(Posted on 11-22-2000)
Okay, well, I can tell you right now, that Chapter 11 IS probably, most likely going to be the shortest chapter of Jade's Return. However, the future chapters will live up to the length of 9, 10, etc...
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Chapter 10-Anger Rides On Karticel
I got up, shaking. Without looking back, I ran down several catwalks until I finally managed to reach the door to the shipyard. I looked back before I hit the button to open the door. The Igadzra terror that I had faced was nowhere to be seen or heard. I don't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. I could now finally manage to summon anger. Anger was at this point, my fragile ally, without anger in this particular situation, I would die.
Without turning around to the door, I put up my left arm and felt for the button on the console. I found it, and pressed it, still not turned around, I backed into the door slowly. Barely realizing my mistake, I still barely realized it. I didn't pay attention to what I was really doing, so finally, I turned around.
"I know why Jade is afraid," Greg stated, as he stood there with a photon blaster in his hands. "And quite frankly, I think you know why he is as well."
"Yes, indeed," I said with a stunned look on my face.
"We've got to get out of here and get to a ship."
"Yes, but in case you haven't noticed, we already have one."
"Not good enough to catch Jade on where he's probably going by now."
"It's not?"
"No, we need something stronger."
"Like what?"
"An Azdgari Warship."
"What?! Are you insane? You want to highjack an Azd-"
HAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!
My words were cut off by the Igadzra's roar behind me. He sat there, still covered in purple blood, coming torward us. I turned around and stared, frozen in fear.
"Get down," Greg said calmly.
I hit the grated floor, and behind me heard a high pitched sounding explosion. Purple blood flew into my face. I looked up to find his legs still there, but nothing else. I looked around at the walls and found bloody flesh. I looked back to Greg.
"Holy ****, Mr. Hunter!"
With a laugh, he walked over and held out his hand to me. I grabbed it and he helped me up slowly. I stumbled to my feet, and then looked into the horizon at a Azdgari Warship, docked in a 0G Zone. 0G Zone's were docking stations on a planet that had no gravity. This allowed ships that were built and went for space to land on a planet if neccesary and get supplies.
"We're gonna steal that?!"
"No, you've got it all wrong, it's already stolen," He replied with a smile.
"It is?"
"Yeah, it belongs to United Earth, it's confidential so shhhh!"
I looked at him in awe, and then let out a short laugh. The way he talked and looked at me was a relief. It seemed like Greg had total control over the situation, and wasn't worried at all. I couldn't really be sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing at all. Still, even though I was more relaxed now that pretty much any moment so far, the way he was and his personality gave me a slight uneasy feeling in my stomach. It was as though he knew what was going to happen next.
He began to walk torwards the ship. So many thoughts raced through my mind at this moment. I could remember Jade's clone being ripped in half so vividly that I felt my stomach lurch. I felt dizzy, stressed out, and completly scared. Still, I was a little bit relaxed at this moment thanks to the fact that Greg had saved my life right that second ago.
If this uneasy feeling I have could be something to worry about, then I'll worry. However, until I can even find out if it actually is something to worry about, I guess I have no choice to ignore it until I found out if it is to worry about or not.
"Come on, let's go," Greg said, with a hurry-up tone in his voice.
I ran to him, and he ran as well. We both took a turbolift to the 0G Zone in which the Azdgari Warship was located. I felt reassured with all of this after all of that. This and that have a major gap now. The only thing I need to worry about now is, trying to sleep at night. Seeing a person's body be ripped in half then thrown over a catwalk isn't something you just forget.
"Greg, how did you get the UE to prepare this?"
"They've been following us the entire time, Doc."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I guess there was no point to it."
"Heh, that's wonderful," I replied to him sarcasticly.
The platform came up, stopping with a hiss, steam venting out each side. As I stepped off, I realized that Jade was heading into the Ji Nebula. My only question here was, how?
There was only one explanation, he had to have been using a Docmother ship. I looked to Greg, as he was shaking several hands as we had just now gotten on board.
"Greg, does this ship have a long range comm?"
"Well, Doc, that would depend on your definition of long range."
"I mean like. . . multiple systems."
"Well, yes this ship can communicate with other ships that are up to 2 systems away surrounding us."
"Good, we need to contact every single Karticel ship in the area. We're going to need their help."
"Of course, uh. . .right this way," Greg said with slight hesitation.
He began to walk down a corridor, and I followed him. He finally came to a door. He pressed a button and it opened. My mistake, simply a turbolift. He walked in and looked back at me.
"Well?"
