PD-Universe Eternal Ch. 2

Chapter 2
Interception


“Ah! Success! I knew the mission would go smoothly enough.”

“Silence. You miscalculated on their fighting ability. This plan could have failed horribly, you just got extremely lucky.”

“Luck, talent, whatever. It’s all the same! Now we’ve taken our first step, there’s no turning back now! This plan will make the mischief we caused earlier seem like petty imagination at work!”

“Is that so? For your sake, I hope this plan of yours works. That Class-G or N or Z, whatever, soldier better not lose the package. It’s your head on the line, here.”

“Don’t worry. Nobody knows except the stupid Lycanians he scared, and by the time officials are notified, we’ll be well out of range of power. We can practically kick back now, for how well we’re doing!”

“Good. Don’t disappoint me. Dismissed.”
********************

Somewhere, or rather nowhere in particular, in the universe, a ship drifted through the emptiness of space. The ship had the unmistakable markings of Food Inc., though only as an advertisement. The decal lasted only nanoseconds before it disappeared from wandering eyes into the metal, only to jump out again at the next passerby. It was a miracle of Aquari advertising which blended the art of subliminal messaging with true art.

Inside the ship were two passengers. One was the president and CEO of Food Inc. himself, the ever-grand Aquari, Aaron. An Aquari was an aquatic based humanoid with two antennae, bent in the middle, on the top of their hair-coated head, long, pointy ears, a third eye, gill slits on the neck, and a 6-foot long prehensile tail, plus the fact that they were 10’ tall, or at least Aaron was.

The other was Tiejaz, a Sunian, a being made out of a fiery substance called “The Fifth,” meaning the fifth element of matter. They were amorphous, but Tiejaz usually took a 6’ humanoid form just so people didn’t freak out so much. Inside the burning exterior flames that burned 30 times hotter than the sun, only concealed by a special suit that kept everyone else from melting, there weren’t any internal organs, yet Sunians still required some energy to survive off-planet.

Both were biologically teenagers around 15 and 16, but due to their bodies’ efficiencies, they were both over a century old.

They had just come out of a freak wormhole, yet a freak wormhole that they had created themselves via their Ion Engines. So, they weren’t the slightest bit interested that they had just traveled around 257 light-years in a matter of seconds.

Tiejaz sat in the of the ship’s two chairs, sulking. The ship was rather cramped, mostly because it was a cargo ship with only about 40 square meters of livable space, not including the computer. His unhappiness wasn’t caused by that single fact, however.

“I can’t believe, out of all the freakin’ refueling stations in the entire freakin’ universe, the one we stopped at DIDN’T HAVE KAFFO,” Tiejaz complained.

“Don’t get bent. It was probably just some sort of freak time-space accident, involving, most likely, salmon and a black hole,” Aaron explained.

Tiejaz looked at Aaron with a face full of confusion.

“You realize that that’s probably the most random thing you’ve said in the 20 years we’ve known each other,” Tiejaz said.

“Nah, you just weren’t listening. Sadly, I’m probably not too far off,” Aaron replied, keeping a straight face as always.

“What? Ah….nevermind. So we still have leftover Kaffo, right?”

“Dunno, I’ll check,” said Aaron.

Aaron set the ship on auto-pilot, though it didn’t have a destination set. After getting out of his chair, Aaron checked the mini-fridge, at least mini-in his perspective, and checked for any signs of his favorite caffeinated beverage. Kaffo was a soda that was 10 times more caffeinated than any other soft drink, and Kaffo Kaffo was 10 times more caffeinated than even that.

“NOOOOOOO!!!” Aaron yelled in horror.

“What?! What?!” Tiejaz asked frantically.

“Only 50 cans left!!!”

“GAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” they both screamed in unison.

A loud, screeching noise coming from the ship’s computers. Aaron stopped screaming, looked around, and walked to the controls to check the problems. Upon inspection, he found that it was only the ship’s movement sensors detecting that an object was approaching. An object about 5 times the size of their ship.

“Hey, Tiejaz, check this out!” Aaron called across the ship. Tiejaz had stopped his screaming and was sobbing hysterically on the ground, and stopped when Aaron called. He moped over to the ship’s front screens.

“What?” he asked, throwing himself into the 2nd pilot’s chair.

“It’s a ship with markings of that Shadoh Empire thing. I wonder why it’s traveling so fast?” Aaron asked to himself, looking at some 3-D maps

“Errrg…I vote for blowing it up. I need a wake-up,” Tiejaz said, bitterly.

