“Doctor Henderson says that I am doing really good, he says that there is a surgery I can have that cost less that can improve my condition by at least five percent. Maybe if I am able to get a little better you can leave the Military completely.”

Jack sat beside his sister Katies bed in the San Cantos Hospital, it was a beautiful day that day and the sun was shining through the large window behind him. He silently held his sisters hand, he could feel the weakness in her hand as she tried to hold onto his. The brown haired, blue eyed woman was smiling and talking as if she was getting so much better, but Jack knew that she was not getting better but she was just getting worse now. He could see her once pure facial features succumbing to the aggressive cancer that was eating away at her body, she barely could keep weight on herself now and she was declining rapidly. The doctors were only giving her a year at the very latest, but now with the rapid progression of the cancer, they were giving her maybe months if that. He had not told her nor did the doctors at his request, there was only one treatment that could help her, and if he could afford it then it would save her life and erase this cancer from her body.

“Thats great sis, I spoke to Doctor Henderson when I arrived he told me of the procedure himself, but I am thinking that perhaps we should get the procedure that will cure you. How does that sound to you?”

Jack tried to feign a smile to give his sister courage, to give her hope, but seeing her now in such bad condition he could barely manage to even look like he was happy none the less fake it.

“But you said we couldn't afford that operation Jack???”

Jacks sister looked at him confused, he sighed knowing that what he was going to tell her was going to hurt her in a lot of ways. He had been dreading telling her of his trip to Mars, that planet held memories that were still so incredibly painful to both of them.

“I was contacted by the UAC, in fact they are the reason I am here right now with you. They have offered me complete coverage for your surgery now and in the future, if I would be willing to do a job for them... on Mars..”

Katie's eye's became widened at the mention of Mars, the monitors suddenly spiked in heart rate as her face became embroiled in pain.

“No Jack... I don't want you to go to Mars, not that place, not that planet. I don't want you to go there ever, not for me or anyone else.. you can't please...”

Katie shed tears down her cheeks as she gripped his hand as tightly as she could her heart rate was spiking back and forth now as a beeping went off.

“Katie, Katie, calm down okay, you have to calm down. Its going to be okay, I promise you Katie everything is going to be okay. I will be fine and once I am done, we are going to get you the procedure you need and were both going to walk out of the hospital together. You remember right? How were gonna go straight to the ice cream shop we went to as kids and bankrupt the place right?”

“No! I don't want you to go please! Don't go there Jack, I don't wanna lose you, I don't wanna lose you, I can't lose you, I can't, I can't...”

Jacks sister heart monitor went berserk as her breathing became ragged and a loud alarm sounded in her room, her eye's rolled back in her head as she went into convulsions, white substance shot from her mouth as Jack stood up immediately grabbing her to hold her down.

“Doctor, Nurse, anyone I need help in here!!!!”

Jack was quickly pushed aside as medical personnel entered the room and quickly attended too Katie who was still convulsing on the bed. Jack was pushed out of the room as Katie was attended to by multiple nurses and Doctors, as he watched the world slowed down for him as Katies heart monitor flat-lined. Jack slid slowly down the wall as he put his hands over his head and ears, he closed his eye's tight not knowing what to do. When Jack opened his eye's a hand was on his shoulder, looking up the Doctor was standing above him.

“Mr. Preacher could we talk in my office?”

Jack sat in the doctors office as his face was in his hand, the news he had just heard drained whatever energy or hope was left in him.

“I am sorry Mr.Preacher but the cancer has progressed faster then any of us could have predicted it would, we had to induce a medical coma just to avoid her from having lasting brain damage. Her vitals are stable now, but with the current rate of decline I have to inform you that she has maybe a week, two at the very latest now. If she doesn't have the procedure soon, then we have to start discussing the options of life support and what you would like us to do.”

Jack gripped his head hard with one hand and gripped the wooden arm rest of the check, he grinded his hand as the wood warped and twisted under his hard grip.

“How can she be fine one minute and then dieing the next!? She was fine, she was talking and smiling! How can it change just like that!?”

“Mr. Preacher... you have to understand that the type of cancer she has is very aggressive, its very unpredictable, some people it can take years and others it can take days an in extreme cases it can take hours. Our best guess is that it finally made it to her brain and spinal cord, which would explain her seizures and convulsion. The reality is that we need to preform the surgery within the week or there will be nothing we can do to reverse this.”

Small tears formed in the corners of Jack's eye's as he gritted his teeth and tried to process that his sister was dieing and quickly. He had no other alternative now, he was going to Mars no matter what it would cost, no matter what it entailed, he needed the UAC to cover the procedure or she was going to die.

“Keep her stable Doctor, I will have the money for the procedure, there is no mights or maybe's I will get the money. Do you understand? I will not watch my sister die! I don't care if it cost's me my own life...”

