by G J Moses
It was Jeanne, who caught on first. With amazement evident in her voice “Fake? Play acting? What we just saw?”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to proudly introduce you to the Lucky Strike’s actors guild. Dale, Danny, crew, please take a bow for a show well done, very well done indeed.” explained Zeke while gesturing with his arms wildly to the smiling Chohish and guards.
“Turn off the projectors Danny before someone shoots you, PLEASE!” an exasperated Dale ordered. “I have seen Khaleesi in action, and the Battleoid would only be a short deterrence for her.”
With that, there was a flickering of lights around the Chohish. When the flickering stopped, standing in front of them all was a Battleoid with strange attachments all over the outside.
As one, all the Battleoids opened to allow the occupants to step out. It was a motley crew. All were soaked in their own sweat and… well… they stunk to high heavens.
Several of Zeke’s group choked on the smell, it was that strong.
“Sorry sir, but all the operational Battleoids were allocated for training. We had to make do with the ones in for repair. Unfortunately, all these Battleoids had their internal cooling and air circulation equipment removed for maintenance, so it got quite hot in there.” an embarrassed Danny explained.
“And you did a marvelous job, all of you. Just plain awesome.” Zeke said while giving a vigorous celebratory handshake to each one. “You surpassed all I could ask for and then some. You are all invited to dine with me when time permits and tell me how you put it all together. I have a bottle of old scotch that I have been saving for a special occasion, this was one. Never seen the like. In a few words, how did you do it?”
“The guards were easy. To create the Chohish per your measurements and attire, we covered one Battleoid with tiny projectors, over a thousand of them. Same as a cloaking device in a way. Each projector covered only a small section of the Battleoids skin to allow for bending and movement realism. Harder than you could imagine. Dale programmed the Battleoid with the scenes we wanted, and we have been practicing since you tasked us with this project those many hours ago. Hence why we… stink” explained a proud Danny.
“Who came up with the idea of the chains? And the sounds, where did you scrounge them up? And the smell of being electrically shocked… now that was creative. Excellent, great add on.” a puzzled Hawke asked.
“Oh, that was Axel over there. He has a collection of old-time films. Ever hear of Frankenstein? Well, neither have I. But there are over two dozen films made of that creature, well, that Axel has anyway, and heck, it just seemed fitting to take some of the soundtracks and incorporate them into our ‘play’ along with the fake torture room.” a beaming Dale explained.
“We did not know what that Chohish would say or sound like so we improvised hitting him just before he could say anything. We had to mask the sound of the Battleoids metal on metal, so we had Cyril over there, just miss hitting me by a fraction and piped in a sound of metal hitting flesh. From the rest of the Chohish response, I think they bought it.” a now beaming Danny proudly stated.
“I think so too. Oh, most assuredly they did, if their rage and expressions, are any indication. They bought the whole package.” a still exuberant Zeke gloated. “And you have given me what I wanted to know. Now, I just have to make use of that knowledge.”
“Excuse me, but can someone tell me what the hell is going on? What the heck just happened?” a confused Will asked.
“I think I know.” responded a now relaxed Khaleesi.
“You can thank Jan there. He supplied the info I needed to find out more about the Chohish. A critical piece of their society and how they are governed.” Zeke disclosed.
“Me? What did I do? I have no idea what you are talking about. Do you care to explain?” an astonished Jan replied.
Zeke signaled to Dale. “If you would be so kind Dale. Can you put it up on the center display?”
Nodding, Dale turned back to his console. With a few adjustments, he pointed with his hand towards the center screen. On the screen showed one of the camps of the Chohish on Niflhel before the battle. In the center close to one of shield generators was an enormous tent.
Everyone drifted closer to the display. Only one kept walking after the others stopped until he was close enough to put his feathery hand on it to trace the tent.
“What is that? I do not remember seeing anything like this. And I was pretty close to the center of main camp.” mumbled Jeanne.
Walking slowly up next to his friend Hawke, Zeke looked up at the screen intensely. “I believe, hopefully we confirmed it today, they are the real leaders of the Chohish, military at minimum. I surmise the one you are about to see is, or should say was, what we would call ‘royal blood’.”
At that moment, a large Chohish that matched the one Danny had impersonated, appeared at the tent entrance. Dressed in opulent clothes that matched the simulation, proud, standing tall, with a haughty air about him, the Chohish looked massive and regal. All the Chohish near him, stopped their activity, no matter what it was, to bow and place their arms across their chest. They only resumed what they were doing when the Chohish Royal gestured with his hand to dismiss them.
Jan walked closer, staring intensely at the Chohish. “Where did you get this? We were there and I do not remember seeing the tent, or any Chohish that big or dressed like that.”
Walking in her flamboyant style, Jeanne sidled up next to Jan. “We came too late to see him. Unless I miss my guess, these photos were taken before the shields were taken out. How did you find this Chohish? The camp was huge, it would have taken you hours to find him without knowing he was even there.”
“I didn’t, it was Dale, who found him. He can fill you in on the details. But I need to run, I will catch up with everyone on the bridge in a half hour. We need to finalize our plans for Nocuous. Till then relax and get some rest.”
