by J Bigby
As Dex runs through a corridor towards the core, three White Tigers rush out from one of the rooms and two more come out of another one.
"Guy's come on, I don't want to do this." Dex tells them.
They charge towards him as Dex pulls the rifle from his back and uses the butt of the gun to smack the first White Tiger across the face. He brings the rifle up to his face and shoots another one to the left, then one to the right. As a White Tiger comes at him from the front, Dex push kicks him with his right leg as his foot follows the hunter to the ground.
The two Tigers left, hide behind cover and start firing their guns. Dex hides behind a wall just inside one of the rooms. He opens up a compartment on the left side of his arm and takes out a small round tube and throws it at the two Tigers firing at him. The little canister explodes and fills the area with smoke. The Tigers bend over to cough as Dex runs out, using the half of his visor, that wasn't destroyed by White, to see through the smoke and detect the Tigers whereabouts.
Dex fires his rifle. He hits the one to the left but runs out of ammo. He drops the gun and takes out a small blade, hidden in his armour's right boot and throws it at the remaining guy's head. Dex runs to the end of the hallway and reaches his destination, placing the thermal detonator on the core. Dex speeds off back down the corridor as one of the guys he'd hit, slowly starts to get back up. Before he could fully rise, Dex races past lifting his knee up and smacking the guy in the chin, knocking him out again.
The thermal detonator goes off, causing a massive explosion. The blast goes past the downed White Tigers, incinerating them and heads for Dex.
He runs as fast as he can to try to outrun it but the blast is coming too fast. Dex thinks for a second as the heat starts to boil him inside his suit. He looks around his armour for something he can use and as he gets to the platform, he fires a small grappling hook from his suit at it.
Dex swings up onto the platform and heads towards the bridge. "Good luck boys," he says as the White Tigers from earlier start shooting at him.
"Get back..." One of the Tigers shouts as both of them look down to see the blast from the explosion mere meters away.
"Oh come on..." the other White Tiger softly says as the blast hits them.
Dex picks up a rifle from the ground and shoots at the remaining view port window. It doesn't do anything but leave little dint in it.
"Right, they don't have the experimental high piercing rounds. Well I'm fuc..," he says to himself as the blast hits, sending him out of the window and into space.
The Tiger Claw blows up sending Dex further out into space. He quickly uses a repairing agent from the left wrist of his suit, to mask the broken parts of his helmet. The rest of The White Tiger ships see the explosion and disperse back into hyperspace.
"Hello sir, message has been sent." Vicor tells Dex.
"Bit late for that don't you think? Where is everyone!?"
"I... don't know. My processors were busy hacking the channel. Then I was uploaded straight to you."
"Scan for life signs!" Dex panics.
"There appears to be none sir."
"Damn it!" Dex shouts in anger.
"Sir... look..." Vicor says almost upset.
Dex quickly looks around him and notices his oxygen tube was damaged and hissing out air.
"At the rate your oxygen is leaking out, you will expire in eleven minutes," Vicor tells him.
"That's plenty of time... right?"
"I won't... be as lucky... sir, I could expire... at any time. It seems my hardware chip... has been damaged... beyond repair from the... explosion," Vicor informs Dex as he starts to break up.
"We won't let it come to that Vic! We will be saved and I'll fix you. Everything will work out. You'll see," Dex replies with a passion.
"Ten minutes... of oxygen left... sir."
Chapter Eight: Five Minutes Later
Five minutes later:
"I... only... have... a... few... minutes... left," Dex says gasping for what little oxygen he has left. He looks around for any sign of the Ambassadors fleet. "No... sign... of... them... Wait... What's... that?" Dex notices a partially destroyed ship in the distance with its computer still in relatively good condition.
"Maybe... I can... send... a... signal...out," he says as he moves his arms around to get close to it. Dex spins around in circles, not moving an inch forward. "Okay... that's... not...working... I... need... something... to... propel... me..." He fires his grabbling hook but the cable runs out before it reaches the ship. As the hook returns, it brings back a sharp piece of debris.
"Well... that's... useless..." he says with a tone of disappointment. "Great... I... can... see... my... chance... out of... this... but... there's... nothing... I... can do... to reach... the ship. I'm... going... to run... out... of... oxygen... Wait!.. that's it... the oxygen... if I... can somehow... pierce... the tank... it could... propel... me... far... enough... to the... ship."
'If I hold my breath I've only got a minute or so before I lose consciousness then die so I better make this count,' he thinks.
Dex holds his breath. He grabs the sharp piece of debris and pierces the tank, taking the piece back out. Suddenly the oxygen tank hisses out what's left of the air inside, propelling him forward towards the ship.
