|
|
23rd Intercept Fleet
Alpha Cassiopeiae
Chapter 1: The Mystic Journey
As the 23rd Terran Intercept Fleet fled towards Alpha Tucanae to save it's grateful noble allies thoe Zoq Fot Pik who were under attack from Kohr-ah forces, again, Wing Leader Gene Robertson of the USS Davenport took note of the Hyperspace disturbance directly in front of them. All of a sudden, his fleet was sucked in from Hyperspace. Before he knew what was going on, 12 Kohr-ah ships were attacking. "Evasive action!" he exclaimed. Before the ensign could respond, alarms sounded and power fluctuated. The Davenport was hit. Gene activated manual control, armed his weapons, and looked at the scanner for a target. He locked in on a Khor-ah, fired, and missed. His shot was stopped by a Zoq Fot Pik ship that was hurtled way off it's course, to a new heading, it's grave. The Stinger exploded as it collided with a Khor-ah ship, which didn't even seem damaged. Gene saw about four Stingers violently destroyed by spinning blades. He couldn't wait. Gene promptly searched for a new target, and fiered. "Direct hit!" exclaimed the first officer, while he punched the control pad on the weapons control to arm another nuke. A general atmosphere of succes filled the air when three Supox Blades entered TrueSpace to join the battle. It came as quick as it went. BOOM! Loud twisting noises could be heard throuought the ship as the Davenport got hit again. Gene knew he couldn't go on, so he turned on his HyperCaster, aimed the frequencies at earth, and reported his situation. "To any Allied Starships, this is Capt. Gene Robertson of the 23rd Intercept Fleet: We need assistance in repelling a dozen Kohr-ah ships, situation critical....." The communication was terminated as the USS Davenport erupted, causing it's nukes to explode and vapourize, causing damage to nearby ships, which, by misfortune happened to be, the USS Orlando and the USS Savanah. The other two ships where too busy avoiding spining blades and fiery gasses to form an attack posture over the Ur-Quan ships. The 4 remaining human ships were under heavy attack from the Ur-Quan ships.
Elsewhere, an Arilou Fleet, on it's way home form a reconassance mission in deep Ur-quan space, happened to intercept the message.
"This is Ariloulee'lay Skiff Squad Pal'Temek, we have intercepted your message and are intercepting the aggressor."
The battle casualties were high, for the Humans. 4 of 5 ships were destroyed, yet only 1 Marauder was destroyed, and 2 moderatley damaged. The USS Silvermoon was the only human ship left. "Give me an ETA on those Skiffs, Julian!" Shouted Chris Palmer, captain of the soon-to-be ex Cruiser. "ETA is unpredicted!" responded Julian with great anxiety. Dammit, why!!" barked Chris. "I must regretfully inform you that our Quasi-Space detector is off-line, and...." Crash!! Julian's voice was cut off as a thundering explosion echoed through the bridge, causing many panels to erupt releasing sparks and were soon engulfed in flames before anyone could take action. ...."and I must regretfully inform you that we've got about 1 minute before we all die!! Do something!!" Replied Chris. "SNORT! we've got problems down here in the engin' room, there's a big-ass hole in the fuel compartiment, an' it's a leakin' everywhere! We only have reserve power at our disposal!" crackled Tash's voice over the intercom speaker. Tash was a culture 20 engineer, who was positionned on the Silvermoon shortly after the New Alliance enlisted the Thraddash into their Liberation War. Just then, the bridge illuminated with green Quasi-Space. The Arilou had arrived. The Silvermoon, having lost all of it's comms, retreated from the vincinity of the fight, rather slowly. Chris observed with pleasure as the 'Quans were getting killed by the Skiffs. The battle raged on for about 10 minutes, then something really bizzare happened. One of the Marauders shot a blade followed by a F.R.I.E.D. discharge, which made the blade superheated. That same blade stopped right where the Arilou reappeared, causing the Arilou to implode, as the reappearing cycle was incomplete. The super-heated blade interacted with the Skiff's engines and caused a Quasi-Space black hole, which pulled in 3 Marauders and the Silvermoon.
Chapter 2: The Arrival.
Date: April 23, 2153 (according to internal CPU)
After being whipped across a black hole, the Silvermooon still had to deal with three Marauders. Alone, and with no known point of refference besides the Marauders and the point of origin. To make matters worse, Chris could only rely on reserve power. He thought of surrender, but quickly discarded that thought as he saw that the Marauders were not pursuing him, yet remained still with weapons powered down. Chris assumed they were assesing the situation. They weren't as dumb as he thought. He commanded Julian to scan around for anything useful. Chris engaged turning thrusters to the nearest system. He thought it might be wise to put some distance between him and the Marauders. When he was far enough, he engaged HyperDrive. To his surprise, nothing happened. He tried again. And again. Each time, the engines yeilded no reult. "Computer, get me Tash!" Ordered Chris. "SNORT! Tash here!" "Why can't we use Hyperspace! Is there something wrong with the motors?!" asked Chris. "No, but they would be runin' off reserve power 'nyways" Replied Tash. "Do a level 1 scan on the engines, and keep me advised of any abnormalities!" Commanded the captain.
