Samuel Guthrie soared above the fortress that housed Master Mould. Havok had sent the X-Men's three flyers - Banshee, Warbird, and himself - to make an air reconnaissance of the fortress. Sam could see very few actual defences on the fortress's parapets.

"Why would they need defences?" Sam muttered to himself. "They've th' best defence systems in th' world housed inside." A streak of energy blazed past him, and Sam spun in mid-air to defend himself. Instead of finding a Sentinel primed for battle, Sam saw Warbird hovering behind him.

"Mah goodness Carol!" Sam exclaimed. "Don't do that t' me!"

Carol grinned widely. "Gotta be ready for anything, Sammy!" came her reply, as she speed up in front of him, "Havok's called us back to base camp. Race ya?"

"Yer on!" Sam and Carol rocketed through the sky back to the X-Men's base camp.

Havok sat in the X-Men's Blackbird alone. As leader, the team let him sleep in the jet, while the others used tents and the like. He stared at a picture. A picture of his family. Taken before the aeroplane crash which separated him from parents. The same aeroplane crash which caused Alex and his brother * to become stranded in Morocco, during a time when their mutant powers were first blossoming. When their mutant powers emerged they were shipped off to the mutant death camps of Israel.

It was there he had met Bishop. Bishop, the man who'd been like a father to him. The man who freed him from the camps. The man who made him the X-Man known as Havok. Trained him to control his mutant powers.

It was also the place he first fell in love. A fellow mutant slave. Her name was Lorna. She had beautiful green eyes to match her locks of green hair. She was an orphan, just like him. Despite their harsh conditions, they loved each other.

When Bishop broke them free she was lost in the crowds. He thought her dead, killed by some human soldier, but her fate was far worse. He later found out that she had been found. Not by the X-Men, or the HRM, but by the Prelates of Onslaught.

She was reunited with a sister she never knew. She was treated as one of Onslaught's chosen. She learned control of her powers, and obedience to Onslaught. She became a killer.

When Havok last saw her, she had tried to kill him. All the love they had once felt was gone. She called him a 'traitor' to his race. But despite all this, Havok still loved her.

"Alex?" Cable's voice brought Alex out of the past and into the present. He wiped his eyes and looked at his niece. She smiled at him gently. "The team's ready for your briefing," Rachel continued. "Do you want me to tell them you'll be just a minute?"

"No," Alex said, standing up with dry eyes. "I'm right behind you."

(The adventures of Scott Sumers, aka Cyclops, can be read onver in X-Man - Benn)

"Okay team," Havok said, starting into his plan for attack. Leaning over the Blackbird's holo-projector, he started up a small simulation. "Going from the reconnaissance that Sam, Carol, and Sean provided, we'll split into two attack teams, and have one back-up remain here at the camp. Sean, Sam, and Carol will attract the sentry Sentinels into the air. Hopefully they'll distract them enough to allow the infiltration team to get in."

Sam, Sean and Carol all nodded in agreement. Havok continued.

"Meanwhile, the infiltration team will be packing enough explosives to take out the Sentinels already made and to blow Master Mould to kingdom come!" Havok grinned. "We'll have to be quick about it. If we take too long the Sentinels are bound to click on. " Alex looked up. "It's pretty straight forward and should be a clean kill."

"How do we choose who's staying behind?" Revelation asked. Alex held up several straws.

"Short straw's the back-up," Havok said, handing them to Banshee.

The all looked down on the handful of straws. One by one they began to draw. Revelation took first, followed by Chamber, then Sanctity, Cable, and Havok. With all the other straws taken, Havok opened his palm to reveal his choice. The short straw.

"Well, looks like Banshee's going to be leading this mission team," he said. "I'll be trying to watch from the hill. Good luck." The team seemed stunned by Havok's statement, but each individually accepted it. Havok wasn't coming along with them this go-round. Secretly, one of them rejoiced.

"You mean that the team's leader will not be attacking? How disappointing." Master Mould asked over the video link.

"Yes Master Mould." the traitorous X-Man answered. "I would suggest using your Primes against the flyers, and attacking the infiltrators with the standard models."

"Or I can use you to lure them away individually, and then incapacitate them?" Master Mould suggested.

The traitor said nothing.

"Good." Master Mould declared. "I shall see you soon, my daughter."

"Okay, team," Havok's voice crackled over the X-Men's comm-links. "I can see you all. Flyers, go!" Sam, Carol, and Sean took to the air. "It's your party now, Banshee."

Sean nodded, knowing that Havok's probably couldn't see him. This was Sean's first time out as the team's deputy leader, and he was stuck as the mission's field leader. He would have laughed at the irony had he not been using his sonic screaming to keep himself aloft.

"Okay infiltration team," Banshee detailed, sparing just enough breath to talk and fly. "Once the sentries come after us, you go in. Maintain radio silence from that point on. Good luck." Banshee cut off the transmission and flew higher into the air.

