What the research team feared most had just started to happen.

To the best of their knowledge, the GTI had dubbed them expendable and sent a marine unit to clean up the mess. In a flash, Laz sounded the internal alarms, awakening everyone, and sealed the whole facility shut. Every single defense system was set online, but they would be barely enough to buy them some time. It was a secret installation, but not a heavily defended one. Lazarus knew the marines could avoid, disable, or simply blast through almost anything they had there. But nonetheless, those few minutes were precious.

Soon Professor Grant and the other team members arrived at the main laboratory.

"They obviously already know we're done..." whispered Nate, as he was informed about the situation outside the complex. The marines had already reached the external defense perimeter, and didn't find much trouble against the light pulse laser weapons located there. One of the cameras followed the dark figures among a storm of fire and light beams, just to prove that it had gone through undamaged. Most of the team was terrified. There wasn't much left to do.

"Wait a sec, we may still have a chance..." said the Professor, as he brought up on the screens the position of the GTI ships in-system. Most of them were already gone. The marines were approaching the installation from a side almost opposite to that were the main lab was, and all sensors showed no trace of another team anywhere near the shuttle bay. There was something very strange about all that.

"We're leaving, and taking the prototype with us."

It wasn't as simple as that, though.

As quickly as possible, he got everyone moving. Most of the people went directly to the shuttle, not caring about anything they were leaving behind. Some of them transferred the research results to portable data storage devices. Lazarus went off running as fast as he could towards the main storage depot, while Nate proceeded towards the data processing center. A loud bang was heard, apparently coming far from the east side of the facility. The marines had broken inside.

It was suddenly all too silent. Everyone was on board the shuttle, except for the two project leaders, each on opposite sides of the complex. They both knew the risks, but they couldn't leave anything for the GTI to work on. All relevant data on that complex should be destroyed.

Laz reached the depot quickly, picked up a small metallic briefcase and rushed out. He had to reach containment and get back to the main lab before the marines. Another bang was heard, now clearly coming from the southeast, and way louder than the previous one. Their defences were crumbling, fast. It would be only a matter of minutes before the sanitation team reached the main lab. Through the rusty and dark corridors, he ran faster than he ever thought he could. The containment area was just straight ahead.

The air was getting thicker. At least that's what it felt like, his lungs on fire from the effort. If the situation allowed, he would be thinking about the respiratory process, how the oxygen was separated from the air, carried through his blood and consumed by each and every cell on his body. But the circumstances weren't quite forgiving towards parallel lines of reasoning this time. In fact, he had only two thoughts on his mind - destroy the data banks and get out alive.

Nate still had some distance to run before he could reach the main terminal room. The red lights on the corridor were almost hypnotizing him, the same pattern seemingly repeating itself indefinately. Here and there, a broken pipe spewed out steam or different kinds of fluid, the cause being obviously the increase in pressure from the strain on the defensive systems and on the facility itself. As he passed through an area with a very dense greenish fog, Nathan heard a very loud explosion, coming directly from the east. This time, it was frightening close. The ground shook, and one more pipe was broken.

Still running south through the main transversal corridor, he suddenly realized the imminent situation - the main terminal room was still almost a kilometer away, directly to the southeast. He still had to go south a good deal, and then get a lateral corridor to the left - which would lead him directly towards the marines. He had no choice, though, and tried to run even faster. The air was getting thicker.

After a couple of minutes he reached the entrance of the corridor that led to the main terminal room. It described a slight curve to the left, so Nate wasn't able to get a straight line of sight to the door. He walked a few meters towards it, always leaning against the wall. He was afraid that the GTI operatives could have already reached the room - unfortunately, he was right.

A tall figure stood by the door, wearing a dark blue suit almost completely covered by black armour plates. His head was covered by a dark helmet, obviously fitted with communications equipment, and some kind of display covered one of his eyes. Wielding a large gatling-like weapon, he started to turn towards the direction Nate was located. Noticing it, the Professor quickly passed through an opened door on the other side of the corridor.

He had to think of a way to get that guy out of there - and to find out if there were any more marines on that room. Activating a computer terminal on the room he had just entered, Grant was able to get a stream from the camera on the main terminal room - the marine on the door was the only one guarding it. The rest of the team had probably gone towards the main lab or accelerator room. He still had a chance.

Lazarus was able to get to containment without any further problems. He grabbed one of the failed prototypes - out of the most crude ones, in fact - and placed it inside the briefcase. Again on main corridor, he was now running back towards the main lab, which was less than a hundred meters away. That corridor followed a straight line, and he could see on the distance a faint flash of light pulsing, reflecting on the wall to his right. It was probably from one of the main entrances to the complex.

