November 13th, 2380.  T-minus 5 days

     Metal Storm Beta launched out into space, following behind
the legions of ITR mecha.  Hundreds of mecha in formation dotted
his perception as they closed on the GSC forces, orbiting the
blue-green world of Arcturus below.
     That world filled most of his view, the sensor markers for
the thousands of enemy targets filled the rest.  The decoy fleet
had drawn off fifty GSC warships, leaving the other half to be
dealt with by their thirty-four ship task force.  The odds were
better, but still bad.
     "Ryo," he heard JT say.  It was odd, hearing her voice
seemingly from inside his own head.  But he knew it was only a
trick of perception.  In reality, she was behind him in the
cockpit, manning the other control stations.  "There's a minor
glitch in the secondary feedback coupler.  I think I can by-
pass."
     "Whatever," said Ryo.  Why'd she have to come along?  Now
he'd have to worry about her safety through the whole damn
battle.  No more suicide attacks, that's for sure.
     "Guardian Squadron," said Major Katana.  "Two GSC strike
wings detected at 120-290-432.  They're blockading our
atmospheric entry path.  Take them out and swath a path for our
forces.  The GSC has ships on the surface near the original base.
They may be trying to salvage Metal Storm Alpha."
     Ryo switched his perception to long-range radar imaging and
scanned the surface of the planet directly ahead.  He saw a black
and white radar image of the coastline where the base was buried
under sixty meters of water.  The Victorious was hovering above
the water and nearly a dozen other ships were scattered across
the coast.  Some of those ships he recognized as strip
excavators.  "Oh, no you don't," he mumbled.
     He zoomed out and changed his view to full battle image.  He
now saw a computer rendering of the local ten klick area in front
of him presented in full-color optical spectrum enhanced by IR,
magna-scan, radar, and laser ranging.
     Two wings of GSC mecha were closing, followed by an
intimidating gunship and assault transport.
     "Looks like a bunch of Gallants and Morays," said Taeon.  "I
also see two Titans and a couple of small ships.  Not good."
     Ryo squinted his eyes, and his imaging system concentrated
on magna-scan.  Four anomalies appeared which had not otherwise
shown on radar.  "And four Cobra ATMs.  Look's like their jammers
are active."
     "Cobras?" asked Taeon.  "Damn it!"
     Ryo smiled and activated his own array of countermeasures.
The Metal Storm disappeared from optical view under a cloak of
distorted light.  A field of electronic noise surrounded it
scrambling most other forms of sensor detection.  "But I've got
an even better system."
     "Lucky," said Vista, as her and Allen's Kraken mecha,
propelled by its massive array of thruster jets, thundered around
from the port.  "But how can you look intimidating if no one can
see you?"
     "Who the hell cares?" asked Ryo activating his mecha's super-
science energy missile systems.  "I like being the invisible
angel of death!"
     The five energy bolts pulsed out of the left leg launcher
unit and crossed the distance to one of the Cobra mecha at nearly
the speed of light.  The Cobra didn't see the attack coming, and
flared up in a brilliant array of explosions as its body was
littered with destructive fire.  When the wave of quantum-state
missiles passed, nothing remained.
     Taeon's angelic white Psycho Raptor swooped out of the
starry abyss and leveled its left arm toward an approaching
Gallant.  "Maybe you don't need our help."
     "Heheh," laughed Ryo.  "Let's just toast these guys."
     "Right," replied Taeon as he opened fire with the Psycho
Raptor's graser gun.  A wave of intense graviton particles
rippled out of the mecha's arm and sliced into the enemy Gallant.
The blade of relativistic forces ripped through the foe's Vulcan
rifle and severed its right arm at the shoulder.  "Damn, missed
the torso."
     "Vista, Allen," said Ryo.  "Taeon, David.  I'll take the
second wing.  You guys get to work on the other wing."
     "A whole wing?" asked Allen.
     Ryo reached up and grabbed the 80cm cannon mounted on his
back.  He pulled it down and leveled it across his mecha's huge
shoulders.  "Right.  They're in close formation.  I'll be ending
that nice and quick.  Uh...  You might want to keep back a bit."
     "You're not planning to fire that thing at a mecha, are
you?" asked Taeon.  "Isn't that a waste?"
     "Not if I hit the one in the middle of their formation,"
replied Ryo.
     "Hey," said JT.  "This gun's not designed to fire at small
targets.  It's a ship buster, not an anti-mecha weapon..."
     "Trust me," said Ryo, lining up the targeting cross hairs
with the Neo-Moray in the center of the formation.  Suddenly, one
of the Cobra's opened fire on him, strafing particle energy
across his heavy force shields.  "Damn it!  That one's got a bead
on me.  JT, how's the cloaking and ECM systems?"
     "Everything checks," she replied.  "But we've got low-band
radar impulses bouncing off our hull.  Looks like their sensors
are advanced enough to cut through."
     "Great," said Ryo.  "That means those gunships can probably
see us, too, given the fact that their sensors are even bigger."
     "I'll try to filter out radar scans with the jammers," said
JT.
     The lock-on tone sounded, and Ryo fired the weapon.  The
80cm shell blasted out of the bazooka launcher and slammed into
the target's chest.  The Neo-Moray ceased to exist as the shell
erupted in a torrential fireball of near-fusion plasma energy.
The brilliant explosion expanded outward covering a diameter of
half a kilometer in mere seconds.  Five other mecha were consumed
in the sphere of metal vaporizing energy, including another Neo-
Moray, a Gallant, two Cobras, and a Titan.  All were destroyed.
     "Good God!" exclaimed David.
     "Holy..." stammered Vista.
     "Jesus!" yelped Taeon.
     "Hey, this ain't no holy war," stated Allen.
     "Quite," said Ryo.  He swung the massive gun back over his
shoulder and aimed his right arm toward the second Titan mecha.
"I'm busy killing."
     The Metal Storm Beta let lose a burst of particle fire from
the Gatling gun under its arms.  The energy pulses stabbed into
the mecha and ravaged its body.  Both legs exploded like
dynamited trees, and its rifle gun was blasted apart.  The last
energy pulse exploded into the Titan's head and melted away every
primary sensor and comm system.
     "Drat," said Ryo.  "It's still alive.  Well, I'll leave the
rest to you guys.  I'm going to take out that gunship and assault
transport."
     As Ryo thundered away from the battle at hand, he watched as
one of the Gallants launched a pair of mega-missiles at Allen and
Vista's Kraken.  The missiles punched into the mecha's torso and
left leg; and, though the damage cut through the Kraken's heavy
arm, it didn't yield.