April 26, 2153 (according to internal CPU)
Three days had passed, and the crew of the Silvermoon streched every theory and idea as to why HyperDrive wasn't working. They could only conclude that in this, whatever this is, there was no HyperSpace. Indeed, this would prove counterproductive for them especially since the three Marauders, 2 fully operational, took off on an intercept course towards the Silvermoon. "Oh shit! Julian, verify that there are three Marauders approaching in our direction!" said Chris. "Affirmative" heartlessly replied Julian. "Ok, copy our logs to the probe and launch it!" demanded Chris, with a hint of hope in his otherwise hopeless voice. "Well, it's been nice knowing you guys....." Just then, a dark red portal opened of the starboard side of the Silvermoon, and 6 ships emerged. "Julian, full analysis!" Julian punched a whole lot of buttons, keys, and swiches, and finally said, "It's a spacial fatigue, somewhat like the HyperSpace, but different!" "Can we go in before it re-seals?" asked Chris. "Yes, but...." Julian was interrupted by the computer. "Incoming transmission: The following transmission is incoherent and little progress has been made to fully translate, therefore *Best-Fits* will be denoted with asterixes. Transmission Begins:" " Hello surprise! Orz not see *Happy* *Campers* before here! What makes you come to *Easy* space! Not lots of *Parties* happening! Orz is *Heavy Space* camp here! Not Orz *House* is here. Not yet. What *Silly Cow* is doing here?"asked the funny-sounding Orz voice. "This is the USS Silvermoon, we are under attack form Khor-ah forces! Orz! Your help is required!" Cried Chris. "Orz are *Dancing* with Khor-ah". Just then, the Orz fleet started attacking the Marauder Ships. These ships differed in design from the Nemesis, in that they were dark purple and had two rotary cannons, one on the bottom, and one on top. They took out two of the Marauders with ease. As the Orz returned from battle towards the Silvermoon,now orbiting a habitable planet, an unidentified ship uncloacked. It immediatly started to attack the Orz. This ship was remotely close in design to the Earthling Cruiser, save the two fusion cannons on the front, and a weird dark red bubble on the ventral-aft section. Also, the ship was almost 4 times the size of a cruiser. After it dealt with the Orz, it resetted it's course towards the Silvermoon.
Chapter 3: I Want Answers!
April 26, 2153 (according to internal CPU)
"Julian! scan that ship!" demanded Chris. "It is primarily composed of Duralloy, Polymetic Steel, and Titanium reinforcements. It's power output is much greater then that of a Dreadnought, and it is roughly 4 1/2 times larger than the Silvermoon. It's propulsion system is Ion-Based, and..., looks like some kind of ....Spawner, for interstellar travel." breifly explaied Julian."On screen" ordered Chris. He eyed the ship, and stopped at the midsection.
|
|
Chapter 4: Many Surprises
April 27, 2153 (according to secondairy chronometer)
"Bubble Jet leader, this is BSS Fiuffel, tracking ITS Inflictor, reccommended formation?" "BSS Fiuffel, drop current formation, form stellar V, expire SemiSpace in 15 reta. Upon arrival in TrueSpace, aim all Heavy Trackers at the Inflictor's Integrated Portal Spawner. HyperWave silence in 3 reta! Repeat, drop all comms in 3 reta!" As the Bubble Jet Forces dropped into TrueSpace, the ships converged into a V shape, one ship on the bottom, two above it and another two above it, forming a 5 ship V. "2 reta until target!" The two reta passed by in no time, and soon the ITS Inflictor felt the mighty blast of the Black Spathi Squadron Bubble Jet Forces. The intergrated portal spawner was quickly destroyed, causing the Inflictor to loose control. It started it's descent planet-bound.
"The attacks have ceased!" proclaimed Julian, as he looked up through one of the many ruptures in the hull of the Silvermoon. Something caught his eye. "Hey, captain, what the hell is that!" he said as he pointed through the freshly sliced hole on top of the bridge. As Chris looked up, he saw, by his judgement, a ship landing. But this looked like an emergency land, as he took note of the orange glow around the fore-ventral section of the ship. "She's coming in fast" he said, concluding. "Scan that ship!" he ordered. "With what scanners" hastily responded Julian. "By my jugement, she's coming in on at least 35 degrees!" said Julian, turning around to view the horizon as a refference point. "SNORT! There's gonna be nothing left of her! Her entry pattern is too steep!" addad Tash. "Well, we'd better keep an eye out, see where she lands. Maybe her comms will be intact. Then again, even if they are, who said the controls are going to be in english...." deducted Julian, as he observed the craft, rapidly approaching the surface.
April 28, 2153 (according to Julian, Ship's COMM/SCAN Officer)
"Bubble Jet leader, this is BSS Plofuiff, scans confirm ITS Inflictor's impact. Moderate damage to computer ROM's, backup CPU's have been crushed from the crash. Scans indicate slightly radioactive areas away form the ship, possibly a missile dump, uncommon practice for ITS ships. Your recommendation, Bubble Jet leader?" "Probe the planet for Precursor installations, ships, artifacts, any anomalies. Bubble Jet leader out."