Jack stood up and walked out of the office before anything else could be said, soon her found himself back in his sisters room, she has tubes of all sorts running through her now, her chest was incubated and breathing on a machine. Jack approached her slowly and slowly put his hand on her head and gently stroked her hair, he couldn't bare to see her this way but he had to be strong for her now there was no more time for tears. Leaning in close Jack whispered to his sister before giving her a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“I won't let you go Katie, I am going to get you that procedure no matter what it cost me. I love you more then you know.”



Jack was silent standing in the weapons depot in the Delta Airstrip on the cool summer night, opening the black case before him there was a slight glow from the weapons within. Taking out one of the pistols it glowed green lowly against the black metal, clicking a small button on the top of the gun it opened with a subtle small hiss as he looked it over, there was a green compressed power cell in the center. Closing the gun a display screen on the side of weapon clicked on and a number appeared on the side indicating how many shots were left on the cell. Jack set the weapon down and picked up the identical weapon in the case and did the same check before taking out the shoulder holsters and putting them on over the black thin military armor he wore over his chest, clasping the holsters in the center of his chest he placed the guns in them and secured them with an electronic beep.

“Are they to your satisfaction Mr. Preacher? Those two weapons are the newest edition of the Bio Force Gun series, the BFG XLS150s, they come with on screen display for ammo count, compressed cells for more ammunition each load and they are semi to automatic capability. They also come equipped with our newest built in targeting HUD as requested. You must have some serious connections to get these, the XLS150s are not even in circulation yet to the main UAC Security Force.”

Jack ignored the man talking to him, removing the cigarette from his mouth he flicked it onto the concrete of the depot as he reached into the black case and removed the double edged blade and slipped it into the sheath on his leg securing it in.

“Right... we also have filled your request for the newest edition of the plasma shotgun Zenith XLT 100, it is in the next case, it comes with easy hand grip near the back stock, same compressed cell as the XLS150s and of course the ammo counting mechanism which is located on the side. We also pre installed the targeting scope you wanted onto the back rails as well.”

Jack moved sideways not saying anything again placing the cigarette back in his mouth and opening the long black case which housed the shotgun he had requested. Taking it out he tested the scope, it was quick to target body heat within the depot, taking the scope from his eye he pulled back a lever on the side revealing the cell compartment giving it a once over before placing it back in the box and clasping it shut.

“Are you going to war or something Sir? You have a lot of fire power there for just a routine inspection on Mars.”

Jack looked up at the younger UAC Marine, taking the smoke out of his mouth he flicked it to the floor and crushed it under the black military style boot and looked him in the eye.

“Not that it concerns you soldier but I will be instructing Mars Sec on the eventual use of these new weapons, as you stated before they are not available to the public Marine Force on Mars and they won't be until a training operation in their use is conducted. My business on Mars is of top secret importance so your silence would be much appreciated. Do I make myself clear? Otherwise if any of this is leaked to the wrong sources you will be court marshaled and spend a considerable amount of time in federal prison with a hefty fine.”

The young soldier gulped as he merely nodded his head at Jack whom merely nodded and grabbed the long black case heading out of the depot. Walking on the airstrip the sun had all but set on the day, the departure for Mars was at 8:00 pm sharp, so hopefully whomever he was escorting would be here on time. Walking up to the large transport a younger man in a suit was waiting for Jack, it was the same man who had contacted him in the first place. Jack grimaced as if in pain when he approached the man, he didn't even want to talk to him, but alas where was the choice.

“Mr. Preacher I am glad you made it, I am sorry to hear about your sister's condition, it is unfortunate that the young should have to suffer so.”

Jack glared coldly at the man, setting the case down he went forward and grabbed him by his tie and pulled him in, the man didn't seem to phases by the show of force as Jack spoke to him angrily.

“How the hell do you know about my sister or her condition? What gives you the right?!”

“Calm down Mr. Preacher I did not come here to merely tell you that I know of your sisters condition, in fact I came here to personally tell you that her medical bills have been payed, she will be prepped for the procedure she needs, however this only happens upon completion of our agreed upon deal of course. I figured time could not be wasted, all you have to do is finish the job and you and her walk out of the hospital together.”

Jack released the mans tie and pushed him away, the man merely adjusted his tie with a small little mysterious smirk. Jack stepped up to him and got in his face and spoke harshly to him:

“When this over you stay the hell away from my sister you bastard. UAC has caused enough pain in her life, your using my sisters illness to strong arm me into this job and I guarantee that I am ready to break yours.”

“I understand your frustrations Mr. Preacher, perhaps you can find some closure while you are up there, after all the graves are still there, you should visit...”

“Shut your damn mouth, don't you speak another word, don't you dare talk about my...”

Jack was up in the mans face when a set of headlights illuminated both of the men, a UAC vehicle was approaching them both.

“Ah that must be Mrs. Smith, right on time.”

The man backed away from Jack and turned to meet the vehicle however Jack grabbed the mans arm and turned him back around and put his face close to his.

