The fly back to Area 29 was tense as fuck. Everyone's finger was just one nervous twitch away from the triggers as our prisoner tried to brake free, convinced that we didn't know he was trying when in reality I'd known he was working at the cuff's I'd put him in the moment the Chinook lifted off. It was for that reason that I'd gotten Void and Navi to hold him down while I moved the cuffs in front of him so I could keep an eye on his hands. When we touched down at A29 the early the next morning, I found that Carlos was getting, Calen, Citrus, Rachel and Austin ready for the 12 mile road march. They seemed to have just finished weighing their rucks when John's plane touched down. I handed the fancy motherboard off to Mako who rushed into the dome, still fully equipped, to analyze and tear it apart, like Mako does to everything that has a computer chip in it, which left me with the cockhead captain.

"Oh look", I said grabbing Deimos by the collar, "were back, get yo' bitch ass up and moving."

The captured Black River Captain moved, but reluctantly and with a sick grin and sense of self worth.

"You can still avoid retaliation", Deimos said, "Black River will negotiate my release and in return I'll only kill one of you."

"Black River ain't coming you arrogant little cumstain", Hunter spat, "this is Death Valley, the little RFID chip in your hand can't get a signal out. Assuming of course the Nooks 8 electric motors didn't fry it. As for killing us, go get a 20mm Long Range Rifle and MAYBE you'll have a chance."

You could literally feel the man's pride and sense of self worth brake into a million tiny slivers. He knew now he was trapped in the dragon's den, literally, with no way out.

"I hope it was worth it shit for brains", I said, "that money ain't doing you any good now is it? Get this ass hat out of my sight, Hunter, you know where we take prisoners. Taro, Void, Navi, go with him. Jayden, go find a place near the ware house to make yourself comfortable in case buckboard here decides it's time to run"

"Got ya", Jayden said taking off his helmet and walking off towards the rocks where we practiced flight. Nina and I left our gear at the armory and she changed into normal fatigues while I pulled on boots, pants and a green, sleeveless shirt, almost taking the bandage off my chest. Nina went back to the barracks while I went to get the hole inspected. Doctor sun thankfully told me that it would be fine without any intervention and that I was free to return to what I was doing.

So in light of this, I went straight for the hangar. I found the mechanics working on Morningstar's Veyron, Taro, as always was sitting in a folding chair in the bed of the Ford, Hunter was on the tail gate and Void and Navi were laying beside each other against the Semi. Hunter was standing outside the tool shed, looking in on the man who was trying to work through his restraints.

"Think we can get him to talk?", I asked.

"If you try out a quarter of the tactics you were thinking of using on me, yeah, no problem", Hunter said, "this guy's sense of self worth is so bloated that any thought of harm would make him crack like an egg."

"Let's see if we can wait to resort to violence", I said, "I don't need to do something seriously fucked up to this guy and then get caught myself. Scars are cool in all, but fuck the pain to get them."

"Show mercy?", Hunter asked, "why? They wouldn't show you any, you weren't ready to show me any and we didn't show any to that fuckhead who killed my pup."

"I see no need to sink to their level", I said, "now having said that, no one said I can't use fear as a weapon. Taro, go get me a few large pizzas, one plain cheese, the rest however you like, when you get back, bring the cheese one to the shed, tap on the door and go, ding ding, room service, I got an idea."

"Your the boss", Taro said jumping off the tail gate and leaving the hangar.

"What the hell are you thinking?", Hunter asked.

"You'll see", I said entering the room and shutting the door behind me. Deimos looked at me.

"Tell me everything you have on Black River, Project X-03 and anything else they got going on", I said putting my hands behind my back.

"Do you really expect me to speak to a dog?", he asked.

"No", I grinned, "I just wanted to get formalities out of the way, so you and I can get to fun stuff like broken fingers, toes, missing body parts, you know, things of that nature."

Deimos sighed, "you know I'm not telling you a damn thing."

"Aren't you now", I asked pulling up a chair. I sat down, perfectly within his distance of kicking me straight in the face, "control your temptations to attack me fool, kick me and I'll put a bullet in your head. Here's how this is gonna work, I wanna get to know you better. I do my own homework, so, tell me all about a day in the life of Captain Deimos."

"Wake up, kill worthless scum such as yourself and get paid", Deimos grinned.

"Deimos, tell me, what happens to big fish when fisherman catches them?", I asked.

Deimos didn't answer.

"Big fish get cooked and eaten, sometimes alive", I said baring my fangs and snaring, letting the Ln run down my muzzle, "Little fish, however, swim away and sometimes, fisherman comes back with food, unless the piss off mister fisherman. I'm offering you one chance to swim away, Deimos, one chance and one chance only. You can take it, or I'll tear you limb from limb and feed you to your rouge X-01 units, don't think they won't be happy to eat everything, even your bones."

