Spider studied the pipes to be sure he was going the right way then froze. A sixth sense warned him of danger. He spun around, diving aside as he did. Two crackling balls of electricity whizzed overhead. A burning numbness washed across Spider's ribs where a third ball had found its mark. Standing over a pair of dead troopers was a man dressed in a full suit of light Pale Garden commando armor. His helmet was different. Unlike the normal helmets crafted to look like a noble autocrat with hair festooned in flowers, this helmet resembled the same woman, but with hair knotted into two buns. Spider assumed both styles were in Lady Belladonna's likeness, though he'd never actually seen the matriarch of The Pale Garden in person.

Spider ignored the questions racing through his mind, and returned fire. The kinetic rounds impacted the commando with no apparent effect. The commando merely laughed. It was a sound made mechanical as it echoed through the helmet. Despite the distortion, Spider could hear the hints of humanity within. He rolled to his feet, gun raised, but, in that small window of opportunity, the commando vanished.

Spider swore under his breath. Until that moment, the Primus had been the only Pale Garden forces who ever gave him pause. He'd let himself believe that he'd seen the worst Lady Belladonna's army had to offer. He suddenly knew better. Spider thought about giving chase, and learning about the new threat, but he had a job to do. Too many people he cared about were counting on him.

He follow the energy conduit until he came to an intersection. He took cover as best he could, and readied his rifle as he listened for any sounds of an ambush. He glanced over his shoulder, wary of another attack from the rear. His side still stung where the commando had shot him. Spider wondered if he was walking into a trap. The ship alarms should have been blaring, and the halls should have been swarming with troopers. Instead there was no one. As they used to say back on Earth Prime: it was quiet, too quiet.

Having heard nothing, Spider turned with the curvature of the conduit and continued on. At the end of a long hall he came to a pair of large security doors. He approached cautiously. The wall illuminated and a heavy jawed feminine Low-Face filled its space. On its bald forehead was stamped the numbers 05.

"Ac... acc... access: denied... denied... denied."

"Ohhh, Bad Kitty got you good." Spider smirked and rested his rifle against his shoulder. "Open the door, Amazon-05."

"A... access... accesss-"

"Denied. I heard you the first time. Open. The. Door."

The Low-Face on the display was distorted by the image of a fat neon yellow cat rubbing its rump against the screen. The doors opened a fraction as the security locks failed. They cycled on and off, but the damage had been done. Spider moved over to the doors and pushed one side along its track. He bowed to the ship's Core AI and entered the shield generator room. Even if the enemy knew where to find him, they couldn't stop him before he did what he'd come to do.

Spider walked through the vast chamber acutely aware of the lack of workers. The room should have been staffed by a few dozen engineers and clones working diligently to keep the ship's shields intact. Instead the place was empty. The beeping of monitors and gauges filled the room. Spider sought the controls to the shield array. If he could shut them down completely, it would take hours to get them up to full power again.

It didn't take long for him to hear footfalls mirroring his own. He slowed his pace. There were two behind him. Spider readied to turn when three commandos stepped out of cover. He fired upon them, but his bullets did nothing, just as before.

"The mighty Spaceman Spider," said the tallest of the three, her voice was rich despite her helmet's distortion. "We've been searching for you for almost two weeks. I was starting to think my plan had failed. Isn't that right?"

"It is, Commander," agreed one of the two men at Spider's back.

It was five against one. Spider scoffed. The odds were in his favor.

"Your gear is nothing like the standard rank and file," he observed. "Who are you?"

"Introductions? How cinematic. Lychee Pawah, commander of the Pale Garden's 1st Centurion division." She made a curtsy. "You are Subject 21 of The Spaceman Project. Your fellow fugitive calls you Spider."

"So you know who you're messing with, but you still came." Spider gave the five a hard look, trying to spy any chinks in their surprisingly high graded armor. "Brave or stupid?"

"Prepared is the word you're looking for," Commander Pawah corrected. "We were trained for the sole purpose of bringing you in. Arms!" She shouted the last as she clapped her hands twice.

The centurions drew out sparking batons and strangely rounded pistols. Spider suspected they all discharged high voltages which was proving a weakness to the R.Nano's super soldier. They spread out, covering his escape routes. He had no intentions of escaping. Spider looked around for the controls.

"There's nowhere to run," Commander Pawah said. "Take him."

The centurions surged forward. Spider hit a switch on the side of his rifle, altering the yield of his rounds. He ducked under the chop of the first to reach him, the woman's baton crackling as it zipped by, and fired into her gut. The blast sent them both flying backwards. Spider brought the weapon around, and a centurion threw himself onto the rifle. Electricity ripped through his back and shoulder as he was hit by multiple batons. His fingers spasmed, firing a violent round into the generator apparatus. Steam filled the room as their batons struck again and again. In the mayhem Spider lost his grip on the rifle.

