[No Dachi]

Fluffie
You stay still and silent for a few moments, reflecting on Mathers' death. Watching a life waste away in this manner was a new experience, even for a Light Marine of years' experience such as yourself. After those few moments, you decide to focus on the present matter at hand, that of how to escape the moon of Novagorsk. You rule out escaping with the dropship - the frigate would destroy you easily, and the armoured shuttle didn't have a hyperdrive anyway; you'd have been trapped in the system, even if you did get passed the frigate. No, the only way off this frozen moon was going to be through the frigate, and for that you needed other Marines. Climbing into the cockpit of the vessel, you see two seats, one for the pilot and one for the co-pilot - apparently there hadn't been one of the latter on this flight. Having already looted ammunition and supplies, and applied some basic treatment to your wounds, you settle down in the pilot's seat to familiarise yourself with the controls. The engines were already on, so no problems there. A flight stick in front of you seemed to be used to control pitch and roll, while a kind of push throttle to your right apparently controlled thrust. At present, the dropship was in hover mode - the engine vents were pointed downwards, allowing it to remain stationary in the air at a given height. To take off, you would need to throttle up, then find the button to switch the vents to the forward position - you spot this button in due course. You spot a discarded helmet lying on the co-pilot's seat, through which you can vaguely make out a voice, laced with static, speaking.

"Drop 1...[static] you recieving? Repeat...[static] status report, over." You could well be in "Drop 1" at the moment. Better reply to the man, and find an excuse to go to the base.

Crazy
Having looted equipment, you move back into the Armoury, ever conscious of the armed time bomb beeping ominously from its concealed position, and try to find a way out. You see an air vent opening - raised up near the cieling, but it's far too small for you or any other human to be able to fit through. You notice that the vent's steel grill is hanging by a single screw, buckled as though something forced its way out from the vent through it. At about this time, you spot the corpse of one of the purple creatures that you saw earlier, lying quite dead in a pool of its own purple blood. Something catches your eye beneath the the dead critter - a line, like a seam, in the floor. On closer inspection, these lines form a square...a trap door. Maybe you won't die in here after all. Opening the trap door, you see that below is a wide air vent, large enough for you and the others to crawl through. Immediately below the opening is a long, vertical shaft dropping down into the shadows below - it probably goes right the way to the bottom levels of the base. On either side of this shaft, a short distance below you, the vent goes left and right. You see another similar set of openings further down. If you take those side vents, you can probably get back into the corridors somehow. The question is, which floor do you want to be on?

Darkling/Dunin/Bakan
With the help of Corporal Morgan, Corporal Bakan is on his feet again with pulse minigun ready. Corporal Roxborough, deciding that the time for caution is probably gone, fires off a high explosive grenade toward the source of the laser sight beams. There is an explosion, and two screams, and the dust is sent billowing away down the corridor. The two Rangers are dead, lying slumped against opposite walls of the corridor. Corporal Roxborough makes her way to the other two Marines, and they decide to go to the hangar. At this moment, however, events take a turn for the worse. A flash grenade, cooked so as to explode after just two seconds, bounces through the doorway to the stairwell and, before any of you can react, detonates, blinding you. The clatter of boots on the durasteel floor heralds Rangers storming through the door, you helpless. Gunshots ring out through the corridor...but you aren't dead...you hear confused shouting from up ahead. With your vision clearing, the three of you see the Rangers retreating back through the doorway, five of their number dead on the ground. The survivors rush back up the stairwell and out of sight. More Marines suddenly come into view from around the corner that Roxborough came past a few moments before. To your relief, the three of you see that these new Marines are 45th Battalion - your comrades. They look as though they've been through fighting, some are splattered with blood in places. There are five privates and a single sergeant covering the doorway, who mostly ignore you. Moments later, Lieutenant De Loran, the Battalion's second-in-command, strides into view around the corner, fully armoured and with a bayonet fixed to his pulse rifle. He sees you, then switches his focus to the rubble blocking the corridor behind you.

