"You were all rescued at the last moment from your deaths. Your homes consider you all dead. We know that you are all just and honest individuals. The medallions would not have accepted you otherwise. We will provide you each with a special tool that will offer great assistance stopping this invasion. You may need to recruit others later to assist you in the war. We will not be able to supply you with much of the hardware right away. There are a few base sites that still exist from the previous war. We have only been able to activate one major site. This site will be your home base of operations. The whole site could not be completely activated. You must activate parts of the base yourselves. We have been able to activate the library. With a little research, all your questions will be answered."

Six giant doors rumbled as they opened on each side of the room. "These machines are called ‘Protectors’. They will be your greatest tools in the war. Each one has a special ability that is essential to the cause. You will need to choose a leader, but none of you are more valuable than the other. On the back of your pendant, you will find a symbol. The symbol matches the one on the protector assigned to you. Your crystal will open back up and allow you to be the sole pilot. Once you touch the protector, it will only respond to you. The internal makings of the protector and the medallions are created out of the same metal. This metal is only responsive to its owner."

The six pilots walked around until they found the machine that matched the symbol on the back of their medallion. Each of the protectors was a massive 32 feet tall with a cannon on the shoulders. The bulky chest and arms seemed heavily armored while the legs gave a feeling of immense strength. Each one was different is shape and color which gave them distinguishing looks.

Byrem looked around and found his machine. He looked over to find the new girl. He saw her, and noticed that she was still disoriented. She was walking towards her protector with uncertainty.

"I feel sorry for her. They have all been only a few hours more than she has, but most of them still adjusted. I’ve been here only a few minutes more than she has. I wish I could make her feel more comfortable, but she probably doesn’t speak my language. Besides who can give comfort when you don’t know yourself what to expect with this weird scenario?" He proceeded to step towards his protector and he noticed that the crystal opened again. Last time he saw this, he was about to be smashed by a whole building. Then the last thing he remembered was a bright light and then he woke up in his room here.

As he touched the protector, he noticed that it stood up taller. It almost looked as if it came to life. The cockpit opened up and a ladder pole descended down until it reached the ground. He looked around behind him and noticed two others climbing up the ladders. Three protectors had already starting to move around. He climbed the ladder and sat down into his giant machine. As soon as he desired to have the cockpit close, it automatically closed. He saw a visor to his right and put it on. He had to blink a few times to adjust to it. He could see the surrounding area as if he was 30 feet in the air. "This is weird. This machine seems to know what I want to do as I think it. These are some pretty hefty ‘machines’. I wonder what kinds of things are trying to invade?"

"This is Tran, can anybody read me?" The radio squelched to life with a male voice.

"This is Jake. I hear ya. I can understand you! How? Can anyone else understand me?"

"Byrem here. Yes, I understand you! This is strange stuff, but I guess they would let us communicate with each other if we are to be a team."

"I guess so huh? I hope we can talk outside of our machines. These things are weird, but I kinda like ‘em."

All six found that they could communicate. That seemed to calm the feeling of being lonely for some. Others preferred to be in their solitude to figure things out.

"I guess were all settled in, huh? Now what?" Byrem looked for all the controls.

The voice returned and now came through their radios. "Now that you all have acquired your instruments, we will give you a space ship to transport these in. We will also give you the location of the base that you will be given. The ship will educate you on all we know about these aliens on your trip over. It will also take you to the base automatically. Once the ship takes off, it is safe for you to exit your protector and move about the ship freely. There is a meeting room next to the conference room of the ship for you to learn more of your situation. Good luck."

A large door opened from the floor and a large space ship arose. The ship was long and wide. As they all watch it arise, they noticed the huge section that was reserved for the engines. Along the sides they could see large bumps composed of two halves. Where the two parts connected, there was a slit. The ship was definitely large enough to transport their new mechanisms, and probably much more.

A door opened on each side. Byrem watched as the five other large robots in sight slowly began to move forward.

A female voice came over the radio. "These things don’t have many controls. How do I move it?"

Byrem moved his protector forward. "Do you have your visor on?"

"Yes." The voice answered back.

"Good. Now all you have to do is concentrate and imagine your machine stepping forward."

"Okay. Here I go…" The machine stepped forward. "Hey, it worked!"

"Great. You control most of the machine like that. Somehow it responds to your thoughts, okay?"

"Okay."

Byrem noticed that everyone was moving a lot better since he said that. They all must have taken his advice. He waited and tried out the arms and other movements while the others stepped up the ramp into the ship. He was the last to enter into the ship. Inside there were six open-ended ‘stalls’ for each of the robots to back up into. There were three stalls on each side of the bay. They were each labeled with the symbol of the protector that belonged there.

The radio again came to life. "What is this thing doing? There’s a bunch of arms moving up and down around my protector."

Byrem stopped and looked around. All of the machines were being ‘probed’. "It seems like the ship is doing a probe on the protectors. I don’t know what it is for. Does it seem to be affecting any of your protector?"

Five answers emitted from the radio to report the negative effects.

"Okay, then it must be checking the condition of the protector or something like that. We’d better let ‘em finish." Byrem stepped forward again and backed into his slot. Sure enough, the probes checked his machine.

As soon as his protector was probed, they felt the ship rumble to life. The ship started to warm up its engine. Byrem found that he could switch his visor to see a view from the ship. He saw the room that the ship was in. He found that he could view different places. He saw that below the ship that there were doors opening. Beyond the doors, there was a bright glowing pool of liquid.

