My novel (incomplete) The Polaris Voyage [updated]

[Temporarily Sane]

One day I was bored and started writing this, some sections are uncorrected so there may be some typos and grammar problems.

When its all finished and corrected, I am planing to publish and sell this book, so here it is in the raw form before anything is done. This is all happening from Thomas's point of view.

I finished chapter 7 and fixed some grammer errors, if anyone finds anything, PM me.

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Chapter 1 Polaris

The Polaris, one of the proudest ships of the intergalactic fleet. It could punch through a blockade with its experimental EMP pulse cannon, shutting down their computers and allowing our ships to open fire. When they discovered we had such a weapon, the Atlantian hive fleet decided it would take it for themselves. They made a blockade just seven thousand miles ahead. The Polaris, although not going nearly as fast as it could, was readying itself for assault. Even though we could easily bypass the blockade and head to a different location first, I decided the EMP cannon needed a test run and I was ready to test it.

"AU, how long ‘til we hit enemy engagement?" I said, as our ship moved into position.

"Uh, could be ten... yeah, ten minutes ‘til enemies are within firing distance," answered the ship’s computer directly to my implanted com link.

"That will be long enough-- I want three generators powering the front gun batteries."

"Yeah we’re on it. But, it could take about three minutes to divert that much power."

"Don’t worry, as long as the main cannon batteries are online when we are in range, we will be fine." I replied confident. The main cannons should punch a hole in their blockade.

"Sir! The Antarctica is moving into position, per your request." the AU said out loud.

"Good. With the Antarctica in place we can begin the assault."

"Sir!" the communications expert came up to me.

"Yes, what is it Kyle?"

"The Antarctica is aborting mission!" he said, urgently.

"What, why!?"

"We just received this." He clicked on the message box on his PDA. A little hologram of the Antarctica captain appeared. "We are aborting mission, I repeat aborting mission, we have come under heavy enemy fire, we.... cant.... their..... breaking.... transmission.... codes.... being.... cut off.... repeat..... cut...." The message ends. "That’s all of it. Sir."

"No!" I swat the PDA out of his hands. "We can’t win this without their guns to aid us!" I said in frustration.

The AU came online, "Uh, sir, if I may interject, the Antarctica is just a barge ship. It has two cannons, but it doesn’t have heavy armor, deflective shield plating, or a large enough crew to maintain battle stations."

"I know that! But we need all the help we can get and the Antarctica was only a light day away." I said in anger.

"Just calm down, sir. We will find another way," said the weapons expert as he manned his station.

"How long ‘til enemy engagement?"

"Five minutes."

"Okay. I want all engine turbines working at one hundred and ten percent. Were not going to lose to these bastards," I said, as I regained my composure and got my mind back into the bridge.

"Yes sir."

"Are the fireflies ready?"

"Yes sir. All pilots are reporting green light to launch..." he said crisply.

"What about the MSC?"

"Uh sir, I didn’t know we were using the mobile support craft for this mission."

"We are now. The Antarctica has gone down and I want to have my firefly operational with an escort of three MSC to check out the wreckage, also we need some field doctors and Havoc soldiers in case of wounded or enemy engagements."

"Uh... yes... yes sir they will be ready" he said, caught very surprised by my choice. None of the crew had ever seen me make a decision to go after a downed ship.

"Sir. Two minutes ‘til the enemies are within range of the Polaris's main guns."

"Okay. I’m heading down into the launch deck. AU, you’re in charge!"

"Yes sir!" He said with computer generated pride.

As the elevator took me down into the lower decks, I could feel this would be no ordinary mission. When the elevator doors opened everyone saluted me, but I asked what they sitting around for-- we got a war to win!

All the pilots got into their respective fireflies. I looked at mine, the firefly SG-P, the swept back wings allowed it to go through space as well as air, its twin PPGs could power it for four months alone, raised cockpit for maximum sight, ATC for space battles, magnetic and plasma combustors give it a quick acceleration of one hundred to one thousand MPH when the system is gunned, power couplers provide anti-gravity stability for space combat, twin plasma reactors that can push the border of fifty thousand miles per second dual plasma disintegrator cannons, five air-air rocket pods, thirty eight lass-MG, chrome anti-laser plating, energy shields and cloaking devices installed, and to top it all off the cockpit was padded and custom made for me.

I got in, getting comfortable in the plush yet bullet proof seat. I looked around at my assortment of systems and performed all the checks that had to be done. Ignition clutch was in order, fuel rods were working, weapon and radar systems online, life support in order, all systems were green for launch. The MSCs around me were set up also. We were diverting from our main attack route down to the Antarctica, which wasn’t sending any more radio signals. I put on my helmet and asked the AU for time until launch. He gave me an estimate of 30 seconds.

I always hate the launch.

The launch bay doors below us opened and the pole that holds us in dropped to the point where we were outside the ship. It was a beautiful sight. The sun of this solar system was gleaming and the planet we were floating over seemed to shimmer in its light. The stars beyond us sparkled and a comet could be seen far off. I activated my glare protection on my firefly so no light would get in my eyes, I flipped the cut-off switch and shut off the flow of electricity from the pole. I swiped my recognition card into the computer and unlocked the controls giving me power over the firefly. I pushed the green, blue, and white button to the left of my cockpit which removed the stabilizers and locks from my craft leaving only the 8 inch thick pole keeping me on the ship. I performed last minute checks, bringing up my holoscreen and looking at the ship’s conditions. All systems looked green. Just before the launch I turned on the power generators and magnetic couplers so that my engines had power. I radioed the ships online computer and the AU said we’re clear for take off and have a pleasant flight.

The poles that held us to the ship let go and I clipped the engine fuel tube. The systems all went from green....to red...and then soon to white signaling full pressure to engines. The ship dropped a bit farther into space and then the power couplers ignited and the fireflies and MSCs sprung to life in a blue light. The engines seem to explode with power as we shot off into space.

Some of us went to the fight, while others peeled off for recon. Each pilot looked back as we all flew off from the battle cruiser Polaris, knowing we may not come back alive. I, along with three MSCs, closed in on the wreckage of the Antarctica just as the Polaris came into engaged combat with the Antlantian hive fleet.

Our convoy was almost there when one of our fighters flew right past me with three enemies on his tail. I rolled my FF to the side and took off in his direction.

"Hey, is anyone out there? I need help!" said a voice over the radio.

"This is admiral Thomas. Closing in on your position, hang tight!"

"Don't have to tell me twice!"

I told the MSCs to hold course, as long as I didn't send out a distress signal, I should be fine and they didn't have to worry.

I moved my FF into position. Just a little closer. My hand started to sweat as I held the joystick, just tapping the trigger to the plasma turrets in my impatience. The two red dots were almost aligned. In an instant I clicked the trigger and the duel plasma cannon turrets unleashed their energy. The little orange dots shot off into the darkness ahead of me, but shortly after I saw a large explosion ahead and it ripped apart the Atlantian craft.

"Admiral, that was a good shot, now could you get these guys off of me!?" He sounded very impatient.

"Hold on. I’m working on it."

I turned and fired a couple shots down at the second craft, but narrowly missed. The first craft, closest to him, suddenly disappeared, and then sprung an attack from behind me. He must have used a cloaking matrix.

"Crap!" I barrel rolled my craft to get out of his line of fire, and as he passed me I opened up all my cannons on him. I was going the whole 9 yards with this one.

He made a sharp turn to the left and then gunned his engines, creating a ripple of force in space. I flew after him and kept unloading my cannons until finally his engines burned out and he exploded.

The last one ducked out of his engagement with the other pilot and started firing at me. I spun my ship to the side and kept firing. He hit me a few times, but my shields deflected most of the damage and allowed me to easily dispatch him for his lack of shield and armor plating.

"Okay, I’m heading back to regroup with the MCSs, see you back on the Polaris pilot."

"Going back to blue wing and restarting attack run, thanks."

We split paths and I headed for the MSCs, who were still in route to the wreckage. We would be there soon, I hoped that I would be ready for what lay ahead.

We passed over the wreckage of the ship a few times ‘til a landing place was chosen. It wasn’t as great as a proper hanger, but we tied down our ships and the MSCs cut open some hatches. They diverted life support systems to inside the Antarctica because all of its air was gone.

Once I stepped inside I wasn’t very pleased with the sight that I saw. The Havoc soldiers said most of the ship was secured and they were nearly sure everyone was dead. When I said we should check out the bridge in the hope of finding out what happened, the leader of the Havocs whistled in surprise "Wow who ever attacked this place made sure everyone died." He was holding his gun tightly. "A lot of these sailors are showing signs of blaster fire though, so someone could still be in here." His eyes darted around the hallway as we walked up to the command deck.

"Could it be mutiny?" said Corporal Ron.

"Nah, this commander was a kind man. No one would defy his orders, even like this." He looked up and saw blood covering the ceilings. "Ugh yeah it wasn’t mutiny. No self-respecting person would cover the ceilings with the blood of his own kind." He looked around in disgust.

"Quiet down everyone, let’s just get what we came for," I said, in an attempt to keep everyone from freaking out. We made it to the bridge only to find much of it destroyed, everyone killed in what must of been very painful ways.

"Yeah, this was not mutiny" said Havoc lead, whose name was Jose. Everyone took a good look around and took defensive positions. If anyone was still here they were not going to give them a chance to get a shot in.

I found the captain’s dead body and used his hand print to open up the security measures on the ships hull. It looks like most of the laser fire hit the engine room. This wasn’t any ordinary hit and run job these people knew what they were doing. They came by and hit them fast and hard, not even any POWs, everyone is here, just.....dead.

"You think the Atlantians?"

"No, even they are not this bad." Everyone looked about. "Well men, it looks like we will be heading to the engine room. That appears to be where the source of the problem happened."

"Yes sir." Everyone started down the stairs to the lower decks and from there to the engine room. One of the Havocs fired a full clip of ammo into the dark, spooked by a noise.

"Don’t worry nothing is there..."

"There better not be," he said quivering. We walked down into the lower decks. More people were dead here. More and more and more. We walked through the lower decks and three of the five Havocs that were with me stayed back to watch the exit while we went to go check out the engine room.

When I got there, I found it heavily damaged, but not from laser fire as I thought. I felt the wires. No, these were chewed through. Some thing is in here that destroyed it from the inside.

I kept checking and looking for some kind of data disk on what happened.

"Guys, we need to find the data on what this ship was carrying." I yelled out to the other two who had wandered off.

"Uh yes sir, let me just reload here." Jose kept fumbling with his ammo, he was scared.

We walked around the engines, looking for the head engineer.

"Uh sir....I think....I think I found him." Ron pointed me over to a dead body.

"Yep, that’s him." I searched his body and found his PDA. I hooked it up to the engine room main computer hub and managed to get some data on how fast this thing was going and how its engines broke.

Ron whistled in amazement "Wow. That captain really gunned it. Not a surprise they kicked out on him."

"Jesus, that guy went all out," Jose just kept staring at the holoscreen.

"Yeah, well let’s just get this data back to the Polaris." I took the PDA out and turned to look at them.

"Uh yes sir!"

"What about the cargo?" Ron said.

"We’ll get that." I loaded and cocked my pistol. "Come on. Let’s regroup with the rest of the team."

There was a loud scream, and six red eyes glared at us from the darkness.

"Unknown hostile!" I yelled as Jose and Ron were firing.

I fired a couple shots, but it was moving fast. It jumped onto the generators. "Don’t let it destroy the generators!" We were all shooting.

It made a loud screech, making us drop our guns and hold our hands to our heads. "Stop the noise...stop the noise!"

We all fell to the ground, on our knees. "Agh....." Ron fell unconscious and the screeching stopped.

I looked back to where it was screeching from, but it was gone. I got up with a headache. "Is everyone ok?" I asked feeling a bit stupid as to the answer.

"No, I’m not okay." Jose was shaking his head still holding it in pain.

"Ron you okay?" Ron was still out cold.

I shocked him with a stun gun and he woke up. "What happened?" He asked holding his head.

"A screecher. It got us bad."

"Yeah. You’re telling me." Jose got up and picked up his gun. "Let’s go guys. The other people are probably looking for us."

"Okay." Ryan picked up his gun, as I got mine.

"Let’s get rolling, people." We started down the hallways and back to checkpoint two.

Just then, the emergency power failed and the dim lights went out. Screams and blaster fire were heard. And when we turned on our gun mounted flashlights and went to go check on the other three, they were dead.

"Oh man were screwed man, were screwed!" Ron was losing it.

"Calm down! Don’t worry we will be fine. Let’s just get out of here."

I received a radio signal from AU. "Sir, we have broken the blockade and are jumping to hyperspace now, you’re going to have to find your own way out."

"Confirmed, AU. We will. Thomas out." I looked around.

"So what he say? Are we getting out of this hell hole?" asked Jose.

"No were going to have to get to our ships and make a hyperspace jump for the OSS"

"What!? The Onar Space Station, why not take the Polaris?"

"The Polaris is gone. They made a jump for hyperspace and they’re on their way back home."

"Ah crap man. That isn’t good." Ron started to get a little hysterical.

"Just hold on, were getting out of here lets just make it back to our ships."

"Yeah, okay,” said Jose. “That’s our best bet." He started back up the ladder to the lower deck.

When we made it back to the check point near our ships, we discovered that the twenty men we had left behind were now five.

"Aww man, I can’t believe I missed the party!" Jose kept looking around.

"Soldier! What happened here?" I said to a man who was bleeding on the ground.

"Ugh, I don’t know. it just happened so fast. We heard some noises, our patrol didn’t return. Then these monsters came, they walked on all fours and they were fast. It wasn’t long before we were shooting, but they were very resistant to our guns. We had a hard time killing them, but they seemed to have stopped now." The man kept coughing up blood.

Jose walked over. "Don’t worry soldier, we will make it out of here alive."

Ron came up to me. "Sir, there are too many wounded. It’s best we just leave and ignore the cargo, from their description our normal guns have little effect."

"I agree, lets just get in our ships, but before that...." I looked to the medical officers. "Randy can you give me a medical autopsy on one of these things?"

The medical officer stood up and look to me. "Yes I can. A lot of wounded though. Could take awhile."

"We have time. Just load one into the MSC and do it on the way to the OSS."

"Yes sir." He started looking at one.

"Okay, people. Let’s load up. We’re going home!"

We all got back in our ships, and I think we were all happy when we unlocked from the Antarctica and opened up the engines for a short hyperspace jump to the OSS.

We thought we had left them all behind us, but the darkness that enveloped the Antarctica would soon take over the universe.  

