by Logan Jacobs
“Alright y'all,” Phil said from the cockpit. “Hold on to your butts. Initiating atmospheric burn.”
I felt the craft tilt and angle upward and then g-forces slammed me back into my seat. It was like being on a roller coaster.
After a few seconds the g-forces let up, and it just seemed like we floated.
“Whee,” Aurora giggled from where she sat next to PoLarr.
“Why y'all gotta be so freaking human,” Phil commented as he walked through the passenger compartment. “Now I gotta go adjust the gas again. Can’t have you guys tripping balls. Jump point will be up in about five or so minutes.”
Phil adjusted the gas level, and I went from being very very high, to just moderately high. He also pressed a button so that the sides of the ship became clear so that we could see the expanse of space.
“Cool,” I mumbled. I was suddenly very thirsty. I pressed a button on the screen in front of me and a glass of ice cold juice slid from the armrest. I took a long drink.
“Yeah, the gate is actually located in the center of a black hole this time,” Phil said as he walked back into the cockpit. “Should be a pretty cool show.”
We flew in silence for the next few minutes as the effects of the gas equalized. Then it seemed like the stars around us began to bend and swirl.
“Ack, ack ack,” Poda clicked from the cockpit.
“Yup, here we go guys,” Phil echoed.
The whole ship shuddered, and then it felt like we were squeezed through the eye of a needle and then popped out again on the other side.
Outside space swirled in a myriad of colors like being tie-dyed. For a second I saw each of my alliance mates in three different states. Past. Present. Future. It was surreal to say the least.
Just when I thought my mind might actually melt everything popped back to normal.
“That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever experienced,” Aurora drawled. “And I once had a three way with a Vortuglian Octophor and her twin sister. Oh. Oh, I have said too much.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Phil said. “The gas got a little wonky there at the end. Black holes always mess everything up. Okay, kiddies, take a gander ‘cause there she is. Earth.”
Sure enough, the blue-green planet that I called home loomed large in the display. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed it until just this moment. I was about to say something to that effect when it felt like the ship was hit by a mack truck and three sleek, hornet looking spacecraft flew past the side of the ship with their laser cannons blazing.
“What the hell was that?” I asked.
“Looks like someone knew y'all were coming and sent a welcome party,” Phil answered from the cockpit. “I’ve got six Raptor Interceptors with Skalle Furia markings on them, and they are all over us like flies on shit.”
“Drop me out there,” I said as I tried to figure out how to turn my chair into one of the cool space pods like last time. “Let me go even the odds.”
“Yeah, me too,” PoLarr added.
“Not this time,” Phil explained. “We needed the extra room for cargo so no pods.”
“Shit,” I said. “How long will the shields hold? Do you have any weapons at all?”
“Of course there are weapons,” Phil said, insulted. “I’m cheap, not stupid. The ship has twin quad cannons mounted top and bottom. They have to be manually operated, though. Oh, and shields will last about another forty seconds at this rate.”
“Come on, my sexy gun angel,” I said as I turned toward PoLarr.
“We ain’t out of this yet,” she said without missing a beat. We both jumped from our chairs and headed to a central shaft in the ship that had just opened up. I climbed up while PoLarr headed down. At the top of the shaft was a chair that operated said quad laser cannon. I sat down and powered it up while I put a small headset on “Let’s kick some space ass!”
“Everyone, hold on,” Phil said through the communicator. “It’s about to get real topsy turvy. Initiating evasive maneuvers.”
The space ship began a series of loops, rolls, and dives as the Raptor crafts continued to press the attack.
“Okay, PoLarr,” I said into the comm as I powered up the quad-cannon. It was similar to the ball turret belly gun on a B-17 bomber. The yoke control that filled my hand allowed for an almost complete three hundred and sixty degrees of fire around a plane of one hundred and eighty degrees. “Let’s do this.”
The Raptors swooped in and angry red laser fire splashed across the shields of the ship.
