by M. Shaunessy
Chapter 16
The Assault on Hades
Digan and Mike tried to control the ship until its movement died down. They did not know where they were now until Mike noticed that the Hades was on their scanner. The computer’s gyro system was off the scale and he could not get the Nav computer to work. He looked at his ship and could not believe it. He had thought that he would go search the entire galaxy to find it again. He was still confused as to what has happened. Mike still wanted to know how Digan found the Condor and brought it back to them.
“I just want to know how?” Mike asked him. “Justin said it was stolen.”
Digan chuckled a bit and replied, “Well, he wasn’t too far off. Ya see after my weekend leave. I headed to Sadr for some R&R, when I just happen to see your ship in one of the docking bays. I didn’t strike odd to me, except I saw a black Tabby Felinis go in. I followed him, inquired where you guys were. He said he never heard of you. That is when I got suspicious, and clubbed him on the back of his head with the butt of my gun while he wasn’t looking. I dragged him out and called the cops.”
Mike was impressed, but he had one more question, “So, how did you find us?”
“Are you kidding?” Digan said as he pointed to Justin’s wristband, “You got long range homing beacon on that thing.” Justin nodded knowing he was right. “It led me straight to ya.” He looked to Tygla and said, “So you must be Princess Tygla? Justin was right you are, ‘Hot’ as he put it.”
“He did?” As she look to him skeptically.
“A little hot.” Justin replied as they chuckled.
“So how did the thief get in the ship?” Mike asked.
Digan answered, “He had an illegal universal remote control key. Must have built it himself.”
Justin then said, “I told you!”
The radio boomed as Xman’s voice filled the cockpit, “Digan, how are they?”
“They’re fine, including your sister.”
“Tygla?” Xman wondered. “I thought I told you stay on that space port Tygla.”
“You said should, brother,” Tygla argued playfully, “But don’t worry my knights protected me.” She smiled to Mike and Justin.
“Mike if she is-,” Xman warned, but was interrupted by Mike.
“She’s fine.”
Then another voice boomed in, “This is Commander Sommenar Haras of the Rebirth, is everyone Ok?” The crews acknowledged that they were well, “Good, get on board. We need you in our tactics meeting. It seems that the Hades survived the super nova as well.”
As the Golden Condor flew in the directions of Rebirth Tygla was still dazed on what happened. Justin told her that she became a god that floated above that altar. She did not believe him until Mike concurred it was true.
“So I was god?” She wondered.
Mike looked to her, “Well, I think you were, are a goddess to me.”
She smiled and blushed, “I’m serious now.”
“You don’t really remember do you?” Mike asked her.
She shook her head and replied, “No, that last thing I remembered was Drax cutting my hand and-,” She looked down for the first time and was astonished. She saw that there was no cut, bleeding, nor a scar on her palm. “It’s gone. I was sure there’d be some sort of a scar there.”
Mike took her hand to examine it. She was right there was no scar. They looked at each other confused, then Mike said, “I suppose when The Creator entered your body, it heal your wounds.”
She nodded, “You could be right. There are some things cannot be explained.”
Hiss finally sat in the command chair that was once belonged to Drax. He waited a long time for this chance. He still mourned for his former lord. For a long as he knew him, nothing nor no one had ever killed Drax. He remember one time on a raid in the Draco System, Drax was shot five times but he still fought and lived.
“What are you doing in my chair?” A voice boomed for the other side of the room. Hiss jumped wondering who was questioning him. He swiveled around and saw a ghost. It was Drax, standing in front of the doorway in tattered clothes. “I will not ask again Hiss.”
Hiss was so scared, as he had just seen a ghost. He was confused as he replied shockingly, “Ssss-ssssir! Y-you’re alive!”
Drax walked up to Hiss as if to attack or punish him, but his just said coldly, “No thanks to you.”
Hiss got out as fast as he could as Drax approached him. Hiss knew that Drax was in the worst of moods and he did not want to be in the same room.
“My lord, we thought that you were dead,” Hiss retorted.
Hiss could see Drax’s darkened eyes as he replied, “So is that why you left me for?”