I gave a weak smile and stepped in. He opened a console, and hit several buttons, followed by another usual common glowing red button. I looked to him, and still had the uneasy feeling in my stomach. Perhaps it was his personality, the way he acted, the hesitation a minute ago I did not know. Or maybe it was just plain seeing the fact of someone's upper body being thrown over a catwalk!!
The doors opened and we stepped onto the bridge. It was a round room with several consoles on the walls and on stands throughout the entire thing. Greg looked around and his eye caught a certain console. He walked over to it.
"This is it," he said, standing right next to it, his face torward me.
"Alright, send out a signal saying that we are wanting assistance, and if willing to help to rendevous with us in 3 days in the Kitrak system."
"Will that be all?"
"Yeah."
And with that, Greg typed in the message. He looked up at me once more. I looked at the viewscreen. He did too, as he followed my eyes. Then slowly he turns his head to me again with questioning look.
"Um. . .so Doc? Uh. . .are we heading out or what?"
"You're the detective, Mr. Hunter."
"Oh. . heh. . .right," Greg replied, looking around. Then he cleared his throat.
"Mmm, mm k," he spoke again. Then, he walked over to the captain's chair. Right before he sat down, a man walked in.
"Ah, excuse me," the man said behind Greg. "I believe that's my chair."
Greg simply smiled and moved aside. I laughed. Finally, the captain ordered the take-off from the planet. The warship rose up out of the 0G Zone straight into the atmosphere. The ship shook, but not nearly as much as Greg's Arada did. Speaking of his Arada. . .
"Hey Greg, you're gonna have to get a new ship, huh?"
He didn't say anything, but instead shrugged his shoulders. I sat down and strapped myself in. The captain waved his hand to one of the crew and the ship lept into hyperspace. Bliding light appeared twice as we went through Mirava, to Mezt, and finally Kitrak.
"Captain, I would like you to scan the system immediatly of Docmother ships."
"Alright, why?"
Then Greg leaned over to the captain and whispered something in his ear. The captain simply nodded, and signaled again to one of the crew. The person who he signaled to, simply turned around with his swivel chair and punched in on a few buttons.
"Conducting scan," the crew member said. "Good God, captain. I'm picking up 7 Defender A.K.'s, 18 Bees, 8 Janus Courier vessels, and 37 TF-22's!!"
All I did was smile. Excellent. Everyone in the bridge was surprised at such a high number of vessels being around such an area that was so far from their own. I looked to the captain.
"Contact all of them, and tell them that this is regaurding the absence of Jade Reib, and his protection."
"Communications, you heard Mr. Mason."
"You know my name?"
"Well yes of course, I know a decent deal about you."
"Ah."
"Sir, we're getting a hail," the communications officer said.
The viewscreen flickered into a vivid image. A member of the Karticel race stood on the bridge of a lethal Defender A.K. He looked to me and the captain.
"This is about Jade?"
"Yes," I replied to him.
"He's already handled the situation as far as I can tell, not that I know anything but Jade is a character of epic porportions."
"Heh."
"Now, we are going to help him, however my ship's flak supply is running low, so bare that in mind when or if we go into battle."
"Yes of course I will. You speak English I notice."
"Yes, I do. After relations with UE and the Karticel race not even a mere school child of the Karticel race goes untaught of the English language as well as others."
"I see."
"Look, enough of the pleasantries, whoever has got Jade on the run like this will die, it's that simple. I don't care what kind of ships these are, I've been through a lot and nothing can stop me, or us for that matter from getting Jade back. Once he gets back, a united celebration will be brought about our planet's diplomatic hero, and scientist."
Scientist? I thought to myself.
"Well, I must be going. Over and out, Captain Doc, and to you, whoever you are," he said, staring at the captain with a friendly grin.
"Good bye," I said. "Karticel. . . .charming aren't they, Greg?"
Chapter 11-Action Through The Veins
A few days passed, but for us only about 10 minutes. We warped through system after system, our small fleet of Karticel/Docmother ships following behind with an even pace. The system in which Jade was supposed to be in, was the one we were now in. Everyone on the bridge looked to the viewscreen.
"Oh my God," I said, stunned.
The two warships that we'd encountered before were there, even though we had entered hyperspace right next to them, all that was shown was some light top-of-the-hull scrapes. A blast like we left should have blew off at least 1/3 of the ships.
"Sir, I can see them but they're not shown on scanners," a crewman said.
"Impossible," the captain replied to him. "How. .?"
"Incoming fighters!!"
