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I knew that I wasn't gonna be spared a cold due to my encounter with the water. While the sinus distress wasn't as immediate as I expected, punishment eventually came in the form of non stop sneezing, the near loss of ability to breath through my nose and a very, very bad irritation of my eyes, all six of them. Sneezes and a stuffy nose I can handle. But ever had your eyes itching and watering like crazy? Now imagine that you have a piece of special bone covering them that is harder than steel. Then, there was the cracked rib that felt like it got worse with every sneeze. Do you see the brilliance here? Luckily for me Chy had some really strong allergy meds on hand that more or less stopped the sneezing and greatly reduced my watery eyes, enough for me to keep helping out around the tower, which was a good thing because the people here needed it. The condition of the place was just...deplorable. The carpets of the office rooms were filthy, the tiled floors were covered in dirt and the blood of presumably slain undead, many if not all of the people here hadn't been able to shower in more than 4 weeks, the supplies that were on hand were messy and unorganized, space was tight because people who had tents on hand, which was actually more than you'd think, were too scared to pitch them outside and morale was just too damn low.

So, despite not feeling that great, I set to work improving the condition of the tower and getting everyone organized and making sure everyone was doing things to assist each other. The first thing I did was round up Marco, Chy, Sonya and Vahq and got them to help me take an inventory of the Weapons, ammunition and supplies we had on hand, which turned out to be quite a bit. Chy's team, except for her, had all been armed with M1 Garands and 350 rounds each with K-Frame 9mm 1911 handguns in reserve. Chy had managed to recover a good bit of her dead team members ammunition, but given the fact that there wasn't that much, I assumed that most of it had been expended escaping from the city. Excluding Vahq's equipment from the count, that left me with four rifles, four handguns, about 280 rounds of .30-02, a surprising 420 rounds of 9mm, several grenades, flash bangs and about 12 flares. The equipment my friends and I had brought from the ship more than tripled what Chy had, so seeing as how space was limited, and people were scared to set tents outside. I decided to put guards out and Chy said it was also a good idea to hand out her teams 9mm's to people who were willing to pitch outside. So while Chy and Sonya split up to go ask if people were willing to camp outside, I went looking for guards. Marco took the task without hesitation and Matt, who'd just kind of been in the background up until now, was more than happy to have a gun in his hands, which I assumed was due to being designed and built as a combat entity from the start.

Another candidate was an 18 year old Xenomorph who said he was from Bespin, and didn't actually believe I was really who I said I was.

"Prince Skyline died in 2144 when the Imperial Glykseian Army invaded Prouxsas City", the kid said, "he was vaporized when one of the ships launched a Stinger F-1 missile at the Royal Palace."

"That story ain't true cause I'm standing right here", I smiled.

"Impersonation of King Aegean's Brother is a treasonous offense, punishable by death."

"Kid", I said, "look, I don't feel well, maybe if I felt better I'd keep shooting shit with ya, but I don't, so do you wanna help out with guard duty or what?"

"I said I did", the kid said taking the rifle, "though I don't know if I'll be that much help since I've just barely made it through Basic."

"Your in the military?", I asked.

"Navy reserves", the kid said, "I was supposed to go to AIT next summer. I came out to Ania because I had the money and wanted to use every bit of the summer that was left."

"How long you planing to stay in?", I asked.

"As long as I can", the kid said as we walked outside, "I plan on working my way up and eventually becoming a Praetorian."

"My brother was a Praetorian", I said, "course he was part of the royal family so he didn't have to work his way up."

"That's not exactly fair", the kid grinned.

"Executive privilege grasshopper", I smirked.

"I'm just messing with you by the way", the kid said bowing, "I know it's you Prince Imesee. I just wanted to see if the rumors about you being a sarcastic Bounty Hunter that I heard back home were true."

"They are", I said, "I've been a Merc since I was about your age."

"How come you haven't gone back to Bespin? King Aegean doesn't wanna be in charge anymore."

