Pace rolls his eyes at the staring Sam and they nod. Sams eyes have been fixed on Ca.s.sy from the moment she walked in. Pace sits down and takes the helm from his seat once more, thinking that he must get up to medbay after the girls get back, when he has the time. It always felt that way to him, that time was spinning fast and that he never ever got the chance to rest that much, but then so many people relied on him and it was best to keep his mind busy at the moment anyway, after suffering such a devastating blow. His mind drifts off, remembering the night Megan sat opposite him in the restaurant. Her hair was beautiful and her smile warmed his heart. He could smell her and could almost see her before him and felt like he could reach out and touch her, and then Sams voice was heard.

"Thats the last of them, Captain." Pace smiles. He could not even have a five minute thought without something breaking his peace, but at least all the ball ships were destroyed.

"Great news, Sam. Go get some grub and take Rusty with you. Thats an order." Pace will finally get a bit of time on his own, he hopes.

"What about you, Captain, you need rest too." Pace nods again.

"Ill be along in a while, there is plenty of time for me to eat, and we are gaining on the t.i.tan ship. I just need five minutes, ok Sam?" Sam needs no second order, he is famished and stands up out of his seat and stretches up to the ceiling and then disappears out of the room, on his way out turning to look at Pace, who is sat motionless in his chair, with a million mile stare, out into s.p.a.ce. Sam and Rusty enter the canteen and wander over to the cupboards to look at food, to see what they can cook. Nova and Ca.s.sy are sitting at the table, hugging their coffee cups, chins wagging and smiles on their faces. It was good to see.

"So ladies, how about we all pitch in to make a great meal tonight. What do you fancy? We have steak with all the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs. We have stir fry. We have pizza. I could go on." The two women look over at Rusty, who is hungry and eager to get cooking. Pizza is the answer. It is easy to eat, and they can chin wag to their hearts content, they all thought. They all point at pizza and the decision is made. After they all cover the bases with their favourite toppings, Rusty pops in four large pizzas, and Sam brews more coffee and then stands near the cooker waiting a few moments before the piping hot pizza is ready. Rusty begins to cut the pizza into slices. The smell is fabulous and mouths begin to water.

"Ah, I almost forgot the garlic bread." yells Rusty popping in two large breads.

Chapter Fifty-Five.

Pace is sat quietly in his captains chair on the bridge, reminiscing and trying to make sense of it all. Hed had such a hard life, and why did all this stuff happen to him, when others around him had more or a better life. He thought that probably everyone in their life at some stage thought the same, but what was the answer to life, and how could he make things better, or was he living in the better and worse was to come. Why was there so much death and destruction in the universe? Was it that he was so used to bad things that he had stopped looking for good things, but then Megan had come along and now he has his sister back, so there must be balance in the universe after all, but who or what makes that balance? Is it destiny, mans doing or guidance from a higher place?

Paces head was swimming with thoughts, and this was the first time in a long time he was making sense of it all. He remembers reading history books about a place called Endeavour, where things were green and people had what they needed to survive. It was a simple life, where everyone tried to live free, but then man made it complicated and became greedy, thinking of his own needs and not of others. They could have shared what they had, but instead they failed to stop and think about their actions and even though people worked hard to survive, it was still not enough to some. People began to close themselves off from other people and built walls around what was there. Small communities were formed, cut off from each other. They did not contact each other for trade or help and some communities died from plagues and famine, when they could have survived together, and slowly the planet died. Some say that is where the answers lie, but the planet is on no star chart and some history books are rumoured to be nothing but myth.

Pace wondered about a lot of things in the time sat in his chair, including what colour pants he was wearing. Perhaps that is why he never got time to think before, because his thoughts were random and odd in a lot of ways. Pace laughs to himself, just as Rusty enters the bridge with a piping hot cup of tea.

"There you go, thought you could use this." Pace stands up and puts the ship on auto-pilot, and grabs his cup of Earl Grey.