Green energy balls came flying from enemies we couldn't even see, sheilds began to lower. They began to lower very, very fast. The ship began to shake, and I flew half way accross the bridge.
"Ahh!" I gasped as I landed.
We began to see one of the warships turning torward us. I looked to Greg, my eyes barely open. I got up, barely managing to stand. The captain was unconsious. I ran to the captain, and Greg ran to me. He looked at the captain, and then with only a quick glance took him out of the chair, and layed him gently on the floor, I sat down in his place.
I looked to the viewscreen as I strapped myself in. Dark, warped clouds seems to run straight over the ship, and finally at the end of them a blue pulsating light. It began to fire. It was a Defender.
"Whoa!" I yelled. "Pull back, I want identifications of all ships in the system before we do anything to fight these damn things!"
"But sir!! We don't have a choice! Look!"
The warship that had turned torward us was getting closer and closer. It wouldn't be long before it's beam would get in range of all of us. Thoughts raced, but one stayed.
"Dammit, tell everyone in the fleet to spread out, they aren't going to take all of us out in one hit. Do it."
"And where do we head sir?" the helm asked.
"Stay on this course," I replied hastily, and nervously.
Seven TF-22's screamed out from below us, flak torpedos from the entire fleet swarmed the warship coming torward us. The lights on the bridge flickered as the fire of the explosions spread to us. The viewscreen did too, as it came back on only seconds later, it showed hundreds of their fights fire only a few shots of what looked like flak torpedos to a lone Defender A.K. in the fleet, but it barely held. It began to pull back, but as it did, only to my surprise the huge beam from the warship ripped it apart.
The flak torpedos that had gone to the warship had not done a thing to it. Then, faster than ever, it seeped through the smoke of the battlefield straight torward our ships.
"Get to the escape pods now!!" I yelled, as I unstrapped myself and got up from the chair. Greg ran too, following me, the rest of the bridge crew got up and started torward the turbolift.
"Get in, get in!" I panicked.
They ran in, we were all squeezing in, barely fitting. I punched the console to the escape pod deck. The turbolift went down, my stomach got queasy. The door open, and everyone scattered to their pods. I looked to Greg once more.
"Well, this is it. So much for making a difference right?" I said as I walked out calmly. The fact that now only at this moment I was calm was unfathomable.
"Yeah, so much for that," Greg said, skeptical.
We both climbed into a single pod. The hatch closed, and I began hitting the assigned buttons on the console for release. I felt my stomach lurch again, no longer calm like that one moment. What was I doing? Giving up just because I see a warship coming straight torwards me? YOU'RE SAVING YOUR LIFE, DOC, I thought. Heh, I guess it had to be true. Outside I could hear the rest of the ship's crew getting into pods. The three pods ahead of ours launched out through the shield. We continued behind them moving on a track, and finally lifted up a few feet above the hangar ground and our thruster pulsed.
"Fasten your seat belt," I chirped to Greg with a weak smile.
"Heh."
My back hit the back of the seat with a hard, stinging smack. Talk about whiplash. I thought about the other escape pods I had been in before, including one of them I bought from some nameless person, according to him it was supposed to be deluxe. Ha, my classic words, "Oh deluxe, my butt." In the stream of my thoughts I had remembered this from far back.
I looked to the window and saw the stars fly by, streaming by. A beautiful sight only to be cut off by the sound of blaster fire. Greg and I could constantly hear the roaring sound of non-stop explosions as even Defender A.K.'s were most likely biting the dust.
But out of all of this, nothing was nearly as horrible as what I was about to hear outside. The escape pod rattled from a gigantic pulsing sound that seemed to be louder than any of the others. I fell forward, my strap holding me, I was literally weakened by the sound. It. . . . .was . . . . .watery. . . .echoed. . . .
Then I realized that it was the engines of their fighters streaming next to us. I looked out the window, and through all of my haze I managed to catch a glimpse of the black and grey horror. Greg was already out cold, so now, I realized what kind of damage these ships were really doing. I had to stop them, I had to fight this feeling. I just had to, I couldn't let it take over me, or the other ships. If large crews were finally put to sleep, they wouldn't even have any need to destroy the ships, because the crew would simply be asleep. This is why swarms of the fighters were on and near the Defenders. . .no, no, no, no, NO! NOOOOOO! I WON'T LET IT HAPPEN, I WON'T, I WON'T!
"AAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" I leaped forward to the main control console, and hit the navi computer. Then I flew back violently against the wall of the escape pod.
Black. . . . . .dark. . . . .uncertain. . . .Where had I gone?
(This message has been edited by moderator (edited 11-22-2000).)
