Story:Operation Raising Hell

This mission is concurrent with Operation Guardian Angel.

Dhragolon
"Tholker, I will go with you to Grjdonsk."

"Okay, you've got everything?"

"Yes. I'm ready."

The two of them stepped inside a shuttle of Eteno design that took off to another star system. On the way, Ahrganot said, "You know, I've never seen this particle accelerator up close. Tell me about it."

"It can recreate the conditions of the Big Bang as well provide an artificial source of Deuterium. The accelerator itself stretches fifty miles in diameter."

"It will surely be an impressive sight when we get there." The ship suddenly shook as the computers shut down briefly. Momentarily, they came back on.

A siren began to wail. "WARNING! WARNING! MAGNETIC STORM!" The ship started shaking more violently and sparks started flying about.

"Now that's just great," Tholker replied.

"I heard that there was a magnetic storm in this area, but I had no idea it was this bad."

"Computer! Damage report!"

The computer replied, "DAMAGE REPORT: AUTOPILOT DISABLED. TURRETS DISABLED. SHIELDS: 60%."

Ahrganot said, "Tholker, I am unfamiliar with the controls of an Eteno ship. Could you drive this thing?"

Eteno
"I can drive anything! Just watch!"

Tholker rose from his seat confidently and ran to the cockpit door. The cyborg kicked it open and walked up to the controls. He pulled off a square of artificial flesh from his arm, and pulled a cord and universal interface plug from the mass of circuits in his robotic arm. Tholker plugged into the control panel, and the ship quickly stopped wobbling. As the shuttle leveled and went back on its' course prior to encountering the magnetic storm, Ahrganot walked into the cockpit. All he saw was Zhevhyit standing with his arms at his side looking out the window.

"Ah... how exactly are you flying this?"

"With my mind."

"Huh?"

Tholker turned slightly and showed his arm to Ahrganot.

"I see... so, how long until we reach the surface?"

"About ten minutes. We'll set down at PBGU and meet up with Field Marshal Lodz."

"Good. How many soldiers do you guys have defending this facility and university?"

"15,600 men. They'll set up a defense around the accelerator and university, while we mess with the Kklxin from behind."

"Alright then. Let's get the supplies we're bringing ready."

Dhragolon
Ahrganot suited up into light, laser proof armor and a mask along with his scimitar. Stepping outside the shuttle, they gazed upon the gigantic facility.

"I'm quite amazed at the size of this place. It is much larger than even the Castle Hall!" Ahrganot said in awe.

"Yep."

"So, let's review for a bit. The coded messages intercepted by the Kklxin said that they are likely to launch an attack from below. Just like they did on Elariun."

"Correct. We should expect the attack to come from the lower floors of the facilities as that is the most vulnerable spot. The outer areas should be perfectly fine."

Suddenly, the ground began to shake, gradually becoming more violent.

Ahrganot said, "Oh no! We might have arrived too late. We need to get to the lower floors of the facility fast! Can you show me the way? I'm not exactly sure how to get there..."

"Follow me!"

Eteno
Tholker bolted towards a surface entrance with Ahrganot close behind. The Eteno tried to open the door to the small elevator room, but found that it was locked. Disappointedly, Tholker smashed it in with a hard kick. It split vertically into two pieces. As casual as he was on the shuttle, Tholker walked into the elevator room with his Dhragolon partner. Zhevhyit pressed a button for an elevator, and one promptly arrived. The doors opened, and the two commandos rushed inside as the short one rapidly pressed the 'close door' button. The elevator doors closed and it began to descend. Ahrganot noticed that there were some tools in a box resting on the floor. Some thirty seconds into the two commando's ride, they heard a boom, and the elevator's doors opened. A couple of seconds afterward, one of the cables on the elevator snapped, causing it to fall shortly, and get stuck at an angle. The toolbox slid and stopped against one of the walls, and Ahrganot and Tholker held onto the handrails to keep from falling down the dark shaft.

"Ah... what do we do know?" Ahrganot asked.

"I think... yes, there's a grate over there. If we can get in that vent, we might be able to crawl through it to one of the maintinence rooms. Stay where you are, I'll break the grate."

Bathed in a red emergency light, Zhevhyit slowly inched towards the toolbox across the elevator. When he got within reach of it, he grabbed it with one hand and looked inside. There was an assortment of tools inside, but what Tholker liked the most was the red crowbar. He grabbed it with his other hand, leaning against the wall of the elevator, and noticed some writing on it.