“Nah. I just checked the ship’s log. Apparently they just stole some precious ‘cargo’ from the planet Lycania. Catch my drift?”

“What? You mean…”

“Yep, there’s a very good chance it could be…Kaffo,”

“Yahoo! Wait…how do you guess…,” Tiejaz asked.

“Dunno. What other cargo could be so great as to be called ‘precious?’”

There was a long pause.

“Let’s go!!!” Tiejaz screamed, hitting some buttons on the control panel.

Aaron grinned and did the same on his side of the ship’s controls. The ship sped up and prepared to board the cargo ship.

Suddenly, their engines went dead.

“Ah, crud! I thought we just got BACK from fueling the Ion Drive!” Tiejaz complained.

“No, it’s not that…they just sent a lock-up system to jam our ship’s movement. Looks like they know we’re here. Tiejaz, start the backup engines,” Aaron said.

“F1II3.”

The engines on the sides of the ship rotated, allowing the energy to instead flow freely from a backup power supply stored within the ship’s engines. It was designed to subsequently allow the main engines to repair themselves while the backups did all the work. It was also designed to work separately from the ship’s main computers.

Of course, the ship sped forwards with tremendous speed, slowing down only as it approached the larger ship.

“The docking doors are closed,” Tiejaz noted.

“Well, yeah! If they went to all the trouble to block the engine transmission, why would they just let us in?” Aaron asked, grinning.

“I just thought they might know who’s on board this ship, and whether or not they realized it was futile to keep us out,” Tiejaz revised.

Aaron typed in codes on the computer quickly, stopping briefly to close all three of his eyes and concentrate. While stopping, of course, Aaron was accessing the Mentonet to get the pass-codes for the larger ship’s computer system. His overall intention was to override the ship’s systems and open the docking hatch.

“Done,” Aaron said as the door in front of the ship opened slowly, revealing a mostly normal docking bay inside, a small lowered semicircle large enough for a ship twice the size of theirs, with steps and railing leading up to a sliding door.

Their ship slowly entered and lowered itself into the ship as the door closed behind them. After the ship had settled to the floor and oxygen was pumped into the bay, Aaron and Tiejaz prepared to leave.

“So, ready to see what’s on this thing?” Aaron asked, grabbing his katana and pack.

“As ready as ever,” Tiejaz replied, loading his plasma pistol with energy-supplying ammo. “So the plan is to find whoever’s running this thing, find out what he has to do with the Shadoh Empire, and then raid the storage for Kaffo?”

“That about sums it up. Plus, you can probably burn things if you want,” Aaron replied. “Hurry up!”

Aaron ran up the steps, with Tiejaz close behind.
********************

Goud sat forwards in his chair, typing frantically at his large control panel. This was probably the worst day he had had in a long while. He had been woken up from the first worthwhile dream he had ever obtained to go on a mission to capture a stupid wolf-being from a forested planet full of complete cowards. Then, the only three “heroes” who came by were three half-wolves and a vulpine, only one he was looking for. The overconfident quartet even put a scratch on his favorite mech he had just constructed from spare parts that came from ships he had recently destroyed.

And finally, after all that work getting to where he was, two uninvited guests, a Sunian and an Aquari, had just forced their way onto his ship.

That was what really sent him over the edge.

So he had spent the last few minutes dealing with them, setting traps, robots, and attacks, only for them to brush his attempts aside. His ship was his own personal maze, and he was giving them a map and a CD of audio instructions by attacking them when they got too close to the path.

If Goud didn’t do something soon, they would find his quarry. He could see them on the computer screens, slowly working their way through the curved hallways.

“Attention, intruders, I order you to vacate the ship immediately, or I will be forced to destroy you!” Goud yelled through the intercom.

“I think they could tell that the last 28 times you tried shooting them with laser cannons.”

Goud turned around, anger covering his face completely. His prisoner, Camis, was stuffed inside a box cage that he had to sit in. The bars and door to the tiny cage were charged with electricity, enough to knock out an escapee easily. Camis showed the signs of hunger, as Goud hadn’t fed him much since the capture, but the kid had been getting on his nerves ever since.

“Shut up, you mangy dog. I’ll dump you out of the ship if you don’t be quiet,” Goud seethed.

“It’s better than being stuck on this ship with you, goon.”

Goud spun around back to the controls. It definitely hadn’t been going his way, but he’d die before being bested by some wandering clowns and a wolf-child.