My cannons finally came on line, and a HUD targeting reticle appeared on the shield of the ball turret. I didn’t waste any more time. It only took a few seconds for me to get the hang of the controls and soon one of the Raptors passed through my target. I pressed the triggers that were fitted into the joysticks, and the quad-cannon around me roared to life.
Our lasers were bright blue and streaked across the black expanse of space as I chased one of the Raptors. It was not expecting for the ship to be armed and began to fly erratically. Thankfully, as a kid I’d played a ton of space fighting games and was pretty good at being able to anticipate which way the Raptor was going to try to evade, so I let it a little bit and then let off the triggers to trick him into coming back at us. The trick worked, and the Raptor spun on its axis and then came right for my turret. That’s when I lit it up with blue laser fire.
It exploded in a little poof of flame what was quickly extinguished, and then it became so much space junk. Unlike in the movies, there was no big explosion. Just a small lick of flame as whatever oxygen was still in the life support system was used up. It was actually very anticlimactic.
“One down,” I said into the comm and began to track down my next target.
“Make that two,” PoLarr responded.
“Four left you guys,” Phil said. “Here they come again.”
The ship spun and twirled, and it was all I could do to hold on to my lunch. Or dinner. Or whatever the last meal I had eaten was. I had completely lost track at this point.
My quad-cannon fired and fired. The blue blasts lit up the mirrored surface of the ship, and it felt like being inside a strobe light.
Two of the Raptors began to criss cross in front of me, and I waited until just the right moment to pull my triggers. It was like being in a real-life version of Galaga. I caught both of them in one blast.
“Two more down,” I said.
“Nice shooting,” PoLarr echoed. Then the sound of her quad cannons filled the comm link. “And two more for me too.”
“Shit,” Phil said. “They are making a kamikaze run guys. The shields won’t be able to take a direct hit.
“Let’s knock em down,” I said to PoLarr as the last two Raptors sped at us like comets.
For a second I thought we were done for but then PoLarr’s and my laser blasts intersected and the last two ships blew up.
Everyone let out a cheer as PoLarr and I climbed out of the cannons and joined the rest of the crew in the passenger section.
“Nice shooting,” Phil said as he wiped sweat from his forehead.
“How do you think they found out about us?” I asked.
“I’m actually not so sure they did,” Har’Gitay answered. “I think they were there for whoever came through. Although, they know we are here now.”
“That they do,” I agreed. “You got the coordinates for our landing zone, right Phil?”
“Yup,” Phil said from the cockpit. “Poda is bringing us through the atmosphere right now.”
“Tell her to fly inconspicuously,” I added.
“No need,” Phil said. “We’re totally cloaked.”
“Good, no need to draw any more attention to ourselves,” I commented.
“Um, Marc, you may want to come look at this,” Har’Gitay said from where she stood at the side of the ship. It was still completely clear, and I could see that we were flying fast over the Nevada desert.
“Oh, no he didn’t,” I said mostly to myse
lf.
The President had hand-picked the location for our arrival, and I peered through the side of the ship at a drab, mostly hidden run down military base with a small crowd of people gathered on the tarmac as our ship touched down. They looked mostly like military but not completely. “Well guys, welcome to Area Fifty-One.”
Chapter Four
“Ladies and gentlemen of top secret base Area Fifty-One, I give you my good, close, personal friend, champion of Earth, Marc Havak,” the President said to the crowd of people that had surrounded the spaceship as my team and I walked down the ramp. “You may have not heard of Marc, but he’s the best. The best.”
“Um, sir, I thought we were trying to keep a low profile,” I said to him.
“This is low profile,” the POTUS answered as he smiled and waved. “These people all have a top secret clearance. The highest clearance. Big secrets. It’s fine.”
“We love you, Marc!” Someone screamed from the crowd, and I just waved in return.
“And what about me?” the POTUS asked of the crowd. “You love me too, right?”
“You rule, Marc! Team Havak rocks!” Other’s yelled. I could see the expression on the President’s face fall.
“Okay, you know what?” The POTUS grumbled. “Everyone back to work. We have a lot to do. No more Marc for you. He’s a very busy man with lots of important things to do.”
