Chapter 5: Ruins

	As his vision faded back in, Nick tried desperately to make out the vague shapes before his 
eyes. Pink. That was good. Maybe human. Maybe. Ummm… let’s see. A mess of might be vaguely 
described as yellow above that. Hair? Sounds good. Who do I know that’s blond…
	“Wake up you worthless slacker!”
	Aargh. That’s who.
	“Go away,” he muttered, closing his eyes again, “I’m dead.”
	“Not yet,” came the reply through firmly clenched teeth. What was that sound? Knuckles 
cracking? He sat bolt upright.
	“Feeling better?”
	“Urrargh!”
	“Good.”
	Sarah backed off a little, and sat down. Nick straightened up, and cross his legs, putting him in 
a vaguely seated position.
	“How long have I been out?”
	“Day or so.”
	“What’d I miss?”
	“Do you want the good news or the bad news?”
	“Bad.”
	“Well, the Bronco’s a wreck, Ben’s in trouble, there’s a huge Invid hive not too far from here, 
and last thing I knew was there was a flight of Invid headed for the base.”
	“The rest had better be good.”
	“Umm… there is no good news. It just sounded better that way.”
	“Ah.” An uncomfortable silence came over both of them, as they looked at each other. “Heard 
anything more recent than that? The result of the big fight, maybe?”
	“No luck. Lost my communicator in a battle. Hovercycle too.”
	“You musty have been lucky to get out of there.”
	“Not really. They weren’t really looking for intruders, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. The odd 
thing was they’ve got humans with them.”
	“What, humans working with Invid?”
	“Well, not quite. They looked really odd. Kind of slack-faced.”
	“Kind of?”
	Sarah yelled “Well, it’s the best reccy I could do while being shot at!”
	“Ow, take it easy. Headache, you know.”
	“Sorry,” she said, calmed down. “You were just plain lucky to have escaped that.”
	“Don’t ask me how. I think the Bronco’s got a twisted ejection system or something. It must 
have shot me out backwards.”
	“Lucky for you it did.”
	“Yeah.” Another uncomfortable pause. “So, ah, how do we get back to base?”
	“It’s still a fair walk, but you’re in no shape for it.”
	“Me? I’m as strong as anything.” Nick demonstrated his point by standing up. Or trying to. The 
cacophony of yells and embarrassed collapse onto the ground that resulted was enough to get Sarah 
giggling. “Hey, it’s not that funny, you know,” said Nick, as he got back to his semi-sitting position. He 
smiled a bit and said, “You know, that’s the first time I’ve seen you even crack a smile.”
	Sarah went instantly straight-faced, blushed a bit, and responded “Oh. Big deal,” and hurriedly 
added, “You need some rest. I’ll watch. We’ll set out tomorrow morning.”
	“Fair enough,” he said, and settled back onto the ground. Slipping slightly brought his elbow 
down hard on a rock (which he swears wasn’t there before) and caused him to let out a yelp of pain. 
Unable to help herself, Sarah let out another brief giggle. “It’s not that funny, you know!” Nick yelled at 
her, to which she immediately stopped.
	Nick closed his eyes and rolled over, trying to huddle up and protect himself from the chill. 
“That’s twice now,” he said smugly.
	“Shut up!”

