text: [Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, serious, war]
  
  "Well I suppose you're right in that we need to stop Alex, but blowing up the elevator still isn't going to help, I suggest we hack the security system to gain control of it properly and then send down the invasion force and hope we can deal with the robots and cyborgs down there." You reply.
  "Sounds like a better plan, I didn't know you had so much computer experience though, let alone able to hack into a secret army base."
  "Huh? I don't. I mean, don't you have people like that here?"
  "Excuse me, but you seem to be new here, hello welcome to the Compound...NO OF COURSE I DON'T I HAVE ANYONE LIKE THAT HERE! Sheesh! It's not like we figured advanced computer hacking skills are going to be that useful when the world is blown back to the stone age! So you mean you don't have the ability to pull off this amazing plan of yours?"
  "Well, not really, not to that degree at least...I suppose there's just taking the panel apart and re-wiring it so it opens up for us though, you got any electricians or someone of that nature?"
  "Yeah a few, but I hope you do too, because you're going to assist the team since you're the idea man for all of this. After you clean out all the cyborgs and whatever the hell else Alex has built down there, remember to grab those weapons and come back. We'll go back to occupy the base later. Now go select your team and whatever else you think you might need."
  
  After asking for the names of the electronically "gifted" around the place, you go about following the Colonel's orders and saying goodbye to Marina again, she looks more confident that you'll return this time, you wish you could feel the same.
  
  When you and your team get to the base in a few days, you're in for a little surprise. A medium sized robot is patrolling the courtyard. Looks like your friend Alex also dabbles in robotics as well as cybernetics. You and your team hide behind the outer wall when you all catch sight of it. Apparently Alex didn't trust you any more than you trusted him, and looks like both of you were right.
  
  "Uh, what's that?" one of your team members asks.
  "It's a robot, what's it look like?"
  "Well what're we gonna do?"
  "Kill it! Everyone open fire!"
  
  You have no idea if your bullets are going to penetrate its armor, but you you're going to try anyway. Everyone fires upon the robotic being, which begins to shutter and spark, but returns fire and a bright burst of light strikes one of your team members and completely incinerates him.
  
  "Holy shit, get cover and keep firing!" you shout.
  
  The rest of the battle doesn't last too much longer, while your team continue to fire bursts at the machine while they dodge plasma blasts, you get enough time to toss a grenade at it and blow it to smithereens. Shards of burnt twisted metal lie all over the place.
  
  "Come on we need to open up that door, before something else comes out of the damn thing!"
  
  You and a few others start working on the card reader, trying to get it open as fast as possible. You don't even know how you're going to rewire the damn thing; you'll just keep doing something until something else happens! As it turns out you didn't need to do anything, while you and few others are fumbling around, the elevator doors open. At first you think you it was you who opened them, but in fact it was Alex who was controlling the elevator from the bottom. Two heavily armed cyborgs exit and begin firing immediately turning most of your team into charred skeletons. You manage to just barely get away and duck behind one of the buildings. Fortunately they don't seem to be very fast, so when they try to chase you, you toss a few grenades in their direction, blowing them up in the same manner you destroyed the robot, except a bit bloodier, given their human bits.
  
  You come out of your hiding place and see nothing left of your team, they've all been killed. The elevator door is still open; you could enter and finish the job, or return to the Compound in failure.
  
  > Leave
  There's no way you can take on the rest by yourself, at the very least you need to get reinforcements! You'd radio in, but one of the other team members was carrying it, and he was fricasseed. Plus you don't want to be around if anymore of Alex's creations come up. Time for a full scale invasion, looks like the Colonel was right.
  
  And that's just what the Colonel tells you, when he's chewing your ass out for losing valuable people and equipment in an attempt to go through with your plan. His respect for you is severely lowered, in fact the entire Compound's respect for you is lowered. Harry makes every effort to taunt you, and even Marina becomes distant. (Obviously you weren't the "man" she thought you were.) Your status in the Compound is pretty much nil, when the Colonel finally organizes an invasion party; you of course aren't included.
  
  Now knowing another invasion attempt is probably coming, Alex really beefed up his defenses; the invasion force doesn't even set foot into the base before getting blasted by superior cyborg weaponry. Reinforcements are called in, but they don't help. The base is too well defended now. A retreat is called, and the Compound has to abandon its invasion indefinitely. In fact all exploration is called off; since the Colonel decides he can't afford to lose anyone else. (One of the only reasons why you're kept around) The Compound just becomes a "place" where everyone lives because it's safer than living outside it. The ideas of "rebuilding" civilization are abandoned. Morale certainly isn't what it used to be.
  
  Of course none of that means shit to Alex, who only steps up his plans for conquest.
  
  A year passes without another incident and then the day happens which you all hoped would never happen, but somehow expected it would. Alex's army arrives, and what's worse is they now outnumber you. Alex must've been capturing people in the wastelands or something. He's also improved his abilities, they're even tougher, and worse they're faster.
  
  You don't have anywhere else to go, and this place is your home such as it is. You figure maybe you can regain some respect by defending the place.
  
  You and the rest prepare to defend the Compound. Harry is predictably yelling orders at everyone, while the Colonel is attempting to boost morale with inspirational speeches. None of it really helps though when the first wave of cyborgs easily melt the gate into liquid metal and blast holes in the walls.
  
  Then they proceed to melt the people into liquid pulp, and blast holes in their bodies, you are no exception.