text: [Themes: sci-fi, serious]
  
  Salo, raises his weapon, and is struck down with a single bullet to the head. His fanatical rants end immediately as his body hits the floor. Alyssa looks at you, and you just nod. The rest of the team relaxes a little knowing that at least this situation has been diffused.
  
  You immediately pull out the coins you took from the Elojin earlier and inspect them, put them on the floor, take Salo's plasma pistol and melt them into nothingness. This damn Xont quest you've been on has fucked up your mind, between the Elojin's syrupy words, Salo's rants, and the overall strange feeling you had since you first got those coins, not to mention this PLACE itself, you only now are starting feel like yourself.
  
  There's still the matter of getting out of here though, fortunately Dobbs may have found a way to do that.
  
  "Um, sir? I think I remembered what some of these symbols were supposed to mean, I think I can figured out how we can turn them on without them attacking us. I remember a Xont legend about "Silver Sentinels", and that's what these things look like. I guess they were created by the Xont primarily to act as guards for scientists, if we don't look like a threat then they shouldn't attack us. In fact they'll probably start attacking those things lurking outside."
  "Yeah, but we aren't Xont, won't they attack us anyway?"
  "I don't know, but didn't the Xont supposedly have a lot of different races working for them? Maybe the Sentinels will think we're just a harmless subject race of the Xont"
  "So what do we do to look harmless?"
  "Drop all our guns."
  
  Everyone isn't too enthusiastic about that idea! However, it sounds somewhat plausible. Scientists aren't usually known for their combat abilities and they probably weren't running around with guns because of the Sentinels, and thus weren't considered a threat. You can only hope the Sentinels still don't perceive you as a threat even without guns. Alyssa is particularly skilled in unarmed combat.
  "Let's do it. It might be our only chance. Drop your weapons everyone. We'll either live or die, either way; it'll be quicker than waiting in here for certain death."
  
  Your team reluctantly drops their weapons as Dobbs presses a few buttons on the computer. Red lights flicker on in the Sentinels' eye sockets.
  
  "SCANNING...SCANNING...ALERT! GENETIC EXPERIMENTS FROM LAB 4 HAVE ESCAPED! THREAT LEVEL 10! TERMINATE HOSTILES!" their metallic voices say in unison.
  
  The Sentinels move quickly to the doorway and begin to open fire on the feeding creatures. You can see the creatures fight back, but whatever the Sentinels are made out of must be strong indeed. Soon the battle moves far enough from the doorway, and you can hear the Sentinels hunting down the rest of the beasts. You climb over the dead creature in the doorway and take a quick look only to see more dead monsters. The Sentinels do their jobs very efficiently.
  
  You could take this opportunity to try to escape or explore a bit more.
  
  > Explore
  Despite the weird feelings you've just shaken loose, you still think that this shouldn't be a total loss; there are still things you could use and find for the Empire; however you realize you should minimize the risk.
  
  "Alright there's no sense in all of us getting killed. So, me, Alyssa and Dobbs we'll stay and explore the rest of this place. The rest of you take your guns and head back to exit as quickly as possible and wait at that Lizard village. If the Sentinels see you walking around with weapons, you know they'll attack, so don't linger."
  "But what about you sir? The Sentinels will attack you, if you stay!" a trooper asks.
  "Well WE aren't going to be carrying them; if we come across something else that's hostile we'll just have to rely on what we learned in boot camp and our trusty combat knife. Now get out of here, that's an order!"
  
  As the rest of your team leaves, you, Dobbs, and Alyssa are left to ponder what to do next.
  
  > explore this room more
  There's plenty in this room that still needs to be examined, besides you'll probably be a lot safer here. Alyssa watches the doorway for anything that might come through. You look around the room, but other than the machinery and computers already in the room, you don't find anything else. You decide to go see if Dobbs has found out anymore information.
  
  "So, you remember anything else from reading all those Xont legends?" you ask Dobbs.
  "Not really sir. The only thing I can determine is room is obviously a control room of some sort, and this entire building was some sort of research facility. I managed to turn on the computer screens, looked at a bunch of schematics and maps and gone through these logs, but I can't read any of the language. I can guess on some things, but I'm still nervous about pressing more buttons at random, I don't think we're getting any further in here."
  
  > Go explore the rest of the structure
  "Alright, let's explore the rest of this place, let's try to avoid any confrontation with anything though, we're walking around without any firepower."
  
  You, Alyssa, and Dobbs go back into the darkened hallways, trying to remain quiet as possible. You can still hear sounds of battle echo, as the Sentinels are still trying to hunt down whatever left over failed experiments those tentacle things are.
  
  Most of the rooms you encounter seem to be normal quarters, presumably where the scientists here slept. Most the rooms are either in disarray or almost bare, you don't find anything of interest. It looks like this structure was abandoned while it was probably still in use, you get the impression it was due to those experiments that the Sentinels are currently exterminating. Looks like someone didn't activate them in time, makes you wonder why this structure just wasn't re-taken though.
  
  "Sir, I don't think there's anything of any importance here, we should just leave." Dobbs continues to advise.
  
  Dobbs must really not like it here; you don't think you've ever heard him complain like this before, seeing as you know he keeps his opinions to himself for the most part as far as personal "comfort" is concerned. Alyssa of course is willing to do whatever you're up for doing.
  
