Galactic Defenders- Perseverance

by Michael Mishoe

  ​Taking a sharp turn to starboard, the Thunderfox lined up with an alley that ran toward one of the walls of Freedom Bound. Barely fitting between the buildings, the ship soared towards the wall that stood ahead.

  ​Vade, for all our sakes, this better work, Syvon thought to himself.

  “Alright, everyone. On my mark, we do as we’ve been instructed.”

  Syvon held his breath, the wall rapidly approaching and the Destroyers and fighters bearing down harder.

  “Now!”

  ​Ensign Mooring yanked the steering throttle backwards, forcing the ship abruptly upwards. As Syvon braced for impact, the ship rocketed past, just barely missing the wall.

  ​Now in the clear, Jack’s trap sprang into action. At the bottom of the wall, over twenty Enforcer Pods stood ready. Firing a massive barrage in perfect unison, the Pods opened fire on the Destroyers and the Ribiyar craft. The alien tanks bombarded the craft with their energy, accenting their assault with a swarm of missiles.

  ​As the crew let out a cheer over their victory, they were drowned out by a shrill scream of an alarm.

  “Six fighters, port bow!” Commander Tong yelled out as his fingers flashed over his controls. “They’re making a kamikaze ru–”

  Tong was cut off as the ship shook with explosions and rattled violently. Had Syvon not been strapped in like the rest of his crew, he would’ve been thrown from his chair headfirst into a nearby bulkhead.

  ​Guess those ship planners earned their paychecks for safety-proofing this rig. His ears rang and he felt like he was in an overcharged merry-go-round and riding a spinning horse.

  “Status!”

  ​“Engine five has been completely destroyed!” Commander Tong reported.

  ​ “We’re losing altitude!” Ensign Mooring called out as she flipped more switches while wrestling with the steering yoke. The forward screen’s whirling view confirmed they were both approaching the ground and spinning out of control. “The ship’s going down hard!”

  ​“Mayday, mayday,” Lieutenant Kael called into her microphone. “Thunderfox is going down! Repeat, Thunderfox is going down!”

  ​Syvon saw all of the chaos around him and swallowed hard. No matter what he tried, there was nothing he could do to save his crew.

  ​About a mile before touchdown, Syvon felt the ship shutter hard, and then lurch to a stop. Everyone slowly looked around, expecting the crash to come at any moment, but it never did.

  ​What in the world?

  ​“Don’t worry Syvon,” Captain Rickman spoke over the intercom. “We’ve got you.”

  As Syvon’s ship swung gently, he saw the large, sleek form of the Defender hovering above them, with long cables reaching out from the bottom and top of Thunderfox’s hull.

  ​“We appreciate the save, Rickman.” Syvon said and exhaled, finally able to breathe again.

  ​“Anytime. We’re going to set you down near Freedom Bound, so get your landing gear ready if you can. The rest of the local Ribiyar have been neutralized, but there’s no telling when they’ll make a comeback. We’ll start fixing you up right away.”

  ​“Understood,” Syvon replied. “We’ll take all the help we can get.”

  Lieutenant Kael shut off the communication, and the rest of the crew quickly got the ship ready for touch-down. In about a minute, they had stabilized everything. The Thunderfox was slowly lowered to the ground, landing with a firm thud.

  ​“Great work everyone,” Syvon said as he unfastened his safety harness, relishing the relief from the constant grip on his chest. “We saved a lot of lives today. Lieutenant Kael, can you get in contact with Vade in the Control Tower?”

  ​“Right away, sir.”

  ​With a few keystrokes, she activated the comm channel and handed him a headset with a mic.

  ​Slipping it on, he said, “Vade, thank you for your help. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”

  Syvon waited for him to reply, but the response never came.

  Glancing at his officer, he asked, “Are you sure he can hear me?”

  ​“There’s some damage to communications sir, but it’s still functioning like it should be.”

  ​Puzzled, he spoke into the mic, “Vade, all you alright? Can you hear me? Vade?”

