Announcement

**Jasonian** · September 23, 1999, 16:04

Part 2: The Research Hospital

"You ran them over?" Jason asked with a satisfied grin on his face.

Jason sat in the Echus military Research Hospital with the survivors that were in good condition. Blane, the commander of the terraformer that inflicted the most damage on the PLR and the least injured, threw back his head and laughed.

"Ha! Well, it wasn't quite that easy. We lost half our group in the first ten minutes! But someone came up with the idea of firing our fungicide into the air to mess up their tracking and radar systems. We could still see fine; that's what terraformers are made to do. So we went on a mad rampage and crushed as many rovers as we could before we fell into a crater from one of their missiles."

Jason was in awe. Fungicide? Did that work? He would have to get the R&D team on that one. Perhaps we could create a "fungicide rover." Blind our foes, then pick them off. That was quite a humorous concept there. Maybe there was even some military value to it...

"So they gave up trying to shoot you and cut their losses and fled while they still could. Well, it's good to see you're still with us Blane. I was afraid we had lost another First."

By that, Jason referred to the ones that he had chosen to join his vision and make Planetfall from the Unity. These were the loyal men and women that he knew would do their best to create his dream, even at the cost of their own lives. But lately, there has been an increase in the number of deaths in Firsts. Sure, there were a few accidents, but it was mostly because of old age. The pressure was on to develop a Longevity Treatment. 'Even I am not as young as I was... before we left Earth. I must be getting near 50 now.' Jason thought.

"Oh it's great to still serve you, all-mighty Jason." There was a tone of mockery in his voice, but it was small. Blane was one of Jason's best friends, and most loyal followers. "Anyway, I guess its back to construction for me until I get another former."

It was clear to Jason that Blane didn't like the idea of going back to work as a common laborer, and his grin broadened, "Not quite, Blane. That fungicide move was a stroke of genius. It certainly saved your life, and it showed the PLR we wouldn't be easily crushed. How would you like a nice trip to the Command Center, hmm?"

Jason knew that Blane liked that idea even before he opened his mouth, "Command Center? Me?! The old 'former commander in charge of a Jasonian missile squad?!"

Jason got 'one-of-those-looks" in his eyes "Oh... no. No missiles for you Blane. Something much more... powerful. Ha! Don't look at me like that! You'll see. Blane, I'm officially asking you to serve Jasonia and command our newest 'chaos' shock troops. Chaos weapons, standard plasma armor, some optional com jammers. The works. Most powerful in all of Jasonia, no, the world!"

Blane's jaw literally dropped, "Chaos weapons?! No way! They aren't possible! They could never figure out how to focus it into a beam!"

Jason just laughed, "Well, they can now. Will you accept the command or not Blane?"

Blane quickly stood and shook Jason's hand, "I do! Oh I do! I won't let you down! Glory for Jasonia!"

'You had better not let me down' Jason thought to himself. 'I've got a lot riding on you doing good...'
[This message has been edited by Jasonian (edited September 23, 1999).]

**Jasonian** · September 23, 1999, 21:42

Part 3: The Weather Paradigm

"Really Jason! Giving command of our newest, most technologically capable shock troop unit to some old 'former commander? I know he's a friend of yours, and I've heard about his maneuver at Echus against Drew's men, but still! Here! What about that talented young man that scored a 90% on the combat stats list? His name... umm..."

Before Zak could look the man's name up on his datapad, Jason silenced him, "That's enough Ramirez. Blane will beat even that guy after he's done with his training. He'll repel the PLR and -"

Their rover suddenly lurched and halted, jarring Jason back into his seat, "Wha?!!"

The comlink blared to life, "Errr... sorry about the abrupt stop, sir, but traffic just froze. Something big is going on in the Rec Commons. TraficRadar reports that it's total gridlock all around it."

Jason replied, "Thank you. Jason out." He cursed and turned to Zak, "The Weather Paradigm. They must have wanted to surprise me when I came back from Echus Overlook and devoted some energy into getting it done a full three months yearly. Hmph. Not exactly a pleasant surprise... " He gestured to the frozen rovers covering the street.

But no matter how annoying it was for the Supreme Commander of Jasonia to be stuck in traffic while trying to pass through a base on the way to HQ, Zak knew that Jason was still thrilled to have the project operational. All their terraform time was going to be cut drastically now. Many, many years would be cut from the construction of the 2nd Sheffield borehole. 'Ahh...Sheffield. What a glamorous base. Such manufacturing power, and an excellent shopping center too,' Zak thought to himself.

Sheffield was the 2nd Jasonian base, founded a mere 5 years after Underhill. Since they began working on the Paradigm, they had to shut off their atmosphere mixers to save precious mineral resources. There had been protests, and even a riot, but soon people realized that the power of the Paradigm was far more important then one base's air manufacturing.

Zak secretly wished that they would get some time to stay in Sheffield, for a while. AnitaInd holovids of this place made it the place to be, and it held up its reputation rather nicely. The only other time he'd seen this place was when it was being put together from the colony convoy. That was when he and Jason had come for the founding ceremony. Since then, it had become a city of dreams.

As some sort of answer to his thoughts, the com crackled to life once more, "Jason, sir? Word of your arrival is out and they want you to make a speech at the Paradigm opening ceremony."

The scowl on Jason's face told Zak that Jason clearly wasn't looking forward to this particular honor and just wanted to get out of this place and back to HQ, but he replied, "Of course. And have them send someone out here to get me out of this traffic."

"Yes, sir! In fact, they're already on their way."

