While Shair and Jon were dealing with the Fraz the rest of the group had made their way to a suitable drop zone and were preparing to land on a ledge.

“Mustafa, release the camo-tarp.” The Commander said as she loaded her large HVK-35. Mustafa pressed some buttons to release a large tarp over the Pelican II from the top to camouflage it from enemies.

“Let’s hope the Fraz’s ash and mud would help us blend in.” Mia said as she strapped her medical box on her back. The Pelican slowly landed on a ledge leading to another cave and hissed as it opened the large door. The group slowly descended onto the muddy ground and started walking towards the dark cave. Each member had night vision goggles on their faces and comms in their ears for communication and better sight, luxuries which Shair and Jon couldn’t have.

“Keep chatter to a minimum.” The Commander said as she took the lead leading up the cave. They were at a disadvantage being in a low terrain so the team stuck close to the sides blending in and slowly moved upwards. The team’s mission from the HQ was indeed a ‘suicidal’ one. They were tasked with infiltrating the Fraz HQ in the sky and blow up their command center, the sheer number of enemies that were in here could easily defeat the human resistance three times over. The only reason they hadn’t done that already was because the humans were well hidden in the mountain ranges. So it was understandable the tension in the team and how on edge everyone was.

As they came up to the other end of the tunnel they saw that there an intersection leading to the sides. The Commander held up her hands to stop the team, she then looked at the wrist radar that she was equipped with and checked the glowing dots direction. The radar released a series of strong electronical waves which bounced off the other electronical devices. The green dot on the radar was a place of large electrical flow, possibly the command center. The Fraz with electrical sources would not appear on the radar because their sources did not have a strong electrical current so the waves would just pass through them.

The Commander held up her hand and motioned for the team to go right. The Commander held her HVK-35 near her hip and slowly trudged forward. Mustafa, John and Harry all held large machine guns strapped across their shoulder and aimed at various points at the exit to constitute for the lack of visual at the sides. Daniel and Mia were slowly following behind the Commander however while Daniel help a large Dingo, Mia held up a small sub-machine gun the size of the pistols strapped at her hips. The group moved up into the intersecting hallway and quickly took up positions facing both sides, protecting each other’s six. Teamwork in the group was vital for getting through the mission alive, even though there was bad blood between the members, when it came to their survival all grievances between teammates disappeared.

The Commander stood up and started to walk forwards slowly, Mia and Daniel who were directly behind her did the same, guns pointed at the sides. Mustafa and Harry followed afterwards while John slowly retreated moving backwards, still facing the back to keep an eye out for any incoming Fraz.

The moved like that for a while down the hall until they came up to a set of stairs. The Commander once again called for a halt and checked on her squad before looked at the radar once more, the green dot was slightly closer to them but still quite far away. Nodding at her squad they slowly moved up the stair by the sides.

“Voshinoru Mastafiomashru Margin” a voice suddenly came from above. The Commander halted her squad and moved up by herself, finger on the trigger. When she reached to the top she saw two Fraz shrouded in darkness conversing in their tongue. They looked more like two identical shadows than actual Fraz, the shadows had a lot of black shards sticking out of their joints.

The Commander still had her gaze fixed on the two conversing near the pillars atop the stairs when she motioned for the group on the other side of the stairs to slowly move upwards. When Mustafa walked up the stairs to look at the two his mouth unhinged and his jaw dropped at the spectacle, the shadows almost blended in the darkness around the pillars making it almost impossible to see them. The Commander hugged the wall on the side and opened up the comms for communications.

“Two unknown specials. Proceed with caution.”

“Grenade?” Daniel asked over the radio.

“No, too noisy. Use guns with silencers.” The commander whispered as she placed a silencer on her gun.

“What about an EMP perhaps it has an electrical source.” Harry asked as he also came atop the stair and looked over Mustafa’s shoulder.

“Not likely. It’s most likely a dark matter source. Everyone move up and blend in the shadow-”

Just then the conversation between the two suddenly stopped and they looked towards the place where the commander was hiding in the shadows. One of the Fraz moved towards her, growling and making clicking noises. Even when it was directly in front of her she made no noise in hope that it would miss her however what it did next erased all hope for stealth in her mind.

The blackness around the special started to change shape, it moved upwards separated and then morphed and merged back into the shadow body. The more it changed shape the more it started to become more like the commander’s shadow, until it was an almost exact copy of the Commander’s silhouette. The special moved its face which looked like a shadow of the commander’s towards her face and cackled as it moved back its hand which suddenly turned into large claws. At this time there was no doubt in the Commander’s mind that she was found, but the voice got stuck in her throat she was unable to make a noise to warn her team.

‘Ratttat-tattattat-tatattat-tatt’ Mustafa had sensed that she was in trouble because he started to unload the entire magazine unto the shadow in front of her. The creature was struck on the back and stumbled into the commander wailing as it went into her. But the Commander rolled to the side and the special’s face collided with the wall instead.