[Temporarily Sane]

Chapter 2 Memories

The Onar Space Station. Everyone came here, from the poor to the rich. It was hub for everything in the four nearest solar systems. You could easily get lost in this place. Some say it has a life of its own, its so big and bright. But I think it’s just a death world. A death world that someday will be destroyed. Before we could do anything about getting rid of the slum that is the Onar Space Station, we had to get a ride back home to the Polaris's destination of Krilla. Krilla is a military installation. Polaris is going there to have its armor repaired. A lot of rumors about that place though. It’s too bad that they’re all true....

My firefly exited hyperspace and I activated its retro rockets to slow it down. Shortly after me the MSCs came, reversing their engines and slamming on the cut off switch for the hyperspace drive.

I got onto my radio. "Hey you guys, you alright?"

Ron got on the radio back. "Yeah we’re okay. A little shaken up though. Our hyperspace drive never went that far before, and it wasn't tested for it."

"Sorry. It was pretty far."

"It’s not much of a problem sir. We’ll right ourselves."

Their ship was upside down because one of their engines shook loose from vibration, causing the engine to slide into a position pointing slightly down. This made the ship flip. Ron flipped the ship back and we all landed in the space station’s lower decks.

I opened my hatch, causing the hot and cold air to contact and a cloud of steam seem to burst out of the ship as it depressurized.

"Ugh, it smells down here." I said in disgust as I got out of the firefly.

"It’s not much better here, sir." Ron came out of the MSC coughing.

"Randy are you here?" I asked.

"Yes sir I am" Randy stepped in front of me.

"Did you finish the autopsy on the creature?

"Almost." He handed me a data pad showing a detailed picture of the creature, organs and all.

Randy talked me through the hologram. "It has a thick carapace, it is only three inches thick, but it has the same strength as the Polaris's armor plating. Its organs are very strong, nearly as hard as steel, yet as flexible as nylon fiber. It has very long three-inch saber teeth that can cut through almost anything. Heavy four inch claws that can rip apart its target. Six infrared eyes that can see almost anything. A powerful sense of smell. It doesn’t have to breath air to survive. They walk on all fours, somewhat like a frog, when they attacked us. Its powerful muscles that can easily allow it to kill and destroy anything. It feeds off energy using small receptors all around its body. It has a thick skull and has a very long neck. It may have one weak spot. If you come face to face with one of these creatures, your best bet is to hit it in the neck while it is extended and let air flood into the wound. Since there is no air in his body, and it’s normally airtight, he should start to fill up with it and become a balloon of sorts. Just shooting it in the neck should pop it and kill whatever thing it is."

"Good advice. I’m sure I will need it."

"Sir!" staff sergeant Harry came out of the other MSC, but only to be shot in the head before he could utter another word.

"Sniper!" Jose yelled, as he and the remainder of the Havoc squad ducked behind their MSCs.

I got behind my firefly as the terrorists started shooting. I accessed the implant in my brain with a thought, and it scanned all the enemies and counted four terrorists shooting from the balcony above. I made some hand signs directing the Havocs to provide blind fire for me while I threw a grenade. They nodded and Ron put his gun to the side of the craft and started firing. I moved forward to a steel crate just in front of my craft while they were distracted, and threw a grenade right up on the high balcony. Screams of terror were heard as the frag grenade exploded, killing all of them in a shockwave of shrapnel.

Ron came out of cover. "Poor Harry. His kid turned five yesterday." Ron kept looking at him.

"Harry was a good person. He will be remembered. But let’s get back to the task at hand. We need to find someone to take us to Krilla. Ron-- staff sergeant Ron-- you stay here with doctor Randy and the other four Havocs, while Jose and me look for someone to give us a lift."

"Sir!" He said, nearly overjoyed by his promotion.

Jose and I walked out into the trade district. A lot of traders were here and at least one of them should be able to take us to Krilla. We ducked into a old shack, and a hunchbacked old man said without turning around "Well hello there. I’m selling old army goods from the battle at Praven III and I think that you might find something you like." He turned around, dropping his drink and gasping.

"It’s illegal to sell military equipment to civilians, you know." I said as he quivered.

"Although we may be able to overlook this, if you can tell us where to find someone to take us back home to Krilla," Jose added as he smiled.

He seemed to not realize who I was. "Uh yes... officer. Ghem might be able to give you a lift. But why would you want to go there anyway, it’s a bad place. I heard they torture all the POWs there, and in the most horrible fashion. A lot of my friends went there; none of them came back...."

"Thanks for the tip." I took some money out of my back pocket, wrote something on it, and handed it to the man. "Sorry about your friends."

The man took the money, and as we were leaving I said "About Krilla. All the myths are true."

As the man opened his palm he was shocked, the dollar had the signature of Admiral Thomas of the intergalactic fleet on it. He took out his pistol and aimed it at the entrance of the shack, but we were already gone. He missed out on his chance to capture the notorious Devil of Praven...or DP for short. I had a dark past, and I was none too proud of my actions at Praven III campaign. On the other hand I didn’t remember much of that fateful battle. I don’t even know what I did there. But when ever I think about it, I remember a massacre caused by the war.

We looked around the station. Lots of people were giving us mean looks. It was obvious no one was fond of the military’s actions in the years following the Praven massacre. We asked around for Ghem. Everyone was scared of that name, and only one person told us where to find him. He said to look for him in the back room of the café.

We headed over to food court of the station, but he hadn’t told us which one of the cafés we should look in. There were two in the facility, so Jose and I split up to go find him. I walked into the café Sky. It was very busy, I searched around and saw a back door. When I walked over there and reached for the handle one of the waiters said. "No no. You don’t want to go back there."

I held up my badge "It’s of military importance that I look." I said pushing him aside.

"Ok...if you want...." He said walking away.

I took a look inside. A man was sitting on a large chair, with guards around him. I recognized the man as Ghem, but I didn't think it was this Ghem that I would see after so long.

Ghem anounced as I walked in "Well admiral, it seems we have higher brass in our midst."

All the guards lifted their guns. "Put down the guns Colonel Ghem," I replied.

He made some hand sign and the guard put their weapons down. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"We need a barge ship to take us back to Krilla."

"Krilla!? That is an awfully tall order."

"We need to get back to the Polaris. So either you give us one of your barges, or we take one."

The guards looked at each other and lifted their guns again. "You can't order me around anymore admiral."

"Just because you left the army doesn't make you immune to my order. Give me the recognition card for the barge. Or I will take it." The guards were uneasy around him.

"Like you took the lives of the people on Praven!" He got out of his chair.

I pulled out my SH-P2 pistol. "It wasn’t my fault!"

"Lier, the only reason the Atlantians came was because of you!" He pulled out his own pistol, but I cracked off a couple rounds before he could pull the trigger. His body fell limp to the ground.

The other guards started firing. I took some hits, but the wounds were minor. I shot the two that were next to the dead mob boss and quickly stole Ghem's recognition card. Three guards started firing after me from the doorway behind the chair, but even though I had the advantage, I knew that this large room left me open to flanking, so I ran out the door back into the cafe. People were fleeing. I jumped over a table and kicked it back providing temporary cover. I quick-loaded my gun and started shooting at the guards that emerged from the doorway. On the railings overlooking the café floor, guards came out of the attic and started pouring fire down on me. I managed to dive out of the way and get under another table. More guards were emerging from the doorway though, and getting flanked was a major worry. I knew I had one chance. I got out from under the table and vaulted over a low wall, landing near the kitchen. I dove under the bar. I saw what I hoped to see. A propane tank, dead ahead. I held up my pistol and fired straight at it. The moment of truth: would the tank ignite? I didn't have much time to think. I got up out of cover and jumped over to the public side of the bar.

I ran outside. By this time the whole courtyard was empty. I was waiting...did my bullets do nothing? As the guards kept shooting, I kept running. I felt as if in slow motion, bullets zoomed past me as I ran down the courtyard and when I had all but given up on the propane tanks, a large explosion triggered a chain reaction in the building. It exploded blowing the windows out, the tables and chairs incinerated, and most guards died.

I switched on my com link as I was running "Jose, are you there?" I stopped and spun my self around, seeing Jose on the top floor with his gun ready to fire. Some of the surviving henchmen came out of the building firing at me; I leapt for an old shack to the side of the court. Slamming myself to its wall for cover.

The instant that the henchmen ran into the court, Jose released all his guns charged energy in a flurry of laser guided bullets and plasma, making short work of their crude armor. They all lay on the ground motionless, their bodies cut through by his high power PBG rifle. Jose replied "I’m here sir." He snickered on the other end of the com link and came down the stairs to me.

"So did he give you the barge?" Jose quickly asked as he confronted me.

"No he didn't" I reveal Ghem’s recognition card. "I took it."

"Nice" Jose got on his com link. "Hey Ron, we’re coming back." Ron didn't reply.

"Is Ron there?" I asked.

"He didn't reply. That’s not like him...Unless... Come on. We got to get back to our ships now!"

We tried to make a break for our ships, but the power went out and the elevators jammed.

"Okay. Switch on your lights."

Jose turned on his gun mounted light and started pointing it around.

We got to the stairs, but heard a thrashing sound and spun around, pointing our lights at the food court behind us. Suddenly, one of those monsters from the Antarctica fell from the ceiling.

"How did that thing get in here!?" Jose yelled out as he tried desperately to kill the beast.

"It is probably from the MSC, it must not have been dead!" I shouted as I unloaded all six rounds of ammo, but for some reason all the ammo just harmlessly bounced off its thick carapace.

It made a loud screech and charged at us. I kept firing, but everything from bullets to hot plasma did nothing to stop its charge. It got close, knocking Jose to the side and jumping onto me, pushing me down the long flight of stairs. It pinned me to the wall below. I could feel its breath on my face, it started to drool and it stabbed its mouth into the wall next to me. The wall cracked and fell apart as its head slammed into it. I took out my combat knife and stabbed it into its soft extended neck. It recoiled screaming, as it retracted and started stumbling on the ground. I lifted my pistol and snarled "Go to hell you monster." I pulled the trigger and bullets flew from my gun. It hit the monster dead on, blowing its head up. It fell to the ground ...dead.

"Sir!" Jose came running down the stairs "Are you ok!?"

"Yeah I will be ok; he didn't hurt me too much."

"Ok let’s hope not" he helped me up.

"Thanks, let’s get going to Ron...."

He nodded, but before we could continue I had to get my knife. I walked over to the dead beast. "Randy was right..." I picked up my emergency knife from the pool of black oily blood.

We rushed back to our ships to find everyone except Ron dead. We quickly rushed to his aid as the terrorists fired at him while he was in cover.

"Ron what happened!?" Jose asked

"They came shortly after you left" He reloaded his gun, a standard-issue PBG.

"Okay, you two. Get into your MSC. We’re only taking one, plus my firefly. Let’s go!" I said as they rushed to battle stations.

Instead of performing all of the flight checks. I swiped my recognition card in and opened up the hover jets. I floated and turned until I pointed outside and quickly clipped the engine. In a blast of energy, my ship flew out into space along with the MSC. We glided in space, letting our engines cool. They tend to overheat fast when proper checks are not made and you just gun the system. We were checking all the systems and letting them all cool off, until everything looked green. Then I swiped Ghem’s card into the system, giving me RC control over the barge. I opened the back loading door, and the MSC and I floated effortlessly into the barge. I then re-pressurized the barge cargo bay after the door closed behind us.

Ron hoped out of the ship. "Well its all ours now." Ron looked about the ships frame which was exposed in the cargo deck.

"Yeah, I would prefer to drink some coffee while watching the firefly wings do their combat maneuvers outside the Polaris." I said longingly for the warmth of the observation deck.

"We will be home soon sir..." he patted me on the back as we walked down the narrow corridor to the bridge.

Some slime dripped onto Jose's head "Sooner we can get back to the Polaris the better, this place smells."

I looked back at him "This is a slaver ship, they always smell."

"Yeah they are always riddled with disease too" Ron snubbed.

We walked up the stairs to the next level, the living areas.

"This place is worse." Jose peeked into one of the rooms.

Ron looked into another "Slavers know how to live." He started at a dead rat on the ground.

"Let’s just keep going. It’s not much farther now" I waved them over to me further down the hall.

We walked into the elevator and it opened into the bridge.

I glanced at the control panel and whistled in surprise "They don't take care of this place very well." I squeezed the engine clip, but the engine didn't light. "I’m surprised this thing is still online." I flipped a switch turning on a little light over my head.

Ron looked at the radar and ran a diagnostic on the ships condition. "Wow this thing is crippled" he took out his boost clip and wrench. "I am heading downstairs to boot up the life support and maybe fix the engines." He pressed the button on the elevator for the engine room and he left the bridge.

Jose looked about the hull and cargo. "Multiple hull breaches, five heavy cannon shots to the side. Looks like this thing was carrying a pretty big cargo, more then seventy thousand tons, but who knows what that cargo was. The last owner of the ship whipped the logs." Jose put on his space helmet. "I am heading outside the ship to do some repairs on the hull with some extra plating we apparently have inside the cargo bay." I said bye as he gave me a thumbs up and the elevator took him to the air locks.

I looked about the piloting systems. I took a peek to the side of it and pressed the button labeled "Power". The lights around the bridge lit up and all systems came online. I flipped the retro rockets and the ship started to stabilize, I clicked the secondary and third power generators and the whole ship started to light up.

Ron radioed in "Uh...sir did you just turn on the lights?"

"Yes is there a problem?" I replied calmly.

"Maybe you should have kept them off." Ron was staring at the dead bodies of the slaves and crew.

I had odd look on my face. "Why?"

"Everyone is dead" he responded bluntly.

"Huh? I don't know what you mean. Just hold on, I’m coming down there!"

As I spun out of my chair and turned around I saw a man clad in iron. He held up a large sword and chopped down on me. Dodging quickly to the side I slapped out my pistol and shot off a couple shells at his body, but they just harmlessly bounced off.

I flipped on my com link as he slowly turned to me "Ron I found what killed the others!" He swung at me again and I ducked, the sword swinging just above my head.

"What killed them!?"

The metal man chopped his sword at me again crushing the panel beside me "Can't talk now!" I spun and dove to the side, his sword cutting of a piece of my short hair. I felt behind me and picked up a sword to combat his. Griping the handle hard it charged up and the blade started to glow with its dim power. I said confidently "Come and get some."

He charged at me bring his sword down again, but I was not going to run. I held my sword tightly and blocked his attack slashing it to the side and taking a slash at his leg. The heat from the plasma sword cut through it like a hot knife through butter. He toppled bringing his large weight down, his sword dropping from his hands. I held up my sword and stabbed him in the chest. He stopped moving and shut down. I flicked on my com link and opened channels with both Jose and Ron.

