I am Iron Man

by Colin Cook

imputing a command into her keyboard.

  "Onscreen," the CO ordered before he and the two lieutenants turned to a massive flat screen spanning across the far wall of the Headquarters. After a moment the

  screen suddenly lit up with a dim blue colour, the readings and technical displays scrolling up the sides showing that the image was being seen through the lens of a security

  camera. The actual image itself showed a portion of the Citadel Arms, along with the wide negative space of the Serpent Nebula in between them. Cutting across the

  massive cloudy expanse within the five Arms was a small blue and white blur no bigger than a marble.

  "Magnify that image," boomed a very deep and gravely Turian voice from the far back of the Headquarters. Bailey and Chellick both tensed and cast each other a wideeyed

  look before slowly turning around, inwardly cringing in preparation for what they would see.

  As they feared, standing within the open entrance with Ciatra F'Loson at his side, was their boss. Executor Venarl Pallin himself.

  (Now shit just got real.)

  "Would someone please explain to me what's going on?" the CO asked with a confused jerk of his head between the two lieutenants and the Executor. Without a word

  Pallin and F'Loson marched up onto the platform, the liaison silently taking her place next to Bailey and Chellick while Pallin cast a deliberate glance toward them.

  "I'll deal with you three later," he all but growled under his breath before turning his attention to the massive screen, which was now showing an enhanced image of the

  Corsica flying through space.

  "That ship is stolen property of the System's Alliance, and is carrying the criminal Axel and his accomplices. Begin locking onto it with the station's main forward batteries,"

  Pallin ordered to the platform's console operators. Chellick quickly stepped forward with a raised hand, his eyes flicking nervously between the Executor and the main

  screen.

  "Sir, we don't need to fire on them yet, this situation can still be salvaged. We have multiple star-fighter units on standby, if they are…" the lieutenant began trying to

  explain before he was suddenly interrupted by the CO.

  "Excuse me, but this is my Headquarters and I will decide what is to be done with its resources," he stated to both men firmly. Pallin merely leaned forward and extended

  his arm across the Asari operator's shoulder, imputing his own command into her console. The image on screen suddenly changed, pulling away from the stolen Corvette

  and focusing on an area not too far behind it. Everyone on the platform save for the Executor and his liaison jerked in surprise at what they were now seeing; an

  enormous Ray-class gunship leading a charging wing of nearly a dozen Turian Fast Attack star-fighters!

  "As you can see, the decision is no longer up to you commander. And yes lieutenant, I'm well aware of how this situation can be salvaged before resorting to simply

  destroying them. The batteries are an insurance policy, if your runaway terrorists don't comply with these new incentives, then I won't give them the chance to escape

  and spread their disruption to the rest of the galaxy," Pallin said over to the CO before turning his attention to Chellick, putting a subtle vicious emphasis on his rank as he

  said this. Without a word everyone watched the approaching confrontation with mixed feelings of apprehension or relief, Pallin and the others awaiting the large group of

  pursuing craft to begin opening fire on the stolen ship, while Bailey and Chellick looked at each other with a mutual feeling of impending dread beginning to materialize in

  their guts.

  "Captain's Log: StarDate…something something, something something. After my heroic lead through some of the toughest obstacles the Citadel could throw at us, the

  crew and I have finally managed to steal an Alliance Corvette as a mode of transportation throughout this galaxy, and are now on route to the planet Therum to rescue

  the beautiful and mysterious Dr. Liara T'Soni from the clutches of the vile rogue Spectre Saren Arterius. Proceeding at a speed of Warp 7.2…"

  "We don't have Warp-Speed Alec," I suddenly called back to the Guardian, abruptly cutting off his impressive impersonation of Jean-Luc Picard in mid-speech. Alec

  scrunched up his face in a look of mock bewildered shock and gave an annoyed cry of complaint.

