“What?” Chief Lexton asked as she stopped running, and looked at him. “Jack, you don’t need to do that. We are all getting off this island, together.”
“Chief Lexton, the fighters are not going to last against the Ribiyar forever, and not all of the aliens are being held back by the attack.” With his enhanced hearing, Jack could hear the Ribiyar charging through vegetation as they raced after the officers, growing closer at every moment. “You’re going to need a diversion if you all are going to get to the landing site, and you know that as well as I do. I may be the only one who has sufficient fire power to draw them away. When I have finished them off, I’ll try to make my way to their ship, but you need to go. Now!”
Seeing that she couldn’t convince Jack to change his mind, Chief Lexton started to continue her run, but turned back to look at him one last time. “Thank you, Jack. I won’t forget what you did for us. None of us will.” Chief Lexton took off running, hurrying to catch up with the group, who had just reached the foot of the hill. As Jack turned around to face the approaching Ribiyar, Jack instructed the Recon Drones in the fighters to program the fighters to take them to Olo’s ship after the crew gave them the coordinates of its location, insuring they would make it if he didn’t survive long enough to guide the ship’s there. Activating all his weapon systems, along with the new Recon, functioning as a Laser Cannon as it hung from his arm, keeping only his damaged V-gun undeployed, he aimed into the tall grass, and fired relentlessly as the Ribiyar began to emerge from the thick vegetation of the island. Regardless of how many Ribiyar approached, Jack could not allow them to overwhelm him and kill the rest of the officers. No matter the cost.
Chapter 17
Date: July 9, 2132.
Location: Unnamed island in the Atlantic Ocean.
As Jack shot down more and more Ribiyar, more continued to emerge from through the weeds, trying to take him down and avenge their fallen brethren. His already-battered armor shielded him the best it could, but more and more of his structure was torn off by the force of the alien’s firepower. To slow their advance, Jack used his Laser Cannon and sliced through the trunks of several palm trees nearby. The trees fell in the path of the aliens, momentarily blocking them from advancing further. The Ribiyar began to move around the pile of trees, but as Jack shot them down, several more Ribiyar climbed the pile and took aim at Jack. Before he could take them out, the Ribiyar were sliced in half as a barrage of energy blades cut through them. Jack glanced behind him to see the Dark Serpent standing at the top of one of the trees, wildly swinging the Phantom Blade at the Ribiyar, slicing through more of the robotic aliens with deadly accuracy.
“You didn’t think I’d let you have all the fun, did you?” Victor asked as he continued his attack. “How could I pass up a chance like this to rack up my kill count?” While the Dark Serpent fought off the warriors that continued to emerge from the tall grass, Jack attacked the increasing amount of Ribiyar that were appearing from the cluster of trees surrounding him. Though they struck down as many as they could, a large amount of Ribiyar arrived, and they found themselves utterly and hopelessly surrounded.
“Surrender, organics!” One of the Ribiyar officers shouted, “Or you will be purged!” Jack was about to declare he would never surrender, and prepare for the final moments of this battle, when Victor jumped down from the tree, landing besides Jack. Victor deactivated the Phantom Blade, attached the handle to his belt, and began slowly and casually walking towards the Ribiyar who had ordered them to surrender.
“What are you doing?” Jack whispered hastily to Victor.
“Trust me”, Victor whispered back. The two words no one ever wanted to hear from a mercenary, especially one that only minutes ago tried relentlessly to kill you. Victor stopped walking when he was a few feet away from the lead officer of the alien warriors.
“Gentlemen, or whatever you are, as you may or may not know, I am a mercenary. If you don’t have a translation for that word in your robot-alien-whatever language, it means that I fight for money, and whatever else that strikes my liking. In normal circumstances, this is where I would allow you to pay me off, and let you finish off this nuisance,” He said, pointing at Jack. “But, these are far from normal circumstances, and if there is anything I hate more nuisances, its alien nuisances. Especially those who have the warp-brained notion that they can just pop out of nowhere and take this crummy planet without consulting my assistance. So, in response to your ‘request’, I have three words for you. Welcome to Earth!!!” Victor grabbed his Phantom Blade, activated it, and pressed a button on its handle below the activation button. The blade sparked to life, but it quickly grew to five times its normal length, measuring over sixty feet, in mere moments. Anticipating what the Serpent was about to do, Jack quickly readied his flight systems thruster for the coming attack.
