by Max Jager
When he hit the ground, the wind slowly died off and the black cloud that had blanketed the entire sky fade away. The lighting slowly drifted away and the nebron hovered back down to the ground. Its red aura gone again and it had returned back to normal. The entire place was back to normal as though nothing had happened. The only thing was that Korzen was still lying on the ground and most of the infantry was gone. The cave entrance had also been cleared. It was still closed off though.
Korzen got up very slowly and looked at the nebron. He smiled and shook his head. "I knew it."
The nebron growled at him. Almost as if it was threatening to do that again and this time stop Korzen for good! Korzen walked over to the nebron and then said, "I don't care who you think you are, Domaren! I will get The Red Firius and I will not be stopped! Not by you! Not by anybody or anything!"
Korzen harshly turned and began heading back towards the ship. Domaren tightened its hands and began to growl at Korzen. A powerful, bright red glow came over it and a slight wind began to pick up. Korzen, not even looking back at the colossally powerful demon, just threw his hand up and made a sigh of apathy towards Domaren. Almost beckoning him to do something.
It was about to attack when Korzen suddenly fell to the ground in the most pain he had ever felt in his life! He grabbed his head as that was the place of origin. Nothing had ever hurt him so bad before in his life! It felt like his head had been split open and somebody was pounding millions of giant, rusty, railroad spikes into his brain! He tried to scream out but all that came out of his mouth was a silent gasp. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and two blood trails began to pour from his nostrils.
Domaren knew what was happening to him and it was nothing of his doing. It was an evil far stronger then him. The Flaming Meteorite!
Korzen rolled on the ground in absolute pain. He tried to scream but yet again all that came out was these small gasps. Suddenly this horrid voice filled his head and it made the pain even worse. "You insufferable little whelp! You actually thought to hide the location of the Leyline from me?"
Korzen tried to argue with the Oadin knowing full well that's what it was. All that came out was this small whimper.
"I do not want to hear it, puppet! You do exactly as you are told! You were told to eradicate the Leyline and The Red Firius. Yet their lungs still draw breath and you dictate my policies to one who knows them all too well?" Speaking of Domaren.
Korzen's face was now covered in blood from his nose.
"I will have silence from you Yellow Korzen. You are ours now! Where is the Leyline?"
Korzen could feel the Flaming Meteorite poking and prodding around inside his head. He put up this small barricade in his head trying to safeguard what he knew from the omnipotent super evil that was upon him!
"Your futile attempt at halting my progress deep into your psyche is…" A brief pause in both the voice and the pain. "Droll."
The pain started back up. Korzen was trying to hold back the evil as much as he could, trying not to give out the location of where he was sure they were going.
"Lots of interesting stuff in here!" The Flaming Meteorite's ancient, snake-like voice said. "Where is the information I seek? I am getting closer."
Korzen could feel it too. He could feel his mental wall being ripped apart until finally he felt it collapse and it felt like his brain exploded in his head. He actually felt his gray matter turn lopsided and into mush.
"Ah-ha." Flaming exclaimed with sick enjoyment. "Planet Hogarth. Of course, The Visues Pyramid."
Korzen had failed. Now he would never get a chance to kill The Red Firius. The pain continued on and what made it worse was the feeling of failure. Flaming could sense it too. It could feel the change in The Yellow Korzen. It knew that the seething hatred for The Red Firius was turning Korzen into a monster. Last thing that Flaming wanted to do was to halt that from happening. To turn the agent into one of their most loyal killing machines.
Suddenly, Korzen was hoisted into the air by an unseen power and was dangling above the ground paralyzed with pain.
Flaming's voice then entered his mind and most of the pain had subsided. There was still some left but it was almost sixty times better then what it was before. "Now slave, you still have work to do. Your mission was to get The Red Firius. Far be it from me to undermine your progress. You will go to Planet Hogarth and you will kill The Red Firius. My army will be sent there as well to guard The Pyramid. You will handle The Firius and I will finally devour the Leyline! With it, I will gain the power of a god and I will reap this universe of life!"
Korzen was in a trance-like state under the power of The Flaming Meteorite. His mind was possessed by it and when he spoke his voice was not his own. It sound similar to his original voice but it was under control of the planet eating demon. "What will thou have me do?"
More of the pain subsided. "Go to Planet Hogarth, take command of the hellion forces that I send there, and destroy The Red Firius."
"With unending pleasure but how shall I step foot on the surface with no ship?"
"Take the ship you were. I will send these forces here to Planet Hogarth myself."
Korzen finally dropped and his mind was his own again. He laid on the ground and began to wipe away the blood from his nose. A small, little pinch suddenly pierced his brain and Flaming's voice entered back in. "Go, and do not fail me again!"
Korzen thought about speaking back at Flaming as he got to his feet but he decided against it. He suddenly felt the demon disappear. He turned his back and began running for the ship.