Jason cut the com. He sighed and went back to gazing out the window at the masses abandoning their rovers in the street.

***

The roar of the crowd died down and Jason began to speak, "We landed with a vision: to live here as we did on Earth without needing some machine to support us and keep us alive. We have made large steps in that direction with our atmosphere mixers and the air scrubbers. But these are just more machines. We made progress, but we were no more free."

"Now we are consumed in a war to defend our vision from the PLR. Drew's communists would have no respect for what we are doing here. Our vision would cease to exits. So loyal men and women have given up their normal lives and joined the military to defend our borders. But even in the face of such a large threat, we have managed to complete a huge building block in our column of success, a piece of our dream, the Weather Paradigm!"

The crowd roared up at the mention of their prized project. 'These people would applaud anything. They would applaud their own executions. It wasn't even a very good speech. They're just so loyal to me... such good people. Excellent citizens.' But Jason knew that the Weather Paradigm would make this base more appealing for the PLR invaders, and that something would need to be done.

Jason continued his speech.

[This message has been edited by Jasonian (edited September 23, 1999).]

**Jasonian** · September 24, 1999, 21:20

Part 4: Return to Nessus

The two suns were set and Nessus was full in the sky when Supreme Commander Jason and General Ramirez arrived back at Underhill. They were a full three weeks late, and both of them were weary of travel. The glistening city sat in a deep sloping canyon, bathed in a faint light from Nessus far above. ‘It looks so peaceful in the darkness. I have to protect this wonderful city from my PLR enemy,’ thought Jason to himself as their rover came to a stop next to the Capital Tower. Nessus, the largest asteroid of the interstellar-debris orbiting Planet, could only be seen at night, and the two suns made darkness very rare. Indeed, it was quite a rare treat to see all of Underhill bathed in Nessus’s warm glow.

Even in full light, Underhill was one of the most glamorous cities on Planet. Unlike Sheffield, Underhill focused on lush productive forests and farms to feed people and promote growth rather then harvesting minerals for projects. This made Underhill less productive, but ten times more beautiful. Jason had heard rumors of a Haimian city Nairi that was said to be far more beautiful, but Jason doubted that. They city planners were always thinking of ways to enhance the city in both production and looks, and they were doing an excellent job of it. Pollution and crime were extremely low, and morale was off the charts.

The location of Underhill is what made it into the dream it was today, and had given the Jasonians a jump-start in the early years. They had made Planetfall and landed at the bottom on a landmark they named Nessus Canyon, after the view of the asteroid from the canyon floor. They had also named the city Underhill after the fact that that canyon made it look like they were deep underground. But this location had more then simple looks: those canyon walls gave them extra minerals to mine, and the river at the bottom gave extra energy. This is what kept it up to par with the other, less glamorous cities of Jasonia.

***

"Well this is certainly good news!" Zak exclaimed. He was radiant. Echus had held out again.

"Very good news. The PLR was totally in the dark. With their coms useless due to our ‘former’s jammers, they couldn’t relay any orders. The ‘formers opened fire with their crude but effective small arms weapons and took only minimal damage. Not a single unit was lost! It was a great defense! The PLR should get off our back for a while because of this one."

"A great victory indeed," Zak agreed, "I’m going back down there to check out the damage etc. etc. Care to come with me, lord-general?" Clearly Zak was letting this one go to his head.

"Are you joking?! I just got back. I’m going nowhere. I do have my duties here as leader of Jasonia you know. I can’t keep running off. You go, and pick me up something in Sheffield on the way back," Jason kept paging through reports. Too much work had piled up. Sometimes it wasn’t exactly a good job; being the leader.

Zak gave a quick salute and jogged out of Jason’s Command Center office. ‘It’s just one defensive battle. Still... that must have steamed Drew. Maybe I should call him up and see if he wants some sort of cease-fire...'

Jason started to get up, but stopped himself. ‘No... they’ll have all our signals blocked. If they wanted to talk, they would have done so in these fifteen years.’ He returned to his datapad. Here was
some good news! Blane was becoming an excellent squad commander, and would report his squad ready for active duty in one week.

‘We’re going to need those Chaos guns and a capable commander behind them very soon. Something’s up. The PLR is too active. We’ve got to hold them off until we can locate their border.’

Jason sighed and continued his paperwork.
[This message has been edited by Jasonian (edited September 24, 1999).]

**Jasonian** · September 24, 1999, 21:33

Part 5: Chaos Breaks Out

One week later, Jason was still in Underhill, still reading his datapad, consulting his tactical screens, and making plans for defense. But this time, he certainly wasn’t smiling. His fear had come true: Echus Overlook had been ‘liberated’ be the PLR.

According to the few scraps of intelligence information he could piece together, there had been a large Network Node crash several hours before the five rover brigades has fanned out of the fungus and moved toward the new Echus former units. Once again they had raised their plasma armor, jammed the enemy coms, and opened fire with their small-concealed weapons. But the rovers had no interest in them, passed them by, and stared up Echus Trail. They must have had a battery in there, because Echus reported a missile launch before the sensor had been blown out.

Of course, Echus had their own batteries. Being a high-altitude base they had the standard three squads, or thirty guns. But they were the old Particle Impactor, or "Impact", units, and they were shooting blind without their sensor information. Even so, the managed to inflict some major damage on the incoming rovers, reducing the attackers to 62%. But 31 missile rovers vs. three unarmed batteries and one standard plasma garrison were too much. Echus did not have a Perimeter Defense since it was so new, only 23 years old, and the garrisons could not hold them off for very long. They surrendered, were captured, and Echus Overlook fell into the hands of the PLR.