“RRRAAAA!!!!” Victor swung around in a circle, and the Phantom Blade followed him as it cut through the aliens. As the blade came toward him, Jack rocketed up in the air right before he was shredded to pieces. The Ribiyar all collectively collapsed to the ground, cut in half by the Phantom Blade. Several trees surrounding the group also fell to the ground after being caught in the far reach of the Blade’s wrath. Victor deactivated the Phantom Blade, and turned toward Jack, who had landed back on the ground.
“I told you that you could trust me. Come on, tin man. We need to getting moving before more of those aliens arrive,” Victor said as he took off in the direction of the landing site. Reluctantly, Jack ran after Victor and grabbed ahold of him, fighting the strong urge to leave him to the Ribiyar, and used his jetpack to fly toward the landing site up on the hill.
“Keep moving! We’re almost to the top!” Olo announced as he continued to lead the group to the landing site. Muffled sounds of energy-weapon fire echoed across the island as they continued to climb the dirt-bare hill to reach the fighters that had landed on the top of it. Chief Lexton was doing her best to keep the group moving, but it was difficult with her heavy conscious weighing her down, consumed with the death of her crewmates, many of whom she had been friends with, and that Jack had also decided to put his life in jeopardy in order to buy everyone else time to get to the landing point. Behind her, Lexton heard several trees collapse suddenly and loudly. She quickly noticed that a less than a minute later she could no longer hear any gun shots firing, meaning that either Jack had successfully held back and defeated the Ribiyar, though admittedly unlikely even with his impressive battle equipment, or the Ribiyar had managed to finish him off. If the Ribiyar had been able to defeat Jack, then the officers had preciously little time before the ruthless aliens caught up to them and eradicated them.
Just when the group reached the top of the hill, Olo suddenly stopped. “Wait a minute.” Olo then looked around the area, feverishly looking for something. “Where is Victor!?” Though it took a moment, Chief Lexton quickly realized the danger they may be in. Victor could have turned back and given up their location to the Ribiyar, most likely in an attempt for them to spare him from death. Not that she expected them to keep whatever promise they made, unless it was for a brutal torture and eventual execution.
Chief Lexton was about to try to get the group moving again, when Doctor McGriffen yelled, “Incoming fighters at seven o’clock! Take cover!” A little over a dozen oval-shaped fighters shot out of the water near the shore of the island and flew toward them at Mach speed, blasting at the group with their energy cannons. As Chief Lexton hunched close to the ground for cover, she saw Olo and the other members from his search party, apparently more willing to fight off the oncoming attackers, grabbed their laser rifles and fire at the fighters. Four of the fighters were heavily damaged by the attack, and they all plummeted to the ground across the island in fiery explosions. The other fighters continued firing their energy cannons, killing seven of the few remaining officers from the Atlanta’s and Ocean-Walker’s groups, leaving five officers, including Lexton, Oakland
, and McGriffen, alive, not counting the three officers in their fighters on the hill. The alien fighters flew past them, and then flew upwards in a half-loop, quickly turning back toward them.
“Get your weapons ready! We may not survive another attack!” Olo yelled as he aimed his gun at the group of attackers. Lexton heard an engine of some kind activate somewhere on the island, and she glanced toward where the sound had come from as she aimed her energy gun, expecting to see more fighters heading toward them. But instead, she saw Jack emerge from the tops of the palm trees, holding Victor in his arms and flying toward the hill. Chief Lexton turned her attention back to the fighters and saw them adjusting their course away from the hill, apparently more interested in attacking Jack and Victor then finishing off the near-defenseless officers. Jack deactivated his flight systems and quickly descended to the ground as energy blasts soared past through where he had been moments before. Lexton forced herself to focus on getting to the fighters and escaping this island. As much as she hated it, there was nothing she could do to help Jack, not without risking the safety of the others.
