Part 2:

Crayson Center Chemical Processing

Cale Trucker and Seth Cohen walked together from the conference room, the briefing prominent in their thoughts. The news......the video.......General Valen......... the implications were staggering, and although they were just privates, they knew that the consequences of their actions in the next few days, whatever they were, would be dire and could affect the future of the whole human race.

As the others fanned out to kill the four hours before the shuttle boarding, Cale and Seth decided to head to the Biological Science department, chasing a rumor that piqued their interest.

"Hey, man," Cale said, elbowing Seth in the side to get his attention. "I heard that they've been breeding those pink demons here in this base. They're in the Bio wing."

"Really?" Seth asked, turning to face him as they walked. "I heard the same thing. Some kind of tests going on."

"Ha ha!" Cale said. "Just like they'd do to us if they ever caught us."

"That's right," Seth concurred, but his tone was solemn. "It's kill or be killed out there."

"We're going into it," Cale said, his voice taking on a dreamy air. "It'll be my first time on the battlefield - a real one. I can't wait."

"You can wait," Seth stopped and stood in his way. "I've been out there. All those stories you hear about the glory of battle - it's nothing. They're not true."

"What are you talking about?" Cale asked. "The experience of being out there taking down the enemy and defending your side is a thrill of the highest class."

"No!" Seth fairly shouted. "You're wrong! Take yourself out of these fantasies! I've been in a battle. The reality is blood, everywhere, and people screaming and in your hands is a ruthless and brutal killing machine, and you're being ordered to use it. A battle is nothing but the deliberate slaughter of two groups of people, often they don't know why!"

"You're babbling," Cale said, pushed him out of the way and walked again. "I don't care what you think it's about."

"War sucks, Cale," Seth insisted. "There's nothing great about being in a war. Especially a war like this."

"We're not waging war," Cale said quietly as Seth fell into step beside him. "We're waging peace, between us and those aliens. We're the peacemakers."

"I believe Strather," Seth declared. "I don't believe for one minute that these aliens are behind what they're claiming. They don't want peace. I think they're going to draw us in hook line and sinker, and we're going, and then they're going to obliterate Skywheel Station and turn on us again! They're out for revenge after what we did to them six years ago!"

"And we're being called in to make sure that doesn't happen!" Cale argued. "We're being the peacemakers - we keep the peace. We're here."

They stepped through the shockproof steelglass door into the small room where they were scanned by a biocomputer for any diseases or harmful substances on them. When they were both cleared, they stepped through the door with the biohazard symbol and into a mad scientist's dream.

Biologics/Chemical Processing was large room filled with computers and all kinds of geeky technical equipment amassing from years of setting up. White lights overhead shone a shiny tint over the room, highlighting the young and old men monitoring the various machines dressing in their classic white labcoats and chewing on pencil erasers over their labcoats. Windows on every wall gave a view to testing rooms, rooms with tables on which sat various chemical processing equipment, more workers, and a black door marked with the Biohazard symbol.

It was to this that they headed, meeting no resistance upon showing their military ID cards. Through the Biohazard door was a thin corridor with doors leading to rooms housing experiments, testings, and other dangerous work. Near the end of the corridor was a door marked "Doom." It had a separate lock; but Seth and Cale were allowed in.

"Hi," said the single worker inside. He was in his thirties and sported the same white lab coat as the others - only his was splattered with dirt, grime and blood. "I'm Michael Dust, head of the Doom Division, set up here after they stormed earth." He shook hands with both of them. "Since Fly drove them off," he said, "this division lost most of its employees and we were going to be shut down until this new threat appeared."

"I hear you've been breeding demons," Seth said.

"That?" Dust said, mouth forming an O. "Oh, that's just a silly rumor. Don't believe it."

"I do," Cale stated.

"Well....." Dust yammered, voice trailing off uncertainly. "Anyways, are you the boys in the company heading out to escort?"

"Yeah," Cale said eagerly. "We're the peacemakers."

"But," Seth said, "If something goes wrong and a battle starts, we get to serve under General Valen."

"LeVierce first," Cale said. "Remember."

"Oh," Seth remembered, and sobered.

A low growling sounded from behind an unmarked door across the room.

"That's my new equipment - always acting up," Dust explained.

"What is it?" Cale asked.

"A new machine for analyzing the bodies of the monsters," Dust said. "It can tell us the exact makeup of their molecular structure. We don't even know whether they're carbon or silicon based, you know."