“Stay away from my sister, or I promise you a pain that no medicine can cure. When this is done you will do well to disappear and never shadow our doorstep again.”

Jack let go of the mans arm, readjusting his suit the man went to meet the vehicle as Jack picked up the black case and climbed into the transport.

Maria walked into her closet as she started to pack up her things, she looked over her shoulder seeing her girlfriend laying on the bed slowly waking up seeing Maria was packing her things. "Do you remember the last time you were at Mars?" Jessica had asked referring to Maria's mechanical right arm that was now attached to her shoulder, she had lost it when there was an equipment malfunction luckily the UAC had managed to give her a replacement state of the art arm which worked just as well if not better. She froze for a moment remembering what had happened five years ago before moving back to Earth. "I know, but my sister is still there and I haven't heard from her in weeks."

Jessica slowly got up and wrapped her arms around Maria's waist and sighed as she gently kissed her on the back of the neck. "I know you worry about her and I completely understand." Jessica said with a soft sigh as Maria turned around and kissed her girlfriend once more and smiled. "I'll be back don't worry." She said as she grabbed some more clothes and started to stuff them into her backpack. "Besides its only a few days and then i'll be back home, and continue what we have been doing." Maria smiled as she slipped her backpack over her shoulder and hugged Jessica once more.

"Alright but just come back in one piece for me alright?" Jessica asked Maria smiled and hugged and kissed her once more. "I don't plan on losing anymore limbs while i'm up there they just need me to fix somethings." She said jokingly as she started to head out of their bedroom and headed down the stairs to the front door where a UAC car had already been waiting for her. Jessica waved goodbye to Maria as she got into the car and went to take her to the closest airport and be taken to the meeting area.

Maria got into a private jet where another UAC executive she had met at the meeting a few days ago held with him a small device and attached it to Maria's mechanical arm. "This is to help you get into any lock doors that your access card may or may not help you break through and whatever coding there is." He said as he took out a small cord attached to it. "Just plug it into any computer, door or any mechanism and the pad there should do all the rest." He said as the private jet took off.



Maria brought up an older video of her younger sister five years younger then she is giving her a small little report on how she has been doing up in Mars. She smiled ever so slightly as she watched the video she seemed she was doing really well and she wanted to get up there and see how she is and hopefully catch up but from what she heard at the meeting she hasn't given any sort of medical report from the staff which was worrying her and the main reason why she took the job.

Maria looked out the window seeing the transport and once it came to a stop Maria opened the door and looked at the other UAC executive that she met during the meeting. "It's good to see you again Miss Smith, we already have things prepared for you, and state of the art equipment for you as you can already see." He said Maria smiled slightly as she shook the man's hand with her left arm. "I'm just here to see my sister and see if she is alright and fix whatever issue you have up there then i'm going home with my sister okay?" Maria said, he simply nodded as he escorted her towards the transport.

Once she was inside Maria looked towards the other man that she assumed would be her partner. Maria smiled softly and gave him a nod as she went over and sat down on a chair and strapped herself and her personal belongings into the seat.

Jack looked up silently as his partner to Mars entered the transport, with a small smile and a nod she silently sat down and secured her things strapping herself in. Jack nodded back with a similar small smile as the first of their meetings ended up being nothing more then facial gestures between stranger. Jack didn't bother to strap himself in as the engines roared to life on the Genesis Mock V transport. Looking over the Executive from before climbed onto the transport and looked at them both with that same taunting smile.

"Good luck to you both, Mrs. Smith we will be awaiting reports and Mr. Preacher we will prepared to send word to San Cantos the moment that you complete your assignment. Until then we can keep an eye out on your..."

Jack lifted himself from the seat as he glared at the Executive and put his hand on one of the pistols in his holster, daring the man to finish that sentence and let the world know about his sister. The Executive just smiled and laughed it off like it was a joke between friends, Jack wanted to just punch that dude in the mouth, just one solid punch to wreck that smile he had come to know all to well in his life. The man boarded off the transport as the cargo bay door shut closed, Jack sat back down as he looked across at the woman sitting with him.

"Just and inside joke, don't worry nothing serious."

Jack played it off as he gave a half ass chuckled, the transport began gaining speed as the bay become slightly heavy from the shift in momentum, soon the entire transport went vertical and gained speed, Jack gripped onto the shotgun case and also onto the grips on the sides of the seats.

"Entering the atmosphere now small heat burn, might feel some heat"

The voice played over the cargo area as for a couple moments the heat level raised through the outer heat shields, but it did not last long as it suddenly became chilly within the cargo bay, they were officially on their way. Jack released the shotgun case as the transport became stable as they entered deeper into space. Looking up at the woman across from him he spoke:

"My name is Jack Preacher I am a Colonel in the United States Marines, for this operation I will be taking the rank and position of a UAC Security Commander. I hate to be so brutally forward as it is rude, but we will be arriving at Mars within an hour or two depending, so we need to get on the same page as each other so were in sync when we arrive. What have you been told already? Knowing the UAC they love to dispense as little information as humanly possible."