"Guys I found out what killed the crew, an automaton...I think the seventy thousand tons of cargo was a army of them. When they released the army and activated them, one most have been left on board, and it killed everyone."

Ron radioed in "I could have thought of such. The engine is fixed and life support is working just so you know."

Jose got on the com. "Hull is fixed and the hyper-drive is operational"

"Good job team. I will see you guys back on the bridge." I was proud that those two did what they did.

"Roger, Ron signing out." He flicked off his com.

"Ditto, Jose out." He shut off his com.

I started booting up all systems. I turned on the life support, it showed green. I turned on the engines, it showed green. I turned on radar and weapons, green all the way. The elevator opened, Ron and Jose stepped out. Ron was cleaning his wrench with a old cloth and Jose was just taking his helmet off. I smiled and nodded to both of them. They knew that I was telling them to take their stations. Ron sat in the radar and life support control seat to the left of me and Jose took his seat in the engines and weapons systems seat to the right of me. I clipped the engines and everything went white.

Jose activated the hyper drive and Ron activated the main fuel injection system and Jose yelled out in joy as the engines roared and the ship shot off home.  

[Temporarily Sane]

Chapter 3 Home Comings

We closed in on Krilla. I shut down all systems and we drifted into the solar system, going roughly 80 percent light speed. I activated the retro rockets and slowed us down to an orbit over the planet. I closed the engines and we fell into Krilla. Activating the main hover jets we glided effortlessly over the barren planet. The lava flowed fast like a river of death over much of Krilla’s surface. We closed the engines as we came into port at one of the only livable places on the planet. Military installation 3-9. I opened up the landing gear and we clashed to the ground on the landing pad. We were quickly surrounded by a large group of soldiers. This could get ugly fast.

I took the sword I had used and sheathed it in a casing I found on the ground by its resting place. As I hooked it up to my belt, I thought I might need it in the days to come. The door on the side of the ship opened and Ron, Jose, and I walk lightly outside, a young man greeted me with pleasure.

"Sir, Chief of the Navy reporting!"

"Wow, I must have been gone so long I don't remember my own staff. At ease, what is your name?"

"I am Alo. Sir, it is a great pleasure to meet you in person!" He saluted as everyone behind him did the same.

"At ease everyone. Yeah it’s a great pleasure for everyone to see me. Now how did you know I was coming?"

"The AU tipped us off when he detected a ship coming within the range of our sensors."

"That AU, always looking out for me...” I stared off out at the sky

"Uh, the board members and other generals are waiting for you in the meeting room."

"Huh? Oh...yeah let’s go." He led me off into the building behind us. Ron and Jose had to stay behind; this was a top secret meeting for the higher brass only.

We went down the long halls. Dim lights led our path.

"This place has changed..." I looked around at broken lights and destroyed sections of the complex.

"A lot can happen in three years sir."

"That’s true, but how could it destroy most of Krilla. This is supposed to be a military installation for god’s sake."

"The Atlantians made a number of powerful lance attacks. Most of the Krilla installation lies in ruin. This is one of the last operational hubs."

I walked into the red board room. It felt very surreal as I sat down. Everyone was staring at me. Someone came around and passed out small cups of water and a cookie. Alo took a spot next to me as the lights dimmed and the project was turned on. The presenter too his position on the stand and everything fell into a deathly silence.

The presenter said aloud to all the people in the room "Welcome, gentlemen. A week ago the Antarctica, which was carrying the Serio Phisciaz, was disabled during routine runs through the Omeda quadrant."

He started to flip through some slides and it showed a picture of a furry creature that attacked us. "This beast broke loose from where it was being kept in the cargo of the ship. We are unsure how this creature attacked the crew because it is only small and furry."

I looked closely at him as he spoke. "This right here is the Antarctica...it is currently in orbit of Jupiter and..."

I rudely interrupted "Do you, sir, expect me to believe these lies?" I slammed my hands to the table and looked sternly at him.

"What!? These are not lies. If you think they are, then you tell me what happened."

I step up out of my seat "Gladly!" I walked up to him and snatched the laser pointer out of his hand. I stepped up to the pedestal.

"People, I suppose that the army has been trying to cover this whole thing up. The truth is...”

Ron radioed me. "Sir they are trying to kill you!" I glanced quickly around and saw one of the generals holding a gun and his finger was on the trigger.

I kept talking as if I had never heard him. "The enemy we face is a powerful one. It has the ability to deflect most weapons and can multiply at remarkable speeds."

I saw the general move. And in an instant I dove to the side just as he pulled out his gun and shot at me. I radioed Ron "Thanks for the tip."

Alo flipped out his own pistol and shot the general dead.

All other board members rushed out of the room, leaving me and Alo to clean up the mess. Alo looked at him closely and said "The general knows something we don't." He searched his body and found some orders. "It says to kill you if you try and speak about the creature. Yeah, the military is trying to cover it up" The sirens outside started to go off.

We both ran outside of the building to see thousands of Atlantian fleet ships exiting hyperspace; it was an all-out assault. Their fleet started to come into engagement with our ships. We saw the cannons and laser slamming against each other in a battle of the titans. Ron and Jose came up to me shortly after the main battle started.

"Ron what the hell is going on!?"

Ron looked at me "The Atlantians cracked our defense. We don't know how, but they have shutdown all the orbital cannons. We have nothing left to hold them from attacking Krilla!"

Jose stepped up "Sir, there are...." A large plasma ejection from an Atlantian craft fell from the sky and crushed a building near us. "...numerous enemy crafts closing in on this position."

I glanced at Jose. "How many are we talking about?"

"Maybe...thirty to forty. The radar couldn't hold them all."

"Okay troops. We can NOT, let Krilla fall to the enemies. Fight until you can fight no longer. For, if we lose this day, then we lose the universe."

"Sir yes sir!" Ron and Jose yelled at the same time.

"Troops dismissed." They both ran off to their MSC.

I turned to look at Alo who was still shocked that after years of building, his defense would be helpless.

I put my hand on his shoulder "Don't worry, we will drive them back. But to have any hope of doing that, I need to get on the Polaris."

He looked at me "We didn't refuel your ship. So, Sam will have to take you."

"Sam?"

"Yes, Sam you’re clear for landing!" Alo yelled off into a com link.

Sam responded on the link. "Roger I am making my approach."

A firefly bearing the golden marking of the Krilla air and space force appeared in the distance.

"Who is Sam?" I looked at Alo, puzzled.

"She is the lead pilot of the air and space force of the defense of Krilla. Also, she is my sister."

"She?"

The firefly flew close to the ground and straight over our heads. A large dust cloud followed it and I covered my eyes from the sand. She picked up and turned to the right. A long contrail followed. With a crash of thunder she kicked the engines into overdrive and broke the speed of sound. Turning, she grasped the controls and preformed a number of barrel rolls before cutting the engines and landing in front of us.

"Show off..." I mumbled as she opened her cockpit.

She stepped out of her firefly. "Gold leader Samantha reporting, sir."

"Well..." I glared at her. "You are pretty good with a firefly."

She looked at me. "Yeah I practice and I..."

Alo interrupted. "Sir, we are fighting a war." He turned his attention to Sam. "Sam, can you take the admiral back to the Polaris?"

"Sure I will take him up there...."

"Ok good luck."

"You know me, I don't need it." She snickered.

I got into the back seat of the firefly. And she got into the front.

She looked back at me. "Okay admiral, hang tight!"

She turned on the hover jets and the ship picked up. With a clip sound reminiscent of my firefly, the ship flew off into orbit.

“I hope you’re ready for this…” I stared out the cockpit window at the ships.

“I was born ready.”

“Well then let’s get going.”

“Okay, if you’re sure you’re ready to get this party started!”

She turned off the engines and flipped on the retro rockets. The ship turned and we were pointed like a javelin to the center of the battlefield.

“Here we go!” She clipped the engine ignition and the rockets ignited. We blasted straight off into the battle.

“Wait. We are supposed to be going to the Polaris!”

“Change of plans.”

We were almost within range of the enemy guns.

“You’re mad, we can’t take that many!”

“Funny, if this was mad I wouldn’t be the defense lead.”

She increased speed and opened up all cannons on the enemy carriers main fuel injectors. It’s not common knowledge to know that this is the weak point of the massive carrier ship.

The lasers hit the exposed tanks and tubes riddling them with holes.

The ship started to roll on its side, and it started coming to block our flight path.

“We’re not going to make it!”

“That’s fools talk!”

She cut the engines and made a sharp thrust on the wing tips retro rockets. One powerful thrust on the right wing and the ship made a complete flip allowing us a narrow opening of space to escape collision and we slipped right into one of its hangars as the ship fell into Krilla’s orbit.

With excellent timing, she shot five missiles into the remainder of the ships internal fuel tubes. But the firefly was accelerating so fast that it kept pace with the missiles. I saw them right above the cockpit.

Right as we passed the main tube over head of us. They slammed into the tube jolting a massive explosion through that long hangar. The large fire ball followed right behind us.

“It’s time to find out why these things are called fireflies.” She had that nasty grin on her face, just like the time I looked at the Polaris’s bridge room for the first time.

The fire was close. I started to sweat as I felt its heat. But she had a plan. She flooded the engines with our emergency fuel. When the fire got close enough, the emergency fuel ignited in a big bang. Launching the firefly far ahead of any danger and putting us into the atmosphere of Krilla just as the ship was burning up on its way down. She clipped the engine and we thrust back to space.

We were now on our original route back to the Polaris.

I looked at her “OKAY WE ARE NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN!”

“Heh, heh. We came out alright didn’t we?” She kept smiling.

“Errr” I looked out the window. “Why did we bother to attack that carrier anyway?” I said, still furious.

“Because, we can. And I will do everything I can to protect this planet….it’s my only home....” Her smile went away.

A grim look fell upon my face. “You still remember…huh?”

“Yeah… I do. And I don’t blame you for what happened. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I still take responsibility for it.”

“You didn’t make the order. It was your duty to do it.”

The craft turned to dock in the Polaris.

“I could have done something though….”

“Yes. But then I wouldn’t be the pilot I am today.”

The firefly came into contact with the docking pole and it lifted us up into the hangar’s main docking section. The cockpit opened when the ship stopped and sat in the now re-pressurized hangar.

“Sir, what took you so long!?” I hopped out of the cockpit to be greeted by Ron and Jose.

“We took a detour….” I glared at Sam who was handling some pilot’s questions on how she took out the carrier.

“Yeah we saw that. It’s kind of hard to see a massive ship falling out of orbit.” Ron said very sarcastically.

“Well we better head to the bridge. Let’s get going.”

“Yes sir….”

We walked down the halls to the main elevator shaft. But on our way there, the massive Atlantian capital ship “Cornelo” had locked its cannons onto the Polaris, just as the elevator started going up. The cannons fired and the Polaris shook greatly as its hull was breached by the ten ton explosive shells. The vibrations were so powerful that the Polaris was nearly flipped over. I fell over and gashed my head on the elevator door. I was out cold.

I woke up inside the elevator. A red emergency light glowed dimly over my head. I struggled to stand, for I was still half dead. I reached for the emergency button, but I was shaking too much to open the hatch covering it. I wondered why it was so cold in here. I had hoped for the best, for there was a great chance the Polaris was out of commission, permanently.

“Jose,” I said weakly as I struggled to wake him up…

He didn’t move.

”Wake up soldier!” I kicked him hard in the side.

He started to come to. “Sir, was that really necessary?” He held his side where I had kicked him.

“Yes it was.” I looked over at Ron and did the same thing. He started to wake up as well.

Ron opened his eyes and got up. “What happened? I remember going up the elevator and….boom…all went black.”

“Well it looks like the power is out. I don’t know what happened. But we should get out of this elevator first.” I reached for the escape hatch.

Jose got up. “Okay, let’s get moving.” He picked up his gun.

Ron sat up and started making some adjustments to his gun.

As I slowly opened the outside hatch a massive gust of snow rushed in. I was blown down to the now snow-covered floor of the elevator.

“What the hell….” Jose looked at the white stuff. “How did snow get in here!?”

I looked up at him. “My worst fear. If snow is in here, it means that the automatic heating system has been destroyed. It also means…There is a breach in the ships hull. The cold void of space is freezing the ship. We don’t have thermal suits…. If we cannot get out of the ship fast enough, we will freeze to death.”

“Great! Just great! We finally come to our ship, only to be in it when it is destroyed!” He slammed his fist to the side of the elevator.

“Calm down!” Ron yelled out.

“Let’s get our heads in the game.” I climbed up the drop ladder and onto the roof of the elevator. Ron and Jose followed me up. Most of the shaft was ice. I decided we should head to the bridge room. We could see the remainder of the battle from up there.

We climbed up the shaft ladder. It was a long way up. As we climbed we passed by floor after floor until we came to floor “3-0-0”. I jumped off the ladder and onto the small ledge in front of the door. I took out my plasma sword and sliced right through the magnetic lock. With steady hands I gripped both doors and pulled them apart. I walked into the bridge. Everyone was unconscious. Ron and Jose climbed up and into the bridge like I did and gazed at the bridge.

“Looks like we are not leaving in this ship” Ron said as he pulled out his bio scanner.

“Yeah were going to have to take another lift….” Jose looked at the ships shield energy.

I sat down in my chair. “Can we get power back online?”

“No sir, the generators are shot.” Jose started scanning the ship for hull breaches.

Ron looked at the bio signs across the ship. “Sir…. Everyone across the ship from bow to stern is…dead. We are the only survivors.”

I walked up to the ships large reinforced bridge window. I wiped off some of the frost.

“Oh my god.” I gazed out at a grave yard of ships.

A destroyed firefly passed close by the bridge room. I starred blankly as it turned slightly. It revealed a crushed and ripped apart cockpit. I could see a corpse inside as the lights flickered on and off inside it.

“How long…?” I looked at Ron.

“What do you mean sir?” He looked back at me confused.

I slammed my hands to the control consol. “How long have we been unconscious!?”

“Well sir……. We have been down for a week at least.” Ron reluctantly said.

“What!? How have we stayed alive!?”

“The AU transferred all of the ships power to keep us alive….”

A dark shadow overtook my face. “His primary objective was to keep me alive… But not at the cost of killing everyone else!”

Jose looked crossly at me. “Sir, you should be happy we are alive. The AU took our safety above all else. And you should be happy! What would happen if everyone was still alive right now!? They would just be killed! But we can do something. You have the capabilities, the experience, the rank and power! You can do something to fix this! The AU did the right thing in keeping us alive. No one else could do something. We can end the war. It is time to do this!” Jose got up in my face. “Either you are in or out.”