“N-no that isss not true my lord,” Hiss answered cowardly as Drax immediately went for his throat as to strangle him to death. He morphed his hand to a metal substance. Hiss was then lifted in the air, “I-I tried to get…a…resscue ssship…to you…The exsssplotion propelled the sssship away…It isssn’t my fault.”
“Isn’t it? You failed me for the last time Hiss. I should kill you now.” He squeezed harder.
“Pleessse. Ack, blame the felinisssss,” he pleaded.
A small grin appeared in Drax’s lips as he had a devious thought. It was the Felinis’ fault. He then let his companion down as Hiss massaged his throat with his artificial hands. Drax relieved Hiss of his duties as he sat down in his chair. Drax continued to contemplate to his thoughts as Hiss left the room. He called Captain Tah for damage report. Tah told him for some strange reason the damage was minimal and the ship’s power level was off the scale. This puzzled Drax. Drax swiveled his chair to face the window of stars trying to relocate the planet that he was once on. He wondered why it exploded the way it did. Did The Creator really release the ultimate power and transfer it to their ship? Ultimate power, he thought as he grinned widely.
“Sir,” the com boomed as Captain Tah, now back in command reported, “The Felinoron battleship the Rebirth has entered on our scopes.”
“Really?” Drax smiled knowing he can finally finish what he had started now that he has the ultimate power. Nothing can stop him. “Alert all commands. Prepare to engage the enemy.”
“Yes sir.”
Now, to test the power they have, Drax thought.
They all gathered in the ship’s briefing room ready to plan on how to destroy the deadly Hades. The Felinis scanner had informed them that the Hades was just in their RADAR and approaching fast. King Rymu, Sommanar, and Xman had informed Mike and his crew that CRAIG knew how to destroy the Hades, but they needed their help in doing so.
“Yes, as I said before,” CRAIG started, “There are a couple of ways to destroy it, from the inside. Option one is you can disrupt the flux drive engines with an electric spark which will immediately destroy the ship.”
Mike did not like that option and asked, “And the other way?”
“The Xatu are very cautious of their ships getting into the wrong hands so they added one last defense, a self destruction program that will overload the ship’s power and destroy it completely. There is however a problem, deep inside the ship the lies a secret room where the computer that controls the program rests. The room is heavily guarded and surveillance twenty-four hours, if you do enter that room, and defeated the guards, you then must provide three things. A pass code that only the captain or commander of the ship have, his handprint and a security card from one of the guards.”
“And how are we suppose to get all that stuff,” Justin asked.
The King looked at Justin and replied, “That is what you must figure that out once you are inside. Since you three were going in to that ship in the first place, it will be your job to find that computer room, the pass code, hand print and the security cards.”
“And how are we supposed get in?” Justin inquired again. “They don’t actually leave the back door open for us.”
Mike looked to him, “Jus
tin, remember what we tried to do before?” Justin nodded “All we got to do is open the back door for them.”
“But they only open that chute when they go into Hyper Flight, not into battle,” Justin pointed out.
“That is not entirely true,” CRAIG said, “Most of the refuse chutes are not made of Xrylium and can be cut by high powered pulsar beam.”
“Like our proton cannon,” Mike thought.
“Precisely,” CRAIG said.
“Well you three better get going,” King Rymu told them, “I am sure the Hades is heading our way, armed.”
“I am going with them as well,” Tygla pronounced.
“Sorry Tygla, it is too dangerous, I will not allow it,” Rymu said firmly.
“But father, please I have been waiting all my life for a chance to help the Colonials. I want to help them,” she said pleadingly, “Daddy, I know it is hard for you, but I have changed since I was a little girl. You must realize that that your little girl has grown up and I am not afraid to fight them.”
“Now Tygla, I know I have taught you well, in diplomatic actions, but this is more militant than anything else. I just don’t think you are up to it.”
“You’re wrong,” Tygla frowned a bit and said, “I have been keeping something from you for a long time, father. I have been learning military strategy and actions in secret, fearing you disapprove. I’m sorry daddy.”
He sighed, and then nodded knowing that his little girl has grown, “You are the cunning one Tygla.” He smiled. “I should’ve seen it in you. All right, you may go with them, but be very careful. The Xatu are a ruthless race and I hate to lose you like I lost your mother.”