‘At least they let the survivors live, along with the base governor and most people of importance. And the citizens are all fine too. But poor Zak... I should have stopped him from going to that place after we had steamed Drew. I’ve got to take that base back, for his sake!"

Drew had called them up again, 'Ah! Well hello there Jason. How are things over there, hmm?"

Jason put up a strong effort to remain icy calm, "Make it quick Drew. What do you want in this?" He never was one for negotiations.

Drew smiled, "Just to ask for peace. We have Echus Overlook now, so our request from years ago has been fulfilled. We will leave you alone if you call a cease-fire and leave Echus to us."

Jason finally lost it, "What?! Never! We won’t allow you to remain on Jasonian soil! Return Echus Overlook to me at once!"

Drew smile faded, "We’ll soon see whose land it is!" And he was gone.

That was yesterday. Now it was time to get some sort of plan together.

‘Probe team... I need to cause a distraction up there... ah. An idle team at Sheffield. Lots of experience. An able commander. They’ll do fine.’

Jason typed a quick briefing to the team leader, then picked up the datalink. Blane came up on the main office screen, "Commander Jason, sir! This is squad leader Blane of the 1st Chaos --"

"Save it Blane. Now is not the time. I know who you are." Jason smiled, "I need you to report your squad to Sheffield in one week."

"Yes sir! My men are ready! My elite unit will turn back the invaders and reclaim our base! Blane out, sir!!"

Blane vanished, and Jason couldn’t help but laugh. Blane was such a tacky commander. He overdid the protocol a bit much. But he was the best they had, and Jason knew that Blane wouldn’t let him down.

On an impulse, Jason left the Capital Tower and hopped in one of the governmental-use rovers. These things were fast. He didn’t care about the incident that the leader of the country jumping into a sporty rover and heading out alone would cause. He didn't care that the Anita Industries vids would be all over this one before he had even arrived. Only one thing mattered now: Chaos had broken out, and he needed to be in Sheffield.

(Writer's note: This is the end of Chapter 1. More are planned, but now would be a nice time to give me some feedback in the "Comments" thread. Your imput is appreciated, but not expected.)

**Jasonian** · September 25, 1999, 00:25

Chapter 2: Scrambled Defenses

Part 1: Hasty Modifications

"Unit 7 reports that the last PLR rover has been confirmed destroyed," the com cracked, and Commander Jordüf gave a sigh of relief.

'Finally. It's a good thing the PLR is forced to send Impact rovers at us while they replace their losses, but this is getting ridiculous. These things are so obsolete, and their training is awful,' Jordüf thought to himself. He was beginning to like the easy life of sitting around while his old Gatling rovers gathered dust and became obsolete. But he was the only one available; all the other rover brigades were hastily getting upgraded to chaos weaponry at Sheffield.

"Excellent work Unit 7. Hey 2nd? What's the squad's damage percent?" This was their second battle of the day. Attrition had to be adding up by now.

Jordüf's second-in-command scanned their group, "We're at 40%. Units 3 and 6 are disabled and Unit 7 has just lost his Chaos gun. The rest is minor scratches. Nothing big. No losses yet."

That was reassuring. They would need everyone they had when the PLR was done licking its wounds. Jordüf scanned the radar. Another Impact brigade was coming over the nearest ridge.

"Ok! All units: we'll take out the next squad and then fall back to Sheffield for some modifications ourselves. Let's go!"

The last Jasonian Gatling brigade prepared for their 3rd battle of the day.

***
Another explosion rocked Sheffield's main enhancement garage.

"Ahhh! You fools! Be careful when testing those Chaos guns! We can't afford to lose any more! Hey you! Get back to work! Jason wants these things mounted on all five brigades in a week and I'm not going to be the one to tell him that we're not done."

Garage Supervisor Markus did not get paid enough to deal with all this. He had to modify forty more rovers in a few days. Usually this was drawn out over a year and involved testing and re-testing to avoid accidents and injury. But in a year they could all be under PLR rule. Time was a resource, among others, that they simply didn't have enough of right now.

"Get those pilots and gunners down here to help! This was their job before they joined the military! You! Who are you?! Get out of my face! I'm a very busy man!"

Markus was speaking to a short man in a dignified plasma-steel armor. He realized at once that he should not have been yelling at this particular person.

"Squad Commander Blane of the 1st Chaos Shock Troop division requesting transport to the PLR cut-off zone," Blane said sharply. He was not fond of being yelled at.

"Umm... yes. Of course. I think that the next one out has room for one more. I'm sure you could get a ride with it. It's over --" Markus managed to stammer out.

Blane laughed, and Markus flinched, "Ah, no. I need transport for 100 men in plasma-steel armor along with their Chaos gun treads. And I need it quite quickly. My orders from Jason himself say to get out there and stop the PLR advance."

Markus's eyes bulged. "1... 100 men? And treads? Umm... there should be enough transports in storage to get you out there in time. I'll get them ready for you."

Blane nodded, "Excellent. Oh, and lighten up. The cavalry's here. No one is going to be under PLR rule at this base!"

'I sure hope he's right. But if he is, perhaps there is time to do these modifications right,' Markus thought as he keyed up the order.

The entire base let out a whoop of joy as the oversized transport roared toward Jason's cut-off point. For the first time in months, the people of Sheffield felt absolutely safe. Markus just smiled as he ordered the overworked technicians around. Now wasn't the time to waste on celebration.