     The other Gallant opened fire on David's L-Geimour, but he
skillfully dodged the attack and retaliated with a blast from his
fusion staff.  The beam of plasma energy sizzled past the
attacking Gallant and drilled into a large chunk of space debris.
     "I sure hope they can handle it," said Ryo.
     "Handle it?" asked Taeon.  "Watch this, pal!"
     Taeon closed his eyes and felt the electromagnetic sensor
field that surrounded his head.  He placed his hands on a pair of
yellow glowing spheres situated to either side of his armrests.
The power and psionic energies within his mind bled down through
his arms and into the negatively charged psion conductors beneath
his hands.  There, his consciousness felt the massive amplifier
within the mecha's belly.  "Hah!" laughed Taeon with a smile.  "I
like it!"
     He opened his eyes and concentrated on the two Gallant's
flying in close formation.  He mentally grabbed the first
Gallant, feeling its frail metal body under the force of his
amplified psionic grip.  With a simple will of thought, he shoved
the captive mecha into the second Gallant, and the two war
machines collided.
     Both sustained minor damage from the impact, but the force
of the collision threw both mecha off course and no doubt both
pilots were busy fussing at each other.
     Suddenly, one of the Neo-Morays came down and strafed him
with a half dozen hyper-kinetic rail rounds.
     "What the...!" exclaimed Taeon, as the projectiles drilled
into his shields.  "Hah!  No effect!  This mecha is light years
ahead of yours."
     He aimed his left arm graser at his assailant and fired,
sweeping the gravity wave across the Moray's flight path.  It
rocketed away and in full thrust retreat.  "Coward," mumbled
Taeon.
     The Kraken swiveled around on it's vectored thrust system
and launched a missile from its wing pod toward the wounded
Titan.  The rocket punched into the Titan's chest and exploded
blasting fire and shrapnel out the back.  The trashed mecha
tumbled lifelessly away.
     "Good shot," said David.  "Hitting a immobilized target like
that has got to be tough."
     "Shut up," said Allen.  The Kraken fired its heavy hellfire
rifle at one of the Gallant's, but the stream of bullet's missed.
     "Hold on," said David.  "Let me immobilize him for you."
     "Shut up!"
     The L-Geimour spun the fusion staff around in its hand and
aimed the end toward the marauding Gallant.  A beam of fusion
energy stabbed out and melted a nasty hole in the mecha's chest.
The Gallant exploded in a looming ball of fire.  "Oops," said
David.  "Sorry."
     "Shut up!" growled Allen.
     "Children, children," said Taeon.  "Don't distract me.  I'm
concentrating."
     He forced his psychic energy into the Psycho Raptor's
amplifier and felt the power surging around his consciousness.
He stretched his mind seeking a human form within the bowels of
the last Gallant.  He sensed the human's flesh and blood body and
concentrated with all his might.
     Metal shrieked, but the mental cry of the dying pilot over
powered the sound of twisting metal.  Taeon's mental hand ripped
through the Gallant's body and swelled around the feeble man.
The insubstantial hand of psionic force closed around him with
seventy tons of pressure.  A moment passed and Taeon broke his
concentration, realizing what he had done.
     "Good God!" he exclaimed as the out of control Gallant
tumbled past.
     Taeon clutched the psi-control spheres and swallowed.  He
had crushed the human pilot to a pulp with his mental powers...
He had never imagined that such force was possible.
     "Taeon!" called Vista.  "There's a squad coming in from five
o'clock.  I think we can hold them down.  You'd better go help
Ryo.  Two ships are quite a party to crash."
     Taeon shook his head and took in a deep breath.  "Roger.  On
my way."
                            *   *   *
     The Metal Storm swept up toward the approaching ships.  They
were big, both of them nearly twice his size.  He knew he could
take them down with a shot from his ship-buster, but he didn't
want to waste the ammo.  After all, he had only four more rounds
left.
     "Ryo," said Taeon.  "Need any help?"
     "I don't know.  Can you kill the pilots of these ships?"
     "Probably not," replied Taeon.  "Their force shields are
interfering, and they have a crew of nearly a dozen men.  I don't
have enough metal energy to pick them all off."
     "Never mind.  Work on that transport.  I'll take the
gunship."
     "Right," replied Taeon.  "Looks like we're almost to the
atmosphere."
     "Does your mecha have re-entry shielding?"
     "Of course."
     "Good."
     As Ryo approached, the gunship suddenly swiveled its
turret's around to fire.
     "It's detected me," he said.
     "High powered radar pings are hitting our hull," said JT.
"Their radar can cut through both our cloak and jammers."
     "Drat," said Ryo.  "I should get this mecha coated with
radar absorbing ceramics."
     The three cannons on the forward gun turret fired, but the
three energy beams lanced past missing by a comfortable margin.
     "Nice try," laughed Ryo.  He opened fire with his right leg
energy missile launcher.
     The five gravitically controlled quantum energy pulses
flashed out of the launcher and drilled into the nearby gunship.
The energy bolts punched through the force shields and struck
home, blasting across the gunship's left wing and engine pod.
Even so, the attack only singed the heavy plated armor.
     "Drat," complained Ryo.
     He looked to his right and spotted Taeon as he engaged the
transport ship.  The transport launched a barrage of five smart
missiles, but the Psycho Raptor evaded probably with help from
it's advanced missile jammers.
     Ryo turned his attention back to the gunship and let loose a
swarm of energy missiles from his left leg.  The light speed
energy projectiles tore through the craft's shields and peppered
the hull.  "I'll never get anything substantial through as long
as those energy shields are up.  JT, do you have a fix on the
shield type?"
     "They appear to be heavy kineto-gravitic fields," she
stated.  "Bubble pattern."
     "Hmmm," said Ryo.  "The GSC's shield technology isn't as
advanced as TEQSAC.  Gravitic fields are surface layered, but
kinetic deflection has to be in bubble state or it would rip off
the vehicle's armor with every jostle or jolt.  If I get under
the shields..."
     "They couldn't repel your attack," confirmed JT.
     Ryo smiled.  "Taeon, did you get that?"
     "I know about bubble shields," said Taeon.  "Thank God our
shields are perfect."
     "Finish your target," stated Ryo.
     "Hey," said JT.  "Taeon's switched off his missile jammers."
     "Taeon, what are you doing!  Just one of those missiles can
turn you back into star dust!"
     Taeon didn't answer, but his Psycho Raptor swooped over the
Transport's hull then landed on the midsection.  The five enemy
missiles arced up, then came thundering back down toward their
all too easy target.
