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Chapter Four

"Well, It looks to me that your work is all out to get you, boy... I remember when I did this stuff when I started out" Natasha crossed her arms and started to chuckle softly. In her head were the days of her beating down large rods with a 25 pound hammer, again and again and again... She shuttered.

Alex really did not enjoy how she was laughing, and he felt even worse when she shuttered, it made his head sink into his shoulders and made him wonder if he was about to enter hell.

"Oi! Shut up me fair lass, your scaring the boy! Yes, you did work in these here gallows...but you were very competent and a good worker he will have no problems, so stop scaring him!" Beast softly patted his back. Alex stiffened his back and went blank for a few seconds at the word "Gallows"

"Well if you weren't such a pain in the ass, with your loud obnoxious voice, your get everything done 'my way' attitude and the obvious fact of you being a wolverine makes me think nothing less of you! You're a pain in the ass! If you had none of those things he would have nothing to worry about!" She yelled at him crossing her arms and leaning forward slightly.

"Aye now, I am innocent of the charges before me! Ye be the one with a large rodent crawling up yer bum! I remember the first apprentice you had! What was his name, Eric? Nice job jackass!"

They began to bicker and argue between one another, Alex turned and looked at the room before him and he only took a sigh and looked into the dark red room waiting for him, it was tiny and it was stuffed full of equipment he recognized back in the day when he would help his Dad. His dad was a mechanic for earth vehicles in the beginning, but was getting paid even more to work on government ships and vehicles; once they began to notice his ability to improve more and more and he decided to do even more things for them as the money rolled in...Alex learned all he knew from his dad, even though his Dad would never tell him all the work he did for the government.

The room felt very hot, humid and stressful, the air was very wet and thick. Smelled strongly of oils and grease, it reminded him of the Hardy; but worse due to the amount of heat and humidity inside of it, with the red glow of the many red lamps and lights hanging up by strings and cord.

It was like working down in the pits of hell everyday, the red glow fire produces coming from those lamps, the heat bellowing against your flesh with each pull and strain to get whatever you were doing done. He entered the room and started looking around, Natasha and Beast muffled behind him still arguing. He felt like he was in hell, for it was only a few minutes before he began to sweat.

The bullet compressors, the reloading stations and shell shapers, The heavy hand tools, the grain makers, the battery chargers and the energy converters; and a whole lot more of equipment that would be used in anything of weaponry and technology wise. He felt at home, for he could do all sorts of things, but also worried also...it was very hard work. And for Beast it was walk in the park, for he did it everyday. A massive striking fellow with large arms and a thick chest, he had very thick fur; it made him wonder how he could handle such heat when he himself had nothing but little hair.

He was broken of his concentration at looking at everything as Beast came into the room yelling. "Oi, I have had enough or your attitude; go relax lass! You are off-duty"

He slid shut a large sliding door behind them, Beast popped his knuckles and looked at Alex. "Ok, now she is all dun for and gone! We shall begin! How good are you at organizing Module-32 Battery's?" Alex nodded he knew how to organize the batteries, to organize those batteries it was to be in dates of manufacture; and Beast agreed. Beast put him to work right away.

The day had ended, he worked for a straight 12 hours. It was late at night for it was 2030 and lights out was 2200. "Good Job lad, you learned your way around to not be using the machines well. Remember; Drink! Drink! Drink! You almost fainted from the heat, as your leaving drink!" He and Alex split up, Natasha had intentionally waited till he was finished with today's work-load, she shook her head in disagreement and cut him off to see him drenched in sweat, his trainee uniform has soaked through from sweat.

"Wow, Beast freaking put you to work hard! Are you ok?"

"Yeah... it sucked something major though, I was stacking batteries for like two hours, then he had me hand-straighten bullet casings; grain them by hand; then put shells into them. He would not let me use the machines! Then after that was the forging of new assault rifles and barrels I had to beat bars flat then round them, that stuff was what killed me; the labor was not the hardest part; it was the constant heat..."

