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The tank rolled up to the gate and pulled to the side while the Deuce backed in. The people in the parking lot were packing up their tents and belongings while Chy was standing outside waiting for me, along with Vahq, Sonya and Sarah.

"I didn't expect you to come back with armored transport", Chy said.

"Neither did I", I said, "turns out that Ryu figured I'd eventually come for the radio at the hotel, which is where he'd been based. So acting on that, he gave orders to his men to stand down and let everyone alive in and to only fire if fired upon, at least that way he figured we wouldn't meet on bad terms."

Chy sighed, "never in a million years did I expect Ryu to become a valuable ally."

I shrugged, "fate does some weird ass shit, see if you and your team can get these people organized. Sarah, do you know where Magellan's at?"

"He was with Tyler helping out on the computer the last I checked", Sarah said.

'Walk with me", I said walking into the tower.

"Listen Sarah, the situation has changed", I told her.

"Changed how?", she asked.

"Agent 41 has mutated, now it seems to have given birth to some kind of mutated spider that gestates in it's host. Ryu and I faced a swarm of the fuckers at his camp. They seem easy enough to kill, but if what I saw is anything to go off of, their going to become a problem through sheer numbers very quickly."

"Any idea how this has come about?", Sarah asked.

"Allen suspects Number 12 and Chemical 240 are going to work once again", I said, "if that's the case it could only be mere days before Agent 41 becomes completely incurable."

Sarah sighed, "I could have a cure easily...if I just had some fucking equipment to work with."

"When we get back to the hotel", I said, "I'll introduce you to Ryu, he should have exactly what you need and if he doesn't, know exactly where to obtain it."

I opened the door to the lounge where I found Tyler sitting in front of four Toshiba monitors. The entire room was a mess of wires and computer chips and the screens were full of binary code.

"The hell is going on in here?", I asked, taking care to avoid stepping on anything.

"The magic of processing", Magellan said, "Tyler things he can write his own version of CHDISK from back in the lab."

"What purpose will that serve?", I asked.

"We can connect everything with a chip in it to one central node", Magellan said, "that tank you guys rolled in on? Anything that happened to it would be recorded and sent back to the Main Node, along with real time information about location, engine performance and even how much fuel is in the tank. Having a constant stream of up to the second information would allow us to coordinate our moves much more easily."

"How does knowing how much fuel is in the tank help us plan a move?", I asked.

"Well we would know how far we could head out before we had to turn around and come back", Magellan said, "assuming any networks are still up, like say, those at the gas stations, we could plot the longest possible route to tackle as many objectives as possible and not have to worry about fuel."

"Something to be said for ingenuity", I said, "how long will it take to write?"

"I'm just putting the final touches on it now", Tyler said, "installing it will be as simple as copying it to the ECU of all our vehicles."

There was a minute or two of nothing but the sound of Tyler's fingers gliding effortlessly across the keyboard.

"Done", he said pulling a 4 terabyte flash drive from the PC along with a skimpy backpack, "let's get on out of here."

My friends and I walked out front where Chy and some others were helping people load their stuff onto the deuce, while Mike, Allen, Alcatraz were still on the tank, which was sitting turned off in the grass on the side of the road, humming quietly on what I assumed must be electric power. Chy was standing by the deuce waiting for me.

"Some of the people got concerns that were walking into a trap", she said, "please go calm them down."

I nodded and walked to the back of the truck, where I found people cramming themselves with all their stuff into the truck.

"Listen to me people", I said, "please. It's not safe for us to stay here at the guard tower, there's safety in numbers when dealing with things like this, I speak from personal experience."

"I've lived on Ania my entire life", a male Xeno said from the back of the truck, "I know Ryu, he'll kill us the first chance he gets."

"No he wont", I said, "if I'm wrong, then I'll be the first to die."

"Yeah because that's comforting", the Xeno said as I closed the truck's tail gate. I walked back around to the front of the truck.

