A dark shadow, nearly invisible flittered across the blackness of space, gliding towards a small moon of a giant gas planet, ninth from the blue star. The shadow was a lightly armed scout ship, on a mission to find a long missing transport ship. Currently traveling at full capacity it would reach the moon within three days. From a window, the gas giant was visible, almost filling the viewport. A tiny pinprick against the black of space was visible, and very slowly growing bigger. The three-hundred metre scout ship was nearing the end of the voyage, and the crew were preparing to enter the atmosphere.

The moon, Phyrexia was a barely habitable moon, only sustaining an eco-system through the combined heat from the gas giant, and the distant but still massive blue star. The surface was a desolate place, vastly baren expanses of rock and dust, it was near the poles that water and green life was found.

The ship began its slowing procedures as Jace was watching the officers at their stations.

"Sir, I'm getting a faint energy reading from near the equator."

"Land us on the surface, near the reading." Jace replied. Simmons, the man who informed the captain went back to work typing the complex and necessary equations to plot the entry path and the landing sequence.

"Sir, the readings indicate that's our ship. It looks like the ship crash landed. I'm doubtful any survivors are left, given it was a peace mission and they were supposed to be back months ago." Craydon the signals specialist called out.

"Thank you specialist. Try to determ-" Jace's sentence was cut short as the ship was thrown to the side, knocking every one over. Jace was the first to his feet.

"What the hell was that!?" He shouted over the alarms that had started. He looked down the row of cosoles and saw many men getting to their feet and jumping to their seats. some weren't moving at all.

"Missile attack, it took our inter-system engine, and three flight engines, two on our port and one on the starboard." One of the combat officers shouted. That leaves us with three, not enough to leave the atmosphere, Jace thought.

"Full combat status, land us as close as you can to the transport. Find out where the missile came from!" Jace ordered. A new wave of alarms sounded and Jace new there were more missiles in bound.

"Evasive manouvers!" Jace said. Then a voice sounded in his head.

<You fool, I told you this! The attacks are coming from the downed transport. That's where the other telepath is. And they have battle mages.> Jace shivered as the cold voice told him the situation.

"Mages on the surface! Open fire with the rail guns at the transport, keep the missiles in their bays!" Jace shouted as the ship began to weave back and forth, trying to avoid the missiles.

Outside, the sound of the engines reverberated through the canyon the Mages had decided to lay in wait. Three men stood in a triangle, murmuring in a tongue long forgotten by most. Dark energies flowed from one man to the next, faster and faster. They each conjured balls of molten flame, and as the scout ship flew over head, trailing several streams of smoke, they let fly with the fire. While the fire was fast the ship was faster and the flames dissipated.

"Damn it, wait for the next pass, the Telepath said they will try to land next to the transport." Said the largest man.

Meanwhile on the ship, the four rail guns had raised from their resting positions, and swivelled on their sponsons, targeting the transport. With the enhanced visual sensors, they could see the teams of men working the makeshift missile launchers. The railguns acquired the targets and opened up with deadly accuracy. Bullets could be seen opening up men, and blasting the equipment apart. With a few well aimed burst the threat was eliminated.

"Good firing. now land us near it. I want a full combat team ready to search the transport ship, the rest I want ready to salvage the ship. Remember, There are still mages out there, so be ready for anything." Jace said, holding onto the rail.

On the ground the three men could see in the distance as the scout ship opened fire on the transport and turned for a landing run.

"Here's our chance, dont mess it up." Said one. They closed their eyes and concentrated. In their hands fire burned brighter. As it reached its brightest, and the scout ship was about to pass over head, with its engines deafening the men and the ground shaking from the vibrations, they clapped their hands together and the fire burst upwards in a cone, aimed right at the ship.

Aboard the ship, they were about to finally land, when a blinding flash startled them all. The fire engulfed the ship, and started to blister the metal plating. Another engine failed as it was melted right of the side of the ship. They plummeted several metres, throwing them all about.

"Sir, we lost another engine and it's too much, I have to try to land!" A man shouted. Jace didn't know who was shouting, but yelled his affermation anyway. The rushing flames subsided, and Jace could see the front 'nose' of the ship was red hot. Past that he saw the desert rapidly rising to meet them. Too late for a landing, was the last thing Jace thought as the scout ship collided with the sand and rock, with the sound of metal screeching and being torn apart, rising to a cacophany of death and pain. Then he blacked out.

Can you make an OTC for this please?

In a deep canyon where the suns light fleetingly touches once in a while were three men, all dressed in the same deep red garment seated around a small fire. The fire was being fuelled by no visible means and just seemed to hang there two feet above the ground. The tallest seemed to be waiting for something, and the other two were clearly followers as they intently watched the man. Minutes of silence passed which stretched to hours before something happened. The leaders face changed into that of deep concentration, no doubt conversing with their client. He seemed to come to an unspoken agreement, for he opened his eyes and cleared his throat.

"The ship is destroyed and most of the crew are burning. Our contractor wants one more thing from us before we get our payment. She wants us to kill the Captain of the ship, and the last survivors." While he spoke, the fire started taking vague shapes, mostly of a group of people. "She has warned me the Captain will be difficult to eliminate due to his skill and experiance with battle mages. We must use caution. Is there anything else?" He asked the two men. They both shook their heads and the fire abrutly disappeared, plunging them into a semi darkness. They concentrated with their hands cupped, pointing at the ground. Flames flickered in their hands, before igniting into a bright white flame. As they adjusted their stance, the flames lifted them from the ground and into the open air. The three men changed course and head for the largest pile of burning rubble, at the head of an almost kilometre long gouge in the ground.