"I think we should try to make some kind of vehicle, and go to that downed ship, unless you want to walk 700 miles" protested Julian, convincing the captain to help Tash with her plan to take turning thrusters 7 and 9 and strap them on to the escape pod, as the pod was damaged in the crash. "Very well, but you go and search the ship for food rations, weapons, anything useful." As Julian set out to search for the commodities, overturning sheet metal, doors, piping, and fallen support beams. He aquiered hairspray and a box of cubans from Tash's quarters, chewing gum, paper, a portable computer, and a nail file from ensign DeSoto's quarters, several microscopes, magnesium, sodium chloride, and a bit of ammonia form the science lab. With all this, he proceeded back to the bridge, deposited the goods on the floor and returned to search for food, water, and any form of weapons.Meanwhile, Tash and Chris had chopped the roof and back panel off of the pod, increasing it's space, as it was only designed for 1 person. Chris hated the way the pod was designed, strictly for the captain. As soon as he was put in command of the Silvermoon, he wanted the pod removed at spacedock. He figured he will go down with the ship, and not escape, leaving his crew like some cowardly Spathi. Lucky for him, they didn't have time to remove the pod, as the Silvermoon was to be immediately deployed to Organon to help the Syreen repel the Mycon in that location, a clever plan devised by Talana and Zelnick*. On many of his missions, he wanted to rid himself of that pod, and cursed it repeatedly. He was afraid that, in the heat of battle, someone might want to use it, thus distracting the crew in trying to stop the delinquent from launching themselves away. Chris heard the report of the USS Huron, of which the captain lost her mind thinking her husband died, and her crew, in her eyes, had commited mutiny. Panic broke out, and someone used the pod to escape. Chris trusted his crew, but he didn't trust himself in near-death scenes. He also once loved, and lost his love to an Umgah Drone on board the USS Hiroshima, destroyed in 2151. "Gimmie a hand with the welding iron, and pass me that support beam!" shouted Tash. Chris shook his head, realizing the threat of the current situation. "Sorry, here you go." He wached closely as the skilled Thraddash fastened the ship's turning thruster to the pod. Chris knew the Thraddash were good with engines, it ran in their blood. After all, it was by placing a cigar into the thruster that the Thraddash invented their Mark 4. What was that guys name, oh yes.....Chris was cut off from his thoughts as he heard Julian's hollering coming from the ship. "What the hell...." Tash deposited the welder and ran up to Chris. Once inside, they clearly heard Julian thrashing around. In no time, they found him, and the reason for his actions. Julian, while looking for food, stumbled upon a peice of bulkhead, from which an arm was sticking out. He thought someone might be trapped underneath, so he lifted the bulkhead. Sure enough, it was only a hand. He put it on the floor and was about to continue his search for food, now with a lowered appetite, when he noticed his boots splashed when he walked, and the carpeting was slippery. He looked down, and something tapped him on the head, like rain. Thinking it was loose piping, he looked up, and soon began to scream. What he saw was Leutenant Greene's body, ripped in half, the top part stabbed by jagged deck supports, like a peice of meat on a stick at a fondue BBQ. He walked backards, as he yelled at the horrific sight, as the guts and blood poured all over the deck, and soon tripped over something. As he got up, he turned around, and he saw the other half of Greene's once sexy legs. He started to thrash around, punching, screaming, until his sight stopped on the Magnum 375 he found in Bailey's security quarters. He picked it up, placed it in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He studied the weapon stupidly, and realized that the safety was on. He tried to disable the safety, but his hands were shaking and slipping off the gun because of the blood. Just then, Chris and Tash ran in. Chris saw the mutilated body and vomited at once. Tash, used to seeing such horrific scenes, grabbed Julian and told him to get a grip. "I, don't, want ttto dieee like tthis!!!" studdered Julian clumsily fondeling the weapon. "No one is gonna die, not unless you start shooting your gun like a maniac!" yelled Tash. Julian pointed the gun at Tash, and threatened. Tash was convincing him to drop the weapon, while Chris kept pukeing in the background. "It's not worth it! Look at the captain! He lost his father and two brothers, you, you probably lost everyone, and me, I can't remember...., but that is of little importance, I will help you all!" preached Julian, as his hand slipped and surely unlocked the safety. "Now, you will all have peace!" He fiered the gun at Tash, shooting her in the arm. Tash grabbed her arm, trying to stop the dark blue ooze from coming out. "You shot me! You shot me in the arm! You try to cleanse me like one of those Ur-quan freaks, with their stupid doctrines, kill, enslave, cleanse! You make me sick!" Finishing her scentence, Tash delivered a mighty blow to Julian's stunned pale face, renderring him unconcious. After Chris stopped vomiting, he thanked Tash. He understood Julian's reaction, probably his first sight of the horror of war, being recruited to Star Control Military only 6 months ago. Never the less, Tash was to be congratulated, but first, something must be done about that wound.