  Location: Unknown

  ​“Can you hear me? Vade?”

  ​Syvon! Jack willed himself to call the captain's name, to yell it at the top of his lungs, but his voice had been completely silenced. Syvon! You’re all in danger!

  ​Jack was restrained by tendrils of red code that had suddenly sprung up from the ground right after the attack and wrapped around his limbs like a spider entrapping a fly. He had tried warning the outside world, but every communication outlet had been severed. Wiped out from managing Freedom Bound’s defenses, Jack had little strength left to give, but still he pulled against the grips with all that he could manage.

  ​“You are free to strain against me,” a metallic voice called from all around him. “But you lack to strength to break free of those bonds.”

  In front of Jack, wisps of red code drifting across the black ground whirled together, weaving and flowing, until they formed the form of a digital Ribiyar.

  ​“Did you really believe you could purge me that easily, organic?” the alien asked, its deep, sadistic voice booming.

  ​“How are you alive?” Jack said, forcing the words out as he recognized the former control matrix of the alien computer. He struggled to talk, whatever silencing his communications fighting to quiet him here as well.

  ​“You may have disabled my proxy interface, but you can’t destroy me, not without purging this base from surface of your revolting planet. And I will be the instrument of your downfall.”

  ​Behind the Ribiyar, Jack saw a flurry of motion on the digital Freedom Bound. At the base of the central tower, a mass of light gathered and was slowly growing and becoming brighter.

  ​No…

  ​“You’re destabilizing the power core!”

  ​“You are correct.” The Ribiyar turned to view the fruit of his labor. “Soon, Fu’Lyl will fulfil its purpose. No organic can be left from our purge. Sep un tu qwar!

  ​I have to warn them. I have to save them. NOW!

  ​Jack closed his eyes and terminated his connection to the computer. He felt his consciousness leave the vast network and, ever so slowly, begin to return to his body.

  ​Almost there…

  ​With his body just out of his grasp, he was yanked back into the computer. He was dragged back into the void, into his form there, and the digital alien was only inches away from him now.

  ​“You cannot escape!” the red Ribiyar roared, slamming his right fist into Jack's chest, and a white-hot flame erupted deep within him, consuming him. It was the first pain he had experienced since his transformation, sharpening the sensation tenfold. Jack yelled out in agony and fell limp against the restraints.

  ​Someone… please…help me…

  Chapter 5

  Date: July 13, 2132

  Location: Freedom Bound, the Defender-controlled Holding Facility positioned in the Atlantic Ocean

  ​“Great job, Anderson,” Commander Hayley said as she looked up from her console on the balcony. “It looks like we all did it.”

  ​In the Control Room below her, all the other personnel were giving each other high-fives and celebrating their shared survival. Though it wasn’t the largest attack since the invasion began, it was a small victory that everyone would milk for all it was worth.

  ​“Thank you, commander,” Anderson replied, nodding cordially to her statement. He flashed a smile as he glanced over at her.

  ​Hayley turned towards Jack, hoping that he had exited the computer by now.

  But he was still frozen like a statue, besides the little bolts of energy leaping onto the console.

  ​“Jack,” she said as she gently put her right hand on his shoulder, “It’s over. You don’t have to stay th
ere any longer.”

  ​What is going on in there? she thought.

  ​“Jack…” Hayley began.

  ​Several of the bolts of energy surged brightly of his hands with a loud snap and cut her off. Startled, she took a step back.

  ​“Are you alright?” Anderson asked as he rushed over to her. “Did you get zapped by that?”

  ​She shook her head. “No. I’m fine. It’s him I’m worried about.”

  ​He glanced at Jack. “Is he supposed to be taking that long in there?”

  ​“He had trouble disconnecting the first time he connected. But this… I– I think something’s wrong.”

  She slowly walked back to Jack.

  ​“Commander…” Anderson cautioned, but she held up a hand to silence him.

  ​She stood right behind him and she’s heard Jack’s voice, barely above a whisper.

  “Please…help me.”

