by M. Shaunessy
“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, “Justin, 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 w
ith 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 button 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 th
is 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.