text: [Themes: sci-fi, war]
  
  "Figure out that machine, Dobbs!" you shout and go help the rest of your team. The creature's tentacles are surprisingly long and are still doing a number on your team, its fortunate that being stuck in the doorway makes it a lot easier to fight, you'd hate to be surrounded by more than one of these things. After a combined effort of bullets, lasers, and plasma, the creature finally dies. Now you've got new problems, first of all the creature's dead body is completely blocking the doorway, but worse, all the sound of battle only attracted more of its kind.
  
  You're temporarily safe for now, as you know the creatures can't get through the doorway, let alone with a corpse of one their own blocking it. They won't go away though. In fact it sounds like they've started eating their dead buddy; eventually they'll be able to make enough of an opening to attack again.
  
  Meanwhile Dobbs seems to have activated something. A wall slides open revealing a small line of silver robots. Their metallic glean is almost blinding even in this low lighting. Judging by their build and the wicked looking weapons they're carrying, they were designed for battle, it also looks like they've never been used. They stand silent awaiting instructions.
  
  > examine the robots closer
  "Alyssa you and the rest keep an eye on that doorway, if those things try to get in again, you know what to do. Dobbs, don't touch anything else in here." You say and inspect the robots closer.
  "Yes sir, but I should tell you, that we're running out of ammo." Alyssa remarks.
  "Dammit, you heard the Captain! He didn't ask you for your opinion you alien bitch! You should be lucky you're even allowed to serve the Empire, and not destroyed like the non-human trash you are!" Salo rants.
  "Salo, I serve the Captain, I'm loyal to him, not the Empire, and I've had just about all the abuse I'm going to take from you!" Alyssa says and points her weapon at Salo, catching him off guard. There's no way he'll be able to react in time, the rest of the team stands frozen, they're trying to watch the doorway and this new situation at the same time.
  You've never seen Alyssa lose her "cool" like this before. Granted this whole expedition has made everyone extremely irritable, but even under worse conditions than this, Alyssa has always been very calm.
  
  > let Alyssa shoot him
  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.
  
  > Escape
  Having just shaken the strange feelings that have been plaguing you (And to a certain extent your team) you don't want to tempt fate and order everyone to grab their weapons and get the hell out of here before the Sentinels start hunting you.
  
  You and your team hastily run back to the entrance, hoping not to run into anything on the way. As it turns out, you do run into something when you get outside, namely an Elojin ambush.
  
  You get shot in the shoulder before taking one of them out. The rest of your team not far behind comes out firing; the Elojin team is small and wasn't expecting to meet such heavy resistance, when they see they don't have the advantage they thought they would they start to run. It doesn't help them though; they're cut down in flight.
  "Fucking Elojin, I knew he was going to try to set us up somehow!" you mutter, clutching your arm.
  Still eager to put as much distance as you can between you and the Xont structure, you order everyone to head back to the Lizard village you destroyed earlier.
  
  After everyone is settled in and bandaged up, you decide to make a speech.
  
  "Alright, what happened today was a major fuck up, and we did a bunch unnecessary reckless shit, but worst of all I ended up getting a lot of you killed for no good reason. I could blame it on a lot of factors, but I won't, I take full responsibility for it. All I can ask is that you forgive me somehow."
  
  Your team looks a little bewildered by your speech.
  
  "Sir, how was today any different than any other day? You're always ordering us to do dangerous shit. Today a lot of us just were unlucky. It happens. But you were still there along with us the entire way just like always, and you got the rest of us out alive." a trooper remarks.
  
  The rest of your team agrees, with that remark. You're a little surprised, but then not really. You continue your speech.
  
  "Well then I'm glad you're all behind me, because we're going to have to make up a story when the Empire comes here in a few months. Now this is what's going to happen..."
  
  Having experienced the temporary weird hold the Xont had on you, you decide that using anything that may lie inside the building won't do anyone any good. You tell your team that the Xont structure must be destroyed, and it'll be reported that the planet is useless and too hostile for humans to be of any long term use, it will also be reported that the Elojin are attempting to use the planet as a secret weapons developing base and should be bombarded into atoms. You feel slightly bad about LaFleur's needless death, so you propose that it be mentioned that he died valiantly against the Elojin who had ambushed him. Salo's death will also be attributed to the Elojin.
  
  The rest of the time goes by without incident, you basically stay in the village until the Empire ship comes, at which point you tell your story. Considering you blame everything on the Elojin, your story really isn't questioned. The Empire never needs that much of an excuse to bombard entire planets with mass drivers, so the Xont structure along with everything else on the planet is destroyed. You and the rest of your team are sent on your next mission, where you'll also meet your replacements for the people you lost.
  
  On your way, you think about what exactly made you break your temporary madness and it was Alyssa's words of how her loyalty was to you and not the Empire. These words struck home, making you realize that your own loyalty is to your team, not the Empire. Of course you "serve" the Empire, but the people under your command...that's who matter.