Sheepman lay across a fallen comrade for cover and picked off the approaching enemy at a rate of one per second. "I need ammo, NOW!" he shouted to whoever was behind him and near enough to hear. His rifle was getting hot and sweat poured from his forehead. Thwup! Thwup! Chink!.... He was out, he rolled over and saw a lone soldier running for him with an extra pack. The soldier took one in the left shoulder and fell. He threw the pack at Sheepman and brought his launcher to bear on the nearing horde. He emptied his launcher in a spread pattern and the front line near them buckled as arms, legs, heads, and torsos flew high into the air. Sheepman jammed a fresh magazine into his weapon as did the soldier and they fired indiscriminately at their enemies at the bottom of the hill. Above them a welcome sound was heard: "Acquired, Acquired, Acquired, Acquired".... followed by the shrill sound of automatic weapons fire from four recently assembled sentry guns. They stayed low as they could hear the air being cut by the rapid fire rounds singing over their heads.

At the top of the hill Bundy's engineers were already assembling more sentry guns to cover their retreat. Cisco's main force of hardened veterans were sending all that they had in four directions as they were now surrounded. Men fell right and left with increasing regularity. There was no cover on this rise and they were horribly outnumbered. Cyberjim's recruits were filing through the gate and the last was about to go as he noticed that one was missing. He scanned the scene for the one known as Mongoose. Bullets whipped by him as he stood tall on the hill. Down at the slope he noticed lone Sniper with a wounded soldier, both fighting to stem the tide with a fury. He motioned to the engineer group for direct fire on the location of the two separated from the main force. Two engineers had finished new sentry emplacements and instantly put them on manual fire and laid down cover for Cyberjim who was running down the hill yelling: "Moonjuice you idiot, get yer ass up here and take the gate home now!" Sheep looked over and said: "You better do what he says, it looks like he means it." Cyberjim spooled up his assault cannon and let it paint the enemy line. He took a step back as a railgun round hit his hardened chest armor, but he never lost his footing. He held the gun straight and true as Sheepman and Mongoose took the opportunity to join the group on the hill top as the enemy was pinned down. Then in screamed a full power snipe round that hit the old drillmaster in the right temple. He dropped like a rock. The enemy noticed and began their advance again as Mongoose and Sheepman turned and fired their weapons into the nearest ones. Mongoose pulled an anti-personnel grenade from his belt and gave it a light toss. It hit the ground twenty feet from the enemy line and they all hit the dirt as apparently they had seen this "Defender only" device before. Out of both sides of the disc came small solid fuel jets and as they lit off the disc began to spin. This in turn caused an inertial fan to lift the device three feet off the ground and it hovered in mid-air. As it leveled the projectiles emitted in all directions began to create a temporary wall of safety for the two men. Mongoose ran to Cyberjim and with a mighty heave threw him over his right shoulder with the remaining strength in his right arm. He turned and strode up the hill as Sheepman defended his retreat with his rifle set for autofire.

They reached the main group and Mongoose passed through the gate with Cyberjim on his shoulder who was now fully awake as the round had hit him in a steel plate on his forehead and glanced off leaving him unconcious for only a moment. "Put me down you ignora......." he said, as the air where they had been imploded with a pop. They had left the canyons for the destination Cisco had set for the retreat. Cisco now commanded the last of the Defenders in the desperate battle for the retreat from the hill. they were surrounded by several thousand men all firing at the top of the hill. Battle armor had been robbed from the dead to make an impromptu wall and there were now fifteen sentry guns eating up the last of the ammo at a tremendous rate. As they prepared to leave the hilltop a darkness crept over the sky and a cold wind blew. They all sensed it, an unknown feeling of dread. Brave men started to cower to the ground as the feeling of something unknown looking over their shoulders took control of their emotions one by one. The sky went completely black and the wind moved the dark mass from above them and then they saw it. The darkness parted to reveal a large blue electrified ball of light with an aura of evil. Out of the ball came streamers of lightening and a voice that shrieked death into their ears. Cisco looked up at the evil entity and said: "Bundy, get your engineers out of here. Sheep, Take the rest through after Bundy's men have made it." The large Blue ball grew in size until it covered the sky above the onrushing enemy. From the center of the ball a vortex began to form and a dark center began to appear. In this center was a large gleaming eye staring down at them with an immeasureable amount of hatred and malice. Brave men fell to the ground and cowered as the eye beheld them. The enemy began to advance madly towards them. Only the bravest of the brave were able to maintain a defense. Matters grew worse as the ranks of the enemy parted to reveal mobile gun emplacements aimed at the hilltop.

