Ladies and Gentlemen, for your reading pleasure. Please do keep in mind that it is hard to balance gameplay mechanics and storytelling without breaking immersion, so do forgive me for parts of the story that may be inaccurate to the gameplay itself. I try to reconcile some things, but I can't reconcile everything. As always, do leave your thoughts, and enjoy.

It was slow going, at first. We had been informed of the different terrains by Hahn, but there was still the pressure of always keeping on the alert for enemies. To add to that, there were random traps that seemed to have no order or purpose, and were ridiculously easy to avoid.
For the first several strata, there were no hostiles. The place seemed abandoned, desolate. The only sound was the distant creak and groan of the continents constantly changing places, and the occasional clank or whoosh as a trap went off.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Parma muttered.
“What’s that clanking?” Rulen asked. “You hear it?”
“Funny,” Grantz growled, clanking along in his full Guardian’s armor and supply pack. “Now shut up before I pound you into the ground with my Suderuska.”
I held up a fist, stopping the squad.
“Another elevator,” Rulen breathed. “What stratum are we on so far? Six? Seven?”
“Five,” I answered.
He groaned. “This is going to take forever.”
“Quiet,” Parma said. “What’s that symbol on top of the elevator?”
I squinted. There was indeed a symbol. It was some sort of skull, in bright green.
“That’s comforting.”
“Look on the bright side – maybe there’ll be something to smash, eh Grantz?” Parma nudged the armored Guardian with her elbow, then winced and rubbed it. “I hope there is something mean on the other end, though, because the suspense is threatening to kill me before whatever’s waiting for us does.”
“Only one way to find out.”
We stepped onto the elevator. We’d done this five times before, with the other levels, but each time it seemed like a new experience. A steel-barred wall snapped up between us and the environment, and the elevator suddenly dropped.
Into nothingness.
We couldn’t see a thing. It was total and complete blackness – the only light came faintly from the aura of my sword, Grantz's, and the elevator’s screen, which always seemed to show some random image. It was completely silent, too. Even the usual grinding of the planet was gone.
“Shall I sing a song?” Rulen asked into the silence.
“No. Your singing sucks,” Parma said. “I’ll kill myself before I listen to you warbling away like some drunken Morai.”
“As you wish, my fair lady,” Rulen said in a pained voice. “Can I whistle?”
“Shut up,” came Grantz’s growl.
Finally, the familiar groan of the planet started becoming audible again. The darkness began to grow lighter, and then we felt vertigo as we saw the elevator plunging towards the next continent below.
We were high up – very high up. This hadn’t happened before.
“Um – has anybody noticed we aren’t slowing down?” Rulen said petulantly. His face turned a bad shade of green as he looked down at the approaching ground.
“Alpha Squad, brace for impact!”
We laid down on the floor and curled into balls, our backs to the floor and our heads cradled in our arms.
WHAM!!
The impact was a lot worse than it had been when I’d landed in my escape pod – the elevator shook, and even in our crash positions we were tossed about the enclosed space like pebbles. When the elevator had settled down, I slowly uncurled myself, wincing.
“Everyone all right?”
“Yeah, shipshape.”
“A couple of bruises, I think, but that’s it.”
“Fine.”
I got up and looked around, my Avenger in my right hand and Valiance in my left. The continent was different from the last couple of times – though, of course, all the continents had been different.
This one, however, was a forest. And it looked familiar.
“My pod landed in a place like this,” I said, looking around at the dark trees and bushes.
“It can’t be the same place, Chief – I mean, that was on the surface, right?”
“Probably not,” I acknowledged.
“Chief.”
“Yeah, Grantz?”
“I feel like we’re being watched.”
The bars to the elevator’s cage slid down noiselessly, leaving us exposed to the environment. I peered into the shadowy forest, straining my eyes and ears for any sounds of movement.
Nothing. I beckoned the squad forward and we began to move, spreading into the usual diamond formation – Parma on my left, Rulen to my right, and Grantz as the rearguard. We crept forward into the forest, keeping on the alert.
Before we had gone far, Parma hissed for a halt.
