It has been a few weeks since the major invasion of Mizar, and his Drones, and the Gemini team had just been given a brand new ship to replace their old one, which was destroyed as well as a new recruit.
The trio left Earth on their new vessel and await the rookie's arrival.
"So Juno, who do you think will it be? A strong brute? A man with laser shooting powers or a woman whose mental ability can decapitate Drones' heads without her hands?" Came the girly voice of Vela.
Lupus, their mascot, barked in cooperation.
"Whoever it is, we better welcome him with open arms. Its a big day for the rook." Juno confidently said, with his arms crossed.
Lupus began to bark at the windows of the bridge, hinting that a ship was on approach.
Juno ran up while Vela attended the monitors.
"Incoming vessel at 2 o' clock. Looks well armed for a patrol ship." She described.
The two watch the conspicuous ship pass by their windscreen and make contact on one of the access points. The trio await timidly towards the door. Was it a drone attack? Is Mizar back or were they boarded by cheesy space pirates?
The answer revealed itself as the sounds of footsteps approached, causing the group to hold firmly onto their Machine Guns, poised to shoot the attacker.
The doors part and the trio immediately open fire, followed by wails.
"Hey! Stop! Hold your fire!"
Juno stopped while Vela continued her relentless shooting before he held down her hand.
"Stop!" He went as he gazed ahead. A similarly uniformed young man, in his 20s, was cowering in the door way. His hair was blonde and had bright blue eyes, with a startled expression on his face.
"Is this how you greet your newest recruit?" He said before assuming that the trio had stopped attacking.
"Who are you? What's our wing?" Juno quizzed.
"Is this...uhhh..." The man looked puzzled before taking out a piece of paper.
"Jet...Force...Gemini?" He asked.
The trio looked at each other.
"Yep." Vela responded.
"Oh thank goodness. Everyone's been leading me around in circles and at last..." He responded.
"Care to introduce yourself?" Juno asked.
The rook boldly saluted before stating his name.
"Private Luna, sir!"
"Luna? Well...welcome aboard... I guess; Sorry about the incident, we do get a bit finicky with people constantly trying to steal our ship.
My name is Lt Juno, my sister next to me is Sergeant Vela and that is Lupo, our mascot. He's quite quirky yet bold" He introduced with their dog barking.
"Well, now that I am here, I should get settled and put my bags down." Luna said.
"We'll help and show you around. Sound good?" Juno suggested.
"Yeah, it'll save me a lot of trouble." Luna said as the trio went into his ship.
"Hey? What's that?" Vela pointed at a smaller one, sitting in mountings.
"Oh, that explains my specialist. I heard you all have different abilities." Luna asked.
"Well, I can swim underwater for any length of time, my brother can wade through Lava and Lupus can hover with his rocket boots." She responded.
"Well mine is Air, can glide over a great distance and that, over there, is my hover bike. It allows me free flight through the field.
As I took a special course, than the rest of the cadets, I built her myself." Luna explained while Juno sat down in the seat.
"It looks a bit enclosing..." Juno said as he tried out pushing the pedals and turning the bars.
"Its designed to protect me as much as possible. You'll know how It gets really dangerous up there so I wear heavier armor on my exposed parts.
Even a modified version of the standard jet force helmet to better protect my head from snipers." Luna said while Juno fiddled with the headgear.
"Its sophisticated but at least I wont be needing to deal with flying bugs." Vela said before signalling the group to help Luna with his oversized bags.
"Gosh, how much did you stuff in these...?!" Juno grunted as he struggled with the immense weight of the baggage.
"Oh, only a few things." Luna said as they drop his bags off at his new quarters.
"I appreciate the help from you guys and look forward to serving amongst a group of heroes." Luna smiled as he gave them his gratitude.
"Well...Its the best we could do and relax. The only things we were concerned about are space pirates." Juno said when a alarm acquired their attention. Vela ran up to it.
"Goldwood. There's been a disturbance on the surface." She said.
"Sounds like a good plan to see what the rookie can do? Say Luna, since you are our aerial specialist, how about you go on a recon trip and see what the fuss is all about?" Juno said.
"Anything sir. I'll get right on it." He saluted before scurrying off to tend to his craft.