I sighed, smiling at the same time. Unlike Chy, Aegean surviving an execution wasn't so far fetched. Somehow I wasn't surprised, even though I knew I should have been, "so he survived that execution attempt huh? I should have guessed, Aegean never knew when to quit."

The kid nodded, "yeah, he wasn't able to continue being a Praetorian because of a brain injury it left him, so he was crowned King. But he doesn't wanna do it."

"Any idea why?", I asked.

"Just something about how he thinks you should be King instead", the kid said, "everyone back home thinks your dead, but Aegean thinks your still out there."

"You should know that is my ultimate plan here", I said, "my girlfriend Chy's in the military too. I was little at the time, but if my memory of watching my brother run the Praetorians serves me, the Bespinite Army has a rule that sates that units gone missing will have their missions retraced up to the point of last contact, then the search will begin."

"Exactly correct", the kid said, "we covered that in Basic."

"For now soldier", I said facing him, "as current Prince of Bespin, and thus being in command of all deployed ground units, I'm placing you under the command of 1st Sargent Chy Vysk until King Aegean feels the need to override me."

The kid gave me a salute and went to the railing where I instructed as I went back inside through the garage, meeting Sonya and Chy at the base of the staircase up to the balcony.

"I managed to get three people to agree to take guard duty", I said, "also Chy, Your team is up to three members, one of the kids on guard duty is a Bespinite Navy member."

Chy nodded, "got ya. And to report on other manners we managed to get almost everyone up stairs to move out into the parking lot. They promised to keep the main driveway clear for the Ford though."

"Good", I said, "see what you and Sonya can do in getting this tower cleaned up and since we still got a few hours to kill, the next thing on my hit list is getting all the supplies and weapons organized so I can get to them when I need them."

'Are you asking Chy and I to clean up because were females?", Sonya asked sarcastically and putting her hands on her hips.

"No", I said, "I'm asking you to see what you can do to get things cleaned up. Has nothing to do with the fact that your girls."

"Sure", Sonya smirked, "we totally believe you."

"Do something else then", I said sneezing, "I don't really care, as long as everything gets done."

Sonya opened her mouth to say something else, but Chy stopped her.

"Come on Sonya", she said, "he's sick as it is and every time he sneezes a crack in his rib cage gets a little bigger. As much fun as it is to screw with him, now is not the time."

Sonya smiled, "all right, I didn't know that his ribs were cracked, I'll back off, least until he gets better."

"Shut the trap", Chy said, "get some others to look around and see what we can find in the way of cleaning supplies. This place is starting to stink."

Having two tasks done and satisfied that a third was underway, I turned my attention to the supply stash in the back of the garage. There were cans spilling out of boxes, bottles of water scattered all over the floor and the boxes themselves weren't stacked like the should be. For starters, I picked up all the stray cans of food and bottles of water and then emptied all the boxes, separating the contents of each one into other boxes depending on what they were, Canned food, dehydrated, liquids, what have you. When that was done, I stacked the medical chest and boxes of ammo along with the survivors bags and the two gas cans against the opposite wall. I moved all of the random scrap and spare parts from upstairs and in the garage to the pile out back, which I also sorted, just to kill that little bit of extra time till nightfall because sitting on my tail would just be a waste. Once everything was sorted, I went inside to see what Chy and Sonya had been up too while I was working on sorting our resources. They didn't just get the place clean, they made it shine. Chy, Sonya and about six other people had cleaned the tower from top to bottom and gotten rid of all the trash in some unseen incinerator. There were two guys in the back near a custodian's closet who were just finishing putting things away.

"Wow", I whistled walking through the hallways, up to Sonya and Chy, "girls the place looks amazing."

"Thanks", Chy smiled, "never claimed to be a neat freak, at least over anything but my guns. Felling better love?"

"Not really", I said, ",my chest hurts like hell."

"Cracked ribs", Sonya said, "I had a few of those once. I was always tiny and small and fragile and weak when I was growing up."

"You were that one huh?", I asked.

Sonya smiled, "yep, fell off the monkey bars at school once and landed the side of the sand box, cracked nearly all of them."