  "Aww! All this advanced technology and they haven't even come that far?!" he asked out loud to no one in particular as he slouched lazily within the cushioning of the

  Captain's chair behind me, propping an elbow on one of the armrests and spinning my deactivated Phalanx pistol in circles on his index finger.

  "Done. The coordinates for the Artemis Tau Cluster are now hard-coded into the ship's navigational computers," Haxon reported after I had activated my Savant-X and

  interfaced him with the Corsica's controls. As I deactivated it and pulled my arm away, I felt Polly climb up along the back of my chair and perch himself on my left

  shoulder, lightly nuzzling my cheek in a fond greeting.

  "How go does our escape gentlemen?" came Yoda's croaky old voice as the Jedi Master quickly ascended up the three steps into the cockpit.

  "Ah Mister Yoda, you're late for duty sir. Take your place at the forward Science Station immediately," Alec ordered in a stern voice while fighting to keep from bursting out

  laughing as he manipulated a small control panel built into the chair's right armrest, slowly swiveling himself around to face the Jedi. Yoda cast me a cocked eyebrow at

  Alec's odd behavior, earning a shrug and a rolling of my eyes as I too spun my chair around to face him.

  "He's been doing that ever since he sat down in that thing. As for how the escape's going, I'd say we're making good time. If we can just get to the Serpent Nebula's

  Mass Relay before C-Sec figures out we're not on the Citadel anymore, then hopefully we'll be able to…" I began with a hand gesture to the wispy clouds and shining blue

  expanse that flashed by the Corvette's windshield, when suddenly a series of loud weapons' discharges slammed into the side of the ship, the force actually managing to

  knock all of us to the floor. Red-hot thermal rounds and blinding weapon blasts flashed in front of the windshield, making the entire ship rock violently from the damaging

  impacts.

  "Looks like they caught on to our sudden departure sooner than we'd hoped. All hands, BATTLE-STATIONS!" Alec roared out to everyone as he pulled himself back up into

  the Captain's chair. As I got back into my own chair and Yoda braced himself against one of the bulkheads, Polly jumped from my shoulder and quickly scurried off down

  the main corridor, screeching loudly to the rest of the Replicators as if he were shouting some kind of orders to them. More thermal rounds slammed into us, causing a

  rain of flaming sparks to burst out from the ceiling as several electrical outlets exploded.

  "Hold on," I stated as calmly as I could, manipulating the controls in front of me and putting the Corsica into a series of pre-programmed evasive maneuvers.

  Suddenly a few of our attackers flashed into view, appearing to be small winged star-fighters that looked Turian in origin, all of them swooping around us in circles like

  vultures descending on a dying creature. Another volley of fire from these ships slammed into our hull, causing more rocking damage and sparks to explode out.

  "They're turning us into Swiss-Cheese! Raise shields Mister Sorenson!" Alec ordered with a defiant point of his finger to the windshield, looking like a battle hardened

  general preparing to charge forth into history.

  But this only resulted in an awkward pause as we all froze in silence, remaining that way until Alec finally lowered his hand slightly and looked over to me with a worriedly

  cocked eyebrow.

  "We do have shields, right?"

  "We have kinetic barriers, but that
's about it," I answered hesitantly as I began frantically tapping away at the console, activating the already half damaged system in order

  to provide some protection against the constant beatings our pursuers were dishing out. Another salvo from the fighters impacted against us, this one feeling even

  harsher than the last and causing the ship to jerk violently to the side.

  "SSV Corsica, this is Executor Pallin of Citadel Security. If the terrorist known as Axel can hear me, know that you are surrounded and cut off from the Mass Relay. The

  station's heavy forward batteries are targeting your ship as we speak. Power down your vessel and surrender yourselves, and you will be taken into custody peacefully,"

  Pallin's unmistakable voice cut through the air from the control boards' speakers. Alec and I shot each other a terrified look after hearing his name, knowing full well what

  this meant.

  "Well, I guess we really screwed up now!" Alec stated in sarcastic humour, throwing up his hands in defeat with an ironic laugh.

