The Kloxna squad leader in control of the barricade erected at the stairs connecting the 2nd and 3rd levels was on edge. Since the corpse of their fallen comrade had been thrown down the stairs almost 2 minutes ago, nothing had happened besides a lot of scuffling about and some horrible noises of metal getting torn apart.

"Keep those rifles primed and aimed at those stairs!" He growled at his men who were starting to lower their weapons and lose focus.

A shot went off to his left and the rest of the squad opened up as he whirled around to see the reason. A heavy metal door was laboriously being hoisted and moved out from the bottom of the stairs, allowing the attackers to lay down suppressing fire. It never happened. Instead, one Terran came out near the bottom of the side of the door, another near the top of the side and a 3 popped up between the wall, shielding the stairs and the door the Terrans had, apparently, ripped off its hinges and carried down the stairs to use as a makeshift barrier. If nothing else, he admired their ingenuity.

That was his last thought, as what he thought would have been the heavy weapons fire that had been reported so far, and for which they had constructed this barrier specifically to withstand, instead turned him and his entire squad into a mess of debris and exploded bodies, as Eirik and the 2 veterans unloaded with their suits shotgun modification, while Jesper was busy holding the door up against the barrage of fire that had been hammering into it until a moment ago.

The barricade disappeared under the rain of explosive shotgun shells along with the Plyxii prison guards manning it.

"We reload at the stairs down. Only 2 more levels after this one. We passed the halfway point." Eirik said to the others as they made their way down the corridors.

"Thank fuck, I'm getting tired of lugging this shit around!!" Jesper said, out of breath, but keeping up the pace. He knew the risks as well as Eirik, perhaps better. Plyxii did not take kindly to captured enemies.

Their miniguns were running on empty, but each man used them until the barrels spun around in a futile effort to fire bullets from an empty ammunition box. As they switched to their shotguns, the amount of gore around them seemed to grow exponentially. As they reached the stairs down, Eirik and Jesper were both completely out of ammunition and only the 2 veterans had prevented them from attempting to enter melee with the, now, well-armed Plyxii.

"We are using ammunition too fast," Eirik thought to himself. He knew the trip out would be more difficult than the trip in, even with his brothers armed and fighting. And then, there was always the chance they were in a state that did not afford them the ability to fight. "No matter. We started this mission. Time to see it through, despite the outcome." That was his last thought before he got busy helping his team reload their weapons. This was a flaw he intended to get Signe all the help she needed to fix, as soon as possible.

3 minutes later they were all loaded and ready to go again. At the stairs, Eirik signaled the other to stay in place. Then he bounded down the stairs in a few steps and jumped as far away from the opening of the stairs as he could, hoping to throw off an ambush like last time.

Nothing happened as he landed and he saw that there was no one waiting in ambush. Confused, he turned around to check the other corridors, but in his hurry to do so, he turned the wrong way and faced the wall. With an annoyed grunt, he started turning around to face the right way. That's when he noticed the red dot of a laser sight on the wall, speeding towards him.

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The Plyxii Sergeant Major, Shu'Malen in charge of the military prisons in the middle and lower parts of the prison was a veteran of the Plyxii war against Terra. He knew that the best way to engage Terrans was with cunning. Turn war into a game of hunter and prey with fluent roles. The combined stress of being the prey and the adrenaline surge of being the hunter would break them quickly. Historically, Terrans did not respond well to guerilla tactics, especially not when they were employed by a numerically superior enemy, on said enemy's home base.

This gave the defending Plyxii all the advantages, and engaging with sniper fire at the entrance to the stairs was a stroke of genius. The 3 long corridors in either direction made for a perfect killing ground. Oh, how he wished he was allowed heavy weapons for his guards, and he was sure high command would grant him that in the future, seeing how far down the raid had already made it. All reports he had received so far only spoke of 4 soldiers, but that was impossible. Terrans were good, but not that good.

"Unless... It's the survivors from our great shame..." The incessant voices whispered.

"NO!! It couldn't be!" He thought back, trying to overshadow the whispers with his inner voice. Like so many times before, it didn't work.

"Terrans raiding... such a short while after the transfer... They come to mock you..." The whispers continued.

Shu'Malen did not dignify them with a response. The odds were astronomical. Their leader had been more dead than alive when they escaped, being physically pulled on board by the other survivor, as he was trying to hack his way through the soldiers blocking him from 2 of the prisoners now located in his prison. Bleeding, bruised, battered, and howling like a wounded animal as they flew away from the raid that had landed him a permanent life as a Sergeant Major.

