Gerald peered around the corner while crouching. After a quick glance, he quickly pulled back and clung tightly to the wall while holding his breath.

*Clomp* *Clomp* *Clomp*

The loud footsteps of the ten-foot-tall galactic warrior echoed down the hallway of the space cruiser.

With a plasma pistol in one hand and a high-voltage splicer pick in the other, he waited to see if the guard would pass his hiding place or turn into the room he was taking refuge in.

*Clomp* *Clomp* *Clomp*

Gerald let out a soft breath as the footsteps trailed further down the hall.

Keeping low, he rushed out of the room and away from the galactic warrior that shouldn't exist. After storing the high-voltage splicer pick, Gerald tapped on the command bracelet of his power armor and ensured that his stealth system was still working.

The stealth system wouldn't stop others from seeing him, but it made him invisible to the security system. That was his main concern. It was easy to kill someone in front of him but much harder when that individual was miles away, tucked into a high security room, on the far side of the warship.

Coming to a junction in the hallway, the path split into three different branches. Gerald's visor on his power suit translated the alien language.

The signage indicated that the engine room was to the left. He didn't hesitate to take the left path.

After another ten-minute of slinking down the path and hiding from the patrolling guards, he arrived in front of a highly secured door.

The first thing Gerald did was reach for the pack that hung from his hip. There were a few different devices that could hack their way into the security system for the door and override the locking mechanism, but all of those would still take time.

Glancing around, Gerald looked and listened for approaching guards. He didn't hear or see anything. Not knowing when he would be discovered, hacking into the computer didn't seem like a good idea.

Thankfully, Gerald didn't plan to rely on electronics. In the bag on his side were over three dozen access cards. He shifted past the many white basic cards and the few blue cards in his pack. He then found the only yellow card that he was able to get his hands on. It was an access card that belonged to the Commander that oversaw the security of the vessel.

He originally only wanted to kill the Commander because if the main decision maker in the security department was dead when he was found, it would be easier to deal with the enemies. Gerald reasoned that the security Commander should be able to travel unrestricted on the space ship.

*Ding*

The door unlocked after the yellow access card was swiped over the terminal.

*Hiss*

The door opened and Gerald quickly rolled through the opening and slapped the door close button allowing it to close before it fully opened.

***

Two galactic warriors sat in the control room.

"Hey Fardisor, doesn't Commander Sardisk always spend the evening in the spa before a big invasion?"

"Yeah, duh, he even has his own private room at the spa that is reserved for only him."

"Huh, that's what I thought. Then why did he just go into the engine room?"

"What? Let's check it out."

Fardisor began to tap on the console and pulled up a camera in the commander's private spa room.

"Shit!"

"What is it?"

Fardisor turned the monitor to face his partner. The room was painted in purple blood and a half-charred corpse was slumped in the corner.

*Bam*

Fardisor slapped the alert switch.

***

"INTRUDER, INTRUDER, INTRUDER IN THE ENGINE ROOM!"

"INTRUDER, INTRUDER, INTRUDER IN THE ENGINE ROOM!"

A blaring alarm started to sound out through the speaker system alerting the entire space ship. Gerald wasn't worried. It was all within his expectations.

Turning towards the door, he pulled out the high-voltage splicer pick and stabbed it into the doors control console and then pressed the button on the end with his thumb.

*Sizzle* *Pop* *Pop*

Electricity coursed through the controls and fried everything.

The only way through the door now was to cut it open.

Gerald ventured further into the engine room and pulled out a second plasma pistol. He could hear shouts and rapid movements in the next room where the heart of the engine was located.

With thumbs on the back of the pistols, he checked the remaining battery power on the two plasma shooters. Each had over sixty percent remaining, which should be more than enough.

Gerald's visor translated the frantic shouting that was coming from the next room.

"Quick! Get into position!"

"The intruded is coming!"

Gerald stood next to the door with a gun in each hand. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His muscles relaxed, and his senses became sharper. When Gerald opened his eyes, he was in the zone.

He turned the corner, stepping through the door frame while raising both guns.

*Zing* *Zing* *Zing*

Balls of orange plasma sped from the barrel.

Two engine techs had holes blown through their heads and fell further behind the make shift barricades.

A galactic warrior who had his rifle raised was shot in the shoulder, causing his gun's barrel to swerve to the left as he jerked in pain and lost control of his arm. The shots it fired careened to the side and slapped into the wall.

"KILL HIM!" Yelled another guard.

Half a dozen guards stood up from behind their makeshift barricades, each with a rifle in hand.

*Zong* *Zong* *Zong* *Zong*

The plasma rifles screamed as shots flew towards the intruder.

Gerald didn't run, jump, or attempt to hide. He stepped forward with his pistols raised and walked with a steady pace.

*Zing* *Zing* *Zing*

{Power armor at 57%}

{Power armor at 31%)

{Power armor at 12%}

One by one the galactic warriors fell and didn't get back up while Gerald continued forward.

