Chapter One

      "I never thought that I would ever join up with the Hackers. If anything, I would work for the Guardians, or even some company in the outer systems, but at first I was nothing more than a fighter in the first human expansion to the outer systems.
      "You see, when we first arrived into the Net, we operated like any other human Military force. We were slaughtered by the Truck load....."

      The Heavy tires grounded the hard concrete surface of the street. The sound of plasma blasts hitting the ground next to the transport echoed inside the metal giant. The Commander of the Mission looked at his troops."Remember your training, and you will come back alive .."
      A young soldier looked at his Commander. "And what if we didn't have any training?" he asked.
      "What do you think you were doing for the last 3 weeks?" He beamed a look at the private.
      "Cleaning floors and shining boots," he replied. The Commander shook his head as he headed back to his seat. The sound of the top cannons turning and firing gave them the signal that they were at there target zone, and the straps that held them in were released as the doors slid open. The sound of heavy boots hitting the metal floor replaced the sound of gun fire, as the troops exited their transport.
      "Brigs, Solomon, top right! Keep those gunners away from us!" cried out the Commander to his troops over the sound of the loud gun fire.
      "No way! Suicide ain't in my job description!" replied Brigs.
      "That's an order, private!"yelled the Commander.
      "I'll go," said the man next to the Commander.
      "You trying to be a hero son?" he asked.
      "No, sir! Just taking out a few sprite's, sir!" replied the young soldier. Before the Commander could reply, the man, more like teenager, was up and running at the gunners, his rifle letting lose it's deadly payload of plasma.
      The boy was no more than half way to the gunners when a plasma charge detonated and sent him flying into the air. He landed a good twenty feet away from where he'd stood, his helmet sliding off his head to reveal his black hair, which coverd his closed eyes from seeing his troops and friends being slaughtered.

      "Come on man,wake up... I want to go to sleep!" said the young female voice.
      Jeff slowly opened his eyes and looked up at the young cheetah-looking Anthro. "5 more minutes?" he said softly.
      "NOW!" she yelled.
      Jeff grunted a little as he slid out of bed, grabbing his hat and heading out the door, hearing her mutter something about him being the laziest human she knew.
      Placing the hat on his head, and sliding it around so the bill stuck out the back, he walked down the hall to the main room of the complex and plopped down in the old black chair, tapping a few keys on the keyboard in front of him. Reading over the sector reports, he sighed. Tapping a few keys, the window closed, and the background appeared showing his group's symbol: a hand griping an icon.
      He looked around the place as he leaned back in the chair. A ringing of an old-style telephone broke the silence of the room. Turning in his chair, Jeff tapped a few keys on the keyboard and watched the screen change to voice analyzer. "Operator, where can I direct you?" he asked.
      "This is Mad Dog requesting permission to return to the nest" answered the old, rusty, male voice.
      Jeff watched the screen, read the data and confirmed the ID of the caller. "Mad Dog you are not expected back 'til 14:50," he replied.
      "Change of plans, mother nest, need to leave now before we are detected."
      Jeff rolled over to another keyboard and followed his training to locate an exit. "Mad Dog, I will open a portal in a men's room at a bar 13 clicks from you location. Thank you and have a nice day," he said and closed the com link. "Computer, access and delete last transmission." A beep came from the screen as he leaned back into the chair and looked at the clock on the wall. "3...2...1," he said to himself.
      And no sooner than those numbers left his mouth, when a portal flashed open on the pad in front of him, and in another flash left it's travelers.
      Jeff watched as two sprites stepped off the portal generator pad and walked to the storage room, the remaining members of the party, Ki'ace a female Zed, and Max a human, walked over to Jeff as he held out a data pad. "So why you guys back so soon? I thought you were on the hacking job at the P.O.?"
      Ki'ace looked up from the pad. "Complete lock down of the P.O. after Eric over there forgot to block the computer tracer program."
      "Oh yeah, it's always my fault. Never yours, is it Ki'ace?" retorted the purple-skinned sprite.
      Jeff shook his head, knowing very well this would turn out to be yet another fight the two would have. "Now, now, children, calm down. Fill out the reports and send them to Mother, would you?" said Jeff.
      "Yes, dad," all said at the same time.
      Ki'ace, Max and Eric walked off to the mess hall, which was more of a room with a stove, fridge, a few coolers which had food packets in them, and two tables with chairs. Nothing fancy, but then again, Hacker's didn't need much. Keep it simple and make it quick, a motto they used to use before this hidden war started.
      " So, when do we get to see you out in the field again bro.?" asked the teenage-looking green sprite.
      Jeff turned to his "little sister" and shrugged. "Whenever Mother decides to let me out of the nest," he answered.
      "You're either really bad or too high of a risk to lose..." she said.
      "Doubtful; I'm a human. There only about 12 billion more of us," said Jeff as he rolled his eyes.
      "Yeah, but how many would risk there lives for this system?" she said with a grin. She had him in a corner.
      "Go eat your dinner," he said.
      Knowing that she had won the battle, she went to the mess hall and joined her fellow hackers.
      Now it's not hard to see that a Human can't have a sprite as a biological sibling, and that was the case here. Shanka never was his real sister, but a sprite he'd saved a few years back and made her a sister when she wouldn't leave him alone. She was only ten then, but she was now seventeen, and Jeff found it hard to keep her under his finger and control her wild reactions.
      But then again, when she first met him, he was the same way, old enough to know better, but too young to care.