“Don’t worry daddy,” she replied, “I will,” she hugged and kissed him on the cheek and turn to her squad. “Ok troops, let’s kick some butt.”
“Oh, there is one other thing,” Rymu told them, “They may use their plasma dill during this battle to destroy the Rebirth, and so if you can, disable it before they can use it,” they nodded, “Your Android would have detailed information.” As they left, the king stopped Mike, but he told his team he would catch up to them.
“Yes your highness?” Mike asked
“I hear you have taken a great interest of my daughter. Now the only reason I am letting her go with you is because I know you can protect her. She lost her mother to the Xatu. I do not want to lose her as well.”
Mike nodded understanding Rymu and said, “Don’t worry, I promise I will bring her back unharmed.”
The king smiled, “Good. Now may the gods be with you.”
“Same to you,” Mike replied as he smiled back.
As they walked down the hall they were discussing on how they would het the items they needed, then Justin asked, “Alright I know we can get the pass code and security card, but how the hell we going to get a handprint? I mean it’s not like we can got up to Drax and ask him if can borrow his hand.”
“Don’t worry Justin,” Tygla assured him, “We’ll get that handprint one way or another.”
“How?”
“You know Justin. You don’t have a lot of faith in things,” Tygla said.
Mike raced to meet his friends and added, “Tell me about it.”
Tylga continued her thought, “CRAIG said that the captain handprint is also acceptable. We’ll just have to find him and drag him to that room.”
CRAIG then said, “That would prove fatal your highness. Captain Tah is constantly on the bridge of the ship. He is also surrounded by the best Xatu guards in the fleet.”
“Well that’s out,” Mike said. “Are you sure there isn’t another way? Maybe can we hack in to their computer and change the access program.”
CRAIG thought about it a bit, “Well that could work, except it would take a hacker about three days to crack into that system.”
“A human hacker would, but not android,” Mike said.
“But it is against my programming to hack in another computer especially that I do not possess a ‘hacking program’ to begin with.”
“Justin, you think can upload one of your hacking programs into CRAIG?” Mike asked his friend.
Justin thought a moment and replied, “Yeah that should not be a problem.”
“Good”
The team met Digan in the hanger as Mike told him their plans. At first, he thought that they were crazy, and then he realized he was talking to the person who escaped the endless dungeons on Turas 3. Mike had Digan join the team as he had had a special mission himself, guarding the Condor while they were in Hades.
Xman had about forty star ships in the huge hanger ready to fight the huge battleship. He could not believe it. He was about to attack and destroy Drax and his stupid ship. He grinned at that thought and switched on his engines. The other pilots scrambled to their ships, climbed in their cockpits and engaged their engines. The crescent shaped fighters flew out of the hanger one by one. Once they were in space, they got into position ready for the ultimate battle for freedom.
The door opened and Drax entered the bridge. He stood over with Capitan Tah and Commander Hiss, waiting for the Colonials to attack. He could not wait to use their new power to destroy the Felinis Colonials.
“Sir, we have something big on our scopes coming in at 50.80.5,” the officer reported.
Captain Tah turned towards the window as he saw thousand of ships appearing out of nowhere. Drax sat down on his command chair as he observed the battle. Once he saw the ships, he knew what the outcome was. Those Colonials will now face their doom, he though as a grim smile drawn on his face.
“Raise shields, and go to red alert,” Drax ordered, “Hiss, get the pilots to their ships.”
Hiss said nothing and nodded nervously, as soon as he left the bridge, Captain Tah announced, “You heard him. Battle stations everyone!”
Xman eyed Hades and ordered his squadron to open fire. Soon every ship took evasive action as each hit pounded the ship’s hull. Xman then growled, as they did not make a dent.
“Their shield must be up,” he said, “All units regroup.”
However, it was too late as Xatu ships emerged from the battleship. They then started to attack the Tiger Claws. Laser blasts emerged all about, as it was some laser light show, but the Colonials were not enjoying it. Their ships scrambled all around as Xman hit a few ships, one on the wing, and two dead on. He looked ahead and smiled a bit, as he saw the Golden Condor make its way near Hades. He knew that their plan was working and he hope he knew what Mike was doing.