'Not going to make it!' he thinks as he spins out of control. 'The grappling hook! I'm spinning to fast.' He waits for the right moment when he's facing the ship then fires the hook, praying that it would attach to the fighter. The hook flies through space until it hits an object. Dex closes his eyes, afraid of missing his target as the cable rushes him towards the hook's grip.
He hits a large object and then opens his eyes to see the partially destroyed vessel. Dex floats over to the console . He opens up the emergency communication sever and starts to type 'HELP. MY CORORDINATES ARE ATTACHED. SAVE M' but before he can finish he starts to fall unconscious. With one last push he presses send as he closes his eyes and stops moving.
A fleet of the Ambassador's men come out of hyperspace, the Rio guards and scan the area for the distress signal Raygan sent earlier.
"I found the signals origin sir, its coming from that barren moon over there," the pilot says to the Commander of the head ship.
"It appears we were too late. Take us down," the Commander replies.
They begin their accent to the moon's surface and follows the signal's trail until they notice a crashed ship. "There! Land the ship next to theirs. I want them on here as soon as possible," the Commander says to the pilot.
"Yes sir, activating the landing gear," the pilot replies.
The ship slowly hovers above the ground. The hatches from the bottom of the craft opens up and four landing stands extend out touching the ground. A exploration team, exits the vessel wearing suits and heads to the crashed ship. One of the guys uses a advanced blowtorch to cut open the back of the ship to get inside.
"Sir, Para team is inside," the leader of the team says to the Commander.
They see nothing but darkness and a blinking red warning light. The team turn on their torches, attached to their armour and look around. They see three bodies lying unconscious and one slowly moving, groaning.
"Sir, We have four people here. One seems to be the Ambassador, he looks hurt," the leader radios in.
"The Ambassador is your top priority, solider. Save the others but only if you can," the Commander radios back.
The leader grabs and pulls Raygan out of the ship. "Grab the others," he says to his team.
"Holy shit! You seeing this? It a giant lion!" One of them yells out.
"Just grab him, he was obviously trying to help," the leader replies.
Two carry Sh'kar and one picks up Hotshot but as another one of the team members grabs Fury, he opens his eyes and gasps.
"Save Dex!" he yells out.
"Who the hell is Dex?" one of them questions, looking confused.
"He's out there! Please he needs help!" Fury says, before handing the guy a co
mmunication device with Dex's message and passing out. The exploration team take them to the Commanders ship and into the med bay.
The leader walks to the bridge. "Sir, one of the people from the ship woke up briefly and gave me this, after begging us to save someone named Dex," he says. He hands the Commander the coms device.
The Commander reads the message. "He isn't that far away. We will pick him up on our way back. It's likely he's already dead." The ship takes off and accelerates towards the sky until they reach the destruction of the battlefield.
"I don't see anything but wreckage," the pilot says.
"Keep looking, there must at least be a body," the Commander persists.
"Why are you so eager to find this guy sir?" the pilot asks.
"If he's still alive, it's our duty to help him. If he's dead, he at least deserves a proper funeral."
The signal leads them to the partially destroyed ship. "The signal ends here," the pilot tells the Commander.
"Over there!" The Commander points to a floating body in white armour as they move towards it.
"Look there's another one!" the pilot says, pointing to a black armoured man. "Which one is he?" he continues.
"Grab them both," the Commander orders.
They fly over to Dex and use a tracker beam to pull him up. They then go over to White and grab him too. The Commander sends his medics to collect them and take them to the med bay unit as he heads towards there himself.
The Commander walks over to the bodies as the medics look at their vital signs. "Give me the news," the Commander asks.
"Well, the one in the white armoured suit is dead sir but this one in the black still has a pulse. It's weak but we can save him." One of the medics states as he examines the bodies.
Ambassador Raygan slowly comes into consciousness as the Commander walks over to him. "Did we win?" Raygan asks.
"Yes sir, but it seems your friend in the white suit is dead. Good news though, the older looking one is still alive."
"No! He's the one who tried to kill me and started all this! The other one tried to saved me. I don't care how much it costs, you have to bring him back!" Raygan shouts out in pain.
"There is a procedure that could cost millions. I don't know if it will work."
"I don't care. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. Do it!" Raygan orders.
"But first lock the black suited man away... If he got out, all hell will break loose."
The Commander sighs. "Yes sir," he says as he signals his men over to him.
"Yes sir?" one of the men asks.
"Lock that man away so that no one will ever find him again," the Commander tells him. His men walk over to White and wheel him over to the cryo chamber cells. They lift him up and place him in a cylinder tube. They close the door, sealing him in. One of them presses a button causing a spray of below zero gases, freezing White in place.
Dex's naked body gets placed on an operation table as the Rio Guards best doctors and surgeons surround him. Dex is hooked up to many tubes, connecting to a machine that observes if he produces any vital signs.
"Oh god, this is going to be a challenge," the lead surgeon says looking up and down the body.