     With only seconds until the two ton missiles closed, Taeon
launched away from the transport and turned his jammer's back on.
The missiles continued their course and slammed straight into the
transport's hull.  Explosions blasted out the bottom of the
ships, followed seconds later by a fire storm of eruptions from
every window, airlock, and gun port.  The rear of the ship
exploded as it's reactor detonated and the transport disappeared
in a swelling sphere of atomic fire.
     "Burn, baby, burn," said Taeon.
     "Hot move," said Ryo.
     "Uh, oh," said Taeon.  "External temperature's starting to
heat up.  Looks like we're in the outer most atmosphere."
     "Great," said Ryo.  He launched back toward the enemy
gunship.  "Let me finish this guy off."
     The gunship turned around and faced him head on.  Energy
seethed inside its primary gun, mounted deep within the hull.
     "Crap!" exclaimed Ryo.
     An enormously destructive beam of nuclear energy erupted
from the core cannon and tore toward Ryo.  He spun around and
brought up his left arm to block the blast.  The energy reflector
buckler unfurled and charged itself with a couple dozen gigawatts
of negatively ions and focused graviton particles.
     The energy beam bent away from the high powered repulsing
ions and was further warped by the artificial gravity-lens the
shield projected.  Ryo raised his arm and twisted, skillfully
angling the shield back toward the attacking ship.  "Two can play
at that game," he said as the beam reflected back toward the
gunship and drilled into its port thruster pod.
     Fire and smoke exploded from the thruster, but the flames
quickly smothered out in the absence of oxygen.  "Heheh," laughed
Ryo.  He flew down to the wounded gunship. "This new technology
is great."
     The gunship turned its weapon turrets around to fire, but
Ryo landed Metal Storm on the hull of the ship.  The guns
couldn't train on him.
     At half the mass of the ship himself, the gunship was
terribly unbalanced by the new passenger.  But Ryo didn't care.
He grabbed the hilt of his beam sword and the energy blade flared
to life.  "Let's see your shield protect you from this!" he
yelled, shoving the sword of gravity encased fusion plasma
through the forward bow of the ship.
     Energy arced around the front of the wounded ship as the
blade sliced into the primary weapon's capacitor.  Ryo hit the
Metal Storm's gravitic thruster and rocketed backward, forcing
the beam sword down into the hull as he went.  The blade sliced
the ship in two from bow to stern.  As he blasted away, the diced
warship exploded in a torrential fireball of a breached
antimatter reactor core.
     "That sure was fun," said Ryo.
     "Hey, good work," said David as he joined their formation.
"Took out two ships I see."
     "That's right," said Ryo.  "Where're Vista and Allen?"
     "Right here," said Allen as their Kraken came in behind
David's L-Geimour.  "We made short work of that other squad.
Ready to take out the ground forces?"
     Ryo looked around the low orbit battle.  Dozens of ships
were exploding, and a dozen more were in flames.  Mecha swarmed
around each other like angry hornets as streaks of deadly light
lanced between them.  Both sides had taken equal losses, which
was not good for their side.  The odds were still at two to one,
not in their favor.  A large number of ITR and GSC forces were
entering the atmosphere carrying the battle toward the excavation
site.
     "Ground war's good," said Ryo.  "We have to destroy Metal
Storm Alpha.  And who knows.  Maybe I'll be able to sink the
Victorious."
     "Doubtful," said JT.  "Even the Vigilant's antimatter
cannons can barely penetrate the Victorious's force shields, and
those guns are a hundred times more powerful than your ship-
buster."
     "Great," said Ryo.  "Well, we have to try something."
                            *   *   *
     Squadrons of mecha thundered through the atmosphere.  Those
incapable of reentry remained in orbit, fighting the GSC forces
there.  ITR gunships and transports, loaded with battle armored
marine troopers ready to storm the enemy occupied land, followed
behind their mecha escorts.
     Taeon opened a radar imaging window on his neural HUD and it
appeared in the lower left of his field of view.  The Victorious
was far below hovering above the water's edge.  Five ships sat on
the coastline, one of which he immediately identified as an
excavator ship.  Switching to magna-scan, he spotted two large
submersible vehicles about a thirty meters below the surface of
the water.  They were hauling up something big.
     "Ryo, it looks like they're dredging up Metal Storm Alpha."
     "I see them," he replied.
     "There's a light GSC mecha carrier at three o'clock," said
Vista.  "She's headed our way."
     "Got it," said Ryo.
     Taeon watched the Metal Storm pull down its massive ship-
buster cannon.  Ryo didn't fly toward the approaching ship; he
didn't need to.  The ship was well within the cannon's range.  He
simply turned and fired the weapon.
     The shell ripped through the air supplementing the thunder
of the launch blast with a massive sonic boom.  The projectile
slipped through the energy deflector shields and hit the
starboard aft of the ship.  For a moment, it seemed the attack
had done little more than punch a small hole in the side of the
vessel.  But a second later Taeon realized the extent of the
damage.
     The armor-piercing shell had ripped through the armored hull
and going deep into the ship's engines.  There it detonated
creating a hellish, exploding inferno where the antimatter
reactor should have been.  It took only a few seconds before the
aft section was nothing more than a fireball and an instant more
before that fireball had expanded to cover the entire ship.
     "All right!" said Ryo.
     "It must really suck to have been the pilots of the mecha on
board that ship," said Taeon.
     "Watch it!" said David.  "Looks like a wing of welcoming
officials is coming to greet us."
     Taeon glanced back at the radar window in the lower left of
his perception.  Sure enough, twenty-four GSC mecha were flying
up from the ships on the ground.  Fortunately, they had about
thirty mecha on their side right behind them.  On the other hand,
the rest of the GSC forces were also snapping at their tail.
"They're trying to crush us in a vice-strike," said Taeon.
     "No kidding," replied Ryo.
     The Metal Storm spun around and launched a swarm of energy
missiles at the approaching forces.  Explosions peppered the
mecha, destroying several of them, but the rest rocketed through
the fiery detonations of their comrades and opened fire.
     "This ain't going to be pretty," growled Allen, as several
hundred missiles erupted from the approaching enemy forces.
     Taeon started to target an approaching Neo-Moray, but an
urgent voice suddenly came over the divercomm.  "Lieutenant
Toshio, this is Control!  Disengage the psi-amp, now!  We're
detecting...!"
     The signal went dead as a burning sensation began to wash
over his mind.  He jerked his hands off the psi-amp and stabbed
his finger against the power-down button.  As the psi-amp shut
itself off, Taeon's brain exploded in a fury of pain and razor
edged knives.  He screamed as the pulsating diver shock wave
resonated down from the upstream end of time.