{Power armor at 0%}

{Shields and defenses have deactivated}

*Zing* *Zing* *Zong* *Zong*

The last two warrior fell after balls of plasma barreled through their faces but not before they each got a shot off.

"AHHHH!"

The first large ball of plasma clawed through Gerald's stomach while the second blew through his knee, separating his leg.

Gerald fell to the ground while putting his hand over his stomach to keep everything inside his body and stopping it from spilling on the ground.

Blood poured from his thigh where the rest of his leg used to be.

With a grunt, Gerald pulled a second high-voltage splicer pick from his belt and stabbed it into his thigh just above the wound before adjusting the voltage and pushing the switch on the end.

"HMMMMM!" Gerald fought back from yelled while the electricity flowed through what was left of his leg. The blood vessels burnt from the electricity. His leg would be useless, but it stopped bleeding.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

"Come out now! The door won't protect you forever. We have the engine room surrounded; it will only take a few minutes for us to cut our way in." Shouted someone from outside the engine room.

Gerald gritted his teeth while holding his intestines in and started pulling himself towards the fusion reactor in the center of the room.

Taking out a small device, he plugged it into the containment hatch lock mechanism. The dials on the device started spinning one after another. It would take only a minute or two until it opened.

*RNNNNNN*

An arc saw started to cut through the door to the hallway as Gerald pulled himself up to sit next to the containment hatch.

Gerald checked his guns, both had less than 10% charge left. He cast them aside and pulled the last device on his belt off with his free hand.

He opened the 'Last Stand' pack and checked the contents. He grunted as he pulled off his visor and helmet before putting the visor back over his eyes and ears and took a smoke stick from the pack. He put it between his lips and used the match from the pack to light it. He inhaled as the tobacco and strong medicinal drugs slunk into his lungs.

The smoke stick worked fast, the pain had already disappeared and left only pleasure. He no longer cared about his intestine that were pouring out of his stomach. He reached his bloody hand into the pack and pulled out the last item.

He gripped the cylinder in his hands and checked the device that was unlocking the containment hatch.

It only needed two more keys before it unlocked. Correct that, now it only needed one.

The ringing of the arc saw stopped.

Gerald looked toward the entrance while holding the shinny cylinder that he pulled from the 'Last Stand' pack.

*Bam*

Half the door fell as a galactic warrior kicked it down. Twenty warriors stormed in while wearing power armor and aiming rifles at Gerald. They were pleasantly surprised to see the intruder half dead.

The warriors put the sights up their eyes and prepared to finish him off.

"Hold!" Order an authoritative voice.

A galactic warrior in a set of superior power armor stepped to the front as the other warriors backed away to the side.

"Why and how have you come to be here?" The man asked.

Gerald smirked while sucking in a deep breath of the smoke stick. He exhaled through his nose while he spoke.

"You know why I am here." The leader frowned while Gerald continued. "You shouldn't be in this universe. If you invade in your own dimension, we wouldn't give a shit. But you came here. When species come from parallel universes, it never ends well. You should have stayed home."

"Hmpff! It is to late for you to lecture me." The leader said while leisurely pulling out his pistol and aiming it at Gerald.

*Wong*

Gerald pulled the cylinder apart to reveal the internals. The bezel in the center started to spin faster and faster. The hollow glass tube in the center of the cylinder started to fill with a white mist.

"Hey, calm down now. That is an atomic diffuser." The leader said while lowering his gun. "There is no reason all of us need to die here. At most you will blow up three or four rooms in our ship, but it won't stop the fleet. Don't you want to get out of here? Put the diffuser down and we will leave a tier one med pack. You patch yourself up and go on your way. Are you really prepared to die today?" The leader asked.

Gerald sucked on the smoke stick and then blew away the filter since it was the only thing that remained. His eyes started to droop as his hands grew heavy and started to fall. He was dying.

The leader wasn't in a hurry. It looked like the intruder would die before he had a chance to activate the diffuser.

*Ding*

Gerald's eyes flashed open. "I never planned on surviving this."

The containment hatch fell open after it was unlocked. Gerald smashed the cylinder back together, activating the diffuser.

"FIRE!"

*Zong* *Zong* *Zong*

The rifles roared as Gerald tossed the diffuser into the heart of the engine.

A looked of understanding flashed on the leader's face.

"SHIT!!!!" The leader reached for his communication device to alert the fleet to flee before the bomb went off, but he could not even activate it before the diffuser detonated.

Triggered by the diffuser, the engine's equilibrium collapsed as it unleashed all of its power at once.

An explosion ripped through the ship. The nearby fleet couldn't react as the explosion grew in the blink of an eye. The forty-two ships that made up the fleet were consumed in an instant.

[All non-native inhabitants of Exoses-3241 have been removed]

[C-class mission successfully passed]

[Operative Gerald Acers being restored to home world]

[Please hold for after mission debrief and rewards]

[Actualization in progress. Operatives consciousness has been returned to originally body]