"Yep, that's him and his 'my way' attitude. Those machines are rarely used; he is stubborn and won't let them be used unless a big job is being done; and if you do use them he gets really mad and then your really screwed for he gives you the work he does and its ten times harder"

Natasha walked Alex to the mess hall in the lobby; where they grabbed a plate of food, A large steak with corn and vegetables and fruit with a large gatorade, and sat down.

"Now, I know you hate the work already; but belive it or not, that this what happens to all new recruits, this is the vessels PT. They whip you in shape this way, with the stress; the heat and the intensive labor; the body grows very hard and tough"

She tapped his shoulder and took her tray with her eating saying.

"I have to go, your room is mine for a little bit; so rest up for tomorrow; OH! And do NOT remove that suit...whatever you do, right now it is your tracer; if you remove it you will get killed by security until your completely enlisted"

Alex sighed and wiped his head from the sweat with his sleeve. "This is going to be really rough for the first couple of days...damn I should have just worked out when I had the chance" he did not care about the suit, or the warning she gave him, a loud bell rang and many more people flooded the lobby. He now knew why he was being on watch.

The place was full of creatures and species he never thought existed, and only heard of in fairy tales. There were Extratums, which were upright standing beings closely resembling Dragons, they looked very similar to Soplara's, but were much thicker and bigger then they ever could be; more elemental creatures of fire, water and earth and wind, some even colored dark and bright like light.

Androids and Machines of unknown origin, even some ghosts and phantoms. He then wondered; why was all of these "classified beings" all on one vessel? What was being done to keep them all secret? With wide open windows and like as if nothing was being done to hide them, he found it extremely odd... He finished his food with the feeling he was now really being watched. He saw no other human on the vessel with him.

Meanwhile, Natasha had eaten her food while walking toward the gym; many people don't work out after a meal, but Natasha felt if the stomach could not hold its food; then it don't deserve any. Moving down the hallways she heard Regal's voice call out to her; around the corner she saw him.

"What's up Regal?"

"Ok, we know your off-duty today, but we have something important that we need you to do; the ship is traveling to a very green planet right now that is home to a another race of human beings that are WAY behind in technology, we are talking stone age technology, they are using stones for weapons for God's sake...which is why we are sending you; this must be quiet and undetected"

"But why am I being sent here?"

"I was getting to that, there is a distress beacon signal being sent from the planet, and it makes us wonder...how did they get a hold of a distress beacon and why is it being sent?

"Wait what? Yeah...that is very odd, and very serious! Even if its just a mishap on the equipment"

"Exactly, it is a damning crime for anyone to have anything to do with this planet for it can destroy there very way of life under the interference ordinance"

"Ok, I will go; no problem, keep an eye on Alex; I let him know he can't remove the uniform at all, but do it anyway for me? See how he is doing, he looked completely thrashed for the gallows today"

"I hate how they call it the gallows... its not a execution chamber dammit"

"But it defiantly has the potential, you know"

Natasha and Regal split up, he called up Luxa and informed her of Natasha willing to go. Natasha was already in the pod-bay room when Luxa called her up and briefed her as she took nearby weapons and equipment; preparing herself for the mission.

"Ok, this is the situation we have got; this planet from the scanners is only 10,000 years old. It is very young and delicate in its current state as is it inhabitants. Looks to me God is recreating the Earth or was about to for there are Humans living on it. This means they are very young themselves, the planet is very green and very thick with woods and brush; so you need to be silent and invisible while you investigate why the hell that signal is being sent out; I want to hear status checks every 10 minutes since your going in alone." Natasha wrapped a silencer around a AR-15 and fed a clip into the magazine well.

"Yes Captain, you will hear from me soon. Send me down" With a cold chill traveling up Natasha's spine; a large white flash came before her eyes and when the light faded she was surrounded by thick tree brush and sticker bushes; smoke was clouding her vision; stepping out from it holding her rifle in a low ready she looked around only to see thick brush other then the area she landed at. The pod glowing red hot and had burned everything away.

"Oh man... quiet? No...but very effective"

She saw no real way through the brush, other then close trees huddled up against one another.

"Then up some trees we go!"