Okay… that isn’t creepy at all, Olo thought as he and Blitz left the room. He wished he had a better weapon with him, he only carried a standard-issue pistol at the moment, but it wasn’t exactly ship protocol to have a machine gun or a bazooka as part of your luggage. Olo figured he was probably lucky to have been able to keep his pistol, being new to the Ocean-Walker’s crew.
The ship rocked beneath him another time, reeling from whoever was attacking them, likely the Ribiyar, and then the noises of combat above him stopped. Wondering if they had already defeated the Ribiyar, he tried contacting the bridge again, but he received no response. Realizing something was wrong he quickly continued his way up the decks using the stairs with the lifts locked down. After only a minute of traveling, he approached an intersection in the hallway, and turned to the right, only to jump back behind the corner when he glimpsed a Ribiyar soldier enter one of the rooms in that hallway, probably hunting crewman down.
How did they get down here so fast? Olo asked himself. He took a deep breath to gather would courage he could muster under the circumstances. Somehow, armed with only a standard pistol and a cat, they had to bring this guy down.
“Let’s do this, Blitz.” He whispered. He looked down and saw that Blitz wasn’t by his feet or anywhere in the hallway. He must have run away when he wasn’t paying attention. Terrific, Olo thought. Some bodyguard you turned out to be. He turned the corner and was instantly punched in the chest by a metal fist, his combat-specialized uniform absorbing a portion of the blow so it didn’t kill him. Olo flew down the hallway behind him, and collided into one of the doorways, seven feet away from the intersection in the hallway. Dazed and heavily bruised from both the impact and the attack, he looked up to see the Ribiyar soldier approaching him. He grabbed his pistol and quickly emptied out his ammo at the alien, but the bullets just harmlessly ricocheted off it onto the metal plates of the corridor.
“You will now be purged, organic.”
Olo was about to say something, but then he noticed something that brightened his mood. Blitz was standing were Olo had just been, though he didn’t know how the Ribiyar hadn’t seen the cat in the corridor, since the alien stood in the middle of the intersection only a few feet away from it. Blitz brought up his front arms, but on his arms, were… mini machine guns?
I like were this was heading.
The Ribiyar aimed his weapon at Olo, a large double barrel energy gun that emitted a reddish-orange glow at the end of the gun barrels, not seeing the cat in the hallway aiming at him.
“Any last words, organic? I’ve heard that your species sometimes like to say something before your lives are extinguished.”
Olo struggled to sit up, a difficult task with his upper body throbbing the way that it was. He was finally able to sit up and, “Yeah, I do have something. Never turn your back on an E.V.A.N. you freak!!!”
The Ribiyar looked to the left and saw the cat aiming his mini machine guns toward him.
Blitz meowed, deeply and forcefully saying it, and Olo realized it wasn’t his ‘I want to play’ meow. This was more like his ‘time to destroy you’ meow.
Blitz’s arms lit up as his machine guns blasted into the Ribiyar, knocking him backwards into the wall. Blitz’s bullets were thinner and pointer than normal bullets, Olo knew from reading his manual, and they managed to tear through the alien’s armor and expose its inner circuitry. Blitz stopped firing, but as the smoke cleared, the Ribiyar still lived, and began aiming its rifle towards the cat. Olo thought they might have to make a run for it when Blitz’s right paw flipped up and a small missile shot out of his arm. The missile shot into the Ribiyar’s exposed chest, and he erupted in a small explosion. Blitz’s machine guns went back into his arms and he went over to where Olo was.
I am definitely a cat fan now, he thought as he got up, after struggling for almost a minute to do so. After Olo was upright, he decided that, if the ship had already been boarded, then he needed to get to the armory, and properly prepare himself to repel the aliens from the ship. With his mind made, Olo slowly continued his trek to the armory, as Blitz scouted ahead of him in search of more Ribiyar to vent his wrath upon.
“Commander Jones, can you hear me? Commander!” Captain Whitefield yelled into his communicator. Something must have happened on the bridge. Whitefield lifted his hand to his head and it came back down with blood on it. When the first explosion hit the ship, he was thrown head first into a door he was about to open. When he regained consciousness a few minutes later, his head hurt like it had when he had been knocked out during a street fight in his younger days, and he figured the impact might have been enough to give him at least a minor concussion.
No time to worry about that now. His first priority was to head to the bridge, but he had to stop by the armory to arm himself, and help any of the crew he encountered. But before he did that, he had a trick up his sleeve that might buy the ship some time. He activated his communicator and interfaced with the ships computer.
Computer ready: Standing by for orders
“Computer, is the Laser Array on stand-by mode?” Captain Whitefield spoke to the computer through his communicator.
Affirmative: No target has been selected.
“Computer, access the targeting systems and open fire on the Ribiyar fighters orbiting the ship. Captain Override Code: Alpha seven-nine-three-four-two, Gama one-nine-nine-nine, Omega eight-four-five-six.”
Override code accepted. Working… Targets identified. Ready to begin firing on your orders.
“Commence firing sequence.”