"We don't?" asked Seth.

"No. These monsters have remained a mystery to us for six years. Their bodies decompose at a highly fast rate, giving us little time to do our examinations."

"Then.....why do you need this stuff if the bodies are all dust then?" Cale demanded.

The scientist looked quite uncomfortable at this point. "Well.......we do still have remains left, and the zombie bodies, which preserve themselves quite nicely, provide us clues."

"But you don't need machines like you just described to examine particle remains, or zombie bodies," Seth pointed out. "What do you need the machine for?"

Again, the growl, a little louder this time. Then, a scratching noise.

"It's a test run," Dust told them. "If war breaks out, I'm sure we can handle them again, and we'll get even more specimens - perhaps even find a way to carbon freeze them before they begin to break down."

"You can't do that if they're silicon based," Seth said.

"An educated boy, I see," Dust said. "That's what I'm here to find out."

A very loud and very un-machinelike roar sounded from beyond the door.

"We heard you've been breeding demons," Cale said pointedly, staring Dust in the eye.

The scientist shrugged. "Well........yes.......sort of......I suppose......but.....they're under complete captivity and are monitored twenty four hours a day. They're kept in cages with bars that are 8 inches thick and fed a drug that sustains them. Absence of the drug will kill them within 14 hours."

"You're breeding them!" Seth declared triumphantly.

"Fourteen hours," Cale breathed softly.

"That's what we're here to see," Seth said.

"You can't see them," stated the doctor.

"How many to you have?" Cale inquired.

"Just one," said the doctor. "It's asexual reproduction. The birth process is quite messy and interesting to watch."

Cale made a sickened face. "I don't want to see it give birth. I want to see it."

"I....suppose you can have a quick look."

Their faces lit up. The doctor led them through the unmarked door into an observation room. They looked through three inches of shatterproof fiberglass and through 8 inch cast iron bars at the demon, raging around in the cage, in a fit of unrest. There was blood and pieces of skin hanging from the dank-looking block walls of the cage.

It was bigger than they'd expected, even after watching simulation based on Flynn Taggart's reports. It stood a massive six feet tall and had to be at least that big around, a huge compilation of muscle that sprouted legs and arms. A gaping black mouth showed two large fang-like teeth, and the eyes glared unintelligably at them. The beast rocketed around the cage, letting out earth-shaking bawls and roars.

"Why is it doing that?" Cale asked.

"Claustrophobia," Seth suggested as the doctor explained.

"I've been feeding it a hallucinogen with the drug," Dust said. "It zeroes in on its instinct portion of the brain - the one where knowledge is ingrained from previous generations. It thinks it's seeing marines like you two and the response is the same as it was three generations ago - it attacks. This means that the aliens we're dealing with now probably feel no more peace for us than this one."

"Wow," Seth gasped in awe. "What kills it?"

"Well, with the weapons of six years ago," Dust said, "three point-blank shots with a twelve gauge would do it, although it's so fast I doubt you would have the time. A sawed off double barrel can sometimes do the trick. With a pistol you wouldn't have a chance. It'll also take a good thousand volts or its plasmic equivalant before going."

"How smart are they?" asked Cale.

"Not very," Dust explained. "It seems that one half of their fight-or-flight instinct has disappeared - they blindly fight. There is no real decision making intelligence."

"That's reassuring," said Seth. The idea of a sentient beast with that kind of power sent a chill down his spine.

"Wow," Cale mimicked Seth.

"But now I've told you about the demon," Dust said. "You tell me about your peace-keeping mission."

"Yeah," Cale said, "We're going to board the shuttle and go to Skywheel. It's our mission to make sure the aliens don't eat any of our guys while they get away, then we have to get away. After that it's up to them to get their alien boys back. But we're ready for action."

"You're never ready for this kind of war," Seth said. "More like we're ready for suicide."

"Shut up," Cale said absently.

"Listen, you two can't tell anyone about what you saw here," Dust said. "Okay?"

"Okay," they echoed.

"Now, out you two," he shooed them for the door. "You can't spend too much time in here kids."

Seth couldn't resist feeling slight anger at Dust, and all the older men around him for treating them like "kids," even though he and Cale were only 19. He looked forward to the day he could kick around some rookies himself.

But the shuttle for Skywheel awaited - and he might not live more than the next couple of days.