**Jasonian** · September 25, 1999, 00:33

Part 2: Before the Storm

Tahndelaya stopped her team just outside the sensor range. 'This isn't going to be easy; it never is. They're not expecting us, but they'll be on full alert. There's quite a lot going on up there. Troop movements, modifications...'

She looked up at Echus Overlook. Up there, the PLR rovers were receiving missile weapons, com jammers, and all sorts of other fun stuff to make a mess of Jasonia. Enough firepower to stream over Sheffield; and possible all of Jasonia. Something had to be done about that. That was simply not an option at this point. So Jason sent her to deal with it her own way, no questions asked.

Tahndelaya studied Echus. There was a lot of traffic around Echus Trail; too much to go up that way. They'd be spotted for sure... then there was the 'ruins' as they had began to be called. The wreckage of Jason's armored 'formers and the 35 or so PLR missile rovers that were destroyed attacking them. That would give them some cover. After that, up the cliff. Easy.

Tahndelaya smiled. The probe team moved out.

***

Jason hopped out of his 'borrowed' rover and met no AnitaVid cams. 'How odd. Something must be going on.' He passed by a number of very surprised guards and walked right into to the Sheffield Command Center.

The commanding officer jumped up and went over to greet him, "Supreme Commander, sir! We weren't expecting you here in such a dangerous hour. You shouldn't - "

"Well I am. I'm not going to just rot away at HQ and watch my country get eaten up by the PLR. Now what's going on here? What's the situation? Where are the forces? I need answers!"

The man was obviously trained well in dealing with superior officers, "Well we just lost most of our last Gatling brigade out between here and Echus Overlook, close to the 'cut-off' point. Blane's troops are being transported there and should arrive within the hour, followed by a brigade of ECM Chaos rovers that will hang back a bit to cover them."

"ECM rovers..." The acronym refused to click in Jason's mind, "Ahh! Com jammers. I'm surprised you had time to install them. Nice work, commander."

He beamed, "Well, it hasn't been easy. We had some accidents due to all this rushing around. We lost two rovers and had five be damaged. Luckily the remaining Gatling rovers will be able to replace most of them. What we have left is at your disposal, sir, of course." He gave a quick salute.

Jason nodded. This man was good at his job, and had already earned Jason's respect, "Anything else? I need to know everything that's happened in the past few days."

"Well... besides what's happened here, we've received word from Minus One Island that they're all set up and are ready to start work on their own Chaos Cruiser."

Jason smiled at that. The mighty power of the Chaos Cruiser could search the coasts for the PLR border, find their HQ, and bomb & blast it to rubble.

"Excellent. Has Blane arrived yet?" Jason was eager to see how he was holding out.

The com officer typed his code into the tactical display. Nothing came up on the display. He tried again, and still nothing.

"What does that mean? Are you sure you have the right number? Is the system working?"

The officer checked the number, then typed in the code of the rovers following him, and a small white dot appeared on the display.

"Sir! The system is functional. He's just not responding. Even if he had been destroyed I would be about to get a reading. But he's just not there... oh my god!! Radar has just picked up incoming missile rovers! 10 entire brigades! Over 100 missile rovers!"

The scramble siren started wailing, and the commanding officer took Jason by the arm, "I know a back way out. I'll get you back to Underhill. Let's go."

***

Jason exited Sheffield as the Jasonian rovers began to deploy out the other side and get ready for the Battle of Sheffield.

[This message has been edited by Jasonian (edited September 25, 1999).]

**Jasonian** · September 25, 1999, 11:25

Part 3: The Battle of Sheffield

Jason arrived at Underhill's Capital Tower in record time: a mere four days. The rover would probably never start again, but he was back in the HQ Command Center. And not a moment too soon: the PRL's forces were in motion. Without Blane to stop their momentum at the cut-off point, they quickly tore down the trail to Sheffield. 'Blane... where the heck are you?! We need you right now!!'

Jason sighed and activated his tactical display. About 200 white and light-purple blobs were swirling around each other outside of Sheffield.

***

"Watch it Gold 1! Enemy at 8:00!" The com crackled at him for about the 1000th time. Jordüf jerked his head in time to see his gunner take out the enemy rover with his Gatling laser. 'This is just great! My squad gets destroyed and they still sent me back out here in this thing. I'm the last Gatling rover! I'm the only member or Gold brigade!'

Jordüf drove around a crater and blasted through another PLR unit. It was going to be a long battle.

***

Red brigade wasn't so lucky. Although they jammed the enemy coms, theirs were jammed too. It was every rover for themselves, and collateral damage was starting to get high, at least for everyone but Red 2, 3 and 4. They brought special radios just in case this happened, and they were wrecking havoc with their coordinated attacks.

"Red 3, Red 4. We're going to run a strafing run on that new Impact brigade coming up at 4:00. Let's move!"

The three rovers broke out of the melee and took some cover behind a large rock, then launched an all-out blasting with their Chaos guns. When the smoke cleared, the 3rd attacking Impact brigade simply ceased to exist.

"Nice work. Status report."

"Red 3 fully operational."

"Red 4 fully operational, but suffering from a temporary power shortage. Expected operational in 30 seconds."

"Ok then. Its back into the fray with us. I'll cover Red 4 until its back up to full power. Let's go!"

***

The garrison had its hands full back on the Perimeter Defense of Sheffield. 'Why aren't our men stopping the PLR? We're not ready for this many rovers!"

They leveled their heavy Chaos gun at the nearest rover and fired. The rover and most of the surrounding terrain was blown away. 'At least this thing hasn't shorted out yet. Looks like we have a good chance of winning.'

They aimed the gun at the next two rovers and waited for it to recharge.