With that, Zeke patted Hawkes arm in assurance, turned, looked at all of them with glee still written on his face before rushing out the door.
“Ha!” responded Dale, who stood up and walked to the middle of the room facing the screen. “Dump it on me, will he? Let me tell you how it really was. The Captain came to me and asked if I could do him a favor. He had a suspicion that he missed something in the recordings and asked if I could help. When I asked what, he said look for the biggest Chohish I could find. I flippantly asked, ‘to look for what?’ and ‘with the thousands upon thousands of hours of video from many different camera’s covering two enemy camps, where should I start?’”.
Shaking his head in exasperation, Dale started chuckling before continuing. “Now I thought he was going to say something stupid like ‘start at the beginning’ or just ‘pick a spot somewhere’. But no, he suggested that I start looking near the largest shield in this camp. When I asked why, he said just a guess.”
Then he looked around the room with a smile so large it was contagious. “I found the big Chohish within five minutes. Guess my ass!”.
“I had found him, so, now that should be it right? Oh no, that would be too easy. The Captain had left so I contacted him to let him know what I found. Said great, now he wanted me to scan the rest of the recordings to see if there were any other Chohish like this one at either of the two camps. Really? Anyway, I was able to set up a program to do it for me now that I had an idea what to look for. That program still took over an hour to confirm no other like him, in either camp. And when told, the Captain said he did not think I would but needed to be sure. Arrgghh…”.
Turning around to look at Jeanne and Jan with a frustrated look, Dale continued. “But I got ahead of myself. Before I had even finished the scan, I was pinged and asked to have Danny and his troupe patched in as he wanted us to put together a skit for him. And you know what that was with the stipulation that the skit be ready before we reached Nocuous. As he so calmly ordered ‘While we are in the asteroid field, before we get to Nocuous.’ Does anybody know what it takes to
put on a play like that? Do you? I doubt it. Anybody else but Danny, his team and I would have refused… but… well Danny can do anything.”
The man mentioned, who had been standing off to the side, started laughing hard. “Oh, is that a joke or what? If the Captain asked, my brother would jump into a fire for him. The whole troupe would.”
He crouched as he picked up a thin electrical wire that had fallen off the Battleoid with the projectors. Staying crouched, while twisting the wire around his index finger, he continued on seeing that the officers were waiting on him. “We and the captain go way back. During the Frizale war, Dale, I and the rest, were on a destroyer that was immobilized and a floating hulk. We had lost most of our crew early on when the engines blew.”
Playing with the wire wrapped around his finger, Danny was obviously deep in remembrance. “We thought we were goners when a half dozen or so enemy assault shuttles started coming towards us. They needed ships badly, even heavily damaged ones, and here was one just sitting there. We had basic defensive training, but we would be no match for attacking Marines. In fact, we didn’t even have any heavy weapons to fight with. Our situation was hopeless.”
Sighing and looking at his brother with emotion rippling across his face, Danny continued. “We stationed ourselves outside of the only operating power station, hoping we could at least slow them down. We were all suited up as the hull section had been breached. Heck, the end of our hallway we were in was open to space. That is where we thought the assault shuttles would land nearby as they would not have to burn through the locks or the skin of the ship. That would save them a few critical minutes.”
“We nervously watched the approaching assault shuttles on the screens situated near the power station doors. It was not long before they started their landing maneuvers. It was then we saw the arrival of a pair of our fighters. It was with limited hope as we observed the fighters start their attack.
It was a hard and fast battle as the assault shuttles may be slow, but they did have defense systems. Our fighters were at a disadvantage as they had to slow down close to the shuttle’s speed to stay in the theater of battle. The skill of our fighters was awesome to watch. Even so, what we did not know until later, was that both had already expended their missiles and had suffered considerable damage prior to arriving. They were able to take out most of the shuttles, though, before one of the fighters was knocked out of commission. The monitor showed the last surviving fighter still fighting, but trailing flames and smoke.”
Moving to stand next to his brother, he tinkered with his control pad while Danny was recounting the events. Putting his hand on Danny’s shoulder, he suggested, “Maybe it would be easier if we showed them the actual video’s. Should speed things up since we do not have much time.” With that, Dale pushed a button on a control he was carrying.
On all the half dozen screens in the room, a video started playing. In the video, you could see the backs of over a half dozen men crouched in the doorways of the stockrooms that populated the walkway. Several more were hunkered down behind barriers that looked to have been hastily placed. At the end of the hallway, you could see a large jagged opening where a wall and an access hatch would be. The noise coming out of the room’s speakers was crackling with static, but otherwise strangely silent.
They watched as an assault shuttle slowly flew past the opening only to settle on the skin of the ship leaving a small portion of the shuttle sticking out into the hallway. Shortly, a hatch opened and a Marine in battle armor floated out. The men in the hall fired their weapons, but all could see it had little effect against the force fields and heavy armor the Marine was wearing. While they were firing on that Marine, several others floated out of the shuttle. The first Marine brought his weapon up to his shoulder and fired several quick volleys down the hall.