  "We've finally caused enough trouble to get the head of the entire Citadel Security Force after us! Can this day get any worse?!" I shouted over the screech of more

  weapon blasts from the attacking fighters, quickly regretting that last statement as I caught sight of an enormous jet-black Ray-class gunship suddenly arch far out across

  the front of our ship's bow, its vast array of cannons glowing red after having fired upon us.

  "Looks like Thompson got the old bird up and running again after all," Alec remarked at seeing the attacking gunship, even though he didn't actually know if it was the

  same ship that had chased us all the way from the Market District not too long ago. The Corsica rocked again, giving more agonizing metallic groans or crashing sounds in

  protest to the fighters' thermal rounds potting across its hull.

  "Kinetic barriers are down to 15%! If we take any more of this we're gonna be getting a few new portholes soon!" I reported after a flashing red warning symbol popped

  up on one of the screens. Suddenly a loud chorus of hisses came from behind us, followed by the mechanical moving sounds of the Replicators. As Alec, Yoda, and I all

  spun around, we immediately saw Polly and Sparky charging up into the cockpit, flooding the room with nearly fifty other spiders that were rushing up behind them. With a

  deep frown I pulled away from several of the consoles next to me, allowing the Mechanical Duo and a few other spiders to climb up onto them. After another hiss from

  Polly, a few dozen of the Replicators on the floor began feeding several thick electrical cables from the back of the ship up toward the front of the cockpit, pushing them

  along their backs until Polly and Sparky were able to grab onto the ends with their front pincers. With a quick nod from Sparky to the other Replicators beside them, the

  few that were on the console heated up their pincers and set to work burning down into the device itself!

  "Uh guys? What are you doing?" I asked them with startled apprehension, bracing myself against the console dashboard as another volley smashed into us, which most

  likely signified that our barriers had just been blown out. The spiders made no move to acknowledge me, only continuing down into the console until they had reached

  whatever circuits they were digging for. After that happened, Polly and Sparky quickly pulled the cables up and shoved their frayed ends down into the newly created pit

  before them, followed by the other spiders welding and positioning them into place with their pincers, sending blinding sparks and flashes of superheated light flying up

  around them. At that moment a deep constant humming sound began building up within the control consoles, the attached cables feeding whatever energy source they

  were connected to directly into the Corsica's kinetic barrier controls.

  "Look!" Alec said with his eyes glued to the windshield. Turning to it, I jerked back in surprise as a very faint grey force-field materialized into existence several feet out

  before the front of the ship. As that happened several of the attacking Turian star-fighters fired on us again, only this time we felt no damaging after-effects. In fact we

  didn't feel anything, the field rippled brightly for a moment as it dispelled the volleys of thermal rounds and energy blasts, leaving us and the Corvette completely

  unharmed in an oval bubble of shimmering energy!

  "No way…you built a shield-generator?" I finally asked over to Polly and the others with an astonished smile creeping across my face, glancing along the cables running

  across the floor down through the corridor to something set up far out of sight beyond the conference table area. Polly and his group were all enthusiastically nodding

  their bodies, obviously proud of their work as more furious barrages stung at us from the attacking pack of ships, all of them now being harmlessly repelled away by the

  new shield system.

  "They gave us Replicator Shields!" I declared over to Alec and Yoda.

  "Now that's more like it! Continue us on course to the Mass Relay Mister Sulu," Alec ordered with a grin as he settled back in the Captain's chair with his hands on the

  armrests in a pose reminiscent to the classic Captain Kirk, taking the moment to relax now that we weren't needing to brace ourselves against the constant stream of

  jarring attacks.

  "SSV Corsica, you have had enough time to deliberate upon your answer. Surrender now or I will use the stations batteries to blast you out of the sky. You have one

  minute to comply," Pallin's voice suddenly barked through the speakers. I merely scoffed with an amused smirk, keeping our shielded Corvette flying on a straight path out

  of the five Citadel Arms' encompassment, despite the desperate barrages of thermal rounds still trying to hinder our progress.

