Deadly Mission

by Max Chase

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Star Fighters

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Copyright

  To Dad and Tanya

  Special thanks to Benjamin Scott

  Only the best cadets become

  STAR FIGHTERS

  Don’t miss a single mission!

  #1 Alien Attack

  #2 Deadly Mission

  Coming soon:

  #3 The Enemy’s Lair

  #4 Crash Landing

  It’s the year 5012 and the Milky Way galaxy is under attack …

  After the Universal War—a war that almost brought about the destruction of every known universe—the planets in the Milky Way banded together to create the Intergalactic Force, an elite fighting team sworn to protect and defend the galaxy.

  Only the brightest and most promising eleven-year-olds are accepted into the Intergalactic Force Academy, and only the very best cadets reach the highest of their ranks and become …

  To be a Star Fighter is to dedicate your life to one mission: Peace in Space. Star Fighters are given the coolest weapons, the fastest spaceships—and the most dangerous missions. Everyone at the Intergalactic Force Academy wants to be a Star Fighter someday.

  Do you have what it takes?

  Chapter 1

  “You are astro-bug stupid!” Diesel yelled. His yellow eyes flashed, and the band of hair that stretched across his head flamed crimson. “There’s no way DeathRays can work inside a nebular cloud.”

  “Take me to a nebular!” Otto’s voice boomed through the two lumps on either side of his neck. “And I’ll show you!” The Meigwor bounty hunter’s voice was unnaturally loud, as if he was always shouting.

  Peri tried to ignore their argument, which had started the moment they left the Meigwor battleship. He focused on the image filling the Phoenix’s 360-monitor. According to the ship’s computer, their destination, the high-tech mining planet of Xion, was less than one million miles away.

  “Phoenix, magnify image,” he said.

  The giant, pulsing orange-and-blue orb expanded to fill the screen. Xion was surrounded by a gigantic space highway. Over twelve hundred lanes of silver-and-purple astrophalt twisted and slithered around the planet like a tangle of space-snakes.

  Peri flexed his fingers. The Phoenix’s floating control panel slid closer, as if it knew what he wanted. It felt like he’d been flying the ship all his life. Yesterday he had been just an average first-year Intergalactic Force Academy cadet, lucky to be selected for even a simple training mission. Now he was on a mission to rescue a kidnapped prince. But the biggest shock was that he had found out he was part bionic, modified by his parents to operate the Phoenix.

  He activated his most recent discovery, the Space Spotter’s Guide. Instantly, over a dozen arrows appeared on the 360-monitor, pointing to different dangers. Peri scrolled past the micro-mines, then hovered over the space-pods guarding the entrance to the space highway and clicked. An InfoBox popped up on his screen:

  Xion toll takers, third class

  DESCRIPTION: Flying tollbooths, guarding entrance to Xion space highway.

  HAZARDS: X-cite lasers, ship-deep scanners, cloaking detectors.

  WARNING: “Strictly no Meigwors.”

  “They’re going to love Otto as much as we do,” Peri muttered. “We need a way around all that security.”

  Peri tapped the monitor and zoomed out. The entire space-highway system was surrounded by a giant dark-blue bubble. The Space Spotter’s Guide flashed another warning:

  Cos-Moats

  DESCRIPTION: Thicker than rock-eating slime. More corrosive than sun-worm snot. Standard shield useless.

  HAZARDS: Acidic ooze.

  RECOMMENDATION: Avoid.

  Now what? Peri asked himself, wishing Selene was with them. She had been sneaking on to the Phoenix for years and had stowed away when Peri and Diesel were launched into space. She would have known how to activate the Phoenix’s antimoat shields. But she was stuck on Meigwor as insurance that Peri and Diesel would complete their “mission.”

  “Don’t touch me!” Otto screeched.

  Thud! Peri spun around to see Diesel sprawled on the floor. The half-Martian bounced back up. His yellow eyes flashed as he assumed the cosmic-combat position. But even with his hair standing on end, Diesel barely reached the ammo belts crisscrossing Otto’s chest.

  “Wastoid,” Diesel shouted. “I’m the best cadet gunner in the history of the Intergalactic Force. I can reassemble a blaster in ten galactic seconds.”

