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His eyes could hardly open, the air was thick with a sweet stench and his limbs were unusually heavy. The man pulled himself to his feet and looked at the man in front of him. Dark haired, dressed like a tramp in ill-fitting clothes he was obviously down on his luck. He tried to talk to the man and slowly realized that he was staring at someone he knew, a name came to his lips, Andy the man's name was Andy. He opened his mouth to speak but Andy's lips moved to mimic his, then he remembered, he was Andy.

Andy threw up into the sink he was facing, images and sounds filling his head. He saw a huge white beach filled with laughing happy people, fire, the same beach filled with the dying and dead, and finally people dragging him and Cooper away from the flames of a hotel. His head was clearing, it would appear that their rescuers had taken what they could get from them and dumped them in one of the districts that the Rogues had been forbidden to enter. From the looks of the room everything from drug abuse to murder had been committed here, stains of every sort could be seen on the bed and floor. Andy threw up again.

Some time later he forced open the wooden door and began to search the building. The next room he entered was not much better then the one he had awaken in, pillows all over the floors, one dirty window and a body in the middle, lying face first on the floor. Andy moved towards the body, maybe it had an answer to where they were or to what had happened. As he neared the body, he realised that he recognised it. The body was a pilot from Nova Squadron a Sabir Ptolomek, Andy shook him awake, Airman Ptolomek seemed worse off then Andy, he was covered in bruises and cuts, some still bleeding and, although he was awake, his motor functions had not returned to him. Andy, as quickly as possible helped the man to his feet and after a few minutes Sabir was able to speak. "What happened to me?" He asked

"I wish I knew, apparently we have been robbed." Andy replied, "C'mon and let's see what we can find here."

Andy and Sabir continued down the poorly lit hallway, each room was a story itself. Some obviously used for illicit drug use, others, much more serious and less fun purposes. After going through three rooms Andy met a locked door. He pulled on the handle and the door didn't not yield. Andy decided to figure out what was so important that the door needed locked and he kicked the door in. On the other side of the door was a spectacle, He saw several nude bodies lying haphazardly around the room. In the middle of the sea of nudeness was Cooper, or at least it looked like Cooper although it was wearing a blonde wig and his casual clothes had been replaced by a dress that was obviously too large as the straps were hanging off his shoulder. Andy forced down a chuckle and wished he had a camera. Sabir walked towards Cooper and woke him up, Cooper's eyes opened and he screamed, Loud enough to wake up the other people in the room out of their drug induced sleep. Cooper jumped up and looked at himself on the mirror lying in shards on the opposing wall. He quickly removed his dress, still screaming between breaths. To Andy's fortune Cooper did have on his cargo shorts from the beach. Cooper watched as all the bodies in the room stood up and looked around, angry at whoever the idiot was that had woke them up from the druggist sleep. Cooper, Andy and Sabir backed out of the room and shut the door before anyone really cared who they were. When they got downstairs Cooper asked, "What the hell happened." Andy replied, I wish I knew. They began a search for their lost items. Downstairs was what appeared to be a cloakroom and they searched the pockets to no avail, although each man did find a Knife.

"We should take these," Cooper said, "This is obviously not a good neighbourhood and we need to get out of here." Sabir found a Jewel encrusted dagger with a blade of five inches length. Andy's blade was actually a set of three. One plain looking leather wrapped handle dagger about 6 inches length with a set of throwing knives, each with the same handle material as the larger knife and blades about 2.5 inches.

Cooper was the last man to arm himself but eventually he too found a simple looking fixed blade dagger and shoved it in the pocket of his pants. Together they looked around some more, hoping to find a firearm of some kind but coming up short. They heard a noise coming from outside and looked out the nearest crud covered windowed and saw a crowded plaza. The three Rogue's left through a side door to go check it out. When they walked down an alley a large, thing jumped out at them brandishing a weapon that resembled a 19th century revolver. Cooper, at the head of the line spoke first, "What do you want?"

The mans reply was one word, "Money."

Cooper answered, "Well today is not your lucky day buddy, we already got robbed last night so we don't have any money."

The man answered, "Money or pain."

Cooper looked back at Andy and Sabir, they all knew what to do without anything being said, Cooper looked at the man and said, "Okay pal, just remember you asked for it." And instantly Cooper, Andy and Sabir jumped the man Cooper knocked his gun out of his hands and he went for a knife Andy pulled his blade and shoved it into the mans belly, He stared for a few seconds and then pulled the blade out of himself and turned to use it on Sabir. Cooper immediately jumped on the mans back and used his knife to put the man down with a quick stab in the back of the neck. The man went down to one knee and then stood again, but this time he decided it wasn't worth it and he turned and walked away at a brisk pace. Cooper turned and saw Andy holding the gun, his finger poised on the trigger. "Now we have a gun, let's get out of here." and all three men turned to walk back towards the crowded plaza.

"This doesn't look good!" Cooper muttered.