"Thanks, Rusty. Did I smell pizza on the go?" Pace had done his sums. It would be just over a day before he could catch the t.i.tan ship up, but then they would need a plan to get ahead of it to warn Foloss, but for now he left his worries behind, and it was now time to appreciate the good again.

"Take my tea in and Ill be back in a while." Pace pats Rusty on the back and heads down to the loading bay to find the crate with the alcohol in. Today was a good day for a drink. He opens the crate up and grabs a few bottles of various drinks and heads back to the canteen. Everyone is sat when he enters, waiting for him. They all look tired but relaxed, which is good to see, thought Pace.

"The ban on alcohol is lifted and you have access to crate 349. There is one condition; I expect you to be sober, when you are on duty. Now, I know this alien parasite is taking over me, and that is why you all must carry a toxin knife with you at all times, just in case, and I expect you to end me if I totally turn. That is an order. Apart from that, we have just over a day to rest before we are close to the t.i.tan ship, so any ideas need to be shared before then. Thats my Captain bit done, now lets drink." Pace pops a cork and sprays everyone with the champagne. "Lets celebrate life and finding my sister, but first let us toast the ones we love and have lost." Everyone is now stood up with gla.s.ses raised upon high, each of them thinking of their fallen comrades and then clashing their gla.s.ses together as a united family once again. They all have been through so much on this trip already. Ca.s.sy swigs down her drink in one and offers her gla.s.s for a second along with Rusty. She hardly knows any of them, even her brother is like a stranger as she had not seen him in years, but she feels warmth from this crew, just like her old crew, and she is happy to have been rescued. Now concerned for her brothers health, she turns to him.

"You need to get checked out and get some rest, I think, and getting drunk wont drown your sorrows or help you in any way. By the way, I may have a trick up my sleeve to help us get ahead of the alien t.i.tan ship, so dont stress." Ca.s.sy smiles at Pace and sits down and puts her feet up on the table, swigging her drink once more.

"Come on then, Ca.s.sy, lets have it. Whats the idea, and yes, I will see Padley in the morning." Pace also sits down, wiping at the few spots of spilt drink on his top.

"Well, while I was a board the alien vessel I discovered that they use their blood in a way which enables them to travel faster than any ship I have ever seen, and I have even seen a wormhole being opened for the ship to travel through. They have fantastic tech, something I have learned to master in a round-about way. Now, we could do as they do, but we would need blood and I dont know if your blood would work, due to your human blood, but if you possess half the strengths they do brother, then I say you are our secret weapon. We could round up any dead bodies we find and insert them into the core and top it up with some of your blood for good measure and see what happens, or we can attempt to open a worm hole of our own and keep our fingers crossed." Jotting things down on a litepad, Ca.s.sy starts to do the math involved, and Rusty who is sat next to her lends his brain. Pace is shocked that his sister is so bright. A true survivor, he thinks to himself, she will not need looking after like she did when she was small. Leaning forward, Sam, also very interested in the idea, comments.

"Now, what you are dabbling in is highly dangerous and a number of things can happen. Are we willing to end up a part of the ship if it goes wrong? I have heard of this sort of thing ending badly, where whole crews have lost their lives when they ended up the other side, bodies like mash potato, all twisted and bodies between decks, broken. All based on an idea and not to mention we have never achieved it ourselves before. Dont want to be the party p.o.o.per, but Im just saying." Ca.s.sy laughs.

"As a scientist have you never taken a chance on an experiment before, not knowing the outcome? Where is your sense of adventure? We all know if we run into that ship before we reach Foloss we are all dead anyway, so what do we have to lose. I am sure I have a litepad in my life pod that has more in-depth a.n.a.lysis if you want to go over numbers. Its worth a look I think. I will go and grab it a sec, Ill be back in a minute." Ca.s.sy is eager to prove her worth and little do they know she has ran the experiment once or twice before, to get out of trouble on the cargo ship and both times things went without a hitch.