"That bunch of gorillas must be cutting through the main door" , he thought. Arriving on the main lab, he quickly switched the prototypes, and went through the bulkhead on the other side of the room that led to the outer section of the installation, where the shuttle bay was located. He heard another very loud explosion, even closer than any of the previous ones. A bright light flooded the laboratory.

He locked every door on his way, hoping that it would hold the marines back for at least some time - and that Nathan would be able to easily unlock them if he needed. By that time, though, Professor Nathan Grant had only one thought on his mind, and it wasn't about getting out of that place alive.

He tried to breath as slowly and silently as possible. There was no way of telling how good the sensors carried by that grunt by the door were, so Nate was being as careful as he could. He knew that it was only one guy, but he was stronger, faster and was armed. He had to find a way to get him out of the way. Staring at the small video screen - with brightness settings almost on minimum - he realized what could be his only option. The marine was constantly moving in and out of the room.

The Professor had never really been a computer expert, but had learned enough from Laz and others to be able to control the whole complex. He knew how fast and heavy those security doors were - the kind installed on the entrance to the main terminal room. Accessing the core operational controls, he reached for the one command that controlled the door, and waited for the marine to be just in the right place. As the dark figure moved just below the doorpost, he activated it.

It was fast. The high-pitched hissing sound created by the hidraulics system came too late to warn the marine, and in a matter of milliseconds the one and a half ton blast door descended upon him, at an incredible speed. He didn't even have time to look up to see the cause of his death. In a single instant, the metallic monolith reached it's closed and locked position, leaving one piece of what was a human being on each side of it. Blood spilled everywhere. It wasn't pretty, but it had done the job.

Nate checked the scene through his video terminal, and reopened the door. It would be a matter of instants before the rest of the team found out what happened and sent more people in, so he had to be fast. Running to the main terminal room, he kicked the half corpse out of the way, and closed the door shut once again. It would buy him some precious time when the backup arrived.

He rushed to one of the terminals, and initiated the sequence that would completely erase the main and auxiliary data banks. It was one heck of a lot of data, and the process would take time. Nathan watched the progress indicators impatiently as the seconds passed, each feeling like a whole lifetime. He wondered just how long the rest of the team would take to notice the absence of one of their members. His question was answered by another explosion.

The whole room shook with the blast, but the door held. He now could see a bright red glow drawing a line through the surface of the blast door - the marines were cutting through. Typing furiously, he initiated a command he never thought he would need. Progress on the destruction of the data banks had barely reached fifty percent, he needed a better, more physical solution. As the marines broke inside, he just looked at them, smiled, and pressed a button on his console. He thought about his wife and kid.

Lazarus arrived at the shuttle and waited by the door. He knew that erasing the computers couldn't really take too long. Everything was ready for their departure - all of them were on board, the prototype had been replaced and they were taking the real one with them. All they were waiting for now were the arrival of the Professor.

Hearing the distinct hiss caused by the opening of the bulkhead, a slight smile formed on Laz's face.

"The Professor made it" was his first thought. It was quickly wiped from his mind, as the viewscreen connected to the cameras on the corridor showed a small squad of marines moving through. It was too late for Nathan Grant.

"Get this damn crate moving!" shouted John, as the steps of the heavy armored GTI operatives could already be heard on the adjacent corridor. The shuttle began to lift just as the first marine entered the room. He raised his gatling weapon, aimed at the shuttle's engines, but didn't have time to press the trigger. A furious shockwave engulfed him, throwing his body against the wall to his left, the fire melting through his armour and reaching his battle-scarred skin. After the initial shockwave dissipated, there was only a pile of burnt bones and melted armour on the place were the marine was knocked down.

Engulfed in fire, the atmospheric capable shuttlecraft sped towards the already opened exit doors, racing the shockwave. Shaking violently and constantly colliding against the walls, they were able to make it - and the ship was free on the atmosphere of the desolate planet. Looking back at the laboratory, all that it's occupants could see was a growing ball of fire. Nathan had obviously activated the self-destruct sequence, releasing the antimatter contained inside the main reactors. He had died to save them, he had died to prevent the consequences of such knowledge falling on the wrong hands.

The small craft was able to reach orbit safely. The Intelligence had obviously neglected some aspects of the assault - later the research team would come to know the reason. The whole scheme had been crumbling, as several underground projects were discovered by the branch of the GTI still loyal to the Galactic Terran Alliance. They didn't have time to carefully plan the attack - all the rogue Intelligence group wanted was to get their results and destroy all evidence.

As the shuttle travelled through the stars, the remaining members of Project Visionnaire sat around the small briefcase, staring at the fragile organic form floating inside a transparent cylinder. For the first time since the project had began they realized what the prototype truly was. At that moment, it was not a weapon, it was not a component, it was not an experiment. It was a human being.

"We could call him Fred" whispered Jude, as the ship slowly drifted towards the nearest jump node...