"Property of G. Freeman... huh. Oh well."

Tholker slowly moved to the opened doors of the elevator, and leaned towards the large grate while holding onto a handrail to prevent himself from falling. He smashed in the grate with the crowbar, threw the crowbar in the vent, and then climbed into the vent himself.

"Come on, tall guy." He said to his partner still in the elevator.

Ahrganot nodded, and inched towards the opening, clinging to the guardrails. When he got close enough to the vent, he grabbed onto the edge of it with both hands, and pulled himself in. Mere seconds after, the other cable holding up the elevator car snapped, sending it falling down the shaft.

"That... was close. So, where does this vent lead to again?"

"It leads to a maintinence room."

"How do you know all about this place? You're a soldier!"

"I have a hard-drive in my brain loaded with crap like that."

Dhragolon
The maintenance room was rather circular and small. Tool racks and levers were everywhere. Then, the ground began to shake slightly.

"Do you feel that?" Ahrganot asked.

"Yeah. They're coming. Brace yourself."

They stood back to back to give themselves a 360 view of the room. The ground started to shake more violently. Somewhere in the distance, they heard an explosion; it sounded like a pod emerging from the ground. They waited there for several minutes. No one came through nor did either of them sense them going anywhere.

Ahrganot suddenly heard a single footstep down a nearby corridor. He quickly tossed a few energy shruiken down the hall. He heard two Kklxin collapse to the ground, though he heard the third shruiken keep whisking down the hall.

"Impossible. I couldn't have missed," Ahrganot uttered.

Then, the third shruiken came whisking from the other side.

Tholker shouted, "Ahrganot, duck!"

Ahrganot quickly lowered his head. The shruiken had bounced off of something. Soon enough, something else had emerged from the dark corridors. Tholker's brain started going hairwire at the sight of it and Ahrganot was equally shocked.

Tholker said, "What in Marana's name is going on?! I'm standing right here!"

From the corridor came a similar voice. "No, I'm over here!" The figure emerged from the darkness. It looked like an identical clone of Tholker.

The cloned Tholker said, "Well, well. It's nice to see another fellow Eteno here."

Ahrganot said, "Who are you? What is the meaning of this?!"

The clone Tholker replied, "Tholker, you really shouldn't let that motor oil spill. That one cult really gave us the upper hand in this battle."

Tholker said, "No way. How did you replicate my DNA like that precisely? We don't even have that kind of technology."

Ahrganot said, "And what cult are you talking about?"

The clone replied, "Those aren't questions that should be troubling you any longer. Anyways, I have some business to attend to so my boys will have to take you down."

After the clone teleported away, armies of Kklxin came emerging from the corridors. The two of them braced themselves for battle.

Eteno
As the Dhragolon and Eteno waited anxiously, Tholker spoke up, still in in a state of shock.

"So they took the blood that was mixed with the motor oil... remade my organic parts... and then put in the same robotics I have? I'm really worried here... I mean, I'm pretty awesome." Tholker tried to chuckle, but only managed a nervous 'eh'.

The first Kklxin troops ran down one of the halls with guns blazing. Tholker leapt behind some metal boxes, and his partner slid right behind. The Eteno opened fire with his assault rifle, sending explosive bullets across the room. The Kklxin still alive ducked for cover, but found none due to the blind tossing of incendiary grenades, which also killed more of the beasts. Ahrganot seized the opportunity and broke from his cover, ready to strike. He cut precisely and quickly, killing the remaining enemies.

"Let's get out of here before any more show up!" Tholker yelled to Ahrganot.

Ahragnot nodded, and ran down the hallway lined with bodies, intent on finding that Tholker clone. Zhevhyit caught up quickly, using his robotic legs. Tholker heard faint Kklxin voices, and signaled for Ahrganot to slow. The two carefully made their way to a split in the hallway. Tholker went ahead thorugh the left hall, and Ahrganot through the right.

Tholker followed the speaking Kklxin as they got louder and louder, eventually reaching a cracked open door. Curious as to what they were talking about, the Eteno cyborg cautiously peered inside. A scientist was laying on the ground in a small pool of blood as two Kklxin interrogated him.

"Where's your big, bad particle weapon?""

"I... I've already told you, Harold was in charge of the project, and he was the only person aside from the director that knew where it was!"

"Well, since he's dead and we don't know where that director guy is, you're gonna have to think hard!"

