Earth Takes a Stand
Chapter Ten: Thaylen's Ship.
by Anonymous
Raymond was caught off-guard by the ship's erratic action. The whole
thing had started to move in reverse, preventing him from getting any
closer. He was confused for a moment, then found himself caught in a
barrage of fire from the ship's main weapons!
Apparently, something in the ship had changed. Their original plan of
splitting up would not work if the ship was able to fire at two
targets at once, as Laura could not draw all of their fire. His wings
were designed for flight in an atmosphere, and merely propulsion in a
vacuum. He had no way to effectively dodge the assault, and Chris
currently was completely dependent on him for all motion!
At the same time, a thin red beam of some sort extended from the ship
and connected with Laura. Unlike the yellow blasts, this weapon was
emitted in a continuous beam and was starting to hurt!
Worse, all this was in addition to the relentless fire of the yellow
blasts.
By this time, Laura was getting fed up with this whole situation.
Fairchild was somewhere on that ship and she was going to save her no
matter what the cost! "Damn
the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" Paying no head to the red beam or the yellow
blasts aimed at her, she sped forward on a direct collision course
with what she hoped was the ship's bridge!
*
"Begin anti-missile tactics!" Thaylen could think of no other way to
deal with this situation. This ship was never designed to be used
against small, invulnerable targets. Large invulnerable targets were
one thing, small vulnerable targets were also easy enough to deal
with, but this was an entirely new situation.
Four darker yellow beams fired from the top, bottom, and sides of the
ship, converging about 20 feet in front of Laura. When they met, they
exploded in a massive release of energy powerful enough to knock a
speeding comet out of it's orbit. Laura emerged from the cloud of
thick plasma residue as if it had no effect whatsoever. This ship was
going to know the full brunt of a Velorian Protector's wrath! And
nothing was going to stop her!
"Stand by to repel boarders! Discontinue firing on the other two,
security, to the bridge! Get every Prime except Kayne here on the
double!" Thaylen wasn't used to having to shout orders to a crew.
His race was only strongly telepathic with each other, and those like
Kayne and Garritan who had learned how to listen to thoughts he was
projecting. These Arions had such inefficient methods of
communicating.
In seconds, the remaining four Primes and a security detachment of
heavily armed Betas were on the bridge. "I'm going to the auxiliary
bridge to continue the battle against the other two. Bridge crew,
come with me." Thaylen wasn't about to admit defeat yet.
*
Raymond was shielding Chris and himself with his wings as well as he could.
Even if it meant
his armor would be damaged, three still stood a better chance
than two at destroying this ship. The pair had seen Laura fly
straight through the awesome explosion the four weapons had created
and, after a brief shock of concern for her, emerge unscathed. They
should have known that it would take more than that to stop a Velorian
Protector in full assault!
Shortly afterward, the barrage of yellow blasts stopped. Or did it
pause? Regardless, it was their chance to close the gap between them
and the ship. Raymond had nowhere near the acceleration of Laura, but
once on the ship all ground would be even again. If only they could
get close to the ship in the first place!
*
The Beta security team and the Primes on the Bridge watched the
viewscreen intently as Laura came closer and closer. Within moments,
she was ready to impact with the ships hull. "Everyone, grab hold of
something!" The last minute instruction came almost too late as Laura
smashed through the hull at a speed which wouldn't mean anything even
if it was described. There was a point, somewhere around Mach 10,
where all speed still under that of light could only be called "really
fucking fast." Any distinction between Mach 20 and 40 is essentially
meaningless.
Two Betas with a loose grip were blown out into the vacuum of space as
all the air rushed out of the bridge through the hole Laura created.
Although their bodies were strong enough to deal with the complete
lack of pressure, they were condemned to float helplessly though space
and eventually suffocate.
The impact with the hull didn't bother Laura and more than the
anti-missile strike had. She broke loose with her heat vision before
anyone could react, painlessly vaporizing three of the Betas. Without
pausing the beams for an instant, she turned to one of the Primes,
throwing her against the back wall of the bridge and searing her flesh
with every once of her rage.
The other three Primes wasted no time in trying to tackle her, but she
fought like a tigress. A tigress powerful enough to rip this ship
apart with her bare hands! The first Prime was caught by a powerful
right hook to his jaw, stunning him and throwing him to the ground.
The second caught a knee in his gut, and he impacted with the ceiling
an instant later. The other tackled her from the side, trying
desperately to hold her down as she thrashed and swung with all her
might.