As Maria sat in the chair she turned her head to look over at the UAC excect for a moment and then Jack as he and him got into a staring contest with one another she could feel the obvious tension between the two of them but she remained pretty quiet for the most part. When they finished arguing with one another and sat down just as the rear hatch closed behind the UAC exect Maria ran a hand through her hair and sighed slightly as she tensed up and gripped the arm rests of her seat tightly. She felt the heat starting to rise in the little cargo bay that they were in and then just as quickly as it came as the cargo ship flew through the atmosphere then came the coldness of space as it entered earth's orbit and then leaving for Mars.

Maria turned her attention towards Jack as he introduced himself to her and smiled back at him for a moment. "I'm Maria Smith, working as head engineer for the UAC." She said as she moved her right hand slightly as she brought it up showing the screen and started to play the same audio message that she had been given the board. "I'm just here to pass along the information to them and fix up whatever problem that it is that they are having up there." Maria answered as she unclipped her seatbelt and floated over towards the nearest window and watched as Earth quickly became smaller and smaller. "So what about you, same message that they showed me?" Maria asked him.

Jack listened to Maria and nodded at her when she spoke, she had received the same message he did and gotten just about as much information as he had. Jack sighed heavily as he was realizing that the UAC was most definitely covering their asses like all big time company's do.

"I am afraid its not going to be as simple as you might thing Maria, Yes I did receive that message myself its why they dragged me half way across the world, or so they wanted me to believe that was all. But to be honest me and the UAC don't exactly have even footing with each other so within the couple hours or so before departure I had a friend of mine in the cyber division do a little digging into the UAC's database, specifically into the datanodes on the the Mars Complex. I had him look into, specifically, disturbances and he sent me multiple files if you would please."

Jack raised his arm as he typed into the VDA (Virtual Data Assistant) on his wrist, with a couple clicks on his VDA the center console inside the transport came to life displaying a virtual two way screen. Several files splashed across the screen, Jack went to one in particular named Space Sickness / Reports. Clicking it the files revealed hundreds of different reports ranging from from a couple years ago up until recently, pinpointing the most current reports he extracted about twenty files made within the last two weeks.

"I have already went through most of them, they are all within a two week span, and if you notice there is never one that has a same sender, these are from twenty different people on the complex. Every single report is about a disappearance and then a reappearance, almost every single one details the person in question just... changing for no reason. There is from what I have gathered no direct link between these reports, these were all received from personnel consoles and most were sent with nothing more then an initial or a last name. This one is among the most disturbing, it was sent not two days ago before the current message."

Jack clicked on the virtual screen of his VDA as one of the various files opened, a voice recording box appeared the name above it simply read Smith. Clicking the play button a female voice came on, it seemed hushed and frightened:

"Please you have got to send help... terrible things are happening here, they are are watching, everyone is being watched, they suspect everyone. They have been intercepting reports as they are sent out, every time a report is sent to the UAC Mainframe down on Earth they find out who sent it and then.. that person is the next to disappear. I don't know what to do, its like no one is listening or no one cares what is going on. I risk being next by sending this but.. they have my best friend, she tried to send a mayday but they caught her.. I don't know to do... *audible sniffles* please just send help, anyone.. I don't want to die or become what these people are becoming.. Please..."

The transmission ended as Jack closed out the screen, clicking on his VDA all twenty files opened one by one, looking at Maria he spoke:

"I can not be sure they are aware or not but these messages were never sent to Earth, they were intercepted before they could be fully transmitted from the central hub on Mars. My friend in the Cyber Division told me specifically that an encryption was set up to catch all outgoing messages private or not. The terminal it was sent from was then tracked by the same console, so in laymen terms it was a virtual trap to catch anyone who might send out distress messages. Not one got out except for the last one, the message that was actually received was sent from and old communications building outside of the main complex, it has its own relay so it was not connected to the main console like the others. Whoever sent it must have known about the encryption and resorted to it as a last ditch effort."

Jack clicked more on his VDA and pulled up a list of names and alias's from the distress messages and put them on the screen.

"These are so far all the names of people who have sent distress messages, most of them are just letters I am sure they thought they might be identified by their name if not something else. The only names recorded that I believe are genuine or Smith, Henderson, and Young. They are common names first and last on Mars so the risk of being identified would be minimal."

Jack clicked on his VDA once more as the screen disappeared as did the center console screen, he looked at Maria with a pretty mystified look on his face.

"Maria I don't know whats happening on Mars and I am not sure who is in on what is happening, but I can assure you that your not merely going to Mars to fix things. If this were so simple then calling me in would have been a useless gesture. Any man in the military could pull off faking a UAC Commander or accomplish this operation within the set parameters and that person would probably have more love for the UAC then I do, but instead they called me in, an infiltration specialist who hates the UAC. Which leads me to believe that they know more then they are saying, they were quite eager to accommodate my weapon requests which is also to me a red flag."