Those howls. They had not been howls of pain, but sorrow and endless loss. They haunted Shu'Malen's nightmares to this day. As Shu'Malen had been laying on the ground, bleeding profusely from an axe wound that had almost severed his arm, he had seen the entire escape first-hand. He remembered the other survivor restraining the wounded leader, who had looked like he was trying to get out of the shuttle as they flew away.

Shu'Malen could understand loyalty to your fellow squad mates, especially those that had worked together as long as that group had. The way they moved, always in sync and never blocking each other's line of sight, operating as a singular unit. He admired their skill as soldiers but hated them with a fiery passion.

He had been one of the youngest soldiers promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the history of their species, in charge of the security at the great sorrow. He had seen the building that he himself had signed off as safe, crumble to dust, in less than 10 seconds. When they had finally found the corpses of their entire government leadership along with their spiritual leader he was shocked to see they had not had enough time to leave their seats.

The only reason he was still a commissioned soldier was that one of the new leaders found the irony of having him in charge of a military prison to be hilarious. Locking him up without locking him up.

He shook his head and returned his focus to the raid on his prison.

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Eirik jumped to the side and narrowly avoided getting shot in the head, the pauldron on his siege armor getting a chunk blown out of it, twisting him during his jump and causing him to land awkwardly, stumbling for a few steps. The stumble saved his life as another shot rang out from the opposite corridor and he saw the energy projectile whizz past his face, where he was supposed to be the first step after landing from his jump.

"SNIPERS!" He roared as he dove into the third corridor and aimed the minigun towards the end while spinning up the barrels. Protected from the snipers in the other corridors he could focus on spotting a potential enemy.

"WHERE ARE YOU, EIRIK?" He heard Jesper yell out.

"SECOND CORRIDOR FROM THE LEFT!" Eirik called back without taking his eyes off of the opposite end of the corridor. Sure enough. As soon as he was yelling, he saw movement and opened fire. After a 3 second burst, he lowered the minigun and raised his left arm, the barrel of the shotgun mod pointing down the corridor.

"CLEAR!!" He called out to his squad and he heard them all make their way swiftly across the small amount of open space. A Shot rang out as the last man was crossing, penetrating the leg of his armor. He stumbled back and leaned against the wall for support.

"Can't move fast, Captain!" The veteran grunted through gritted teeth. "I am going to hunker down here, make a blocking point so they cannot reinforce past this point!" He slung the duffle bag off his back and dug through it until he found a first aid kit. After pouring disinfectant on both the entry wound and the exit wound, he used the sealant foam to plug the hole in the armor until it could get repaired. Afterward, he fished out his share of the ammunition and threw the bag across the open area.

Eirik took the bag, the reload at the stairs removed over 25 kilos of weight. The 3 of them continued towards the stairs to the 5th level, Eirik trying to speed up the pace now that they were down a man. Sure, it was nice to have a point from where you could employ a fighting retreat instead of leading a desperate charge through your enemy's ranks, but he would rather have the extra firepower. Leaving the man there also added a point of worry in Eirik's mind, a point he had no time for, but could not ignore.

The 4th level was a maze of deadends and corridors that looped around each other. If Eirik had not paid an exorbitant amount of credits for the maps of the underground complex, they could have wandered around for days without finding any way down or up. As things were, however, they were heading straight for the next set of stairs down. In a straight line, the stairs were almost next to each other. But even by taking the shortest route, the trip took almost 15 minutes of sporadic fighting.

They were not unaffected by the fighting The Plyxii from the 4th level and down were professional soldiers and not simple prison guards, and all 3 of them were sporting scorch marks on their armor where a lot of gracing fire and the occasional proper hit had found their way to their targets.

"Wish I had my shield!" Jesper gasped, having taken a direct hit in the chest moments earlier. The siege armor could take quite a few shots, but 3 to 5 shots in the same place would see it crumble.

"Keep wishing, but until then, keep firing!" Eirik responded, checking his ammo count. If they conserved ammunition from this point, they would still have a single reload left when they reached the cell.

They continued on, down the stairs to the 5th level.

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Peter could hear the fighting on the floor above them, but could not make out what kind of weapons he was hearing. He had continued to pester his brothers until they had gotten up and over to the bars of the cell, listening to the fighting. They had seen several squads of soldiers running past, each group with more urgency and speed than the last.

"Even if it's not Eirik or someone else here to rescue us, This could be a chance to escape!!" he pressed on, trying to reignite the fighting spirit in his brothers.