  The two lumps protruding from Otto’s freakishly long neck throbbed with anger as he yelled, “I can reassemble it with one hand, and squash you with the other!”

  Peri sighed. They didn’t have time for this. He turned the ship’s internal com-unit volume to maximum and blasted through the speakers, “Stick an asteroid in it, both of you!”

  Diesel and Otto turned to face Peri. Their arguing stopped.

  “Why didn’t you tell me we’d reached Xion?!” demanded Otto, using his massive body to force Peri from the control panel.

  “Because you were too busy fighting,” Peri said, pushing back.

  “To the planet surface, now!” Otto ordered.

  Diesel elbowed between Otto and Peri. “Who died and made you supreme commander? I’m the oldest cadet on this ship and ranked top in my class on leadership qualities and I—”

  Otto interrupted, “Don’t you want revenge on the Xions for attacking your galaxy?! I know what I’m doing.”

  Peri snapped his fingers and the control panel flew across to him. “How do we cross the Cos-Moat?” Peri yelled to be heard over Otto and Diesel.

  “Just blast your way through it!” Otto said. “Do I have to tell you everything?!”

  “What if,” Diesel paused, running a hand through his now purple hair, “we use the Phoenix’s pulsar-cannon belt?”

  “No, you cosmic dope!” Otto snapped. “Pulsar-cannons are totally unstable weapons! You’ll blow us up too! Don’t you have any nuclear devices?! They’re much safer!”

  Peri raised his hands to silence them. “Isn’t this an undercover mission? Don’t we need the element of surprise to rescue the prince? Maybe we should find the thinnest section of moat—then our shields will stand a chance of surviving the acidic ooze.”

  Otto stared at Peri without blinking his beady eyes. “That’s what I said! Blast us through the thinnest section of moat! That’s an order!”

  Peri clenched his fist—the sooner this mission was over the better. He activated a photonic sweep of the moat and set a course for the thinnest stretch of sludge. As the ship neared, the dark-blue liquid sparkled as if it was reflecting sunlight. But it shouldn’t have. It was on the dark side of the planet. “The Cos-Moat is electrified!” Peri exclaimed. “We’ll be fried.”

  “If the space-sharks don’t get us first,” Diesel added.

  “You don’t really believe in space-sharks, do you?!” The Meigwor’s lipless mouth twitched into what could have been a smile. “I forget. Inferior species still believe in these myths.”

  Duurrr-iiiing! An alarm sounded and a com-screen whirled up from the middle of the control panel. Selene’s face flickered as the monitor came to life.

  “Hello, Peri and Diesel,” Selene said. “I am being treated well … by our Meigwor friends …” Selene sounded like a robot.

  It’s like she’s reading from a script, Peri thought.

  “Selene, are you okay?” Diesel aske
d.

  Before she could reply, the crimson face of the Meigwor general Rouwgim pushed her aside. “Otto, give mission report now,” he demanded.

  Otto smacked his hands together over his head in salute. “We have reached Xion, General! I was just briefing the Milky Way monkeys about my cunning plan to rescue the prince …”

  The screen went dead, whirring back into the control panel.

  “You!” Otto boomed, pointing a finger at Peri. “You cut the general off on purpose!”

  “It wasn’t me,” Peri replied, checking the controls. “The Xions are jamming all signals around the planet.”

  “Cloak the ship before they notice us!” Otto ordered. “Full speed through the Cos-Moat!”

  “It’s not that easy, Otto,” Peri said as he steered the Phoenix closer. “If we’re to stand a chance, we need to find the Cos-Moat’s thinnest and most vulnerable spot.”

  To the right of them, a small blade-class ship was racing toward the rippling blue moat. His chest filled with hope; it was the type of ship preferred by smugglers. And if they knew a way into Xion, then Peri could follow them. He steered the Phoenix into the smugglers’ slipstream, tucking in as close as he dared. Jets of sticky sludge arched from the moat like monstrous tentacles and latched on to the smugglers’ ship. In the blink of an eye, the small ship was gone, sucked down into the gooey Cos-Moat.