"Ouch", I said.

"Yep", she smiled.

"What's next on the hit list?", Chy asked.

"The Pharmacy", I said, "seems like we still got a while before sunset, so for now, we wait."

And wait we did. Chy and I took to the top of the Life Guard tower's Balcony, spending the remaining 12 hours till sunset either asleep, or starring out over the amazing landscape, until the sun finally set, revealing something I could look at for hours. The water in the bay area where the beach took on an amazing blue tinted glow, allowing us to see the thousands of fish and enormous coral reef in the area. The glow was enough in of itself, but that, combined with the remnants of a Supernova and a huge nebula that the planet itself had to be in, it was one of the most amazing thing's I had ever seen.

"Wow", I said quietly, "I thought Ios could put on a show."

"It's amazing isn't it?", Chy said, "that's pretty close to what was over my head every night during Basic Training."

I pulled Chy close to me, "it will be over my head every night once this mess is done with. At this point, I'd be glad to have the problems of running a planet over what I got now."

Chy smiled, "yep me too. We should get going."

"Right", I said sitting up and stretching out, "the pharmacy."

'Did you forget?", Chy asked.

"Kinda", I said standing up.

I walked back into the room where Chy had been staying, grabbed my gear and then headed downstairs to the Ford, where I found Allen, Mike and Alcatraz ready and waiting.

"Just couldn't wait to get going huh?", I asked.

"Nope", Allen said, "been stuck in a lab for the past few months, it's nice to finally be able to get out and fight."

I opened the passenger's door to the Ford and climbed in while Chy got into the driver's side, Alcatraz got in the bed, while Mike and Allen got in the back. Chy started the truck, put it in first and started out of the tower's garage while Marco opened the gate. Chy stopped at the gate and rolled down the window.

'Lock this gate behind us", Chy said, "expect us back in about an hour or so."

"Got ya", Marco said as Chy drove the Ford out of the tower perimeter.

"Okay, so here's the situation", Chy said, "I expect the pharmacy to be occupied by looters, however, seeing as how guns were cheap as hell on this planet, expect everyone to be packing enough heat to win a small war."

'That bad huh?", I asked.

"It was", Chy said, "the mayor of the city told us to watch where we stepped because everyone was armed on Ania."

"Armed yes", I said, "but how skilled are they?"

"I don't know Sky", Chy said as she steered the For through a turn, coming shortly there after to a down hill turn. Chy was going through the down hill corner when she suddenly slammed on the brakes. The drums in the rear of the truck gave a low squeak as Chy through the truck in reverse, killed the headlights and backed, up, quickly killing the engine.

"What was that about", Alcatraz asked opening the back window, "you almost launched me out the bed of this damn thing."

Chy exited the pickup without saying anything and walked to the edge of the hill, peering through the scope of her sniper rifle.

"Fuck", She muttered, "guys, come look at this."

I grabbed my Fal and exited the truck, going to the hill side with her. A the base of the hill was a cluster of builds, the pharmacy, a gas station and what looked like a small Cafe. Every single one of them had lights on and I could see more than a few well armed men patrolling the area. Through my binoculars, I could see they were dressed in Multi cam, had advanced radio equipment and were all, every single one of them, armed with P-94 plasma rifles, an expensive weapon even for militaries to have.

"Some how I don't think these guys are looters", I sighed, "those are all Military grade P-94 Plasma Rifles."

"How can you tell their Army spec?", Chy asked,

"Look at the barrel Chamber", I said, 'it's glowing purple, that means it's a higher charge capacity than Civilian P-94s, which glow blue."

"Something to be said for field experience", Chy said, "well, I don't know what to do now. I expected an occupation, just not one on this grand a scale."

"Can't we just assault them head on?", Alcatraz asked.

"Not quite", I said, "their too well armed for that."

"In direct attack?", Allen suggested, "sit up here and pick them off one by one?"

"Nope", I said, "they'd scatter. Our best hope is to get them all in one place, or at least get them out in the open."