Jack got up and took a seat beside Maria.

"So I have to ask, did they tell you anything that I am not supposed to know? Maybe a secret assignment of sorts, information that is privileged. If they did I need to know because I don't have any idea what we are walking into, but I know this it does not seem as if its anything good."

Maria looked towards Jack for a moment as he told her that they were hiding something, which was obviously something that they would do she leaned back into her seat as Jack used his VDA and brought up some files. She froze when a file named Smith had come up, the only Smith on Mars from what she remembered was her sister. And she heard her sister's voice over the audio file she was the head medical officer in Mars City she could easily hear and tell the distress in her voice which made her clench her fist. She wished she could have convinced her sooner to leave as soon as possible.

Maria went back to thinking about what they had said, she didn't have any other information on anything else that was going on up there and Jack seemed to know way way more then she did. "I honestly don't have a clue, you have the files I am not that connected." Maria said rubbing the bridge of her nose for a moment and sighed as she thought about what she could do. "That file you just played that's my sister, that's the main reason why I came her aside from the executives wanted me up there for."

She sighed and started to wonder what was really going on up there, she lost her right arm during an accident last time she was there but she still had a few contacts up there. "But I still have some old colleagues up there." Maria said and lifted her right arm to show that it was robotic. "That's the reason why I ended up leaving the first place, an accident that someone wasn't paying attention." She told Jack.

"Once we land i'll try and get into contact with them as soon as possible that's if they aren't missing or dead yet." Maria said as she tried to look at the files once more. "And if you can give me access to a secure computer once we are there I can dig into what really is going on there."

"I am sorry I did not realize that was your sister, there is a lot of things it seems that is coming into the open right now. First and foremost don't jump to conclusions, people are scared up there for an unknown reason, you know what its like to be on an planet far from home, isolated. Fear can lead to seeing things that may or may not be there even for intelligent respectable people. Maybe this is being blown out of proportion, there are many reasons but no good will come from speculating the worst in it."

Jack got up from the seat and returned to the black case on the floor, sitting in his seat he rested his feet on each side of the case keeping it from moving around. He wished he was that optimistic about his own words, but the truth simply was that he had never seen space sickness to such a degree, that chances were high that something bad was going on up there. But no good would come from him telling Maria her sister might be dead by now. In truth he hoped with all his heart that her sister was safe, knowing where is own sister was now he could understand maybe better then most what the loss would feel like. Jack looked back up at Maria.

"One of the most important aspects of my job is to gather information before going on assignments, this avoids unneeded problems. But sometimes information is unreliable at best and could point to other things. For now lets just get there, once we arrive I am sure we will be meant by the officials of the Mars Complex, after that we can locate a secured computer to lock into. If my friend is correct about the encryption we will have to find a console that is not hooked into the main computer server where the encryption can identify us or watch our keystrokes. Our main priority right now though is to assess the situation on Mars and then report back to the UAC whom will decide what course to take."

"It's fine, its the first time I've heard her voice in about a month." Maria said as she sighed slightly running a hand through her hair she always would do that when she was nervous, worried or scared she didn't want to think the worse of it but she needed to know what was going on exactly up there. "I've worked on the computers there for awhile I know how to get into them and know which ones aren't connected to the UAC's mainframe or any other form that the UAC could track us." Maria told Jack, she was pretty good with computers and technology in general which she enjoyed doing.

Maria looked out of the small view power and started to see Mars in the distance she knew that they would be landing very soon, she shifted slightly in her seat the first thing she knew was going straight to medical to see if her sister was there or not. She hoped that whatever was happening up there wasn't that bad, she looked over towards the crates that Jack had been carrying around with him and raised an eyebrow slightly and wondered what it was exactly. "So what is in the crates?" Maria finally asked him as she got up from where she had been sitting to find out what it was exactly.

Jack looked at Maria and saw the curious look in her eye's about the black weapon cases he carried with him. Jack silently motioned towards the seat for Maria to sit if she wanted as he pulled the longer black case from between the seats and his feet and layed it on the panel from earlier. She could probably use a distraction now, if anything for a couple moments as they reached nearer to Mars. Jack silently typed into the small key pad on the case, with a click the latches unlocked and he popped them up and opened the case revealing the same low green glow from earlier. Pulling out the weapon he showed it too Maria:

"This is the Zenith XLT-100, it is the newest edition in the Plasma series from UAC Weapons lab. The weapon itself was a dream because Plasma is such a hard entity to work with when it comes to weapons. The BFG or Bio-Force-Gun was the first Plasma weapon to ever be created. I am sure you saw one before, it is a huge weapon that fit over most of your arm. The trigger was a mechanism within the gun itself, back then plasma cells were a newer type of discovery and they could only be formed in large cubes because compressing Plasma was dangerous work and thought to be impossible. But a man by the name of James Rickman made compressed Plasma cells possible, or in other words more shots per cell but in a smaller more compact size."