Having heard enough, Tholker burst into the room, and slammed the first Kklxin in the head with Hitstick. The second turned, only to have his skull crushed, painting the wall behind him with small patches of sickly yellow blood.

"Who are you, and do you require medical attention?" Tholker asked the scientist.

"I'm Doctor Kalvin Reinhardt, and yes I need medical attention, simpleton!"

Dhragolon
Tholker said, "Alright, Doctor Reinhardt, let me give you some of these medi-packs. Hopefully, your injuries weren't too severe."

Ahrganot said, "Reinhardt, I do not want you to be worried, but there is an imposter of Tholker running around here."

"Really? I'm sure I can tell them apart."

Tholker replied, "Sadly, it's not as easy as it sounds. The imposter is a near-perfect replica of me."

Reinhardt said, "Oh dear. How is that even possible?"

Ahrganot replied, "I don't know, but the imposter mentioned a cult of some sort. He did not say more than that. But anyway, do you know how the defense is holding up?"

"From what I've heard, they are in need of an extra hand, but these Kklxin won't stop coming. We can't destroy the sphere that is currently at the planet's core without leaving the particle weapon undefended."

Tholker said, "I hate to say this, but we are going to have to split up. One of us is going to the sphere, and the other will have to assist the defensive forces."

Ahrganot objected, "That's out of the question. There's an evil twin of you running about this place. We can't risk the two of you getting mixed up. You'll be in even more danger when the defenses don't know who is who."

Tholker replied, "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Are you sure about this? Who knows what that imposter will do?"

"Ah, stop being so pessimistic. What, are you trying to spy on me or something?"

Reinhardt shouted, "For Marana's sake, make up your mind! I don't care what you do so long as those Kklxin don't torture me again!"

Ahrganot said, "My apologies, Tholker. You know the layout of this facility better than I, so perhaps I can instead go to the sphere. What is your decision?"

Eteno
"Yeah, I think I'll hang out here. I'll try to inflitrate the Kklxin ranks and get them to think that I'm the imposter."

"Alright. I'll do my best to get to the sphere and destroy it." Ahrganot said back, already running out one of the doors.

Tholker turned to Reinhardt, and handed him a pistol.

"Well, thank you I suppose. I know the location of our experimental weapon here, so I'll make my way towards its' hiding place. You can't come with me, however. I can't risk you being this imposter you spoke of with your Dhragolon friend." The scientist said.

"Suit yourself. I'll get in the ducts and try to track down the other me."

"Up there?" Reinhardt pointed directly above himself to a grate ten feet off the floor.

"Yeah."

"How will you get up there, you can't possibly jump up there!"

"Sure I can."

Zhevhyit walked below the vent, and crouched. He sprang upwards, smashed through the grate, and held himself in the vent with his hands and feet. Climbing up, Tholker activated his night-vision in his one robotic eye, closing the other. When he climbed into the horizontal vent section, he accessed his extensive plan of the facility with the intel that he had mixed in inside his head. Deciding to move North in the direction that the Kklxin had come into the maintinence room from, Tholker started off crawling.

Tholker came across little inside the vents aside from dust bunnies and Kklxin camera drones. He crawled for about ten minutes, until coming across a grate above one of the larger labs. The Kklxin had converted it into a command post. Several officers were in there, but the imposter Tholker was nowhere to be seen.

Tholker slowly and quietly removed the grate, and waited patiently until a Kklxin officer stood under him. When one moved into position, he dropped down onto it and smashed its' head in. Very rapidly, he took his gun and shot five or six Kklxin. The remaining soldiers fired back at Tholker, who used the dead officer's body as a shield. He took cover behind a freestanding bank of computers, and slowly crept around. The cyborg Eteno walked in a circle with the Kklxin, silently moving behind them, until he was no longer amused and saw fit to kill them with his rifle.

He scanned the room, and not seeing any more threats, ran to one of the computers that the Kklxin were using.

"Alright, imposter, where are you at?"

Dhragolon
Meanwhile, Ahrganot was on his own now. He perked up, listening for the sounds of footsteps. Somewhere nearby, he could hear large masses of them concentrated from one spot. It had to be the spot where the Kklxin were coming from.

After dashing through making his way through mazes of metal pipes and generators he saw a metallic pod emerge from the floor releasing hundreds of Kklxin. Ahrganot used his super speed to quickly go inside the pod just before it closed. The pod began to descend a hole going down for miles.