	As far as the eye could see, the place was in ruins. The tarmac pock-marked with blaster 
holes, the command bunker collapsed inwards and the radar center twisted into scary shapes by 
immense heat. Smoke had stopped rising and the ground seemed cool, so at least it had happened a 
while ago. Which also meant that anyone could have been trapped under there for a while to.
	As he surveyed the scene of destruction, Nick let out a low whistle. Damn those Invid, he 
though, they really know how to wreck a place. They moved ahead, Nick semi-walking by leaning on 
Sarah’s shoulder was staying upright. All this morning, he’d marvelled at how strong she seemed. And 
how much she smelt like a gorilla on heat.
	“It’s not as bad as it looks,” said Sarah, “Most of the important stuff’s underground, and the 
passages are reinforced. They should’ve survived.” I hope, she added silently.
	Not far away, a piece of the ground simply opened up, like a lifting lid. A stern face, with 
attached moustache and black hair lifted out of the hatchway. They both recognised David immediately.
	“Sarah!” called out David, climbing out of the hatchway.
	“David! You’re alive!” called out Sarah, running over to help him out of the escape hatch.
	“Aargh!” Screamed Nick, to no-one in particular, as he realised he was leaning on Sarah a bit 
too much. “Owie.”
	“So, how’d you survive down there?” asked Sarah, pointedly ignoring Nick struggling to his 
feet.
	“GMP issue concrete skull,” he said, walking over to Nick, and helping him up. “Looks like 
you’ve got an illegal one there.”
	“Better book me for stealing supplies,” he replied wryly. “Ow.”
	“What happened?” asked Sarah.
	“The Invid managed to catch us with our pants down. They buzzed in like crazy, and totalled 
the generator with there first salvo. Then they hit everything that seemed important, and buzzed off. 
The mecha were deactivated in the repair bay, so they weren’t picked up.”
	“Survivors?”
	“Just about everyone. This base was built to survive massive air and land assault.”
	“Pity the Invid didn’t bother with the land bit, or we’d be in great shape,” Nick interjected.
	Sarah gave him a withering look, then turned back to David. “What about the mecha, and the 
other pilots?”
	“Ben’s fine, if that’s what you mean.” She blushed. “He’s busy trying to get the mecha bay 
doors to open again. How about a report?”
	“The Invid have set up a large hive not far from here, sir.”
	“That would explain their unusual activity. Odd that they didn’t do a more thorough job of 
clearing the area before building it.”
	“One more thing.”
	“Apart from requisitioning a new Hovercycle?”
	“The Invid had humans working with them. They were patrolling the base on foot.”
	“Worrying.” David rubbed his chin for a moment, then said “You’d better get down here. A 
couple of spare hands wouldn’t go astray.” He turned to Nick. “And you look like you need a good 
looking to.”
	Sarah helped Nick down the ladder, then followed down herself. David turned and looked in 
the direction they came from, where he had sent Sarah on recon and where the Invid kept coming from. 
A hive… Just what we need right now.
	He shook his head, let out a little sigh, and followed them down into the corridors.

	“Okay, let ‘er rip!” called out Ben to the technician at the controls several levels down. He was 
tired, sweaty, slightly stiff, but mostly nervous as hell. Work this time. Please!
	The technician called out “Okay,” and flipped the switch. A slight grating noise gave the 
impression that this would fail like the last two attempts, but then the machinery hummed smoothly and 
the bay doors swished open like they’d never been damaged. A cheer came up from the assembled 
work crew as daylight poured into the room, flooding the suddenly ineffectual interior lighting and 
washing away the all-too-familiar shadows. It hurt his eyes to be seeing such a bright sky so suddenly, 
but as he turned his head away from the roof he was glad to be seeing it at all.
	“Okay, everyone, great job,” he said, climbing down the scaffolding ladder on the side of the 
bay. “You all deserve a break. Give it fifteen minutes, then let’s see if we can get this elevator working 
again.” The crowd began to disperse.
	As he reached the floor level, he saw someone coming into the bay. It was Sarah, looking 
around, trying to find someone. “Hey!” he called out to her.
	Sarah looked across the room, startled. She dashed over to Ben as he was walking slowly 
across the bay, and flung her arms around him. Ben was startled for a second, but then put his arms 
around her and rested his head gently on her shoulder. He was again surprised to hear her voice 
wavery, and slightly muted. “I was so scared for you.”
	He regained his composure, and replied softly “Yeah. Me too.”
	Nick limped into the bay, and saw the spectacle on the other side. A slight frown formed on his 
face, as he thought wryly At least someone’s happy.
	“Hey!” Nick spun to his left to see who had called out to him. Dovak was nearby, strolling 
towards him. His Bioroid pilot’s suit was filthy, smeared in some places with oil, and the sleeves had 
been torn off. Dovak walked up to him, then looked him up and down. “You look terrible,” he said in his 
wonderfully honest manner.
	“You’re not mister sparkle yourself, fella.”
	“Huh?”
	“Never mind,” said Nick, turning to look at Sarah and Ben again.
	“What’s up?” Dovak looked in the same direction. “What’s with them?”
	“You know. Girl & guy stuff,” he replied.
	“Huh. That’s supposedly what beat the T’sentraeti.” He shrugged. “Go figure,” he said, and 
wandered off.
	Nick looked away, and his eyes caught on the Strike Garland, currently sitting inoffensively in 
hovercycle form nearby. Something snapped in his mind. A nagging worry became a full-blown sense 
of dread as he spun around and lay his eyes on the traditional spot of the Bronco…