“What is it?”
“Take a look at this, Chief.” She was pointing at the ground. I moved over and took a glance.
Pawprints. Big ones. They moved one direction through the forest, meandering off through the trees.
“Hey, Grantz?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Good call.” I straightened up and looked around. “You’re right. I don’t like this at all.”
“Ooh, have we got some horrible monstoos?” Rulen said in a babyish voice. He looked over and saw the prints, then yelped. “Son of a mother! What is that?”
“Whatever it is, it probably isn’t friendly.” I took another evaluation of our surroundings. “Parma, do you have any idea where the next elevator is?”
“In this forest, sir? It could be anywhere. These continents seem to have varying degrees of length and width – who knows how big this one is.”
“Then would you say our best lead to going anywhere is that?” I asked, gesturing at the trail of prints.
Parma looked down at the huge indentations, then hesitantly replied. “Yes, sir, I think so.”
“What? You’re not serious, darling, please,” Rulen groaned. “It’s huge! It’ll probably consider us nothing more than appetizers!”
“Well, I wouldn’t be worried. You’re not much of a snack, seeing as you have no meat or brains.”
“Ah, what a cruel recon maiden we have!”
“It’s not my cruelty you should be worried about – it’s Grantz’s, who will start pounding any second now if you keep gibbering like a Morai with too much metal in its mouth.”
“All right, enough.” I gestured for them to stop bickering. “Parma, you take point and follow those tracks. Grantz, I want you on the flank this time. Rulen, you take rear.”
We continued in tense silence, feeling the same watching presence that Grantz had mentioned. I clutched my Avenger, feeling assured by its weight.
“Hostiles!” Parma suddenly shouted, and almost simultaneously I heard several pops as she loosed several rounds from her sidearm.
Spinning to face the threat, I was just in time to see a brown-furred, wolfish creature spring from the bushes, teeth bared. I swept my Avenger up and forward, catching the creature mid – pounce and blasting it back. It spun in midair by the pure force behind the blow, then landed and immediately caught a Valiance shot to the side. It flopped over, dead.
To my left, there was a thundering smash as Grantz pounded another one into the ground, doing what he did best – systematic and utter destruction of his opponents. His Suderuska glowed a brilliant white-yellow with power as he swept a huge path in front of him, roaring his defiance. Parma kept sniping the wolves – they kept coming, and coming, and coming. When one got too close to her she slipped out her Acheron – an inky blade that was as swift as it was deadly – and ensured they got no further. Rulen stood in the middle of our triangle, tossing out small bombs at the pack that encircled us.
Finally, there was a reprieve in the flood of enemies. We stood around in our defensive formation, breathing heavily from the sudden exertions.
“What…the heck…was that?” Parma gasped.
“Some kind of wolf pack. Perhaps they don’t like the fact we’re tracking this big guy,” I said.
Rulen blew out a deep breath. “Yeah. We won’t even be appetizers for him, at this rate.”
I glared at the pack surrounding us. Their teeth were bared, and there were numerous growls coming from all around. I holstered my blaster: against this many, it was better to focus all of my attention on my sword.
Before they could attack again, however, another howl pierced through the forest. It was different than the others – more ghostly, haunting. The pack’s growls silenced and their ears laid flat against their skulls, some actually whimpering. Then, as one, they turned and fled into the forest, disappearing – as if they’d never been there.
The bodies of the ones we’d killed, nonetheless, stayed where they were.
“That sounded like it could be the one we’re tracking,” Parma said.
“One way to find out,” I nodded, gesturing at the tracks.
We had only gone a little further when we heard a cry for help. We froze, looking around.
It came again. “Heeeeeeeelp! Somebody!”
“That sounds like a knight-”
“It is a knight. Come on!”
We dashed through the forest, heading in the direction of the distress call. All of a sudden we burst out of the trees into a clearing that was walled off on both sides, with a small path on the other end.
A Spiral recruit was against the wall, his shield in front of him and his sword poking out from one edge. Both were shaking uncontrollably, and he was frantically looking along the ground, which was disturbed in many places – like something had been digging through it in random places.