***

Markus ran past a small regiment and delivered the final rover driver and gunner to the last remaining rover. "Get going! They need you out there!"

They climbed in and the rover went flying out the door. It got about 10 feet from the base doors and then exploded.

'What? An explosion... a missile!' Markus though as the door blew open and about 20 troops with Impact rifles and light-purple suits rushed in the door, blasting away and wrecking the enhancement garage. Markus dived behind a pillar 'Oh Jesus... we're being invaded. And they're not armored, so they aren't expecting any resistance!'

Out of hallway came about 10 plasma garrison troops in white. They returned fire with deadly accuracy, pinning down the invaders and securing the area. The Jasonain troops then moved out of the door to cover some missile troops that were streaming out to support the rovers. 'It's secure, but for how long?'

***

"Whoa! My god! They've began the ground assault of the base!" Jordüf said to no one in particular. He maneuvered away from the weakened PLR rover he was about to destroy and set off for the door.

The PLR invaders then took cover as the elite Jasonian garrison pushed them back as the missile troops swarmed out to support the garrison's heavy Chaos gun. Missiles slammed into some nearby PLR rovers, causing the rest to keep their distance.

The fight seemed to be going better for the PLR then the garrison forces. The Jasonains finally had to re-enter the hanger for cover, and then the missile squad found themselves under fire, which forced them to retreat too.

'Ahh! No! I'm still out of range! Come ON you ancient piece of junk! Move it!' Jordüf pushed his rover to the limit, and beyond. Finally his gunner let loose some of ultra-fast Gatling laser fire. The PLR took some heavy losses, but some lucky shot managed to hit the rover in the engine, causing it to skid and stop. The troops then ignored him and continued their "leapfrog" method of covering each other's advance into the garage.

'Well I'm out of it now... wait a second!' "Hey up there! They must think we're out of action. Let them have it!" Jordüf said to his gunner

The Gatling gun fired a crazy amount on too-fast fire right at the center of the PLR's movements, then gave a sickening thunk. 'Well... there goes the gun. Now we're out of the battle, but we did more then our part.' The lasers shredded the entire rest of the 2nd wave of the PLR invaders.

***

"Did you see that? Some Gatling rover just blew away the 2nd attack wave!"

The garrison was thrilled to be able to stop wasting energy taking pot-stots at men and worry about the approaching rovers. Luck was beginning to turn their way. They were so absorbed in their work that they didn't realize the Chaos gun had been damaged until it refused to fire at an unloading transport.

***

In the Command Center, the luck had certainly not changed. They were down to about 10 rovers, and the remaining PLR units had them pinned down against a grove of fungus.

"Watch it Red 3! Two more coming in on your left flank," The order fell flat as Red 3 ceased to exist.

'They can't help us... we're too much out-gunned now. 100 rovers... we did our best. There are at least 70 destroyed PLR rovers out there. But still leaves thirty... plus the ground troops...'

"Sheffield Command to all rovers: disengage. Take cover and head for Underhill. Garrison: signal defeat. Send a message to HQ, then wipe the entire data core and prepare for seizure." No use letting the PLR have the Chaos gun; even if they had to surrender they would destroy them all.

"Sir, the remaining rovers are en-route to Underhill. The PLR recognizes our surrender. And the core has been wiped."

"So be it. This base will be liberated... let's get ready to meet our temporary leadership."

The PLR rover brigades swarmed towards the now-open gates of Sheffield.

***

Without warning, Sheffield suddenly went off-line on Jason's datalink, 'No... Not Sheffield too. Not the best manufacturing city in Jasonia. Not the Weather Paradigm!'

On Jason's tactical display, the city of Sheffield turned from white to light-purple, and few the flag of his most hated enemy: The PLR.

**Jasonian** · September 25, 1999, 18:42

Part 4: Breakdown

The PLR at Echus Overlook declared a state of emergency. The Jasonian citizens were not happy to hear the news about Sheffield one bit. Some of the more radical ones found several catches of small-arms weapons, and managed a raid on a weapons depot, equipped enough men to be considered a small army, and a full-fledged riot broke out.

'Jason the cover I need. How perfect,' thought Tahndelaya. No doubt her people were behind this.

Although she had failed to sabotage the PRL forces before they left the base, she was still inside the enemy base. Perhaps she could still be some use to Jason.

Abruptly, the door lock clicked and Zak Ramirez's cell door opened, "Wha... who?"

"I bring a message from Jason: you're free to go, no matter what the PLR has to say about it. Come on. Stick close to me, and you may see Underhill again."

Zak quickly jumped up walked out of the cell, and Tahndelaya closed the cell door and made quick work of locking it again. Probe team commander Tahndelaya and General Ramirez took off into the maze of tunnels deep inside Echus Cliff.

***

Back in Jasonia, things where no better. Morale had taken a steep dive after Sheffield fell, and civil order was pretty much thrown into the Recycling Tanks. Things were so bad that Jason issued a Police State, which would remain in effect until the liberation of all captured Jasonian bases. But despite their losses, Jasonian had one advantage still going for it: they were being backed into a corner, and the citizens of Free Jasonia were preparing to lash out like brutes. Not a single rover or chaos tread was lost during upgrading and very few were even damaged. They were also keeping the PLR at bay with some heavy Chaos batteries deep in the fungus around Sheffield. Time seemed to be on the side of Jasonia. But war was crazy, and it could all change at any moment.

***

The sea base Minus One, off the coast of an unknown island, was completely isolated from the rest of Jasonia, and it seemed totally impenetrable to the PLR invaders. Many refugees had begun taking ships to Minus One to avoid the chaos of the war. All these extra laborers meant that the Chaos Cruiser's time was being cut every day.