Ron stepped up to us. “I am in. Let’s take the fight to them. I have had enough of hiding.”

Jose looked at Ron. He stepped away from me and asked me one last time. “Sir…. Are you in, or are you out?”

“I can’t do this.” I stepped down from the bridge and walked back to the elevator.

Jose yelled out at me. “Why are you hiding!?”

I scowl grew on my face and I spun around. “You know what happened on Praven III! Do you remember as well as I do? Do you remember how many people died? Do you remember how many people fell in the name of their cause? Well I remember! I remember how many people died. I remember that massacre. And you know what I remember the most? I remember a moment like this. I remember joining a cause, thinking what I was doing was right. But I was so wrong.”

“Sir that was a long time ago!” Ron yelled at me.

“It was not long enough for me to forget.”

Jose stepped up. “Sir…. Go now. Go if you think you can run. Do you think you can hide from this? Like the rest of the army, are you going to pretend none of this is happening!? You are one of the few leaders that know that this is happening. We must act before it is too late.”

“It already is to late you fool!” I barked out at Jose.

“No it is not. There is no where you can hide, admiral. We are a cornered animal. We have no choice. We die or we fight!”

I looked at both of them.

Ron spoke up again. “This could be Praven III again. But damn it…. We got no choice. You’re not the kind to back down.”

I looked at both of them. “I don’t want to fight. I don’t want to relive Praven III…. But we have no choice...So, who is up for showing these Atlantian bastards what we can do!?”

Smiles crossed both their faces.

“Ron I want you to power up the generators. Get enough power to get the AU online so we can retrieve some data on what has been happening since we went down. Jose, I want you to get working on finding a ship to take us out of here.”

Jose and Ron simultaneously said “Yes sir!” And left off to their duties.

I walked back over to the icy window. I could see the destroyed ships floating effortlessly in space. Some of the vessels were carrying large amounts of water. And when they were destroyed they exploded in a vast expansion of ice. Now much of the space around the battle field is covered in it.

I looked down at a blinking and beeping, button. It was signaling that the ship was breached. I pressed down on the button. The blinking stopped. The Polaris is a true ghost ship.

Jose was behind me checking the ships docking logs. He was looking for any ship that might still be on board. Ron was looking at the generator conditions and powering up a cluster of small turbines to power a much bigger one.

I kept looking out at that window when suddenly I spotted an Atlantian drone.

“Get down!” I yelled as it hovered close by the bridge.

We all hit the ground and got under the consoles. I shut of the main power and the lights went off. It turned and looked straight into the bridge. I could see its light looking inside for any survivors. Its claws scratched on the windows. It used every probe it had to look for anyone living inside. But the electronics we were hiding amongst scrambled its devices and it could not see us. It finished probing and the small search craft span around and flew off to another ship.

I tried to flip on the power again, but it would not activate. This could be a problem.  

[Temporarily Sane]

This part may not be completely right because I have changed the storyline a few times. This may be changed if I find it wrong.

--------------
Chapter 4 Ghost Ship

The proudest ship in the Lemurian main battle fleet has crumbled along with its sister ships. It was the greatest loss of life since the invasion of the now none existent Semturi system. With the main fleet destroyed it leaves the young province of Setu open to invasion. With this wound taken, many universes are wide open for assault.

I got up from under one of the ships consoles. “Ron why won’t the power return?”

“I don’t know sir. It could be for a number of reasons.” He turned on his gun light.

Jose spoke up. “Sir…. You might want to take a look at this.” His light revealed a glistening trail of slime.

“Where did that slime come from?” I dip two of my fingers in it and took a closer look at the slime.

Ron came over. “What is going on?” He looked down at the slime.

“We have visitors.” I snarled.

Jose looked at the ceiling. “Up high!”

We all leapt in different directions as one of the creatures dropped onto the slime.

Ron looked at it. “Die.” He pulled the trigger and released a spray of bullets. The bullets penetrated the monster’s skin and it fell over.

I walked to it. “Yeah, this thing is dead.”

Jose rushed over. “But how? I thought our bullets had no effect.”

“Normally that is true, but something changed their chemical make-up in their body. Something on this ship must have altered them so that they lost their protective shell.” I took out a syringe.

Ron looked over the body. “Wow, it didn’t fight at all.”

I popped the syringe into the body and pulled the plunger. A bright blue ooze was sucked in. I took the syringe and poked it into my DA. It looked at the blue ooze in comparison to samples of the black ooze taken by Randy earlier. It singled out the differences in the blood. Only one difference. The black had a massive amount of iron in it, but also a large amount of SID, a chemical commonly used to make spaceship hulls. This creature had large amounts calcium in its blood and the SID, but something was altering it. I wondered whether there was a chemical in the ship which could alter them, but it would take a large amount to make any change in such as large population. It hit me: the barges were carrying water. When water reacts with the SID in the body it dilutes and softens it. The creatures must be drinking water. The calcium and diluted SID make a bright blue color, so that’s why the blood is different. But after some more calculations I found that the blood and the bodies are explosive when SID reacts with water. We should be careful next time we engage one of these.

“Ok guys.” I stood up. “Looks like we have enough data.” I said, discarding the syringe.

Jose spoke up. “Sir, enemies are being detected all through out the ship.”

“Let’s get moving, then.” I reloaded my gun.

We heard a shaking sound coming from the elevator shaft. Power to the elevator suddenly returned and it started moving up to this floor.

“Atlantians” Ron murmured.

I grabbed my sword and clenched the hilt hard. It heated up as the plasma inside started moving faster and faster. Taking great care, I stabbed the sword into one of the magnetic rails on the side of the shaft. I peeled it out so that the elevator would not be able to go any farther. It was going to be stuck on the floor below us. After I was done, I sheathed my sword.

All of us could hear it as the elevator made its way up the floors. When it reached the block it stopped and went to the floor I had planned for it to go to.

“Okay Ron, turn on the cameras for downstairs” I whispered.

Ron complied. On the monitor, we saw the doors open to reveal a massive pile of explosives. It was on a timer, and when it reached the floor it instantly exploded with such immense force that everything just stopped. Things felt so slow. We could hear the level below the bridge being ripped apart. It was all over soon enough. No fire was in the ship so that meant that there was no air left. I grabbed a re-breather and slapped it to my mouth. I handed two to Ron and Jose. The thermo systems in our weak armor wouldn’t last long, maybe at least five minutes before we froze to death. I looked at the ship’s outside cameras. It seemed that one small and weak shaft held the bridge to the ship. It was our only shot.

The gravity generator had its line to the bridge cut, so we floated over to the now destroyed shaft and one by one got into the ventilation tube. We crawled down the narrow tube. It was dark and cold, but when we came out we found ourselves in the destroyed observation deck. The glass was all shattered and the floor was falling apart. I signaled the other two over to me. There was a large gap. I jumped to the other side floating most of the way. They followed and we opened the door to the elevator shaft to the computer room where the AU was stored.

We floated down a floor and I cut open the magnetically locked door. When we pulled it open we saw the large pillar that was the center point for most data on the ship. I skipped over to it and hit the release button. A little CD popped out, I put it in a case, and put the case in my pocket.

We all started to feel the cold. I think we all knew that time was short. We headed to a door to the left of us. When I opened it a dead body was found hanging to the door knob for life. I couldn’t look, but at the same time I had to. Half of his body was torn away. Those creatures ate him alive. I could see the terrified expression on his face. He died screaming. We walked through the door and down the hall. I cast my light around looking for the next elevator. I found it directly down the hall. When I opened the door to the elevator which was still receiving power, we saw a massive pile of bodies. What the hell has been going on? We walked in and pressed the button for the hangar. The elevator rustled as it went down. We reached a point where you could see out of the elevator and into the hangar as we went down. The place was teeming with drone ships and Atlantians. I could hear Jose loading his gun. It was going to be one hell of a trip.

When the doors of the elevator opened, we were ready for sudden return of gravity. Back on our feet, we rushed down to a crate and ducked behind it. There was an MSC just North of our position; if we could just get to it we may have a chance. But there were a hell of a lot of Atlantians from here to there. I took a grenade and threw it down the walk way. We heard nothing except for the large cracking sound of bones snapping and the grenade exploding. I looked back over the crate to be greeted by gun fire. They knew we were here. We returned fire, but everything stopped when we heard a ear-splitting screech. The monsters were back! Hundreds of them poured from the vents and ceilings. They were attacking the Atlantians. We heard a massive explosion and turned around to look. A drone had crashed close behind us. We all were thinking the same thing. If we don’t make a break for the ship now, we would lose it. We all jumped over the crate and ran for the MSC. It was like we weren’t there at all. The monsters seemed to ignore us as we ran. The Atlantians couldn’t stop us, they were far too busy. With excellent timing we jumped onto the platform that was holding the MSC before the lines holding the walkway behind us cut loose and all of them fell into space. We opened the MSC’s doors and rushed in. Jose took the controls and I took shotgun. Ron closed the doors behind us and started up the air generator. It was go time!

Jose activated the hover jets. As we lifted into space a drone covered in the little monsters flew by, out-of-control. I turned on the main generators. Jose cut the hover jets when we were off the landing pad and flipped the engines. He reactivated them and we were on our way out. We were almost at the exit when suddenly a half-destroyed drone came out of no where and fired at us.

I tore out my re-breather. There was enough air in the MSC to breath now. “Ron take gun point!”

Ron took out his re-breather, too. “Yes sir!” He climbed up the ladder to the turret. He took his seat and put his hand on the trigger. “See you in hell.” He murmured as he unloaded the twin cannons on the drone.

The bullets pattered all over the drone’s hull and soon a massive explosion from the ignition of its fuel tanks ripped it apart.

“Sir. Enemy neutralized!” He said with pride.

“Good work soldier, now get down here.” I yelled out to him.

Jose clipped the engines right as we left the ship’s hangar, and he ignited the hyperdrive as the ship made it out of the graveyard.

We all breathed a sigh of relief. “Good work team.”

Ron took out his re-breather and put it in a drawer under the control consoles.

I took out the AU control disk and placed it in the main computer hub near the back of the ship.

The system hummed and lights flickered on as it activated the data contained in the disk.

“AU systems online, performing data scans.” It said as the holoscreen activated.

I walked over to the screen and watched as the worm progressed.

After around five minutes the AU said aloud. “Scan completed, data drives ten through fifteen missing. Resetting main systems to defaults.”

“What, no!” I quickly shut down the system before it could reset. “Looks like we have a little problem” I said to myself as I sat down in a chair.

Ron walked into the room. “Sir, have you finished your work?”

“No…. Some data drivers are missing, specifically ten through twenty….” I spun my chair around to look at him.

“Well what is so important about these drivers?”

“They deal with the data that the AU stores and uses. There are a hundred data drivers that process the massive amount of data the AU requires. But ten through twenty are missing…. And the disk looks like someone whipped some data.”

I span my chair to look at the holoscreen and started hitting some buttons.

“Yeah it is as I feared.” I stop using the screen and spin my chair to look at him again. “Data drivers ten through twenty contained the information on past events. The things that happened when we were off the Polaris, all that data is gone.”

“How? It would take an engineer to find the right data drivers and systematically remove them with no one noticing.”

“You just said it right there. I suspect that an engineer on the Polaris whipped the data. The AU won’t be able to function properly without it. So until we return it, I am leaving the AU’s systems offline until we either retrieve the drivers or some how replace the data.”

“Well we are about to reach our destination sir.”

I got out of my chair. “Really? I thought it has only been five minutes.”

“Around five hours.”

“Oh, well in that case…. I guess we should head up to the c**k pit then.” Ron and I walked from the room down the hall to the cockpit.

We entered the room to find Jose busy at work clicking buttons, pulling leavers, pushing stops, and flipping switches. Ron sat in the chair to the left of Jose and I sat in the right.

“Okay we are now exiting hyperspace, hang on!” Jose said as he shut down the engines main fuel impute and activated the retro rockets.

The ship started to slow down and twenty minutes later it came to a complete stop over Kell, our next destination.

The planet was very green with its grassy plains and lush forests. I looked outside the window. Memories started to come back. It had been a long time since I set foot on this planet.

“Sir, we are starting to enter the atmosphere.”

“Okay, where are we landing?”

“Detia, sir.” Ron said as he looked at a 3D map.

“Detia!? Oh…great, well let’s get our equipment and head out….”

“Okay we will get ready.” Jose said as he left the cockpit.

“Hey where are you going?” I said as Jose was about to leave.

“Well you said get ready, so I am.”

“What about flying the ship?”

“Don’t worry; we are on auto pilot for the space port.”

“Oh of course…. Carry on then.” I turned to look outside the cockpit as we came into one of the hangars.

The lights below the ship locked onto it and illuminated the hull.

I grabbed some normal cloths and went to change. I took off my bio-genetic battle support suit or BGBSS for short. And put on towns clothing. I didn’t want t arouse suspicion if people saw the army in the area. I hide my sword well and kept a pistol at my side. When I stepped out of the room and into the cockpit I found that Ron and Jose had done the same. The only thing we kept from our BGBSSs was our high class upper brass STP so we could easily leave the planet.

The ships door opened and we left to the inside of the hangar. It was a frigid morning and frost covered the equipment inside the hangar.

A man with an official looking uniform walked up to us. “Ah you must be from the military seeing as how you are flying a Lemurian MSC.”

“That is correct.” I said showing him my STP.

“Ah this is a very important STP you have here. What about them?” He looked behind me.

“They are my guards.”

He looked back at me. “Ah very good, please pass through admiral to checkpoint three.”

“Thank you.” I said as Jose locked the MSC and we walk to the halls.

It was crowded as we walked down the halls to the courtyard of the spaceport. So many people were trying to leave. They say a rat only leaves a ship when it’s going to sink. Many of these people did not have STPs though and the police were having a hand full keeping the people from rioting. But there weren’t nearly enough police to hold back the horde of angry citizens.

We finally reached the end of the halls and terminals, we found ourselves in the courtyard. Hundreds of people were out here. Some camping and waiting ‘til they could go. As we looked around a man walked up to us.

“Hey, you! Are you people looking to leave the planet?” He said quickly.

“No, we are…”

He interrupted me. “Say no more! You can buy my STPs and leave the planet now!” He showed me a STP.

I looked and then glared at him. “This is a fake STP….” He looked at me in shock that I found out.

“How did you know!?” He started shivering.

“Because you scribbled the word “STP” on the back of coupon….”

