"Those damn pilots will pay for this. After this mission is completed, I think I will take my vacation just to track them down. For now, I just have to find out exactly what this mission actually is." "Accessing disc now. Please enter security clearance code now." "Clearance granted. Welcome, Max, your mission is to catch up with Sergeant Stanzful and bring him back to the base you just left, so that he can testify in the trial of General Schmitdz. You are to take any precautions necessary to ensure he arrives at the base completely able to testify. After this mission, you will be assigned to a base of your choice for a period of one year." "Hmm, the general is on trial. About time someone finally wised up to what he was doing. I just wish I could get in on this trial, but I kinda doubt they want me to be there since I nearly killed him last time we were in the same room."
"Azul 1, this is Diablo 1, I am on my way north to meet with you. Should be at your present location by nightfall." "Read you Diablo 1, I will stay here by this river until you reach me. Any idea what the new orders are?" "My orders are you make sure you get back to our new base off the yucatan, but your orders are still sealed. I guess they must have something for us to do before we report back to the base, because we have two months before we are due. You have any idea what that might be?" "Well, I kinda hope we get to go searching for the people that killed my old partner. He was a good man." "Yeah, I read both of your records on the way up here. Seems we have a common hate of general Schmitdz." "Kind of figured that you would have had to do something to get this gig, what did he do to you?" "Well, he killed my entire family in one of his arty barrages against our town. Almost killed me too. He is the main reason I am in this borg suit now. Used to be a commando like you." "Yeah, killed my wife and child while I was out on a patrol. Wound up being a false alarm too. I was hoping that one day he would get what was coming to him." "Well, looks like that day is coming soon. His trial starts in about 2 months, that is the reason they want you down there." "They want me to testify against him? That should be quite fun. I hope he gets nothing short of the death penalty. He gave it to so many others." "True, looks like his day has finally come though. Be there in about 10 hours. Diablo 1 out."
After drudging through thick secondary growth for the better part of 9 hours, Max finally begins to pick up signs of a camp about a mile ahead. Looks like a large power armor with a campfire glowing high into the sky.
"Azul 1, looks like I may be getting close to you. You the one with the big campfire?" "Yes, that would be me, about how long till you get into camp? I was just about to eat." "Probably be about 10 minutes unless I come across something I am not expecting." "Ok, will get the place ready for you. Already have a good firing plane cut down to stop the uglies from crawling up on us out of nowhere. Both of us should be able to do it in no time at all." "Sounds good to me. Be there in a few. Diablo out."
Max walks into camp about 9 minutes later and finds Heinrich tearing open a couple of NGR field rations. When he notices, Max walk into camp, Heinrich gets up and walks over to greet him."
"Hello, there, good to see another NGR guy again. Almost thought that I might not make it back to civilization again." "Same here, that was one hell of a little walk. Must have seen a couple hundred new species of animals. In the last few hours alone." "There are a lot of them. Part of my old mission was to try to identify some of them. We stopped counting when we reached 300 new species. Fortunately, most of them are harmless." "Yeah, I noticed that. Did run across a few hostile species, but luckily, they were not that well defended." "Well, looks like it will be dark in a few minutes. If you want I will take the first shift since you had to walk all the way up here." "Thanks, I could use the rest, about what time does the second shift start?" "Oh, how about 1? That would give each of us about a 5 hour shift." "Sounds good to me. 1 o'clock it is. See you then."
About three hours later, Heinrich wakes up the borg and tells him to get ready quickly, a rift appears to be opening a few hundred meters south of the encampment.
"Ok, how do you want to handle this?" "Well, lets try to find out what it is before we try to kill it. It might be bad, but it might also be able to help us." "Ok, I think I will get right behind that pile of trees there. If he does anything suspicious, I will cover you so you can make it to the Jager." "Sounds like a winner to me. I will have to go put on the my T-10 and get my rifle. Let's just hope nothing happens before then." "Ok, I will let you know if anything starts before then."
A few minutes later, when Heinrich walks back up to the pile of trees, Max tells him that nothing has come out so far.
"From what they teach you in the academy, we should only have to worry for about 20 more minutes. If nothing comes out by then, probably nothing will." "Well, max, both of us know that what they teach you in the academy is not always true. About a month ago, we sat at one for 30 minutes before anything came out at all, but once it did, it took both of us 30 minutes to kill what did come out." "That bad?" "Yeah, that bad. Hold on, I see something about to come out. It appears to be a humanoid." "I am picking it up to. Looks like some kind of tattooed man." "Wonder if it is an Atlantean or not. Only seen a few of those in my life, and unfortunately they were all dead at the time. Well, I guess it is about time we go find out, cover my 6 on this one. If he makes any threatening moves nail him." "Ok, will do, be careful on this one."
Heinrich walks out to meet the new visitor about halfway between the pile of trees and the old tree line
"Halt, and explain why you are here." "Well, if I knew exactly where I was, maybe I could tell you." "Right now you are deep within the lands of old mexico. Who are you? "Mexico, damn, way off track then. I was supposed to be going back to England. My name is Andre." "Well, Andre, if you want to rest up here for a few before you decide to head back on your way, you are welcome to it." "Sounds good, but I don't think I will be able to head back, looks like this rift was a one way only ticket. Oh, by the way, I passed up a Rahu-man on the way here. He should be coming out anytime now. He appeared to be good, but you never know with line walkers." "Well, as long as neitherof you does anything bad. You can both stay we are going to head back south tomorrow morning. If you want to come with us, you are more than welcom, we need all the help we can get." "Sounds like a winner to me. Oh, there comes the Rahu-man now. Let me talk to him before you invite him into the camp. These guys are known canibals." "Canibals? Well, if he decides to try to eat one of us, he will find a rail gun where he does not want it."
The newly arrived tatooed man walks out to greet the other new arrival. They talk for a few minutes then both of them begin to walk back toward the campfire.