"I'll see the course and see what's going on. I have a sneaking suspicion that it may not just be another pesky space pirate raid again." He murmured before sitting in his chair, taking a sip out of his delightful coffee and steers the ship for Goldwood.
It was only a few hours before Gemini's ship started orbit over the sleepy green planet of the Tribals: An indigenous bear like people who were former slaves of Mizar's empire.
The team watched as Luna's armed ship zooms into the atmosphere of Goldwood with Vela operating the radio, keeping in touch with their recruit.
"This is Vela, do you copy private?" She said.
"Coming in loud and clear. Just beginning to start routine patrol now." Luna said.
"Ok, keep in touch when you find anything" She responded
"10-4." Luna responded before she went to get herself something to drink.
"Well...what did you think of Luna? He sounded enthusiastic of joining our team." Juno asked Vela.
"He's new but I doubt he would survive very long in the field and he never faced Mizar's drones. Dude, those ants were ferocious and deadly!" Vela responded.
"Give the kid some slack. Mind you, you were the lesser experienced back then." Juno said.
"Hey! At least I knew how to properly shoot right!" Vela barked.
"Shoot right...?! Heck, I could do it with my arms crossed!" Juno argued.
The pair argued when Lupus barked in a bid to break them up.
"Lupus' right, we shouldn't be arguing like this, look how we got here: we came for each other and watched each others backs.
The same we should do to Luna." Juno said, riddled with guilt.
"Speaking of Luna. He hasn't reported. I'll go check." Vela said before attending the radio.
"Luna? Can you hear me? Status report!"
She held down for a response but clearly nothing was coming back.
"Luna? Are you there?" She said.
Then sounds of laser fire and the screams of Tribals went coming through the mic.
"Can't just now...too many of them! Need assistance! Bad! Sugar, I have to retreat! Come quickly!" Luna shouted through the sounds of heated combat.
Vela turned to Juno.
"I'll go check it out. You two stay here and watch the ship and keep comms open." Juno said as he puts on his iconic helmet and pulls up his thermo-resistant armour.
"Good luck Juno. Stay safe." Vela said as her brother scurried off into his scarlet red patrol ship bound for Goldwood.
"I hope he made it out." Juno muttered, as he broke through the skyline, just when his ship came under heavy flak fire.
"What the-?" Juno went when the attack cripples his ship's engines.
"Damn it! I'll have to ditch her!" He went when he vigorously guides the burning craft to a large pool of water and crashes with a soft splash.
Underwater, Juno forced the canopy to open and swam out, to the surface, and scrapes onto the beach, leading into the jungle.
"Crap, If this was bad enough, I wonder who organised this ambush? I
f so, I'll have to find Luna as soon as possible!" He went before grabbing his Pistol and darting through the doorway, into the chieftain's hut.
There King Jeff, the leader of the Tribals, greeted the hero in a state of panic.
"Oh by the great lords, they send us the hero of Jet Force! Something a' terrible has happened on our soil!" He went.
"Tell me exactly what you seen?" Juno asked boldly.
"I wasn't present as I went off to attend my daily massage when I heard that my people were attacked! I don't know who they were but I did see a Jet Force guy pass here.
He asked about the disturbance but I couldn't tell him exactly but it happened to the south, where you went to track down Vela.
I fear for the guy's life since he came on a flying bike. I have seen Mizar use flying robots but a soldier operating such a low flying aircraft beckoned relief for whatever had happened for only a short while.
The sounds of fighting still is ongoing down south. Hurry Juno for both your fellow comrade and my people may be in trouble!" Jeff squeaked.
"Good, thanks for telling me this." Juno said before running off.
"Oh and good luck!" Jeff said as he ran through the south door.
The winding passage breathed a familiar air for Juno. The quiet still fragrance of slain Drones mesmerized Juno of his first true scratches with Mizar's minions on-world but this was an entirely different story. Something that Juno kept firmly in mind as he carefully swept round every corner, for a possible ambush, and watched the trees for sleuth snipers.
However the grim silence clearly showed that this place has hardly ever seen combat since the fall of Mizar but Juno kept up his guard.
Something shot down his ship and he needs to find out who or what did it. As he crossed the bridge, he was about to find out.