Minus One was actually deep underwater; so far that the largest cruiser could pass right over it without coming close to it's pressure dome. It was doubtful that the PLR even knew of its existence because of its depth. The reason for this was the Jasonians planned to have Minus One Island sitting right on the water after they had finished messing with the ocean levels. Planet's ice caps were pathetically small, and the Jasonians had plans to increase them.

But lately, Minus One had been picking up some readings from the nearby island that just didn't make sense. Something odd was going on over there. Perhaps there was a 7th faction that had survived Planetfall besides the Jasonians, PLR, Haimians, Aspenites, Anita Industries, and the Nataliums. Of course that was just one rumor. Others said that it was some sort of ruin, and a small number said it was some sort of new alien life that they hadn't run into yet. Fear kept people away from believing that: no one wanted to imagine a variation on the Mind Worms, Isle of the Deep, or Locusts of Chiron.

Whatever was going on over there, people were scared, and trips to Minus One were becoming very rare indeed.

***

Da Vinci's heavy Gatling gun blew away another PLR probe team member. Dr. Sax Russell checked his scanner and re-aimed the gun while the waited for it to charge up.

'Stupid probe teams. Trying to steal MY Chaos gun huh? Ha! You can't fool me with your scanner jamming equipment. I made that equipment, and I wrote the program that the sensors use. Right here in the Jasonian Da Vinci tech labs.'

Another operative bit the dust, and the rest scattered. Clearly they weren't going to get that Chaos gun from this base. Sax gave a sigh. 'Ah... the air is so fresh this morning... so very fresh. It almost seems like Earth's air. It almost seems...'

Sax realized what that could mean. He went downstairs to check his readings, and he was right.

***

"The air is BREATHABLE?!" Jordüf could not believe his sensors. Breathable air. No life-support suits, or masks or even standard Jasonian air scrubbers were needed. 'Unbelievable!!' Jordüf knew this was probably due some sort of weather abnormally, but he didn't plan on letting it go to waste. He gathered up all the rations he had left and exited his ruined Gatling rover. His poor gunner hadn't made it, but Jordüf planned to. He started on his long walk to Underhill, hoping to be picked up by some Jasonian forces scouting out the PLR before the winds changed.

***

Jason stared down at his datapad in horror. Their batteries had won a duel with some enemy guns in Sheffield and totally destroyed them, but three rover brigades managed to slip through during the fight. Now they were out of bombardment range, and nearing the end of sensor range.

The PLR was on the move.

Their target was Underhill.

Jason hastily made some holovid calls and datalink messages. The moment of truth for Jasonia was fast approaching.

**Jasonian** · September 26, 1999, 14:06

Part 5: On the Doorstep

Tahndelaya and Zak turned a corner and ran up the final flight of stairs to Echus Overlook's first floor. They were finally out of the catacomb basements. Following them and taking an extreme interest in their actions was about 20 PLR troops carrying Impact rifles.

Tahndelaya pulled out her small communicator, "Hey! Have you got our rover ready yet?"

"All warmed up. But you had better hurry. They're starting to figure out our escape plan. We have them behind cover, but it won't last. Where ARE you two?!" came the crackled reply.

"Just evading some our fans. They probably just want to talk to us. Hold on, we're about 30 seconds away," Tahndelaya was getting irritable. Their security was compromised and things weren't looking too good.

Zak and Tahndelaya kept running.

***

A little rover smashed through the garage door and started down Echus Trail. The base was on full alert now, and it's Impact batteries opened fire, making a mess of the supply convoy trying to deliver some supplies to the PLR base.

"Ha! We're causing more damage then we're worth. But why aren't we firing back?! Someone go man our laser cannon!" Tahndelaya barked orders as she avoided the Impact flashes and burning crawlers.

Zak was noticeably worried; "Laser weapons? Those were obsolete over 20 years ago. Don't you have anything stronger... or faster? Something? Anything?!"

Tahndelaya just laughed at him, "Do you think you could even aim a Chaos gun at those batteries with us jolting down this road, hmm?" Her answer came from a sour look from Zak, "Don't worry about it," she continued, "We have something called 'deep radar' installed on this rover. It's something that the PLR uses as standard issue now since they've got some sort of 'Military Algorithms,' but we're still working on it. Basically it lets us see farther, but it can be modified to increase the accuracy in a short-range fight. A little something Sax Russell gave us a while back. Saved our lives quite a few times."

To reinforce this, the little rover let out a short beam, which destroyed one of the enemy heavy Impact batteries high on the Echus Perimeter Defense with extreme accuracy. The rest stop firing for a moment, probably because of shock. Zak doubted they had ever seen anything like that before. But a moment was all it took for Tahndelaya to drive off the bottom of Echus Trail and it's 'the ruins,' making them invisible from the Echus radar scanners.

"See? What did I tell ya?! Ha! Don't worry. We'll be fine. Our orders are to deliver you to Da Vinci while Underhill is the main target of the PLR," Tahndelaya suspected a promotion because of this little stunt. Clearly Jason would pay to have his 2nd-in-command back with him.

***

Jason received a message of the 1st level of urgency on his datapad, 'Great... let's see what tricks the PLR has pulled this time...'

Jason opened up the message, {Zak is free and safe at Da Vinci} 'What? My god! They got him out of there! I'll have to promote that 'Tahndelaya' when this is all over. Excellent work there. Now I'd better check up on the PLR's movement...'