Jack clicked the lever on the weapon and opened the chamber housing the compressed cell and showed it to Maria it glowed intensely green like a flickering bulb. Closing the weapon he silently leaned over putting the scope over her eye and pointed it towards the cockpit she would see the infrared signatures of the pilots.

"This gun is usually a lot smaller but as part of my agreement to come on this assignment I specifically requested one of these newer Plasma weapons, with an infrared scope and auto locking technology. This one also comes with a secondary firing chamber that houses a weak yet effective plasma grenade and a tactical rail and flashlight. It has two firing methods semi auto to burst mode. Burst mode was the main firing mode for the original BFG model, it was basically a charged up shot that dealt tons of damage to enemy or anyone nearby. Which is why now Plasma weapons such as this come with automated locking mechanisms so that you can target specific enemies and the splash damage is minimal so you don't harm nearby civilians. Once upon a time using Plasma was a dangerous game, if you didn't use the gun properly while charging your shot, the cell could explode and take you with it, now and days we have come a long way with plasma engineering."

Jack placed the weapon back in its case and closed it, slipping it back between his feet he reached sideways and grabbed one of the weapons from his holster there was an electric beep as he removed it and showed it to Marie.

"This is the BFG XLS-150, one of the newest of the BFG Small arms series. Its a weapon powered by the same compressed small plasma cell like you saw in the Zenith XL, and features the same small display for ammo count and also comes equipped with a small targeting HUD for target locking. This gun has three main functions, the first function is semi automatic fire like any pistol would have, the second function is fully automatic fire a rather new fire mode for this series and the third mode... the third mode is detonation mode. This gun also doubles as a rather devastating grenade, sort of like a last way out type of thing. I told you of cell compression for the plasma, well the cells are smaller and more stable now but they are also still very explosive at the same time, back in the time of the first BFG a cell explosion was deadly but the range was short, these cells exploding could pretty much take out the entire ship were sitting in right now. Don't worry the detonation mode can not be activated by some accidental trigger, it can only be activated by a series of specific clicks involving a small dial that is located with the gun near the rear guard rail. The holsters im wearing were specifically created for this gun, once in the holster the cell inside is nullified by a small energy field to avoid accidental discharge. You don't want to accidentally fire this gun on yourself, it could very well be the last thing you ever do."

Jack replaced the pistol in its holster with another electronic beep, he silently caught Maria's eye,s cold steel like glaze meeting hers.

"Your next logical question would be to ask me why I am so heavily armed I am sure. I'm not going to lie to you, I have been a soldier most of my natural life, I have seen many different kinds of situations in my time soldering. An this situation gives me a bad taste in my mouth, makes my stomach hurt, and that is usually a sign that there is more going on then information is allowing. But with that said I want you to realize that I am here to protect not only you but as a soldier anyone who is endangered and that includes your sister. I promise you as long as I breath I will keep you safe, so try not to worry so much, I am the best at what I do."

Jack gave a small but innocent reassuring smile as the speakers came to life and the pilot spoke to the cargo area:

"Commander Sir we have a small issue here could you please come to the cockpit?"

Jack gave a puzzled look as he nodded to Maria as climbed up through the space and came into the small cockpit, in front of them Mars was already blocking out space.

"Whats the issue?"

"I don't know sir, I am trying to contact Mars Landing tower but no one is answering. This is not something that has ever happened as long as iv transported back and forth between Earth and Mars."

Jack cocked his head silently, that was not normal, protocol was very strict when it came to landing on Mars, especially within the complex because a direct flight path was needed to safely traverse the facility after the atmosphere burn. Jack reached forward and grabbed one of the small headsets and place it on his head.

"Mars Control this is Commander Jack Preacher do you read me over?"

Jack heard nothing but dead air as there was no response.

"Mars Landing control this is Commander Jack Preacher we are approaching atmosphere level of Mars we need signal for proper landing procedures, please respond over."

There was again dead air as Jack was starting to get a bad feeling about this, taking off the headset they entered the atmosphere of Mars and the heat sheilds activated.

"Sir I do not know what to do here, I do not have landing perimeters I have never done this manually."

Jack looked on as they entered the atmosphere, this was not good there was no turning back now the heat sheilds were not meant for that kind of damage control.

"Move I will take over the landing, I have done a Manuel landing before long ago if the path is the same then I can get us to the hangar."

The man quickly moved as Jack took over the controls, clicking a couple switches they started to descend at a fast speed as they quickly got out of the atmosphere, in the distance the Mars Complex came into view. Jack put the headset back on hoping maybe there had been interference and thats why they couldn't get a transmission.

"Landing control this is Mock V contacting landing Control do you copy?"