Engaging…
Location: Aboard the lead fighter, orbiting around the U.S.S. Ocean-Walker.
“Ha! The organics scurry and flee like the insects that inhabit this world,” One of the Ribiyar officers remarked.
“Don’t underestimate them,” Tau’Ka warned. “These organics always seem to have a ‘trick up their sleeve’, I believe their saying goes.”
The officer was about to respond when he said, “Squad Commander, sensors are detecting a power build up aboard the organic’s craft! Something is activating, and I believe it is some kind of weapon! Your orders!?”
Tau’Ka immediately responded, “Full power to weapons! Destroy the organics weapons before-”
On the Ocean-Walker, several large, bulky antennas, the fearsome weapon called the Laser Array, lifted upwards from their storage bays located across the hull, and they split open into X-shaped panels. The panels quickly lit up as power surged into their systems, and once they quickly adjusted their angle to face their targets, they produced a fiery red laser that soared towards Tau’Ka’s fighter. The fighter was cut in half as the Ocean-Walker’s Laser Array sliced through it. The other fighters flying around the Ocean-Walker attempted to escape, or purge the Laser Array emitters, but they were too late. All the fighters in the air were shot down, bringing down a rain of scrapped metal into the ocean surface.
All hostile aircraft destroyed.
Disengaging combat alert and powering down Laser Array.
Well, that takes care of that problem, Captain Whitefield thought as he watched the events unfold on the screen of his communicator. But we are not out of the woods yet. Roughly forty Ribiyar boarded the Ocean-Walker and they still have the fighters that have landed on the ship as well. We need to somehow stop them, and at the same time we need to secure their fighters as well. Captain Whitefield continued to think of a plan as he made his journey to the armory to equip himself for the fight ahead.
Location: Onboard the Ribiyar Warship Ji’Co, in orbit of Earth.
“Tactical Analysist Cha’Hawk, I have news to report.” Tel’Con Zan’Tar, an officer who wore a thin, sparkling red coating spread across the middle of his chest that identified him as one of Cha’Hawk’s subordinates, along with his name, rank, and clan symbol, stood at the entrance of Cha’Hawk’s work center. The room was a black colored, fairly
large circular shaped area, with several upside-down pyramid shaped computer interfaces scattered around the room if a commander wanted several of his officers to work on something at one time. There were also holographic projections of several locations on earth shining on the surface of the wall, and most of the projections showed various cities throughout the world in ruins. Cha’Hawk was standing by the interface in the middle of the room. He ejected his data module from the interface and Cha’Hawk turned to Zan’Tar as it snaked back into his arm.
“Speak, Tel’Con Zan’Tar. What is it?”
Zan’Tar entered the room. “Squad Commander Tau’Ka’s fighter has been completely destroyed, along with the majority of his fighter complement. It would appear that the organic’s force that was targeted was more resilient than we anticipated. Scans show some of his warriors are still online, so his mission may yet succeed. Reinforcements are being gathered and will be deployed within one Vel. I will inform you when the situation unfolds.” His business completed, Zan’Tar left, knowing his superior preferred to be left alone when processing troubling news.
This does not bode well, Cha’Hawk thought. Tau’Ka was the only high-ranking officer within my influence what wouldn’t be highly curious or suspicious about searching for the Ra’Ta. Now what? Cha’Hawk computed possible actions he could take, most of which ended in him being deactivated, taken apart and/or used for target practice, and it was then that the idea came to him. Don’t take any action. Watch the events unfold. It was perfect. While it meant he would not be able to investigate the Ra’Ta, his instincts told him that it would appear soon enough, under enemy command. If these organics are as competent as ‘High Order’ Ki’Ra refuses to believe they are, they might be able to assist Cha’Hawk in his campaign to defeat Ki’Ra and end his rule.
If, the organic known as ‘Captain Jack Vade’ was as smart and resourceful as his instincts told him he was.
And his instincts had never failed him before.
Chapter 9
Date: July 9, 2132.
Location: Aboard the U.S.S. Atlanta, at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
Lieutenant Commander Hayley nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the captain first start to speak. He sounded so…different. Unnatural. It was like he was speaking through a vocal distorter used to disguise one’s identity. She heavily battled two emotions inside her: one to tell the captain how grateful she was that he was still ‘living’, and the other to dissect him, the Genetic Modulator, and the entire computer mainframe and figure out what went wrong. Initially, she had waited to approach Captain Vade and Commander Rickman, so they could talk to each other for a few minutes, allowing Rick some time to help his captain with the initial shock of the transformation. But now, she had to intrude in the conversation, so she could examine his new body, so she could learn about how he operated and if his power systems had stabilized, and to see if she could find anything that might tell her what went wrong with the procedure.
“Captain?” He turned towards her, his body leaning against on the operating table he was on when the procedure started. She noticed that the restraints they had used to keep him held in place during the procedure had all been torn in half, a testament to how much Vade had grown and changed from the procedure.