"Their not going to listen", I said, "and we don't have the time to make them. Our best bet is just to head to the hotel and let them see for themselves what's going on."

Chy sighed, "okay, Imma trust you."

"Let's get going", I said to the driver. She nodded to me and started the truck while I went back to the tank, "time to roll on out of here."

"You heard him boys", the tank commander said as the tank's large diesel spun up, "let's get moving."

There was a lurch as the tank's transmission engaged first gear and the monster began to creep forward, shifting into second gear and making a loud fart noise as the turbos blew off the extra boost. What I would have given to have one of these when I faced Martin's drill tanks at the lab. The tank rolled up the steep hill that gave the Ford trouble with little ease and took the corner like nothing. Once we had turned it, I noticed that the wrecked cars, which had previously been up against the rocky cliffs, were now arranged in such a way that they were blocking the road.

"That's not a good sign", the tank commander said, "Private Wells, see anything on thermals?"

"No sir", a man said over the radio, "everything is clean, it's just us and our motors for miles."

"Someone arranged those cars to block us off", the tank commander said, "judging by the way it was put together, it was done just well enough that it slows us down, get a round loaded in the big gun and stand by to fire, we no doubt have contacts in this area."

"Yes sir", the TV Operator said as sounds of large springs unlocking a huge chamber began to clank below me. I could feel the vibration as the round was loaded in and the chamber closed. The tank pushed the barricade out of the way with no effort whatsoever and we continued on our way. We were about to start going around the long curve before the final straight to the hotel when the tank stopped.

"Why are we stopping?", I asked.

"Private wells?", the commander asked, "report! Why have we stopped."

"I'm picking up 10 contacts just around the corner", wells said, "I can't see their armament, but I'm picking out what looks like a makeshift rocket launcher and a technical."

"Tactical assessment?", the commander asked.

"I suggest we take the peaceful option first", Wells said, "we don't have the fuel or the ammunition to start a drawn out encounter."

The commander sighed, "proceed with caution."

The tank lurched again and turned the corner, revealing a barricade of cars in the road, most of them looked like they were the cars of the ten people who were there. They were armed with ACR rifles and shotguns, while one of them was on a Mg42 that was on a truck and the other had a makeshift rocket launcher. We obviously had the firepower to smack them down that very second, but since the commander didn't want a fight, we started talking.

"You can let us pass or you can die", the commander said.

"Can't let you leave here with that armor kid", the man on the machine gun said.

"Are you really in a position to talk with a 120mm shotgun pointed at you?", the tank commander asked.

"Dude", the man with the rocket launcher said, "just hand the thing over before we have to kill you."

'Fire", the tank commander said.

Not a half a second later, the main gun went off. Spraying more buckshot than I had ever seen at the bandits, who were helpless to defend against it. All that was left of the men after the discharge was a red paste. The tank started forward again as the main gun was reloaded.

"Wow", Magellan said rubbing his ears, "I've never seen a worse case of zero fucks given."

'You thought I was bad", checking to make sure my ears weren't bleeding, they sure seemed like they might be the way they were ringing.

"Good old brute force", Mike said, "so that's how it goes I suppose, what was that anyway? A giant shotgun shell?"

"Yep", the tank commander said, "designed for use in main guns against infantry."

"Wow", I said, "got any more?"

"Lots of them back at base", the commander said, "but not on us, we haven't had a chance to resupply or refuel as all the gas went to the tanks at the check points guarding the hotel. Speaking of gas, Private John, what's the gauge saying?"

"Were running on fumes here sir", the man who I assumed was the driver said, "It's one notch above E so I think we'll be okay to make it home."

The commander sighed, "I don't know what were gonna do if we run out of diesel fuel, our armored divisions are to valuable an asset to lose."

"I'll talk to Ryu about it", I said, "maybe I can come up with something."