As they fell to the ground, Jack hurriedly attempted to formulate some sort of plan or strategy that could help them survive the attack. There was no question that he had to divert the fighters from the group to give them more time to get aboard the fighters and fly to safety, but what he wasn’t certain about was how much time he could provide them. He was already heavily damaged from his fight with Victor and the Ribiyar from the ground, so he was in no way in prime condition to take out the fighters. Holding tightly to Victor, he reactivated his flight systems right before they hit the ground and flew away as more energy blasts were fired from the fighters.
Jack quickly connected to the communications system in Victor’s armor, allowing him to talk to the Serpent clearly “Victor, I need you to use your weapons and attach those ships while I dodge their attacks. I can’t fight and fly at the same time, at least while I’m carrying you.”
Victor hesitated, but then sighed in agreement, apparently not wanting to confront Jack while he was trying to save his life, despite their differences. “All right, but just because I’m helping doesn’t mean we’re pals now. Got it?”
“The feeling is more than mutual, Victor. Now, I recommend you begin your attack immediately. They are gaining on us.” Jack struggled to maintain his hold on Victor as he reached for the Phantom Blade on his belt. Jack heard the blade spark to life, and the Serpent swung the sword, and though he couldn’t see if it impacted its target, he heard a fighter crashing into the ground shortly afterwards. Jack tried to accelerate faster as the fighters continued to close the distance between them, but his flight systems was already pushing its limits by carrying Victor and maneuvering at these high-speed velocities. If pushed any harder, they could overload and shut down altogether, which would effectively condemn them to the Ribiyar’s wrath.
“Victor, I cannot maintain this aerial attack much longer. I’m going to need to land. We should head near the landing site so we can form a defensive position around it.”
The Dark Serpent continued his attack with the Phantom Blade as he replied, “Fine, but if you didn’t notice metal head we will be extremely exposed by holding a defensive posture to protect the ships from these aliens. We, or at least you, may not survive the fight.”
“I am aware of that Victor, and I never expected to when I stayed to hold off the Ribiyar. Hold on tight.” Jack grabbed onto a tree with his right arm, holding Victor with his left, and made a sharp U-turn, the intense speeds maintained during the maneuver nearly ripping his arm off in the process. His on-board sensors showed that several muscles had been badly torn during the maneuver, which left his right in a near useless state with his V-gun out of commission, and with his arm at a fourth of its normal strength due to the injury.
Looking up ahead as he flew toward the hill, Jack saw the group had reached the top of the hill, and were beginning to board the fighters the Atlanta’s crew had ridden in. Jack just needed to buy them a little more time, and they would be safe. About a third of the way up the hill, Jack spotted a small ledge that was big enough to hold both him and Victor. Though they would be forced to maintain a near-standstill position due to the lack of maneuvering room, they had to make their stand and take down the Ribiyar fighters, before they managed to take them down first. Just as Victor took down a third fighter, leaving seven still in a functional state, Jack quickly slowed and managed to drop them roughly upon the ledge on the hill.
After Jack let go of Victor, he quickly turned around and fired his Laser Cannon at the fighters, while Victor attached his Phantom Blade to his tail. Victor began swinging it at the fighters, launching a barrage of energy blades as he simultaneously fired his arm blasters at the fighters. Working together, Jack managed to fire his weapons at the fighters and force them into the path of Victor’s endless supply of Phantom Blades as they shot through the sky, hungry for more prey to sink into. Their assault resulted in the destruction of four of the remaining fighters. The other three were able to avoid a majority of the attacks, and looped high up into the air, and quickly begin to maneuver themselves back towards the hill, determined to finish off their adversaries. An idea sprang to life in Jack’s mind, and he quickly turned to Victor, who was waiting for the moment that the fighters reentered firing range to resume his attack.
“Victor, I need to borrow your sword.”