Ca.s.sy disappears out of the room and Sam whispers to the crew. "I think it is a mad idea that will get us all killed. Then who will warn the planet!"

Rusty rests his hand on Sams shoulder. "Sam, from what I just saw, the girl has a great brain and we should see what else she has written down and hear her out first before we make our minds up. Lets wait to see, eh?" Sam shakes his head.

"Ok, but I just dont like it, thats all." Sam replies, chucking his drink hard down his throat like a bowling ball down an alley. A few moments pa.s.s and Ca.s.sy appears once more, clutching a litepad. Smiling, she places it in the middle of the table and presses the projector b.u.t.ton so they can all see at the same time. Bright lights flicker and images and text appear in front of them all, amazing to the eyes. Ca.s.sy begins to explain the components and the way they need to set things up in just half an hour.

"The design is simplistic but it works, I have tried it before and my captain had me install it on the cargo ship to keep us out of trouble. You see this is not the first time we were captured by what you call the blues, known to the rest of the galaxy as the Oakthians. A short time ago, my captain bartered a deal with the Oakthians, their tech for human slaves. These slaves were murderers and the sc.u.m of the surrounding worlds, but the Oakthians grew greedy and so did my captain. He sold the tech to Eve Thorn for her t.i.tan ship, the Fahrenheit. It is a super cla.s.s t.i.tan ship, which is her flagship, should all go wrong and she needs to escape. So knowing this, Eve then bartered more humans for more tech and made us all rich in the process, but something told me the Oakthians were not on the level and were not giving us a great deal at all. They have so much tech that I have not seen, its unreal. I became an alien tech specialist, believe it or not, so Im telling you all, you need to trust me today, ok." Pace sits nodding in agreement with his sister. He believes what she is saying is true, and if this wormhole thing is a chance, then thats better than no chance.

"Well, Ca.s.sy, if what you say is true, I think we better get to work. This ship, the Fahrenheit, you say its a t.i.tan ship. I thought all the human t.i.tans were destroyed apart from three - two drifted off into s.p.a.ce and one crashed landed on Foloss, when we all left Dalgen 9." Ca.s.sy is pulling up plans of the Fahrenheit, for everyone to see.

"Well, Eve ordered a rebuild in the Deadlands where it crashed and everyone knows the law of the Deadlands, which was a perfect place to hide her new ship without any questions being asked. We were instructed to land there a few times to do work on it ourselves, never being allowed contact with the populace of Foloss, so we could not spill any beans as it were. The last I heard it was operational. It may still be there for all I know. Anyway, we were making another transaction when things went sour and we were held ransom by the Oakthians, while Eve came up with excuse after excuse to not rescue us, otherwise it would have been easy to open a wormhole and slip away and the rest is history. I would give ten years worth of trade to get five minutes alone with that b.i.t.c.h. She would eat her excuses, believe me."

Pace turns to Sam, who is deep in thought, rubbing his beard once again. "So, Sam, what do you think?" Sam looks up. He is still stood up with his hands on the table, either side of the light show.

"I think, Captain, that this might just work, you know, and we could gain the upper hand. If we can get to the Fahrenheit and take control of it, we could stop the invasion, because we all know Eve is sly and will not fight for the people on the planet. She would leave in a hurry if she found out that the blues had a t.i.tan ship."

Rusty opens another bottle, this time its rum. "Well, firstly this is my favourite rum and thanks to the Captain for lifting the ban. I believe I owe you a drink or two." He says, getting his priorities in order. "Secondly, I used to drink with the governor of Greyfields, a good friend of mine. He despises Eve and everything she stands for. Im sure he would be interested in what we have to tell him. We should head there, plenty of places to hide the ship too." Pace is relieved for once that he does not have to plan their next move. It has been hard as a captain, but now they had a plan and a good one at that.

