Steber reached a door just as the main bulk of the reactor came crashing down. He heard several disgusting smacks as support cables that resembled tentacles ripped from the ceiling and slapped against the wet floor. As this happened, the gate closed, blinking out of existence.

Steber hit the button on the door and it thankfully slid open. He threw himself through the portal and closed it just before an immense wave of energy slammed against the door a second later. Steber climbed to his feet and ran. Next there was an earth-moving lurch and Steber felt his ears pop. He knew that the explosion had breached the hull of the station and that the artificial atmosphere was venting out. But that wasn't too great of a problem. There was enough air circulating through the base to last at least a day, not that he intended to stay that long. He continued running for what felt like hours, but couldn't have been more than ten minutes. He ran up stairs, climbed ladders, and bolted down corridors. He only thought was getting back to the dropship and getting up into space. On the way, he encountered several dead Imps, exploded Lost Souls and even a sick Horror that could only crawl after him, weakly reaching up with a rotting claw. Steber didn't know what caused this sickness, but guessed that it was a physical backlash from the reactor exploding, that only the monsters could feel. He kicked the thing in the face and continued on. The Horror's skin burst open and it silently bled to death in the darkness.

Finally Steber made it to the main entryway, where the umbilical led from the bay doors back to the dropship. He paused for a moment, thinking that he was home free, when a hand landed on his shoulder and ice-cold fluid dripped on his ear. Steber immediately shook the hand off and spun around to see what had touched him. The dead scientist that he team had first discovered upon arrival was standing behind him, its eyes rolled up in the back of its head. The liquid that had landed on him was its saliva, now chilled from the scientist's transition from life to the land of the undead. Steber jumped away and the zombie swayed once, before falling to the floor. The zombie extended one arm, in a pathetic attempt to grab Steber, but the marine easily stepped around it. Having left his gun in the Guardian's chamber, Steber had no choice but to deliver a crushing kick to the zombie's midsection. The reanimated human gave one last sigh and then lay still.

Steber ran the rest of the way down the umbilical and finally reached the dropship. He climbed onboard, calling out for the pilot, Helen Lombardi, to take off. When no reply came, he took a deep breath and cautiously peered into the cockpit. He saw a human form sitting in the pilot's chair, slumped to the side. He slowly approached and realized that it was, in fact, Lombardi who lay dead before him. Cursing softly and shaking his head, he moved the body to the floor, noticing that there were human-looking teeth marks on her arm. Steber guessed that the zombie he had just killed had broken in here and attacked the pilot. He felt Lombardi for a pulse and after finding none, he rose from the corpse and sat down at the ship's controls.

It had been a while since he had flown a ship like this, but not long enough for him to forget how. He charged the motors, over-revving the engines a little bit at first. He realized his mistake and eased off the accelerator so that he wouldn't burn out the main drive that propelled the craft. The last thing he wanted was to destroy his only means of escaping. Next, he pushed a button, which detached the life-supporting umbilical from the ship. When that was clear, he withdrew the landing gear and the dropship floated a few meters off the Martian landscape. Steber grabbed the yoke and manually took the ship up. Every second that passed was a greater distance between him and the moon's surface. Finally when the atmosphere dissolved into the blackness of space, did he begin to breathe easily. He turned on the radar and immediately picked up The Godspeed's beacon. He signaled the mothership, which was already opening up its bay doors for him to enter. Gently easing into the hangar, he set the dropship down and killed the engines. He saw several people running up to the ship, but Steber looked away from them. Trembling all over, he put his head in his hands and began to cry.

He was still weeping when the crews entered the ship. One team of medics took him to the infirmary. A second group carried Lombardi off to the morgue.

From: Sergeant Anton Steber
To: General Thomas Kimmel, Union Aerospace Corporation Fleet Command
Date: September 24, 2109
Subject: Invasion of Earth

...as outlined in my report, there can be no doubt to the unimaginable threat hanging above our planet. While many in your department may review my story with skepticism, I can assure you that I am of sound mind as I write this report. In addition to the forty-five inhabitants of Phobos, eight members of the UAC team sent to investigate their disappearance were brutally killed in the first stage of the invasion by the alien creatures I described earlier.

I can only guess as to where they came from, but I would say that it was a different dimension or state of being. The scientists working on the teleportation project somehow tapped into this alternate existence during one of their experiments and released the monsters that my team and I encountered. The forces that took Phobos were only a fraction of the horrors that exist out there. At the time that I managed to stop them, the creatures were working on their own version of the teleportation reactor, one that would bring the rest of their species to Earth. While I admit to destroying this new reactor, I strongly urge you to prepare for the invasion anyway. They now know about us and I am sure beyond question that they will quickly develop another way to get here. Surely UAC can produce an anti-teleportation machine, one that would safeguard Earth, and prevent them from transporting themselves to our world. In addition, I ask that the world leaders be put on the highest alert and if possible, moved to secure locations. Some may dismiss my unconscious vision as nothing more than a morbid dream, but I can assure you that it was a prophecy. Also, the armies of the world must, I repeat, must be brought up to the maximum level of readiness. Our enemy's greatest weapon in the coming war will be the element of surprise.

General, please take my report into the strongest of consideration. Failure to do so would be to not only ignore the worse danger in the history of civilization, but to betray our own race in the process. I know I can count on you to make the right decision.

Sincerely,

Sgt. Anton Steber

Transmission sent from the UAC cruiser, The Godspeed

From: General Thomas Kimmel, Union Aerospace Corporation Fleet Command
To: Sergeant Anton Steber
Date: September 26, 2109
Subject: Re: Invasion of Earth

Sergeant Steber,

After receiving your report, I read it three times - all twenty pages of it, mind you, and I must admit that I don't know exactly where to begin. At this time, UAC cannot and will not spare the amount of troops and resources that you suggest on a whim such as this. We are already stretched thin enough, defending our home borders from militant terrorists and our deep-space colonies from pirates, to recall them all to fight what you have termed, "a demonic war against humanity."

To be honest, I must say that I am rather disappointed in you, Sergeant. I confess that I have only met you a handful of times in person, but I would never have imagined you to be the sort of agitator that would write a report as grossly far-fetched as this one. Your account will be noted and filed, but my request to you is that you seek professional help. Your orders are to dock on Earth and then immediately report to a military psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzed to determine if you are a threat to yourself and those around you. I'm sorry, but your report is just too fantastic to be passed on to any respectable world leader. If the President of the United States thought that I was seriously urging him to crawl into a hole and hide for when the skies open up and fall, I would be laughed at and demoted down to drill instructor. Your testimony of Helen Lombardi, a starship pilot who recently lost her life on your past mission, "rising from the dead", and having to be restrained by orderlies in the morgue of The Godspeed is too outrageous to be anything more than a cruel joke dreamed up by an unbalanced mind.

Please keep in mind that I hold nothing against you personally, Sergeant Steber. Until a more complete, and to be frank, believable, report as to what happened on Phobos is submitted, I'm afraid that UAC's forces won't be going anywhere. I apologize if you feel that there is less than a week left before the end of the world, but it's going to take significantly more time than that for this whole mess to be sorted out. I wish you a quick and successful recovery and the best of luck for your future career.

Cordially,

General Thomas Kimmel

Transmission sent from the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.