“Think again, Robocop. If you want a sword so bad, you can-”
“Victor, I need the sword, now. I will give it back after we survive this battle. It is your turn to trust me now.” Victor sighed and grabbed the still activated sword off his tail and tossed it to him. Jack caught it with his right hand and activated his jet thruster, deployed his wings, and flew towards the quickly approaching fighters.
Time to end this. Jack held his finger over the activation button on the blade, waiting for the right moment to activate it. The Ribiyar fighters moved close to each other, flying in a close triangle-like formation, they fired their energy cannons at Jack, determined to plow through him as they made their way back to the hill. Jack’s armor was ripped apart even more as the energy blasts tore into him, and he struggled to maintain the systems that powered his flight systems as he rerouted power from other systems to support it. Refusing to be beaten down, Jack managed to maneuver himself right in the middle of the three fighters. Waiting for the right moment to strike, Jack continued to fly in the path of the space between the approaching fighters. The moment the ships reached him and began to fly past him, he felt almost as though time slowed down as he began his attack. As he began swinging around in a circle, he pressed the bottom button on the handle, and the blade quickly grew to sixty feet, right as he passed over the first fighter in his spin. The blade sliced through the armor of the fighters like they were made of tissue paper, and all three of the ships were cut in half and fell to the ground in chunks of scrap metal.
After watching satisfactorily as the remains of the fighters impacted with the ground near the shore of the island and erupt in fiery explosions, Jack began to travel back to the hill to continue to guard the fighters as the officers, now aboard them, were hastily preparing for departure, and to return the Phantom Blade to Victor, who awaited his return on the ledge. But, when he was halfway back to the hill, his thruster suddenly lost power, and Jack quickly started to plummet to the earth below. He attempted to restart his flight equipment, but it failed to respond, and his diagnostic reported that his thruster systems had suffered extensive damage and combined with the overexertion of the system, his thruster were broken beyond what he could fix in the little time he had left.
Jack launched Recon and instructed it to fly under him, attach itself to his chest (to provide a little measure of padding against the crash by landing on top of it), and do its best to slow his descent as much as possible. The drone flew under him and used its four crane-like arms to attach to his chest, and ram
ped up its engines to full thrust, but because of Jack’s descent speed and his size, it had only a minimal effect on his downfall. Jack quickly tossed the Phantom Blade in Victor’s direction, so the device wasn’t damaged if his landing was as rough as he expected, and he braced himself for the imminent impact.
Flying twenty miles an hour, Jack slammed into the ground near the bottom of the hill, and his world went dark.
Chapter 18
Date: July 9, 2132.
Location: Onboard the Ribiyar Warship Ji’Co, in orbit of Earth.
Tactical Analysist Cha’Hawk watched as several fighters landed in the hangar bay. These fighters contained warriors who were being transferred to Ji’Co from other positions in the fleet, either because they were incapable of performing the required services, or their expertise was required elsewhere to optimize performance. Cha’Hawk was not unaware that one of these officers may soon lay claim to his post, if his opposition with High Order Ki’Ra got any worse. Fortunately, one of the officers was an old comrade of Cha’Hawk’s, and he would rely heavily upon him for information and support if he was decommissioned, or worse, put in an Oblivion Chamber: a containment device used to restrain a Ribiyar convicted of a serious crime. Though the thought of being imprisoned in the device was unsettling, the Chamber was feared the most because of the effects it has on a Ribiyar’s mind. Once a Ribiyar is admitted into an Oblivion Chamber, the device connects with the Ribiyar’s data module, and imprints data into his mind. The data affects the Ribiyar’s senses, creating the allusion that time goes by much slower than it really is, and also creates multitudes of vigorous visions and phantasms that are formed from the deepest regrets and mistakes from the officer’s past. The effects of the Oblivion Chamber were so intense that many have gone mad from its affects, and fear of the Chamber has made many Ribiyar believe that death would be preferable to being imprisoned in the device. Though Cha’Hawk didn’t share that belief, he wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about being imprisoned in one either.
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