“Ok boys and girls. Let’s give these alien scums the run for their money!”
Meanwhile, the Golden Condor gracefully flew over towards the Garbage Disposal Unit trying to doge laser fire. Justin in the gunner chair aimed towards the door and fired, but that did not work as the red-like beam stopped short.
“Mike!” Justin called, “We got a problem!”
“Their shield must be up.” Craig informed him.
Mike cursed to himself and then was worried, but he conjured up something in his head. A high frequency sound could jam the force shield. He tried this once trying to escape an old abandon fortress on the planet Juno a while back. They were there to find some important documents, but it was nothing more than a trap sprung by the Empire. The Xatu had trapped them there by a force shield. The Xatu just left them there for a day or two until Justin was playing his digital Walkman music player. Mike then had a thought. The Xatu force shields are controlled by impulse waves and the only flaw to it was high frequency sound. He grabbed his friend’s music player, turned it high and moved over to the shield. He was right, the shield weakened a bit, but it was not enough. Soon after he and Justin, had a plan. They got some speakers and hooked the Walkman to it. Mike then turned up the volume and boom the shield was gone.
“I got it,” said Mike as he was fooling around on his controls, “We just have to find the right frequency.”
Suddenly Mike hit the wrong b
utton accidentally and an electric guitar solo from their favorite band started playing. Justin and Digan, looked at Mike even Tygla. She have heard of Earth music before and wondered if this was the kind of music Mike listens to.
“What the hell is that?” Digan asked curiously.
“Oh, nothing just part of a cool live song,” Justin replied from the other room.
CRAIG was just about to change it, but Mike stopped him and said, “No wait, Turn it up.”
“What?” Tygla wondered.
Mike replied, “The high pitch of the guitar solo might jam the shield’s frequency.”
Mike turned on the outside speakers as the music blared. Even though the sound was null in space, the high vibrant wave, might be enough to do break the shielding. Justin smiled knowing what Mike was doing as he remembered the same thought.
Inside, the crew of the Hades began to feel some type of vibration. On the bridge Drax felt the vibration and wonder what kind of tactic this was.
“Where is that vibration coming from?” Captain Tah asked.
The officer replied, “I don't know sir, but it's lowering the shield frequency around the garbage chute.”
The garbage chute, Drax though, no it couldn’t be. Tah knew it must have been the same crew who tried to pass them earlier. He informed Drax of it. It must be Tippin and his friends, Drax thought. He stood and ordered Hiss and his men to follow as Drax exited the bridge. He told Hiss to get some soldiers and surround that section. They will take them by surprise he thought. Drax took some men of his own and returned to his quarters.
“The shield is weakening,” CRAIG told him, “But it is not enough to break it.”
Mike then continued to raise the volume to the max. Digan, Tygla and Justin covered their ears as the pitch irritated their hearing. Soon after, CRAIG reported that the shield was gone. Mike’s friends were so pleased that his plan worked. Justin fired once more and the chute’s door blew open. He turned off the loud music and entered a long shaft that was connected to a main refuse storage room.
Meanwhile, the battle raged on as more enemy fighters flew out of their hangers. Sommanar looked from the bridge and knew that they were not going to win. He wondered if this plan was a good idea from the start. One of his crewmembers looked at his sensors and told them that it detected that the force shield around Hades was gone and hope reemerged.
“This is Thunder Claw to Lion King,” Xman said, “Their shield is down, but they sent out more of their fleet. More than we can handle father. We can't hold them off for long.”
“But we must,” Rymu replied, “Michael is counting on it. Focus all firepower back on the ship. It is our only hope.”
“Yes father,” Xman replied, “Attention all ships, redirect your fire back on Hades at full power.”
The vacuum of the haul was sucking the air out faster than biggest black hole as the Condor barely got in and a safety shield resealed the opening. As soon as everybody got out, Mike checked the door, locked he thought. Digan ordered them to take cover as he fired the proton beam on it. The door exploded and once the smoke cleared, they saw about ten dead Xatu guards lying on the floor.
“Well what do ya know,” Justin commented as he smiled.