Domaren watched in quiet anger as Korzen disappeared from sight. Suddenly, Flaming's voice entered its head and its anger boiled down to a simmer. Unlike most life forms, Domaren welcomed the sharp pain that came from Flaming's voice and it was more pleasurable for the powerful nebron then painful. "Do not worry Domaren. Soon, he will be one of us. A loyal hellion to the cause. Patients is all that I require from you. You will be sent to planet Hogarth as well with your infantry. If he fails me, you will need to terminate the rogue agent yourself. If Korzen fails, I believe you will be the only one left with the power to accomplish this mission."
A small evil grin stretched across Domaren's face. It began to prepare for departure. Meanwhile, Korzen was making his way towards the ship and little did Alerius or Aurela know what kind of absolute hell would be waiting for them on the hounds' home world!
Planet Whitmore: Mingle
The diamond ship was almost to planet Whitmore. Both Alerius and Aurela were asleep. They weren't dreaming this time. It was a dark, deep sleep. Alerius was the first to awaken from this deep sleep as the diamond ship prepared to enter Whitmore's atmosphere.
Alerius looked over the planet and sort of sneered at it. He thought that they should have been at Hogarth but then he remembered Karion saying something about Whitmore. The ship not having enough fuel or something. His brain was still a little foggy with drowsiness.
Planet Whitmore was about the only planet left in the universe beside Earth that supported mostly human life that wasn't used for the war. It was a big market planet and plenty of residential areas too. They were going to be landing in a city on the planet surface named Calcutta IV. It was nothing like the Earth's Calcutta. It was just named that because all cities on Whitmore were named after cities on Earth. Their were no countries or ruling governments. Every city had a mayor and every mayor was on the Whitmore Planetary Counsel.
All the cities were bunched up together in one area which covered up a quarter of the planet's surface. They were small and yet highly populated with people. They traded with each other and most of the cities' money was circulated through each other.
Whitmore was highly uncharted and nobody really had any urges to go and explore new territories anyway. All of the civilized area of Whitmore was a tight, uncalculated community that welcomed all life forms in the hopes of them spending money.
That wasn't to say that Whitmore wasn't protected. The army had i
ts own investments into Whitmore and each city had a base of operations. Flight squadrons, several platoons of infantry, and more then a couple battle vehicles. They scanned and processed all newcomers to the planet.
Finally, Aurela was awake and both of them went through the burning layer of the atmosphere. The diamond ship didn't even burn. There was not even a blemish on the okren star cruiser. Alerius nor Aurela were surprised at this.
When they were in the atmosphere they saw an amazing sight! They saw several huge space freights. These ships were massive and looked somewhat like the Osiris. Only these ship were used for transport. Aurela was in awe and so was Alerius. Unlike Aurela though, Alerius knew that this was an ordinary sight on planet Whitmore.
They looked like huge dark clouds and they slowly hovered into the city below cutting through some cloud cover. As if being born from the sky itself. It was an amazing sight for the both of them. It was another time when both of them were grateful to see something not war related.
Aurela looked out the window to the city below. She couldn't see much of it but she did see the buildings. Towers of faded metal and glass. Small building with people bustling in and out. Lights that danced across the sky. Search lights that made it easier for big carriers, like the ones they had just seen, to land more accurately. They also acted as markers for the people down on the ground to visit them.
Cars flew through the city and on the ground too. Not too many though. Most people on Whitmore walked to where they had to go. Cars were somewhat foreign object on the planet.
Aurela's eyes glided back to the huge space freights and Alerius. It was dusk on the planet and the one sun that this planet did have was setting. One of the space freights actually hovered across the star and as it hovered, it was joined by about four smaller ships that had come from below it. It looked like a huge whale of the sky with its small children following close behind.
Alerius knew what the smaller ships were. Battleships. They were escorting the huge freight down to one of the docking bays in Calcutta IV's base. They would soon have their own vanguard fly up and meet them.
Alerius could see the base now through a thin layer of cloud cover. He was about to steer the ship in when he remembered there were no manual controls in the ship. Alerius was a little nervous about that. He hoped the ship was going there. Otherwise, it might be out of the question to enter Calcutta IV alive!
Soon the base was in perfect view and Alerius looked on in amazement at how many freights the base could actually support. Suddenly, the ship turned to a hard left and began flying away from the base! Alerius looked around frantically! The ship was still flying itself and it wasn't flying to the place it should have been. Alerius was trying desperately not to panic because if any fighter saw them they would immediately know something was wrong.
Aurela was still over on the passenger side, gawking at the city and its inhabitants below.
Alerius only hoped that he had went unnoticed. It was a one-in-a-million shot but he had to hope. That was shot down just as quickly as it came though when two fighters flew up right on both sides of the ship. Alerius couldn't help himself. He blurted out, "Oh no!"