Jason returned to the Command Center. Things were pretty chaotic in there. Underhill was gearing for its defense. Unlike Sheffield, they had many garrisons and heavy Chaos guns, along with some smaller batteries and rovers. Jason walked up to the tactical display. The three purple dots were closing fast, but they didn't know about the batteries hiding in the fungus nearby. Then there were the garrisons of Underhill. They were synthmetal still; they didn't have time to modify them. Not the best available, but still effective. For once the Jasonians had the superior numbers.

Suddenly the warning sirens went off. 'What? The rovers haven't even came in our attack range yet! How could --' Jason's thoughts were cut short as the Capital Tower jolted with an impact. Several purple dots appeared on the radar that weren't there a minute ago.

The base governor panicked, "My god! Where did they come from? They're bombarding us from the canyon rim! Jason, you'll have to come with me. We can not risk losing our leader."

Jason sighed, but he knew they wouldn't take no for an answer, "Taken out of the conflict zone again, eh?" But he nodded, and the two left the Command Center.

***

As the transport for Minus One left the coast, Jason could see the fighting begin in Nessus Canyon.

'This is it. If we lose this, we lose it all. We had to take troops out of the remaining bases for this battle. They won't be able to hold against the PLR if we lose Underhill... I don't see why I have to leave. If we lose Underhill, it won't matter if I'm dead. Jasonia will die along with me... Argh. I can't even watch a real-time holovid of this one... well, good luck Jasonians. I sure hope Blane will have a country to come back to when this is over...'

Jason sighed and hung his head, 'I guess I just didn't do enough to win. I could have won this one. The PLR is winning, so I know I could have...'

The transport sailed on into the sunset.
[This message has been edited by Jasonian (edited September 28, 1999).]

**Jasonian** · September 28, 1999, 21:25

Chapter 3: Minus One Island

Part 1: Hit the Wall

"Hit the wall!" The call echoed down the hall as the soldiers flattened themselves to the rock at full attention; waiting for the officer to pass, then returning to their business. This happened three or four times as Commander Deret headed for the Observatory, which at the moment due to some laziness caused by the drones was doubling quite nicely as the main office of the Chief Commander. Deret ignored the guards and let himself into the room. He stood there for a few minutes, watching a woman fiddled with the reports on her datapad. He knew she had heard the door latch, and honestly didn’t mind the wait, for he was standing in sunlight, and breathing pure air at the same moment. To cut cost, and improve defense, Marzarinth was buried deep with in the surrounding mountains, with only the very top Observatory and a few other buildings actually breaking the surface. The trees at the foot of the mountains had very thick coverage, but grew sparse enough to allow for roads and supplies. A wonderful place to have landed. Lucky too.

"What is it?" Deret was snapped out of his short reprieve by the indifferent question.

"Palmer just got back; he managed to run around the edges without being shot... they’ve done it."

The man’s voice at the last was a mix of anger and awe. She didn’t move except to key into her datalink that the leader of the probe team, and therefore all of the team, was back. the then slowly turned and looked out the window. Up on the mountain she could see everything; the harbor, and three or four other islands in the distance. Back home she’d sit in her folks balcony and just stare at the lake... of course then there were speed boats instead of cruisers. She shrugged.

"So the Jasonians can make pure air. Watch Palmer’s team. If they liked it as much as the may have, let me know and I’ll send them back there so as to have their life-long’s supply of it. Did he find anything to negate our info that the PLR started the conflict? ...and what type of weapons are they using?"

"Unfortunately he wasn’t able to get that close... rumors from the nearby towns said that Echus and Sheffield have fallen, but the loss report isn’t verifiable. As are our info on the weapons. So far it's anything from Patrol troops to Chaos guns. And therefor, whatever the Jasonians had, the PLR now has at least some of. But overall the results on both sides are conflicting." She laughed; something that was very rare.

"Those two couldn’t agree on the color of night, Deret. But unfortunately for them, until our information’s confirmed they have nothing I want, so it’s of little difference to me who eliminates whom, and even less since they aren’t near my borders..."

"That’s the other thing," Every Ringhal knew their protocol to the letter, but considered it harmful when information was needed.

"Proceed."

"As our ‘formers were patrolling the area, the kept seeing Jasonian cruisers coming closer than they have reason to."

"Jay’s at war; he wouldn’t be doing any exploring or any other waste of equipment. I need something cleared, and can not have another probe team out for risk of capture. No one knows we're here... Call up Commander Jason, of the Jasonians. He’s closer to the border than the PLR."

Deret came to attention, hiding the grin in his eyes and saluted. He had however, miss-guessed his commander’s mood or intentions and was forced to hold the salute as she started at him, then departed at the very cold.

"Dismissed, Second."
[This message has been edited by Jasonian (edited September 28, 1999).]

**Jasonian** · September 30, 1999, 00:20

Part 2: Undersea Command

Supreme Commander Jason stood alone in Minus One's makeshift Command Center reviewing the latest holovid of the Jasonian/PLR war. This one was of the Battle of Underhill. Jason was not smiling. But he had all the right to, for the battle was going well.

With the Jasonian battery tied up shooting its Chaos blasts at the PLR bombers on the canyon rim, the PLR Missile rovers managed to duck under the guns and assault Underhill itself. The garrison was far beyond ready, however, and repelled their attack quite quickly with several well-aimed heavy Chaos gun blasts. The Jasonian batteries finally gave up shooting into the sky and added insult to the PLR's injury by inflicting even more damage, but giving time for the PLR bombers to knock a hole in Underhill's pressure dome and scatter shards of plasma-glass all over the city. Their fun was cut short quick by the surprise appearance of a new Missile Shock Troop squad, right out of Sabishii, who sent most of the enemy bombers flying into the canyon and to their deaths before they could make a mess of the base.