He started to run away.

“Sir, should we go after him?” Ron asked.

“Don’t bother; he is not worth the time and ammo. Let’s just keep going.”

“Yes sir.”

We walked across the courtyard. I expect more scams like that one now that we will be entering the peasant district of Detia.

When we exited the courtyard I looked about. Many of the buildings were still crumbled and destroyed.

It has only been 3 years and yet this place still carries scars of that battle. We continued to walk down the street when suddenly Jose fell over. Ron stumbled a bit and slammed into the grounds I started having breathing problems. Everything starts to go black. I stumble to the ground and I suddenly can’t move. I blacked out.

I awaken on the ground where I blacked out. A massive inferno encompasses almost everything. Houses and buildings are rubble. Hundreds of dead and dieing people line the streets with hundreds more fighting. I get up and look around me.

“Where am I?” I get up.

“Die you b*****d!”

I shot out me sword and turned around. A child no older then twelve drew a sword a tried to slash me. With quick reflexes I parried his attack and pushed him back.

“Why did you have to kill everyone!?” He yelled as he charged me again.

I dodged to the side. He turned around and pulled a gun on me.

Shocked, I pulled out my own gun and fired some explosive splinters. They burrowed into his body and exploded. A short shower of blood rained on the area and then there was a feeling of stillness in the air.

“There he is, get him!” A man yelled out from a squad of infantry

All the soldiers in that squad started firing. I didn’t bother moving. A beam of high energy shot into the center of the squad and exploded. The bullets that hit me didn’t even penetrate my suit.

More of these soldiers came from behind me. They were desperate to kill me. I stood there as the soldiers fired blindly at me. They were so sad they couldn’t aim, couldn’t hold back their tears, and couldn’t die. The loss of their planet was more then they could bear. They felt that if they could kill me it would be over. But they were wrong. They can’t kill me.

I moved my body swiftly. Using the teleportation gear I appeared behind them and showed them no mercy.

One last soldier came into view just as I pulled my sword from the torso of his dead ally. He stepped back and started to shoot. But my speed and teleportation system easily evaded his gun fire. I stood right in front of him barely a foot away I shot the gun out of his hand and brought my sword into his torso. He knelt as he held his stomach. I pulled the sword from his body and held it to his neck.

He looked up at me. “Why?”

I slide my visor up and he looked into my eyes. He saw nothing in them but great pain and sorrow. “I kill because this planet is allies with the Atlantian horde. You and everyone here must be purged.” I swiftly chopped him in half and brought down my visor. A MSC landed in the courtyard and my guardian squad exited to quickly secure the location.

The leader stepped up to me. “Sir are you okay?”

“Yes, let’s leave. The rest of this planet is either in ruins or under orbital laser fire.”

“Yes sir, we will ready the ship for launch.” He ran back into the MSC and started getting it ready for space flight.

As I walked towards the MSC and started to get dizzy. I stumbled around and finally fell flat on the ground. I was lead to believe that this planet was an enemy, but my memory head been altered by a third party. I may never know what really happened there.  

[Temporarily Sane]

Chapter 5 Conspiracy

I woke up pulled to the side of the road next to Jose and Ron. It looked like we had been out cold for awhile. I felt someone sifting through my coat and as I looked around I saw a young boy. He was so poor that he was looting me for anything at all. Unlucky enough for me he found my STP. He saw how official it was and ran off. I tried to get up, but there was a sharp pain in my neck. I felt around there and found a dart lodged inside. I plucked it out and it looked like it was loaded with poison. That must of what induced the visions of my past here. Poison can’t kill me, but this one was strong enough to have an effect. I looked at Ron and Jose and noticed they had darts as well. I plucked them out; they should be okay and wake up soon.

I stumbled up and ran off in the direction of the kid that stole my pass. I don’t care how much he needs it. I ran down the road. The building seemed to get more destroyed as I went on. This is the heart of the peasant district. It is probably the most dilapidated. I stopped running. The crowds were spars here, but I had lost the kids trail. I noticed a man walk up to me.

“Hey you!” He said in a very cocky voice.

I turned around to face him. “What do you want?”

He looked around me and noticed the hilt of my sword. “Pretty nice sword you have there. Give it to me.”

“I don’t have time for this….” I start to walk away.

“Perhaps you didn’t hear me, I said... give it to me!” He pulled out a pistol.

I turned around. “I bet you can’t even use a pistol right.”

He got angry. “Yes I can. I am a veteran of the Detia rebellion.”

I looked at him puzzled. “How did you survive that? I thought my orbital cannons whipped that army out….”

“You did that!?” He started shooting.

I didn’t bother to move I could tell from the way he held his gun that he couldn’t aim well, his bullets scattered around me.

“You’re too scared to even aim properly….” I pulled out my own pistol shot him three times in the right shoulder.

He ran away as fast as he could. He was far too weak to cut me.

I walked to the center and sat on a bench. People were looking at me. They saw what just happened. They had a good idea about who I was.

I saw the kid trying to get special service because of his STP. He didn’t even know who Admiral Thomas was or what his name meant.

“You can’t possibly be the admiral. He is supposed to be twenty feet tall!” A voice said from the crowd that had gathered around a small stall where the kid was.

The child was flustered “I am telling you, I am Admiral Thomas!”

“And I am telling you, you are not!” The man hit him with a broom.

I pulled out my pistol and shot it into the air.

They all looked at me and a voice called out. “Who do you think you are shooting a pistol like that!?”

“No one important, but I will be taking my STP back now.”

The people knew who I was. One man grabbed the boy and tried to flee. Without even looking I shot three bullets in his general direction. He fell to the ground dead with all shots hitting him.

The other people brought out weapons. It seemed they were going to shoot me. I gripped the hilt of my sword. The blade started to glow.

No one moved. The tension in the air was so thick it felt like you couldn’t see. A split second before I drew my sword a grenade dropped right on the crowd and before anyone could run the grenade detonated releasing goo that immobilized them completely.

“We thought you might need help.” Jose and Ron stepped out from the shadows.

“How long have you guys been standing their?”

Ron walked over. “We have been following you ever since you took out the darts.”

“I could have avoided all this with your help….”

“Yes, you could have, but it is interesting for you to wonder about on your own sometimes.” Jose said.

“Well let’s clean up this mess. Ron go retrieve my card please.” I nodded at the kid who was paralyzed in fear.

“Yes sir!” Ron walked over to him and picked up the card.

A loud noise was heard over head and three security crafts appear from behind some tall buildings.

“Sir we got trouble” Ron said as he ran out of the peasant square.

“Yeah we better get out of here.” Jose followed Ron.

Before I could make my escape and run out of the square. One of the crafts turrets locked onto me and unloaded as much ammo as it could.

“Damn it!” The crystal attached to my necklace started to glow and it created a barrier of defensive energy which deflected the bullets.

Guards surrounded me and one shot a dart that made me fall to the ground unconscious.

I woke up in jail. A terrible headache still afflicted me. It was dark with a dim light hanging above. Who knows how long I have been out.

A guard looked into my cell. “Well you are finally awake.”

I didn’t respond.

“We got your weapons and crystal also. You can’t do a thing.”

I looked up at him.

“And you have been sentenced to execution on the grounds of destroying the planet.”

I got up and sat in a chair.

The man laughed and walked away.

Later else where in the city Ron and Jose were discussing about what happened.

“Damn I can’t believe we lost the admiral…” Jose said as he ate an apple.

“As long as he has his emergency defense crystal he should be able to break out on his own.” Ron said.

“Don’t take these people for fools; they know all about what our weaponry is. They have probably confiscated the crystal and his weapons.”

“So we will have to break him out huh?”

“Yep.” Jose said as he picked up his gun.

“How are we going to do it then?”

Jose laid out the blue prints for the jail house. “Well he is currently housed here, in a minimal security cell.”

“Are they really stupid enough to hold an enemy war hero in minimal security?”

“Well I don’t think they can do much better, this is peasant district after all….”

“I see, so how are we going to get him out?” Ron said as he looked at the map.

“Well, there is a duct on the top of the building.”

“That leads to a boiler….” Ron interrupted.

“Then why don’t we just kill everyone, you have a problem with that?”

“Wouldn’t we die…?”

“Okay if you have a problem with every one of my plans then why don’t you make one!?”

“Sure, I will make one.” Ron looked at the map. “There is a back way into the building that is less guarded. If we can crack the lock on the back door and enter the cafeteria we should be able to make it into the cell block C where he is believed to be held.”

“That sounds all right, but can we actually do it?”

“Yeah, if we are careful and avoid the barracks.”

“Well then what are we waiting for!?”

“Morning just after they finish breakfast…”

“Okay then let’s get some sleep, we will need it.” Jose said laying back.

“Yeah, night.”

Back at the cells, Thomas is still sitting in the chair as a guard watches over him.

The guard stands up. “So are you going to bother moving Thomas?”

I don’t reply and just keep sitting there in the chair.

“Hey Thomas, move.”

I don’t move.

“Hey, Thomas I said move!” The guard starts to get angry.

I ignore him.

“Hey move!” He shoots his rifle at me but to his surprise the bullet passes right through me.

“Damn what is going on!?” The guard starts to freak out and opens the cell door.

“Looks like you are not trained to spot illusions…” I say, my voice echoing through the hall way.

“Who is there!?” The guard turns around but sees no one.

“I am right here.” He turns around again, but still no one.

I drop from the ceilings and jab his weak points and let him drop to the ground, dead.

“That was too easy, what are these people thinking with security like this?”

I walk out into the cellblock; there are a couple guards on the floor below, but other then that I will have an easy escape.

There were no signs to lead me to where my crystal and weapons were being held. I crouched behind the balconies low wall as an emergency response squad attempted to re-contain me in the cell.

I was in a bad spot. The way the cell block was constructed left me pined down on the second floor. I took a mental note. A stair case to the left of me and a stair case to the right, the left path was closest to my location. But I might not make it there without getting shot.

The wall started to crack and fall apart. I can’t hold this position for much longer, I can guess the wall to break in about five minutes. I had that much time to think over this situation. One small mistake and I could easily be killed.

No matter how much I thought I kept coming to one conclusion. I must use the Tactical War Implant (TWI) so I could maybe buy sometime for my escape. I mentally activated it and a small menu appeared in front of one of my eyes. I picked the heat detector option and four red circles appeared in front of my eyes. They scanned what I saw, sending the information to a list of data to the side of my head. I looked through the wall for the squad on the floor below me. But nothing was found. The data retrieved showed no abnormalities.

I quickly realized what had happened. I had failed to notice that the gun fire had stopped. I didn’t want to look behind me, but I turned my head to see the guard squad standing next to me. I can’t believe I failed to notice them sneaking up the stairs. One of the guards took an EMP patch and placed it on my forehead. My TWI short circuited and shut down. I had lost all my advantages. I could feel one of them holding a blade to my neck. It looked like the fight was over.

An explosion ripped through a room down one of the hallways. I could feel its vibration in the ground. It was big.

The captain was a little shaken from the blast. “01 and 02 go check out the explosion.”

“Yes mam!”

The two guards ran down the stairs and down on of the hallways. I thought I might run, but when I tried I could not move. Why can’t I move no matter how much effort I put into it? It was like the EMP patch was affecting more then my hearing.

Two people walked out of the hallway and into the cell block. A guard that was next to me fell to the ground with a bullet wound in his chest. I couldn’t hear anything; the implant in my brain controls most of my body’s functions and with it disabled I can no longer hear well. It was like I was watching a silent movie.

I had no idea what was going on, but after a few minutes of no one moving. The sword chopped through my shoulder blade. Removing the arm from my body, I couldn’t bear the intense pain of the plasma scar and blacked out.

Everything was black and it was cold here. I couldn’t feel my hands or my legs, was I dead or alive? I didn’t know the difference between the two anymore.

A dim holoscreen appeared in front of what seemed to be my field of vision. It was showing a stream of data that looked like random gibberish. It looked to be just a random screen; soon another one appeared next to it. Revealing more random data, I couldn’t tell what it read. More started to surround me. All showing meaningless gibberish that I couldn’t read. I took a step back and looked at them all. They looked meaningless alone. I started sliding them next to each other.

I looked at them all together. “What is this..?” I said as the gibberish started to turn into words.

“It’s not possible…” I started to tremble.

The words formed sentences, which formed paragraphs, which formed columns. Which showed a journal of a scientist named “Shio”.
It was hard to understand what I read. But I wasn’t sure if it was true or false.

One entry confused me. I could no longer tell. If I was man or machine, it read….

Entry 22.

“It is late august. We have completed our work on its body. We will start booting up systems through out it soon. If this test is a success then it will lead the way for thousands cyborgs to come. It was a lot of work to complete him. We had to work nearly from scratch. A man named Thomas was found barely alive inside a crashed MSC during the Praven wars. He was missing three of his limbs and had lost some of his brain power. He was considered medically dead after a three second examination. It’s been a year since then. We have replaced his limbs with nearly life like mechanical ones. His dead brain parts have been replaced with an implanted super computer. It should match the power of a brain. But if it does not, it could cause some major malfunctions. The damage to the brain harmed his memory cells. It has been decided as of today that we will implant a false memory into him. It’s totally random what he will think happened for the past year. I will be personally overseeing his awakening. This is a great moment in history.”

The entry ended.

“What is this?” I looked closely at the date which this was written. “I remember that crash, but everything two years after that is all blank to me. Two whole years.” I suddenly realized it. “I was activated a year after the crash. What the hell happened during the second year!? They said they implanted a false memory, then why are all my memories gone!? What the hell has been happening!?”

I fell to the floor of the dark place. “Why can’t I remember after the war? Why was I saved instead of someone else on the crash? Why do I have so many questions, but no answers?” I tried looking for more entries, but it all ended at entry 22. Maybe my re-activation led to no more entries being submitted. Or maybe someone didn’t want me to find it and it was erased. Whatever the case may be, I must find out what happened in that one year of darkness.

I awoke on the balcony where I had been chopped. The EMP patch had worn off causing my brain and computer controlled systems to automatically reboot. It was lucky that the arm that got chopped off was mechanical and can be repaired.

I picked up the arm and held it to my shoulder. The primary hydraulic tube extended and fit into the socket, quickly followed by seven smaller tubes connecting into their sockets around the main tube. A rush of steam flowed through my arm, revitalizing it. The cut wires slowly moved and reconnected with each other. As its final repair protocol, the arm was pulled up into position next my shoulder by the hydraulic tubes and connected into the joint. To protect the small exposed area until proper repairs could be made, metal plates slide into place to act as temporary skin. This is the first time I have had seen nano technology in action. It was definitely a good choice in science and in medicine.