The ship dropped suddenly. As soon as they hit the pool, they passed right through as if it was some kind of membrane. When they passed through, it felt very strange. He changed his view to look above the ship. All he saw was the bright membrane with the stars as the backdrop. Suddenly the membrane disappeared and he saw that the membrane had been on a small asteroid. The asteroid quickly disappeared from sight as the ship accelerated away.

"Hey, can we get out now?" A voice emitted from the radio.

"Those voices said that as soon as the ship took off, then we could get out. To me it felt like we just took off."

"I think I’m gunna be sick."

"Ya, me too. That was pretty shaky."

Byrem added to the conversation. "Well we did take off. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am going to get out. They said that the ship would be able to answer our questions. I have plenty of them."

They all opened their cockpits and climbed out. There were six of them total. They were Byrem Fessman a professional cat burglar known as ‘The Panther". Samantha Hadius was a young archaeologist of many years. Tran Higdon was the son of a famous wealthy inventor. Jake Fokin was an experienced adventurer on his world. Back home Paran Gadian was a priest of self-discipline and progression. And Kamiri Stranna was a police officer on her world. Each of them came from different worlds and cultures.

Tran stepped forward and with his loud manner asked, "Can you all understand me still or do we need the machines to talk?"

"I can. Alright!" Jake smiled largely.

It was obvious that Jake and Tran were the two loud mouths on the radio when they had first acquired the Protectors.

Paran grew interested. "Does this mean that we know each other’s language now, or is something translating for us?"

Byrem also found it strange. "There don’t seem to be any translator devices on us. Since the protectors respond to us, obviously there is some kind of mental link. Maybe that is effecting us."

Paran though for a moment. "You know, I felt something as soon as I touched this medallion. It was like something tried to reach into my mind. I resisted it for a while, but it kept trying. I couldn’t figure out what it was at first, but every night for a week, I had dreams with the medallion in it. Eventually, it wore me down to the point that I could not fight it. When it did manage to reach into my mind, I felt like a vital link had been established so I accepted it. When I touched my protector, I felt that feeling again, only stronger. I didn’t resist this time though. I think that the link is why we can understand each other."

Kamiri was looking around while all this conversation was going on. She noticed a few doors on each side of the bay. She figured that the ones on the left would lead to the front of the ship. She proceeded left towards the closest door.

Samantha just stood there and tried to absorb the whole situation. "I wonder where she is going? She seems as curious about this place as I am." Out of habit, she checked her timepiece. "Hey, it’s working again. Maybe I didn’t ruin it. Now I just need to know what the real time is." She proceeded through the door that Kamiri went through. The room was a small room that had metal boxes that were attached to the walls. They looked long and were about three feet wide and about five feet tall. On the other side of the room was another door. That must have been where Kamiri went. She walked to the other side of the room and opened the door. The next room was large. In the middle of the room there were lockers for six people.

She passed through the room to where she though that Kamiri was. She was too occupied following Kamiri to stop and look around. When she went through the door, she was startled to meet someone face to face.

"Ahh!" Samantha leaped back startled.

"You better learn to follow people better if you want to spy on them." Kamiri stood there trying not to smile.

"I wasn’t trying to spy. I just wanted to explore the ship too." Samantha was trying to catch her breath.

Kimiri still didn’t smile. "I’m not one to sit and analyze the situation by talking. I need to find things out by exploring. Besides, who wants to listen to those men." She stepped aside. "C’mon, lets see if we can find out anything by exploring this place."

Samantha was relieved. She had no idea what these strangers were like. "Okay." She followed Kamiri on through the doorway.

"So what did you leave behind at home to become a ‘Guardian of the Universe’?" Kamiri examined a pod in the hibernation room.

"Not much. My closest relative was my aunt Stacy. Both my parents are gone and I had no brothers or sisters."

"Did you like your job?"

"Yes and no. I love learning what I can as an archaeologist, and I didn’t really have a home to miss. So I didn’t mind being out in the field for long periods of time. The only problem was the people that I worked for. They seemed to want all the glory for themselves. There was too much politics involved."

"Yeah I know what you mean. I had the same types of experience back home too." They both walked into the next room.

Samantha followed Kamiri into the next room. She looked up to examine the structure of the ceiling. "The problem was that the ones in charge were always trying to please the sponsors with a bunch of lies about how THEY found the discoveries. How unfair and stupid they are. They were in it for the money. I stopped caring about the money for myself and I wasn’t about to lick their feet to get funding and to be placed in the hot spot. I just enjoyed my work and I usually found my own ‘Hot Spot’. That’s when they would move me. Idiots."

"I worked on the police force. Though no one would admit it, politics were a big part in my work area too… Hey, look at that!"

Samantha looked out the window at the millions of stars. "Wow! I’ve never seen so many stars. It’s beautiful."

"Yeah. Kinda scary though to think that all that out there is all vacuum. At home, they had been traveling to space for about 10 years studying it. How about you?" Kimiri continued to stare out the window.

"I’ve only heard theories about what exists between stars and planets. I do know a lot about the constellations back home, but I guess that it won’t do me much good here, huh." Samantha stared outside into the vast amount of stars. "Hey, I wonder how this ship is going to answer our questions like the voice said."