Prologue

Silence.  A brilliant white light.  Nothingness.  True nothingness.  Private Curtis Delgado staggered to his feet in a direction he assumed was up and shook his head.  Ringing in his ears.  Tinnitus.  Loud blast that his helmet's dampeners hadn't covered for.  The white was fading to more of a dull grey.  So, still alive, then?

The crack of gunfire brought him to his senses as his training kicked in, jumping behind the flaming wreckage of a dropship engine.  His dropship?  No time.  Work out who, what and where later.  Delgado didn't bother to confirm what was attacking him, he just responded with short, sharp bursts at anything that looked like it could be moving.  He heard a feral growl of pain more than once.  Plague, then.  Fits, he'd been sent there to...

Nexus Phi.  The planet he was on was called Nexus Phi.  He was part of a team that had been sent there to contain an outbreak of the Plague that had broken out of a research facility there and, from the fact that he was currently using the wreckage of his squad's dropship to shield himself from small arms fire, he could only assume it hadn't started well.  Another two shots, another two kills.  The plague had mutated the civilians it came into contact with into feral beasts barely capable of using the firearms they were using to try to kill him now, he didn't even feel a pang of guilt at killing them; they were already dead.

An explosion rocked a piece of wreckage near him, sending a shockwave that knocked him off his feet.  He must stop getting blown up today.  Also, missile launchers scavenged from a Corporation armoury.  That would explain how they brought down an Enforcer dropship...  Things were not going his way today.  He began compiling a report as he sprinted from the engine to the relative safety of a nearby shipping crate that he hoped would take at least two hits to shred with their explosives, giving him enough time to finish...

Silence.  The fire of the burning fuel gave everything a warm yellow glow.  They'd stopped shooting.  Waiting for the missile launcher team to finish reloading?  No, they'd have kept firing to keep him pinned down.  There were enough that he doubted ammunition was a problem, so what then?  The crate began to creak and moan as it lifted slowly from the floor, slowly revealing the huge, bony feet of the biggest biped Delgado had ever seen; easily twice his height, three times his width and with pronounced forearms ending with hands bigger than his torso.  He began to fall back even as he unloaded his clip into it's head and chest, doing nothing more than scratch the chitnous hide that covered it's entire body.

It threw the crate behind him, sending him diving forward and right into it's arm's reach, allowing it plenty of time to pick him up, it's hand entirely surrounding his torso.  It was then that he noticed the other infected that had surrounded him; they hadn't stopped to reload or wait for the missile launcher, they'd stopped to watch.  His arms were free, he flicked a blade from his wrist and slashed at the things eye, cutting out some bone, but not noticeably giving it pause.

That was when it started laughing.  Not loudly, or maniacally, but a low, feral growl that was deeper than anything had a right to be.  It was then that Delgado saw the intelligence in it's eyes and knew that Nexus Phi was lost.  As swiftly as it had started, the creature that held the grown man aloft fell totally silent and allowed Delgado a last moment to remember the things near to him.

***

Fifteen minutes later, a light came on in the mangled remains of Delgado's helmet.

--REPORT NOT SENT.  PLEASE TRY AGAIN.  REPORT NOT SENT.  PLEASE TRY AGAIN--