"Ow!" Ahrganot had zipped to the ceiling because the pod's speed leaving a bruise on one of his wings. "This can't be good. I can't fly anymore. Oh well, I'll see what I can do."

Ahrganot had waited at least twenty minutes. As the pod continued he felt it heat up slightly. Then, there was a sudden burst in temperature. The pod had entered the the liquid Inner Core. He felt the gravity slightly increase. Then, it suddenly changed direction. Ahrganot had slowly fell to the floor.

"What is going on? Why has the gravity changed?"

The pod arrived inside a gigantic metallic structure. The pod reopened. Immediately, he heard a voice say, "Pod 5C now at docking bay." Ahrganot had looked up. Gravity was opposite of what he expected; it was going away from the center of the sphere. He could see armies of Kklxin scurrying to different pods on the ceiling and walls of the structure. A large glowing red ball of energy was situated at the sphere's center.

"Of course. Gravity is going the opposite direction to neutralize the intense pressure of the planet's core!" He continued observing. The red energy ball seemed to be producing embryos which were being taken through a glass tube and being grown into adult-size Kklxin within minutes. "And that ball of energy seems to be a part of a star. That explains why these Kklxin can be produced so quickly! But how do I stop it? And an even better question. How do I get out once it's stopped? The sphere would implode if the gravity was shut down."

He recalled hearing a tale of how a bounty hunter once destroyed a Kklxin sphere. He could not fathom how he did though so many had often disregarded it.

Not wanting to know what would happen after, he immediately took cover inside a nearby hole in the wall as some Kklxin troops came running to board the pod that he used to get down here. Skillfully, he grabbed the dog tag from the Kklxin who was last in line. He explored discretely looking for ways to shut down the sphere. He noticed six generators all arranged around the sphere. Bolts of lightning had occasionally shot between the energy ball and the generators.

"Shutting down one of those should be enough to destabilize the system." He made his way to the nearest generator and proceeded to hack it away with his sword, but it was no good. The generator was somehow harder than even Dragonrock.

However, he saw a nearby machine with a slot for an ID card. Quickly, he inserted it giving him access to a holographic terminal. He was looking for a command to shut down the generators only to be interrupted by a Kklxin general.

"What the hell do you think you are doing down here, Dhragolon?"

Ahrganot turned around. "What intricate craftsmenship you have here. I had no idea your people could construct something like this."

"Don't play any tricks! You obviously plan to shut down this place. How do you plan to accomplish that anyway? You don't even have the secret pa-"

Ahrganot once again quickly swiped the Kklxin generals ID and quickly overrid the command to shut down the facility. Soon enough, the alarms wailed and the gravity have shifted to the center of the sphere. Ahrganot quickly grabbed a nearby handrail, but the Kklxin general fell and burned at the energy core.

"WARNING!!! WARNING!!! GENERATOR 3 IS DOWN!!! GRAVITY IS COMPROMISED!!! INITIATE EVACUATION!!!"

Not long after, magma started to burst through the sphere's outer hulls. The pressure had caused the sphere to begin to collapse on itself. Ahrganot was holding the hand rail dangling above the burning energy core, gripping for his life.

Eteno
"I've got you right where I want you, ya little weichaun..."

Tholker had pinpointed his duplicate roughly ten minutes ago in the computer room. Taking to the vents, he tracked him to a hastily installed elevator that went all the way down to the core of the planet. In an effort to follow the imposter, the short cyborg exited the claustrophobic ventilation system, and killed a Kklxin for his ID card. He rode down in the elevator car, and exited to the sight of lava pouring into the sphere he had entered. He walked out onto a metal catwalk, and looked below to see if there was anything of interest. There, he spotted the imposter on a catwalk below.

With narry a second thought, Tholker fired his handgun at the duplicate cyborg. With the same exact level of skill that the real version had, imposter Tholker dodged, and also pulled out a handgun. Running across the catwalks, they fired at each other, always missing or getting obstructed.

"You fool! You'll never manage to defeat us! We have new allies, new technology, and new targets!"

From behind a supply box, the real Tholker replied,

"None of that means anything here! I'll end you! You may be identical to me physically, but I have the superior intellect!"

"Well, use that intellect to think again! Look at your situation! Even if you kill me, which you won't, you'll die! Lava is flooding the entire sphere, and nobody will let the likes of you out!"