Harry and Daniel moved forward and made a line on the top step, and started to fire at the other special much further back. They were a little southwest of the commander’s shadow just out of reach of all the bullets that Mustafa unloaded onto it. The bullets that they shot struck the creature but it didn’t move anywhere, suddenly holes started to appear on the creature’s body and the bullets just moved through it. It started to rapidly close onto the soldiers firing upon it. Meanwhile the Commander’s silhouette recovered from its initial knockdown and jerked its head towards the Commander crouched to its side. The Commander moved her gun and aimed at the creature who screamed at her actions. She fired at the open mouth of her own shadow.

The bullets seemed to do nothing as they disappeared into the dark mouth. The creature made an exaggerated movement to slash her with its enormous claws, however Mia interceded while Mustafa was still reloading and shot it at its source location the thorax. Something happened and the darkness that was about to slash the commander suddenly halted, it froze in that position for a second more then it exploded. Like a popped water balloon the creatures black goo splashed all across the commander and a little over the Mark IIs.

*Hiss* came to sound when it struck the commander and the Mark II’s. It quickly melted through the night vision goggles and her gun held, protecting her face. It was like an acid which started to melt the armor on her body. The commander quickly dived away from the acidic black goop and started rolling on the floor and wiping the goop off by sliding down the stairs. Eventually she got all the goop off her but it had already caused enough damage. It had caused serious corrosion on her left leg, burning her flesh and melted part of her metal armor on her chest and arms, fortunately the fabric was still intact and unharmed.

“Shoot it on its chest” The Commander shouted at Daniel and Harry as she stumbled next to Mia and Daniel from behind.

“Commander! You’re hurt!” Mia said as she examined the flesh wounds on her leg.

“I’m fine” The commander tried to dismiss it but when she started to crouch forwards the strain increased on her leg and it gave out causing her to stumble onto the ground.

“No, you’re not. John cover me while I attend to the commander” Without a word John positioned himself near the two ladies looking at the bottom of the stairs for any incoming Fraz. Daniel and Harry slowly moved in front of them to protect them from the other shadow Fraz. Mustafa on the other hand slowly moved behind the pillar and continued to shoot.

As Katelyn slumped against the wall Mia squatted next to her and took off her medical box, rummaging through it for different medical equipment. She quickly took out a pair of forceps, an alcohol swab and a gauze, placing them gently on the lid. As Mia tended to the injury of her Commander the person in question was worried about the excessive amounts of bullets that her team was shooting at one enemy.

“Hey, is all that shooting really necessary for one special?” The Commander finally asked.

“Well, while you were rolling about more showed up” Mia looked up at the Commander and said “They must have heard the screams and now are blocking our way”

“Hurry up and stitch me up” The Commander said restlesstly.

“There will be no stitching, unless you want to deter your movements. Do you?” Mia looked up at her angrily.

“Hmph” The Commander remained silent until Mia was finished tending to the wound. Propping herself on her good leg she slowly moved forward careful to not get caught in the heated exchange of bullets and wooden beams. Careful so as to not melt her boots she walked over the black goop splashed over the ground and behind the cover of the pillar to protect her from the straying bullets.

“Daniel, toss me the grenades.” She smiled. Daniel rolled back behind the cover of the stairs and took out two grenades from one of his pockets. He smiled at the Commander before he threw the grenades at her.

“Lay cover fire for me alright, careful not to shoot me too boys.” The Commander said as she started to rush across the hallway. She ran towards the other side of the hallway, careful to not get caught in her teams cover fire and placing her foot on the wall launched herself towards the Fraz hiding behind a bunch of pillars. She threw the grenades between the pillars and rolled backwards to avoid the explosion.

*BOOOM* and the grenades went off. That caused a large explosion that created a lot of dust to rise up in the air but the commander didn’t stop for the dust to settle instead she ran into the smoke taking out her two MGM-23 fully automatic pistols. When she saw silhouettes in the smoke she aimed both her pistols at them and fired. Even the silhouettes on the ground were shot to remove any chance of them ever getting back up. When the smoke cleared up she was the only one standing, twigs and meat chunks all littered around her feet.

“That was good thinking using the grenades to break through their exoskeleton.” Daniel complimented as he walked with the rest of the team towards their Commander.

The commander wiped her hair over her eye and thanked him for the compliment with a curt nod. She then looked towards John who was making his way towards them, finally satisfied that no one was following them. Upon reaching the commander John took out a small HVK-29 and gave it to the commander.

“You can have my back up, might help you better than those pistols.” He said.

The Commander gave him a nod as well as she accepted the gun. She then motioned for the group to move forward, so they trudged slowly across the hallway hiding in the cover of the pillars and darkness. She then turned to look at her radar and saw that the green dot was not too far away.