*
"Everyone to your stations. I want the weapons console split two ways
now. Helm, keep us at an even distance from the target. And for
Pete's sake get a force shield patch on the hull breach on the main
bridge!" It was an unusual expression for this situation, but Thaylen
didn't have a complete grip on the English language yet, and when he
tried to translate English expressions into Arion, things like that
came out.
The Arions scrambled for their stations inefficiently. The layout of
Thaylen's ship was so, well, alien to them. All the stations were in
different places, and they had very little experience with a weapons
console that could be split up to five ways when necessary. To make
matters worse, the near obsessive aversion Thaylen's race had to right
angles meant that the areas where the walls met the floor were curved,
making it hard to walk if you had fewer than four legs. If they
hadn't installed Arion computers on the ship they wouldn't even be
able to work the instrumentation at all, it was all controlled
telekinetically before their modifications.
The compromises meant that now, neither Thaylen or the Arions were
able to effectively use the ship without each other. The Arions found
it difficult to use this very alien ship, and Thaylen couldn't read
the Arion displays, he could only speak the language. He picked it up
quickly because of his telepathy, but never learned how to read or
write Arion very well. This was what made it necessary for Kayne to
deliver oral reports.
And Kayne was the only member of the crew left who could actually deal
with captain Thaylen's ways. As the last member of his race, he
seemed intent on preserving his old ways. His style of running
a ship, his chain of command, his rituals and his
methods. It took someone who had spent a lot of time dealing with his
people to pander to his style. After Garritan had died, Kayne was the
only Prime left on the ship who knew enough about Thaylen's customs to
deal with him.
The Betas knew how to deal with him though. The same way they dealt
with the Primes. Do what he says, when he says it, and as well as he
expects you to do it, and you don't have to worry about dying for
another day or so.
*
Raymond was still far from the ship. He still had Chris in tow, and
their radio was still jammed. And the ship was still firing at them.
The only difference between what was going on just then and the
situation five minutes ago was that Raymond seemed to have found a
blind spot in the firing arc of the ship. Thanks to the design of the
front of the ship, in the shape of a curly bracket } he was able to
maintain a position directly in front of the ship where he could not
be hit.
Anything much larger than human sized would never be able to take
advantage of this blind spot. Anything slower than Raymond's armor
wouldn't be able to either, as Raymond had to maintain full thrust
from his engines to stay the appropriate distance from the ship, and
at the appropriate angle, to stay relatively safe. Laura was going to
have to do something quickly or Raymond would never be able to
board.
And poor Chris, poor helpless Chris was still attached to Raymond by a
claw cable. He had no means of propulsion, no way of taking his
safety into his own hands, and no way of protecting himself against
the occasional blast that got past Raymond and hit him. These weapons
were designed to be used against other ships, and were not terribly
accurate, so most of the blasts missed Raymond and himself, but each
shot that hit him hurt like hell. Around this time he was starting to
run pretty low on oxygen as well, and he couldn't wait to get into
that ship. Or at least back into Earth's atmosphere.
*
Laura had problems of her own though. Battling four Arion Primes was
no easy task for anyone, not even her. At least the Betas weren't
firing. The five combatants were struggling so violently that the
Betas couldn't get a clear shot.
Almost entirely without warning, a blue force field erected itself
over the hole Laura had made in the hull, and air started to filter
into the bridge from the ventilation system. Laura felt herself take
her first breath of refreshing air in over an hour, it filled her
lungs and felt so wonderful after being exposed to a vacuum for so
long.
The fresh air cleared her head a bit, and she started to actually
think about this fight rather than simply thrash about like a cornered
animal. She was a hell of a lot stronger than these Primes, and she
was going to use that to her advantage!
The first thing she did was grab two of the Primes by the back of
their heads and smash them together as hard as she could. The impact
resounded throughout the now air-filled bridge, knocking the Betas off
their feet and temporarily damaging their hearing. The two Primes
literally bounced off of each other and fell in heaps on opposing
sides of the bridge, thoroughly unconscious and would be so for
hours.
There was one male and one female Prime now still posing a threat to
her. The female Prime was out of the first part of the battle because
of Laura's initial heat vision assault. Now she was ready to rumble
again. She caught Laura's punch with both hands, using joint
manipulation techniques to twist her around and keep her locked in a
wrestling hold of some kind. "Impressed, sweety? You should be. I
used this same move on your lover Aurora not too long ago. She
couldn't get out of it either." She was right, trying to move only
made Laura's arms hurt. She was far weaker than Laura, but she knew
how to inflict pain. She lowered her lips to Laura's ear and
whispered, every so gently and accompanied by a sensuous stream of
air, "And now you are going to die."