With my repairs completed I noticed my surroundings. Everything was destroyed. What I sat on was the last piece of balcony that was not smoldering rubble. It looked like all hell had broken loose. Anyone could see from one side to the other of the building. Most of it was totally leveled. I could see many corpses, but no survivors.

It was going to be dark soon. I tried to move my recently repaired arm, but it wouldn’t budge. The EMP patch must have some temporary effects. I staggered up and jumped off the balcony to the rubble below. I thought that I should find a place to stay for the night.

As I walked and climbed around the rubble back to the streets, I found a man laying face down in the carnage. He looked like a bounty hunter. There was another one close by. Come to think of it, there are a lot of guards surrounding both of them. They must have caused the explosion that destroyed this place.

I continued walking through the rubble. I found dozens more corpses. But no leads other then the bounty hunters on what destroyed this place.

It was starting to get dark and time was running out. As I took my last step out of the rubble I found three Landed MSCs they looked abandoned. But these meant there was Lemurian interference. I looked at the side of the ship and I noticed the Letters LEMRS (Lemurian Emergency Medical Response Squad). They must have come to get me out of the building. I opened the door and walked into the cockpit. The controls were locked to prevent someone from taking the ship. But since the squad is dead, I might as well take it for myself. It is easy to hot wire a MSC, but with my left arm in its current state. I should go with the simplest approach. I sat in a chair in front of the console and slammed my fist into the main control panel. Because of my mechanical arms the panel buckled and the security system was damaged, sending the ship into default mode. I took control of it and set it for auto-return to its last place of take off.

The engines powered up and the ship took off into the atmosphere. It seemed calm. The engines hummed and the sound of the steam flowing through the pipes fit the sci-fi feel of the ship. There was peace here, even if you could only feel it for a moment. In a time of war, you only feel these things every so often. And in an age of violence, blood shed, and death. You must cherish every moment, for they could be your last.

The ship was starting to enter orbit. I switched on the oxygen supplier and shut down the forward engines. Everything was running smoothly as the ship passed into orbit. Then suddenly the ship shook violently. I fell out of my chair and hit my head hard on the controls. The engines stopped moving and the faint smell of fuel drifted into the cockpit. Everything looked very blurry and blood dripped from my head. Some how I managed to get on my feet and look at the main screen. Warning signs dazzled it, hull strength had dropped below twenty percent and the energy shielding had been completely blown away.

I reached out my shaking hand and grabbed the handle that started the main engine. The lights above me flickered and went off. It was getting colder in the ship. I tried pulling down on the handle and activating the main engine. But it wouldn’t budge; the automatic security system must have activated to keep the engine from turning on while the fuel fumes were in open air.

More blood started to flow from my head. Everything grew fuzzier and darker. I lost my grip and fell onto the controls. I looked up and I could see the view screen. The planet was shown ahead of the craft, a small frigate sized ship passed out of the dark side of the planet. I couldn’t see very well, but it was either a Lemurian vessel or a pirate ship. If it was one of ours, then I might have a chance of survival. It was time to use my trump card. The time I saw the red screens, I learned more then I realized. Because most of my body is robotic, I can do various things that robots can do and I learned about some of those abilities during those screens. I carefully touched parts of my palm in a sequence. The clips that held together my hand to my arm unclipped and I pulled off my hand revealing all the wires and machinery underneath. I crawled to a port used by maintenance robots to fix any bugs in the ships computers. I didn’t have much time before this body will fail me. It was now or never. I plugged the exposed section of my arm into the port. All the wires connected into their areas. Everything went black and then I felt a little warmth. Ahead of me I saw a large blue bar, it was downloading me into the computer matrix. It didn’t take long for the bar to fill and I was sent down a green tube to another room.

This room was a lot like the first and it was a little eerie, but without hesitating I took a seat on a small chair in front of me. A small green screen appeared in front of me. It was asking for a password, but not ever seeing or operating this ship before I wouldn’t know what it was. I put in a likely password and the screen turned red. Suddenly I was being surrounded by red “access denied” signs. I was being tied to the floor by some form of security code. I saw some fire coming from a long hallway to my left. It was a firewall, I was about to be obliterated!  

[Temporarily Sane]

Chapter 6 Life line


I only had that split second to think over my life. I have had a good run haven’t I? It doesn’t matter; I can’t do anything at this point. The split millisecond before the fire wall hit me. A massive blue fire wall of my own blocked and even pushed it back. My own security system even over powered the security system of the ship. It shot down the corridors engulfing all defenses in its path and converting them into something under my control. It wasn’t just a security program, it was a hacking program. The virus protection, nano robot protection, hacking protection, fire wall, and worm protection programs all were destroyed. In front of me the numbers on the screen started to change one digit at a time and password screen I had failed to pass changed to a green “access granted” sign. The screens around me turned green and disappeared and the binding program went away as well. A door way appeared in front of where I sat. It looked like I should go through it.

I got up from the chair and walked forward and threw the door that had appeared. It transported me to a control room with only two little gloves in it. After I was fully out of the portal, the blue firewall locked the area down. I hadn’t the slightest idea what to do. But there was really only one thing to do. I picked up both gloves and put them on. They changed size to fit me and started to pulse with a blue energy. Three screens appeared around me, one showed hull status. Another showed speed, ammunition, and fuel. The last one was a screen split into six different views from different cameras. It was time to use my hacking program to its fullest extent. I created some random code and hide my virus inside of it. Without thinking of what might happen if this doesn’t work, I sent two copies of the virus to two maintenance robots sitting in a storage compartment in the MSC. The virus worked without fail and I was given control of the robots. I quickly sent them their first order, they were to repair the leaking fuel line and clean up the fuel that had spilled. They went off to their work and I began to over ride the lock on the main engine. Even though I had taken over the ship, for certain security purposes the engine was a separate computer.

It took me five minutes to crack the code and I was in. I reached out and touched the engine activation pad. The engine turbines started moving. Out of one of the view screens, I saw the ship coming closer. Now that I could see clearly, it definitely was one of ours. And on top of that it was a medical ship.

The robots had finished repairs and I reactivated all systems. I tilted my body forward and the ship sped up to match me it seemed I was in personal control of the ship. With careful movements I sped up and tilted to the side for a turn into the dock on the medical frigate. As I came within range of their weapons, they opened fire on my MSC. The code on this ship must be corrupted and the people on the ship could not tell me as friend or foe.

I quickly increased my speed and tried to out run the targeting computers on board the frigate. But even at high speeds laser fire pelted the back of the ship; I just couldn’t go fast enough. There was still a chance for survival; I made a sharp turn the right toward the frigates open hangar. They must have saw through my plan and started an emergency hangar door close. I increased speed, the doors were closing fast. In the rush I hadn’t noticed a laser had locked on to the cockpit of the ship and it fired obliterating the control and navigation systems. The ship was sent into a violent spin, it was out of control. It blew through the hangar doors and exploded on the hangar wall destroying everything that was inside hangar 02.

Fire suppression and security teams were dispatched; all they found amongst the rubble was my body. It was in an amazingly good condition because of the way it was built. Despite being the number one suspect for this “suicide bombing” they sent my body to the medical bay. My consciousness however was inside a computer chip amongst the rubble of the destroyed hangar.

I waited for days until I was sifted out of the rubble and brought to the computer lab for analysis. They hooked me up to an isolated computer so they could run a check for virus and pirate programs on the chip. I didn’t bother taking action to protect myself, if I let things go there way. It might just turn out in my favor.

The second the computer started its check, it froze. My mind was so vast and complex that it didn’t have enough processing power to go through it all. I expected this would happen and I was taken to the main computer despite the risks for a scan. The second he activated the scan I took control of all onboard computer systems. But I didn’t send this ship to hell in an instant. I downloaded me off the chip and into the computer. The scan found nothing on the chip and the confused man left the room. It was time for part two of my plan.

I closed and locked all doors into the medical deck and sent a virus out to the battle droids in there causing them to start killing all living things in the area, this way I could quickly retake my body without a hassle. But unknown to me, a medical MSC was transporting Ron and Jose to see my body.

“We are not getting any response from the medical dock.” The MSC pilot said aloud as the ship came close to the medical hangars doors.

“Send the dock command again and if that doesn’t work, force the doors open” Ron had a serious look on his face.

“Yes, sir.”

The command was ignored and MSC cut through the doors. The generator there had been destroyed as a side effect from the fighting and the MSC turned on its search lights.

“It looks like no ones home…” The MSC pilot looked at the main view screen in disbelief.

“Whether anyone is here or not does not matter, just dock the MSC and get us inside the medical deck.” Jose said coldly.

“Uh…without a docking code I can’t dock the ship.”

“Then just let us off here.”

“If you go out there you will die.”

“Don’t worry about us…” Ron said as he opened the airlock.

“What you’re doing is insa-” Jose knocked out the pilot.

“Okay let’s go.” Jose said as he entered the airlock.

Minutes later inside the medical deck all enemies had been neutralized and my consciousness was being uploaded to my body. I got up and got my human legs back on the floor. I had been in cyberspace for so long I got a little space sick at the subtle movements of the ship. I did not have time to make my escape, a report from one of the droids in the south read that two rouges were moving like a wrecking ball through my mini army of bots.

Far down south in the hallways, a laser shot had just sounded. Vapor flowed cleanly from a fine hole in a droids head and it dropped to the ground. In front of the robot was Ron holding the smoking gun with Jose behind him picking off enemies at a long distance using his sniper rifle.

“This sector is clear, let’s move to the next.” Ron said as information concerning the medical bay path ways scrolled down his left eye.

“Right, until we find him.”

I stepped out of a door and turned towards them. “So it was you that was destroying my droids…. Why?”

“We had a feeling you were the cause of this cyborgs 05.” Jose stepped up.

“Answer my damn question…”

“As you wish…. We are cyborgs created just for the purpose of destroying you.”

“What!?”

“It is as I said, two years ago you were created. You were supposed to be the greatest creation of Lemuria ever…. Sadly after your activation, you went berserk and started on a non stop killing spree. As a last resort the army released us to hunt you down, and shut down their biggest mistake.”

“Then why didn’t you kill me?”

“Because…. A year later just when we cornered you, two men named Ron and Jose stood up to us. We don’t know why they would help a killing machine, but they fought with all they had. In the end… we took their lives. For reasons that we can not compute, seeing them die caused your systems to reboot. When you awoke, you had no idea what had happened. You only knew some basic information.”

“What am I…?”

“To put it simply, you are a monster. You were given the personality of a man named Thomas. You are just a 2 year old droid.”

“Then I am not human…”

“Correct.”

“I have one last question, why did you stand by me all this time?”

“Because, when you died we took the names and personalities of your two friends. We took on the roll of your friends and watched you, unable to attack. We decided to wait for you to mess up instead and commit an act that would allow us to kill you.”

“You’re not Jose....” I snarled.

“I know and that’s the reason why I can kill you.” His eyes became bloodshot. He dropped the sniper rifle and his hand popped off, revealing two powerful cannons hidden in his arms. “Time for you to go to hell.”

The safety clip popped off and the twin cannons unleashed a massive amount of laser energy. It ripped through the hallway at light speed, I didn’t even get to blink. I felt one beam pierce my left arm and ignite the fuel cells inside causing a massive explosion.

Seconds later I was on the ground, roughly on the other side of the medical bay amidst the rubble and debris. Nearly seventy percent of my body was gone, torn into oblivion by the explosion. All I had left was half my torso and my right arm. One of my eye cameras was destroyed while the remaining one was sending in fuzzy video.

My life flashed before my one broken eye.

“Were finally home.” Ron said as he looked out of the open topped, hover MSC.

“Yeah it’s good to be back…” Jose fiddled with the trigger on a chain gun he found laying around.

I nodded “After this last war, some R and R doesn’t sound to bad.”

“Where were we coming from again?” Jose said as he looked up from his weapon.

“You never could remember the name of that planet; we are just coming out of the war on Victus prime.”

“Oh, that place.” He looked back at the gun. “Ron can you hand me the bolt gun?”

“Sure.” He picked up the bolt gun and tossed it to Jose.

“Thanks.” He noticed I was somewhat unsettled. “Thomas, is something wrong?”

I was over looking a map on my laptop. “Oh it’s nothing… It’s just unsettling to be back on the Lemurian home world after all this time.”

“Praven III is beautiful this time of year, I am glad we got time away from battle.” Ron looked over at me.

I laughed “You know, people rarely refer to the Lemurian home world as Praven III anymore.”

“If we stopped saying its name, we would forget.”

“Its not that important, home is home.”

“It means something to me” Ron got up and walked to the back of the hover craft.

The sky suddenly turned blood red and the clouds dissolved, revealing an uncountable number of atlantian ships.

“How the hell did they get here!?” Jose looked in astonishment.

“Who knows, but their here now!” Ron looked at the battle ships.

“Enemy air craft incoming.” I saw dozens of fast moving red dots on my screen.

“Abandon craft!” Ron leapt out of the vehicle and the rest of the people on board followed.

Multiple locked missiles struck the ship, ripping it to metal shreds in an instant.

“This is bad..” Jose took out his pistol and started shooting at the enemy planes.

An iridescent light surrounded the city we were heading for. It started getting thicker near the middle and brighter by the minute. Just when I realized something was terribly wrong. A massive orbital cannon struck the center of the city annihilated it. I put my arm over my eyes to protect them from the short blast of dust. When I looked again, the city was a heap of rubble and debris engulfed in flame.

I activated my national com receiver, soldiers were screaming across the channels. Cities all around the world had been destroyed. It didn’t look like the Lemurians would make it out of this one.

I now flipped on my microphone. “Everybody shut up and get your act together, only minutes ago atlantian invasion fleets destroyed every capital and main city around the world. It’s time for counter attack. All able bodied soldiers head south to the mountains and prepare. Gentleman, welcome to hell.

I started to come to, my operating systems started functioning and I could move my arm, but not to well. It seemed my body was still under the rubble. I clawed my way through the debris and dragged my limp body on the white, metallic floor.

A slimy trail of fuel followed me. I was going to die very soon. It seemed that just as soon as my operating systems activated, they were shutting down again.

The sun shown down upon us as we waited like spiders for pray behind a large sand dune near a well tracked path. It had been three years since the attack on Lemuria. 80% of the population had been killed, the 14% left became known as desert bandits. Few know of what became of the remaining 6% of the planet, but they are not dead as far as we can tell.

“So you think they will come?” Ron looked over the dunes.

