Kismet
Genesis
Mission I
Ripley Aeon, 18, maneuvered in and out of the shots fired at her by the enemy ships. She heard the words of her fellow pilots buzzing in her ear piece as she made a hard left to avoid another blast of plasma.
"Watch yourself, Aeon. Getting shot down out here won't look so well on the report." cracked a man's voice over the channel. Ripley gripped the controls tightly and mockingly mouthed his words. Earlier, her squad had been commanded to take out a fleet of space pirates upon their return from a nearby trade ship. As it turned out, the small fleet had other cloaked ships with them. Ripley took out another ship and spiraled down to avoid the debris. She pulled up when her ship was in the clear.
Another voice came over the channel, "Hey, I'm getting pounded. My thrusters blew out and my shield is at 50%. Some back-up would be really helpful right now."
"I'll be there in a few. Which ship are you?" said Ripley.
"The one getting hammered."
"I mean the code."
"Why do you need the code!"
"So, I can tell the guys who the idiot was that blew his thrusters showing off too much." smarted Ripley.
Ripley tailed around and searched the field for the pinned ship. She quickly found the ship surrounded by the pirates. Another pilot from her squad met up with her and made quick work of them. After rescuing the ship, Ripley locked on to its signature. The code ED-60 showed up in a box on the front of her ship's canopy. The young girl nearly busted out laughing.
Snickering, Ripley spoke into the mouth piece, "Houston! Penny Houston! Are you serious!"
"Can it, Aeon!" snapped Penny.
Ripley could do nothing but laugh, and in another hour the group of pirates was completely eliminated. The entire squad soundly made their way back to the fleet. Ripley and her squad belonged to a military corporation called the Celestial Armada. Most of the armada's fleet was harbored on board the commanding ship, Astraios. Astraios holds 328 cruisers, 200 fighter ships, 50 carriers, 2,084 troops, and a menacing arsenal of mass destructive weapons mounted all over its outer shell. It was the biggest ship in the Artos Sector of the Phexion Galaxy.
Approaching the ship bay, Ripley gazed up at the Astraios's hull and watched the many other cruisers and carriers flying about. It was like a miniature city almost. Her turn to fly her ship into the bay came quickly, and she coasted inside among the hundreds of other fighter ships. Ripley found her docking space inside a glass airlock next to another fighter ship that looked slightly different from hers. She unlocked the shoulder harness and flipped a switch to open the canopy. As the glass shield slowly lifted up, Ripley rubbed the back of her neck before standing up and stepping out onto the metal pier. She took her helmet off as she walked down the pier and came to an automatic door. The roaring engines from a carrier nearby made the entire airlock vibrate beneath her feet as the door slid upwards to allow her access into the main hall that led into the main part of the ship.
Ripley joined the other returning pilots in the hall and each one went to their respective locker rooms. The locker rooms were large, not very well spaced, and crowded. Ripley approached her white locker and typed in her ship's serial number, AX-01, the Dogma. The locker door slid out revealing several racks with different objects on it and one hook hanging from the very top. She placed her helmet on one of the racks before taking her gloves off and then the slim, black suit together with its blue, protective plating. Ripley placed the suit back on the hook before changing back into the standard black pants and navy shirt. Wearing the black sweater was part of the Astraios uniform, but Ripley never really wore it unless there was a conference among the other pilots. After finishing with her shoes, Ripley pushed the racks back in, but stop to glance at a picture of her parents.
The chatter among the other creatures around her broke her concentration. Ripley looked around at the various species. Most of the crew consisted of aliens of different cultures and barely any humans. A lot of them didn't take too kindly to her kind, especially the Reptilian races. While walking out of the locker room, one of the Reptilians, a Komodon named Laizix, bumped harshly into Ripley. Ripley stumbled over to the side and quickly whipped around.
"Hey, what's your problem!" shouted Ripley. Laizix turned around with a wicked glare, making sure to show her sharp fangs.
"You got in my way", she started, "cause that's the only thing your kind ever does. You just get in the way."
Ripley paused for a moment before thinking of a comeback.
"Yeah, that's just like you lizard freaks. Still a pain in the butt even when you were in our cages."
Laizix lunged for the small girl all the while screaming, "You dirty human!"
Ripley quickly darted around the corner and ran out of the locker room before disappearing into the crowd.
[Main Deck]
Ripley walked up the steps to one of the main platforms that look out over the main deck. This is where she normally went after a mission, but another human friend beat her there. She watched him messing with his lighter and then cursing out loud when a large spark surprised him and almost burnt his finger.
"Y'know, those old vintage lighters were replaced for a reason, Damien." Ripley commented. The boy turned around with a crooked look on his face, cigarette wedged between his teeth.
Ripley continued, "Actually, you shouldn't be smoking at all."
