The surface of Ageala Mahor shines and wavers through the outer layer of the atmosphere, like the air in a desert. On the surface, though, it's cool and wet, for the rainy season has just departed. And in opinion of Private Herring, Amphibious Ambush Troop, it's just a sight too cool for his liking. "Sir, permission to speak?" The request was answered by a gruff "Permission granted" from Sergeant Maliffso, Amphibious Ambush and Assault Extraordinaire. "Sir," said Private Herring, "isn't it going to be great when the weather control station's up?" The cold stare he got in reply said, very clearly, no, it will not be great. "Keep your eyes on the water private; the last report said the sklinterrs are coming this way." They were on the edge of a rocky cliff, the abrupt end to the ground. Below the cliff was the clear blue Agealian sea, and somewhere in there was a group of sklinterrs, surging through the water, their sole aim being to attack the nearby United Base. Sklinterrs are one of the strangest death machines; they are individually two foot long sharp metal splinters, yet they can bind together to form shapes for traveling. In water they form a vaguely dolphin-like shape, and on land they can create a flowing snake. When they reach their target, they split apart, and fly through the air, spinning wildly. While doing this, they can shred nearly any material apart. And this is why Private Herring and Sergeant Maliffso were stationed on the edge of a sea cliff, with an amphibious missile launcher for each of them.
As they waited, Sergeant Maliffso watched Private Herring; "The boy could be good," he thought to himself, "but he seems to be rather easily distracted. I wonder how he'll cope with his first battle." They stood quietly, then Private Herring sunk to his knees. "Private?" Sergeant Maliffso asked. "Praying sir; I had a sudden resurgence of Sunday school memories." "I see. Well I would- Get up Private, they're here." Two large dolphins had swam into view. Or at least, they were shaped similar to dolphins. The machines were about three times larger than the average dolphin, and made of a shiny platinum-looking metal. "Get ready to fire, Private, but don't alert them to our presence." "Siryessir. Preparing to- oops." The missile cartridge slipped out of the Private's hands, and crashed upon the rocks below. The air briefly turned yellow around where the cartridge hit, then went back to normal. "Wonderful, Private, just wonder-" before he could finish his sentence, several sklinterrs detached from one of the groups, and launched themselves out of the water towards the Sergeant's head. He dispatched them with a missile, and began to reload. But before he could fire more than one or two missiles, the sklinterrs had already reached the cliff, and were flowing up in rivers of liquid steel. "Damn, we can't hit them from here; the angle we're at will just ensure we miss if we fire. Come on Private, it's time to retreat back to base. Run!" They took off into the forest, running for their lives. "Drop your weapons Private, they'll just slow you down!" "Yessir!" They let their weapons drop to the ground, just as they heard the whirring that meant the machines had gotten up the cliff and were already ripping apart the vegetation.
After only thirty seconds or, an explosion ripped out as the sklinterrs hit the guns; a high pitched scream went up, and then they got angry. They split apart, and spread through the jungle indiscriminately shredding whatever moved. "Get into a tree Herring, we'll be able to hide from them that way!" "Yessir!" The Sergeant swiftly clambered up a tree, but as the Private grabbed onto a branch, it snapped and he tumbled to the ground. He got up and made a leap for another branch. He never got there. A sklinterr came out of the undergrowth and drilled through his chest, killing him instantly. The sklinterrs came back together, and flowed on as the snake form toward the United Base. The Sergeant marked the place where the Private had fallen, and came down from the tree. He started running off to base, taking a circuitous route to avoid running into his previous pursuers. "Sorry kid... Bad luck." He thought to himself as ran, "But I'll be back for you. Though what needs to be done now is save the Settlement; your corpse can come later."