*The Assumed name of the Captain of the Precursor Vessel in Star Control 2
Chapter 5: The encounter
May 1, 2153 (according to Chris Palmer, capt. USS Silvermoon)
"Bubble Jet leader, this is BSS Fiuffel, we have found the radioactive compunds. They are nuclear weapons of Earth origin. They were dropped by an Earthling Cruiser, mark 1. The scan identifies this vessel as being the USS Silvermoon, of the New Alliance of Free Stars." "No way! Query the computer. I want a full readout on that ship's history. I haven't seen a mark 1 since I served on a Discriminator! Yes, I remember fighting on them! We would have kept fighting them if it wasn't for Fuiffo. He was a brave Spathi!"
It's been 3 days since Chris, Julian, and Tash embarked on this crude makeshift vehicle. We are now about 60 miles away from the downed ship. "How's your arm?" asked Chris, as he got more gause pads from the medkit. "It's fine, I think we should stop and camp here for the night." replied Tash. "Scans indicate primitive meat based animals ahead, consumable." said Julian. Julian had said nothing for the two days he was consious, save excusing himself to Tash, and demanding to be put under arrest for mutiny. Chris told him that he understood him, and that he will not be placed under arrest. If he were to be put under arrest, it would be for being human. Julian insisted his actions violated ship regulations, but Chris countered him by saying there was nothing left of the ship, anyways. So the trio set up camp. Tommorrow would be a hard day.
"Bubble Jet leader, this is BSS Sfuioo, computer readout as follows: Subject: USS Silvermoon. Commission date: August 14, 2150. Capt. Chris Palmer, 1st officer, Doug Monk, Navigation, Simian Hondouras, Scan/Comms Julian Rosario, Chief Engineer Tash Jkkoi, Weapons Mark Osolela. Ship Comissionned at Starbase, drydock 4. Awarded by Syreen representative Talana, for noble efforts seeing the destruction of 24 Mycon Podships, Awarded Blue Cross of Nobility by Starbase Commander Hayes, for saving 17 miners on Alpha Centauri 3 during which the ship was under enemy fire from Spathi Battle Thralls. Special Note: Palmer manoever named after Captain Chris Palmer. Special tactic used in battling Mycon Podships. Tactic described: Get away from Mycon ship, turn around so you are facing it, let the momentum guide your ship. Make sure the Podship is going slightly faster then you are. Fire your nukes. If the Podship gets too close, either turn away from it and accellerate, or if it's too close, charge beside it, and use your PDL to damage it further. Repeat this course of action until you die or there are no more Mycons. Ship kill record: 32 Podships, 4 Sylandro Probes, 1 Khor-ah, 6 Umgah Drones, and 1 Yehat Terminator. Ship Status: Unknown, presumed destroyed.Ship was assigned to the 23rd Intercept Fleet, and subject to numerous upgrades. The 23rd Intercept fleet consisted of USS Davenport, USS Orlando, USS Savanah, USS Victory, and the USS Silvermmon. All ships, except the Silvermoon, have been surely destroyed. They were attacking 12 Khor-ah ships.The incident leading to the dissapearance of the Silvermoon and three Marauders happened when an Arilou Skiff reappeared within a super-heated Marauder Blade, causing somekind of perturbation in the space-time continuum. Wreckage of an unidentified ship was found shortly after the crash. END OF REPORT."
May 2, 2153
"What do you make of it?" asked Chris, looking cautiously from behind the small hill that hid them. "Looks like that ship that attacked us, yes, it is," said Julian, zooming in the primitive telescope he constructed form the microscopes. "Says right on it, ITS Inflictor." he added."look around for life" said Chris. "I see movement, right there." said Julian, pointing to where he saw movement, while passing the telescope to Chris."By my count there are four." said Tash, as she outlined her plan to make a distraction. She took the hairspray and fastened a cigar to it, in a manner that when lit, it will ash all the way to the top of the bottle, making the bottle explode. To be sure it explodes, she added some magnesium. As a backup distraction, she added sodium chloride to make smoke, just in case it doesen't explode. She attached the cigar to the can with some chewing gum, and launched it when no one was looking. "Good, they're approaching it!" exclamed Tash. Soon enough, all four of the sentients gathered around the decoy. Surely, a violent explosion tore the can to peices, causing a dust cloud to form from the desert-like ground. "Now!" yelled Chris, as him and his team raced towards the ITS Inflictor. Once inside, the trio felt very familliar with their surroundings, almost as if they were still on their own ship. Chris instinctively ran towards where he thought the bridge was. Sure enough, he found the door, on it saying 'MAIN BRIDGE'. He stormed inside, activated the HyperWave Caster, and started broadcasting.
"Bubble Jet leader, this is BSS Plofuiff, we are receiving a communication from the surface! Would you like me to intercept?" "Indeed" "Intercepting....." COMM: "This is Captain Chris Palmer of the USS Silvermoon. We are currently on board the ITS Inflictor, please, send help. We are on Sync Universe Plain 46.2, near DemiSpace. To any allied or Orz Starship, please respond!" "Bubble Jet leader, shall we relay this information to Integrator Mnzzchzz?" "Negative, we don't know who could be monitoring these channels. Prepare for surface touch-down!"