I looked at a note. “Yeah, the intel we received from a neighboring clan pointed out this convoy of atlantian supplies. It cost a lot, but it was worth it.”

“I can’t believe were still stuck on this cesspool of a planet.” Jose pulled down his face mask and took a drink of water.

“It was better as a paradise.” Ron sat down in the shade of the dune.

“Yes, it definitely was. This is what happens when two bio nuclear, interstellar races collide. The whole planet is devoid of resources and all that’s left is sand…tens of thousands of miles of sand.” I said drinking some water myself.

“I hear tracks!” Ron jumped up and crawled to the top of the dune, looking through his binoculars down the road.

Jose stopped drinking. “What do you see?”

“An armored apc up front, two armored trucks in the middle, tank in the back, and five men walking alongside the vehicles.”

“What do the trucks carry?”

“Looks like food and water? I can’t really tell from here.”

“Lets hope its food; I haven’t had a descent meal in nearly a month.”

I picked up my lucky rifle and climbed up to the top of the dune. “Okay, Ron and Jose, you know the drill.”

“Yeah were on it.” Ron slid down the dune and followed Jose.

I loaded my rifle and took aim. Water balloons flew from behind a dune and exploded near the tires of the truck causing them to sink because the tires are made of a special heavy metal. I shot the driver of the apc through its slit and killed two of the men walking beside it. They swiftly found me and I slid down the back of the dune as bullets riddled the other side.

We stopped and hide in the dunes. The three men came looking for us. I stuck my gun out of the sand and killed two. Ron stabbed the other. Moments later the hatch on the tank opened so the people inside could get some air. Jose hurled a grenade in the open hatch and the tank went up in a plum of smoke. Ron and I left our position and checked on the trucks. The drivers had already fled.

I opened up the back vehicle and Ron opened up the other. Food and water, just as Ron said. Jose walked out from the dunes and got in the drivers seat. We were going to take these two trucks home to the fortress and feast like kings.

I suddenly woke up on a bed in what looked to be a robot maintenance room. A generator was hooked up to my right arm and power was flowing steadily into it.

My arm body had been repaired with the same material that it was originally created from. I didn’t think any was left. I tried sitting up, but my body did not have enough energy to move.

“Ah you’re awake!” The man said as he hooked up another power generator to my arm.

I tried to move again. “Who are you?”

“Cyborg 01, it’s a pleasure to meet the latest and last of the cyborg series.”

“Another, how many of us are there?”

“Met the others have you?”

“Just two.”

“Then it was most likely 03 and 04, the copiers.”

“Copiers?”

“Yes…they were originally created to infiltrate enemy facilities and kill high leaders, but as you have probably discovered, now they hunt you down relentlessly.”

“Just more to add to my troubles…”

“I am sure you will be okay, cyborgs should stick together.”

“How many are there?”

“I know of five, but an uncompleted six is out there somewhere.”

“I thought when I was activated I went berserk and killed the scientists.”

“Well that’s true, but in secret of the Lemurian military, a new one was being constructed.”

“What happened to it?”

“That is unknown to me at this time.”

Several tubes connected to my chest popped off shooting hot steam at extremely fast speeds, even cutting through some metal. Cyborg 01 quickly closed the open tube connectors and added synthetic skin.

“It looks like your steam gyro mechanism has been recharged.” He sealed the skin.

“What is a gyro mechanism?”

“It is the core of your steam distribution system. It keeps you balanced.”

“Well balance is good.” The energy tubes unhooked and I sat up on the bed.

“It looks like you’re ready to leave.” He unlocked some restrictors on my defense program.

“Yeah, but before that, I have to ask… Where are we?”

“It’s a long story of how you got here. I won’t bother you with the details, but you are on earth.”

“What, how could I have gotten here!?”

“You are the most destructive and evil weapon ever created by the hands of the Lemurians. There is little you cannot do. Though it is quite fascinating…truly it is… There are many unknown weapons and systems within your body. To be able to operate all these systems at once…is truly amazing. I have only identified two systems in your body. One is a powerful energy shield, able to produce as much resistance as the Polaris with shields at full power. The other is identified, but how it works is nearly impossible.”

“What is it?”

“A black hole generator, it uses a special crystal deep in your core as a power source. In emergencies it will open a black hole, consuming you and spitting you out at a random place in the cosmos. By chance you appeared on my doorstep.”

“I guess I should get going.”

“Where will you go?”

“I don’t know…”

“Allow me to offer some assistance. I have heard that planet Nero in the Quasar system has been destroyed only two days ago. If you are looking for a fight, I am sure the Atlantian forces are still stationed there”

“Even if we go at light speed, years might have passed when we get there.”

“Not if we use the black hole generator. It has the power to open a black hole back in time.”

“It only activates when I am about to die.”

“I rearranged it when you were unconscious, it should activate at will.”

“Then I suppose it’s our only shot. Here goes….. Black hole generator program, activate! Target destination, Nero in the Quasar system. Target time, 48 hours ago.”’

Far off on Praven at the ruins of the high temple, the throne for Lemuria’s king. At the very top of the ruins lay a massive crystal. It had been de-activated for a very long time, but for the first time in ages it awoke. Responding to the signal from the crystal powering my black hole generator, it rose from the sands and raised its self high into the air above the ruins. It glowed very brightly and shot a beam of energy across the universe. It collided with my crystal nearly a second later and opened up a black hole engulfing me and cyborg 01.  

[Temporarily Sane]

Chapter 7 between a rock, gun, and psychopath

The black hole opened and released Cyborg 01 and I into space above the planet, next to a ship in combat with multiple Atlantian battleships. Since we are robots we don’t require air, so we were okay in space, but next time I have to be more specific about where to teleport to.

Cyborg 01 grabbed onto the nearby ship and used his clamp on his right arm to tear into the ships hull. To great surprise, hundreds of tennis balls flew off into space after he made the hole. It seemed we had cut into the recreational store room. Cyborg 01 pulled apart the slice in the hull and made a large gash to float through. I ignited my foot rockets and slowly entered the ship. Cyborg 01 hacked into the doors lock, once open even more stuff was sucked out into space. Security measures were taken by the bridge and they closed the gash.

We walked into the hallways, blaster fire noise echoed everywhere.

“So what’s the plan from here? It seems the Atlantians have already boarded the ship” Cyborg 01 took off his left hand and stowed it in his back pack.

“This is all happening two days ago; this means that this ship is going to be destroyed. I think it would be wise to get some good pilots off the ship that can help us.” I took off my right hand and gave it to Cyborg 01 to store.

“A good choice, but we have to get through a battle field before we start recruiting.” A machine gun barrel extended from his open arm.

I felt metal moving in my right arm and a rifle slide out. “Then I suppose this is our only course of action for now.”

Two men ran out of the door to the right in front of us followed by ship crippling explosion. They turned their attention to us. “Enemies!” He whipped out his pistol and let off a few rounds.

The bullets harmlessly ricocheted off my armor as I pulled up and loaded my gun. An instant before I pulled the trigger, an explosion ripped through the ships side and it made a three complete spins. Everyone onboard was tossed around and the gravity engine was destroyed.

I shook off the disorientation. “What was that?”

“Just an HDR, this ship won’t hold up any longer.” He gave me my hand.

“We need pilots.”

“It won’t be worth anything if your dead!”

On the bridge of the frigate, things were getting out of hand. “Shields down to fifty percent and dropping. Engine deck not responding. We lost contact with hangars one through ten!” Yelled First mate Jack.

Captain Carlson gripped the front controls. “Damn, we’re done for.”

Riss the radar operator gazed at his screen. “Unknown on radar, its coming around the left side of the ship!”

“Does it have an identification number?”

“No sir.”

“Then it’s an enemy, lock on all left sided weapons and fire!”

“Yes sir.” Jam the weapons man complied.

Sweat ran down Riss’s neck. “Sir there are large heat signatures coming from the ship, it’s off the scales!”

“Wha-” Captain Carlson sharply turned his head.

“It’s firing!”

“Brace for impact!”

The beam of energy spiked through the center of the ship, sending infernos down the halls. More then half the crew was instantly killed before they could see the flames.

“Is everyone okay!?” Carlson yelled out.

Many of the computers had been fried from the shield overload. Riss got out from under the panel. “I’m okay. The ship won’t last much longer.”

Jack looked at an analysis of the hull. “A massive hole running through the center of the ship, it’s amazing we didn’t split in half.”

“All weapons are either destroyed or in areas that have been locked down.” Jam lit a cigarette.

Carlson looked out the main view screen “How many escape pods are left?”

“None, it seems everyone abandoned ship.” Jack pulled out his pistol.

Carlson shattered the emergency case glass and slammed the button. “Send off a distress signal, and prepare to go down with the ship.”

Red lights flickered on and off in the ship. Air lock and seal doors were closing. Thomas and cyborg 01 were running down the halls as the sections closed.

“We have to get out of here!” I yelled as we ran down the corridors, our own gravity engines kept us on the deck.

“There is no way to get out of here, the hangars are probably wrecked.”

“We could jump, but we don’t have a propulsion system……do we?”

“No, were robots not space ships.”

“Then figure a way out.”

The mysterious ship started to heat up for another blast. Seconds were on the clock.

Cyborg 01 blinked his eyes once, revealing an array of sensor equipment. “I know a way out.”

“You lead!”

He turned left past some flaming rubble and ripped a hole in an air lock. “Get in!”

“What!?”

“Just do it!” He grabbed my arm and threw me through the door.

I tumbled to the other side to find myself in an escape pod that had lost its connection to the main computer so it could not properly launch nor be detected. He smashed the outside control box and the pod went into default launch mode. I couldn’t override the command, the pod jettisoned from the ship and headed for a safe distance from the ship. My body responded on impulse, I spun around and activated the rear camera. The ship stood their silently and then the clock struck zero. A blinding beam light struck the ship, combusting everyone inside, but it protected them from the true horror of dieing in the explosion which followed nearly a second after. The shock wave reached the pod, all the systems crashed, I struggle to keep it under control, but it was no use. The pod quickly fell into a nearby planets atmosphere and crashed into a grassy hill.


From the steaming wreck I kicked off the back door and walked upon the planets surface. A woman walking back to her village spotted me and ran away in terror. I hadn’t noticed that half my face skin had burned away, revealing the seared robot behind it.

I walked to the village, but they closed their gates and even the guards started shooting arrows from the safety of the walls. My body still disoriented from the crash, went into default attack mode after recognizing the people shooting me a threat. I unconsciously raised my arm and shot four large bullet holes in both of them. They fell off the walls and people were yelling something in the town. It was bad English, but I could make some of it out. It ran along the lines of “ANOTHER, ANOTHER, ANOTHER HAS APPEARED!” It’s possible that someone else was here. Maybe cyborg 01 survived!

The town seemed unwilling to help me on my quest to find allies, so I continued past the village and down the road. The land here was very clean and beautiful, unlike what Praven has become. The mountains rose into the clouds and the birds chirped peacefully, truly this was a land untouched by the hate and corruption that has befallen all living things. It was getting dark so I ducked into a nearby forest. Animals scurried about as they tried to find their nests. I sat under a tree and shut down for the night, tomorrow is a new day I suppose.

I awoke from under the tree. A heard no animals or birds, everything was quiet. I went to the edge of the forest to find a pillar of smoke coming from the village I had attacked. The sounds of gun shots rang echoed through the land. People were running in every direction, someone must have escaped the ship. I rushed over to the village, everything was on fire. In the midst of the chaos a lone figure stood above the corpses. I took a close look; it was one of those creatures! My body moved without any thought, I instantly shot it in the shoulder. The monster recoiled, but quickly got angry. It charged at me, 200 pounds of teeth and claw. I was scared, not thinking I kept shooting blindly at it, there was no hope though. Before I could move my left arm was not only ripped off, but ripped apart. My mind stopped thinking completely. I went into a berserk mode. My eyes turned blood red, out of the gaping socket in my arm a beastly new arm suddenly grew. I turned around grabbed the monsters head; it struggled and then became submissive. Without control over my body I crushed his head into mush. The body went limp and I tossed it into a near by house.

The power cells inside me ran out of power and I fell over, the beast that had become my left arm shrunk into a normal form. It was over.

I woke up on a bed somewhere. Light glistened from through the open window as a calm breeze went through the room. I looked at my left arm, it was human again. To my knowledge I am almost complete cyborg. If that was true then where did this arm come from. The mystery of the cyborg series seemed to grow thicker as I stared at that arm.

“Ah I see you have awoken…” An old man walked into the room.

“Who might you be?” I said, rubbing my left arm.

“I am the village elder, on behalf of everyone; I would like to thank you for slaying that beast.”

“It was nothing, but why can I understand you and no one else?”

“As you may have guessed, this planet doesn’t get many visitors. I myself and from another planet so understand me is easier then anyone else.”

“I see”

The village leader got serious. “Now…. You are not the first here. I can tell from your face. You’re one of THEM.”

“Who are “them”?”

“One who no longer lives by natural means, some people here believe immortality can be attained by hard work or praying to the gods, but I believe you know how foolish that is. Immortality has been attained before, but only by the 5 demons. The first is said to be an advisor to kingdoms and lands, the second was more monster then the others and is said to have lost his mind, the third and fourth were the copiers originally built for stealth and infiltration, but later refitted to kill number 05, the fifth was said to be the most powerful in existence and the last of their kind. No one knows what number 05 was fitted with or what he can do, but it inspires great fear even stories. Of course I am speaking of the cyborg series. So, which one are you?”

“Number 05”

He looked shocked for a moment and then smiled. “Number 05 was supposed to be the most powerful weapon ever, you may know now…it wasn’t a cyborg. There is a secret to the technology used inside the last of the cyborgs, though the information above that is classified.”

“Well any information helps; I know that I went berserk when I was activated.”

“It may interest you to know, 04 and 03 are here on this planet.”

“Really!?”

“Yes, they have taken a kingdom using their copy tactics.”

“Those bastards.”

“You are supposedly the peak of the cyborg race; all cyborgs should follow your orders without fail. These ones are different; they want nothing more then your death. You must eliminate them.”

“But how? I don’t command an army to take a kingdom.”

“No, but you have one powerful weapon at your disposal.”

He led me out of the room and through the town. Everyone starred at me; I was one of the five demons, it was only natural. He took me to a large barn, locked up and heavily guarded.

“This should help you storm the castle and escape the planet.” The village leader unlocked the barn and swung open its doors.

“Wow, you actually have one of these.”

“Yes, it’s an EXEVEOR MARK II. One fell into a pond near our village not to long ago from an overhead battle in space; we fixed it up and have left it in here until it’s needed.”