     This blast was worse than the first, but this time he was
ready for it.  He struggled to maintain control of his mecha,
knowing that if he hit a spin at just the wrong angle it would be
impossible to pull out.  As suddenly as it had hit, the mental
shock wave passed.
     "Taeon!" called Ryo.  "Taeon, are you okay?"
     "No," groaned Taeon, barely holding onto the threads of
consciousness. "There was another shock wave from the future."
     "Is your psi-amp okay?"
     "I think so."
     "We've got other things to worry about," said David.  "Like
those GSC mecha!"
     Taeon reactivated the psi-amp and waited for it to power
back up.  In the meantime, he blasted apart the Neo-Moray with
his graser gun and launched a flight of energy missiles at a near
by Gallant totally destroying it.
     "Three ships are taking off," informed Ryo.  "But I'm going
to take out that excavator before I deal with them."
     "Right," said Taeon who was more concerned with the
approaching attack ships.
     As they broke through the last of the cloud cover, the
ground and sea sprawled out before them.  Three ships were taking
off from the ground, but the rest stayed behind.  The Victorious
was doing nothing, but mecha began to pour from its launch bays.
     "We've got trouble," said Allen.
     Ryo hovered in the air and aimed his cannon down at the
excavator ship.  Suddenly, one of the attack ships strafed him
with heavy particle fire.  The bolts of energy tore through his
shields and blasted into his armor.
     "Ghaah!" yelled Ryo.  The Metal Storm swung around and aimed
the cannon toward the attack ship. "You'll die for that!"
     The cannon fired and the huge shell exploded into the ship's
primary engine pod.  The pod tore open in a torrential fireball,
but the ship was not destroyed.  It soon would be, as it was now
without thruster power and was hanging half a kilometer above the
rocky surface.  The ship plummeted to the ground like a blazing
comet and crumbled like an exploding Zeppelin on impact.
     Taeon divided his attention between blasting away attacking
mecha and watching Ryo destroy the second attack ship.  He was
amazingly successful at killing ships, but the Metal Storm was
taking a terrible beating the ship's cannons and the smaller
mecha that buzzed around him stinging away at his armor like
bees.
     When the second of the three attack ships went down, Ryo
must have realized he had only one shot left in his main cannon.
Ignoring the last attack ship, he aimed his cannon at the
excavator and fired.  This time he was determined to destroy it
and keep it from discovering whatever secrets lay buried beneath
the coastal beach.
     A great dome shaped fireball exploded where the excavator
ship had been.  When the hellish blast cleared, nothing remained
but twisted, burning metal.
     "Ryo look out!" yelled Taeon as he watched the last attack
ship open fire.  "The other ship's launched a guided strike
missile!"
     The Metal Storm spun around and disappeared as the optical
cloaking system reactivated.  But, in an atmosphere the effects
of the cloak were not nearly as potent.  The heat trail of air
friction and the whirlwind turbulence created by his rapid flight
were all too obvious. The shimmering optical distortion of the
cloak itself was as more vivid now than it was in the darkness of
space.
     Had the missile been less smart, it might have missed.  When
the exploding fireball cleared, the Metal Storm had reappeared,
scorched and scarred from the explosion.  Black smoke bellowed
out of its back.  That was not a good sign.
     "Ryo!" called Taeon as he watched the Metal Storm plummet
toward a coastal forest.
     "David!" came Vista's voice all of a sudden.
     This shook Taeon into realizing the rest of the battle was
still raging around him.  He activated a tactical sensor map, and
was shocked to see that the GSC mecha now outnumbered their
forces three to one!
     "David!" called Vista again.
     Taeon spun his mecha around and scanned the sky for any
signs of David's L-Geimour.  "Where's David?"
     The Kraken mecha barreled past, blasting away at a Titan
mecha.  "Die you bastard!" screamed Vista.  "Allen, waste him!"
     Missiles launched from every missile port on the Kraken and
blasted into the GSC Titan destroying it in the blink of an eye.
     Taeon didn't need to be told what had happened to David.  He
had been too concerned for Ryo's plight to notice the destruction
of David's mecha, and the death of yet another teammate.
     As the blasted Titan fell to the ground in burning chunks
too numerous to track, a particle laser from the attack ship
sliced through the Kraken and carved an ugly chunk out of its
body.
     "Crap!" yelled Vista as the Kraken spiraled to the ground.
"Where'd our left side go?"
     Taeon pulled away from the ship heading toward where he saw
the Metal Storm go down.  There was no explosion so there was a
good chance he made a successful ditch landing.
     "Vista, what's your status?" he asked, dodging a rain of
particle fire from the attack ship.
     "I don't have enough thruster power to maintain flight.
That blast destroyed half the rockets.  I'm going to try to land
at 56.02-11.15."
     "Understood," replied Taeon.  At least they had enough power
to make a safe landing.  "You might want to lay low after you
land.  No telling what..."
     "Ah!" screamed Vista.
     Taeon watched as another particle beam ripped into the
Kraken stabbing through its complex innards.  The mecha tumbled
helplessly out of control toward the dense young forest below.
     "Allen!" screamed Taeon.  "Vista!"
     "Dammit!" yelled Vista.
     "Fire control's locked up," stated Allen.  "I can't kill
anymore!"
     Taeon watched in grim contemplation as the last of his
buddies went down.  The early warning alarm wailed at him twice,
at about the same time as the sensation of impending danger swept
down his spine.
     He turned to see what was going on only to be blasted out of
the sky by a heavy anti-mecha missile launched from a GSC
gunship.
     "Warning," blared the computer as Taeon's neural interface
was jarred off his head.  "Thruster system shut down."
     Taeon grabbed the manual controls and tried to stabilize his
mecha's rapid descent.  But it was no use.  He was as aerodynamic
as a brick and falling just as fast.
     "Warning, reactor core shut down.  Reserve power at fifty
percent."
     "Dammit!" he yelled between clenched teeth.
     "Warning, primary weapon systems off line."
     "Shut up!" he screamed at the computer.  "Just shut up!"
     "Confirmed," replied the computer.
     The ground was approaching way to fast for his comfort.
Taeon placed both his hands on the psi-amp globes and
concentrated as hard as he could.  He was glad to see the amp was
still functional, but only a trickle of power was available to
it.
     "Computer, dump all reserve power to the psi-amp."
     "Confirmed," replied the computer.