The male Prime left standing cracked his knuckles loud enough to be
heard on the decks above and below him. It sounded like bone
shattering. While his partner held Laura down, he drove his fists
into her, again and again, with all his star-born might! All his
impressive musculature was exaggerated to inhuman proportions by the
effort. The impacts were loud enough to be heard all over the ship.
Arion Prime fists slowly, ever so slowly, began to wear down the
incredible warm steel that is Velorian muscle. Laura's eyes shut
tight against the growing pain, but still she struggled against the
female's hold on her shoulder joints. She had to win! This was for
Fairchild!
*
Meanwhile, Kayne was continuing his ritualized execution of Fairchild.
He knew that if he did not follow the rite, to the letter, Thaylen
would sense it immediately the next time they met. Damn his
telepathy. Damn his ship, damn his customs, and damn him!
"And thus, it is with honor and the respect due a worthy opponent,
that you pass out of this life and into the Quell Nigh. Extinguish
this candle, and so your flame will die as well." Far too
melodramatic for his Arion sensibilities. He would rather kill the
Velorian now, and join the battle against the invaders. It was far
too dangerous to let her live while her rescuers were on this very
ship! But he had his orders. And damn it all, he had no choice but
to follow them.
The ritual called for the candle to be painfully pressed against the
victim to extinguish it. This worked fine for beings who were not
invulnerable, but the Velorian in front of him would have no idea that
the flame was even coming in contact with her skin. Nevertheless, the
pain was essential, it symbolized death. Kayne found himself forced
to ad-lib the ceremony a bit as he pressed the flame against
Fairchild's face, and used his heat vision to burn her where the flame
touched her. Close enough.
Kayne was impressed indeed when he saw only the slightest motion on
Fairchild's part when he burned her. The ceremony was designed to
allow the victim to die with dignity, honor, and respect. The effect
was not lost on her, even restrained as she was in the gold chains.
Her thin arms and shapely legs held by mere gold chain. Her
incredibly powerful body, beautiful face, perfect breasts, how he
wanted to fuck her right there, while she was helpless before him!
But that would be suicide. Thaylen would sense what he did
immediately on their next encounter, and such a desecration of his
rituals would not go unpunished.
All speeches finished, candle extinguished, and several Betas present
for witnesses, only one step remained in the ritual. The act of
execution. Once again, Kayne needed to break slightly from the rite
to ensure effectiveness. He knew of only one way to kill a Velorian;
and that began by reaching under her ribcage, stretching her skin and
muscle along the way, and taking a good, firm grip on her heart.
*
At the same time Fairchild felt the first beat of her heart struggle
against Kayne's iron grip, Laura's head snapped to attention. She
could not hold the burning rage inside of her any longer. Despite the
pain in her abs and her shoulders, she knew she was first and foremost
a Protector. And right now, her lover, the woman who knew her more
intimately than anyone else alive, needed protecting!
Ignoring the burning pain, she forced herself to act. If she couldn't
break the Prime's hold on her, she was going to have to user her grip
to her advantage. Flexing her mighty legs to three times their
original size, she flew backward and smashed the Prime unmercifully
against the wall of the bridge. With a final surge of pain in her
shoulders, the Prime's grip was released. She turned and grabbed the
woman by her wrists, crushing them under her grip. Then she lifted
her into the air by those same broken wrists, sending excruciating
pain through her body, and brought her crashing down on the weapons
console, reducing it to a pathetic scrap of crushed metal and
wiring.
*
"Sir, we've lost weapons control! Nothing is responding!"
Captain Thaylen would normally never have allowed a lowly Beta to
address him directly, but Kayne, the only Arion high enough in rank to
do so, was currently otherwise occupied. He found himself excusing
this Beta and actually talking to him!
"Of all the incompetent...! Can't four Primes handle one Velorian? I
can't believe my race was decimated by you worthless, unceremonious
bastards! Reroute weapons systems to bypass the main bridge." He
knew he should have done that in the first place, but time was of the
essence and he thought the main bridge was in no real danger.
Another crash resounded through the ship, and Thaylen didn't even have
to be told what just happened. "Reroute helm control. Reroute all
systems to bypass main bridge control. And do it quickly!"