He drove his fist into the side of a centurion's helmet then brought his elbow into the chest of another with enough force to crack their chestplate. Spider backpedaled even as he tried to shake off the tingling running through his body. Three of the centurions gathered before their commander, weapons at the ready. The fifth lay on the ground smoking where the powerful burst of his Embrine 400b had fired at a yield traditionally reserved for a shotgun. The weapon couldn't sustain repeated use of such a large yield, but he only needed to hit his mark four more times. Spider used Embrine brand firearms because he liked being able to choose his yield on the fly.

He stood up straight and a wave of muscle spasms rushed through his back. He shook it off and took on a boxer's stance.

"Don't you see the futility of all this?" Pawah asked. "Surrender."

Spider studied his opponents. Their sizes ran from tall and bulky to whip thin. Their armors were made of some kind of impact resistant weave. The way they moved in perfect unison spoke of extensive training and possibly artificial synchronicity. Whether nano or implants, they were a perfect unit. Without his rifle he had to acknowledge how much the deck was stacked against him.

"Sorry. My grandfather didn't raise any quitters."

"Go!"

The four centurions spread out and attacked in a crescent formation, another pincer maneuver. Spider rushed into them, determined to fight on his own terms. He went for the largest of his opponents, lashing out with a snap kick to the man's groin. Spider blocked the man's primary hand, and punched his helmet with all of his might. The autocrat visage of the man's helmet shattered, the shards filling the big man's face as he dropped to his knees. Spider heard the pistol fire too late to respond. Burning numbness enveloped Spider's knee, running up and down his leg. A baton struck him at the base of his neck, sending a stunning surge through his upper body. Another baton took his leg out from under him. Spider hit the ground under a barrage of stunning blows.

He struggled to get his hand beneath him, but the electric surges running through him made his muscles rebel. He fell onto his stomach a shaking mess.

"Lady Belladonna will reward us greatly for this," Commander Pawah said into his ear.

"Hook, line, and sinker!" said another, his laugh marking him as the centurion from the hall.

"I dangled bait in front of you, and you went for it like a desperate little mouse."

"SNAP!" the laughter shouted.

"I knew you couldn't leave behind the anti-nano cannon prototype. Such a weapon poses too great of a threat. I'd intended to put it aboard a ship and terrorize a few colonies. Figured you'd show eventually."

"Nothing if not predictable," the centurion said, slipping into another fit of laughter.

"Your idiot... has nano poisoning..." Spider moaned. The ridiculous laughter was a side effect of the blood's overexposure to nanotechnology. He earned himself a smack across the shoulder, but at least the guy stopped laughing.

"I've noticed," Pawah replied.

"S... so the cannon w... was rigged with a tracker?" In all the chaos after their raid, Spider had forgotten about the cannon altogether.

"You would have looked for that. No, the cannon uses a unique chemical element. One that releases a rare but easily detectable radiation. Pick him up."

The centurions grabbed him under the arms and hoisted him to his feet. Spider realized her orders were inflected in a specific manner which triggered an immediate response. Her troops were reacting to hypnotic compulsion instigated by her commands.

"We followed the trail to this sector, but there is an abundance of asteroids in the area that disrupt our scanners. We fired upon everything we've found, but nothing. No sign of our refugees for two weeks... then you found us."

"Commander, Camilla isn't going to make it."

The centurion with a hole in her gut had stopped moving.

"So be it. My sister was merely a single flower in our lady's garden." Pawah pointed at Spider with a shaking hand. "Your capture will make her death a monument to Lady Belladonna's glory!"

"And here I was thinking you were different. You're just another fanatic."

She shot him in the chest from point blank range, sending numbing waves through his torso... he nearly dropped the tiny thing clutched desperately in his hand.

"My sister will be a hero of the Pale Garden," she growled.

"She'll be just another dead soldier lost to the history books."

"When Lady Belladonna achieves her conquest my sister will be placed among the highest of flowers, honored above all others!"

"Just once I wish you people could hear just how crazy you sound."

"Why are ye fearful, o ye of little faith?"

"You're kidding? That's not even original..."

"You'll understand the truth once we take you before her, once you experience her grace."

"You mean, once I'm brainwashed," Spider scoffed. "No thanks. I'm n-"

The ship shook violently and listed to the left, sending machines and tools sliding across the room. Pawah dropped to a knee. Spider let himself fall, forcing his captors to keep him off the floor. Alarms blared through the shield generator room, and lights flashed in a red strobe. In the dimly lit room it created a frame loss effect. After a moment his visor compensated for the apparent input distortion.