"Helps the nerves." replied Damien. Ripley came to his side and rested her elbows on the railing. A huge window that took up most of the side of the main deck revealed the stars in space and the soft, blue color from a nearby nebula. She glanced down at the other crew members walking around doing their timely routines.
"I heard Penny got pinned." said Damien after he finally lit his cigarette.
Ripley replied, "Yeah, she blew her thrusters showing off the new fighter model."
"A new model? Since when did she get that?"
"I don't know. A few days ago, I'm guessing. She's proud of it."
"What were the new models called again? Strikers?"
"I think so. I don't really know. They're bringing them in sometime real soon."
"Lemme guess, you're still gonna keep Dogma."
Ripley quickly turned her head at him, "Of course I'm going to keep Dogma. It's my grandfather's ship."
"It's a hunk of junk. How many times has that thing stalled on you?" Damien smarted.
Ripley looked the opposite direction with a pouted expression and replied, "It still gets the job done."
"Barely." laughed a voice coming from behind them. The two turned around to see a red headed boy approach.
"Man, those Strikers are a blast to fly around in." said the boy.
"Returning from another mission, Riley?" asked Damien.
"Yeah, a pirate fleet was smuggling weapons into Vexon. Killed me about a dozen of those scums." Riley bragged.
Ripley asked, "Why Vexon? Isn't Vexon one of those backwater planets?"
Riley scratched his head, "Jee, I don't really know why. I just follow the orders given, but if it makes you feel any better, they're sending a crew out to investigate."
Ripley looked up at the ceiling far above them, thinking about the last part of his words. It must be serious if they're sending out a recon team, she thought.
"but still, if it's just pirates then why send a recon team?"
Riley continued to talk about his mission achievements with over-exaggerated comments. He was completely tuned out by Ripley as she watched a cargo hauler fly over-head. After a few minutes, Damien put his cigarette out on the railing. The two were completely bored to death by Riley's tale and glorifying himself. Riley turned around with his hands in the air and a smile on his face as Ripley and Damien slowly turned their attention back to the people down below. The people seemed more interesting and little more modest.
In ending his tale, Riley concluded, "Man, I can't wait to return to Earth so that I can tell my family about my experiences."
His words cut straight into the two, immediately getting their attention. They both looked at Riley when he faced them again.
"What about you? I bet you guys can't wait to get back home, right? I'll be so relieved to see it again." he finished, with a smile still on his face. Damien looked at Ripley and she caught his glance. That guilty feeling twisted their stomachs.
Ripley gave a small smile and replied, "Yeah, it'd be nice to see home again. After all, that's where most of our kind is…..waiting for us."
Riley chuckled to himself before running off down the steps calling back, "I pray that day comes soon. My mum would be so proud!"
The smile dropped from her face as she turned back to the railing and hung over it. Damien was still facing the opposite direction.
"Poor guy still thinks there's something to go home to." Damien said.
Ripley didn't say anything, but just stared down at the people. Damien leaned over the railing along with her. The two shared a long silence before Damien asked the same question he normally asks on occasion.
"Ripley, how long has it been, y'know, since that day?"
"Five years."
"I still can't believe it's really gone. It's hard to grasp the reality that our entire race is almost extinct."
Ripley lowered her head into her arms, thinking about that day when everyone lost everything. She quietly replied with a simple "Yeah" then turned around and walked away.
About five years ago, the entire human race was almost wiped out by the destruction of our planet. I was still in training with Damien at the time even though he was a couple classes above mine. No one saw it coming until 18 hours from arrival. The chaos was unreal since you can't evacuate an entire planet within that time limit. My mother and father made it off the planet in a separate ship while my grandfather took off in the Eos, a special ship just for him. Me and Damien escaped with the fleet on board Astraios right before Earth blew up. Riley was with us when we helplessly watched a blast hit our planet and our only home break down and explode. His parents didn't make it off in time and I never saw mine again. As a result from the shock of losing his whole family in an instant, Riley believes none of it ever happened and pushes it out of mind. Maybe it was better that way.
Ripley rested on the bed in her quarters. It was a small room with gray walls and a hard floor. It had a single desk next to her bed and a small wall lamp hanging over it. Humans normally had their own rooms since every other race had a thing against them. She stared at the ceiling thinking about where her parents might be and the millions among millions of worlds out there in the depths of space. Right when she was about to doze off, the intercom blared in her room and made her jump up from her bed.
"Ripley Aeon to the Command Deck. Ripley Aeon, Command Deck."
Ripley glared at the speaker in the ceiling, "I swear you're gonna make me have a heart attack, you loud piece of…..wait…..the Command Deck?"