He was right, though like most of the grand plazas they had seen on their journey to the beach this particular one had seen better days. Grey brown balconies looked onto an oozing pile of humans moving to and fro, buying and selling what ever was theirs to sell. Spices, drugs, weapons, people and things that the pilots couldn't classify were being exchanged, this was clearly a rough neighbourhood and a place they should never have seen. All kinds of people were here, from entertainers obviously down on their luck to government types looking for ways to flee the city. At one end a mob had gathered, mainly Bringa with some Posrani at the periphery. At the centre of the people was an odd looking person it was clearly one of the Bringa, but his long yellow hair fell across a black uniform. Andy stopped to listen.

"Our rights have been stolen, our lives laid out from birth, and now when we could nearly choose our own destinies the Military have taken away the last lie! The one we have lived under for years, the lie that we had a say in our own government!
I am here to tell you that we have a choice, we do not need to take this lying down, in other cities we have risen and taken charge. I offer you the chance to follow us into revolution. A chance to make them see what they are doing is wrong."

Before the man could continue, a loud hailer sounded.

A man was yelling through it, Andy could not see him.

"BY ORDER OF THE GINGEND PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT YOU ARE ORDERED TO RETURN TO YOUR HOMES. THE CITY IS NOW UNDER MARTIAL LAW!!!! ALL GATHERINGS ABOVE 5 PEOPLE ARE NOW ILLEGAL. ANY INFRINGEMENT OF THE LAW IS PUNISHABLE BY ARREST AND INCARCERATION WITHOUT TRIAL!!!!"

People began to move away and disperse, at the other end of the plaza Andy could see soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets. The troops slowly moved forward, trying not to point their weapons at the civilians, the yellow haired man was simply glaring at them. The three Rogues moved slowly towards one of the allies. More and more people were being herded towards the yellow man's mob, more and more of them were looking scared, and then it happened............

Suddenly the Yellow man was holding two smoking pistols and the two Ginjend officers were dead. Other members of the mob started screaming and throwing things at the soldiers, and finally one of the soldiers fired. Within seconds bullets were flying into crowd, people were running in every direction. Men, women and children were falling to bullets and bayonets as the soldiers tried to defend themselves from an enemy that probably wasn't there.

Andy, Cooper and Sabir ran towards the nearest ally, two soldiers were there, two terrified teenagers armed with bayonet tipped rifles. Andy knocked one out as he lunged towards a red haired woman running from the carnage. He moved towards the other and stopped, the man had dropped his gun and was looking down in horror at what was on the end. Andy didn't look, he could guess what horror had just occurred here, that poor boy had either killed someone he knew or someone too young to be there.

They stopped running after a few minutes. Andy looked round, Cooper was fine, Sabir had a slight cut to his temple and the redhead had stayed with them.

"Hello miss! Allow me to introduce ourselves. My name is Andy, His is Cooper, and the guy bleeding on the pavement is Sabir."

"You're offworlders?"

"Yes!"

"He says it's your fault that things are like this. They were there to kill him, they killed all those people to get to him!" She said an expression of horror and disgust going across her face.

"Who?"

"Me!" The yellow haired man said, stepping from the darkness with 5 armed men. "And you three gentlemen are my ticket to victory. Now kindly hand over any weapons you may be carrying!"

They did as they were told and were bundled into a large box filled with pipes and valves, this planets newest form of transport.

They were thrown onto dark leather seats with ornate gold edging that should have been in a prime minister's office.

The yellow haired man looked at Andy with something resembling disgust and spoke.

"Your pass for Sanctuary district, hand it over and you may yet live!"

"We don't have passes, we either use radio from transport or we walk in, and they won't let you come with us my friend!" Andy replied.

The man's eye's flashed red and he struck out randomly. "OFF WORLDER SCUM, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, BEFORE YOU THIS PLACE WAS DECENT, GOOD,,,, PURE. BUT NOW...." He calmed. "All this will change. We go with plan B. You will walk with us to the airship dock and will enter it or you will die. You will then get me clearance to fly over your cursed Stargate, and then this shall all end." With this the man produced a new republic datapad, with a thumb scanner. "This will produce a signal your friends will know. Your hand please!"

They had no escape, the Yellow man had 10 men now and even if Andy had been able to get assistance from the crew of the ship they would still be outnumbered.

The airship rose above the spiderlike dock like a star caught in string. It seemed impossible that such a huge and obviously powerful craft could be held by such thin fibres of rope. Some thugs were loading a silver device aboard.

As they walked onto the bridge the Yellow Man's thugs disarmed the crew. The Yellow man approached the tallest of them, the Captain.

"Your ship is under my control, you will take us to their Stargate, or I will kill your crew."

The woman nodded, her eyes drilling into Andy's as if it were his fault that they were all at the mercy of this madman. Before he could protest his innocence or just get shot someone hit him from behind.

* * * * *

They were all in a cell somewhere aboard the airship, using Andy's pass he thought he would be able to get into the airspace above the Stargate and destroy the offworlders who had destroyed his world's morals.

The door to their little cabin opened, the redhead was shoved in.