  Buuuurrrrppppp! A giant bubble erupted from the moat and popped, spraying the outside of the Phoenix. The goo hissed and smoked as it ate through the ship’s outer shell.

  A frenzy of warning lights lit up the control panel.

  “The moat’s shorted the cloaking device,” Peri shouted.

  “Get out of here!” boomed Otto, his scarlet skin paling to pink. “Th-th-that moat just ate a ship.”

  Peri lunged for the controls. He tried to pull the levers to maximum thrust, but it was as though they were covered in caramel. He hit the emergency boosters. The Phoenix still struggled to pull away. The moat was tugging harder, dragging the ship back.

  “Peri …” Otto’s voice was nervous.

  “Not now, Otto!” Peri cried, still struggling with the levers.

  Eee-ra, eee-ra! Sirens erupted around the bridge.

  “Peri!”

  Something in Otto’s voice made Peri tear his eyes away from the controls. The alien bounty hunter was pointing at the only part of the monitor that was not covered in goop.

  Fear filled Peri’s chest like liquid fire.

  “Space-sharks!”

  Chapter 2

  Eight huge space-sharks surged toward the spaceship. They had giant red heads and beady black eyes. Instead of tails, pulsing masses of tentacles powered them, flicking Cos-Moat slime as they moved. The sharks opened their hideous mouths, showing rows of jagged purple teeth. Bits of the smugglers’ ship were caught between them.

  Thuuuddd. Sccrrraatcch. The sharks’ teeth gnashed at the Phoenix’s hull.

  “I told you they were real!” Diesel shouted as Otto hid behind his chair.

  Crrraaack! Huge cracks were appearing across the 360-monitor. The Phoenix’s shell had been damaged. Peri’s Expedition Wear flamed red, as a cold sweat made him shiver.

  If the monitor shatters, thought Peri, we’re shark bait!

  “What’s that smell?” Diesel cried.

  Peri sniffed, looking around. “Oh no …” The Cos-Moat had pulled the Phoenix to its electrified surface, and its blue goo was oozing through the cracks onto the bridge. It stank worse than uranium-toe jam and cosmic-liver ice cream combined. As the goo mixed with the ship’s atmosphere, it erupted into sparks as bright as stars.

  “We need shields,” Peri shouted, but before he could reach the control panel a hood sprang from his collar and encased his head in a transparent armored bubble.Click. It sealed him from the air in the ship. Whoorrrl. The protective helmet’s filtration system started.

  Peri and Diesel were both sealed in their Expedition Wear, but Otto had dropped to his knees and was gasping for air. Despite the countless blaster holsters, grenades, and survival packs strapped to his body, he had nothing to protect him against the smoke and gas filling the bridge. The Meigwor’s eyes bulged out of the black patches on his crimson face.

  “Hang on,” Peri shouted over another twaaack-craaack. A space-shark was trying to gnaw its way through the 360-monitor. Every gnash of its teeth was showering the bridge with white-hot sparks. Peri’s hands danced across the control panel. “Now the shields aren’t working.”

  “We’ve got to blast the sharks, or we’ll get sucked into the moat,” Diesel yelled.

  “We’ve got to use the Phoenix’s pulsar-cannon belt.”

  “Isn’t it dangerous?” Peri asked.

  “You know what they say,” Diesel said, a twinkle in his yellow eyes. “‘You can’t hunt Venusian crabs without losing a toe.’”

  Thwack. Two space-sharks hammered against the craft. Peri knew they had to do something.

  “Go for it,” he yelled.

  As Diesel pulled a lever on the gunnery station, massive spikelike cannons shot out from the side of the ship. The sharks peeled away from the hull, but not far enough.

  Peri realized the sharks had to be farther away for the cannons to target them. He had to scare them off. Diesel was halfway around the bridge when Peri slid into the captain’s chair. The floating astro-harness snaked around him.

  “I hope this works,” he muttered.

  Peri shouted, “Hold on. It’s time to play spaceball!”

  He nudged the ship into the middle of the swarm of space-sharks, then jammed the Nav-wheel hard, spinning the Phoenix in a tight circle. He slammed on the steering thrusters, blasting more power into his maneuver. The ship twisted violently like a vortex, throwing everything that was not tied down into the air. Peri had to fight against the G-forces. His astro-harness tightened, crushing him against the chair.