“Just a little far away. Let’s meet up with Shair quickly.” The group slowly moved forwards and soon reached another set of stairs. They slowly moved up those, careful to not get involved with other Fraz. When they reached the top of those stairs as well, they heard a heated argument coming from above. The group quickly blended with the walls as they waited for the Fraz to pass, this time not conversing themselves to prevent attracting unwanted attention.

“Gishnobu vishni Shrall”

“Sheima sumanits shino-”

“Coshi no Vidhi shimovrashni, lashin vergiona” A third voice broke into the conversation and started yelling what seemed like orders at the two. Immediately thumping noises could be heard, indicating the departure of the Fraz.

As the Commander moved to look above the top step she saw a large group of regulars and even a few large specials running towards the left down another tunnel. Soon after another group of regulars starting running after them. One special in particular was shouting orders at other Fraz causing them to follow behind the others who went down the tunnel.

The Commander went back down to prevent being spotted and exhaled loudly as she looked at her team. Mustafa, John and Harry were all silent with a mix of serious and worried expressions on their faces while Daniel seemed a little shaken up similar to Mia. She was sweating profusely, the large amount of Fraz in one place would make anyone to sweat with fear and dread.

“Never seen so many of them in one place.” Mia said as she breathed quickly.

“I have, there were even more at Simmer airport.” Mustafa said worriedly.

“Anyone know why they seem so eager to leave?” the Commander asked dreading the worst.

Mia, John and Mustafa seemed to go into deep thinking while Daniel and Harry looked at each other. They seemed to be having a silent conversation and it seemed that Daniel was winning.

“Something I should know about?” The Commander asked the two. The two looked at her then at each other before Harry sighed and spilled the beans.

“We can understand what they are saying.”

A moment of silence followed that as everyone focused on the two as if they had each grown another head.

“How?”

“HQ captured a few Fraz a while back…and have been trying to learn their secrets. The Mark II’s were taught their language so we won’t be so ignorant when facing a Fraz.” Harry seemed almost ashamed to be telling them this.

“Why didn’t you-”

“How do you expect-”

“Are you really telling-”

While the rest of the Mark I’s bombarded the two with questions the Commander herself was in deep thought trying to make sense of the information given. She held up her hand causing the rest of the squad to become silent.

“Will you get into trouble for revealing this information?” She asked with a stone serious face.

“Yes”

“Are you going to betray us in anyway in the future?”

“What!? No!”

“Everyone, whatever they tell us is to never leave this place. Do not reveal this information to anyone. Even your best friends, or your partners.” She said with a serious face.

“Does that include Shair?” John asked.

“…Yes, even Shair.” Katelyn resolved herself before looking at Harry “so what is going up there?”

“It seems like they are moving all units from this point to resolve a disturbance in the other branch.”

“Which means?” The commander raised her eye brow. Her face full of worry.

“There seems to be a human causing havoc in the left branch”

“Human…” Katelyn’s eyes widened up greatly and moistened up a bit.

“A human causing havoc? Not humans?” John asked Harry.

“Actually… there seems to be a human and…another creature” Harry’s face scrunched up in confusion “no, an imposter killing their comrades and demeaning their great name.”

“Great name, ha” Mustafa sarcastically said “the only thing demeaning to them-”

“Shut up.” Katelyn interrupted Mustafa, then turned to look at Harry, her face twisted in confusion “An imposter?”

“So its two people” John said relieved.

“No, it’s one human and one other…thing” Daniel emphasized the different.

“What do you mean by thing?” Mia asked also confused.

“That’s what they’re calling it, an imposter, a black creature, a-a thing.” Harry said.

“It’s one human and an imposter, right?” John had a worried look on his face “I have fought alongside Shair many times, and sometimes he disguises himself with Fraz as and other materials to blend in for better fighting chances. Perhaps this imposter is just Shair in his disguise, I mean even I sometimes mistake him for a Fraz when he fights on the battlefield.”

“With the way they are describing that thing, and what its doing I highly doubt it’s anything human. No matter how disguised and strong Shair would be he can’t really be ripping apart their comrades, can he?” Daniel refused to believe it.

John looked at Katelyn worriedly and saw it on her face. How she was hanging on a thread of hope from hearing all this negative talk, how she was about ready to give up.

“Well, we just have to hope. We can’t say for sure who it is but at least its friendly and it has a human fighting alongside it. Perhaps that’s Shair.” John glared at Daniel and Harry warning them about retorting.

“Shair” Katelyn said it more to herself than anyone else. “He wouldn’t just die like that. If it is him then he would meet us at the rendezvous, he must be tracking our position to be so close. Even if he does get surrounded he can always escape.”

“Yeah. Shair wouldn’t die so easily.” Mustafa smiled at Katelyn.

“Let’s go and meet him at the command center.” Mia touched Katelyn arm reassuringly as they got up to move once more.

“Yeah, let’s go” Katelyn smiled, strained, at her two friends as she walked into the now deserted area towards the command center.