Goud opened up one of the drawers attached to the computer. It had a collection of wireless controls; each one belonged to a different mech he had built from scrap. He had to construct them in secret, since the Shadoh Empire forbid any non-issued weapons in case of some revolt. Thought they had other ways to deal with traitors, it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Ohhh, so you’ve decided to do the intelligent thing and just let them take whatever and leave?” Camis laughed, pointing to the computer where Goud had shut off the auto-defenses.

“I’m going to take care of these fools myself, and then it’s off to Shadoh HQ,” Goud laughed, grabbing a remote control to one of his favorite mechs, the exact one that he had captured Camis with.

Goud set the ship to auto-pilot and walked towards the door, stopping only to glance at Camis and laugh. Camis just smiled back.

I will find a way to kill that kid, with or without the Shadohs, Goud thought angrily.
********************

Tiejaz and Aaron continued walking through the corridors, filled with powerful, but deactivated, laser turrets. Despite that fact, however, Tiejaz still took part in melting each one he came to.

“So, where do they store the loot?” Tiejaz asked, destroying another turret.

“I think it’s all in the cargo hold up here somewhere. We should be coming to it soon,” Aaron responded.

“Great. I am, for the first time of my life, getting bored of destroying things,” Tiejaz said.

“Well, they are deactivated, you can stop any time.”

Tiejaz stopped for a second, and then melted another turret.

“Don’t want to,” he said.

They then came to what they could only assume was the cargo hold. Boxes labeled with the Shadoh Empire logo were piled high with weapons and ammunition, as well as some food and spare parts. There was a door opposite from them, which they could only assume led to the ship’s cockpit.

In front of the door, there was a very tall and muscular man wearing what was probably a uniform identical to 3 million others. His face looked like it had been strained with anger only minutes before, but was no attempting a look of calm cockiness.

“You must be the owner of this piece of junk,” Tiejaz said.

“Silence, you hothead. I am Goud of the grand Shadoh Empire! Submit to my whim of leaving this ship and I won’t have to destroy you!” the man yelled as if he was of some importance.

“Wow, we didn’t even ask what you what you had joined, even though it’s printed ALL OVER your ship. You must be a real shallow lackey,” Aaron insulted. “Listen, we’re only here to loot this ship because that’s what we do. Tiejaz and I both ravage Shadoh Empire ships because of all the evil/sadistic/idiotic things it does to the universe. Submit to OUR whims of letting us relieve you of any Kaffo you might have stored around here, and perhaps anything else of value that you stole from other planets.”

Goud stiffened up. “So, I guess you know about my recent exploit,” he said.

“Um…no…” Tiejaz started.

“I cannot allow anyone who knows of a Shadoh mission to live. I WILL DESTROY YOU WHERE YOU STAND!” Goud yelled.

“What a lunatic,” Aaron whispered to Tiejaz.

“Pot calling the kettle black?” Tiejaz whispered back.

“What’s a ‘kettle?’”

“Enough! Prepare to die!” Goud yelled again. He withdrew a control from his uniform and proceeded to twist some knobs and push some buttons. A noise signified that something mechanical had activated from deeper inside the ship.

“Well, frightened?” Goud laughed.

“No, not really,” Tiejaz said.

“Insolence!!!”

“Jump, Tiejaz!” Aaron yelled.

Immediately after they both did so, a robotic arm attached to a chain blasted through the wall and hit where they would have been had they not jumped. It left a dent in the floor, and then reeled back to meet the shoulder of the robot it came from.

“Ha ha ha! This is my most deadly model of solo mechs! It will crush you with the plethora of weapons at its desposal!” Goud laughed.

Already, it had begun emptying its clip of bullets through a Vulcan on its hand. Aaron and Tiejaz circled around it too quickly for it to react. Tiejaz pulled out his plasma gun and shot the robot, though the shots only fizzled upon contact.

“I should have known it would be invulnerable to my guns, he’s all yours, Aaron,” Tiejaz said.

“Thanks, you can have the next one,” Aaron replied.

Aaron gathered aura in his fist, which began drawing moisture from the air. Still running, Aaron formed the moisture into a ball of water. The water ball continued to grow until it fit over his entire hand. Just when Aaron was ready to fire, however, the robot’s arm shot out on its chain again, breaking Aaron’s concentration and forcing him to jump out of the way.

Aaron jumped, but found himself in the path of the mech’s lasers. With a loud Sheeeeeeeeeen!, two lasers shot out of the mech’s fists and shot him through the chest.