  Thud. “Oooof!” Otto crashed into Peri’s chair, tossed by the spinning ship.

  Smaaack! The metal cannons punched the sharks in their ugly, slimy mouths. Peri nudged forward again. Smaaack! The sharks swam farther away.

  “Yes!” Peri cried.

  An angry Diesel sailed by.

  “Mars’rakk!” the gunner shouted.

  “Sorry!” Peri jammed on the brakes, wrestling the Phoenix to a standstill.

  Diesel lunged for the gunner’s chair. Cracking his knuckles, he yelled, “Eight shark soups, Martian-style, coming up!”

  He twisted a zip-dial. Bolts of fiery green electricity burst from the ship straight for the sharks.

  Kaa-blam!

  The sharks exploded, their entrails spewing across the ship’s hull. The 360-monitor was splattered with dark-blue goo, shark flesh, and bloody lumps.

  “Space-shell repair activated,” said the measured voice of the Phoenix.

  The monitor fizzed as a megawatt charge surged through the outside of the vessel. The dark goop evaporated to reveal that all the cracks had fused together and the ship was back to normal.

  “All systems zip-zapped and moon-shaped.” Peri grinned as the hood on his jacket retracted. The air was breathable again. “One pest-free Cos-Moat ready to cross.”

  Otto staggered to his feet. He looked a little battered but was still breathing. He pointed a shaky finger over Peri’s shoulder.

  Peri turned and instantly wished that the 360-monitor wasn’t crystal clear again. He would rather not have seen what he was seeing: enormous tentacles swishing back and forth; a gigantic mouth with teeth the size of the smugglers’ ship.

  Diesel rubbed his eyes as if that could make it go away. “Is that … ?”

  The enormous mother of all space-sharks was heading right for them.

  Chapter 3

  “That thing could eat the Phoenix whole!” Diesel cried, as he fired all the pulsar-cannons into the space-shark’s open mouth. The creature swallowed the shells like Martian mints. “Klûu’aah,” Diesel gasped in disbelief as the shark’s sides bulged wh
en the shells exploded inside it.

  Phuuurrrp! A cloud of smoke appeared behind the shark.

  “This space-shark farts our best weapon,” Diesel muttered. “How do we kill this thing?”

  “Blast it again!” Otto wailed, beating his chair.

  The shark whipped its tentacles, driving it onto the Phoenix; then it swam away, revving up for another attack. Peri knew shooting it wouldn’t help. They had to outsmart it.

  “I’ve got a better idea.” Peri gripped the Nav-wheel and fired all thrusters. The Phoenix roared forward on a collision course with the shark.

  “Are you crazy?!” Otto shouted, trying to wrestle Peri from the captain’s chair. “This isn’t a suicide mission.”

  “Back off, dumboid,” Diesel said, pulling Otto off Peri. “Peri may be crazy, but he’s not stupid.”

  Peri held the ship steady. They whipped past the shark’s open mouth and collided with its tentacles. It was perfect timing. The impact catapulted the Phoenix at the Cos-Moat. Peri flicked on the shields as the ship smacked into the dark-blue sludge. The thrusters died in seconds, but it didn’t matter. The force of the shark’s tentacles propelled the Phoenix out through the other side fast enough to avoid any damage from the acidic ooze.

  Peri punched the air.

  Diesel grinned at Otto. “See? Crazy and brilliant.”

  A sudden burst of bright light blinded Peri. “What the … ?” he said as he shielded his eyes. Peri tried squinting at the source of the light, but only when the Phoenix tinted the 360-monitor could he see outside. Two Xion fighter jets had shooting-star-sized searchlights trained on the bridge of their spaceship.

  “Attention. Receiving message from alien ships,” stated the calm voice of the Phoenix.

  “Zark, Sakar, Zarak,” came over the com-unit. The alien spoke in a short, clipped language with a strange nasal growl, as if it had a cold.

  Peri pressed the bulge under his chin to adjust his SpeakEasy computer chip. All cadets and Star Fighters had the device implanted so they could understand any alien they encountered. His skull crackled with static until he found the right wavelength.