Ripley quickly dug around the room for a spare sweater, tearing through her desk and small compartments in the wall. She threw a fit when it was nowhere in her room and decided to show up without it. Ripley stomped to the door and waited for it to slide up into the ceiling. As it quickly allowed her access into the hall, she was shocked to see a blond girl slightly taller than her standing before her holding a sweater in her hand. Ripley saw the quirky-wicked grin on her face, and her stomach dropped.
Regretfully, Ripley said, "Hi, Penny. What is it this time?"
Penny cracked her smile into a smirk and replied, "You going up to speak with the captain without a sweater? That's very unprofessional."
"My spare seems to have randomly disappeared. I'm assuming that one's mine?"
With the smirk getting longer, Penny replied, "It could be yours. I guess it all depends."
"Depends on what?"
"Not telling anyone about that little incident during the last mission."
Ripley glanced off to the side, eyes drooping and eyebrow raised, "Yeah, it'd be a real killer on your rep if people found out that the Golden Girl was saved by a pilot of lower class. That really is tempting, but who cares. This meeting could be important and you're holding me up. Now, give me the sweater."
Ripley quickly reached for the black garment clenched in the girl's hand, but Penny ripped it away from her.
"Okay, then say you won't mention it to anyone." Penny said while holding the sweater above Ripley's head, which was out of her arm's range.
Ripley glared down at the solid floor from feeling defeat. She hated giving in, but she really needed that sweater.
"Fine, I won't say anything." she finally replied.
"Pilot's oath?" pressed Penny.
"Yeah, pilot's oath."
Giving one final smirk, Penny released the garment and Ripley scrambled to catch it. She caught it in her hands and, running short on time, Ripley darted down the brightly lit hallway while putting the sweater on over her head. A person carrying three large boxes stacked on top of the other fell victim to being knocked to the floor by the sprinting pilot.
On the command deck, five pilots stood facing the blackness of space across from the control panels lined up in a row on the floor below. The captain, who was a very well built man in his mid fifties, stood in front of the silent group with his hands folded behind his back. He glanced around and counted only five pilots out of the six he requested.
With a rough and deep voice he began his briefing, "I have requested your presence here today for a—"
"I'm here, captain! I'm here!" Ripley exclaimed as she bursted through the large automatic door behind the group. The captain sighed in annoyance as Ripley made her way to them and joined the other pilots. The girl stood bent over for a few to catch her breath before straightening up.
"Pilot Ripley Aeon reporting on appointed request, sir." she said with her hand in the salute position above her right eyebrow.
The captain shook his head and rubbed his forehead in disappointment. The scar that stretched across his face crinkled and widened with each finger movement. He reached his free hand inside his coat pocket to fish out an old watch. The man looked at it, sighed again, then placed it back inside.
The captain looked at Ripley and said, "You're six minutes late."
Ripley started, "I'm sorry, captain. I had some problems getting down here earlier and—"
"That's no excuse for a pilot like yourself. You know better than to show up this late. If you were called upon in battle your fellow pilots right now would have been killed. Six minutes is too much time for something to happen. Only wannabe-pilots would make the mistake you just made." the captain lectured.
Discouraged, Ripley slowly lowered her hand to her side and just stared at the floor in hopes of avoiding the look of disappointment. She heard the snickering of her "fellow" pilots carry down the row.
With these guys, showing up six minutes late would be a good thing on my part.
The captain cleared his throat and started again, "I have requested your presence here today for a selection for an escort mission. Whoever I select will escort the recon team out of Vexon with zero casualties. Their mission is to transport the cargo back here and your mission is to protect it at all costs. No losses. No fatalities. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir." replied the young pilots.
"Now for the selection", the captain began, "you were all recommended by your squad commanders as the most elite pilots. I've taken a careful look at all of your documents and records, and I must say that your skills as pilots are outstanding, but there is only one that out shines the rest. It was difficult, but I have made my decision."
Ripley tensed up, hoping her name would be called. Seconds felt like hours as her heart raced and sweat accumulated in the palms of her hands. The suspense was eating her up inside with the silence almost driving her insane. He was doing this on purpose, and she hated it.
Finally, after a long few seconds, the captain finished by saying, "Bleise Argon, you have been chosen to take this mission."
Ripley nearly shutdown when she didn't hear her name. The young pilot felt her intestines doing gymnastics in her body. Bleise, a being of the Insectoid race, stepped forward with a proud stance. He had a head that reminded Ripley of an ant, and she wanted to squish him all the more. Not only was he a stuck-up jerk, he also ran his mouth a lot. When it came to fighting foes in the field, he was all bark and no bite. Ripley concluded that the captain had poor decision making skills.
What a tick….
Bleise shook hands with the captain before he was dismissed to the bay. Ripley watched him walk by her and caught his antagonistic stare, rubbing the defeat in more and more. He wasn't the pilot for the job, and she wanted to make that point clear.
