• 25-year-old Jamie Banes awoke with a start and sat straight up, her brow slick with a thin layer of sweat. Her breath came out in frantic gasps, but slowed down considerably as she calmed down. A sharp throbbing pain quickly grew and began to pound from within the depths of her skull. Jamie winced as her hand came in contact with a sizable bruise where a blunt-force object had struck. Ow, she thought, that’s gonna leave a mark. Where the heck am I?

    As her vision began to clear, Jamie found herself sitting on a cold, hard floor surrounded by inky darkness penetrated only be green beams of light forming a rough triangle around her. The recycled air seemed to hum with an unknown energy, as if it was being generated from some kind of engine drive. She curiously eyed the light beams and reached out to touch the barrier, only to have an invisible force field spark at her touch. Jamie uttered a small shout of pain as the shock from the field made her entire left arm go numb. “Alright, Jamie, that was a stupid thing to do.” She said to herself, brushing a few strands of straight blonde hair away from her face. After a couple of futile minutes of examining her cell for a means of possible escape, she gave up and took a seat on the floor. While she waited for the inevitable arrival of whoever had imprisoned her, Jamie felt her mind replay the events of the previous day.

    Jamie and Major Steven O’Niel, her friend and leader of Alpha Team, had been sent by the Bureau of Advanced Technologies (B.A.T.) to find a valuable piece of TimeSplitter technology apparently left behind by the aliens on the besieged city world of Poseidon. Not a few minutes after entering enemy-held territory, a hail of what looked like crimson needles exploded from the surrounding buildings and the intersection ahead of them, cutting down most of their Marine escort within seconds. She and Steven managed to take out a decent number of the attackers before a stray bolt struck Steven’s side. Jamie tried to help him, but was hit from behind by what she guessed was the butt of a rifle, and her world went black. She had no idea if Steven was dead or alive, and she prayed that help had reached him in time.

    Jamie’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted as a door shaped section of the darkness slid open with a hiss and a shaft of light shone into the prison. The light was short lived, however, when a bulky form stepped through the entrance, temporarily blocking its glare. After the door slid shut, Jamie could hear a pair of heavy footsteps approaching and the area around her cell was bathed in a white glow. The footsteps resumed and the two newcomers finally revealed themselves as they entered the light.

    They were covered from head to toe in thick metallic armor with a blood-red tinge and stood a good foot or two higher than Jamie’s 5’10” frame, making her have to strain her neck in order to see the being’s upper body and head. The alien’s round singular eye peered down at Jamie almost as if it was staring straight through her. “You will cone with us.” The alien said in a robotic monotone voice.

    “Oh, so you’re letting me go?” That’s every nice of you.” Jamie said to them.

    The alien who had just spoken suddenly pulled out a deadly-looking pistol and aimed it at Jamie’s face, “Now!”

    Jamie raised her hands in a mock surrender, “Alright, alright! I’m coming.” Then added quietly, “Sheesh, looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the motherboard this morning.”

    After Jamie had begun to walk towards the now open cell door, the two robots fell into step on either side of her and she was marched through the exit and into the brightly lit corridors beyond. Her vision didn’t adjust immediately to the intense white glare, so she was forced to squint hard and shade her eyes in order to see where she was going. As the light slowly returned to normal, Jamie saw that they numerous corridors that her escorts were leading her down were filled with similarly shaped robots, each bearing a different symbol or mark. Some robots that she passed were busy tapping away on datapads, others engaged in conversations, speaking in a language that she had never heard before. The escorts took another turn and began to approach a massively-thick doorway with a symbol emblazoned on the front in a shape that looked like a Norse rune. One of the robots laid its mechanized hand onto a nearby control panel, and within seconds, the door slid open vertically and disappeared into the top of the hallway. Jamie felt a gruff nudge from the robot’s weapon and she proceeded to continue forwards into the expansive chamber ahead. The chamber was as barren as a desert, save for a lone chair that sat atop of a flight of stairs encompassed in a column of light. It was to this chair the robots herded her and then forced her to kneel once they neared the throne. Its back was facing towards them, so Jamie didn’t know who or what this apparent authoritive being was. “Jamie Banes.” A deep male voice purred from the throne, “For years, I’ve been searching for you, and now you are finally within my grasp.”

    To Jamie, the voice sounded neither robotic nor human, which she found to be a bit creepy. “Who are you, and what do you want with me?” she demanded, a sentence that was rewarded with a disciplinary blow to the back of her head by her escort.

    The voice let out a chilling chuckle and the throne began to rotate, providing Jamie with her first glimpse of the robots’ supposed leader. His body was that of a human and wore all black clothes and a trench coat. A metallic-gray respirator mask covered the majority of his face and a single cybertronic eyepiece was attached to the right side. “My name is Xar Colya,” he replied, “and these robotic life forms are my creations, my children. As for why you are my prisoner, let us cut to the chase, shall we? I have in my possession a device of great importance to myself and to my upcoming campaign against the inhabitants in this galaxy that has recently fallen into disrepair, and you are going to fix it for me.”

    “Well, I’m afraid that you might be barking up the wrong genius.” Jamie said, “I’m not that kind of scientist.”

    “But you have experience in dealing with Time Portal energy, are you not?” Xar questioned.

    “Yes.”

    “So you should have little trouble with the repairs.” Xar said, sitting back into the depths of his seat, “This device relies on Time Portal generators for power, but we have been unable to integrate more powerful generating technology in order to boost its yield. With this, I’m certain you can deal with.”

    “What if I say no?” Jamie ventured with a raised eyebrow.

    Xar chuckled once more, “I’m afraid that is not and option, unless you wish to die a long and painful death. We shall be arriving at our destination shortly and my children will see to it that you begin your work right away.” He glanced at the robots, “Take her back to her cell.”

    The robots bowed to their master before turning around and prodding Jamie out of the throne room and back to the cold, dark cell that waited for her return.