The Prime Sentinels flew out of the fortress like rockets. There was at least a full squadron of Primes in comparison to the three X-Men. The twelve Sentinels split into three flights of four and each flight went after an X-Man.

On the ground below, Cable watched the flyers' progress. She looked at her team. She nodded to them each.

"Let's move," she said. "Once we're inside, we'll split up to cover more ground. Go!" Cable used her telekinesis to push in the wall. The team rushed inside, ready to fight off sentries. Above them, Warbird was surrounded by Primes and brought down.

Inside the infiltration team split off on their own.

Chamber slunk through the halls of the fortress silently. He shifted the weight of the pack on his shoulders. The amount of C-4 in the pack seemed to weigh about a ton. He rounded a corner, and smiled at the sight that greeted him.

He had found one of the Sentinel containment chambers. A vast room used to house the Sentinel robots in-between use. All the robots remained deactivated, conserving their energies until their next flight.

{This gives me the creeps.} Jono thought to himself as he moved from Sentinel to Sentinel, placing a block of C-4 on each. A sudden noise from behind startled him. Jono spun around to view the source.

{Oh, it's just you!} he telepathically projected. {I thought you were taking the east wing? Don't supposed you'd want to help me out here?} She nodded silently rather than replying telepathically. Jono turned back around and placed another shaped charge on a Sentinel.

Suddenly he felt a piercing sensation through his middle of his spine. Jono looked down to see a sharp blade protruding through his chest.

{Bugger m--}

Jonathan Starsmore's world faded to black.

(Plastic explosive- Tony)

Doc cursed as she pulled her hand away from the shaped C-4 charge. She'd gotten her finger stuck between the explosive and the Sentinel. Blood started running down her finger, and she quickly grabbed for her med-pack.

"When Bishop asked me to join his X-Men, I should have told him to stick his offer straight up his ass!" Cecilia muttered. " I'm a doctor for Christ's sake! I'm not fit for all this Jade Ops stuff. I'm the teams' friggin' field surg-GUH!"

Cecilia saw a blade glowing with psi energy sticking out between her breasts. Her eyes rolled up into her head. Doc collapsed.

Revelation caught up to Cable inside. Rachel had drawn her psimitar, and channelled energy through it as a makeshift flashlight. She nodded in his direction and put her finger to her lips trying to keep him quiet.

"Rachel, I'm getting this weird feeling." he whispered, "Was it your idea for us to split up?"

"No," Rachel answered, "it was your sister's. Why?"

Revelation cursed. His precognition suddenly kicked in full force as he saw a vision of a dark figure attacking himself and Rachel. Larry hit the floor while screaming at Rachel to get down.

Cable swung her psimitar at her attacker, but it was parried away by a dangerous looking sword. Revelation drew one of his pistols and tried aiming at their attacker, but couldn't get a clear shot past Rachel. The sword ran Rachel through, overloading her mind with psi energy much like the psimitar did.

Revelation aimed his pistol at their attacker, but the sword flew through the air, spearing Lawrence the same way it had Rachel. Revelation tried to keep his eyes open, but the darkness bordered his vision. The sword's wielder came to retrieve her weapon. Revelation spat on her hand.

"Still awake are we?" the traitor asked. She lifted Revelation by the hair and slammed the hilt into the base of Revelation's skull. Larry started to lapse into unconsciousness again.

"I'll get you for this," he muttered, his voice trailing off, "Sanctity..."

Tanya stepped away from her brother, a sadistic smile on her.

Cannonball soared as high as he could go, the Prime Sentinels following close behind. They had already taken out Warbird, and Banshee wasn't far behind. The Primes had adapted to Sean's sonic screams, and it was only a matter of time before they got to him.

Sam spun around and plowed into the pursuing Primes, tearing the Sentinels apart. The intact Sentinels turned to pursue again, but Sam pulled the same manoeuvre and tore several more apart. Sam glanced about wildly and saw Sean fall.

"SAM!"

Cannonball jerked as his comm-link burst to life. It was Havok. "What is it Alex?" he answered.

"The team is captured!" Havok called. "We've been betrayed! Get back to base camp before they take you out too!" Sam didn't need to be told twice. He blasted towards the X-Men's camp, Primes hot in pursuit. Sam felt himself tiring. The battle had worn him down. The Sentinels almost had him. The camp was so close, but the Sentinels were closer. Sam poured on the speed trying to get back to safety, knowing he had little hope if he didn't make it back.

Just when he thought he was done, that the Sentinels had caught up, a blast of pure, unrefined cosmic plasma tore through the air. The Sentinels were torn into their rudimentary atoms. Sam laughed joyfully.

"Havok!" he laughed. "Wahoo! Thanks for the save 'Lex!"

"We've got to hurry Sam, they'll have another flight here at any moment!" Havok said, his trenchcoat settling from the blast.

"Who did it? Who turned on us?" Cannonball asks, lowering himself down to Havok's position.

"It was Sanctity," Havok growled.

"Reinforcements on the way?"

"No," Havok said, "we'll take care of this ourselves."

"Or die tryin'..." Sam declared.