"How we supposed to do that?", Mike asked.

"I've got an idea", I said going back to the truck. I grabbed my rucksack, opened it up and pulled out my hooded trench coat. I kept it around for use as rain gear, but it would come in quite handy for the plan I had in mind.

"What's your idea?", Alcatraz asked.

"I'm going to approach them as someone whose been displaced by the virus", I said, "only weapon I'll be taking is my Katana, which hopefully will make them view me as a non threat. The plan for now is to just figure out who they are and if there are more of them, though I do want you guys to get as close to the pharmacy as you can in case things go south."

"This plan seems like a bad idea", Chy said, "but it's better than no plan at all, so let's do it."

I nodded to her. I took off my vest and jacket, switched into my trench coat and then back tracked on the road a bit, dropping down the hill in a spot on the road I knew I wouldn't be seen before starting back towards the Pharmacy. No sooner had I stepped into the influence of the light than one of the men on guard duty saw me.

"YOU!", he shouted, "STOP RIGHT THERE!"

He along with about six other people came running up to me, Plasma rifles at the ready. I stood looking at the road underneath me as the men surrounded me.

"You have ten seconds to explain who you are and why your here", the man who seemed to be in charge said, "or be vaporized."

"I'm just a guy with no where to go", I said.

"Where'd you get that Katina?", the lead man asked.

"I'm a martial artist", I said, "it was given to me by the master at the Dojo I trained at when I completed the course."

The man crossed his arms, "you had to come from somewhere, where are the survivors you were with?"

"I don't know what you mean", I said innocently, hoping he'd buy my story while Chy and the others got into position.

"Stop lying to me Xenomorph", the lead man said getting in my face, "I can tell your not infected, your going to be after tonight so stop lying and we'll make it quick."

"What do you mean?", I asked, "I'm GOING to be infected?

The man laughed, "I'll put it in terms you can understand. Nature is taking over again, it's happening everywhere. The immune system of over 60 planets are finally expunging the surge known as civilization. Human's and Xenomorphs have carved up too many planets. It's our job to be part of the solution and ensure everyone is either infected or killed."

I laughed.

"What's so funny?", the lead man asked.

"Your a hypocrite", I smiled, "if you believed that you'd kill yourselves first."

"How dare you!", the man said smacking me over the head, "we are worthy of life! You will parish!"

"Mistake", I said pulling my Katana from my back. The air around the blade began to ripple with telekinetic energy and with a 360 swing, I sent all six men flying a good hundred feet, their weapons falling right where they were, leaving them unarmed. That was about the same time that Allen's 240 started ripping and Chy's Suppressed .60 cal started cracking.

"You idiot!", The lead man growled getting up and taking a fighting stance, "you won't live to see tomorrow!"

"Yes I will", I said holding my blade out, "I've done this hundreds of times, you think you'll be any different?"

The man simply grunted and started running at me. Using my blade as the medium, I lifted the man high into the air and then slammed him onto the ground. I know I broke something because of the loud snap. The man, grunting, tried to stand back up as I closed the distance and drove the tip of my Katana into the back of his head. This was about the time two other people had gotten up and closed the distance without my hearing them and managed to land two blows on the back of my head that sent me stumbling forward. When I turned around, they as well had taken a Martial Arts stance. I didn't think it was them just trying to look tough, the way they were holding themselves and the way they tracked every single movement I made, to even the way they had themselves turned sideways made me think they had some serious time into their training.

"Fight us without the aid of a weapon", one of the men demanded.

"As you wish", I said throwing off my coat and taking a stance of my own, the ice creeping down my arms as I did.

The two men looked at each other and then charged me. The man on my right swung low, attempting to land a blow to my ribs while the one on my left aimed high, trying to connect a hit to my neck. I put both my arms up and deflected the attacks, spinning around and using my tail to slash across the face of the man on my right, while head butting the man on my left. The guy on my right went down, but the remaining assailant continued with a left, right left punch pattern, easy enough to block and counter with a blast of Liquid Nitrogen once I managed to get a hold of his arm. The skin on the wrist where I managed to get a hold of him turned black and died instantly, while the ice began to creep unnaturally up his arm and cover his torso. The man screamed with agony as I wrenched his arm off and sank my claws deep into his neck, enough so that I was able to get a hold of his spine and jerk his head clean off.