And as fast as it had started, the little show was over.
The President led us over to one of the dilapidated buildings. Thomas emerged from a doorway before we reached it.
“Sorry about that,” he said to me as he motioned for us to go inside. “I was busy putting together mission briefs, and he snuck out. You know how he is.”
“Do I ever,” I said as we all walked inside.
I only made it a foot inside the door before I stopped dead in my tracks.
Unlike the outside, the inside looked like something out of a Mission Impossible movie. It was all high tech with gleaming displays, banks of computers, and various military personnel running around with a purpose.
“Yeah, we made some upgrades,” Thomas smirked at me. “The outside is just to keep the tourists happy, which, since the actual discovery of aliens, surprisingly, no one ever wants to come here anymore.”
“Funny,” I commented.
Thomas led us over to a large conference table that had all kinds of display screens set up around it. It reminded me of the command center back in the hall of champions.
“We picked up on the satellites that you ran into a little trouble up there,” Thomas said as he motioned for us to have a seat at the table.
“Yeah, it got a little dicey,” I said. “Hoping that it was just a precautionary force looking for anyone from off world and not an indication that there is a leak or a mole.”
“My thoughts as well,” Thomas nodded.
“Okay,” I said as I looked up at the screens. There were all sorts of info on them. One looked like it had pictures from Paris on it. “So, where are we? Any leads?”
“Possibly,” Thomas answered. “First, I want to introduce you to the rest of my team. My squad leaders are Captain Striker and Lieutenant Blade.”
Thomas pointed at two tall, fit, imposing soldiers straight out of central casting. Striker looked like a Dolph Lundgren knockoff circa Rocky IV and Blade could have easily passed as a stand in for Kurt Russell in Stargate.
“Nice to meet you all,” Captain Striker said in a tone that conveyed the exact opposite. “Sir, the informant from the Paris station intel checked out. We’re in contact with Commando Jaubert to coordinate a raid.”
“If there is a raid, we want in,” I said. “My team and I are ready to go.”
“All due respect,” Blade chimed in. “But, we don’t know your team’s operational efficiency and even with a top flight scramble jet, we are four hours from Paris. It would be best if we let Commando Jaubert handle this.”
“All due respect, dickwad,” I said. “But, you know, all the cool shit Earth has gotten over the last few months is because of my team’s operational efficiency, and I can get us to Paris is about half a second. Commando Jean Val Jean notwithstanding.”
“Gentleman,” Thomas said as he stepped into the mix. “There is room enough for all of us. We’ll take two squads. Blade, prep your team. You’ll provide on site backup for Commando Jaubert. Marc, you and Team Havak will cover possible escape routes.”
“Really?” I started to complain. “Why are we letting the Frenchies do the main assault?”
“Because you are back on Earth now, and they have jurisdiction,” Thomas said with authority. He didn’t get to be a colonel by mincing words. “And I have operational command. You are here on request of the President, but I have the final word. If you don’t like it, you can stay here. Now, I’m assuming your little blue friend there can teleport us when we’re ready?”
“Um, yes sir!” Chaz said with a sharp salute as he tried to come to some sort of military attention. He failed miserably, but it was cute. “Show me a map of the area, and I can get your team within ten feet.”
“Sir? I’m sorry, but did you say teleport,” Blade asked a little nervously. “Like Nightcrawler from X-Men?”
“Okay, Blade,” I said with a nod of my head. “I’m sorry I called you a dickwad, since you are obviously my kind of dude. And yes, exactly like Nightcrawler.”
“Cool,” Blade said as he tried to sound more confident than I knew he was. “I think.”
“Oh, it’s super cool,” Chaz chimed in. “I’m very cool.”
“He’s right,” Tempest added as she popped one of her sweet smelling little cigars into the corner of her mouth to look like a badass. “He’s cool.”
“Now that we have that settled,” I said and tried to bring us back to the task at hand. “We are gonna need to suit up. Oh, and we’re going to need guns.”
“Lots of guns,” PoLarr added in a somewhat passable Neo from The Matrix.