"I know weve all have had a bit to drink and we are tired, but we can do this, so lets get this done. We will finish our food and have a few more drinks. One for the road, eh Rusty, and then follow Ca.s.sys instructions to get us there and things could just work out. While you do this, Ill go up to medbay and get checked out. Let me know when we are ready." Pace leaves the room exhausted but positive about the plans. He reaches medbay and approaches Padley, who is cleaning the room.

"I need sorting out, Padley, can you fix me?" Pace places sits on the bed and lifts his legs up and then lies down to be scanned. Padley operates the scanning machine. It takes a few moments and the results are shocking to Paces ears.

"Captain, it appears you are changing into an Oakthian." Pace lifts his head to look at Padley peering down at him, her white face like a china doll.

"Tell me something I dont know." Padley prods Pace in the face, where the blue scales have grown.

"Your left lung has mutated into something unknown and for the best part you have a strange type of blood, not Oakthian and not human. The human cells are turning into Oakthian and the Oakthian is beginning to now change into something else unknown, probably due to cross genetics. Let me try something, it may sting." Padley cuts the blue skin with a laser scalpel and the skin immediately heals, leaving no visible sign of injury.

"Fascinating, truly fascinating. Now, one moment, hold still." Padley holds up an injector gun with a small amount of alien toxin that Sam had developed. "This should not kill you, but I need to see its effects on you." Before Pace can say no, Padley has injected his chest with the toxin and begins to monitor his life signs. A few moments pa.s.s quietly. Padleys eyes glued to her screen, her fingers busy, trying to make sense of her results. Pace is drifting to sleep slowly, not from the toxin, but from sheer lack of rest, his eyes growing heavy and then Padleys voice kicks him awake again. "I am shocked that you are unaffected by the toxin and I dont know how to treat you. You are one of a kind. We need an expert in bioengineering like Megan." Pace sits back up on the bed, his head spinning slightly from the blood rush.

"Maybe I will find someone on Foloss who can help. Keep a.n.a.lysing my bloods, please Padley, and let me know if anything crops up." Padley nods at Pace. She has accessed every database and every file known to man with no results. Pace stands up and leaves Padley standing there baffled.

He feels so shattered, so heads for his room and as he enters he notices Megans night gown hung up on the back of his door. He sees her perfume and wash items littering the bathroom, like confetti. There is a lingering fragrance of her in the room, which makes it seem like she is there. He takes off his top and falls back onto his bed and drifts off to sleep in no time at all.

Chapter Fifty-Six.

The rest of the crew are busy converting a turret gun into a wormhole dish, which will be used to produce the tear in s.p.a.ce and time to travel through. Anc is on the outside of the ship working on his own and Sam is helping Ca.s.sy in the gunners chair, rewiring a spaghetti-like mess, while Rusty is bypa.s.sing power cables to route power to the dish, all the while drinking the bottle of rum, which was now welded to his hand firmly.

"Now come on, Higgy, dont let me down. I have a whole lot of drinking to catch up on, so dont give me any trouble, ok." whispers a drunk Rusty to the Hyper Gyron 4 lump of pulsating power that he had fondly named, so that he did not bring bad luck to the ship. It was a done thing for all mechanics to name their engines. Stumbling side to side, Rusty slides a cover back over his neat wiring job and attempts to seal the cover down with his hand welder. He does a neat job before falling backwards on the floor, without spilling a drop of rum, something he was a master at it seemed. "Ha-ha. There ya go, and now where were we." Rusty had missed his rum. It calmed his nerves and he felt all warm inside again. He always felt so cold out in s.p.a.ce, hence him always wearing his woolly multi-coloured hat.

Lights flickered on the console and sparks popped like bangers on bonfire night, but Ca.s.sy and Sam were almost done. Sam took a moment to stare once again at Ca.s.sy, when he thought she wasnt looking, but Ca.s.sy caught him out of the corner or her eye.

