John walked through the ornate archway that led into the huge hangar to see that they had stumbled into the aftermath of a pitched battle. Parked in the middle of the hangar was a bulky Terran transport and a heavily armed gunship hovered nearby, facing the other side of the Hangar. Armoured Terran troopers had fanned out in a line and were gunning down the remnants of a Kirrix force that had tried to storm their Landing site. The hexagonal tiled wall opposite was a mosaic of green blood and ichor, the corpses of bullet ridden Kirrix soldiers slumped where they had fallen prey to the accurate fire from the marines. It had not all gone the humans way however and over a dozen Terran troopers either lay dead, or writhing in agony from Neutron weapon hits.

An armoured soldier was standing next to the transport, issuing curt commands to a couple of attentive officers. One of the officers saw John and Alyssa and pointed them out to the figure, who whirled around to face them. The stern faced man strode up to them purposefully, the eagle insignia on his shoulder pad informing John that this was the leader of the Marine troopers.

“Commander Paul Richards TFMC" the grizzled veteran informed John as he reached the doorway and saluted respectfully.

“Commander John Blake, TFMC - retired" John said in reply, smiling as he returned the salute.

“Not much of a retirement John" the marine commander said, smiling grimly.

“I don't know, it has its perks" John replied grinning, as he glanced at Alyssa.

"You've done a hell of a thing stopping these Kirrix. We saw your handiwork in the hangar when we landed" Paul said, clearly impressed. "Where's the rest of your team? Not too many losses I hope?" he asked soberly.

“It was just us two" John replied nonchalantly. "We've taken out the hive guard, the Broodmother and the Hivelord and there's several hundred freed captives in need of an evac, if you can help us out?".

"You're kidding right?" Paul said, Looking in disbelief at John and the teenage girl at his side and then over their shoulder at the huddled throng of humanity massed behind them.

John shook his head, and smiled at Alyssa with pride.

“Well god damn!" Paul exclaimed, before he burst out laughing, his face lighting up in a big grin.

“What I could do with a few squads of troopers like you two!" he said wistfully.

John smiled graciously.

“We're in a hurry to chase the Pirate Leader who sold all these people to the Kirrix" John explained “Can we Leave you to mop up here and look after these prisoners?" he asked politely.

Paul looked at him in stunned amazement.

"Are you off to fight the war with the Kintark single handed as well?" Paul said, bursting into another round of booming laughter.

“We'll take care of things here" the Marine Commander grinned, once he had stopped Laughing. "I'm just glad you're on my side!"

The two men shook hands firmly and John led Alyssa back to their captured Kirrix dropship. They climbed on board and the young blonde fired up the ship's engines and sealed the airlock, before taking off and gently pirouetting the dropship around to face the hangar exit. She powered up the engines and they Left the Kirrix hive ship behind them.

John used the communicator as they left the hive ship, calling Calara to let them know they were safe. The gorgeous brunette's concerned face filled the holo-image.

"Oh thank goodness!" She exclaimed “Are you two ok?" She asked worriedly.

“We're fine and we rescued the prisoners!" John replied happily.

“Thank god for that!" Calara replied, sighing with relief.