Jack again got no answer but suddenly an eery low voice seemed to echo in his ear, it was almost like a hiss:

"Turn back now..."

Jack shook his head as the voice seemed to echo for a second then disappear, had he really heard that or was the dead air playing tricks on him? Didn't matter they had no choice but to land now, Jack clicked the button into the back and spoke:

"Maria this is Jack, buckle in this is going to get a little bumpy over."

Jack clicked down more switches as the ship started to rock, buckling himself in Jack took the control pad as turned the ship sharply he guided the ship into the land pattern hoping to hell it was the same as before. The facility became closer and closer by the second as they picked up speed. As they fulled dipped out of the clouds Jack hit a couple more switches stabilizing the ship.

"What the hell is that Commander!? Look!"

The man pointed quickly as Jack saw an orb of green flying through the air right towards the ship, it was closing distance fast.

"hang on!!!"

Jack clicked a bunch of switches and then drove the controls sideways to the left, the transport jerked violently to the left and did a half barrel roll, the green orb passed by the ship as Jack gritted his teeth and turned the wheel to the right, he brought the ship back and stabilized it just in time to see another mysterious projectile heading for the ship.

"Fuck! Hang on!"

Jack flung the controls to the right the entire transport turned upside down as he rolled out of the way of the projectile, the pilot in the back slammed the wall hard and fell into the cargo area behind unable to keep a grip of anything this time. Jack was upside down as he clicked more switches furiously, gripping the wheel he scream harshly as it resisted like a ten ton weight, the air pressure was staggering outside the ship as he wrenched with all his strength and brought the ship back around and straightened it out. Jack was just barely in time as the hangar was coming into view, he quickly hit switches like crazy as the transport rocked extremely hard many times as he tried to slow the descent. He grabbed the controls and pulled back hoping like hell another projectile wasn't coming.

"Maria hang on tight were coming in!"

Jack almost yelled it into the speakers as he turned down all the switches and they went into a hard nose dive, Jack quickly aligned the landing as the doors were wide open, at the last moment he pulled up on the controls and the ship jerked up hard and straightened as the boosters caught them and they descended into the base. They quickly descended the large entrance tunnel and in mere moments they touched down on the stabilizing pads and the ship came to a rocky but subtle stop. Jack let out a large breath of relief as he realized he had been holding his breath. Slowing releasing the clasps of the belts the co pilot put a hand on his shoulder:

"Holy shit you did it Commander, god damn you can fly."

Jack put his hand on top of the guys and quickly nodded as he got out of the seat and jumped back into the cargo area, hitting the floor was the pilot was near the back of the cargo area and he wasn't moving, Jack headed to him quickly, but upon seeing him there was a large break in his helmet and blood was pooling underneath his head. Jack sighed as he placed a hand on the mans neck, there was no pulse, he was gone. Closing he eye's he then turned and looked for Maria to make sure she was okay.

Maria watched as Jack had gotten up and pressed the keypad on the black weapons crate and watched him pulling out a BFG XLS-150 which she hadn't seen before and of course she didn't because it was something that had just gotten out of the testing phase and slowly being produced. She remembered seeing the BFG-9000 and even seen the older version of the weapon in person and fired at a testing range while she was in Mars the last time. "Seems like your going all out." Maria said as he put the rifle back into its case, then she noticed his holster as he showed her his handgun that he brought with him which was also new to her.

Maria ran a hand through her hair as he explained plasma and its weaponizedation she had basic knowledge on how its used to power facilities much like Mars and massive bases on Earth and other places along the like. "Don't worry I understand what you are doing, i'd do the same thing to try and find out whats wrong i'd bring a weapon myself if I could." Maria had experience using weapons during her time working in the UAC she tested some weapons and also knew how to keep them maintained and functioning well. She got up along with Jack and followed behind him to the cockpit as she saw in the cockpit viewport Mars was quickly filling up the space of the window. Something didn't settle right with her as the pilot said he wasn't receiving any communications from Mars Base. She quickly went back to sitting in her seat and brought up communications herself on her own VDA, she was getting a very strange static sound coming from the base.

The weird thing was the base's communications array was working fine as she tried to boost the signal Maria heard Jack yelling to strap herself in on the shuttle's radio. She could sense the urgency in his voice and quickly did what she was hold bringing the safety harness over her. Maria closed her eyes tightly letting out a very loud groan as she got dizzy as the ship suddenly lunged forward, she noticed the pilot falling back through the cargo hold, and winced as she heard a loud crack.

Maria felt the shuttle turning upside down as Jack controlled the shuttle, then she looked up a loose box of equipment had gotten lose and flew straight at her face hitting her square in the head knocking her out. As the shuttle landed in the base Maria slowly started to come to feeling something warm and wet sliding down the side of her face Maria looked at Jack and waved him off. "I'm fine.." She said softly as she fumbled with the seatbelt and safety harness off of her and stumbled forward looking at the body of the pilot then turned her attention towards Jack. "What the hell happened?" She asked.