HULL BREACH ON SECTIONS C-K. VITAL SYSTEMS IN DANGER. ALL HANDS PREPARE FOR EMERGENCY EVASIVE MANEUVERS.

"About time," Spider whispered under his breath as Amazon-05 repeated her instructions.

"Secure him in my dragon, then meet me on the command deck," Pawah ordered. She balanced herself between the slanted floor and the control panel he'd been looking for. "We'll discuss your blasphemy on the way back to White Lawn."

"White Lawn. Is that where your master waits?"

"Yes. Your new home."

"Doubtful."

Spider squeezed his fist until he felt the oversized marble crack in his hand. He let it fall, steeling himself as the orange sphere hit the ground and exploded in a searing bubble of orange hard light. The light shoved away everything within ten feet, causing thermal burns to everything uninsulated. The armor plating, and his gear protected everything except for Spider's face. He held his eyes shut tight as his face was fried. He knew the R.Nano would repair the damage, but the pain was his to endure. He hit the floor hard.

Spider opened his eyes and jumped to his feet. His hard light visor reasserted itself, and marked the weapons scattered across the room. The large centurion was screaming, his mangled helmet left his face zero protection against Renegade's light bomb. The other's were struggling to their feet. Spider pushed nanotech fueled muscles to supernatural heights as he dashed towards his foes, snatching a baton and a pistol as he moved.

The first centurion to rise took two electric bolts to the face, and a baton across the throat. The next centurion laughed as he went down, the baton wedged into the soft meat under his arm. Spider shot the third, but, before he could close the distance, Commander Pawah was on him. She kicked his gun wide and drove her knee into his chin. Spider rocked back. She grabbed his wrist and threw her weight back, sending them sliding into the control panel. Sparks sprayed everywhere. Pawah attempted to put him in a submission hold, and Spider rolled over and smashed her elbow. Her helmet-altered scream mingled with the ship's alarms. Whatever nano the Pale Garden fed its centurions gave them a combat edge, but it didn't match the R.Nano's strength.

The ship shook again, this time with a far greater intensity. An explosion ripped through the chamber as a beam erupted from the ground and out through the ceiling. Smoke filled the room, reducing the already low visibility. The sounds of secondary explosions cascaded throughout the adjoining floors. Spider made for the exit with caution. Enemies were all around him, and the ship was falling apart. He had to get out.

Somehow Spider reached the hall with duffel bag in hand. His arms and chest were a charred mess gleaming with silver ooze. The lights flickered, and the Core AI's audio cycled in and out. Amazon-05's systems were failing.

Raven had followed Spider's instructions to the letter and Homebase had scored a direct hit with its only weapon, a cutting laser acquired to cut through the sector's extensive asteroid belt. Spider's job had been to keep the enemy busy and take out their shields, and Raven's was to fire the shot. A tried and true tactic though Spider's wounds warned him that he might have played his game too recklessly. The laser would have reduced him to space dust.

He'd almost been captured and nearly blown to bits, but in exchange he'd learned about a new Pale Garden Threat. He also uncovered the name of Belladonna's home, White Lawn. To Spider, it made the burning in his chest worth it.

PER PROTOCOL AMAZON-05 HAS BEEN SET TO SELF-DESTRUCT IN 5 MINUTES. ABANDON SHIP. NO EVIDENCE CAN BE LEFT FOR ENEMIES OF OUR LADY.

Spider reached the probe as the lights flickered then finally failed. He climbed into the cramped cockpit, and attempted to take off. His space suit had been ruined during the fight, but he had no intentions of entering the void if he could help it. He fired the thrusters, but in the artificial gravity of the Amazon the pod could do little more than hover. As more explosions ate away at the ship Spider used the two lower grasping arms to crawl out through the hole he'd made during entry.

He moved from floor to floor, angling for open space as the ship's countdown neared zero. In the last moments he propelled the probe out of the gaiar shields where the atmosphere no longer hindered his thrust, and the ship's systems no longer interfered with the team's comms relay.

He could see the strike shuttle doing battle with a small contingent of Trinity Cutters. A collection of larger vehicles were firing from the gunship, and speeding off in full retreat.

"Ivory, fall back. This girl's about to blow!"

Ivory: Copy that. Glad you got outta there in one piece.

"You haven't seen the piece yet," Spider quipped as he pushed the thrusters to full burn.

Seconds later Amazon-05 exploded taking the remaining Trinity Cutters with it.