"Why do you keep staring at me, Sam? I noticed you a few times now." Ca.s.sy looks at Sam with interest.

"Umm, oh err ... you just remind me of someone, thats all. You look just like her, its unreal. Im sorry; I dont mean to offend you." Sam begins to turn red in the face.

"Who do I look like? She must have meant something to you because of the way you look at me, I feel the love."

Sam, now totally fl.u.s.tered, has no choice but to tell Ca.s.sy. "You look just like my wife when we first met, when we were young. She is pa.s.sed now, a long story which is too painful to share right now. You are just a lot like her."

Ca.s.sy hugs Sam on the floor holding him tight and whispers in his ear. "I am sorry for your loss, I truly am." She leans back after the embrace. "I dont think you are that old, are you?"

Sam giggles. "Thanks, but I must be twenty years your senior, Ca.s.sy." Sam lifts up the cover to the wires and Ca.s.sy screws the screws in tight and they both stand up, proud of their work.

"Its done, but Rusty has not got back to us yet. I wonder if he is finished." Sam calls Rusty on his gauntlet. "Hey Rusty, you finished yet? We are ready to go if you are." A stuttery voice replies back and a half covered face looks at them. Rustys hat has slipped over his eyes.

"The fish is ready and when today wanted a book, he got one you know, and I often thought a gyron was a goat." Rusty begins to laugh hysterically and he is so drunk now that Sam rushes to the engine room to make sure all is well, and to check what Rusty has done. It is all perfect, despite his drunken nature. Sam picks Rusty off the floor and walks him to his room, where he takes off his shoes and socks and lays Rusty on his bed. "I love you man, I really do, you know that?"

Sam smiles. "I know mate, I know. You rest now; youve done a great job." Rusty curls up on his bed with the now empty bottle of rum, hugging it like a favourite teddy. Sam leaves the room quietly and wonders about the captain and visits his room to find Pace fast asleep too. Sam eventually returns to Ca.s.sy on the bridge.

"Your brother and Rusty are fast asleep. I think they need it. Im not going to disturb them for a while, are you?" Sam sits back down next to Ca.s.sy.

"No, let them rest, Sam, we will give them a couple of hours. I am concerned about my brother though. I have only just got him back and now he is changing into something and I dont want to lose him."

Sam laughs. "Im sure he will survive. Hes a tough one. It sounds like it runs in the family. What were your parents like?" Ca.s.sy does a scan of the s.p.a.ce around them to make sure they are not being followed.

"My parents were awesome, to be honest. My father was an engineer and fabricator and my mother was head teacher of our school in Dalgen 9. We had a nice house and plenty of room to play. We were quite young, well I say we were young, but I was seven and Joseph was 17. He was my big brother and the age gap was large between us because of Mum working, and I came along as a little surprise. My father was quite a stern man who had good family values. He would never promise something unless he knew he could keep that promise, and people trusted his word on that, although many people used to say to him, 'oh, you promised that ..., when he had not and that used to annoy him, because he knew they were lying just to get their own way on things. He did not lose his temper much, but when he did, boy did people know about it. My mother was even worse. If anyone upset us she would be on them like a ton of bricks. She did have a way with us though, something I cant explain. It was a feeling inside when she was near, and I still get that feeling sometimes today. Maybe she is still with me, who knows. I am open to all possibilities. Anyway, I am waffling on, what about you, enough of me. Lets go and get another drink." Ca.s.sy stands up and Sam joins her in the canteen where the drinks were still waiting on the table.

"Oh, this and that, I have done a lot, served in the military for a while and then turned my hand to science. I got my degrees and met my wife and settled down and thats it really. I dont remember my parents that much to be honest, but I am here and still alive, so Im thankful for that, each day is a blessing, I think." A few hours pa.s.s and Ca.s.sy and Sam natter like old friends and down a few drinks in the process.