Battered, weakened, and obviously under the command of an officer with more intelligence, what was left of the PLR forces disengaged and fell back to Sheffield. The garrison let out a whoop, but the totally unused rovers wanted to pursue and liberate Sheffield right then. If the Jasonians were in any other position then the one they were in right then, they would have been all for it. But no commanding officer would risk what little might they had at the moment on such a gamble. So Sheffield remained in the PLR's hands.

Jason smiled and turned off the holovid. He knew that General Zak, fresh out of captivity, was coordinating Underhill's defense from Da Vinci, and was responsible for the appearance of the missile troops. That was probably how the Jasonians managed to fend off the PLR and prevent Underhill from falling. 'Tahndelaya did good work this time.'

That gave Jason an idea, 'The PLR has recently developed all the technical data for the 'Advanced Military Algorithms!' Perhaps I should send Tahndelaya to go acquire that data for me...'

It was a tempting idea indeed. Although its anti-aircraft defensive ability would be useless at the moment, the deep-radar and bunker capabilities would help the Jasonians nicely if this war started to drag on for a year or more. He made up his mind and sent the briefing to Tahndelaya.

Jason heaved a sigh. He took a moment to stop working and look around what was going to be the control room known as 'Undersea Command' in a year or so. It was little more then a holovid transmitter, a inter-faction-relation screen, and some quipment for the sensors placed on the nearby island. Crude, rather weak, but effective, and more then enough to run the base.

But what dazzled Jason was the Pressure Dome, sitting right above the Command Center's main control room in the Capital Tower of Minus One. His land cities all had similar domes to increase resource efficiency and to maintain their atmospheres, but here it was a necessity to keep the hundreds of feet of water that was above them out of their way. 'Such a dazzling sight... you can see so clearly from down here, so far down beneath the waves...'

One of the computer's alerts went off, and Jason idly went to take a look.

**Jasonian** · October 16, 1999, 23:30

Part 3: Friend of Planet

Before Jason could check the alert, the main viewscreen in the Minus One Island reported an incoming transmission patched in from an unknown location transferred via HQ. Jason silenced the computer's wailing and prepared to take the call.

The familiar face of Jason's college Rachel (or Lady Makalina, as she insisted her followers call her) filled the screen. 'Well well... it's about time I get to talk to her. She looks more stressed since the last time I talked to her 20 years before…' Jason thought to himself, 'Now that the sunspot activity has ended, maybe I can finally hear what's going on on her side of Planet.'

"So we meet again, Commander Jason. I trust your terraforming efforts are proceeding to your satisfaction. I am, as always, Lady Makalina of the Haimiams," Rachel said kindly. Although she did an excellent job of hiding it, worry was hidden behind Rachel's warm smile. 'You can't fool me Rachel. I always could read you. It's handy being an Empath in these troubled times,' Jason thought.

"Well met Lady Makalina. Now that the solar activity has ended, we shall finally being trade with your beautiful nation of Haimia. It is unfortunate that the sunspots occurred before we could exchange map data," Jason said simply. He hated this protocol, and decided to drop it right here and now, "Friend Rachel, I can't help but notice the stress on your face. What is really going on over there?"

Rachel let loose a sigh, "Things… are not going well at all. Princess Natalie and her religious minions have expanded close to my territory, and although we have a treaty, it's more of a watchful peace. Things could collapse at any moment… she is no Friend of Planet. Not like you, although I do wonder about your methods at times."

Jason smiled at that, "You know my agenda. I want to combine Terran and Planet life in a wonderful hybrid, allowing us to breathe on the surface but still enjoy Planet's native beauty. No doubt you've heard of the completion of my secret project, the Weather Paradigm."

"Yes, and I've heard that it has fallen into the hands of those commies, the PLR. It seems like you have more problems then I at the moment."

Jason let out a scowl, "Bah. It's no big deal. Soon the captured bases will be liberated and the newest PLR technology will be in my hands. Those fools can't hope to truly stand up to my battle-hardened and loyal forces, equipped with unsurpassed technology and -"

Rachel laughed, "Yes yes. I get the idea. You've got it handled..." Rachel paused for a moment, then said, "But, I do offer my aid. It seems our interests are similar, friend Jason. I suggest we sign a Pact for a full diplomatic alliance."

Jason was taken aback. 'Pact? Someone is willing to not only pledge lasting peace with me, but also a full alliance? Perhaps there is hope for us to coexist here after all.' But a Pact was very restrictive. That might mean Jason would have to declare war on Natalie if things got out of hand. Not a pleasant option. But then again...

Jason decided, "Of course! I greet you formally as your Pact Brother! Together we shall both coexist with Planet's native life and make Planet's air breathable by humans. May the pact between the Haimians and the Jasonians last forever!"

Some of the stress seemed to drain from Rachel's face, "Splendid. I shall upload my current map data to your capital at Underhill. I assume you will do the same?"

Jason nodded, "Of course. Perhaps later we shall discuss technology trades."

"Perhaps... but not now. Say, that reminds me. Have you heard from Blane lately?"

Jason's eyes flashed open, "Blane? But... how? He disappeared from Jasonia months ago!"

Rachel opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, the room shook and the screen went out. A priority message appeared on Jason's personal comlink.

{Commander Jason! We have unidentified visitors on the surface, and they don't appear to like being put on hold!}

Announcement

Echus Aftermath

Echus Aftermath

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