  > continue to explore
  "Dobbs you're starting to sound like Lieutenant LaFleur, now come on; we've still got some ground to cover."
  "Sir with all due respect, I am not. And using LaFleur as a reference to compare me to, so close after his death which you were responsible for makes me suspicious."
  "Watch your mouth private!" Alyssa reprimands.
  "Excuse me private!?" you add.
  "I'm sorry sir perhaps that was out of line I know it was Salo who directly shot LaFleur, but sir you HAVE been acting erratically ever since we've been on this damn mission! I guess we all have. I thought you'd shaken it after you shot Salo, but you're still acting a little obsessed with this whole Xont thing. This place still emanates some sort of weird power. Maybe some things are better left unexplored; we need to get the hell out of here for all our sakes!"
  
  Dobbs does make a few good points.
  
  > ignore Dobbs
  "While I guess it's good that you're speaking your mind, and looking out for our well being, I feel fine Dobbs, I'm well aware of the stuff you're talking about, but..."
  "FOOL! I tried to warn you!" Dobbs yells, pulls out his knife and attacks!
  
  Dobbs catches you off guard and tackles you to the floor raising his knife to thrust down on your head. Alyssa immediately stabs him repeatedly in the back, but whatever the hell is driving him, has made him unfazed by normal pain. He temporary takes his attention off of you and slams Alyssa into the wall. You take the advantage and with one quick twist you snap his neck. As his head flops like a dead fish, his body soon follows. You get up panting.
  
  "Shit. Well someone was being influenced by something!" you remark. "Sergeant, have you been feeling anything strange, because if you have, let me know!"
  "Not really sir, I felt a heighten state of irritability earlier, but that dissipated after you shot Salo. My thoughts have basically been the same though; my people have very disciplined minds as you're well aware."
  You smile a bit at this remark, which you know wasn't made out arrogance, but merely fact. Alyssa continues. "Whatever took a hold of Dobbs seems to have been trying to guide us to leave. Maybe we're getting close to finding something."
  "Maybe, but even if we're okay now, maybe we should get out of here." You say.
  
  > play it safe and leave
  You decide to play it safe and leave. Alyssa doesn't show it, but you can tell she looks a bit relieved. You manage to leave the building without any incident. There are lots of dead tentacle creatures, but where the Sentinels are you have no idea, and you're not really in any hurry to find out. When you get outside you see some dead bodies of Elojin and a few of your own team members. Apparently the Elojin were waiting in ambush and underestimated your numerical advantage. You hope the rest of your team made it back to the village safe.
  
  When you get there, they look relieved to see you. You all begin to exchange information. You all are pretty much in agreement, that you all were overcome by something during this whole "quest", whether it was some sort of ancient mind control device that is still operational, or the Xont themselves, you don't know. You do know that you were driven there, yet when you broke the "hold" you were being driven away, as if you were perceived to be more of a threat. Something in there is important and the place does bear more exploration, but its not going to be your team that does it. Too much has been lost and it's obvious you aren't really equipped to explore the place without placing yourselves in unnecessary danger.
  
  You and your team spend the remaining time in the village, where you can stay within a safe proximity to the Xont structure, without getting too close. The rest of your stay passes relatively quietly. When the Empire ship comes, you explain everything to your superiors, with the exception of shooting Salo which you change the story a little bit. You state he was over come by whatever madness the structure was emanating and drew his weapon on you, causing you to have to defend yourself. You go on to explain Xont structure and severely warn of the dangers of the place.
  
  Your superiors have a mixed reaction to your tale. On one hand they're pleased that you discovered this find of the millennium, but are suspicious of this "mind control business" you're reporting. Some wonder if you still could be influenced, and shooting an Empire Indoctrinator doesn't really help either. They don't really want to execute you for mere suspicion though, not to mention you still might have questions they need answering.
  
  Ultimately you're taken off duty and put in a military hospital under observation for months. The rest of your team is as well, but they make sure to keep you all separated from each other. It's a relatively unpleasant time for you. While you spend your time under going tests and interrogation, the Empire sent a better prepared team to the Xont structure to extract whatever they could find inside. Unfortunately even with the preparation, something still goes wrong. Chaos starts to ensue throughout the Empire, and how it spreads so quickly is unknown. You hear things every now and then, but you're kept mainly in the dark, but even you hear about the civil war that erupts.
  
  It's during this time that someone comes for you as you sit in your cell. It's Alyssa!
  
  "Sir, the place has been abandoned we should get out of here and try to find a ship, I've located a few of the other members of our team as well." She says as if you've never lost contact.
  "Well I can see you've thought out the escape plan. You have any idea what to do afterwards though? I'm sure you've heard that there's a civil war going on."
  "That's up to you Captain, I'm just here to set you free and follow you."
  "Well I don't know if I'm still a captain, Alyssa, you can probably call me by my given name. No need for formalities anymore. As for what we're going to do, well I suppose we can figure that out on the escape, maybe we should just go find a quiet part of the galaxy and get the hell away from all this shit."
  "Whatever you decide, I'll be there." Alyssa says. There's something definitely comforting about that.
  
  As you make your way to your first steps to escape, you think if the Empire had had more soldiers like Alyssa there wouldn't have been a civil war.