They arrive at the confederate camp at a moment of silence, for now the harvesters have stopped their assault, and are greeted by the white suits of the Confederate military.

The soldiers wear armor like the Marshals, bulky and large, the only difference was in the color.

"It's the rebel, blast them!" A few marines raise their rifles but a command comes from their headsets.

"Hold your fire." A man, concealed by a white suit with blades on the ends of his arms approaches them, a blue streak down his closed helm.

"You must be Marshal Aaron. Nice suit." The helm opens to reveal the face of General Garroth, lined with worry.

"Not bad yourself General. Now, time is short, what's the plan?" Garroth opens his mouth to speak, but his eyes fall on the newly armored Magistrate,

"Aph?" She smiles and steps forward to speak.

"Of course , good evening Garroth." His eyes sparkle as he steps towards her, the large mechanical arm of his suit falling on her shoulder.

"Glad your alive, I heard what happened to your colonists, thought for sure you'd be alien food." Aphmau leans to the side, the weight of the arm on her shoulder was huge, and nearly put her to the ground.

"Aaron saved my life, nearly got swarmed by Harvesters. I assume the same problem is here?" She asks, her voice brisk with such a business-like tone it made Garroth's face fall.

"Ah. Yes, the station is being hit hard, however, we need to extract a certain item from the area for... Duke, as I'm certain after you help I will be cast as an outlaw, the object it question would still be valuable to us."

"If Duke wants it, it's either powerful or worth something, do you know what it is?" Aaron noticed the marines around him shifting uncomfortably, some holding their heads or even looking at the barrels of their guns reproachfully.

"I know very little, only that the object is incredibly old, and some artifact from a race of Aliens that died off." He had the feeling Garroth wasn't being entirely honest with him, but he let it slide, time is of the essence.

"I see, then continue the extraction, We'll help with the defenses." Garroth nods and makes his way into a large command center surrounded by living quarters and barracks.

"All right marines. Get into formation, we'll hold them off as long as we can!" Aaron cocks his gun and Aphmau loads her pistol.

No more than mere minutes, the ground starts to shake and crumble, and tension gets replaced with adrenaline.

"Don't shoot till you see their eyes!" Aaron relays over the radio, He and Aphmau back to back, waiting for the first Harvester to pop out of the ground.

There is silence, then the ground explodes, at least thirty burst out of the ground at the same time, all of their mandibles dripping with toxic mucus and their claws stuck up in the air.

"Now!" In that one word a wall of gunshots and yelling. Harvesters fall but more take their place, like an endless sea of them.

Like a tiger one pounces, directly onto him shoving him down onto the ground and clicking it's mandibles loudly, he closes his helm so the dripping acid from it's mouth wouldn't melt his face, but it's claws start digging into his suit, and through his skin.

Suddenly the weight is lifted from him with two loud bangs, and Aphmau has her hand stretched out to help him up.

"I got it, thanks." He refuses her hand and stands back up, a sea of dead harvesters in front of him including the twitching one on his right that was just killed.

"Nice shot." He complements her, and she grins, reloading.

"I wasn't a Magistrate for nothing." Silence is back, and more pronounced, each marine running low on morale, and ammo.

"Alright, it ain't over, but it's a start. Just a little longer." His voice resounds through the marines headsets, some of them repositioning to once again fight.

"Marshal, the artifact is nearly extracted, hold out for a little longer." Garroths voice comes through Aaron's headset and he reloads.

"Nearly there boys, come on." He feels Aphmau press more tightly against his back, he suddenly felt... something, a bit like a spark catching fire to his stomach, but he was unsure what it was.

Something huge, bigger than any harvester yet seen erupts out of the ground, it has horns for eyes and eyes for horns, a grotesque mass of utter destruction and fear.

It lets out a concussive roar, and charges into the mass of marines, several of them frozen in fear.

"Open fire!" Aaron shouts and even more yelling and shooting is the result. Yet the bullets only seem to enrage it further.

"Garroth! There's this huge beast outside! Feel free to jump in at anytime!" Aaron shouts into the radio.

At about that same time, something both extremely fast, and large flies past the massive creature, and it roars in pain, before it falls, Aaron notices one of it's many horns falling to the ground.

A huge thud followed by a dust cloud. Then, silence once again. A figure moves slowly in their direction. And you didn't have to be a genius to know who it was.

A man in a white battle suit, and a helm with a blue stripe is reveled, chuckling. The blades at the end on his arms covered in greenish blood.

"The artifact is loaded up and ready to go, now, let's get off this god forsaken planet."