“Ugh!” Aaron groaned as he fell to the ground. He fell in a crumpled heap, and the mech turned its sights on Tiejaz.

“So, one down, two to go! I knew you couldn’t withstand the awesome power of my grand mecha! It is the pride of all my inventions!” Goud proudly announced. “I knew from the beginning that you both would lose, no matter how many of my machines you trashed on the way!”

“Oh, shut up. It was a lucky shot. And, probably, your last shot,” Tiejaz mocked.

“Silence, ignorant fool!” Goud yelled. “My glourious mech, finish that flame-head off!”

The mech raised his arm and shot its arm at Tiejaz again. Tiejaz made no effort to dodge, and only stood there. Sure enough, seconds away from hitting Tiejaz, the arm stopped and fell to the ground.

“I found my opening,” said a voice from behind the mech.

The huge machine itself sparked and twitched, and also began to smoke. It had short circuited. When the robot fell with a loud “crash,” Aaron stood behind it, his hand dripping from the water attack and a hole in his shirt where the shots had pierced, thought there weren’t any wounds.

Goud was shocked. “What the heck?! I thought you got killed! My robot shot a hole through your chest! There’s no way you could have survived!” Goud screamed in surprise and anger.

“Aquari regeneration powers. Rule number one of engagement is to always know your opponent before the fight,” Aaron explained. “However, that DID smart, and I’ve left you without a means of defense. So why don’t you crawl over in that corner and faint like a good stooge so we can tie you up.”

Goud looked around, desperately looking for something to attack with, but oddly enough, within the vast storage room filled with guns and ammunition, he found nothing to use. Finally, Goud graciously complied with Aaron’s request.
********************

Camis faintly heard two people talking from the other side of the cockpit door. Seeing as neither of them sounded like Goud, he figured that they were the two intruders from before.

Finally, after a while of talking and, by what Camis could guess with his heightened hearing, rustling through the boxes in the storage room, the two opened the door, and a Sunian and 10’ Aquari stepped into the room.
Camis wasn’t too intimidated by their size, seeing as he had lived his life in the presence of people who were all taller than him. What did startle him, however, was the fact that they didn’t look much like intruders. Not that he was all that knowledgeable on what intruders should look like, it just didn’t seem to fit.

“Ah, look, it’s a pet wolf!” the Sunian exclaimed.

“Shut up, Tiejaz, it’s a Lycanian,” the Aquari scolded.

Camis winced. He hated being called a pet or a slave. He could stand being called that by Goud, that idiot, but he couldn’t stand being called those things by normal space travelers.

“I’m not a pet wolf, flame-face,” Camis growled.

“Sorry about that, sometimes he doesn’t know when to BE SILENT,” the Aquari said. “My name’s Aaron, and this other guy’s Tiejaz.”

“Best marksman on this side of the universe,” Tiejaz bragged.

“So, I take it you took out that goon, Goud,” Camis said.

“Yeah, he wasn’t too hard to beat,” Aaron said. “I take it he got you with the capturing rings? Those are probably the single most obnoxious weapons I’ve ever been hit with.”

“So, do you think you could get me out of this cage?” Camis asked.

“Er, not here, but I could probably break it on the ship, under a condition,” Aaron said.

“What? We’re not going to get new members by forcing them in, are we?” Tiejaz asked, taken aback.

“Quiet. We just want to know if you would be interested in joining this intergalactic Guild on Midspace I started a few days ago. We need three members to start, and we were kind of looking for new members when we ran into this ship,” Aaron explained. “So, in return for getting you away from these idiots, how about you join us?”

“So…I can’t go back to my homeworld? I’m just being kidnapped again?” Camis asked.

“No, I gave you a choice, and you can always go back if you join. It’ll be fun. We’ll get to take out Shadoh Empire ships and stuff like that.”

Camis dropped his head and thought for a second.

“I’ll do it,” Camis replied, “as long as I’m able to return to Lycania.”

Aaron smiled. “Great! It’s settled! So what do you say we get out of this miserable dump?” he yelled, picking up Camis’ small cage, avoiding the parts coursing with electricity.

“Searching for new members? Wasn’t that only a bonus?” Tiejaz whispered to Aaron.

“Yeah, but we got some Kaffo, so why not fabricate?” Aaron smiled as they walked out of the cockpit towards their ship.

http://www.freewebs.com/lycanian_traveler/