“Before I begin, I am greatly relieved you are all right, sir. As you can see, me and the rest of the officers are examining everything related to the GM to determine what went wrong with the experiment. while they work, I need to examine you so we can ascertain how your body is functioning, and if there is enough of your genetic code left to change you back.”
“Begin your scans, Lieutenant Commander,” Vade replied, once again examining his hand to see the extent of his transformation. “Administer whatever test you can think of and get as much information out of them as possible.” Nodding somberly to her commander’s orders, Hayley grabbed an x-ray scanner that had been resting on one of the many tables in the room and stepped up to Captain Vade as she activated the device. Informing him to alert her if the radiation scans caused any side effects, she activated the scanner and slowly started to move the device over the captain. The screen connected to the scanner immediately began to show the data that was being collected, slowly constructed an internal map of his infrastructure.
“Forgive me if I’m prying, Captain, but if you don’t mind my asking, how does this new body… feel? How is it different from how you were before?” She asked as she studied the data for anything that could indicate that any of his systems were destabilizing.
Captain Vade paused for a moment, and replied, “It is… difficult to put into words. I still sense objects with my normal senses like touch, but it also feels like I’m in a virtual program, controlling an artificial body. My vision is filled with a graphic overlay, supplying me with additional information my systems are collecting. It feels… surreal.” Vade lifted his head up and turned toward her. “Lieutenant Commander, when the opportunity presents itself, I want you to bring me all the data relevant to the wreckage above us. With this body, it is possible I can free the Atlanta of her prison.”
Stunned, she stopped moving the scanner as she asked, “How could you do that, sir?”
“I am made of a metallic composite that, as far as I know, does not exist on the periodic table. This material is strong enough that I believe it can even withstand the water pressure that exists this deep in the ocean,” Captain Vade responded. “If I can get out of the sub, it is possible that I could move enough of the wreckage off the ship to allow us to ascend to the surface.”
“Hold on, Captain. Slow down. How could you possibly know what material you’re made of? My scanners aren’t even close to figuring that out.”
“It’s… complicated. My mind is structured differently than it was before. I have access to my memories and experiences, but there is something else as well. Somehow, I have access to information stored within me that contains my… schematics. But even if I didn’t have this information inside me, I also appear to have highly advanced scanning equipment that would be able to identify the metal.”
Hayley deactivated her scanner. “Wait, do you think that your sensors could scan you to see if any of your genetic code is left in you? They would likely have a better chance of detecting it than our equipment, and your devices may not have the risk of irradiating the genetic material like these x-ray scanners do.”
Vade cocked his head to the side as he thought, and then straightened it as he said, “I believe my scanners would be able to detect whatever organic material remains. Allow me a moment while I conduct the scan.” Hayley stepped back as Captain Vade lifted his hands above his chest, and she was stunned when thin, aqua blue streams of light shone out from under his hands. The blue beams of light, likely scanning beams for the device, rapidly danced across his body for several moments, before they deactivated, and Vade lowered his hands to his sides.
Turning to Hayley, Vade said, “I am afraid, Lieutenant Commander Hayley, that I detect no genetic material left on my body, and only small traces of DNA samples left on my clothing. I doubt that alone would be sufficient to bring me back to my human form.” He sat silently for a moment, inwardly confronting the now real possibility that he was stuck living his life as a machine. However, he quickly left his moment of thought, possibly to avoid facing his circumstances, and said, “I believe the best thing for you to do is to review my schematics and construction and see if I would survive an expedition outside the sub to remove the debris field above us.” Before Hayley could ask how he would give her the information, Vade turned his head towards one of the computer displays in the room, and the screen suddenly began flashing with information and detailed computer graphics.
The data transfer continued for a few moments, and when it was finished, Vade looked back Hayley, who was slightly stunned from his action. “You even have an internal data transmitter?” She asked as she shook her head in disbelief. “
If this was under different circumstances, I’m sure Chief Engineer Lexton would have a field day examining all the toys you have packed inside you.” Taking on a more serious tone, she continued, “I’ll look over the information you’ve sent, sir, and get back to you as soon as I can on whether you can withstand the water pressure. And though you say it’s hopeless, I’m going to keep looking into the data we’ve collected and see if there is still a possibility of helping you.”
“I appreciate your optimism, Lieutenant Commander. Though I doubt there is a way to bring me back to my previous form, the work you and the rest of the crew are doing is most appreciated.”
Nodding in acknowledgement of Vade’s words, Hayley then turned and walked to the Control Room, determined to do whatever she could to help her captain, and fix the mess that she put him in.
Commander Rickman started to approach the captain, but before he could, Ambassador Zephier walked up to Vade.
“I wanted you to know that my skills and services are available for your use in this matter, Captain Vade. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“There is. If you are willing, you can assist Commander Rickman and help him sort through all the data from the scans as we complete them. Do you have any skills with computers, Ambassador Zephier?”
“A great deal, Captain Vade. Before I become an ambassador, I worked for the CIA and assisted with their program firewall and information protection.” Seeing their confusion, he added, “It was many years before the work for our sanctuary started. I will endeavor to lend my skills in any way.”
Galactic Defenders- Endurance Page 6