Chapter Fifty-Seven.

Pace is still in his room. He is awake now, but feeling very disorientated. His blood pumps so fast around his body that it feels like a freight train late for its stop. There is a ringing in his ears and a strange discharge from his nose and mouth. He manages to stand, steadying himself against his wall, while looking at his mirror in the bathroom. He forces open his sleepy eyes to find that his tongue has now begun split in two like a serpents tongue, not a nice look for him at all. The rest of his body seems to have stayed the same, which he is happy to see. He walks slowly back to his bed and dresses himself the best he can, before smiling and putting his brave face on for the crew. Pace drifts down the spiral stairs to the bridge and is welcomed by Ca.s.sy and Sam.

"Hey, sleepy head, you ok?" Pace eases himself into his chair.

"Yep, good to go. How are things set? Are we ready to give it a blast?" Pace presses the b.u.t.ton on his chair and up pops a joystick to control the ship. His hand is at the ready, poised but shaking slightly with nerves, not knowing what is to come.

"Yes, we are set. Be ready to give it full power and keep her in a straight line if you can, and there should be no problems." Pace looks around for Rusty, but he is not on the bridge. Sam is sat at a console, ready on the guns, and Ca.s.sy is sat at her console, ready to scan and mult.i.task if needed.

Sam sees Pace scanning the room, and tells him, "Rusty is taking a nap. Believe me, he has earned it today, the man is incredible." Pace relaxes and they are set.

"In three, two, one." The engines fire up like small suns exploding into action, propelling the ship with a huge jolt forwards. Ca.s.sy operates the dish, and power from the core and engines flows through the large dish on the front of the ship like blood through veins. A light appears some distance in front of them growing bigger and bigger as they draw near. It looks like they will fit easily through the tear in s.p.a.ce, but where will it take them. They all hold their breaths as they pa.s.s through into a long tunnel full of light and colours, speeding faster and faster. The lights dazzle the crew but they hold their course.

"Steady now, steady, I just have to hold her straight or we will lose her." Pace turns the nose left a few degrees and they look good once again. It seems like they have been travelling a while, but it has only been minutes, the sweat beading on their foreheads like sparkling stars. There is a huge tug backwards, like a parachute stopping a dragster and they are out of the lights and colours, into the dark once again. They had made it, but they all begin to scan s.p.a.ce to see where they were. It appears that Ca.s.sys sums were right on the money, and they were indeed now ahead of the alien vessel and very close to home.

"So we need to head for Greyfields, which is to the north east of Hawkesbury and away from Eve Thorn and her troops. Rusty said something about the governor being a friend of his, so thats a great start. We will head in from the east of Greyfields, so we are not picked up on scanners and go from there, sound good?" Pace is eager to get down to the planet and expose Eve for what she is, and get the people off the planet before it is too late. He is still very much in control of the ship and heads for the Greyfields landing site.

They creep into the atmosphere without a problem and navigate over the Unknown Islands, which have never been explored, noticing a strange creature walking around below them. Pace would have loved to stop and see what was down there, if there were not such pressing issues directing their actions. They pa.s.s over the Tepid Sea and then see land again. It is grey in colour and it is the aptly named Greyfields for sure. It is the planets dumping ground. All manner of rubbish sits and decays here. Some areas are for waste foods and other areas are old broken machines and sc.r.a.p.

As the Invictus approaches the settlement and begins to try to find a suitable place to land, they notice a lot of the sc.r.a.p metal mountains were just gone, and some of the buildings were destroyed and smouldering, a sooty black smoke drifting like a snake in the air, twisting and turning as they pa.s.s through the clouds. Pace sets the Invictus down where a large mountain of sc.r.a.p once stood. The ships giant feet make large indentations in the ground, and dust and smoke waft into the air, covering everything around for fifty feet. The roaring engines finally rest, and like sleeping lions purr for a few moments until Pace shuts them down. Nova was grateful of the rest; she had fallen asleep in her chair the whole journey and everyone had just left her to rest, and she had now just been woken up by the landing.

