- Unkown

The soldiers began to return fire, but this was not so easy, since the attackers' gliders were small and maneuverable, complicated by the fact that the pirates mostly stayed out of range of the soldiers and only occasionally came closer to fire at them. Kane had taken cover behind a protruding armored wall with another soldier and fired on the enemies as soon as they came near.

Something is wrong here, Kane said to the soldier after they had driven back some of the attackers with their fire. They can't keep doing this all the time, they won't reach us and we will get used to their maneuvers. He glanced to the side and cast his eyes over the deck of the transporter.

Here the men and recruits had spread out and were standing behind fold-out armor plates, returning fire as best they could. A few of the soldiers had spread out among the few fully automated weapons systems, trying to engage the enemy.

"Right" replied the soldier next to him, "there must be some point to this action...".
"Cover me, I'll go to a lookout" Kane said to him. When he nodded, Kane started to run, but his maneuver did not go unnoticed and suddenly not only one attacking ship but several approached and started shooting at him.

The air was suddenly full of energy projectiles and Kane threw himself down to avoid being hit by them. His comrade fired into the mass of attackers, but couldn't hold them all back, meanwhile he yelled to Kane: "
What a coincidence... I guess someone doesn't want us to find out what they're up to".

Kane shouted back: "How did they even notice that?
Anyway, I'm moving forward now, please keep me covered". 

He saw the soldier tell the others and now they all tried to cover him.
The problem with these transporters, Kane thought as he hurried across the deck, was that they just didn't have any continuous armor on the railings, he would mention when the time came, if he remembered that was.

After some back and forth he finally arrived at a lookout and took a look over the edge, which he immediately regretted, because as soon as he lifted his head above the armor several energy beams flew in his direction. The second time, he was a bit more careful and was able to survey the terrain.

Behind them drove the two other transporters, which apparently had to fight with the same problems, at the rear it even looked as if the attackers just climbed up the transporter. They drove into a high canyon of dunes, whose end was not to be seen.

Kane looked back again and saw that a larger ship had appeared behind them, perhaps their main ship or just a larger one? Whatever it was, it was approaching rapidly. It looked like a catamaran made of sand-colored metal, with runners made of large bones.

Kane peered at the ship with his visor and could see that the ship had a wooden floor. What worried him more, however, were the weapon turrets and the crew wielding what looked like harpoons. He took another look at the last of the three transporters and noticed that some of the attackers had started to climb the ship.

The crew was not so happy about it and resisted fiercely. Kane took cover in the lookout and radioed the cab. "This is the sergeant, what's going on?" came the sergeant's voice.

"It's me sir, Kane. There are some problems, the third transporter is being boarded right now, furthermore a large ship has appeared behind us which must be one of the attackers."

Kane heard the sergeant swear, but he didn't understand everything, but probably it was about lack of equipment and he thought he heard the words: "routine operation".

Then the sergeant was back on the line: "OK we're going to accelerate and head into that ravine, they shouldn't be able to attack us from the side there.

Also, I've ordered a couple of the guys to get on the rear transport and help out, but you stay where you are. As soon as you see something you think is important, I want to hear it! Understood?", Kane nodded and replied "Yes sir!".

He watched as the soldiers on his and the other transporter moved across catwalks to the third to support it. The transporters had accelerated and the soldiers pulled in all weapons hanging over the vehicle so as not to damage them, as the canyon was very narrow.

Kane wondered: what was the pirates' target, in the canyon they could only attack the rear transporter, but not the others due to lack of space. As they entered the canyon, Kane straightened up and took a look at the sky.

The sun was about to reach its zenith and was burning relentlessly. The wind had also picked up a bit and sand was blowing around. Small bursts of sand kept falling on the vehicles and their crews due to the shaking of the vehicles and the constant shelling.

The attack on the last van had increased and more men were detached. The rest sat in the shade or swept the sand from the transporter. It went on like this for three hours until Kane had a strange feeling, he didn't know what it was, it was like some kind of premonition.

He looked up and noticed that more and more sand was falling from above, more than usual... He looked to the third transporter where the fight was still going on, then to the front where the end of the canyon was already visible, he took his visor and looked closer, he saw nothing special only a few small sand mountains.

He looked around again and thought what he could have overlooked, as sand again fell from the dunes. The soldiers could no longer keep up and so the sand lay in small mountains on the transporters and was then pushed down like this. Something about this small sand mountains striked him.

He ran up to one and started digging, his fingers hit something metallic, he took a small metal disk, the size of a large serving plate out of the pile and looked at it then looked at the other piles and yelled "Bombs!"

The other soldiers had watched him in wonder at first, but when they realized what he had found they were all on their feet. He activated his radio and stuck the bomb into the sand wall next to him. When he looked up, he saw a figure peeking at him, but it disappeared immediately, but not fast enough.

"The sergeant here, what is it?"

"Sir, we're in a trap, the feine are watching us and have hidden bombs in the sand, which have fallen on our carriages, I think they're going to detonate them, we have to get out of here!".

The sergeant reacted quickly, the speed of the vehicles once again increased to the maximum speed, then he replied, "Get the bombs off the roof and fast."

Just as Kane was about to reply that this was already happening under high pressure he saw several figures in black robes sliding down the wall of the canyon, directly towards the transporters.

"Sir we are being boarded" he said and took his pistol and shot one of the figures in the chest, which rolled over and hit the transporter with a pile of sand. The other soldiers reacted quickly, however they were outnumbered as most were on the third transporter to fight off the attackers there.

"You have to stop them, I'll order some men back".

Easier said than done Kane thought to himself and ducked away under a shot only to return fire immediately after. The attackers were now partially on top of the transports and fierce battles were breaking out all around.

Kane looked around and saw two soldiers making their way to one of the fully automatic guns. Just before they got there, however, an attacker landed in front of them and attacked them. Kane didn't hesitate long and aimed his pistol at him and fired. The man collapsed and the men brought the gun to bear on the attackers.

Just when Kane thought everything was halfway okay, he heard a loud bang and the vehicle buckled under him.

More explosions followed and the vehicle flew out of the end of the canyon in a high arc.
Kane flew headfirst into a sand dune and lost consciousness.