He opens Dex up and fits cybernetic implants to attach his ripped organs and muscles back together. He then places skeletal cybernetics that strengthens his skeleton and augment his strength, so his body is able to support the new upgrades. Due to all the blood vessels in his eyes breaking, he replaces the eyes with cybernetic ones with cyber blue irises. He then inserts liquid nanite bots to help revitalise Dex's cells, bloodstream and brain as the decaying body slowly rejuvenates.
The lead surgeon looks at the monitor and sees low vital signs but no brain activity. "Damn it, he's alive but his brain isn't responding," he says disappointedly.
One of the doctors hands the surgeon, Vicor's damaged chip. "This was found in his armour. It seems to be a rare kind of bio chip. I think it's used to integrate with ones brain but its busted up real bad. Maybe we can salvage enough to make it work."
"It's weird he was using it as an external AI. It's worth a shot," the surgeon replies.
He opens up Dex's head and integrates the salvaged parts of Vicor's chip into his brain. Dex suddenly wakes screaming with his body and head not sewn back up yet.
"Quick! Put him back to sleep!" the surgeon yells out as he jumps. One of the staff runs to the IV tubes and place a sedative into it as Dex slowly stops screaming. He closes his eyes as he goes back under.
The entire medical staff stand there in shock for a moment. "We have to finish sewing him back up," the surgeon says trying to snap out of it.
A few hours later, Dex opens his eyes to see the surgeon who operated on him. "What happened? Is Vicor okay? Where are my friends?" Dex asks.
"Okay, just relax," the surgeon says calmly. "Your friends are fine. They did crash onto a moon but the ship took most of the damage. You should be more worried about yourself. You... weren't so lucky."
"What happened to me? I feel different."
"You... you died but we were able to bring you back. Luckily you had that suit on, it preserved your body long enough for us to work on you or otherwise you wouldn't be the same person."
"I don't feel like the same person."
"Well, you were dead for about an hour before we found you. A lot of damage can happen in that time. We had to fit your body with cybernetic enhancements. It might take a while to get used to it and of course a lot of physical therapy."
"Is Vicor okay? What happened to him? Please tell me he's okay." Dex quickly sits up and groans in pain.
"Your A.I... Was beyond repair... I'm sorry... We were able to salvage parts of his chip and implant them into your brain to save you." Dex's face fills with remorse.
"I'm so sorry Vicor, that I wasn't able to save you. I guess you will always be a part of me now."
"If you need anything, just press the buzzer and someone will come to help you." The surgeon walks away as Dex lays back down with a lot to think about.
Moments later Fury, Hotshot, Sh'kar and Raygan all walk into the room.
"Hey buddy, how are you feeling? Don't feel like chewing on my brain?" Hotshot jokes condescendingly.
Dex lets out a little chuckle. "I'm glad you're all okay." He pauses "Vicor wasn't so lucky," he says as he looks down. There's nothing but silence for a moment.
"He will be remembered," Fury says. "I heard you defeated White, thanks to you, their ships dispersed and we actually won. You and Vicor saved many lives... Don't forget that," he continues.
"And now we can send my cargo ships to Esos without fear of them getting intercepted and destroyed," Raygan adds.
"You don't have to worry about The White Tigers ever again Dex, your free," Sh'kar states.
"No, it's not over. I saw a map of all The White Tiger posts across the galaxy and without a leader, they will be weak." Dex tells them with a fire burning in his cybernetic eyes.
"You planning to kill them?" Fury wonders.
"No. I'm going to take them over. They will no longer be bounty hunters but a force to help people," Dex says.
"The White Tigers are known to be brutal killers. You think people won't be scared of you guys?" Hotshot adds.
"I know. That's why they won't be called The White Tigers," Dex states.
"What are you going to call them?" Sh'kar asks.
"The Ivory Tigers." Dex smiles.
"Oh, I see what you did there." Hotshot says as he winks at Dex.
"We should go and let you get some rest," Fury tells Dex.
"No. He doesn't want me to go, do ya pal?" Hotshot says. "Have I ever told you about that time a Bork tried to breastfeed me..." Hotshot continues. He gets interrupted by Sh'kar, picking him up and dragging him out of the room. "Hey! Let go of me furry fighter!" He yells out from outside of the med bay room.
A few more days later:
Dex gets given the okay to get out of his bed and walk around. He walks over to
a mirror and looks at his reflection. He notices a lot of changes and doesn't see himself anymore. His eyes, now a bright blue when before they were brown. Light scars around his face, that weren't there previously. No hair, when he had a little back before this happen. He sees another man staring back at him. Weirdly enough, he didn't mind. It was a reminder of the man White manipulated and this man who's looking back at him, was the man who fought back and survived.
The team come together on the bridge as they say their farewells.
"Well, this is it. I'm not good at goodbyes," Hotshot says choking up.