“Recruit! What’re you doing out here?!”
The knight looked up and gasped as he saw us, his face lighting up. “Alpha Squad? But you–” he looked back down. “No, wait! Watch out for-”
His next words were lost as the ground below him suddenly erupted in a flurry of slashing claws and teeth. There was a garbled cry, a rumble, and then the knight was gone, with nothing in his place but a patch of disturbed earth.
And a bloodstain on the wall.
“What in the name of Isora is that?!” yelled Parma, her face ashen-white. She turned. “Let’s get out of here-”
A semicircle of growling, furry creatures stared back at her, slowly edging closer.
“It doesn’t matter, come on! We’ve got to get across!” I dashed forward, Rulen right behind me, Parma behind him, and Grantz threatening the closing pack with his Suderuska.
Just as I reached the middle of the clearing I felt a rumble beneath my feet. Guessing as to what would happen next, I threw myself to the side, rolling frantically away as the same beast that had devoured the recruit snapped up through the ground from where I had just been.
This time, however, the beast actually shot through the ground, arcing up into the air and coming back down with a crash. And now we had our first look at the thing we’d been tracking.
It had dark, blue-black fur, and along its spine ran many red-tipped spines. Its teeth were needle-sharp and its eyes were a glowing, infernal red.
“Yahh!” Rulen tossed a bomb at the beast, dodging around to the side as he did so.
The explosive cracked against the forehead of the massive creature, but the beast merely howled in annoyance and charged Rulen, snapping its deadly teeth. Parma charged in just in time, whacking her Acheron against the beast’s leg and drawing it towards her.
“It’s not working!” Parma screamed as she hit the beast again with her sword, dodging away from its claws. “My blade can’t cut it!”
“Just run for it! Grantz!” I yelled, looking back towards where he stood in the original way into the clearing, holding back the wolf-pack. They seemed to be hesitant – not because of his massive Suderuska and hulking Guardian armor, but because of the beast behind him. Their ears were laid back, and while they were growling fiercely, they did not venture further.
“Get out of there! We’ve got to break for it!”
He looked back at me and nodded. Pulling his giant gun, the Callahan, he pointed it at the huge monster and pulled the trigger.
CRACK! BOOM!
The projectile shot from the Callahan and slammed into the beast, distracting it from Parma and stunning it momentarily. Bellowing like a berserker, Grantz grabbed his Suderuska in both hands and charged towards the beast, slamming the giant blade into its hide.
“GO!” He yelled, “I’ll follow!”
Rulen and Parma dashed towards the pathway at the end of the clearing, with me following them close behind.
“Grantz! Come on!”
Just then the hulking Guardian slammed his blade into the creature’s eye, the Suderuska’s end spike burying deep. The creature roared in pain, then howled – high-pitched, keening. Grantz yanked his blade out and turned, charging for the exit.
He was almost there, and then the beast – still roaring with agony – scrambled madly after him, swiping and chomping. Grantz spared a glance over his shoulder at the creature, then went into a sprinting leap – Guardian armor and all – and shot through the narrow exit onto the pathway. The beast crashed into the wall behind him, too large to fit through, and snarled, chomping at us futilely. Finally it lost interest and, turning and ambling away, its snarling turned to whimpering.
We sat there and breathed for a moment, letting the adrenaline fade from our systems. I glanced back through the doorway, then back to the other three.
“Anybody wounded?”
“Nothing here, sir,” Rulen said.
“Just a minor wound,” Parma said, showing where the beast’s claws had shaved across her left arm, just barely managing to penetrate her armor at the elbow joint. Then she looked away. “But…that recruit…”
I shook my head.
After a moment of silence, I broke the silence again.
“I suppose we should find out what’s up this path.”
“I think it’s an elevator, sir,” Rulen replied. “I took a glance while Grantz was taking his sweet time fending off the wee beastie.”
Sure enough, it was. I held up a fist. “I’m leaving one module here.”
“Aye, sir.”
I placed the module and wrote a short message on it, then stood and walked over to the elevator and my comrades. The bars shot up, and we descended once more.
To darkness.