Jack backed away as Maria came to she must have taken a pretty hard blow, Jack didn't know what though as the hangar of the ship was a pretty big mess now and the adrenaline was pumping from earlier. Maria asked him a rather loaded question as he tried to piece together what had happened himself. They had dropped out of the clouds on Mars and were heading down the landing path, and suddenly some projectile Jack had never seen before was already flying towards them. It was green, he had not gotten the best of looks at it really but from the small glance he had of it the shot looked like something that would come out of a plasma gun. As that did not make sense, the second shot came out of nowhere as well, but the second projectile something else entirely. Jack tried to put it together in his mind as he thought about the attack, he felt a terrible nagging in his mind, like there was something he was forgetting and needed to remember. But what the hell was it? What couldn't he remember about the second projectile, Jack visualized it in his mind, saw himself swing the ship upside down to avoid the hit, and in that brief moment when he was bringing the ship back around to stabilize it for the lands he looked at the monitors to observe the second projectile to identify it... Jack opened his eye's as they were wide, it couldn't have been... there was no way... if it was then... Jack looked at the co pilot and Maria as he barked out a command.

"We gotta go, we gotta get out of this ship right now!"

Jack spoke in a panic as he quickly ran to the cargo door of the ship and broke the glass over the emergency release and dropped the cargo hatch down to the pad below. Jack quickly ran back and grabbed the black weapons case that was not wedged btween the seats and quickly grabbed Maria.

"We gotta go now! Hurry move! Co Pilot grab those items strapped to the vehicle and move out now!"

Jack forcefully pulled Maria along not giving her a chance to question the reason why, getting outside the ship Jack looked up as he heard a loud shrill like whistle from somewhere above. Jack quickly speed up and gripped Maria harder as the Co-pilot came scrambling out of the ship with Maria's belongings that were left on board. He stopped at the edge of the ship as he spoke:

"Commander what is going on?"

"Get away from the ship now damn it!!!!"

It was too late however even when the Co-pilot tried to move away, the second projectile came raining down from the landing tunnel, the same missile from earlier which Jack had finally remember was following, a damn guided missile. The missile hit the ship head on as there was an explosion that echoed throughout the entire landing bay, Jack felt himself lift off his feet from the force of the explosion and land backwards on the metal catwalk as Maria flew on top of him knocking the breath out of him before sliding sideways. The Co-Pilot flew forward from the explosion, hitting the near by railing Maria's belongings dropped to the edge of the landing pad as the pilot fell over the rail and disappeared into the huge dark expansion below. Jack coughed hard as he slowly leaned up, the ship in front of them was now in flames and even more so in pieces, that missile had torn the ship in half, he had never seen such a strong and well guided missile in his whole life. Jack got to his feet as he felt a little woozy, feeling the back of his head he brought his fingers forward, they were dipped in fresh blood as he suddenly became dizzy and fell sideways, gripping the railing of the catwalk Jacks feet crumbled beneath him as he looked upon the ruined ship.

"Them bastards... it was a god damn trap... they could have taken us out in the air but instead they let us land to make us think we had made it, then that damn missile would snuff us out unknown to us.

Jack gritted his teeth as the realization was setting in, they were now trapped here above everything else. Jack fell down to his ass and leaned his back against the railing and his chest heaved in and out, closing his eye's he tried to catch his breath and keep conscious.

"Maria are you okay? Tell me your okay!"

Jack almost yelled the last part as he felt a mild panic setting in, please tell him that at least Maria had made it... Jack rubbed his eye's as his body fell sideways and the inky blackness took hold of him.

Maria looked at Jack with a confused look on him something felt very off, as Jack suddenly was ordering her to get out of the shuttle right away, she didn't know what was actually going on someone was shooting at them but why? Maria fumbled with her seat belt until finally Jack forced her up. She watched as the pilot was struggling to grab her things, then she was forced out of the shuttle by Jack. "What is going on?!" Maria yelled just as she had gotten out of the shuttle an explosion rocked her, forcing her to fly across the landing pad, she landed on top of Jack.

Maria skidded across the landing pad near Jack groaning loudly as she watched their last pilot suddenly falling down into the abyss below, Maria's ears were ringing from the sudden explosion. She was disoriented for a moment as Jack yelled at her to see if she was alright, she slowly got up to a sitting position and looked towards her partner seeing that he wasn't in good shape. "I'm fine.." Maria said as she noticed Jack suddenly falling into unconsciousness. She quickly got up and stumbled her way towards him, and checked his pulse he was still breathing which was good.

"C'mon lets move!" Maria said as she awkwardly started to help him up and lifted him up, trying to make her way to the closest door which was a small maintaince closet on the other end of the landing pad just as more rockets were fried, Maria quickly made it into the room, and closed the door, and started to shake the man awake. "Hey wake up!" Maria yelled.