"I do hope someone received that information!" exclaimed Chris. Beep,beep,beep. "What's that?" asked Chris. It came from the scanning panel. Julian walked towards it. "It looks as if our call has been answered, five ships are approaching!" exclaimed Julian. "Configuration?!?" asked Tash. "Well, looks like a pear-shaped body pointing forward, three round spheres held up by titanium beams, in a Y configuration from the body, and a cone shaped object at the front end of the body. If i didn't know any better, I would have sworn those are Spathi ships." Just then, the bridge door flied open, and there stood the four sentients who stupidly gathered around the decoy. "Ok, fun's over boys! Stick 'em up!" they threatened as they each pointed their ferocious weapons at the trio.
Chapter 6: The Bubble Jet Forces
"Let me introduce myself: I am General Blacklaws, Captain of the Inflictor! And you are Palmer, aren't you" "How did you k...." "SILENCE fool! Your arrival here is not of any surprise to us! You see, 31 years ago, there was an accident in which your vessel and four others were involved. The initial, an Arilou Skiff, was destroyed, however there was one survivor who jettisonned into Q-Space, the remaining ships were brought here, to SemiSpace, or, in your understanding Sync Universe Plain 46.2, the only known plain on the positive side that is, well, your future. Plain 126 is about 80 uF's away form this plain, or about 30 years into the future. Let me elaborate. You are familliar with the Androsynth, are you not? Well, we are them! Yes, we, the Androsynth, knew of "our" creation before we were even created. We simply opened the CasterSpawner to 126.2 uF's, targeted Earth, and observed. Though the initial Androsynth were primitive, we decided to replace them with ourselves. You see, the original Androsynth were stupid clones, so we replaced them with us, to gain dominance of your plain. Unfortunately, we could not reproduce on your plain, and since not all of the original Androsynth were replaced, we were incompatible with them, so we soon died. Some of the original Androsynth evolved quickly, and we fed them propaganda so they would revolt. Why did we go through such trouble, just to slow down your progress? The answer is simple: You allied with the Orz. The Orz are a dangerous race, they seek to make this place their *house*. The Orz, upon making somewhere there *house*, quickly ceases to exist. And you, captain, you blindly trust them, along with the Thraddash, culture 6, who once experimented and found SemiSpace, and quickly informed the Orz! We blew that stupid culture of theirs to bits!" Blacklaws was rudley interrupted by Tash, as she cursed and spat at his face, which for a Thraddash spit, was a big pastie, so big that it covered Blacklaws forehead, and started oozing down his face. His face turned red as he wiped his face with his sleeve. "Damn Thraddash pig! Die!" He aimed the gun at Tash, but was distracted by the scanner control panel, which beeped. "Leutenant Parker, go see what it is!" ordered Blacklaws. "Oh shit, were in trouble! Five BSS Bubble Jets just landed, and are disembarking! they'll be here in no time!" "F**k!" cursed Blacklaws. He re-aimed the gun at Tash, and fiered. "Noooo!" cried Julian, as he jumped infront of the beam, which vapourized him instantly. Well, he got his eternal peace, thoought Chris. Next, he was faced with the laser gun. Just after Blacklaws threatened him and called him all sorts of dirty names, he shot. But it was too late, since when he pulled the trigger, he and his weapon were already half-vapourized from Black Spathi Squadron beams. Soon enough, Blacklaws' henchemen were also reduced to atoms. "Well, thank you" offered Chris as he gazed at the Spathi who saved him. Wait a minute! A Spathi! "What, wait, a Sp...." Chris was cut off by Plofuiff. "I understand your confusion, a lot can change in 89 revate. We are the Black Spathi Squadron Bubble Jet Forces, aptly named after our ship design." Until now, Chris never realized that these Spathi were indeed black, not only their ships, but themselves. "Integrator Mnzzchzz is on HyperWave, decoding sequence 45 Alpha." Exclaimed one of the Spathis. "Greetings Captain Palmer! we have been expecting you. Listen, these Black Spathi will guide you to the rendez-vous point, however, we'll need to repair your vessel aswell as the Inflictor first. There should be a Doog ship approaching your coordinates, carrying the neccessary equipment to effect repairs the ships. If you have any questions, just ask the Spathi. Integrator Mnzzchzz out." A thousand questions raced through Chris' head. "What the hell is a Doog?" asked Chris. Soon enough, alarms started ringing, and confusion filled the air. The Doog ship had arrived.
