text: [Themes: sci-fi]
  
  The mood is grim as you gather up the refugees, each with their only belongings in packs on their backs and no idea what the future holds.
  
  The deeper tunnels are newly cut and the paths are in places narrow and unstable, so it keeps you busy keeping everyone gathered together and moving at a steady pace. The map you were given indicates some crude hand cranked elevators up ahead, so you're just starting to organize everyone into teams to use them when suddenly there's a flash of purple light from a side tunnel.
  
  You go to take a look just in time to have to dodge a volley of shots from a squad of visored UN soldiers who have somehow taken up position in there. You hear shouts of pain from a few of the refugees behind you as the situation goes to pieces.
  
  Luckily a few in your group are armed and manage to return fire convincingly enough that the soldiers don't advance right away, but you know it's only a matter of time.
  
  "Where the hell did they come from?"
  
  [Teleported? Do they have that kind of technology now?]
  
  [We had better just focus and get everyone to the elevators.]
  
  [Are you crazy? We need to retreat!]
  
  [No, fight them!]
  
  [Let ME fight them!]
  
  Angrily you shake you head to clear the voices. You've had them well under control for months now, but they're always waiting to pounce any time you lose your nerve.
  
  You creep over and peer around the corner again.
  
  You see standing with the soldiers a woman with long purple hair and a black suit with stars and purple lighting bolts slashing across the middle. You don't recognize her personally, but you do know the type. This is surely a purestrain Hero, the first one you've ever seen on Mars, and even back in the time the original girl remembers they were rare enough on Earth. You realize that if the soldiers had teleported, she would be the one responsible.
  
  Well if there's anything Scope could do, it was kill Heroes. You step out into the open and fire your gun, hitting Purple Haired Bitch right between the eyes before taking cover again from the answering hail of shots. But now it was only the soldiers to deal with, and they can only move in one direction.
  
  More than half the evacuees haven't managed to use the elevators yet, but your action has made the soldiers cautious. No one seems to want to emerge into view right now, but you hear them barking orders and know it's just a matter of time. You'll have to act quickly.
  
  Glancing around you see near the merge point of the tunnels a support beam with a slight tilt to it. Looks like the shaking from the bombing earlier has destabilized that area. You think to yourself that if you can get off a good shot at a particular area of that ceiling, you can bring the whole thing crashing down!
  
  [Not unless you can shoot away the whole beam.] Samson speaks up suddenly in your mind.
  
  "How long have you been lurking there?" you mutter irritably.
  
  [Uhh, since the imprint process? We're all in here together darling, I'm afraid you'll never get rid of us.]
  
  "I don't know, I think when those soldiers get to that junction and start shooting in just a minute here I might finally get some peace and quiet," you scoff.
  
  His voice is insistent. [But what about the others? The Martians I mean. You know that we can save them. You know what we have to do.]
  
  You look again at the pillar and sigh as you realize what he means. "You always liked the dramatic endings. But I could still try to shoot it down."
  
  [Ugh, you and your guns. Just hurry and make up our mind before one of the others grabs for the wheel.]
  
  You can feel various parts of the Maelstrom entity getting restless it's true, the real danger you're in right now seeming to have stirred them. Besides the ones having their own opinions on how to get out of this, there's at least one or two that would put one of your own bullets in this body's head the first chance they got. Always have to watch out for those.
  
  > let Samson get Biblical.
  Strength flows through you. At last you are free, although there's no time to savor the moment. You give a few last instructions to the evacuees and put someone else in charge of getting them into the elevators and to the escape tunnel, promising you'll handle the soldiers yourself.
  
  Grabbing the pillar, without hesitation you heave against it with all your considerable might. There is some resistance, but then you feel it shifting. Scope thankfully got this body pretty fit after the long years in stasis, when even the slight Earth born muscle of the original girl was impressive already in the lighter Martian gravity. And adding your own powers to that, and the determination you feel just now...
  
  Dirt and small stones rain down on you from above, first a shower and then a downpour as with a loud cry you rip the pillar from its place.
  
  There are thuds and reverbations all around you as the cavern ceiling falls, blotting out the lights and entombing the soldiers who crossed the vast gulf between planets solely to slaughter displaced refugees.
  
  The crushing weight from above falls upon you as well. As you lay dying beneath half a mile of Martian dirt and stone, you feel Scope beside you, and all the others too.
  
  The UN has taken its gloves off and you know the true Martian rebellion begins now. Others will have to carry on the fight, but they MUST fight because it's a matter of survival now, they know they will not be left in peace.
  
  The crazy chain of events that led to all of you being Imprinted on that poor girl on Earth so many years ago, the vast and tragic consequences, being frozen away in ice and then transported to Mars, all were leading up to this moment.
  
  By saving the refugees today you have given them a chance to rebuild and continue on. And Maelstrom?
  
  At last, you all are free...