      Ki'ace poked at her food with a fork, looking it over with a strange look on her face.
      "Don't care for old field rations?" asked Max, who, when he wasn't hacking or getting into a bar fight, was the group's chef.
      "Don't care for them or human food," she said softly. Ki'ace was and still is the most silent of the group, caring more about getting the job done with no noise or much effort. She'd rather use her mind than her weapons, which is why she was made the groups tactical officer.
      "Well until Mother sends us more money, that's all you get," said Eric as he chewed on his toast. Eric on the other hand was not the tactician of the group, as one could see, caring more about the next girl he could hit on, or the next mission he would get to blow something up. But what he lost in manners, he made up for his almost insane bravery, which had led to more thn one saying "it's not bravery but stupidity."
      "Eric, shut up," voiced the youngest of the group. Shanka was more of the "let's do it now and party right after" person. Not much of a hacker in her own right, but made up for it with her ability to get into places others couldn't, or using her strange connections (which no one had ever seen) to give the group the edge they needed to complete a mission.
      Before Eric could make a come back, a data pad landed in the middle of the table turning the groups attention to it.
      "If you two are done, then you might want to hear this message from Mother," said Jeff.
      Jeff was the "leader" of the group, even if he hardly ever got out of the base. He was the one that everyone had first met when they agreed to join this war and was the only one in contact with the person known as "Mother". Not the best looking human, but he wasn't the ugliest, which was why some believed that Ki'ace might have a thing for him. Few knew anything about him, since they never asked, and since they believed he wouldn't answer anyway.
      The data pad beeped, and an image of the local Principal Office appeared then changed into wire frame mode, slowly outlining all of the places that Mother wanted them to hit. "Mother wants us to hit the central computer matrix and take it out, making sure to keep the PO under lock down in the upper area while another team hits the archives below, thus making the people inside think we are hitting the weapons in the vault upstairs while we are getting the information below."
      "Who's this 'we' you're talking about, Jeff?" asked Eric.
      "Mother is sending her new babies in. You may have heard of them..."
      "And they are?" asked Shanka.
      "STORM...."

      "Jeff Freeman, Age 31..." Began the Woman as she read of the email to her superior.
      "Yes, yes I know all about Mr. Freeman. I thought he was dead through," replied the woman sitting behind the desk. She crossed her legs and leaned back into her chair.
      "No, ma'am. The Guardians have been looking for him for some time, not only for hacking but for just appearing here in the Net one day, no background or papers from Earth saying that he should have been brought in or giving him access to a Gateway."
      "God, not another illegal entry..." she moaned.
      "Well we are the law enforcement around here. I'll send out bravo team on this one..." said the Commander and turned to leave.
      "No, Commander, I'll take this one; I need to get out of here, might as well be for something that won't get me into to much trouble."

      The Hacker group known only as "Messiah" stood atop a roof and looked at the tall crystal-looking Principal Office.
      "Well there she is," said Max as he listen closely to his headset.
      Jeff looked back to him, and Max nodded. "Alright, Storms in. Now let's hope that new kid doesn't mess everything up."
      Ki'ace looked to Ki'vea, her sister. Her Sister was the normal backup for them, staying at the base and being the "operator" for them, but Eric was there now, and she was on this mission along with her sister to use their natural Metal powers to keep as many security officers off them as possible if things got out of hand.
      "I don't know Jeff, that Nick guy looks good to me.." said Shanka.
      "Little young for ya, don't 'ya think?" said Jeff jokingly.
      "Not funny Jeff," she replied. Jeff shook his head as he looked down at his lap top, splicing through the security codes as if they were nothing more than numbers put there to make it look cool.
      "I'm in, Storms moving though the lowers levels now, time to do our part," he said to himself as he typed as fast as anyone had ever seen him. "Alright...now... locking down..." he said to himself and tapped the screen of his computer. The schematics that showed the level he was accessing turned from green to red. "Bingo! Still got it..." he said to his sister.
      "Yeah Jeff, you're all that." She rolled her eyes.
      The silent night air was suddenly filled with the sounds of sirens going off.
      "What the hell??" yelled out Shanka.
      Max soon added in, "Got a report from Storm. They are locked down in the basement,".
      Jeff banged on his laptop, now completely cut out from the computer matrix. "Damn, locked out. What else is going to happen!?"
      The sirens were now overshadowed with the sound of turning engines, as a spot light hit the group on the roof. The group now looked at the huge deadly Guardian issued H/K.
      "Surrender or die!" came a voice over the PA.
      "Tough choice," said the group all as one.
      Jeff slammed his laptop shut and stood up, raising his hands in the air as if surrendering. "Scatter time" he said to his team as he quickly dropped his left hand to his pistol, pulled it out and shot a few rounds at the Hunter Killer in front of him, giving the team the distraction it needed to slip off and run.
      The high powered chain gun in front of him let lose it's deadly rounds of plasma, sailing over Jeff's head as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop.
      The H/K followed him, as he jumped up on the ledge of the roof.
      Getting ready to jump, he noticed he didn't have any where to jump to. "Operator, need to get out. NOW!" he shouted as the H/K stopped in front of him and targeted him.
      "We have an exit at the alleyway right below you," replied Eric.
      "Thanks a lot man," he said.
      "Surrender or die!" said the voice again.
      "Rather die," said Jeff, and he fell back off the roof and down into the ally.