That was when the other guy managed to get up and land a two feet kick on my back, which sent me face first into the concrete.

"Your telekinetic powers should have revealed my intentions Skyline Imesee", the man said as I quickly rose.

"How the fuck do you know me?", I asked forming a ball of frozen nitrogen in my hand, quickly shattering it, trying to intimidate him. The man seemed like just another one of the six guys who stopped me, but the thing was that he was dressed in the same black uniform, but with some kind of silver design that was covered by his plate carrier.

"I know more than you think", the man said as his fist caught fire.

"Fire doesn't intimidate me", I said taking my stance.

"It should", the man smirked, "my flames can burn even you."

I made the first move, which I knew I shouldn't have. The man was able to easily counter my 4 punch attacks and respond by dropping down and swinging his leg out in an attempt to knock me off my feet. When he saw that his attempt to knock me off balance had failed, the man seemed to vanish out from under me. When I was planted on both feet again, I closed my eyes and started listening, using my Telekinesis to try and pin point him, the man was still close by, very close, but given the gun fire that was all around me and the presence of about 20 other people, I couldn't exactly pin point him.

"Where did you go?", I asked myself.

That was when I pinned it, exactly 2 feet behind me, readying for a strike.

"Got ya!", I shouted spinning around and landing a punch smack in the middle of his face.

The man, turning visible again with a cry of pain, responded by throwing a fire ball right at my face. I held my arms up as a split second reaction, unable to take the proper steps to adequately block the ball of fire, which resulted in very bad third degree burns to my arms. I shrieked from the pain as the man regained his balance and assumed his stance.

"That", I snarled, "was unpleasant!"

"I warned you", the man said beginning to pace around me, "you are in over your head in ways you can't possibly comprehend."

"Oh I can comprehend", I growled resuming my own stance drawing my Katana as I did, "I've been through more in these past two months than you've seen in your life. Anything you can give, I can take it and give it back twice as hard!"

The man lunged at me, trying three times to land a kick to the side of my head, all of which I managed to block and then counter with a kick of my own, which impacted his upper neck and sent him flying back. The man was quickly back on his feet and attempting to land blow after blow, but was severely impeded by the risk of landing a false move and losing his limbs to the steel of my Katana, which meant that he had began to play dirty, enhancing the power of his blows with his flames. I was able to counter okay with my own ability to produce liquid Nitrogen, which worked to snuff out his flames to the point where they would do little to no harm when they came in contact with my skin.

The one thing I didn't understand was exactly who this guy was. He was better at hand to hand than I was and was clearly holding back. For the life of me I couldn't begin to understand why. Our fight went on and on, with each of us landing jarring blow after jarring blow. Eventually it became clear that this fight was to the death and with my clock running down and my opponent stunned, I took the opportunity and sized him with my telekinesis. The man struggled and fought against my grip, causing so much Feedback I was almost unable to hold on.

"Stop struggling", I snarled as I attempted to twist his body and brake his spine. But I couldn't. The man was intensely strong to beable to fight my telekinesis at this level. Even the Rhino on Ios that ripped a Supertree out of the ground wasn't causing this much Feedback.

"Don't you see that you've lost!", the man shouted, ripping himself from my grip with a flash of light, the Feedback of which sent me flying I smacked into a tree, making the crack in my visor, which was already big worse. And just like that, he was gone, leaving only a small bit of carbon on the ground where he'd been.

"Skyline!", Chy shouted running up to me and helping me up.

I rubbed my head as she helped me up.

"Who was that guy?", I asked myself.

'What did you see?", Chy asked, "All I saw was a flash of light and then the man you were fighting vanished."

"I saw...", I began, "I don't know. But somehow, I doubt I've seen the last of him."