When he walked into a village, the huts' doors began to open and the familiar pig growls warned him of the oncoming ambush; Drones.
They came out in their huge numbers, in a bid to overwhelm him, but he was prepared. He knew that the blue ants were known to ambush him and his team around every corner but they wouldn't do it without Mizar's influence.
If their supreme commander is dead, how do they coordinate such an attack when they would just attack him aggressively? This was just one step to what happened to Luna.
Juno skilfully dodged their inaccurate shots while returning his own; beheading each and every drone that he saw. Within a few minutes, the ambush turned out to be a bush of defeat as Juno cut down everything that moved.
Then he heard a familiar voice echo from through the doorway.
"Hey! Get your claws off me!"
Wiping the condensed sweat off his helmet's visor, Juno sets off after the voice.
The next area proved to be a battlefield as he stumbled into a field full of angry drones, staring into his emerald eyes.
They began firing, the moment he gulped, and he charged behind cover whilst pinned down by heavy fire. He was about to prepare grenades when the sounds of a jet engine hinted that he should see.
He looked over to witness Luna's ship hovering over the drones, who looked puzzled by its presence.
A patrol ship, weren't they supposed to be for transport? Apparently this wasn't, as the ship unfolds a pair of gatling guns and sprayed laser fire all over the panicking grunts, who squealed and ran like headless chickens, before being dissected into bug bits.
With the massacre over the ship continued a low exit, keen to avoid being hit by the same attack that occurred to Juno. After gazing at its passing in amazement, Luna has some explaining to do so he ran through the doorway to the next area.
In the distance, he could see Luna being tied up by Drones, and dragged towards a ship, protected by flyers. Juno instinctively knew that he would be taken alive to one of their bases if they have gotten smart again. He began his attack and the drones, rather than hurrying up with their kidnap, head underground, behind a locked door, and the ship makes a swift getaway, Nuts!
The spinning flies hover around the door, waiting to gun down Juno whenever he gets too close so he looks for another way in...after cutting down an army of angry alien bugs and buzzing bee flyers of course. With all of the enemies dead, he searched to find an alternate way in by heading into the next area.
There a river peacefully flows across, breached over by a simple rope bridge. He looked at each end of the stream and saw that there was still an opening, leading into the area where Luna was being held, but under the surging current.
Juno sighed at the sight of water. He wasn't a keen swimmer, like his sister, but he had to take risks. With a simple dive, he swims upstream towards the opening and heads in.
Out he came from a waterfall and he lands on his butt, not a soft landing. He got up and familiarises himself with the layout of the caves, where they used to force the Tribals to work labour.
The whole place was riddled with drones and mines, which still lock down certain tunnels. He carefully navigated through the darkness, avoiding sudden ambushes, and finally gets to the large area. Two drones squeal at Juno's arrival but he was quick to execute them before they did the same to the aerial specialist, tied up with rope.
"about time you showed up. If it wasn't for you, they'd drag me to a ship and had me brainwashed!" Luna said as he breaks his bounds.
"Brainwashed? How do you know all this?" He asked.
"Well, I grew up in a world where they were made and learned to speak Drone." Luna responded.
"Lets hear it then, what happened?" He quizzed.
"Well, what...was...a routine patrol turned out to be a full blown assault. As I prepared to land at Goldwood some various explosions and lasers rocked my ship, during the descent. I couldn't work out what it was so I got out on my bike to see where the source was.
I took the most discreet route to the source and, in the next 5 seconds, I managed to see that the Drones had access to some sort of AA tower. I wasn't sure what it really was but the basic shape was familiar. Then I was shot down by the ants and taken hostage." Luna explained.
"That's all I need to know. Now, you outta stay here and wait till I get back." Juno went before walking away.
"Wait!" Luna said before catching up.
"The drones, they are too focused on eliminating you guys. They don't know I am working for you. Their flyers? They too only attack youse on the ground.
My bike broke up into several parts throughout Goldwood. If you could find them for me, I'll be able to provide some support for you. This is my speciality, air superiority is my job. Think about it sir." He explained.
The thought of having someone keeping the flyers off his back was surely convincing. Plus he would help getting rid of the drones." Juno pondered before giving his answer.