     Energy flooded into the psi-amp and Taeon created a kinetic
energy field around his falling mecha.  The Psycho Raptor began
to slow, now gloved in a tight bubble of telekinetic force.
     "Come on," whispered Taeon as he guided his mecha along by
the force of his mind alone.  "Don't let me down!"
     The feet of the mecha smacked against the tops of the trees
but it's decent stopped and the momentum continued to maintain
it's forward flight.
     Taeon clenched his jaw, feeling the ominous pull the planet
exerted on his fifty-ton mecha.  Sweat beaded on his temples and
ran down the side of his face as black dots began to swim around
in his field of vision.  The strain of mental concentration
weighed heavy on his being.
     "Reserve power at ten percent and falling," stated the
computer.  "Five seconds to full system shutdown."
     "Got... to... land..." groaned Taeon his fingers squeezing
down on the glowing metal spheres.
     Taeon slowly relaxed the forces exerted upon his mecha as he
came to the spot where he thought Ryo had crashed.  The area
turned out to be a large river; most of it concealed under a
canopy of trees.  The crash point for the Metal Storm was quite
obvious, given the black column of smoke that rose from the hole
in the forest canopy.  Hopefully, thought Taeon, his friend had
landed safely in the river.
     With any luck he would be able to as well.  The reserve
power dropped to zero; and, like the power which dropped under
the strain of the hungry psi-amp's appetite, his mecha dropped
into the forest canopy and tumbled through the thicket of trees
to the ground below.
                            *   *   *
     "Ryo!" said a distant voice.  "Ryo are you okay!"
     Ryo forced his eyes open.  JT's face peered down at him.
"Yeah, I'm okay," he lied.
     "No you're not," came Taeon's voice.  "There's blood running
out of your ears, eyes, and nose.  This medical sensor says that
you've sustained heavy damage to your tempular mandibular areas
of your skull and your brain lining is damaged... Geez!  What hit
you!"
     "Bio-feedback shock," said Ryo.  "Don't ask me to explain."
     "I don't understand!"
     He tried to sit up, but the rush of blood to his head forced
him back to the ground.  "Got any pain killers," Ryo groaned.
     "Zotomine," said Taeon.  "And some healing stimulators."
     "Fine, fine," said Ryo.  "Pump me full of everything in the
med-kit."
     "I don't think you need antirad," said Taeon as he opened
the med-kit next to Ryo.
     "I'm glad you're okay, JT," said Ryo.  "I was afraid that
if..."
     She smiled and stroked the side of this face.  "Don't talk.
You might rupture an artery."
     Ryo tried to relax as Taeon shot in a dose of zotomine.
Several seconds later, the drugs were busy at what the did best -
inhibiting all pain neurons.  "Thanks."
     "No problem.  Here's some hyperheal," said Taeon injecting
the next drug.  "Well, now.  Our first priority is to fix our
mecha."
     "Which reminds me," said Ryo.  "JT, is the reactor still
working on the Metal Storm?"
     "Yes."
     "And the cloak?"
     "I'm not sure."
     "Well, can you hop back in and activate it if it is still
working?  That way they might not spot us down here.  You can bet
your life they'll be scanning every square meter of this forest
looking for that thing."
     JT nodded and walked back toward the wrecked super-mecha.
     Ryo began to nod off as the drugs started to take effect.
"How long does this drug keep me out?" he asked.  "A day, right?"
     "Right," said Taeon.  "Though I lowered the dosage a bit.
You'll only be under for sixteen hours as your body's healing
mechanisms accelerate to about three times their normal rate."
     "Could you put me in a sleeping baaa..."
     "Great," said Taeon standing up.  He walked over to the pile
of camping and survival gear on the river bank.  "Well, I don't
want to move him.  I could end up folding his brain pan."
     He grabbed a sleeping bag and pillow and headed back to his
tranqed out friend.  Turning around, he saw the Metal Storm Beta
suddenly vanish, leaving only a slight shimmer distortion in the
air and rippling water waves washing against the invisible wall
of the partially submerged mecha.
     It would take an extremely keen eye to spot that from orbit.
Ground scouts would probably notice the anomaly, but only if they
came close in.
     JT seemed to pop out of thin air and splash into knee-deep
water.  She walked back onto the beach and headed for Ryo.
"Asleep already?"
     "Yeah," replied Taeon.
     JT took the sleeping bag from Taeon and started to unfold it
next to Ryo.  She looked to the smoke filled dusk sky.  "It's
getting dark.  Set up camp at the edge of the forest, but don't
make a fire.  I'll take care of Ryo."
     "Right," said Taeon.
     "We'll work on the mecha tomorrow, after the battle's had
time to cool down.  It would be to risky to do anything now."
     Taeon nodded and got to work.
                            *   *   *
     Taeon couldn't sleep.  How could he?  The war was still
blazing far above in orbit like a carnival light show.  He rested
on his back, staring up into the starry night sky.  Streaks of
light arced across the celestial dome above like crisscrossed
volleys of falling stars.  Every so often, a light would flare up
then die away as yet another ship was destroyed.  He didn't know
which side was the ITR or which was the GSC, but there were
clearly two sides to the orbital war that he could see.  Both
seemed to be taking the same losses.
     Eventually, the fighting died away, and Taeon could only
assume that the battle was no longer in a geo-synchronous
position above, that one side had won, or that both sides had
drawn a pause to regroup.
     He awoke the next morning, but didn't remember falling
asleep.  It was daybreak and JT was already up.
     "Ration pack?" she asked.
     Taeon ran his hand through the tangled mat of hair on his
head.  "I wish I could take a shower."
     "There's a river right there," said JT with a laugh.  She
tossed a biodegradable can to Taeon.
     He sat up and caught the can all in one motion.  "How's
Ryo?" he asked zipping off the top of the can.
     "Healing," replied JT.  "But still out."
     Taeon nodded and started to eat the standard issue survival
rations.  It would be a long day, and the raw energy the rations
provided would be quite valuable even though they would do little
for the gnawing hunger in his belly.
     Having eaten and broken camp for the day, JT and Taeon got
busy with repairs.  The Metal Storm, being equipped with a
nanotronic automatic repair system, would be slowly repairing its
own damaged systems assuming the repair system itself wasn't
destroyed.  JT confirmed that it was in the process of
regenerating its structure, armor, and thruster system, but it
would be at least a day until it was fully functionally again.
And the ship-bust ammo was completely spent, drastically cutting
the mecha offensive potential.
     The Psycho Raptor was not equipped with an automatic repair
system.  Most of its damage was centered on the thruster systems
and legs.