On an escarpment not far from the battle two enemy commanders had been surveying the scene with evil grins. Kuy focused his scope on the far hilltop and said to Rog: "They are done for, summon the eye of the nameless one." Rog walked over to a group of hooded monks near a slipgate and told them: "Now is the time, my brothers." Two of the hooded figures set up a small table with a device on it as the others left for the nearby gate to the plain of despair. The ones with the device opened it's top and the sides fell to reveal a glowing stone with strange symbols on it. In a few moments it grew brighter and a high pitched whine began to grow as the very clouds above began to part as their primary weapon began to appear. Rog returned to Kuy's side to watch the final battle with the Defenders. From their vantage point they could see their forces advancing on the Defender's position and circling the hill. They could see the flashes of the lone slipgate as one by one the Defenders left the battle in retreat. "There are too many of them left for an escape with only one gate." said Rog. Kuy looked at the scene and said: "Bring on the mobile railguns and wipe the remainder of these fools off that hill. Rog leaned over and whispered the command in the ear of an attendant who promptly went off to pass the order along. "Nothing will save them now!" said Kuy as he prepared his gear for a quick march over to the carnage that would be left on the hilltop. Rog was not so sure as he had been in battle with these Defenders before. He knew that they had an uncanny luck when it came to desperate situations. Some of them had left by the only slipgate on the hill. Where had they gone and was this all of the Defenders left? Rog peered through his own scope and it seemed that Kuy may be right. Defenders were fallen all over the hilltop and in the surrounding ravines. Their ammo supply must be nearly exhausted as he had seen no resupply and the main ammo supplies were taken early on in the battle as the Defenders were pushed back to the hill. Still... they were fighting hard and men were still leaving by the gate.

Cisco knew that they were about to die, too many were left that had not passed throught the gate. The men passing through were moving as fast as they could without teleporting into the men who had just arrived on the other side. If only they had one more gate on this hill, he thought to himself. When the enemy parted to reveal the large rail cannons aimed at them, Cisco motioned to the front line to direct fire at the operators to keep them down. They would make them pay for this hill, if it was the last thing that they were able to do.

How could it come to this, even Cisco had not expected the ambush when he entertained his worst fears. How could the enemy have known about the gathering of the Defenders in the canyons? These questions and more were running through his mind as they fought to maintain a foothold on the hilltop so as to save a small part of their original force. After a loss like this it was unlikely that the Defenders would ever be able to muster a large force again. Their line had been dwindling over the years and the bloodline had been lost and diluted with time over generations as men found brides elsewhere in the worlds they lived in. None of the female Defenders had been known to have survived the betrayal of the nameless one so long ago. What was left of the Defenders at that time had been scattered to the four winds. It had taken long for them to regroup and become a formidable force again. Here in one single morning all that had been done in generations of time was to be erased with one single battle. He pushed these thoughts out of his mind as he realised that the self-doubt was coming from the entity above them. That was it, their main weapon was fear and they were using it well to their advantage. Cisco leaned over to his nearest captain and passed the word among the men. Fear is the enemy, not the force on the ground or their weapons. They were using a form of mind control strong enough to cause doubt in the hearts of the Defenders themselves. A large part of winning a battle is understanding your foe and his strengths and weaknesses. "Let the men know the facts and the Defenders can be saved." he told his captain. Word made it's way through the ranks and the spirits of the men were lifted ever so slightly. It wasn't much, and Cisco knew it. What they needed was a miracle. Often when things are at their lowest, help comes from unexpected places.