|
Chapter 7: Rendez-vous
As the bulky ship's primary hatch opened, for the second time, Chris could see lots of miscellaneous parts, tools, bots, and other gear. He took note of the Doogs, large, bulky creatures, much like their ship. He noticed that they were not very smart. His first hint of their limited intelect was when the Doog ship landed on a Spathi, crushing the poor meta-mollusk. But that wasn't what got him.What got him was that the Doog Ship took off again, bumping into a Bubble Jet, tipping it over and smashing it. When the Doog ship finally landed, the pilot came out and went over to the pancaked Spathi and said he was sorry. He then went over to the overturned Bubble Jet and also apologized, in the following manner:"Duh, I am very sorry for smashing your ship, i'l fix it good, ok? Ok!" After that, he promptly went and got a Terawatt laser from the cargo hold. He came to the Jet and activated the laser, chopping the Jet into peices. Fleeing Spathi ran in every direction, screaming and yelling. "Um, I guess I got the wrong tool, oops, sorry." explained the Doog, holding the Terawatt weapon, which he soon after discarded over his shoulder, utterly rendering the weapon useless. In the midst of all the confusion, a Green skinned humanoid, with a pointy long face, and surpassing teeth, started barking commands. In his hand, he held what seemed to be a cage with little white ciuties inside. The big creature, after about a minute of barking commands, stuck his hand into the cage, pulled out a ciutie, an ATE it. Chris decided to investigate. He went up to the the creature, and queried it. "What's that you got there?" he asked as he put his hand in the cage. The green humaniod abruptly moved the cage towards him and made a fist at Chris. He threatened for awhile. Chris' past experience and manners dictated that he stay put and listen as he and his family were put down and insulted, but he just wanted to know why he ate that little white mouse-like thing. He decided to intimidate the beast. Chris looked deep into the creature's red and yellow eyes, and said, "Are you still talking? What? Oh? Sorry there, what were you saying?" Well, he didn't quite intimidate him, but the creature remailed silent for awhile. "You are either foolish or brave, for you have interrupted me, and tried to eat my foodstock. What is it you want!" blustered the creature. "I only wish to seek peaceful relations, and, also, I wondered why you ate those mice raw, and I didn't try to eat it, and where do y..." Chris was cut off by some small sqeaky voice. "Who said that?" said the voice. Chris looked around, but saw nothing. The green creature put his hand into the cage. "Oh no!" said Chris as he wached the green creature remove one of those things. "It was the human!" said the green creature. Was it customary for their race to speak to their prey? "It was?" said the voice. "What...?" was about all Chris could say. "It's sentient, that, mouse...., and you're...eating it?" said Chris, horrified. "I am Harika, this is Yorn. It is customary that I consume him. Don't even try to stop it. If Zelnick couldn't, you surely can't." The Yorn went on to explain how it's been done for centuries, and how the Harika almost died from the Xchagger plague. The Yorn mentionned Zelnick and his warp bubble transport. Just as the Yorn was talking about cool futuristic stuff, it was swiftly eaten by the Harika. "I guess i'l see you later, it's been nice talking, well, ok bye..." Chris went off to go see how repairs were going on the Inflictor. He was amazed.
Chapter 8 :The Inflictor
Two weeks later May 16, 2153 (ITS Inflictor time)
The Inflictor looked like new. With added weapons, furnaces, PDL, five Terawatt lasers (Two that could be aimed) two additional turrets, DOGI-style shards mounted in the aft and, of course, tactical nuclear warheads. Yes, this would be a prime ship. There was only about a weeks' work left, minor things like putting in lights in the corridors, connecting and mounting appropriate panels for the surplus of weapons, installing the P.A.S.S. sub-processor (Primary Auxilliary Secondairy Subsystems) for controlling all the ship's previously manned stations, some internal body work, and generally getting all the cabling out of your face and into the ceiling. It was spaceworthy though. By this time, Chris got to know the Harika, Ftg'nigh, very well, and the Doogs were still stupid, but still VERY nice and polite. The Chmmr forces had arrived, Mngzk being the Prime Avatar. Integrator Mnzzchzz was due in three days, and he was going to bring along something called the Avatar II. "I can't wait to fly it!" exclaimed Chris, standing on the bridge of the Inflictor, watching Doogs and Spathi fit the ship with equipment. Just then, Fiuso walked in declaring a state of emergency. "Now hear this! The BSS BJF were on patrol around Lambda Cassantins, not too far from here and found a convy! There are five heavy cruisers and ten Troop-ships, escorted by twenty five corvettes!" A general air of panic and confusion filled the ship. "People! PEOPLE! Listen! What's a cruiser, what's a corvette, what's a troop-ship and do we stand a chance!" Exclaimed Chris. He had no idea if they were even enemies, or what he was even supposed to think about them or what. He was so lost. Fiuso quickly explained that the Heavy Cruisers are about five times more powerful than the /Vindicator/ (Original Precursor Service Ship), but barely had any manovering, and their speed was laughable. The troop-ships had weak weapons, rather bulky, slow, and almost as crap at manovering as the Heavy Cruiser. They carried 250 armed troops on each ship. The corvettes, though small, they packed a brutal punch. They are little bigger then Dreadnoughts, but they are fast and agile. Their primary weapon is a bolt of light (Somewhat like a Slylandro Probe) but with great range and precision. Their second weapon is a multi-warhead missile, that splits in five, the largest causing lots of damage. "Ok people, deploy our ships! Meet the Inflictor in Orbit, and be prepared to fight!" shouted Chris, pionting and waving to get people's attention. Soon enough, the Bubble Jets and the Avatars were in orbit, along with several Doog Cargo Ships, and a few Harika/Yorn ships. The Inflictor was still powering it's damaged landing thrusters when about ten or fifteen S-Space readings showed up on the Tactical Display. "Sir, we are being hailed!" said Ensign Linder, her voice shaking. "Put it on!" ordered Chris. "Incoming transmission: The following transmission is incoherent and little progress has been made to fully translate, therefore *Best-Fits* will be denoted with asterixes. Transmission Begins:" "Welcome to *Easy Space*! We do hope you *Enjoy the