Once they got in the inner halls Mike said, “Ok, Tygla, CRAIG, you go find the room where the self-destruction system is while Justin and I try to disable their plasma drill. We’ll all meet back here got it?”
They all nodded as Tygla gave him a kiss, “Good luck and be careful hon.”
Mike smiled and replied, “You too.”
CRAIG asked, “Now Michael, in order to get there, you must take that passage.” CRAIG pointed to the extending hallway on the left of them, “About fifty yards. Then there should be a door on the left in Xatu marked ‘Drill Room’. Be careful that area should be heavily monitored.”
“No problem, thanks,” Mike replied looking at him.
The team then split up as Tygla and CRAIG entered an elevator lift that was down the hall. Mike and Justin made the turn down a long hallway. Several guards spotted them and took them by surprise.
“Jeez, CRAIG wasn’t kidding,” commented Justin as they took covered and fired at them.
Mike fired his gun at them and knew that this was wasting their time. He opened his waist pack and took out what it looked like a miniature flying saucer about the size of his palm, but Mike knew that it was his wall bombs. They used them for excavations in caves. He armed it, threw it down the hall like a Frisbee, and took cover. The bomb exploded and the sound of their blasters had stopped.
“How many wall bombs you got left?” Justin asked.
Mike replied as they continued, “About four.”
“Good, cause we might need them for that plasma drill.”
Lucky the elevator did not make any stops. If it did, they would be in big trouble. The lift slowed a bit as Tygla got her gun ready. She was a bit nervous when the door open, but luckily the hallway was empty.
Once Tygla and the android got out of the elevator, CRAIG said, “This way your highness.”
“Are you sure you know where this room is?” She said glancing about for Xatus.
“I do, all of the ship’s statistics are in my data banks.”
When they entered another hall, three patrolling Xatu guards spotted them from behind. Tygla instantly saw them and started to fire upon them. She and CRAIG ran for their lives as the guards took cover then chased after them. Tygla kept shooting as she killed one of the guards. The other three kept firing back, but they missed due to Tygla agility. Tygla shot twice and killed another Xatu Guard. The battle was swift but they had to lose their chasers. As they passed an archway, CRAIG accessed the safety shield and told Tygla to hurry. The princess ran through at laser bolt missed her by inches. They were safe as the computer automatically activated the shield. Tygla then destroyed the control panel so they the guards could not follow them.
They made their way into to the highly secured area. Unfortunately, four heavily armed guards stood in front of the door just as CRAIG had said. Tygla and CRAIG kept out of sight wondering how to deal with them.
“How are we going to get past them?” The android inquired.
Tygla replied, “The old fashion way.”
She then opened fire on one of them, instantly killing the guard. The others looked, and fired back. One of them pressed the alarm button and pinned Tygla and CRAIG down. CRAIG did not carry any firearms as it was against his programming to kill any living organism, and Tygla did not like that. Once Tygla managed to kill the rest of the guards, she entered the small Self-destruction Security Room. She thanked herself for practicing her sharp shooting with a video game her bother got her for her seventeenth birthday. She first quickly disabled the alarm and looked around. They saw a panel on the far wall as CRAIG opened it with a touch of a button the keypad. When it slid opened, he saw a screen appeared.
“PLACE HAND ON THE SCREEN FOR IDENTIFICATION,” the computer informed.
CRAIG stuck his input finger into a slot near the terminal and started to access the hacking program that Justin upload into his system. What took only three days, took a few minutes as Tygla paced waiting for her android friend.
“Can you hurry up,” she said, “Who knows how many more guards will come.”
“Patients Princess Tygla,” the android told her.
“COMPUTER ACCESS ACCEPTED, PLEASE ENTER A LOCK OUT TIMER,” the computer finally announced.
CRAIG thought about this and replied,
“Ten minutes, start now.”
“SELF DESTRUCTION OF BATTLESTAR SHIP HADES ALREADY IN PROGRESS,” it replied.
Tylga then said, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Tygla turned and gasped to see Drax, Hiss and four other soldiers blocked their way. She wondered how he would know where they were. Then she remembered the brief alarm that went off. It was amazing that
they responded swiftly.
“Going somewhere my dear?” Drax asked, “Hiss, stop the detonation sequence.”