     "With gravitic thrusters, which are completely inertialess,
a vehicle needs only to accelerate at a rate above the planet's
own gravitational attraction," said JT.  "From what I recall,
this planet has point eight standard Gs.  Metal Storm Beta can
accelerate at fourteen.  It will be able to break orbit once its
systems are regenerated."
     "But the thrusters on the Psycho Raptor are toasted," said
Taeon.  "I don't think we have the know-how to repair them."
     JT stepped up to the Psycho Raptor and looked at where Taeon
was working.  The Raptor was on its side, and Taeon had opened a
large access panel on the back where he was operating on his
mecha.  "Let me take a look at it."
     Taeon glanced down at her, then back into the access panel.
Inside the damage thruster system were four arrays of nearly a
hundred soccer ball-sized spheres.  Some were glowing blue, some
were dead and gray, while others were cracked.  "Uh...  I don't
think you've seen anything like this."
     JT climbed up the rope ladder to the access panel and looked
in.  "Oh, Hell!  Never mind.  Maybe we can salvage some booster
packs and strap them on your mecha.  Assuming we can find some
boosters big enough."
     "But why would we want to get to orbit?" asked Taeon.  "The
GSC forces have us outnumbered.  We're getting our asses kicked!
Even if we try to take off, the Victorious could wipe us out of
the sky."
     "We have to do something!" said JT.  "The battle in orbit is
still going on.  There may yet be a chance to win.  Assuming the
other fifty GSC ships arrive, we will have those six other ships
that drew them off.  Along with that, we have the Zion Moon's
garrison fleet, which is about twelve ships in all, and includes
a full wing of mecha.  All in all, our fleet may have twenty to
thirty ships left plus the twelve Zion ships.  The GSC may have
twice that number, but we have better tech, better pilots, and
better quality equipment."
     "Hmmm," said Taeon.  "Well, I saw Allen and Vista go down in
their Kraken about ten klicks north of here.  The Kraken may
still have some functioning boosters."
     "And I think we should check to see if Allen and Vista are
still alive," added JT.
     "That, too."
     "We have our Cyclopes power-cycles, right?" asked JT.
     "Yeah.  It might be hard to get them out, but it doesn't
look impossible."
     "Well, we can scout around and pick up survivors.  Maybe put
together a little guerrilla force."
     "Good idea," said Taeon.  He closed the access panel and
started to crawl to the front of his mecha.  "Can you get the
suits out of the Metal Storm?"
     "I can try."
     "Great.  I'm going to get mine and go out to find Allen and
Vista.  You stay here with Ryo.  Keep your Cyclops handy in case
some GSC ground troops find you."
     "I'm not a very good pilot," explained JT.
     "Ah, well," said Taeon, forcing open the access panel to the
Psycho Raptor's Cyclops storage area.  "Just hope they don't find
you."
                            *   *   *
     The heavy cycle tore through the forest, it's off road
suspension making short work of the logs and rocks in its way.
Taeon darted his eyes back and forth across the VR HUD display
screen on his fully sealed battle helmet, scanning the sensor
screens before him.
     "They're around here somewhere," he said to himself.
     Taeon skidded to a halt as his sensors detected a large
magnetic reading dead ahead.  The underbrush was thick, and newly
toppled trees blocked his progress.
     He pressed a button on the cycle's command console and held
onto the handle bars with his metal-gloved hands.  The power-
cycle transformed around him, its components folding up around
his hardsuit forming a massive exoskeleton battle armor.
     Three times larger than most cycles, the Cyclops was also a
transformable battlesuit.  As it unfolded and shifted its
actuated armor plates, drive chains, and reactor engine across
the hardsuit, the cycle quickly became a heavy armored trooper.
The front of the cycle, housing the missile pods and sensor
suite, lifted up and latched on his hardsuit's chest.  The sensor
suite and top of the newly formed chest slid around his helmet
creating a second layer of heavy armor equipped with long-range
sensors and comm system.
     Powerful hydraulic arm sleeves extended from the
transforming forward section and clasped around the hardsuit's
arms, creating a larger, stronger, and better protected layer of
actuated battle armor around them.  The rear of the cycle,
housing the reactor engine, lifted up and attached to the back of
the hardsuit opening up two large vents on either booster pod for
the suit's main thrusters.  The middle of the cycle broke into
two halves and latched around his legs, protecting them in a
double layer of structure and armor.  Drive chains, hydraulics,
and actuators slid into place and locked, giving the newly formed
exoskeleton limbs great motive power.  Additional booster vents
opened up on the lower legs adding to the suit's thrust power and
aerial maneuvering ability.
     The two armored wheels flipped back to either side of the
thruster packs and acted as massive shoulder guards.  The suit's
primary weapon, a massive pulse particle rifle, extended from the
left side mount and Taeon took it in the Cyclops suit's newly
formed hand actuators.
     The transformation took under ten seconds.  When it was
done, the two point five meter tall battlesuit held little
resemblance to the heavy cycle it had formerly been.
     Taeon easily maneuvered through the thicket in the powersuit
and emerged in a clearing that had recently been formed from a
massive, fiery impact.  In the center of the burnt tree strewn
crater was a relatively intact Kraken.
     "Allen, Vista?" called Taeon through the suit's speakers.
     "Hey!" came Allen's voice.  He stepped out from the
artificial cave which the Kraken's hunched body formed.  "Is that
you, Taeon?"
     "Yeah.  How's Vista?"
     "She's got a broken leg, but we both lived."
     "Do you have Cyclops suits?"
     "No," replied Allen as he approached.  "Just light power
armors.  Vista's leg isn't broken that bad.  Under the actuator
power of the suit she can walk, but not run."
     "Good.  Ryo, JT, and I have set up camp ten klicks south of
here.  Follow the river down stream, you'll come to us."
     "The river?"
     "It's one kilometer east."
     "Right."
     "Do you know of any other survivors?"
     "Well, I saw Jason's gunship go down about twenty klicks
south-east," said Allen.  "There was no explosion.  He and the
crew could have survived."
     "It's worth a shot.  Do you have the exact coordinates?"
     "No."
     "Okay, you and Vista head to the camp.  Once the Metal Storm
has regenerated we're going to use it to salvage your Kraken's
thruster to act as a booster pack for my mecha."
     "Oh?" asked Allen.  "Why?  You plan to launch back into
orbit?"
     "Yes."
     "That's crazy!"
     "And when were you afraid of a fight?"
     "I was worried about Vista," grumbled Allen.  "And I don't
want to go into battle as a passenger on someone's mecha either."