With a group of blinding flashes of light, ManGoBoom, Skek and Carnod appeared with a small contingent of demomen. All of them had brought portable slipgates to help the remainder of the men make their escape. "Cyberjim told us that you were in trouble!" yelled ManGo to Cisco over the din of the battle. "Carnod, Skek.... have your men lob some ordnance on those mobile rail guns in the front of the enemy line!" Cisco looked over to ManGo and said: "You are a true life saver, ManGo. We were done for until you arrived. Sheep, Get these men out of here now, last man pulls the gate with him!" The railguns had just come on line as the first one blew sending particle beams in several directions all through the enemy line. The enemy fell back as they saw what was happening. The eye above let out a hideous shriek and ManGo noticed it for the first time. "What the hell is that?!!" he asked Cisco. "I have never seen it before but it evokes fear and can kill men with some form of lightning it generates." said Cisco. "Hmmm.... it seems our enemy has some dark force behind it after all. Stormbringer had a feeling about these guys right from the start." ManGo told him. "Skek, Come here!" Cisco yelled. Skek ran over to them and saluted. "What is it?"he said. "I want you and Carnod to detpack the last gate, we'll be out of here in less than a minute." The men were pouring through the gates under ever increasing fire as the enemy began to advance up the hill again.

Rog looked at the flashes and knew that help at last had come to the Defenders. He shouted to an aide: "Main force attack now!" Kuy looked over at him in anger and said: "I'm in command here, Rog!" Rog ignored him and walked over to the hooded men that controlled the eye. He whispered in the ear of the nearest one and then turned to Kuy and said: "You have waited too long and they are getting away from us. We need that last gate to determine their jump location. If we don't act now we may never find them and all they need is a chance to regroup." Kuy knew that if many of the Defenders lived they would come back to haunt them. Especially now as Kuy had revealed their primary weapon. "Tell them to do it now, Rog!" he said as he walked to a nearby gate. Kuy had no wish to take responsibility for a failure and if he was gone he could blame it on Rog. Rog knew this and watched him leave with a feeling of foreboding. "Don't wait for the men to clear the hilltop, deploy it now!" The hooded one that he had spoken to a moment a go said: "It will take a minute to prepare, Master Rog." "It will be over in a minute, you old fool!" Rog said. "Hurry it up!" "What about the men in the front lines?" said the hooded one. "They are expendable, do it now!!!" said Rog. The hooded one nodded and prepared the projection field for full power deployment.

The last of the Defenders were passing throught the gates and Cisco was sending the portable gates back empty. "ManGo, Lets go!" he said. ManGoBoom yelled to Skek: "You and Carnod set a thirty second detpack on the last gate right as you leave. The Sentry guns will keep the enemy off this gate for enough time to blow it. Attach it to the display panel so it is completely destroyed!" "Yes sir!" shouted Skek as Cisco and ManGoBoom passed through the last gate. Under heavy fire they set up the charge and prepared to leave. Skek heard the noise first and turned to pull Carnod to the ground as the only mobile railgun still standing sent a charged beam through Carnod's chest. He was thrown from the hill and down the other side among the enemy. Skek knew his friend was dead, he feverishly worked on the detpack placement as time was of the essence. Then he felt the sting of the next shot in his right shoulder. He looked at it only to see that his arm was missing and blood was pouring from the wound. He felt dizzy and dropped to the ground. With his last ounce of life he set the pack for zero seconds with his left hand and looked up at the group of the enemy force that had made it to the top of the hill first. Above him the eye looked down and began to shriek. He saw it grow in size as the men surrounded him and brought their weapons to bear on his dying body. They all looked up at the eye as it prepared to unleash it's dark force on the group. Skek activated the Detpack and all of them on the hill knew no more.

To Be Continued..........