“These robots are very effective. As tall as thirty grown men, it surely towers above most things.”

“Cyborg 03 and 04 came for it a few days ago, we said we didn’t have it, but they vowed to return.”

I climbed up the ladder that sat in front of it and looked inside. The robot was built for advanced control and maneuverability, so the weapons were limited. The controls were fairly simple; there were some leg patches and a helmet inside all connecting to the robots leg movement and sight, after that there is a consol in front of a pad. You stand on the pad so that the robot can receive the signals from your movement and match them, just ahead of the pad; under the console were two pedals. One made the left retro rockets fire and one made the right retro rockets fire. The console was easy to understand as well. It corresponded to the arm movements, although other models can be fitted with different arm controls and to the extent of finger controls in models more suited to industrial purposes, this model controlled its arms by two hand guns connected to the controls. You pick the guns up and point them at whatever you want to kill, the robot will move to your command. Primary weapons are fired with the triggers, secondary weapons fired with the button on their left side and right side; this would normally include rockets or lasers. The nubs on the top of them control your jet pack; push them up for up and down to bring you down again. If you tap your right or left hand while the robot is active, the phase sword will come out from your wrist for close combat. All of this was contained on top of a small platform in the middle of the robots front and it was connected to the robot by a large neck of gears and wires. The neck is used to get you inside and out. It will move outside the robot if ordered and back to its original position for piloting. Around the control deck there is a very large open space. This is used so that the pilots not harmed very much every time the robot is hit and tossed about. The pilots are always secured by a miniature gravity system inside.

“It looks like it’s in good condition.” I climbed inside and slid down the hull.

The old man climbed the ladder looked at me. “The villagers think it’s a fallen god.”

“Maybe it is considering the power it has.”

“We don’t have any power for it.”

“Well that’s to be expected, one of my power cells should be sufficient for now though.” I grabbed the rope ladder to the platform and climbed up to it. It was covered with dust, but it shouldn’t affect its piloting.

“Be careful with that.”

I whipped the dust off the console and opened a hatch beneath it; there lay a small depleted power cell. “Here you go…” I opened a small hatch in my back and removed one of my one hundred power cells. The small two inch long and one inch wide power cell held as much power as a dieing star, though you would never guess it from its looks. I took the old power cell out and replaced it with the new cell. The moment the connections clicked together hundreds of blue wires lit up, all systems activated in a flash. The large hatch closed, blowing away the ladder and the village leader. The helmet and leg pads clipped onto me as soon as I stood on the control pad. The guns lifted themselves up and dropped into my hands. The comlink opened and I could communicate with the outside world, while the forty square inch main screen appeared in front of me. All of the other screens started to surround me. This mech was in top condition.

“Hey can you here me!?” The village leader started to tap his old staff on the robots foot.

“Yeah, I hear you loud and clear.”

“Good, this robot is equipped with an AU, if you haven’t noticed all of the equipment attaching to you like a ghost.”

“What kind of AU is attached?”

“It’s a basic combat AU, I recommend upgrading when you get to another planet.”

“Does that mean I can keep the robot?”

“Of course, it’s not like we have any use for it here.”

“Thank you” I made a step forward. The large hoof of the mech crushed the ground beneath me.

“Don’t destroy the barn.”

“I won’t.” My thumbs slipped up and pushed the rocket nubs. The mech crashed through the ceiling and hovered above the barn.

“It can’t be helped I guess. It’s about time for you to head to the eastern kingdom; it’s where the cyborgs have taken control”

“Before that, what’s your name?”

“My name is Shio.”

“That’s an odd name, well thank you for all your help. Bye.” I lent forward and the mech darted off to the eastern kingdom.

I arrived at the cities walls at around midnight. Guards patrolled the walls, lit up by little torches. I kept my distance at a mile away and because it was night time, they couldn’t see me well. On the contrary the torches made them little targets. I took careful aim; the red crosshairs appeared on the main screen. I set them a little ahead of the person, taking into account the distance at which the bullet had to travel. I lightly tapped the hair trigger and a volley of bullets spewed from both guns. Seconds passed by as I saw the hot bullets fly away and near instantly the wall exploded in a plum of smoke and debris. I ran to the kingdom. People in the towns heard the explosions and were fleeing in terror. A fight was on!

As I came closer the surviving guards started shoot arrows, but all resistance was futile. To my surprise upon breaching the walls I met with another mech of the same class. A comlink opened up between us and a view screen appeared.

“I am surprised to see another chosen one, but I will be the one to save the world!” The pilot said overconfidently

“What are you talking about?”

“Didn’t your kingdoms evil leader give you that robot to crush our peaceful kingdom?”

“No….”

“Don’t lie!” He opened up his main cannons. I strafed to left and bolted forward, pinning him to the ground.

“You better not get over confident weakling.”

“You can’t defeat me, the hero is always victorious!” He opened up his rocket pods and unlocked their failsafe.

“Are you mad!? We will both be blown to pieces!”

“Mad like a fox!”

I reversed my boosters and shot high into the air. “Got you” He said smiling and fired all eight rockets.

“Damn, I might not make it!” The rockets hit my mech and exploded their small nuclear warheads. A large object covered in smoke fell from the sky.

“You have been defeated evil beast.”

“Not yet….” I fired my only rocket left unclogged. It made a direct hit blowing away his arms and crushing in the cockpit.

“Ho…How are you alive!?” He said barely breathing.

“I strafed to the side just before the rockets exploded. Half of my mech was ripped to shreds, but the other half kept me alive.”

“I…thought I was the hero.”

“I’m afraid this is my story.”

“Oh…I see…good night….” He stopped breathing and died just before the delayed explosion kicked in, destroying the remains of the robot.

Blood dripped from my head, arms, and legs. The last thing I thought was “Why am I bleeding?” before blacking out.

I awoke still on the platform. Even though the mech had fallen on its side, the gravity engine had survived the crash, keeping me tied to the pad and thankfully out of the dark pit of shrapnel and rubble that the other half has become. I climbed to the surface to find lots of metal shrapnel on the hull, the opponent’s reactor over heated and caused a meltdown, resulting in a massive explosion.

The neighboring towns had been bombarded with debris from the explosion. Houses crushed and roads blocked, with this looting would soon begin. Not only in the towns, but on the fallen mech as well, there obviously wasn’t anything to take in the empty husk of the other.

I could hear some people on horse back coming, they were either looters or military. It wasn’t particularly good if I was found by either.

“Hey you, get down from there!” A captain said holding his sword

I kept looking at the husk of my opponent. “No….”

“Under order of the imperial palace, all people are to leave this area.”

“So you are acting like all militaries and covering up the truth?”

“Of course not!”

“Then die….!” I turned around and unleashed a volley of bullets killing the captain and his horse. The other guard quickly loaded his bow and fired, but my cybernetic eye was two hundred moves ahead of him. I grabbed the arrow, crushed it, and killed him.

A steady trail of steam flowed from my guns over heated barrel. Five more horse back infantry appeared and started shooting.

“You want some of this!?” I tried to shoot, but I was out of ammo. For a moment this made me distracted and arrow pierced my weak point. Raw particle energy spewed from the leak, why does this always happen to me? I fell off of the mech and slammed into the ground unconscious.


“Bravo team, all systems green!” The bravo team leader said aloud as their MCS (Mobile Combat Suits) entered the atmosphere of Praven III.

”Delta support squad, all systems green!” The MSC team leader said aloud as they followed the MCS into combat.

“Raptor squad alpha, all systems green!” Said the SAA raptor squad leader as they followed the rim of the two squads.

“Everybody lets give these Lemurian idiots hell!” The bravo team lead said as he cooled his MCS before overheating from the friction.

“They won’t know what hit them!” The MSC lead said as he cooled the craft.

“Cooling systems…. Systems nominal were ready rock!” Said the raptor squad leader.

The sand blew across the dunes as team 11 returned from a scavenging trip along the northern dunes.

“Thomas team 11 has returned.” Ron said as he looked at a camera view screen.

“Jose, open the gates and let them into the fortress walls.” I said as I sat in the command chair.

“Yes sir.” Jose opened the gates.

The radar man quickly turned his head. “Sir, enemy vessels and mobile suits incoming!”

“How many!?”

“Twenty…no…thirty…. Forty… there are too many to count!”

“What are they?”

“Raptor squads, MSC squads, and MCS squads. The MCS squads are equipped with BDWs (Base Destroyer Weapons).”

“Why would they dispatch such a large force for such a small fortress? What ever the case, their here now…load all cannons and divert main power to the shields, they want a fight? We’ll give them a war.” I opened up the main comlink to the base grounds. “All hands to battle stations this is a level ten alert I repeat this is a level ten alert!”

“Sir, we need your authorization to sortie.” Jose looked up at me from his seat.

“Launch all fighters and MCSs.”

“Yes sir….”

Jose got on the pilot comlink. “Pilots you’re all clear to launch, these Atlantians better not hope they caught us off guard.”

The Delta MCS squad leader opened up the squad comlink. “You hear that boys!? We got a blank check for killing, no survivors!”

“Good luck teams, opening up launch ramps and unlocking launch blast doors. May Lemuria protect you on your mission.” Jose said as he unlocked the fail safe abort systems.

“Roger that command, this is Delta squad heading out!” “Beta squad heading out!” “Charlie squad heading out!” All the team leaders said as they launched off the ramps. A couple sparks flickered from their engines to be followed by a roaring flame.

“All systems green...lets go team!” Said beta squad leader said as he opened up all his missiles on the enemy MCSs.

“They’ve locked on……GAAA!” The missiles struck the enemy bravo leader and killed him.

“They got Bravo leader! The bastards!” The Atlantian MCS fired all its weapons at the approaching squads destroying two Lemurian MCSs.

I turned on the view screen. “Get two rescue crews on those MCSs!”

“Yes sir!” Jose complied.

“Kill all the non believers!” An Atlantian raptor pilot yelled as he opened up his lasers and fired at a firefly pilot.

“Damn, I can’t shake him…AAAHH!” The lasers scored a direct hit on his left wing, the plane spontaneously combusted and exploded.

“Their all over us!” The Lemurian MSC said as he activated his phase sword and engaged another pilot.

“Sir the MSCs are ignoring the battle and heading strait for us!” Ron said franticly

“Lock on primary laser batteries and fire!”

“Yes sir!”

The lasers glowed and then fired, tearing through the air towards the targets. One MSC didn’t dodge and took a direct laser hit to its cockpit, splitting it right down the middle and causing a core rupture, resulting in an explosion.

“Die!” The Atlantian MSC yelled as it opened up its front cannons on the base.

Ron looked up at me “Shields taking damage sir.”

“A couple MSCs can’t do much damage, proceed with firing.”

“Roger.”

“This is firefly squad Alpha, moving in to intercept raptors.” The fireflies opened up their twin forward lasers landing some hits on the raptor squad, but damage was minimal due to range.

“Sir, this is Charlie and Beta squad, we are rounding up the last of the enemy MCSs” A Lemurian MCS locked on its lasers and shot down another enemy mech.

“The last raptor has been taken down by the firefly squads…. Just receiving confirmed kill on the last MSC.” Ron said aloud.

“Right, order all squads to return to base. How many did we lose?”

“Ten out of forty fireflies and twenty out of thirty MCSs, quiet troublesome if I say so myself.”

“Well, I guess it could have been worse….”

I awoke in a courtyard of a palace, chained to two large metal polls. Cyborg 04 and 03 stood before me in fancy robes. Behind me stood a large crowd, I couldn’t hear well, but I think they said.

“People! I give you the monster, cyborg 05 shall be destroyed on this day!”

I saw the content smile of both of them as they stabbed me repeatedly with a sword. I was covered in my own blood…. My…own…blood.

“BLOOD!” I went berserk again, but this time it was far more serious. All my limbs were torn off and replaced with my beastly limbs. The chest casing was ripped apart as well. Only the cybernetic implants in my head were kept on.

I tore apart the chains and jumped high into the air, the MCSs followed my movements and opened fire, but I was too quick. Before they knew it one mech exploded and then the other exploded.

“Bleed!” Thousands of spines grew from my arms and I released them in a deadly volley of needles at the watching crowd. Cyborg 04 and 03 opened fire. The bullets penetrated my skin, but then were pushed out by my almost immediate healing process. I landed on the ground again, rushing in a berserk fury at the two cyborgs. The skin on my hands melted away revealing two laser cannons in the palm. They dove to the side as I unleashed their explosive power, obliterating the palace behind them.

They got their bearings and started firing again, whatever they did had no effect on me. I grabbed cyborg 03 and consumed him.

“You.... You ate him, MONSTER!” He started blind firing. I grabbed his arm, crushed it, and consumed him. The red from my eyes disappeared and I grew back to normal proportions. I fell to the ground, blood dripped from my mouth, and scares covered my body. I struggled to stay awake. The power cells had run out of energy and my systems dimmed. I saw a black energy glow around me. The black hole generator was activating. Something in my old memory clicked and suddenly remembered something about the generator. Every time it activates, it doesn’t just teleport me…. It will teleport everything near by within a one mile radius to a random place or just kills everything in a twenty mile radius. This would explain how 03 and 04 were here already; they must have gotten caught in the last blast.

“Damn it…. Don’t activate! I held my chest in pain, holding in the energy that so desperately wanted freedom.”

A man ran up to me holding a gun. “You monster, die!” He pulled the trigger and shot me a few times in the chest.

“Fool….” I released my hands and a devastating blast of dark energy took out the entire kingdom by storm, shredding buildings and absorbing people, but that was just the start. Everything started to be absorbed into the now created black hole. I was lifted up into the sky and sucked into the black hole; I hope I get lucky again.  

[the king of qatar]

that so nice thank you for all  

[gracec9412]

wow! eek
looks like you really worked on it!  

[PixiePrincess1]

my gawsh! i've only read the first post and it's awesome ^-^

!!!

=DDD

=]]]]]

<333

i'll think of it as a story i'll read everytime i have time ^-^

 

[Sammy-chan41]

i agree. i am also writing something but haven't finished it yet.it's more for me and my memories.but if it does get published,it'll be for little kids and the characters names are changed due to the fact that they're all property of nintendo.  

[Sammy-chan41]

i also forgot that disney has some stuff intere too.  

[Sammy-chan41]

and can't forget about x-men.  

[myveryownusername]

I'm writing a novel to...16 pages a chapter, 21 chapters. I'm writting down what each page is about at the moment.  

[eumir_me]

it deserves more than that. it could be published and made into a movie. i could just picture it in my mind while i was reading it for the last 2 hrs. and it was really fascinating.