“Yesss my lord,” Hiss replied as when got the panel.
CRAIG Then said, “But you can’t, it is irreversible.”
“Is it now?” Drax said, “Then it is a good thing I added a failsafe device since your last upload.” The computer stopped its countdown as Drax looked to Tygla as she frowned. She knew that it was all over for them, “Nice try my dear.” He looked to one of the guards, “Take her to my office. Make her comfortable as possible. Like her brother. As for the android, terminate him.”
“No!” Tygla shouted as the other guards shot CRAIG in the abdomen.
She frowned in sadness as her friend slumped to the ground. The guards handcuffed Tygla and left the room leaving CRAIG there. He twitched as he was still functioning. He had to contact Mike through his wireless audio network even though the blast damaged his voice transmitter; he had to try.
On the bridge of the Hades, Tah saw the Rebirth coming closer. He ordered to activate and arm the giant plasma drill. Soon Xman took notice that the front of the ship started to open as a large alien like gun barrel seeped out. The barrel of the drill glowed yellow, as the ship slowly got into position.
“Oh no, father,” Xman mumbled to himself worriedly.
He then heard Sommanar’s voice, “All Claws, concentrate all your fire on that plasma drill.”
The Thunder Claw did an amazing U-turn and rolled as the ship trusted towards the laser drill avoiding Xatu ships along the way. Xman fired his lasers upon it, but it was no use Xman and his crew could not even dent it with their proton missiles. That only meant that the shield around it was still up. Xman wished that Mike would hurry up.
They finally got to the door but three Xatu soldiers heavily guarded it. The soldiers saw them and started to fire. Mike and Justin shot two of them as the third shot Justin in the leg. Mike hated that and fired his blaster at the Xatu’s head.
“You ok buddy?” Mike said as he went over.
Justin cringed, holding his burnt shin as he replied, “I’m fine. It’s just a scratch. Just get to that drill room!”
Mike nodded, as Justin was right, it was up to him. He darted to the lock door and frowned, but he knew that he had the right key. He took out a wall bomb, stuck it on the door, and armed it.
“Fire in the hole!” Mike shouted to his friend.
The door exploded and Mike entered the control room. The Xatu computer workers were either injured or dead. Inside he saw a large controller panel and a window that peered in the working room where the huge drill was, but it was too late they had the gun locked and loaded. Mike had to act quickly. He fired at the pane as it shattered in a million pieces. He then took out the rest of the wall bombs, armed them, and threw the bombs at the drill itself before the safety shield activated. He ran out of the room to meet Justin when a huge blast ruptured the hallway. The yellow glow dimmed as Xman heard a cry of relief from the other pilots. Mike helped his friend up as they hobbled back down the hallway.
“M-m-m-icael,” A voice called as Michael instantly recognized it.
It was coming from Mike’s MicroCom. He took out a slim small cell phone-like device and replied, “Mike here, something wrong CRAIG?”
CRAIG tried to talk, but all Mike got out was Drax taking Tygla. Mike frowned not liking this. That means that Drax stopped the detonation sequence and has Tygla in his grasp. He had to find her now.
He looked to his friend and said, “Can you walk on your own?”
“Yeah, no problem,” he replied as he limped wincing to the pain.
He helped Justin once more as they walked down the long passage back to the ship together. They heard constant laser blasts coming from the Condor and knew that Digan was in trouble. They got to the corridor and saw that they were right. Ten Xatu soldiers barricade the area. They frowned not knowing what to do Justin smiled as he had one wall bomb. He armed and threw it down the hall towards the barricade. Moments later the barricade was clear from the violent blast.
“Get to the ship and get out of here,” Mike said. “I’m going to find Tygla. And blow this thing up.”
“What? No Mike,” Justin argued, “I’m coming with you.”
“Justin you don’t have a choice, soon they’ll have this entire area covered with more Xatu guards,” Mike pointed out.
Justin asked, “Then how are you going get off?”
“I’ll think of something,” Mike replied.
Justin worriedly said, “Mike.”
“I’ll be ok, just get out of here.”
Justin smiled and hugged him, “Good luck bro.”
“Yeah thanks,” Mike replied hugging back.