Inside a section of said rubble, eight humans where busy sorting through the armoury.

"I want everyone with a missile launcher and rifle. Anything else for shorter range means you're dead." Jace ordered. He himself sliung a missile launcher over his shoulder and headed to a large sliding door. It was still intact and opened up with a few heavy shoves. The lighting inside however was shot, so he turned the torch on his rifle up to full power. The beam of light fell upon three large all terrain buggies. Two had been crushed by the half collapsed wall, and the other was on its side.

"Simmons, help me with this." He called. Simmons, a tall and lean man walked over having just found a rifle. He took the other side of the buggy and pushed into it. First it didn't budge, but it gradually tilted and eventually, under its own weight fell with a loud clunk. "Find ammo, I'll give it a look over." Jace said and Simmons nodded and turned away. Jace ran his hand over the solid steel framework, and over the large wheels. His hand feel on the handle of the cannon on the back as he rounded it. With a small smile he called out.

"Ok guys, I've found us a way out of this tin coffin. Get what you need then get in." Jacde mounted the cannon and powered the vehicles systems. The cannon had fifteen rounds and the buggy had enough fuel to get to the transport and back maybe twice if they were conservative. The others hurried in with Simmons taking the wheel. "Everyone get down!" He yelled, and with a maniacal grin, pulled the trigger.

From outside, up in the air where the three men were making their way forward, a sudden and loud bang sounded, and as they looked over, they saw a large portion of the solid most structure blow apart in a cloud of smoke. Quickening their descent, they targetted that breach.

As the dust and smoke cleared, Jace saw the arid desert before them. With out speaking, Simmons drove carefully forward and out of the wound in the ship. Instantly, the heat hit them.

"Bloody hell that's hot! Everybody, ration your water." Jace said. As the back of the buggy left the cold metal of the ship and found traction on the sandy desert surface, he heard a faint noise. He looked around and saw nothing. Assuming it was the harsh wind on the rocks he shook it from his mind. The group of six pulled their clothing upo to their eyes, protecting their faces and any other exposed part of their flesh from the hot wind. Simmons pulled away from the smoking hole, and drove along a straight section of sand. Picking up a bit of speed, He looked at the navigation screen and saw the transports beacon almost ahead.

Above, the three battlemages saw some movement out of the side of the chunk of metal. Speeding up, they hoped to close the gap before they noticed.

Jace definitely heard something, and looking up, he saw three bright trails of golden flames heading straight for them. A flicker of fear passed through him for a second, before he responded.

"Teragasi! Above, fire!" He shouted before swivelling the cannon around and up. Barely having time to target, he fired.

From below, the Teragasi heard a shouted command, and knew they had been spotted. Before they had time to do anything, a large shell hurtled from below at a disturbingly fast velocity, and the wave of pressure it created as it passed through the middle of them buffeted them around. Barely able to control themselves, they let the jets of fire they had used to propel themselves up extingiush and the plummeted. Closer to the ground they reignited and sped forwards.

After the first shot, Jace cursed himself for firing with aiming and re-aimed as they plummeted. His thoughts took him unbidden back to a time when he was learning about mages.

~The Teragasi are feared for their mercanary ways. They seek out employment and carry out missions for money. They are deadly, arguably the most deadly Fire Mages in the system. They always raid in a group of three, and it is said that if one is killed, the killer is recruited into the group. Personally, I would flee if I ever saw the three golden tails in the sky.~

Snapping back to the present he lined up another shot and fired. As he did, his crew opened up with their rifles.

As they gained on the speeding buggy, The Teragasi heard the firing of small arms.

"Bullets!" Cried the leader, and with one hand keeping them afloat and speeding forward, the other one was raised in unison, and a small focused wave of molten fanned out in front of them. Behind and below them, bullets peppered the small rocky outcrops and kicked up sand and dust, but some hit home. The cone of flames melted the bullets to almost nothing, and minute pieces of scorching metal struck all three. Bearing the pain and agony of motlen specks searing their skin, they pressed forward. The leader lowered the protective cone of flame, and concentrated on the small tongue of flame in his hand. More bullet passed by, but now they seemed to be further away as more bullets missed then hit. As the small fire in his hand solidified, he pulled back his arm for a throw. He launched the flame-spear at the buggy. As he let go, he saw three trails of what looked like missile headed straight for them.

The Teragasi raised some sort of flame shield, and the bullets hitting them didnt seem to be doing anything.

"Keep firing!" Jace yelled. As more bullets hit the flames, he realised what they were doing. "Change to you're missiles! They seek out heat, fire!" The three men quickly changed to the missile launchers and fired. Three missiles leapt forth and as they did Jace noticed the middle flame shield had disappeared. He couldn't see what was happening, but he saw something bright flare up. As the missiles neared their targets, the flare was thrown, and in the last instant before the missiles closed, he raised the flame wall. Jace focused on the flare and barely noticed the three explosions in the back ground. The flare came closer and struck the ground right behind the buggy. When it hit the ground it exploded in a wave of molten fire which covered the back of the buggy.

"Abandon the buggy!" He shouted and didn't look to see who had heard and jumped off the back of the buggy, through the searing flames and onto the hard sand below. The firce of the landing took the legs from under him and he rolled several times befre he came to a stop. He hadn't even raised his head when a giant explosion tore the buggy apart behind him.