"If he was coming, he would have been here years ago. You didn't hear him as Lasse was dragging him into the shuttle. I never heard anyone howl like that before. That day our invincible little brother's one weakness was laid open for me to see. He loves too much, too strongly. He was so wounded it was a wonder he was still standing, let alone moving and fighting like he was.

He was carving a bloody path through dozens of Plyxii elite soldiers with a speed and ease I have never seen before. In melee combat, Peter!"

Jonas, the older of the twins spoke, his voice dark and sounding like gravel and rocks after not being used for weeks.

"He would have made it over to us if Lasse had not stopped him. And he would have died doing it. Matthias and I knew. Eirik knew it. Lasse knew it and the goddamn Plyxii knew it. And Eirik still chose to do it. In his mind, there was no other option. and that is his second weakness. He is so assured of the afterlife that he seeks death in combat. Ever since that thing with Freja, he changed. He became reckless. Since he has not arrived to rescue us yet, It is safe to assume he is dead at this point, Peter."

The sound of battle had moved closer and had intensified, explosions rumbling down the corridors with a surprisingly short gap in between them. Peter had turned his head towards Jonas as he spoke, and as he finished speaking, Jonas looked away from the corridor and stared into Peter's eyes with a look of hopeless despair. "Please just accept it, brother. Hope will drive us insane," he added before turning away from the bars and moving towards the corner.

The fighting had come steadily closer, making it more and more difficult to hear each other and Peter could not respond because of the cacophony of noise going on.

There was a pause in the fighting and a breathless gasp came from Mads at the bars. "Terrans!" Eirik, Jesper, and the last veteran had turned the corner and were making their way towards them. Their helmets obscured their identity but that didn't matter for Mads who started hooting and hollering at them. Peter joined in and even Jonas snapped towards the bars when he heard Mads and quickly found a spot to look from.

One of the approaching soldiers came to a stumbling halt and just stared at them for a second before he started running towards their cell.

_____________________________

There they were. Faces dirty, Hair and beards long and unwashed, dressed in the rags of their uniforms from when they were captured and with none of the spark n their eyes he remembered. Eirik ran towards the cell and asked them to step back from the door, the helmet's voice module concealing his identity. As soon as they were clear, he kicked the cell door off its hinges. "Gods, I love siege armor!!" He thought to himself.

"Arm yourselves!! we are leaving, now!!" He said as the 3 soldiers in siege armor put their duffle bags on the floor and zipped them open.

"Who are you?" Peter said as he stared at the unknown soldiers and the open duffle bags. personal armor, rifles, ammunition, even a mass casualty trauma kit and... food!!"

"That is a question for when we are mission secure, now ARM YOURSELVES!" Eirik responded and the yelling snapped his brothers out of their stupor as they realized they were not dreaming, and they raided duffle bags for everything they would need to fight their way back out. Eirik and his small group reloaded while it happened, their weapons running on the last few shots.

As they finished up, Eirik looked at his brothers again. Horribly skinny, all 4 munching on Old Pans power bars, but getting armed and having a chance to get out had brought some light back to their eyes. "Form up behind the 3 of us. That was our last reload and we need to be more than quick to get out before they reform on the floors above!" He said and they moved out.

The 3 siege armors in the front created a spearhead that gave them the momentum to keep up a steady fast pace. Peter, Mads, Matthias, and Jonas had trouble keeping up, after so many years in prison, but they kept on through sheer determination to see freedom again.

They were able to take care of stragglers and survivors that tried shooting the group once they had passed, which gave them the security to keep up the momentum and they soon found themselves back on the 4th level. There, their luck ran out and they were faced with heavier mounted resistance. This was the difficult part, as prisons are made to keep people in, and the Plyxii used every trick they had in store.

Locked sections they had to spend ammunition on, natural chokepoints in the architecture that favored the guards heavily, and, if not for the veteran left at the stairs and the soldiers holding the entrance, a never-ending stream of new attackers to deal with during the escape.

Eirik had no idea what the ground situation was like, the underground structure preventing communicators from working. He just prayed to all the gods and goddesses of war that it was still under the control of his men. Otherwise, they would all be blasted into nothing more than sizzling pools of superheated carbon molecules.

_________________________________

Shu'Malen was blind with rage. The raid had been aimed at the Terran prisoners, confirming his worst fears. He was currently making his way up towards the 4th level. The raiders were retreating and he was determined to not let them get away. His personal guard, all of them survivors of the War with the Terrans, were following along behind him, eager to taste Terran blood once again.

"It IS them..." The voices whispered in his head, adding to his rage.

It couldn't be. It simply couldn't!! He increased his running pace. He needed to see the Terrans himself!