Heading Home

"That's great news, however, it would appear that our transport's  fucked," Nash said, helping Steel to his feet. "How are we getting home Bernard?"

"Hell if I know brother," the large man said gruffly. "What happened to 'Don't worry guys of course I know how to fly one of these'?"

"You try flying an alien transport ship. Throw in the fact that the bastards fired missiles at us and I'd say this one was out of my hands."

"Hate to interrupt your little argument but how about we get the hell out of here before these guys' friends show up," Steel interjected.

"No. I thought we'd just hang around the giant fire we've made, you know, make a good last stand," Nash shot back sarcastically.

"Anyone seen Natasha?" Bernard asked.

"Where did you see her last?"

"Seriously?"

"Did you check in the wreck"

"Of course I checked in the wreck, I looked for her before I helped Steel, couldn't find her."

"You looked for-"

"Found her!" Bernard yelled throwing a large piece of debris to the side. "Don't you ever do that to me again Natasha," he said picking up a massive gun that looked like it outweighed himself.

"What the hell is that?" Steel asked.

"Natasha"

"No, I get that, but that's a big fucking gun, what is it?"

"Natasha is not a gun,"

"It's a railgun," Nash yelled over the sound of the roaring flames.

"What'd you call my baby, Nash?" Bernard said leveling the gun at the sniper.

"I'm happy you found her buddy, you're perfect for each other," Nash said smiling.

"That's what I thought you said. Alright boys let's move out."

"Where are we going?" Steel asked.

"Home."

"Which is..."

"Oh, right, about 150 miles to the West."

"Well this is going to be a fun walk back to HQ," Nash said sarcastically.

"Well maybe we don't have to walk," Steel smiled, looking out into the distance and seeing the Decimitian patrols in the distance. "Nash can you hit those pilots from here?"

"Can I hit those targets? Seriously friend you have no idea who you're talking to," Nash replied as he climbed to a position atop the wreckage.

"How about you wait until they're closer. Don't tell her I said this but Natasha has put on a few pounds," Bernard whispered to Steel keeping the railgun at arm's length.

"You're a crazy person you know that?"

"Crazy's more fun," he laughed nudging Steel hard in the ribs.

Three shots rang out causing Bernard and Steel to spin around, weapons drawn.

"Got 'em," Nash yelled over to the two men,"you guys are a bit jumpy aren't you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry that we're alert maybe if you had been a little more"jumpy" we wouldn't have gotten shot out of the damn sky!" Bernard yelled.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, now if we could get our asses in gear so we can get home that would be lovely. Scavengers should be coming for the wreck and I don't feel killing our own kind, no matter how far gone they are."

He Remembers

Seventy men marched toward a top secret site deep in the mountains of the remote planet Quartus. There they were led through an enormous gate leading straight into the mountains.

Upon going through the gate they were greeted by a team of high ranking officers and the Republic's best scientists. "You all are about to make a commitment to your worlds," Fleet Admiral Oliver Hayes said to the group of young men. They were the best that the Republic's military had to offer every one of them smart, deadly, and best of all for the government, had no ties to anyone but their units. The men were lined up against the wall. "Men, I'm not going to lie to you. Some of you are not going to make it through this, in fact most of you will not. But those of you that do will be stronger, faster, tougher, than any human being could imagine. You will be undergoing a procedure that will bionically enhance every cell in your body. Your bones will become as hard as steel, your muscles will feel no fatigue. You will heal faster, never tire, and your enemies will fear you. These are the promises I have for you.
Steel looked around him as the scientists led some of the men away to begin the process. He thought back on why he was doing this, why he was taking such a risk. Revenge. It always had been. As a child his planet was attacked by marauders, the foot soldiers of the man who called himself the Divine Emperor. They killed for the sake of killing. They were merciless, sadistic, and powerful. Anyone who didn't believe the every word of the Emperor was slaughtered. At the time the Republic was small, barely able to fight back. Steel's home was burned in front of his eyes. It was Oliver Hayes who personally saved his life. Steel was fifteen when everyone he ever loved was stolen from him. He made a promise that day. Everyone and anyone responsible for that attack would die. Steel remembered that promise as he laid on the operating table with the scientists surrounding him. The needle sank into his arm. Everything went black.
"Hey!" A voice from the black called to him. "Wake up! Nash, gimme some cover!" A hard slap hit Steel across the face. "Come on you son of a bitch, wake up!"
Steel opened his eyes and grabbed the gun lying next to him in the wreckage of the drop ship. The Emperors men? No that was years ago. These things were worse. The men fought off the ambush that had shot their ship down and tried to kill them where they landed. They stood in the wreckage looking around at the carnage. "I remember," Steel said. "My name is Max Steel."