"Someone go and wake Rusty and give him plenty of coffee. Then suit up, I think there has been a fair bit of trouble here, by the looks of things." Sam stands up and makes his way out of the bridge to wake Rusty.

Nova rubs her eyes, not remembering much due to the drink she had with Ca.s.sy.

"Sorry, I must have dosed off, but I see we are in one piece, so whats going on?" Pace contacts the two robots on the ship.

"Padley and Anc, I want you to guard the ship and protect Nova, she will be at the ready. There could be looters, so keep your eyes open and scan the area for anything useful to us. Nova, Im glad you had time to rest." Pace then turns to Ca.s.sy. It is nice to have his sister around and the ship feels more like home now she is on it.

"Come on, squirt, we have work to do." Ca.s.sy smiles. She had not heard those words for a long time and it gave her a good feeling again and lifted her spirits up.

"Joseph, I need to contact my husband. He is still working on the mining planet and does not know if I am alive or not. I must get word to him and Lily to prepare to leave before its too late." Ca.s.sy looks at Pace with a great deal of concern.

"Of course, I did not know about your family, who is Lily?" Standing up and joining Pace, Ca.s.sy realises how much they have both missed out on.

"Lily is my little darling. She is just four and is a little angel, so you my dear are an uncle and you will love meeting Lily and my husband. Come on, lets get moving, we can chat later. I need to get to a main terminal to send word."

Chapter Fifty-Eight.

Rusty is half hanging upside down with drool dripping out of his mouth, his hat still on his head looking like a cone, and he is still not letting go of the bottle.

"Hey, Rusty, time to get up, you have important work to do, you got to catch up with your friend in Greyfields." Sam is bent over, looking at Rustys reddened face when his eyes open.

"You must be joking, I have slept for like five minutes maximum, what are you trying to do to me, torture me or something?" Sam waves a cup of coffee under the nose of Rusty and he begins to sit up and straighten his hat out and takes a sip of coffee. "You go down and I will join you in a moment." Rusty drops the bottle to the ground, sad that there was none left, but then smiling because he had had a skin full and it had been a while. After about ten minutes pa.s.s, Rusty appears down in the loading bay, where the others are waiting for him.

Chapter Fifty-Nine.

"So lets get this done, the sooner the better." Pace lowers the rear door and they all walk down, gauntlets at the ready, just in case of trouble. The wind is kicking up and dust bounces off their half-visored helmets. They head toward a large grey building with a red stripe down the side of it, the governors house. There were many blaster holes in the outside walls and a few burnt rovers lay broken and twisted in a line, as if they were used as a defence wall. Dead bodies also lie in the dirt, some citizens and some Thorn Guards. They approach the main double doors into the building, and as they get near the door, they are all caught off guard by blaster fire from the defenders in the building. Rays of deadly light whizz past their heads and hit the buildings and vehicles behind them, exploding shards of metal and brick all around them.

The Invictus crew dash and hide behind the destroyed rovers for cover and Rusty shouts out in his loudest voice, "Now cut it out, you lackeys. Its me, Rusty, the bringer of wealth."

One of the defenders spots Rustys hat and recognises it to be his and shouts, "Hold your fire, its Rusty, stop!" More heads pop up and from around doors, and one after one they come out of the building to greet Rusty.

"Come to lose more money again, Rusty eh, thought you werent gonna gamble anymore." A tall man approaches Rusty and holds out his hand to shake with Rusty. The man had been wounded but was still in high spirits. Rusty greets him well.

"No, we are here this time for something far more important that we need your help with." The tall man turns and beckons them all into the house. The inside is a mess, holes in the walls and furniture broken everywhere.

"As you can see, we have had problems of our own. If you can find a seat, please sit." Rusty remains stood, while the others perch on what they can.