  "Let him try, there's nothing they can do to stop us now," I stated, a firm feeling of relief washing over me as I saw small portions of the colossal two pronged Mass Relay

  begin to poke out through the thickening Nebula clouds far up ahead of us.

  We were now truly, finally, within reach of escaping the station that we had been so mercilessly hunted on.

  "Against the Citadel's main cannons, will these new shields hold well?" Yoda asked cautiously over to Polly and Sparky. My smirk widened as I looked over to the two,

  expecting to find them nodding an enthusiastic yes to the Master. But just as I turned to them, I froze, my smirk becoming plastered on my face. The two spiders were

  slowly looking at each other as if uncertain, hissing hesitantly before suddenly shaking a very obvious negative and scrambling back to work on the cables sticking out of

  the controls. At this the rest of the Replicators grouped in the cockpit quickly began screeching in alarm and scrambling back toward the rear area of the ship!

  "I'm gonna take that as a no!" I stated in equal alarm, my feeling of relief dropping abruptly and getting replaced by one of extreme anxiety.

  "We only have forty-five seconds before Pallin opens fire," Haxon reported firmly, his voice steeled to hide any sign that our current predicament was worrying him.

  "At maximum speed it'll still take us a good four minutes to get to the Relay! We won't make…" I began after reviewing the holo-screens, fervently tapping away at the

  controls in a desperate search for something that would make the ship go faster. But then suddenly Alec sprang up from the Captain's chair, his hands held up near his

  head and one of his trademark grins spread wide across his face.

  "WAIT! I'VE GOT IT!" he shouted to all of us, his grin widening even further. (If that was even physically possible)

  "You do? Does it involve giving up?" I asked with a hesitant frown, casting an odd look to an equally stunned Yoda and Polly, he and his Replicator brothers all stopping in

  mid-work to look at the Guardian.

  "Haxon! Are
you still somehow connected to the Citadel?" Alec asked quickly while practically jumping over to my left side.

  "Somewhat from this distance, yes," the A.I. responded hesitantly, clearly just as confused as we were.

  "Can you broadcast a wide-band transmission to any communication and video receiving devices built into the Citadel from this position?" the Guardian asked, looking

  down at my arm with intense anticipation.

  "Uhh…if I were to push my abilities to the absolute limit I believe so. Why?" Without answering, Alec immediately grabbed my left arm by the wrist and harshly pulled it

  back toward himself, twisting it into the right position and making my omni-tool materialize around my forearm.

  "Oww! What're you doing?!" I gasped in pain as he kept my limb firmly locked in his grip, using his other hand to quickly begin tapping at the keys on the omni-tool's

  controls, bringing up a large screen that showed him starting to sift through multiple video-sites on the Extranet.

  "I need your omni-tool for Haxon to broadcast my little surprise. You ready Haxon?" Alec calmly asked while he worked.

  "I guess, but who exactly am I sending this transmission to?" the A.I. asked quickly. Right away the Guardian smiled slyly before answering.

  "Everyone. Contact all video and audio receiving devices across the entire station!"

  There was a pause before Haxon answered in an oddly unsurprised tone of defeat.

  "I just know that kind of strain is going to hurt me somehow. Oh and by the way, we only have ten seconds left before they open fire." My eyes widened at that

  statement as I kept my gaze focused on whatever the hell Alec was trying to find on my omni-tool.

  "Alec, just what exactly is this plan you've developed for saving us at the very last minute?" I asked tensely, still straining my arm against his vice-grip. Alec's smile

  suddenly fell back into his previous mad grin, the flashing screens in front of him stopping abruptly as he came upon his mystery message.

  "Oh nothing, I just thought it was about high time I introduced Pallin to a classic Internet sensation!" With a quick jab of his finger, he pressed the main glowing button on

  the keyboard and sent out his broadcast.