"Did you set charges in there?" He asks, now looking at Corporal Morgan, the engineer present, but then continues regardless, "well, no way to correct it if you haven't. The Captain's dead - Rangers stormed the Marine Barracks. We're the only survivors, eight men plus me and a Medic. The Barracks is lost. I heard a report that the freighters in the hangar were all sabotaged but we don't have any other hope, so we're heading down that way. Fall in and follow me." And, with that, he is turning back to the stairwell doorway. "Throw an incendiary grenade to block off the doorway to the ground floor. Wait a few seconds for some of the smoke to clear, then down as fast as you can go to the fifth underground level. Move!" One of the Privates complies immediately, throwing an incendiary grenade up over the railing to the ground floor level. There is a roar of flame, and smoke billows out of the doorway. The other Marines wait a few moments, then begin running through the doorway and down the stairs toward the lower levels...

Mao
You turn, dreading what you might see behind you, but are relieved to see two Light Marines from your own unit - the 45th Battalion, crouching low against the ground, both with winter coats and gas masks. They must have come from one of the towers. One of them is a Corporal, he speaks first.

"Thank God we found someone else," He says, voice distorted slightly by the gas mask, "we thought we were alone out here. Listen, the base is ****ed, that's obvious, and we need to find the rest of the unit and then try to get off-world. If any of them are alive, they'll be in the lower levels. Doesn't look like we'll get inside the base that way...but we found a large vent opening some distance back. Follow me." He turns and starts running off into the deep snow off the path, his companion following him wordlessly. You notice tracks coming through the deep snow in that direction - apparently their own tracks. You follow them, and, within minutes, have come to what appears to be a large concrete square proturding from the ground, hollow in the middle, and covered by a steel mesh grille. One of the Light Marines wrenches the grille off in seconds, and you see that steel bars driven into the duracrete sides of the duct form a ladder leading down into the shadows beyond. "You'll need thermal imaging." Says the Corporal, before turning to the other Light Marine, a Private. "You go first, Medic, you follow," He says the latter to you, then himself crouches down on one knee, bringing his pulse rifle up to his shoulder. "I'll cover our backs, then follow you through once you're both some way down. Remember, stop at fifth underground. You should be able to get into the air vents from this thing - or better into one of the refuse containers. That way you'll be able to get straight into the corridors. Go!" The other Light Marine begins climbing down the ladder, his pulse rifle hanging off its strap. After a few moments, he is far enough down for you to be able to follow.

PK
Yes. Replies the creature, I wish to escape this world. Death is no barrier for one such as I, but I have several tasks requiring completion that I would not be capable of accomplishing if disembodied. You watch as the front of the creature suddenly seems to split apart down a verticle seam running down its middle. The creature reaches inside of this divide with two of its clawed arms, which emerge moments later, delicately holding a very small purple creature securely between them. The large creature deposits this smaller creature on the ground. You notice that it is not like the other small purple creatures - its head is much larger, and it possesses the enlarged claws that the larger on shares. I am designed only to be able to produce more of the smaller kin - the primitive creatures that attacked you earlier. However, while I cannot engineer new variants according to need as the reds can do, reasoning out how to produce a copy of myself was hardly difficult. Bear in mind that the creature before you possesses no knowledge at present. It will be incapable of communicating with you. It does possess the instinct to feed itself and the capability to do so. It will not feed on humans, as I was originally designed to do. It is quite capable of preserving its own life. See how it watches you carefully? You look down at the smaller creature, which is indeed staring at you intently. It has identified you as sentient. All you need do now is find your way out of this place, and this smaller creature will be able to find it as well. It pauses. My eyes on the higher levels tell me that your surviving comrades are bound for the hangar. I do not know what they expect to find there, but if you intend to meet them, that is where you should go. Suddenly, the smaller purple creature gives a screech, and leaps into an air vent opening in the wall behind you. You hear a clattering noise as it scuttles off into the distance. Goodbye, Lieutenant King. With that, the hanging corpses return, forming a kind of curtain in front of the creature that blocks it from view. Behind you, the door to the corridor opens...