Friendly Faces

Max Steel moved through the mountains. Intel he had gathered from the Decimitian raiders had marked human  targets about ten miles from where he was. Steel figured if he moved fast enough he could stop any other camps from suffering the same fate, in fact he hoped that there were more than just camps. He saw light in the night sky and against his better judgement he headed towards it. After a few hours Steel felt his spirits lift as he saw a small city come into view. As he walked into the city he noted a distinct lack of any kind of life. He then noticed a smoky smell but not like the kind he had smelled before. The source of the smoke became apparent as Steel felt cold metal touch the back of his head. "Turn around slowly and put your hands where I can see them," a gruff voice growled at him. "Try anything and my friend will blow your head off." Steel saw a red glow on top of one of the taller buildings. Steel complied. He turned and was face to face with a large man with a black beard standing at about six five, putting him at five inches taller than our hero. Steel guessed the man to be at about 320 lbs of mostly muscle and he didn't look like he like was pleased to see Steel wandering into his town. The gun was now pointing directly at Steel's face.
"Who are you and what the hell are you doing here?" the man asked.
"What is this place?" Steel asked
"Seeing as how I have the gun, I'll ask the questions brother,"
"I don't remember anything except the mines. We're wasting time there are alien patrols coming thi-"
"I don't think you have any idea what you just walked in on do you, brother?"
"Not a damn clue"
"You, my friend, have walked in on my masterpiece," the man said lowering his gun and smiling. " This city has been abandoned for years. Fortunately for us those bug eyed bastards like to jump on the slightest signs of life. So you know what I thought to myself?"
"No"
"I thought what if I rigged the entire place to blow?"
"The whole city?"
"The whole city."
"That's impressive"
"Wait 'til you see it go up when those patrols come looking around."
"I can't wait," Steel smiled.
"You said you can't remember anything?"
"Nothing before the mines."
"We can probably fix that when I get you back to base camp. The names Bernard, by the way, Rob Bernard." The man offered his hand to Steel, "The man up top is Tyler Nash you can give me yours when you figure out who the hell you are."
"I appreciate it mate"
A man walked out of the building with a .50 caliber sniper rifle on his back, wearing a cowboy hat that was beat to hell. He was about five ten with a slim build and brown hair. He shook Steel's hand. "Welcome to the war"

A Hero Emerges

It had been several days since Steel had escaped the hellish place where he had been forced to work as a slave. He assumed that the explosion had fried the obedience chip implanted in his brain. What he did not know was why he was able to survive such an event that would have incinerated any other man, completely unscathed.  Many questions had haunted the sleepless nights he spent evading the Decimitian patrols that went looking for him. Who was he, what made him so damn special, and why the hell didn't he know. It was during one of these sleepless nights that he saw a fire in the distance. By the time he was able to get close enough the air was filled with an acrid smelling black smoke. He didn't know why but he knew the smell. He advanced upon the source of the smoke to find a small camp burned to the ground, a pile of burning corpses in the middle, Decimitians dancing around it. Five of them had been all it took to decimate several families. Steel couldn't take it anymore. He felt something burning inside him. The only feeling he could remember was fear. Fear of death, fear of capture, fear of punishment. He knew he didn't have time for fear anymore. It would get him nowhere. This new feeling, anger, hatred, he could use that. It drove him to act, however recklessly. He didn't care though. He let out a cry that struck fear into the hearts of the alien raiders who turned just in time to see Steel rushing at them headlong. They reacted too late as Steel tackled the first onto the pile of burning death they had so happily prepared unknowing that they too would burn upon it. He leaped off the pile driving his fingers through the eye of the closest Decimitian. He used the stunned raider as a shield as laser bolts ripped into it's chest. Steel grabbed it's side arm and returned fire with deadly accuracy. Three shots three kills. He threw the dying alien onto the fire the sealing the first's fate. Steel surveyed the landscape and his eyes were greeted by nothing but death. He searched the remaining raiders and got himself weapons and some foul tasting rations. They would have to do. He moved on never looking back with a new purpose in life. He still didn't know what he was but he knew what he could do. He could fight and for now that would have to be good enough.

Escape

Our hero awoke several days later to darkness and an unbearable stench. He tried to move he was trapped but it was not stone or debris that kept him down but a mass grave that he had been thrown into. Frantically he shoved aside body after body and finally clawed his way to the top gasping for the sweet fresh air. Dazed and confused he crawled out of the pit only to be face to face with an Decimitian guard. The guard picked him up laughing and hurled him back into the grave. The alien stood at 9 feet tall an was an armored wall of pure muscle. It was armed to the teeth but for now it was entertained with toying with Steel. As Steel struggled to his feet the bastard gave him a brutal kick to the gut that knocked him back several yards. The guard moved to finish his game as he taunted Steel in some alien language when suddenly Steel struck back. He moved faster and hit harder than the guard had seen any human do in his many years of exterminating what was left of their civilization. The guard took a wild swing at Steel. The Decimitian was horrified as he felt the arm shatter. Something had awoken inside of Steel as he snapped the stunned guards neck. What it was he didn't know but he didn't have time to think about it. He scaled the wall and ran like hell into the night far away from the only thing he had known for too many years. He ran until he could no longer see the mines or the bodies, or the all the ones he left behind. He couldn't remember the last time he felt this tired, in fact to his horror he couldn't remember anything but the mines! Horrified, he crumpled the the ground and cried out to a God he was sure had long since abandoned him.

So It Begins...

In the distant future mankind is all but extinct. The sprawling galactic empire has been wiped out by an alien race, known as the Decimiti, hellbent on domination of the Milky Way. Most of the remaining humans have been rounded up into slave camps. Mankind has all but given up hope as they mine Buworia, an extremely unstable rock the alien bastards use for fueling their ships, for their new Decimitian overlords. These slaves toil away impossible hours in the mines. One of these slaves stands out for his inhuman strength, speed and endurance on the planet Itegodis. His name is Max Steel, a name he doesn't know because of the obedience chips implanted into the slaves brains. To him he is slave #2814. He is one of the few humans still alive that was born on Earth. One fateful day in the mines Steel was ordered to mine a particularly dangerous area. Something caused a massive explosion no ordinary man could survive. Fortunately for Steel he was not an ordinary man.... to be continued