"Alright cadet. One chance to prove yourself. We'll find your bike and then we'll work on destroying this AA gun. I'll radio in Vela.
Come in V." He went, attending to the radio.
"Loud and clear brother. Man what happened down there? I was getting worried." Vela spoke.
"Just some trouble with the locals. It's the drones and for some reason they gotten logical again and built some form of anti air gun. We cannot get off world until it is rendered offline. Inform command of the situation and await clearance to send in a investigation team once we are away.
I found Private Luna...just got a brushing with our old friends. He is fine but will help me with this mission. That's all I know for now. Over" Juno briefed.
"Roger that Juno, just make it out alive, out."
"Come on rook and take my pistol, its nothing decent but it works." Juno said before handing him his piece.
"Well...I'm...not trained on foot, like the rest of you guys but I'll try." Luna said while his lieutenant attended a Crate and pulled out a Machine Gun.
"Until you get your bike back, stay behind me and keep your head down. These drones are reckless and lethal and only return fire when there's an opening. Got it?" Juno explained"
"Yes, sir." Luna said as they left through the door.
The spinners are gone and the pair exit the tunnel.
"Juno, my ship is picking up pictures of the anti air gun a few clicks north from where you are. Out." Vela explained.
"Good. I'll bear that in mind." Juno went before signaling the cadet to follow him over the river. The next corridor was quiet as they entered a large area and there was the first bit of Luna's bike.
"That's the engine. Thankfully all of it is intact. The design's meant to break into salvageable parts whenever it's destroyed. Saves me the trouble of having to scrounge for bits and bobs." Luna went as he puts the part away.
"How many are there?" Juno said.
"Usually three. The drones might have stashed the other two deep within their territory so we might have to fight for them." Luna explained.
"That sorted then. Come-on, I know places where they like to huddle up in. " Juno replied as the pair hurry through the unlocked door, which Juno shot the lock open to.
The next area was chocked full of enemies. Flyers and Grunts held down areas of ingress while Snipers hid amongst the trees to pick at the heroes.
Luna, the least experienced foot soldier in Gemini, managed to score some kills of his own while being taught by Juno to collect their heads for trophies and body count, just like what he did back in the days of Mizar.
Eventually they come across the abandoned exit pad of Goldwood and there sat the next part of Luna's bike.
"The seat. Everything's all there. Last one now." The cadet went.
"I think its back where Vela went in to find the last remaining Tribals on Goodwood. Come on, we don't have much to do here so we better crack on before we take on this AA gun." Juno responded before the two carried on the way they came, with the help of the private who stole the key to the door from some drones, and through the winding tunnels.
Larger brutes blocked their way but Juno learned to use the conspicuously placed barrels to kill them while they pressed on.
It wasn't till one of the spinners managed to hit Luna, caught with his pants down.
"Damn that burns! Gawd!" He groaned, holding his arm.
"Luna!" Juno said.
"I saw the last part over at the end of the clearing. Just keep me covered as I hide in the next one and put this together!" He went.
"Are you insane!? We stick together and you will remain with me." Juno barked.
"We will never break through this together sir! Just keep them off me, you'll won't regret it!" Luna said before charging past the spinners.
"Luna! Get back here right now, THAT'S AN ORDER!" He ordered.
"Urgh that dumb kid!" He growled as he shot at the flyers while the rook sneaked into the next room with the final bit.
The next few minutes seem to have taken a year to pass as Juno could hardly find a way into the spinners' defense, without getting shot, until sounds of falling flyers and laser fire meant one thing; He peeked over and watched a floating ship cut down the oblivious flyers from the air. Armed with a pair of laser cannons and Machine Gun turret, the bike completely destroyed the enemy before lowering towards the lieutenant.
"Luna! If I see you do that again. I'll strangle your throat and have the high command dismiss you from the team.
That was boldly suicidal and you knew that disobeying your CO is paramount to your career's termination!" Juno barked.
"Juno! Just calm down. What he did was what father would've done.
I remembered when he was a captain in the earth empire. To help his comrades, he would risk his own life.
Soldiers do that all the time Juno. Gotta respect Luna for taking the risk to help you with those spinners you know. Over." Vela explained.