*
Raymond and Chris were caught by surprise by the sudden halt of all
the ships weapons, followed shortly by the entire ship discontinuing
its acceleration away from them. This was their chance, and they had
to take it before they fixed whatever it was that Laura had done to
it.
Continuing at full thrust, Raymond towed Chris as quickly as he could
to the ship. Within moments, they were at the hull. Raymond found an
airlock quickly and, using his laser, sliced the locks and seals off
of it. Raymond felt that entering through the hull would draw too
much attention, and this might be overlooked. The pair entered the
airlock and as Raymond used a lower setting to weld the door back
shut, Chris stabbed blindly at buttons written in Arion, trying to
fill the compartment with air and open the inside door.
Finally, he succeeded. He took his first good breath of air in over
an hour and coughed the dryness out of his lungs. Hard vacuum tended
to leave a few side effects on beings who were not completely
invulnerable. "Christ, that's not something I want to go through
again. Wow, I never realized how good it felt just to be able to
talk."
"I'm going to find Aurora." Raymond stated in his matter-of-fact way.
"If she's dead, then this entire mission will be cut pleasantly
short. I assume you're going to try to find Laura."
It disturbed Chris that Raymond could talk about his lover in that
way, but it was far better not to argue with him right now. He and
Laura needed all the help they could get. "Right. I'll go find
Laura. Shouldn't be too hard, I'll just follow those crashing sounds
a deaf man could probably hear. Just... just don't destroy the ship
while we're still on it. That's all I ask."
"Of course." Raymond's attitude was starting to wear very thin on
Chris.
Raymond took off to the right, toward the back of the ship, and Chris
headed to the left. Raymond's choice of direction was completely
random. He had no clue as to the layout of the ship, but in the
absence of a map he was forced to make a decision. Chris simply
wanted to get away from Raymond. Raymond irritated the hell out of
him.
Raymond felt that he had to act this way, though. He could not afford
to show any weakness. He did what he did for all the normal Terrans
on Earth, as if they all with one voice were saying "We will no longer
be oppressed!" At least that was how he saw himself. It was the
driving force behind his actions.
Yet although he could not show weakness, he certainly felt it.
Without the armor he could be killed with no more than a casual glance
from these aliens. He hardly ever took it off anymore. The longer he
kept it on, the weaker he felt without it, and the more he needed
it.
It didn't help either that after taking the armor off after a big
battle, he felt tired and sore, and his skin was hypersensitive. He
chalked that up to something about the Velorians, maybe their heat
vision had some delayed effect or he was allergic to the residue the
pheromones left on the armor. It could be any one of a million
things, even a radiation leak from the nuclear generator that powered
his armor. He hoped beyond words that Steve hadn't cut any corners on
that aspect of his armor. But Steve wasn't known to cut corners,
especially when it really counted.
It wasn't long before Raymond encountered his first Beta. For an
instant, there was a pause as the both of them waited for the other to
make the first move. The Beta was first, reaching down to draw his
sidearm. In the same instant, Raymond raised his arm and fired a claw
cable. Before the Beta could squeeze off a shot, he was caught by the
claw and reeled in toward the armor. The force of the impact made him
drop his gun. Raymond lifted him effortlessly into the air with one
hand, raising the six foot Beta up to the nearly seven and a half foot
eye level of the armor. He demanded, "Tell me where you are keeping
the Velorian."
The Beta put on a confused look, and chattered something in Arion at
Raymond. Raymond simply increased his grip on the Beta's arm. "I
know you speak English. Tell me where Aurora is."
The Beta continued to speak on Arion, talking faster in a panic. Then
he switched to Russian, then French. They were the only languages he
knew. Raymond spoke only English, and a little Spanish. "Then I have
no use for you." Raymond raised his laser to the Beta's head,
watching him plead for his life as he offered the Beta one last chance
to speak a language he didn't know.
War does strange things to men. Raymond had never killed anything
before he donned his armor. Since then, he had killed in cold blood
several times. Every time before this, though, he had no time to
think about his actions, if he didn't act quickly people would die.
This time, he had a harmless Beta in his grip and no one else around.
Outside of a combat situation, he couldn't bring himself to kill the
pleading Beta. He tried communication one last time.
"Aurora."
The Beta finally understood. He pointed down the corridor and said
"Gyoe too."
*
Laura finished a rush job of destroying the bridge, despite the fire
of the Betas weapons. They had little or no effect on her. The two
conscious Primes were knocked off their feet time and time again as
the shattering blows she landed on the control panels shook the
bridge. The only thing keeping the Betas on their feet was their grip
on whatever items they had a hold of when Laura had first crashed into
the ship.