Watching in horror, everyone in the room saw two of the defenders being cut down in a ghastly manner. Fusion rifles left a bloody mess of people. With a sob in his voice, Dale looked at Danny before he spoke up. “We lost several of our friends in those bursts. They did not stand a chance.”
Following right on the heels of these bursts, smoke shells were lobbed down the hall. The video was now mostly filled with smoke with only intermittent hazy pictures.
Looking at his brother with a sad expression, Danny picked up the story “We were outmatched. There was not much we could do.” Just at that moment, a Marine emerges out of the smoke and smashes Dale to the ground with his rifle butt. The Marine stood over Dale raising his weapon to point the nozzle at Dale.”
“I thought he was a goner.” Danny continued. “That was when it happened.”
Enthralled at watching the film, they observed the scene clearing up as the smoke dissipated. And then, in amazement, all viewed a large object go flashing past the opening at the far end of the hall in a ball of flame. From that object came a small explosion that shot an unidentifiable object straight down the hall towards the camera.
The video was shaken violently, not only by a huge explosion that rocked the whole ship, but also from the impact of something hitting the wall just below the camera. But it was not the explosion that captivated the viewers. It was the scene of the hallway that had Jeanne and Jan rocking backwards in amazement. Because Dale had stopped the video to rewind and play the scene again in slow motion. What had come flying down the hall was an ejection pod from a fighter.
“What the hell was that?” Jeanne blurted even though she knew the answer to her own question. She was quite familiar with what an ejection pod looked like; it was just the surprise of seeing one there in the hallway. The pod flew just inches over the prone Dale and took along anything and anyone in its way during its travel down the hallway to the wall.
The view became blurry for a while as smoke and debris obscured the lens for a minute or so. When the video cleared, they could see Dale still laying there with Danny kneeling next to him checking on him. Down at the end of the hallway, the shuttle was no longer visible, with the opening looking like it had been twisted open a few more feet.
Everyone watched as two others left their positions to slowly creep down the hallway. One covered the other as he leaned out the opening only to duck back in quickly. With no fire being sent at them, both leaned out. Turning, they shrugged their shoulders before clasping each other in joy. That is until one, then the other, saw the remains of their friends.
Just when they thought the video was going to end, there appeared on the bottom of the screen, a person in a sealed fighter flight suit. The only indications that he was friendly, was an RGN lieutenant insignia on his shoulder. Staggering, the new person fell to his knees just before he collapsed on the ground. Several ran to his side to help him back up on his feet. As he stood, he turned towards the camera.
“Holly crap!” Will gasped when the injured person turned enough for his face to be seen by the camera. All that was visible was blood dripping down the inside of the faceplate.
At this time, Dale stopped the video. “We do not have the time to continue the video any further. But guess who that fighter pilot was? It seems one of the technicians stationed in the backup command center had been in communication with the last remaining fighter. He had been told by the pilot to tell all of us to find cover as the fighter pilot was going to try and ram the assault shuttle. Unfortunately, in retrospect, maybe fortunately, our suits had lost communications early on so we never got the warning.”
“Anyway” Danny picked up where Dale had left off, “the Captain, who was that lieutenant in that video in case you did not guess that part yet, used his ship, which had no remaining offensive weapons left, to ram the assault shuttle. He ejected just before he hit. The Captain did not expect to eject directly into the ship, but the fighter was rotating wildly from damage as he made his approach. That ejection was a miracle. His ejection pod took out all the enemy Marines in the hallway. Including the one that was about to shoot Dale.”
Like a professional tag team, Dale butted in on Dann
y. “We lost a lot of good people that day. Afterwards, we decided that what happened was a sign. I know, it may sound crazy, but what are the odds of what happened without any of us being seriously hurt by his ejection pod? Me especially. A billion to one? Anyway, we all decided that where he went, once he recovered, we would follow along. We owed him… here we are”.
“It might help to know was why my brother stopped the video where he did.” Danny butted in with Dale sighing in exasperation. “The Captain, with barely the strength to stand, staggered straight into Dale who had just stood up. And in sign language, he asked him, ‘Is everyone OK?’, just before he collapsed into Dale’s arms. What he did not want you to see, as you would have if Dale had let the video run the next several minutes, was my brother hugging the Captain as he slowly lowered him to the ground. And for just a moment, if you look real closely, you can see inside my brother’s faceplate. He was crying.”
“Ok, so I get emotional. I have been in the RGN many years and served under a lot of different officers. Never met one before that cared, really cared more about others before themselves or for glory. After several more campaigns, we heard about this Lieutenant getting promoted to Captain and needing a crew. If I am going to be in the RGN, where I belong, I might as well as serve under a person I can respect, so here we are.” defended Dale.
It was not a surprise when Danny nodded in agreement, along with the rest of the troupe.
It was Hawke, who, along with Will went to each member of the troupe to shake their hand. “Thanks gentlemen, appreciate the show. It was something extraordinary. Jeanne, Jan, Khaleesi, you coming with us? About time to meet Zeke.”