"Then I'll just kill you and impersonate you, if that makes any sense!"

Imposter Tholker, who now was on a higher catwalk, leapt off and towards the real Tholker in an attempt to tackle and kill him. He missed, but hit the ground running towards him. Tholker tried to smash his head with Hitstick as he approached, but the imposter ducked and rammed into his opponent, sending them both to the steel walkway. They wrestled, and the imposter managed to cut the real version's arm with the knife he took from his belt. Fortunately, Tholker managed to kick him off, sending him off balance. Tholker stood up and aimed his gun at the imposter. There they stood, waiting for the other to make their move, knowing full well that one clip wouldn't kill with their armor and ability to dodge.

Out of nowhere, the tearing sound of straining metal filled the huge chamber, and subsequently heard a yell. Both imposter and real Tholker looked up to see a Dhragolon falling. The real Tholker ran to catch him, and the imposter ran to get out of the sphere. Zhevhyit caught Ahrganot above his head with a loud grunt from his comrade. However, he showed little sign of real physical damage when set down, most likely due to the way Tholker caught him.

"Shall we go now? I think we have an army to fight."

"Well, we wouldn't be on this team if we didn't."

Dhragolon
Ahrganot and Tholker arrived back at the facility via the elevator. Immediately, they were greeted by armies of Kklxin. They were completely surrounded on all sides. Ahrganot hacked his way through while Tholker blasted away effortlessly. They fought for at least an hour until Tholker had received a holographic message.

''Good work, GSSOC! We'll manage from here, but that imposter got away.''

Ahrganot said, "You really didn't have to rescue me. You should have gone after the imposter. You let him get away!"

"I am somewhat offended. I would never leave a comrade behind!"

"Guess you are right. I'm just not used to that concept of yours. We Dhragolon are willing to sacrifice ourselves for everyone else. That's what we were taught back at the Combat Institution."

"You can't be reckless like that. We are GSSOC! We work together! I couldn't have let you die from something like this!"

"I've never seen you express your emotions like that, Tholker," Ahrganot said. "You do seem to have a serious side to you?"

"Meh, it was nothing. I'm just doing my job, that's all. Let's go home now."

Outroduction
After conclusing their debriefings, the GSSOC Team was unwinding for a minute in the Bunker. They were watching the news to see how things were progressing. Pretty soon, a bulletin appeared. The Karnasaur anchor says:

"In other news, it seems that today's Ceremony at the Shrine was given a secret shock: Hunre extremists were preparing to set off explosive devices in the hopes of destroying the Shrine of Yetu on Karnas. Also, it seems that Hashaeon snipers were in place in an attempt to assassinate Colonel Etah. However, both attempts were thwarted by the efforts of the rumored "Galactic Senate Special Operations Corp", a multi-species team comprised of the Galaxy's best dedicated to galactic stability. Rumored members of the team include Colonel Etah himself, the Eteno Tholker Zheviet, Dhragolon Ahrganot Skizgo, and an unknown fourth member who was present in the catacombs under the Shrine."

"Not only that, but it appears that Kklixin attacks have resumed with an assault on an Eteno particle accelerator. The Eteno and Dhragolon members of the GSSOC Team were rumored to have played a role in the defense of the facility along with the destruction of the sphere."

"In addition, it seems that the fiasco over one of the Eteno colonies where a crippled fleet of massive warships mysteriously appeared has ended. The official statement is that the fleet was nothing but an Eteno training exercise to see how the Eteno Navy can handle a sudden invasion. Officials list the exercise as a success."

When the anchor was finished, Etah and Pyro, who was in a wheelchair and was bound to it for the next few days until his leg healed, upped and readied to leave.

"Where're you guy's headed?" Tholker asked.

"Pyro needs a medical expert in for his own race and I need to speak with Admiral Cinder on Arckas; we both need to got to Arckas."

"Huh... well, get back soon. I'm sure we'll have another mission quickly." Tholker replied.

"Relax. Renr has lost an entire army; it'll be weeks before he can fully replenish his forces. We have plenty of time to find out where he's cloning the bastards. In the mean time, I think I could use some R&R." Etah proclaimed.

"Eh. It'd be nice to go a week without getting shot at." Said Tholker.

"Or narrowly evading plummeting to my death." Adds Ahrganot.

"Come, Pyro. Have you been through a wormhole before?" Etah asked, as he walks away, pushing Pyro's wheelchair.