"...fine...but I'm giving you a warning. Do that again and I swear it will be a red card. Got it private?!" Juno said.
"Of course sir." Luna said.
"Come on. The objective ain't far." Juno said and Luna followed.
It was a lot easier for Juno. Because the flyers were primarily focused on the ground, they completely ignore the fact that Luna is competing for airspace who utterly shoots them down. Juno became more confident with the cadet and firmly sets his sights on the ground forces while Luna would occasionally help keep them off his back, by shooting the snipers off, but focused on keeping the pesky flies away.
They worked their way through and encounter the AA tower.
"Wow...thats...big..." Juno gasped at the size of the thing.
Green in colouration, the AA Tower stood high into the air and a quad cannon turret scanned the heavens above, it was mighty big indeed but then it seemed to have sensed the Geminis' approach and activated a security system. Vulcan turrets emerge in ledges, surrounding the tower, and doors open to let armies of drones and flyers out.
Clearly the tower was aware of Luna's aerial presence and would open fire at his bike.
"I see there's cables leading to power generators, around the perimeter of the area. Keep the bugs off me while I find a way to power this thing down.
Oh and don't get too close to the tower, its very well aware so I'd keep moving. Got it?" Juno briefed Luna.
"Sure thing sir." He complied and the two got to work.
The tower sprayed machine gun fire and grenades as Juno sprinted towards the generators, in a bid to shut it down while Luna kept the drones off him.
"This was their way of trapping you guys. The tower was built and would've taken a large to place it here on Goldwood." Luna explained.
"Yeah but we would pick it out. Maybe they transported it here, in smaller ships, and in smaller parts. That would be more discreet." Juno responded as he turned off the generators.
"I suppose so." Luna said as they continued.
With the final generator down, Juno wiped his sweaty visor as they watch the entire tower power down.
"That's that then. Lets radio in my replacement ship so we-" Juno said just when the tower whirred back into life.
To their horror, it rose onto four mechanical legs and the entire structure lowered to the big four guns focused on their elimination.
"Oh... Ship..." Luna whimpered.
"MOVE!" Juno barked and the two separated.
The turret unleashed fireballs and big lasers at the pair, mainly Luna.
"I can reach the exposed radiators that just emerged from the tower. Can you disable the legs so I can focus on destroying them, sir? I think that's it's biggest weakness." Luna suggested.
"Good idea! I'll get right on it. Hang tight." Juno agreed and utilized his grenades to cripple the tower's legs.
With the machinery's main locomotion out of action, Luna turned his attention to the radiators and poured out all of his firepower on one of them before the mechanical monstrosity got back up on its legs to continue its attack.
"I'd focus on one leg at a time to maximise my chances to destroy this thing!" Luna said.
With that, Juno concentrated on them and gave Luna the time he needed to destroy them.
When all four radiators were destroyed, they completely overheat the weapon systems and the tower went up in a mighty explosion. Showering the area with its parts - Luna hid in his bike as the entire leviathan came screaming down like a falling tree.
With a reward of silence and kicked up sand, the two did it and they did a brofist.
"You did well kid. I've never expect you to come up with something so smart. For me, it was to blow up the exposed parts but you knew a strategy.
Well done cadet, we worked well as a team." Juno smiled.
"I suppose some local knowledge would help with these scenarios." Luna giggled as his superior went to radio in a new patrol ship.
"Vela, the threat has been neutralised. All drones accounted for and a new ship would be nice." He went.
"Thank goodness you're alive. That tower was terrifying to watch from orbit. How's the rookie?" Vela asked.
"He's fine. Just a wound from a laser." Juno said
"Awesome. A team is on the way to assess the damage. You might want to come up though, there's been a disturbance during your expedition." Vela said.
"Righteo sis. Do you know where your ship is, Luna? Juno said.
"Its not far. I'll meet you at the homeship sir." Luna saluted as they part ways.
Juno went off to meet the investigation team, who arrived with his new patrol ship.
"Thanks for saving us the trouble lieutenant. We'll take it from here." The leader said before ordering the troops into Goldwood.
"I feel that something is brewing. This just doesn't feel right..." Juno pondered before jetting off into space.