Without bothering to deal with the Betas or the two remaining Primes,
Laura crashed her way through the door leading to the bridge and ran
at full speed down the hallway. She was going to find Fairchild if
she had to rip the ship apart to do it!
Several Betas paid the penalty for being in the corridor at the wrong
time as she shoved her way past them, the luckier ones dying instantly
as she crushed their ribs against the walls of the ship. She had no
idea where she was going, but she was sure she'd know a holding cell
when she saw one.
*
Thaylen was running out of options. He had three super-powerful
intruders on his ship, and his crew seemed unable to stop them.
"Release the Kintzi."
"Sir, the Kintzi have no self control! They'll do more damage to the
ship than the intruders!" This was too much. A Beta addressing him
was something that could be overlooked in a crisis, but questioning
his orders!?
The Beta grabbed his head and fell to the floor in agony, screaming
for mercy as he felt his mind catch fire! "Release... the... Kintzi."
Thaylen commanded, barely able to keep his anger in check. The other
Betas needed no more persuasion.
The Kintzi were kept in an area of the ship everyone called The
Playroom. It was an ultra-reinforced section of the ship made by
taking out the walls of several of the crew quarters to form one large
room. The remaining 10 Kintzi spend their off-duty hours in this
room, fighting, sleeping, fucking, and eating. They needed this room
because the Kintzi mentality needed something to do all the
time. Left bored, there was no telling what they would do.
Now that was exactly what Thaylen was counting on.
*
"Faster, Tabral. We want to get back to the base before they destroy
the ship." Bacstin needed to get back to San Fransisco quickly, so
she was taking the "Tabral express," riding him like a horse the way
they had done so many times before, years ago when they worked
together. The only read differences were that Tabral was harder to
hold on to, and quite a bit faster!
"I'm going as fast as I can without attracting attention. If you
want, I could hit the freeway and be there in a few minutes, but I
don't think that would be a good idea."
Bacstin considered it for a minute, then decided. "Yes, do that.
We'll take the freeway until we're near the city, then break off and
take the side roads again. We'll be back at the base in no time.
Then we can send the signal."
Tabral frowned. "You're sure now, this could compromise our whole
wait a minute! I'm ready to kick myself. Bacstin, there's no one
here who can stop us! The Velorians and Raymond are on the
ship, and after what he did to the communications base there
aren't any Arions left in San Fransisco. What does it matter if we're
seen?"
Bacstin looked ready to kick herself, too. "I guess all this sneaking
around gets habit forming. PUNCH IT!" With a sudden burst of speed
that nearly made Bacstin lose her grip, Tabral accelerated to his full
speed. He leapt completely over large intersections in a single bound
with cat-like grace, passed cars, and shocked pedestrians as he headed
straight for the freeway. They'd be there in no time flat!
When the did arrive, Tabral was out of breath. Cats, including the
Kintzi, were not made for distance running. Although in his super
powerful case distance running meant going farther than most cars
could on a single tank of gas. Tabral, not nearly as tired from just
holding on, exitedly sat down to the last remaining, working computer
terminal in the entire base.
"Okay, Tabral, I have good news and bad news. Good news is that the
ship is still in orbit, and it's definatly under attack. I'm getting
a distress call from Thaylen's ship. Bad news is there's another
Arion ship on its way to help. If we evacuate the Betas, they'll
probably go to the other ship."
"Well, maybe... unless we modify the plan a little. Instead of just
sending a false evacuation messege, can we get a messege to only the
Betas? Then we could tell them the whole plan and get them to come
straight here instead of trying to track them down later. And they
can bring weapons. If we could figure out how to do that, then that
would solve all our problems."
"Actually, I think I could! If the ship's under attack, then that
means that all the Primes will be helping defend it..."
"Meaning there will definatly be a Beta at the communications console,
who you can tell your plan to..."
"He'll spread the word to the other Betas, and we can get our
resitance group started! This is going to work! It's really going to
work!" Bacstin hugged Tabral hard, for once in her life she was going
to actually be somebody, not just a pawn under Arion control!
She was going to make a difference.
A short conversation later with the communications officer confirmed
it, he was willing to go through with it. Many of the Betas on the
ship were sick of being treated as second class citizens, and most
would jump at the chance to live on Earth, where for once, they would
be the strong ones!