this boy to do, you will have to wait, let me patch him up and let him rest'
Then he spoke directly to Leumas, 'We know you want to leave. Phenexian is rebuilding his ship (The Nova Pheonix), when it is done he will send it here to pick you up, try to hold ou untill then.'

Then the orb got back to reconstructing the dammaged flesh.

[SamWashington]

Sam was about to disable the disguise field and lift off when the drones came forward and explained. ".....you want -me- to get the ore to Her Highness. . .okay. Go get it and load it into the cargo bay, then!! And I suppose I'll release something to keep the Zerians at bay.." With the press of a button, about forty hovering combat units and thirty combat drones were released from the ship. The Hov-Drones were about two times the size of a volleyball, and toted machine guns. The combat drones were humanoid, about 5'5 in size, and fought with assault rifles. The machines moved forward to bolster the Krynian lines! Sam sighed as he waited for the ore to be loaded into his ship.

[Nikana Jamie Diri]

Nikana definitely felt something. She and the few Zerians left over were withdrawing. They all hoped their Klamathian brothers were doing the same. They would live to fight another day... they had not the firepower nor morale to keep up the assault on the camp, though their own ambush left it pretty much decimated anyway. It wasn't often that Nikana saw a fight so chaotic and destructive to anything resembling "life."

Where was Leumas? His body was nowhere to be found. Already thoroughly annoyed, she started to hate him. To desert the Zerian army after the loss of so many brothers and sisters... his cowardly lack of honor and pride for his country and people made visions of torture and his death run through her mind - visions she knew she'd never materialize, but it was nevertheless satisfying to think about.

[Leumas]

...but I probably can't desert...I just need a break. I'll request leave. But first, I have to get back to the force. Why'd he warp me away? I've got to get--back?

A circle of precursor glyphs appeared. With a flash, Leumas was in the center of said glyphs. Upon seeing Nikana, he saluted. His cloak billowed behind him, but not from the desert wind. His artifact was shining, various lines of glyphs running around his body. "...sorry. Phenexian did something and warped me." The glyphs faded, and his artifact went dark. He sighed, falling onto one knee. The healing process had been interrupted, but the wounds were not fatal anymore--they still hurt, though. It was taking all his willpower not to collapse in front of Nikana. His uniform was slowly growing darker and slicker with blood as each second passed, and his eyes, ever hollower and more distant. It was apparent he was about to pass out.

[Phenexian]

The Orb was confused - OK it couldn't probe his deep subconcious - but this sudden change of mind was odd, still the orb would help him accomplish whatever he wanted.
The Orb made it self vizable to Leumas and Nikana, 'Master, I am Ceebrok Orb. My instructions are to fuflill your wishes and keep you safe, this is not the same as 'follow your orders' but if you need me I am at you sevice'

[Lezz Markon]

After dodging the various battles the Gravmitite was finaly on the ship,
'Lezz Marcon says "good luck Sam your going to need it"' Informed the drone 'He will catch up to explain the reason for all this conflic to the queen'
Then the drone reentered the battle.

[Nikana Jamie Diri]

Nikana would slow to a walk once at a safe distance... the length of which was really dictated by instinct, because in reality there wasn't much, if anything at all, chasing them. Kryna's forces were just as trashed.
"Tell me what that is, Leumas."

Nikana was already a little annoyed simply because of the situation, and she didn't feel like she had time to deal with the introduction of strange new powers in one of her soldiers.

[Leumas]

"This...this is a Precursor Artifact. I found it on Klamath, some strange spirit lead me to it. As far as I know, it's called a 'Key' but I don't know what it's to." He pressed the button, and with a light hum, the holo-interface appeared. "It's capable of communication with almost any device that can receive transmissions...and, in some rare cases, it can teleport things. It's also wired into my nervous system." Did Leumas say that right? A spirit led him to it...?

[SamWashington]

Sam nodded, and sighed. He lifted off. "Weapons energy redirected to shields and Warp Drive. Shield capacity at 150%...engines set to throttle, escaping orbit." He muttered, and with a jolt, he sped towards space, looking down at the shrinking planet underneath him.

[Phenexian]

While they were talking the Ceebrok Orb was summoning a cloaking shield to protect the two young ones. 'Miss Nikana?' asked the Orb 'I was wondering, why does the aliance want the metal? It may be of importance to the mission.' As the Orb said that a few shells bounced off the shield as they were leaves.

[VincentW]

Vincent and the remnants of the 505th Klamathian Infantry were ducked behind cover giving suppressing fire to the retreating Zerian Infantry. "Cowards.." Vincent knew he and his men wouldn't last long either if he didn't retreat, but his apathy to life was just too great...For now

The A4AR's popped out of their cover like a whack the beaver game to send a volley of bullets to pelt the oncoming combat drones who were recently deployed. Vincent had acquired an A2MG. The bipod was deployed atop of the cover, and the Field Marshall made it his personal duty to lay waste to the oncoming Krynian forces. What was left of 1st platoon was only a squad of men, 7 men tops. Vincent's A2 ran dry, forcing him to duck down and huddle his men together.

"Listen men. I don't care if the Zerian's are retreating, we're going to complete the mission and keep that ore from leaving this planet. Miles, Stowers, Nielson. Ready your launchers, the rest of you provide covering fire and ensure these three hit those service drones. Bring some fuckin' pride to the Klamath name!"

Vincent reloaded another box belt into the A2MG, and pressed forward with a suprise attack. The squad flanked left with the three rocketmen sighting in on the service drones. Adrenaline modules and endorphin triggers leaked through the spinal columns of their owners, giving them the edge they needed to make the plan work. Bounding forward in 3-5 second rushs, the infantrymen cleared a hole for the rocketmen to open fire. A volley of rockets launched off with a spiraling cloud of smoking trailing behind the explosives. One service drone extracting the ore was knocked out of comission, the second blown into two, and the third missed it's mark.

Over the hail of gunfire, the flanking squad kept to their cover as they took pop shots at the Krynian's and their drones.

"RELOAD THE LAUNCHERS AND TAKE THAT DRONE OUT!"

The rocketmen kept low behind a blasted piece of plasteel as they locked another rocket into the tube.

"COVERING FIRE!"

The Field Marshall's A2MG, and his men's rifles went off sending thunderclaps to echo throughout the desert as the rockets were shot out. The volley didn't miss this time, knocking the last drone to the ground.

(And I'm too late for this post to do anything)

[Nikana Jamie Diri]

"I wasn't aware that they wanted the metal until now. Obviously it has some worth.. it's probably a new found resource, though doubtfully more potent than zortink."
They would pass deep into the desert. The sun was coming up, and everyone was absolutely miserable. It was here that Nikana determined to be a safe place, and called in transport.

[Phenexian]

'Seems like ALOT of trouble to be going through for something LESS valuable than zortink.' Stated the drone.

[Lezz Markon]

Lezz was back in the Medi-bay, well what was left of it, the combat had increaced his blood flow, which meant he was mutating faster. His arm was now covered in scales (at least where there weren't any deep wounds) and some of his teeth were the wrong shape. He needed some treatment and preferably stasis. But he had acces to neither.
He had to hope a way off the planet showed itself.

[Leumas]

Leumas's vision was going very blurry. He wasn't staying up much longer. With the press of a button, the holo-interface faded, and he fell. "Spirit Guide down!" The searing desert heat was replaced by the cool, illusionary dreamland of unconsciousness.