  ​Eyes wide, she bolted back to her console. “Anderson, we need to get him out of there!”

  Her hands flew across the console and she remotely accessed Jack’s systems. She initiated separation from the computer, but was only rewarded with the message, Operation denied.

  ​“What’s happen–” Anderson started.

  ​“Anderson,” Hayley said quickly, “Jack is stuck inside the computer, and I think he’s in danger. I tried to get him out, but something’s keeping him there. What can we do to get him out?”

  ​Anderson pushed up his glasses as he concentrated. “Well, technically, he isn’t inside the computer. His connection only opens a direct link from his mind to the computer, which in turn means that-”

  ​“I don’t have time for a lecture!” she yelled.

  Below the balcony, she saw people looking at them, but she didn’t care how much noise she was making.

  ​Anderson glared at her. “What I was trying to get to is how his interface works. If we can sever his physical connection with the console, we can, in theory, disrupt the process.”

  ​She nodded briskly. “Alright. Can you help me do that?”

  ​He looked at her quizzically. “Of course I will.”

  ​Together they each grabbed one of Jack’s arms and pulled against his iron hold on the console, straining with all their might. With a hard yank, they freed his grip on the console.

  Free from the computer, he finally opened his eyes and stepped back from their built-up inertia.

  ​“Jack,” Hayley said, relieved. “You’re all right.”

  ​“No...” Jack slowly said, still dazed. He looked Hayley straight in her eyes. “None of us are.”

  She opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly all of the consoles on the balcony started sparking and popping.

  “Look out!” Jack yelled as he shoved her and Anderson away from him.

  All of the consoles shot out streams of electricity at him, bathing him in the scorching lights. Hayley and Anderson were thrown against the far wall of the balcony, clear of the energy.

  ​“Jack! What’s happening!?”

  ​“The computer!” Jack managed to shout out. He was nearly frozen in place, his joints locked up from the amount of energy coursing over them. “Overloading… power core!”

  ​“Everyone!” Hayley called to the officers down below, “Shut off the computer! Find a way to stabilize the core!”

  On the large screens in the Control Center, schematics of the base and the power core appeared, much of the pictures tinged with an orange-red color flashing repeatedly.

  ​“There’s not enough time.” Anderson said after running over the data from the displays. “There’s no way we can reprogram it fast enough.”

  ​Hayley felt waves of desperation surge through her as she tried to stay calm. There has to be something…anything…

  ​“I think I have a way!” Jack yelled. “I still have the Omega Virus with me from our first attack. We can’t stop the computer, but we can transfer the program to something else. Me!”

  ​“Vade,” Anderson warned, “there’s no way to tell what it’ll do to you. It could kill you.”

  ​“We’re all going to die when this place blows.” Jack strained against his locked up joints, reached out his arms to the consoles beside him, and glanced at Hayley. “This will give you all a second chance in this fight.” His hands latched onto the consoles, and as the energy surged over him, he activated the nodes on his hand, interfacing once more with the computer. “Don’t waste it.”

  ​Jack…

  ​And with that, his eyes clenched shut. Jack let out a pained cry as he lifted his head upwards and a large snap sounded.

  Like a switch had been flipped off, the alarms silenced, the bolts of energy ceased, and the power core levels began to stabilize.

  ​Hayley watched in horror as Jack, armor charred and smoking, collapsed to the ground.

  Chapter 6

  Date: July 13, 2132

  Location: Freedom Bound, the Defender-controlled Holding Facility positioned in the Atlantic Ocean

  ​Captain Rickman rushed into a laboratory as the tall doors parted. The technological laboratory was several floors below the Control Center and only a short walking distance from where the lift had deposited him on the level.

  ​Rickman was almost blinded by the light in the room, high intensity bulbs blazing to help for project visibility, as it reflected off the silvery coating on the walls, ceiling, and floor. The lab was several stories tall, with a few cranes to manage heavy equipment, some of them holding fragments of Enforcer Pods or fighter craft. With tables filled with various Ribiyar components, shelves for more equipment, and several small, circular cubicles lining the walls of the lab, it was the best place Jack could hope to get help.