sauce* here is! We find ITS ships NNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH! They do harm to our *House*. They are not *Campers*! We *Pitch Tent* here in location this one! We will not refuse to accept that threat. Do you *Dance* with them?" Chris looked puzzled, as he studied his computer readout panel for a possible translation. He noted that "Dancing" meant to fight. Now he thought as to how he should respond. He knew not if these ships were hostile to them, or what, but something told him to agree. "Yes, we will soon, uh, dance with them. Do you wish also to dance with them?" "*Silly cow* we dance, we ask human form Earth same question! Joke! You are only joke! We will show *Dance* to earthlings!" The comm stopped. "I do hope he was joking." said Lt. Patric. "SNORT! Naw, they's will fight the other earthlins, the ones over there." Tash said as she pointed to the viewscreen that was displaying the approaching convoy. "I do hope so!" reassured Chris. Just then, the ship shook. "What the hell..." exclaimed the Captain. "We are being pulled up from the planet by the Avatar's magnetic field." reported Lt. Patric. "Damn, they should warn us before doing something like that again! I thought it was the Orz fleet attacking us! Another minute an I would have ordere...." Chris was interupted by another jolt.
Chapter 9: Infinity and beyond
ITS Inflictor, Unknown time
"Approaching convoy now" said the helmsman. "Open Comms, reduce our speed to half, order the fleet to do the same" instructed Chris, as he watched the view screen come to life, displaying the image of a human. "I am Captain Chris Palmer of the captured ITS Inflictor vessel, on course to intercept." The human on the other side stayed motionless, then said, "Greetings, scans show you are not from the Terran Imperial Fleet, so then what are you doing in one of their ships? " said the captain of the other ship. "Well during a routine system sweep, we fell through a portal and were brought here." Chris maintained his cool although he did lie by not saying he was getting his ass kicked in a fight. "Did any other ships make it through?" said the human on the other side. "Damn, I forgot about the Three Ur-Quan ships...." " Were they black?" Asked the captain "Yes, they had Ur-Quan on them, black ones, and...." explained Chris, as he got cut off by a comm termination. "What the hell is going on!" shouted Chris "The Orz are attacking the convoy!" Said the tactical officer. "Call them back now" ordered Chris. "I've already tried to, they don't respond!" The Orz ships flew in and out of the unorganized convoy, aiming most of their marines and firepower at the Troop-Ships. Before long, the Orz ships were neutralyzed. "Raise that other ship on comms" ordered Chris. In a moment, the familliar face of the other human appeared. "Why do you associate with the Orz, they are known traitors!" said the human. "Um, we knew that, uh we were just using them! Do you have a name? a Rank?" Asked Chris "I'm sure you weren't, but we know who you are, and what you have brought along with you, as for me, I am John Witcher, of the Androsynth Seek and Destroy task force 15, under command of the Androsynth Command Center located at this point in Semi Space." Explained John. Damn, an Androsynth, here, seeking and destroying, but what... thought Chris. "We have located the human fleet, any word on the Ur-Quan ships yet?" Said John, facing sideways from his viewscreen. "Nothing. But Fleet 17 has not transmitted anything for 4 hours, they're overdue." Said a voice from the bridge of John's ship. "Signal the nearest fleet and tell them to move to fleet 17's last known position" Said John, as he turned to view Chris. "We must know where they went, the Ur-Quan, do you know? Asked John. "Get the information logs out of the Silvermoon, time frame: 10 Minutes before arrival to 3 hours after arrival. Based on the present charts that we have, overlay the Ur-Quan Ships course, and their last known heading, aswell as their fuel supply." Said Chris. "We should have the information shortly. Meanwhile, can you inform us on what is happening?" asked Chris "i will elaborate: 30 years ago, When Zelnick and the League left for the conquest of another galaxy, We, the Androsynth, returned from our "Hideout" in DemiSpace, and continued our experimentation with inter-dimensional fatigue, and found SemiSpace, fine tuned our Glider Starbases, and went there. Here. This is SemiSpace, or, your Mirror universe of the future. This Dimention perverts the Non-TrueSpace ladder in such a way that you can shift between here, SemiSpace, and your, or our past, HyperSpace. For instance, you must transport your ship from HyperSpace to SemiSpace and physically interact with its surroundings to be able to make changes. This is incredibly hard to do and requires a set of naturally occuring phenomenon, much like the Q-Space portal that appeared every 17th of the month, But it is relatively easy to interact with HyperSpace from SemiSpace, so easily that we are unsure of our own existence since our time line is always changing, constantly being influenced by the malicious Orz that try and "Stabilize" this time, probably for their good. Their ship design varies from different SpacePlanes, and i'm sure they're all over the place, causing similar perturbations in other *Times*.What is here today, might not be here tomorrow, and your friend today might be yout enemy tomorrow." Explained Capt. Witcher. Chris held onto his head as a thousand questions were answered and millions more seeking an answer in this web of madness. From what he could deduct, they were not only in a different time, but aswell a different SpacePlain, existing below that of Hyperspace, and all that surrounded him could suddenly dissapear form Orz time tampering with his own reality. This was a mad place, he had end the insanity by not only restoring his time line, but restoring time in general! But what really shocked him was that he could understand all of this, without even thinking too hard. "This place feels odd, i'm thinking about things that normally would have me confused and lead me to discard these thoughts" said Chris. "Have you ever thought, in your own, previous time, about infinity, an unending, and unstarting process or action with no specified start or end time frame?" asked John. "Well, yeah, when you try to visually perceive infinity in your mind, you get a wierd feeling in your brain, almost as if something is dissallowing you to think about it." concluded Chris. "Try thinking about it here, now" said John. Chris began to form the image of infinity within his mind. Suddenly, he collapsed to the floor, and started shaking. All you could hear was "I can see... Infinity and beyond...