"Here something for you to enjoy before the end." A thug laughed.

"So we can add girls to the things our friend doesn't like?"

The girl looked up at Andy and took his outstretched hand.

"I still hate offworlders." She muttered "But you may have a point, his bomb will spread gas over half the city."

"You were closest Cooper, what kind of stuff we dealing with?"

"Looked like cyanide or something similar. Fast working whatever it was, they had it sealed up pretty tight."

"They still use hydrogen!" Sabir spoke quietly.

"Ok we know how to destroy the bomb then. So how do we get out." Andy.

"How can you destroy the bomb? You three have been in here four hours and haven't made it out and there is only one guard." The girl spoke venomously.

"You really don't like us do you. GUARD!! GUARD!!!, I think we broke her!!!" With this a worried looking man rushed in, rifle slung over his shoulder. Andy pushed him forward, tripping him with his foot and caught him by the neck. Andy twisted and the man fell dead. "I was waiting for them to leave him out there alone. Strip him of weapons, we're heading for the bridge, if you find parachutes or some way to the ground, grab it. Secondary goal is to survive the explosion."

Most of the men had been evacuated while they were unconscious, so it wasn't to hard for them to get to the armoury.

"Not much of an armoury is it?" Cooper sighed while slinging on what looked like a parachute.

"It will do." Andy said taking a rifle from a rack.

They silently headed for the bridge. They came to the door to hear shouting.

"THEY'LL ALL DIE COUGHING AND CRYING OUT FOR HELP, BUT NONE WILL COME. THAT PUTRID GOVERNMENT, THOSE SCUM RIDDEN VERMIN THEY WILL ALL DIE."

"You're insane!" A woman's voice was heard, "You'll kill us all"

Three shots rang out before Andy, Cooper, Sabir and the girl could get onto the deck.

The sight that greeted them was almost artistic in its symmetry. Two men lay dead at either side of the cabin and in the centre of the floor lay the captain a red stain spreading over her stomach.

Andy knelt next to the Captain, who was trying to speak.

"He's mad....the gas it will kill......everyone. You have to stop him..." She clung to his arm "Can't use guns, to flammable. Take my....." And with that she stopped moving her hand on her sword. Andy carefully removed the belt and put it on.

"Cooper take those two with you and jump off the back of this craft."

"Sir?" Cooper gaped.

"I have a plan, I'll be out after I talk to our friend up there." Andy pointed to the ladder leading to the gas bag chamber.

Cooper saluted and started to run, the others on his heels.

Andy couldn't remember how he'd got here. Andy had drawn the sword from the captain, the Yellow man his own. They now stood in centre of the gas bag chamber, the giant sacks surrounding them. Both men were bleeding.

"I've started the countdown offworlder, there is nothing you can do"

"Oh you'd be surprised." Andy moved forward his blade raised.

The two men were locked in a dance of steel, blades colliding, tearing flesh and canvas alike. Every thrust and parry drove Andy back, he had started with surprise on his side but his opponent had been practising for years. Andy couldn't win and both men knew it. They moved ever closer to nose of the Zeppelin, Andy saw the clear window at the end. Andy ducked as the Yellow man slashed at his head, Andy slid down to the ground and kicked up and knocked the man back.

"You're dead!" The yellow man got slowly to his feet. Andy slashed another hole in the skin of the craft and pulled out the Captain's pistol.

"See you in hell!!" Andy said as he pulled the trigger and jumped out of the Airship.

The bullet flew throughout the air and hit the metal container of the bomb igniting the hydrogen that was now in the air. Within a second the whole craft was a fireball.

Andy plummeted towards the ground and tried to remember what the Captain had said about the thing on his back. He stood to attention and pulled the cord, two poles extended from the bottom of the backpack to below his heels. Then these poles snapped up to his shoulders creating a wing that was meant to help him to the ground. It was working, he was slowing, the ground would hurt but not as much as hitting it at full speed. He glided towards the ground like some kind demented duck, landing a few paces from Cooper and the others.

"So boss, your conversation went well then?" Cooper grinned.

"Yeah, I've always had a bit of a fiery temper you know Coop. If everyone is ok, we leave for the gate." Andy said.

The others started towards the gate, Andy turned to the girl.

"I got some advice for you, get out of the city. Stay away from them till the trouble is over. On the bright side, I'd say we're the last offworlders your going to see in your lifetime. Though you'll probably look back kindly on us."

"Really!" She said, scorn returning to her voice once more.

"Your world hasn't known mechanised war miss, your leaders and generals don't know what they are capable. Already one man has nearly wiped out half a city. If war starts, then you'll see horrors beyond your nightmares. Those people in the gallery weren't evil stormtroopers, they were just kids with guns and you've got a planet full of those. And sadly your people are cleaver and adaptable, so they'll make wonderful weapons that people will still use good old cavalry against. Carnage and chaos is coming my dear, and everyone will just be following orders." Andy spoke quietly.

Andy picked up the Captain's sword and headed for the gate!