     "Sure.  Head back to the base and help JT.  I'm going to see
if I can find any other survivors."
     "Gotcha," replied Allen.
     Taeon transformed his battlesuit back into a cycle and sped
off through the forest.
                            *   *   *
     It was not hard finding the crashed shuttle.  It had left a
path of crushed trees nearly a kilometer long.  A quick search of
the wrecked gunship found only three bodies out of the eight man
crew, none of whom were Jason.  The survivors, wherever they had
gone, were not nearby.  They had wisely chosen to get as far from
the shuttle as possible, for fear of any GSC mop-up forces.
     Even so, someone had left a clue as to where they went.  In
the cockpit was a note with a sequence of numbers and letters.
It was a set of coordinates, coded with an ITR encryption
algorithm.  Taeon had to simply plug the numbers into his suit's
computer and let the decryptor fly.  It spat back the coordinates
in only a matter of seconds.
     The survivors were camped five kilometers north-east.  Taeon
headed there and found the camp that was well camouflaged under
canopy netting.  A sentry guard, who had nothing more than a
standard issue laser rifle, approached and appeared relieved when
he saw the newcomer was in a Cyclops power-cycle.
     Taeon was sitting on his Cyclops, still in cycle mode.  Even
so, the former gunship crewman couldn't see him for the hardsuit
he was wearing.  "ITR?" asked the guard.
     "Of course," replied Taeon.  He took off his helmet.
"Lieutenant Taeon Toshio."
     "Sir!" said the man, saluting.  "Crewman Rex Anders."
     "Is Ensign Grivar around?"
     "Yes, sir," replied Rex.  "This way."
     Taeon put his helmet on and drove the cycle along side the
crewman, though his speed was so slow he had to use his feet as
stabilizers.
     "How goes the battle?" asked Rex.
     "Over," replied Taeon.  "On the planet anyway.  I think the
battle in orbit still continues."
     "I know.  We saw it last night.  At least that means our
side still has a chance of winning."
     "Sure," replied Taeon.
     They came to the large camouflaged tent and the guard pushed
open one of the flaps.  "Jason, Lieutenant Toshio is here."
     "Taeon!" called Jason, as he stepped out of the tent.
"You're alive!"
     "So's Ryo and JT.  I also found Allen and Vista.  They're
headed to our camp about twelve kilometers west of here, toward
the coast."
     "Hmmm," said Jason.  "We have a good camp here, too.  Maybe
you should all come up and join us here.  We are planning to form
a resistance."
     "Well, we have the Metal Storm Beta and my Psycho Raptor
parked down at our camp."
     Jason nodded.  "Okay everyone, pack up camp.  We're moving
out."
     "Would you by chance know of any other survivors?"
     "As a matter of fact, yes," said Jason.  He motioned Taeon
into the tent.  "This way."
     Taeon took off his helmet and stepped off his cycle.  While
the other four crewmen busied themselves with packing up gear,
Taeon and Jason walked into the tent.
     The tent had mostly sleeping bags, back packs, and crates of
survival gear in it, but in one corner was a bound GSC pilot.
"Him.  I must admit, I didn't have the heart to kill him.  He's a
Gallant pilot, and he bailed when his Gallant went down.  When we
found him unconscious on our way to this site, I guess I just let
my humanity get the better of me."
     "He could be useful," said Taeon.
     "Like how?" asked Jason.  "I was planning on tranqing him
and leaving him here when we left."
     "No, no," said Taeon as a plan started to form in his mind.
"What sort of shape is his Gallant in?"
     "I guess it's toasted."
     "I ejected," said the pilot, "just before the rector went
up."
     "Well, my idea might still work," said Taeon.
     "What idea?" asked Jason.
     Taeon popped his wrist on his right arm and a small barrel
extended from under the hardsuit armor from under his hand.  He
aimed the auto-laser at the GSC pilot.  "You will give me the GSC
IFF code algorithm and all landing clearance codes."
     The pilot gritted his teeth.  "I'd die first."
     "Well, I was only going to burn little holes in you arms and
legs," explained Taeon.  "I wasn't going to kill you.  Of course,
I may have to take more drastic measures if you don't talk."
     The man said nothing.
     "Hell, never mind," said Taeon, stepping up to the prisoner.
"What was I thinking?  I'm a diver.  I can read minds."
     The pilot swallowed nervously as Taeon glared down at him,
grinning.
     "It'll just take a second," assured Taeon.  "And it won't
hurt a bit.  Then we'll leave you behind like Jason said.  Is
that okay?"
     The pilot said nothing.  But, Taeon soon learned the answers
as he scanned through the man's brain for the information he
sought.
                            *   *   *
     "That's crazy," said Ryo.  "Do you know what their security
is like?"
     Taeon looked at his newly recovered friend.  "Any better
ideas?  We have to stop them from getting Metal Storm Alpha."
     Ryo nodded.  "And where are we going to get a GSC mecha?"
     "There's a crashed Gallant nearby," said JT.  "It's not in
good shape, but I can get it working if we can find some extra
parts.  Probably thrusters, and some other minor components."
     "Yeah," said Allen.  "I like his idea.  It's probably the
only shot we have."
     "Getting onboard the Victorious by pretending to be a GSC
pilot who crashed, repaired his mecha, and took off to return to
duty," stated Vista.  She reached down and fidgeted with the
actuated cast on her right leg.  "I don't know.  Don't they have
clearance codes?"
     "We found a GSC pilot," said Jason.  He took a sip out of
his vapor canteen.  "And Taeon scanned the guy's brain.  Found
the codes and stuff.  Wish I were a diver."
     "It goes without saying," said Ryo.  "But, I guess it's
worth a try."
     "What's the plan?" asked Allen.
     "Okay," said Taeon, trying to work things out.  "We get a
Gallant, fix it, and infiltrate the Victorious."
     "We still need to rig up the Psycho Raptor," said Ryo.  "Not
all of us can do that.  The Gallant might hold one other, but the
rest of us will either stay behind or boost to orbit."
     "I'm for rejoining our forces," said Jason.  "Even if it's
hopeless, it's our duty to fight the GSC to the bitter end.  And,
with the Metal Storm working, we might have a good chance."
     "I could try and rig up some shells for it's main gun," said
Allen.  "There's a crashed frigate nearby.  I could off load some
ordnance and work with it to make the ammo compatible with the
Metal Storm's cannon."
     "Are you sure?" asked Ryo.
     "I'm an expert in demolitions," explained Allen.