Chapter 10: Scratching the surface
"Where, what, am I?" asked confusedly Chris. "You are in the ship's sickbay, Captain. You've been out of it for a couple of days now, take it easy." Said the ship's nurse. Chris could remember nothing, save for thinking about a deeply secretive thing before he passed out. "Can I go to the bridge, nurse?" asked Chirs. "Wait until the doctor returns, and he will say if it's ok to go" simply said the nurse. The doctor's orders were to take it easy and not think too hard or try to imagine anything unknown to him. "What kind of orders are those?" stupidly asked Chirs. "You experienced an information overload, and your neural pathways went into shock, causing you to loose conciousness. The body has done it's best to heal you by shutting you off for a couple of days, so I recommend you continue to rest and let your brain relax. That is all." explained the doctor. As Chris walked through the decks of the ship, he thought about the Ur-Quan that made it through with him. Suddenly, a thought hit him. He remembered everything.... and more. If this place was a unstable time, and the unstableness caused by the Orz, he wondered what can happen if you manipulated that time for your own good, like enslaving it and using it against others. Much like the Dnyarri, that used the Ur-Quans to destroy the Taalo. But how many Dnyarri did it take? Thousands, Millions, more, to control all of the Sentient Millieu. But what scared Chris were the Dnyarri onboard the last Ur-Quan ship. The Dnyarri only needed one slave to selectively remove a certain action or person in the past to create a off-shot time line, and keep doing so until it has slaved everyone in known TrueSpace, and follow TrueSpace on a central-bound axis towards the central time core! A universe at the hands of one Dnyarri! One thought reasuured him, hovever: The Dnyarri weren't sentient, or so he thought. He felt sorry for the people living in this hell, for that is the only possible word to describe his surroundings: uncertain past, constant stress on the brain from "TimeWarps", routine changes of surroundings, friends and loved ones dissapearing form "TimeWarps", allies becoming enemies in split-seconds, memory holes in the brain (erasures of things an individual remembers, which are "forgotten" due to it's "never-happening" (Changed in "TimeWarps") in the past, uncertain future, etc. "What are these people living for? What is their reason for living?" asked Chris. "What was that, captain?" asked the helmsman. "Uh, nothing" replied Chris. He didn't even know when he got to the bridge. Could he be experiencing "TimeWarps"? Surely not, for he wouldn't be able to "Remember" a "Non-existing" thing now could he? "yes that's it, keep thinking sane, and you'll be fine" thought Chris. "Did you get that log out of the Silvermoon?" asked Chris, to no one in particular. "Yes, the Ur-Quan ship went in roughly this direction" said the comm officer as she pointed out the location of the Ur-Quan ship, and super-imposed the starchart of the quadrant. Surprisingly, there wasn't much out there. Suddenly, Chris' head started to hurt unimaginably, as waves of pain seized his brain "AAH! Not again!" He reached for the comm panel and signalled the doctor. Within minutes, he appeared on the bridge. He gave him a shot, and Chris felt somewhat relaxed, and the pain faded out of his brain. "ooh that's sooo much better!" exclaimed Chris. "Now you be careful, and don't think too hard!" said the doctor as he took some readings from Chris' DNA. He quickly concluded and exited the bridge. "Get me um, what's his name, John from the other craft." asked Chris. "This is Capt. Witcher here, what can I do for you?" "Can you extraplate the course this Ur-Quan ship took based on it's course, speed, and distance travelled in time elasped?" asked Chris. "Yes, wihin it's fuel capabilities, it would have stopped in..." stopped the Androsynth, "Umgah Territory." concluded John. "Thank you" simply answered Chris, as he motionned to his comm officer to cutt off comms. "Hmm, I wonder why it went that way, into the .... Holy Shit! The Umgah! Bio-surgeons! The weakened time line! The Dnyarri's sub-scentience power output on this reality plain! Reverse engineering of.. .THE DNYARRI!"
Chapter 11: The Chase
Click Here for the Continuation....