The tank made it back to the hotel base with zero difficulty. We drove down to the parking garage and disembarked. While Mike and the others helped Chy get everyone situated, I went looking for Ryu, finding him in a tent with a queen mattress covered in Japanese styled sheets and covers along with a Japanese styled rug with a dragon on it. He seemed to be deep in thought.

"Ryu?", I asked, "there's no door, so I can't exactly knock."

"Come in Skyline", Ryu said without opening his eyes, "please, join me."

I slung my rifle over my shoulder and sat down.

Ryu opened his eyes, 'all is not well?"

"The commander of the tank you sent with me was complaining about a lack of diesel fuel", I said, "it's lead me to question your resource situation."

Ryu sighed, "yes, it sadly is escaping me. Ammunition and water we have plenty of, but food and fuel are a different story. The food situation held up admirably for the first few days, but as more of my men find their way back here with sick and injured in tow, the supply became stressed, now we have but a mere few days left until we are reduced to nothing. The fuel situation is only slightly better. All vehicles expect essential ones, IE the tanks on guard duty and the medical truck were drained of their fuel and used to run the generator. But since then it has become clear that this was a mistake. I however cannot afford to starve the generator of the fuel it needs, as the air conditioned hotel is far to valuable to the injured and the survivors."

"If you'll let me make a radio call", I said, "I can have the entire Bespinite Air Force here by tomorrow morning."

"Are you certain that your call will reach to your homeworld?", Ryu asked, "Bespin is many weeks away from Ania at light speed without Warp Drive capable transport."

"There should be a ship in orbit", I said, "my girlfriends transport should be within range."

"Then by all means make the call", Ryu said, "return to me with news once it is in your possession."

I nodded, rose and began to leave the tent, "also, before I forget, I have a friend named Sarah Hayes, she's a scientist working on a way to combat Agent 41, if you'd fill her in on the situation with the spiders, it would help."

"I shall seek her out as soon as possible", Ryu said, "for I have much to accomplish this day."

I just nodded and left the tent, walking back to the tank where Mike was still lingering, talking with the commander, but no one else was visible.

"Mike?", I asked, 'where did everyone go?"

"One of Ryu's boys took them to the hotel to get settled in", Mike said, 'Chy said she was gonna check out the market place in the lobby and that you could meet her there."

"Thanks bro", I said turning and walking out. Outside, the sun had begin to set, bathing everything in orange, but the activity level hadn't changed. The medical truck had since relocated to underneath the covered area at the front of the hotel, leaving room for other tents to be set up for mechanics to work on their trucks and even their tanks. There was also a lone helo, looking like a Scorpion, sitting on a pad having it's engine worked on. There were a few parents watching their little kids play around in the decorative fountains that were going like it was just another day, cooling off by my guess. I walked to the front door of the lobby and pulled it open, spotting Chy trying to make a deal with the weapons vendor for a set of throwing knives.

"Hey Chy", I said.

She turned and looked at me, "just a minute. Final offer", she told the man behind the table, "take it or leave it."

"You drive a hard bargain lady", the man said, "but I can live with it, deal."

Chy took the throwing knives and handed the man a magazine of ammo for her AR-10 before walking up to me.

"You need something love?", she asked.

"yeah", I said, "Ryu told me to make the call to your fleet."

"Let's get to the top of this thing then", Chy said. She and I took the elevator to the top floor, which had the weather center along with the radio. There were two guys up there already.

"Ryu told us you were coming sir", a young sounding Xeno with a heavy slash scar on his visor said, "the radio has already been set up and tested, all you have to do is tune it."

"Thank you", Chy said walking to the radio and turning the dial, "Overlord, this is Stalker 2-2, please respond."

There wasn't even static.

Chy looked at me. I shrugged and she tried again, "Overlord, this is Stalker 2-2, please respond."

There was yet again, no reply. Chy tried for two hours to raise radio contact, but got nothing. By the time she finally gave up, the sun was almost set.

"Damn", she sighed, "their gone."

"Where does that leave us?", the human guard asked.

"That leaves us stuck in hell with no way out", Chy sighed.