Deimos didn't even looked phased by my threat.

"Alright", I said getting up and sticking my head out the door, "HUNTER GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!"

I sat back down as Hunter came in.

"Does Deimos have family? Any kids or siblings I should know about?"

"Yes", Hunter said, "to 18 year olds who are high ranking field commanders in BR, they lead the younger recruits into and out of combat very well. Their maybe a 40 minute drive from here."

"Do you think they'll miss him when they get the casualty news?", I asked.

Hunter shrugged, "couldn't tell ya. Seems like a prick so I doubt it."

"Well that's too bad then", I said taking out my desert eagle and putting a round in his right knee cap. Deimos tried hard not to show pain, but failed miserably and screamed.

"I've got half a mind to find your kids and bring them here so they can watch me kill you", I said, "but luckily for you, I have some morals, so a bullet to the brain it is."

I shot Deimos straight in the face, the hollow point I had loaded blowing the back of his head all over the wall.

"Get this shit cleaned up", I sighed, "I'm gonna go see if Mako has made any process on that mother broad."

"What about the dead fucker?", Hunter asked.

"Dig him a grave and give him a respectable burial at least", I said, "but nothing more."

Hunter nodded and got the others to start cleaning up as I left the hangar, meeting taro halfway between it and the dome, he had a load of pizza's in hand.

"Might not wanna take those to the hangar", I said, "their cleaning up another one of our BR fuckers who wouldn't talk."

'So what am I supposed to do with these then?", Taro asked, "their fresh and taunting me!"

"Put 'em in the oven at the lounge and we'll eat them for dinner", I said.

Taro sighed and started back towards the dome with me. He went to the lounge while I went up to the VR room. Mako often made use of the huge PC in there to do stupid shit as well as mission critical things because of the computers ginormous RAM capabilities. When It got there, Morningstar and my Dad were there, along with Mako, obviously, who was typing a wall of text almost too fast to follow and that was saying something.

"The device", I asked, "what is it?"

"Your gonna love this", Mako said spinning around in an office chair, "It's based on some kind of Nano tech."

"Nano bots?", I asked, "go on."

"I don't understand the science behind it", Mako said, "however, what I do understand is that it uses a highly specialized, highly environmentally insensitive computer and what appear to be some kind of crystal to forge billions of Nano bots that can be unleashed on whatever you want dead or gone without a trace. My guess is that it would be a main component in some kind of super powerful end all and be all weapon. With the time though, I could almost certainly turn it into some kind of rifle. With more time, I could attempt to replicate the forge and if successful, we can arm every Venom Dragon with an anti material rifle that will theoretically never run out of ammunition or overheat."

"Theoretically?", I said, "I fucking hate that word."

"Well if all goes right we could have weapons that would allow us to go toe to toe with anything any army could throw at us short of a Tactical Nuclear Strike. But if I fuck up...we all die a quick but agonizing death at the hands of billions of tiny carnivorous machines that could multiply unchecked and cause the apocalypse."

I crossed my arms, "It's like those options almost cancel each other out. An Infantry weapon that can stop anything, a weapon to end all wars, or the apocalypse."

"Or just throw the forge into molten lava and forget it ever existed", Mako said shrugging, "but if Black River built one, they've probably got more. If they built more than one of these, we might be seeing them using Nano tech against us once they realize bullets can't stop us."

"Then I say turn it into a rifle", I told him, "now, anything else for me?"

"Yes actually", Mako said, "the hard drive on the computer in the forge has two terabyte storage cards, both of which were a gold mine. At first, I was sure we were walking into a trap, however, I realized that Black River probably wasn't expecting to have this item taken from their possession. And unfortunately for us, the files on the Forge's drive's are outdated, the only detailed anything I could find on anything were about the forge."

"And?", I asked.

"Project X-03 is targeted at alternative mass destruction and infantry weapons", Mako said, "energy weapons, magnetic rail guns, EMP grenades, stealth technology, Singularity weapons. Now given, I have zero proof of this, but the name of one of the files, "Project X-03, Developing Alternative Infantry weapons to end conflicts faster", is a power point presentation that outlines Black River's desire to completely replace the conventional solider with robots and Reborn Soldiers. Also", Mako continued, "the idea was floating in the presentation that instead of developing autonomous software to let the machines fight each other, that control would be given to infantry trained men behind a controller and screen, miles outside the combat zone."

I looked at my Dad, "Like Call Of Duty, except not at all."

My Dad shook his head, "these motherfuckers are up to no good. What's our next move?"

"Well now that we know of their end game we should make every attempt possible to dismantle their research and progress", Morningstar said, "Mako, see if you can get any kind of location from the forge's files. I somehow have a feeling things are going to get much worse very quickly."