  ​In one of these cubicles, Jack was suspended in an open, boxy structure with several arch-like arms. Two mechanical arms gripped his shoulders held him in place as several other arms were quietly replacing his charred armor and other components.

  Captains Whitefield and Syvon stood behind Andrew Anderson and Chief Lexton as they managed the computer console taking readings from the cubicle.

  ​Blitz was also present, protectively laying at his master’s feet as the others worked to heal him. As he looked at Jack, Richman feared that his former captain had been too badly damaged, but he noticed that Jack's eyes were open and watching the others in the room.

  ​I’m going to find a way, Jack, Rickman promised in his head. We’re all going to find a way to make this right.

  ​“How is he looking, chief?” Rickman asked as he walked up behind his engineer, who had arrived a few minutes before him.

  ​Lexton glanced up from the screen, wearing a worried expression on her face. “Not the best, sir.”

  ​“At the risk of being blunt, I’m not exactly certain what we can do for him,” Anderson cautiously stated. “His physical condition,” he dismissively waved a hand, “that’s being taken care of as we speak. But there’s another problem now. The virus that was trying to destroy Freedom Bound is inside of him now. I thought that if I could find the virus, we could try to neutralize it or transfer it to something else. I’ve run every scan that I could think of, and he’s directed me through a few I’ve never heard of before. But I still can’t pinpoint the virus that he’s described, and I can already see some deterioration in some of his programming structure.”

  ​“Mr. Anderson,” Captain Syvon said tiredly, “for those of us in the room who didn’t graduate with a seven-point GPA, what exactly does that mean?”

  ​“It means, sir,” Chief Lexton answered, “that Jack is dying. We’re seeing the symptoms of his illness but can’t find the disease itself. And I’m not sure if there’s a way we can help him.”

  ​“What about the Omega Virus?” Rickman pressed. “We used it to alter the Ribiyar’s programing before. Can’t we use it this time?”

  ​“I’m… afraid that won’t work, Rick,” Jack weakly spoke. “The virus, Fu’Lyl, it’s somehow immunized its
elf to Omega. I’ve already tried… i-it didn’t have any effect.”

  ​“Then… how long do you have left?” Captain Whitefield asked.

  ​“I estimate I will be completely immobilized in a matter of days.”

  Gasps echoed quietly while others fell solemn. Blitz looked at Jack, titling his head as if he was questioning the news as well.

  The idea sunk in and Rickman felt an anger rise up in his chest. Days. Because of those insane machines, my friend and mentor has only a few days left to live. If for no other reason than this, they will pay for what they’ve done to us all.

  ​Jolting Rickman out of his mental rant, Jack continued, “In light of that, I ask that you permit me to continue on this mission and assist the team to the best of my ability.”

  ​“Vade, we can’t ask you to do that,” Syvon firmly stated. “And forgive me for being blunt, but wouldn’t it be a risk for you to come? Wouldn’t this virus take control of you and turn you against us?”

  ​“I don’t think that is Fu’Lyl’s intent. All indications would seem to suggest that its sole intent is to cause me pain and agony, as it already has, before killing me off as one last act against us.”

  ​The officers were silent for a moment before Rickman responded, “Alright. I’ll speak to the other captains, see what they think and put it to a vote. In the meantime, I want you to stay here and gather your strength. I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

  ​For the next few minutes, Jack and the others continued to talk about the current matters at hand, until one by one, they left to perform their duties. Captain Syvon and Rickman directed their soldiers to handle the damage to the vessels in the fleet, Chief Lexton was needed to spearhead the repairs and modifications to the Defender, and Anderson was called to the Control Center to assist with Freedom Bound operations.

  ​Everyone had left except for Captain Whitefield.

  ​“Jack…” Whitefield awkwardly began, “I’m so sorry about-”

  ​“What… do want, captain?” he said tersely, barely restrained anger apparent in his voice.