It is dark and quiet, no sounds can be heard, all is peaceful. Suddenly he wakes up from a dream unremembered, feeling startled he checks the time, "Too early" he says to himself and pulling off the bed sheets he notices the clock. Nearly five more hours until the sun rises. He stands and walks over to the sink to wash some cold water on his face.

As he looks in the mirror he notices the lack of lines on his face concealing his age, his hands tell a different story, careworn and callused with large knuckles and wrinkled palms they bespeak an eternity of hard work and strife. His life is relatively uninteresting, friends and love have come and gone, many of his old friends are no longer living. He reflects on the past and decides to stop knowing what a bad idea it is. Now wide awake he learns why he is standing here as the pain crackles into his head again. This is the same sensation that must have woken him up. He cups his hands to his ears and bows his head with a wince, it is a message, a distant pitiful cry for help.

Has it been so long since he had last been called? Perhaps, but all time is relative to your point in space. At one time all matter, time and space was one singularity. Time has marched on spreading matter and space everywhere to the infinite reaches of universe within universe. He reached for a hidden panel on the wall and pressed it to reveal a narrow opening into a room that was hidden from view. As he stepped inside a cold light came on, he walked over to the slipgate and pushed the lever over with his right foot. With a low-pitched hum the slipgate engine started to warm up the device.

The ancients, for travel from one place to another, designed the Slipgates. Most of them are gone now but in the vicinity of an active defender a few remain. The device looks much like an anvil with a hammer poised above it ready to strike. They are capable of travel in this world and interdimensionally to all points where there are other slipgates in use. Made with a dark hard material that has the appearance of rusted iron this one stands ten feet tall and dominates the small hidden room. Over on the wall is a cabinet with a control pad next to it. On the control pad are buttons and levers labeled in a forgotten script. He opened the cabinet and pulled out an old heavy dark green jump suit with many flapped pockets. He put his legs into the suit and pulled it up to his shoulders. He zipped the center zipper and put on his harness and pack. Then he reached for the weapons of his calling, first he grabbed a two handed mattock that had seen battle before, as was indicated by the notches in the blades of the two headed battle axe that come from steel neck collar damage. Next he picked up two shotguns each of a different design for distance shots and close combat. He fitted the guns into matching worn leather holsters on the side of his pack. Last he took his favorite weapon from its case against the wall. It was matte black, a very clean rocket propelled grenade launcher. As he groped around in the half-light of the room he found that he had only one clip of four grenades for the launcher. It would have to do; maybe he would find some unused ammo on the other side.

With a short high pitched tone the slipgate indicated its readiness. He manipulated the control panel and double checked his gear, he was ready. He pulled the final lever and stepped onto the anvil anticipating the bone jarring crunch of interdimensional travel. The countdown had begun, he looked up at the hammer and closed his eyes, preparing for the blinding flash of light associated with being in two places at the same moment in time.

With a lurch he stumbled forward a pace or two as he arrived at the destination that had called him. It was a good thing that the slipgates threw you off as you arrived, he had heard of men being teleported into one another and of the resulting implosion. "No way for a defender to die" he thought grimly to himself. He took a look around at his surroundings and noticed a smell. No noise, how strange. He walked into the corridor adjacent to this alternate slipgate room and saw them. Five members of Clan Destiny lay dead at his feet. As they were lying there he knew that they hadn't been there for long. When dead you will teleport back to your point of origin in five minutes right where you lay. Knowing time was of the essence he reached down for the nearest ammo pack, and just in the nick of time. As he pulled it from the body, the clansman grew dim and disappeared with the small pop of the air rushing in to fill the space where before had been a body. As he watched he saw them one by one disappear. He could only hope this man had not had a chance to exhaust his ammo supply before he died. His heart leapt as he opened the pack to find fifty unused rocket propelled grenades. What luck, now to explore the fortress and try to make some sense of what had happened here.

He searched from room to room, apparently he had arrived in the lower levels of the fortress and was working his way upstairs. He came across more bodies and debris of battle and finally found what he was looking for. One of the clansmen had been carved in the way of The Order. He knew these sons of evil and didn't relish the thought of having to deal with them alone. He found the altar and the place where the clan's talisman had stood for untold centuries, it was gone!

This did not relieve him of his duty, for thousands of years the defenders have protected the helpless from evil. The pact was simple and brooked no variation from the law. If defense is impossible, vengeance is the responsibility of the defender who is summoned. He clenched his teeth as a cold grim look began to appear on his face. He ran to the armory, here the last battle had been fought. The door was jammed, with a mighty heave he forced the massive timber structure in as the hinges creaked. "Ahh" He said, as he found what he needed. An entire and undamaged full body jerkin of electromagnetic armor. He put it on and stepped out of the room. "Now it is time." He growled as he marched to the upper parapets for a good outside view.

As he neared the top of the stairs and approached the final ramp to the highest battlements he could hear sounds. He walked up to the wall with caution and pulled his scope from his pack. He pointed the scope in the direction of the noise and to his dismay he saw a lone survivor wearing clan colors surrounded by ten or so members of The Order. As he watched they emptied the contents of their railguns into the poor lone clansman and one of them carved their hideous symbol into his forehead. They laughed as they walked into the distant fortress and disappeared from sight.

He was filled with rage as he prepared for his task, "So there are at least ten of them" He said as he grimaced. "Well they aren't counting on my visit". At least surprise would be in his favor. He scanned the opposing battlements for snipers and seeing none he rappelled down the battlements of stone. "There is no telling what damage they could do with the talisman in their possession" He thought to himself. Taking advantage of the natural cover he made his way to the fortress of steel and hid by the side door. Near him was the dead clansman, he reached the man's pack and found two timer controlled nail grenades. "These will come in handy" he said as he entered the building.

No one was inside the door as they appeared to be in the distance by the sounds of laughter he could hear. He stopped at the turn to the ramp, which led to the dungeon and under a staircase he noticed a figure dressed much like himself with a single finger to his mouth indicating his wish to go quietly unnoticed. The figure then pointed to a dark corner across the room, in that corner was another dressed in the same garb. He focused his ID device on each of them in turn and found them to be defenders that he had known long ago. It had been so long since he had seen them, and it was rumored that they had died together in another dimension, he could hardly believe his eyes.

Not much could stand between a well prepared defender and his goal, with three of them the foundation of the universe would quake. They entered the ramp in formation, a group of defenders like this had not been seen together for eons. As they reached the bottom of the ramp they took flanking positions against the wall.

In the end of the hallway was a light coming from a dimly lit room. In it could be seen several of the enemy crouching over their booty. They approached the room with absolute stealth and quietly took their positions on either side of the door. Our defender took the two nail grenades from his pack and armed them. He counted down, five, four, three and throw. He stepped in front of the door just so as to be out of the way of the debris path of the exploding grenades. As the group inside the room noticed what was happening they attempted to flee and as they came out the three defenders set upon them with fury of an avalanche of chainsaws.

In less than one minute it was over, in the midst of the carnage stood the three heroes among the bodies of fourteen members of The Order. As they left they put the place to the torch and damaged the enemy slipgate beyond repair. They made their way back to the fortress and down to the slipgate room. After a short conversation they prepared the slipgate for travel and bid each other farewell. As they approached the anvil Saxon the defender said to his companions Cisco and Sheepman "until the next time".