     "I don't doubt it," replied Ryo.  "So, while you do that, I
can hover my regenerated Metal Storm, in cloak mode of course, to
where your Kraken crashed and carry the surviving boosters back
here for the Psycho Raptor.  The rest of you can get to work on
that Gallant."
     Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
     "Then it's a plan," said JT.  "With the right parts, I can
get the Gallant working in a day.  Especially if those crewmen
help out."
     The four gunship crewmen gave her the thumbs up.
     "Let's go," said Ryo.
                            *   *   *
     The Metal Storm, like a whirlwind carrying two large booster
packs in toe, wove silently through the forest.  An occasional
tree was toppled and many lost branches and upper canopies, but
Ryo was confident that his intricate flight path would throw off
any trackers who might have noticed the anomaly of this nearly
invisible journey.
     Returning to camp, he sat the booster next to the partially
repaired Psycho Raptor and then backed into a heavy thicket of
foliage.  He shut down all systems except the reactor and
cloaking mechanism, hopped off his mecha, and made his way down
the rope ladder to the ground.
     "Thanks," said Taeon, approaching from his Raptor.
     "No problem.  I didn't pick up any sensors training on me.
I think I made a clean break."
     "Good.  Jason and I will get to work fixing these boosters
and strapping them onto the Psycho Raptor.  Do they still have
fuel in them?"
     "No," replied Ryo.  "But they're hydrogen fusion based with
water electrolysis refining systems.  The tanks have purification
refueling filters.  All you have to do is pump some of this river
water into it, run the reactor for a while to refine the stuff,
and wallah!"
     "Good," replied Taeon.  He glanced over the two boosters
towering next to his mecha.  "Man, each of those things is bigger
than my mecha is tall!"
     "Well, you need them to get to orbit," said Ryo.  He stepped
out into the riverside clearing and spotted Vista Juno carrying a
crate of supplies. "Hey, Vista!"
     "Yeah?" she called back.
     "Where's JT?"
     "She and a couple of crewmen are a kilometer south of here
where they're repairing that crashed Gallant."
     Ryo went back to where his Metal Storm was parked.  He took
out the hardsuit and Cyclops cycle and suited up.  The other suit
was missing, of course, as JT had taken it for her personal
protection.  Ryo had insisted on it, as there was no telling what
dangers lurked in this alien forest, enemy or native.  On some
worlds, even the plant life can eat you.
     Moments later, he was speeding through the forest in the
high-tech power-cycle.  The small clearing was nothing more than
an impact zone of blasted trees in the center of which was the
Gallant now in a moderately repaired condition.
     JT approached Ryo when she saw him pull up.  "Took care of
your errand?"
     "Yes," replied Ryo taking off his helmet and stepping off
his cycle.  JT was also in her powered hardsuit, for the benefit
of its superhuman strength if for no other reason.  "How are
things here?"
     "Well, we still need a functional head unit, with sensors
and comm system.  This Gallant had the unfortunate luck to crash
land head first.  We've located some wreckage out on the beach,
and it appears to have a head unit intact, but we've only
surveyed it from a distance.  The Victorious is dangerously close
to its location and we're afraid to go out in the open.  We could
be detected."
     "There's no choice in the matter.  Unless you find another
Gallant with it's a head unit..."
     "Unlikely, given the fact that we want to keep as close to
the main camp as possible.  Journeying out too far we might risk
detection.  They may have already detected us and don't care at
the moment -- having more pressing matters at hand."
     "I doubt it," said Ryo.  "If they detected us, getting Metal
Storm Beta would be a high priority."
     "They may have only detected Taeon's Raptor or the Kraken as
your mecha is cloaked.  A trashed Kraken is no concern to them.
They probably don't know what the Raptor is and think it's only a
modified V Raptor."
     "True."
     "Well, it's only an hour until dark," said JT looking at the
evening sky.  "Let's get down there and grab the head.  The
Cyclops suits should be strong enough to carry it."
     Ryo hopped back on his cycle as JT headed for hers.  "Let's
make it fast.  Once night falls and the beach cools, we'll stand
out like a sore thumb on IR scan."
     He revved the throttle on the cycle and together he and JT
sped off toward the nearby seashore.
                            *   *   *
     "Perfect," said Taeon as the first booster latched on to the
improvised mount on the Psycho Raptor's back.
     He stood on the left shoulder supervising the excellent
progress that was being made.  Jason climbed up beside him, and
the other gunship crewman in the powersuit below called up that
everything checked at his end.
     "Just one more booster," said Jason.  "I'll get busy rigging
in the controls and power cables."
     "Good," said Taeon.  "Though maybe we should call it a
night.  It's starting to get dark."
     He turned around and looked to the west where the large red
sun was sinking beneath the horizon.  Though it was still hot, a
cold chill suddenly swept over his body.  There was something
terribly wrong.
     "Jason," he asked, "where's Ryo?"
     "Last I heard he and JT went down the beach to get a Gallant
head unit to finish off their work."
     "The beach..." said Taeon.
     Images floated back into his mind as he watched the orange
light-cast sea rippling beneath the dusk reddened sky.  The sun
of Arcturus slowly sank into the sea, casting its red reflection
across the water.  He couldn't see the beach from his vantage
point, but in the distance the Victorious was quite clear,
hovering ominously over the coast.  For a moment, he thought he
saw a small speck of a vehicle leave the great ship and disappear
as it dropped toward the seashore and out of his line of sight.
     The beach, he knew, was a rare one - A black coral sand
beach.  The black beach of an orange-lit sea, beneath the blood
red sky and twilight red sun...
     "My God..." he whispered.
     He remembered the terror of the dream and saw only the image
of the mocking metal face that had once been human, but was no
more...


Written and Directed By
Mark Chase

http://www.meta-earth.com

Copyright 1998.  All rights reserved.

Casting By
Mark Chase

Starring
Ryo Gunn         -  Mathias Russ
Taeon Toshio     -  Jonathan Fuller

Other Characters - Mark Chase
Allen Mercer
Vista Juno
JT
Admiral Steele
David Pollux
Dr. Kei Gunn
Alex Nair
Leta Zodiac
Sara Toshio
Jason Grivar
Captain Armour
And Everyone Else

Mecha Designs
Metal Storm Beta - Mark Chase
Psycho Raptor    - Mark Chase
Raptor Series    - Mark Chase
Gallant          - Mark Chase
Neo-Moray        - Mark Chase
L-Geimour        - Mark Chase
Cobra ATM        - Mark Chase
Titan            - Mark Chase

(all mecha were constructed under
the Mekton Zeta© RPG system, by
R. Talsorian Games, Inc)