“That, we can take care of,” Thomas said with a wicked smile. “Follow me.”
Thomas began to walk out of the room. With a shrug, I turned to my team, and we followed him down a long, drab hallway until we came upon a plain door set in the gray concrete. He opened the door and motioned for us to go in.
It was like a full metal jacketed ballistic Christmas on crack.
Rows and rows of every kind of modern gun invented filled the room lengthwise for as far as my eyes could see.
“Oh, I think I just came,” PoLarr whispered under her breath, and her blue eyes were wide.
“I take it you see some things that you like,” a surprisingly attractive red headed woman in a crisp Army uniform said from behind a long counter that separated us from the smorgasbord of guns. She was on the taller side but still voluptuous, at least from what I could tell with the uniform, had coppery red hair, brown eyes, and full, pale pink lips. Her skin was Irish white and dotted with freckles.
“Team Havak, this is our resident armorer, Master Sergeant Maggie O'Donnell,” Thomas said somewhat proudly. “Sergeant O’Donnell, this is Team Havak. Give them whatever they need. Pronto.”
“Yes, sir,” Sergeant O’Donnell said smartly. “I am aware of who they are. Everyone in the world does. Pleasure to meet you all. Especially you, Champion Marc Havak.”
“Oh, oh really?” I asked, a little surprised.
“Yup,” she replied simply. “Now, what can I do for you all?”
“Wow, I’m actually not sure,” Nova said as she looked over the rows and rows of guns and weapons. “I’m not that familiar with Earth firearms.”
“Yeah, that makes two of us, sugar,” Aurora added.
“Three,” PoLarr said.
“Four,” Har’Gitay echoed. “I didn’t have enough time to do adequate research like normal.”
“Eh, I like Earth guns okay,” Tempest said as she puffed on her little cigar. Tendrils of the not unpleasant purple smoke curled around the burning tip and made her loo
k all kinds of hot.
“Really?” I asked her, surprised. “How do you know about Earth guns?”
“Hann-Abel,” Tempest replied with a small sneer. “Made us study every night, like we were in school or some bullshit. We had class every day in between training sessions to go over various culture’s technologies… specifically killing and maiming technology.”
“Sounds like an interesting fellow,” Thomas said.
“Oh, yeah, you’d love him, Colonel,” I added. The ‘Colonel’ came out weird, forced, and oddly formal. I just couldn’t bring myself to call him dad. “And that reminds me, I need to grab a drink with him at the Breach.”
“What? Why in the Twelve Realms of Hemsworthiem would you do that?” Nova asked incredulously.
“Yeah, Havak, what the fuck?” Tempest snarled.
“Hey! Everyone slow your freaking roll,” I pleaded as I held up my hands in the universal sign for surrender. “In case you all forgot he and I had to team up in the last match? If it wasn’t for him, I’d be an undead vampire roaming the cells of the universe’s worst prison.”
“No, we didn’t know that,” Tempest huffed. “The video feed got cut after your little scuffle in the cafeteria. Entertaining by the way.”
“Thanks.” I winked at Tempest.
She begrudgingly winked back, and I could tell her initial anger was already starting to fade. She had been in an alliance with Hann-Abel before we beat them a few months ago, and they were disbanded. There was no love lost between the two of them, and she had been excited to join Team Havak. Well, excited is a strong word. Arrogantly pleased would have been a more apt description.
“Then when you got back, everyone was off to the races to save Grizz,” PoLarr said. “We never got a chance to talk about it.”
“It was a scandal,” Chaz chimed in. “The message boards went nuts! Viewership actually skyrocketed for the next series of lower Tier challenges. Trillium’s live Forge and Friends broadcast saw its highest Needlecast ratings ever.”
“Figures,” I mumbled.
Over the last several days Grizz and I had been investigating the murder of our friend and Team Havak’s weapons master, Darry Dar’Tor. In the course of that investigation we’d begun to unravel a conspiracy that could bring the Forge of Heroes, AKA The Crucible of Carnage, and subsequently peace in the universe, to its knees.