A voice entered into the ship and Alerius knew it was one of the pilots. "This is Calcutta escort battalion 4. Unidentified craft, requesting entrance ID number."
Alerius didn't know where the communicator was on the ship! He doubted it even had one! He decided just to start speaking and hope that they heard him. "The is The Red Firius; ID number 6421. Requesting immediate landing permission."
The voice came back, "I repeat unidentified craft…"
They couldn't hear him!
The voice went on saying close to the exact same thing it said before and Alerius was in distress. "Damn, they can't hear me!" He said harshly pounding the console of the ship.
The voice came in again. "Unidentified craft, You are to report to docking bay 9 or we will open fire!"
"Great! Stuck in this stupid ship with no damn way to stop from getting killed!" Alerius was pounding the ship from inside with every word! Aurela tried to calm him down but it just made him madder.
Suddenly, another voice entered the ship and Alerius didn't think it was either one of the pilots. It was a man's voice but it was sort of a calm and somewhat unpractical voice. "Hey, take it easy Firius!"
"You can hear me?" Alerius asked.
"Yeah! So could probably every other dull stone in the universe! I'll take care of this."
Alerius figured he was talking about the escorts that were about to blow him out of the sky. He heard a funny sound and then heard the unpractical voice again. "Hey sergeant?"
Alerius then heard the other voice. "Identify yourself!"
"Come on sergeant, now you know who this is. I can vouch for this ship."
"It must identify itself through protocol 122294-B of the…"
"Sergeant, look at that ship, it's okren made. As we both know, okren technology and human technology don't mix."
"Protocol…"
"Oh, protocol my butt! You didn't whip out protocol three weeks ago when that one alien babe arrived now did you? At one o' clock in the morning."
Silence.
That impractical voice went on. "Huh? Clear the ship."
"Unidentified craft you are cleared to landed at coordinates 1-9er-0-4-2-S."
The ships beside Alerius and Aurela then flew away, back to the base. The unpractical voice then came back on. "Alright Firius, bringing that puppy on down here."
Alerius looked at the ship's console funny. "How?"
"Oh yeah, that's right! I forgot, there's no manual controls on that ship. Well, just let her do her thing."
"Her? Thing? Who the hell are you?"
"Oh I think you're going to be more interested in what the hell I am."
Alerius again got one of those funny looks.
The ship flew right into this small building with these big metal doors that seemed to be on the roof. They were open and the ship lunged right into them. Alerius saw a cement floor and he saw it come at him fast. He thought the ship was going to crash right into the cement. He threw his arms up to prepare for impact but after a few seconds went by he lowered them slowly.
He saw that the ship was hovering vertically in front of the cement. He looked around and he saw two things. The first was that Aurela was perfectly content with herself. As if she knew the ship wasn't going to crash. The second was outside the ship. A man standing right in front of it and looking it over. He had oil stains all over his clothes and had mechanic belts strapped to both his waist and his chest. They had odd looking tools on them and some looked too big for a man of his stature to carry.
The man then spoke and it was the same unpractical voice he heard talking to the fighter pilot. "Well, you gonna bring that thing down or what?"
Alerius gave him this confused look.
"He-ha! Just kidding. Hold on sprite!" The mechanic looking guy walked around the ship and out of sight.
Alerius felt very confused. He felt like he had just been plunged into an alternate reality. He felt as if the ship had just dropped him into some parallel universe!
Suddenly, he felt this thump from beneath the ship and the ship slowly hovered down to a horizontal position and turned itself off now resting comfortably on the ground. The glass canopy opened up and Alerius began to get out very slowly expecting anything.
"HI!"
Alerius about fell backwards when the mechanic suddenly popped up right in front of him.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."
Alerius regained himself and hopped out of the ship. He heard a small sound knowing that Aurela had exited the ship too. She had the Steed's shotgun with her as well. She was not holding it so tightly anymore.
"You didn't." Alerius finally said.
Alerius was a little upset with this guy. He wondered if this weird mechanic was trying to push his buttons. He looked him over a bit. This guy had straight blonde hair that came down to shou
lder length. He had these piercing green eyes and had pointed ears. They were identical to Aurela's only his were about twice as long. He looked somewhat like an elf. Alerius curled his brow at him. He didn't know what to make of the odd mechanic.
Aurela came around the ship to join them. She was in a trance looking all over the place. Why not, she had never seeing a garage before.
The mechanic spoke again. "My name is Navirun Mavado. I'm in the 'fix it' business. Welcome to Mavado's Mansion. If it's unrepairable I can repair it!"
Alerius thought to himself, 'Unrepairable? That's not even a word! Is this idiot even human?' He decided to asked the last question out loud.
"Of course I'm human, dumbball."
'Dumbball?' Alerius thought to himself again. 'What the hell is wrong with this guy?' Alerius motioned towards the ears. "What's with the ears?"