As soon as Bleise left the command deck, Ripley looked sternly at the captain and asked, "Captain, permission to speak?"
"Go ahead, pilot." the captain replied after pausing for a couple seconds.
"In my opinion, captain, Bleise isn't the pilot for the mission and I think you should choose someone else with a clearer mind."
"Are you questioning my decision, Aeon?" he asked with a certain edge to his voice.
Thinking cautiously about her words, Ripley answered, "No, sir. Just the decision of his squad's commander. There are several others in his squad that have far more superior skills than him. Even we standing among you are better choices. If I may, sir, I would like to go in his place."
"So that's what it's all about." the captain said after pulling his hat down so that the visor covered his eyes, "My decision is final. All of you are dismissed."
"But, captain!" Ripley began to protest until her captain cut her off.
"I said my decision is final! Now, unless you want to be relieved of your duty I suggest you stop questioning your captain's decision and return to your quarters. That clear, Aeon?"
Ripley clenched her teeth together and tightened her hands into fists. She lowered her head and quietly replied, "Yes, sir."
She was the last to leave the command deck. Ripley could hear her fellow pilots snicker and laugh about her a little ways up the corridor.
Idiots…..they're all idiots…..
"DANG IT!" Ripley shouted on the platform above the main deck as she kicked two empty boxes across its surface. Damien stood leaning over the railing with another lit cigarette in his mouth.
"How dare he pick someone like Bleise over me! Bleise can't even use ascian maneuvers!" continued the girl.
Damien blew out a puff of smoke and said, "You can barely do ascian maneuvers yourself, Rip."
"I did one time!" she snapped.
"Yeah, then Dogma's thrusters blew all to crap and had a power failure. Sounds like a success to me." Damien countered with a sarcastic tone.
Damien's comment only made Ripley even more agitated. She started stomping her foot on another box that contained toilet paper.
"Still, I'm a far better pilot than Bleise to begin with." she started, "The only thing he does is fire a few shots then high-tails it away from the battle. Then he goes off and tells everyone that he was going after another fighter ship. This whole thing is bull and BLEISE JUST TICKS ME DA HECK OFF!"
The box gave away under Ripley's foot as she put all of her strength into her last stomp.
"I think you're overreacting a bit." said Damien.
Ripley glared at the rolls of toilet paper in the box, "It's just Bleise can get a whole squad killed. To add to it, the guy can't aim worth a crap."
"Bleise can't aim? He got some of the top scores during the exams."
"He had it on auto-target."
"I thought they uninstalled the auto-target on all of the fighter ships?"
Ripley put her hands in her pockets, "Bleise knows how to override stuff, apparently."
Damien looked up and saw a ship launch towards Vexon. He raised his eyebrows as he saw the light from the thrusters get smaller and smaller in the distance.
"Well I'll be danged." Damien started. He looked back at Ripley, who was still standing over the box of toilet paper.
"Hey, there goes Bleise." The boy said.
Ripley immediately took her hands out of her pockets and grabbed a roll. She started to march to the railing but then charged for it.
"BLEISE, YOU IDIOT!" Ripley yelled as she hurled the toilet paper at the glass across from them. It hit the fading image of the ship dead on.
An hour had passed by since Bleise's launch. On the command deck, the captain stared impatiently at the monitors as he waited for a mission update from the Insectoid. The man kept his hands folded behind his back while trying to think of all of the possible results. He was troubled mostly by one. Just seconds later, Bleise's radio signal tuned in.
"Captain, mission success. We're now just outside Vexon's atmosphere and are returning to Astraios." Bleise informed.
The captain breathed a sigh of relief and replied, "Well done, pilot. We'll have the cargo security bay open for you."
"Thank you, captain. This mission was a breeze. No sign of enemy oppo—AHH!"
Bleise's signal was interrupted by a sudden range of static. The captain tensed up. The men below all looked at each other before frantically trying to pull Bleise's signal back up. His words were cutting in and out in frantic screams of distress.
"ENEMY ATTACK! ENEMY ATTACK! NEED REINFORCEMENTS!" Bleise screamed over the radio.
"Pull up a field visual now!" barked the captain. The men below rushed to find a visual. The captain waited nervously for the screen to show the field. Finally, after a few seconds, the screen showed Bleise's ship along with the Recon team's carrier getting hammered by enemy fire. Pirates had successfully ambushed them.
"How come those ships weren't detected!" the captain demanded to know.
A nervous man operating the radar answered, "They must have had some kind of detection mechanism, captain."
"What units do we have on standby?"
Another man answered, "Sir, we have two available units, but one needs a launch preparation of ten minutes while the other is returning from another planet."
The captain slammed his fists on the ledge in front of him.
He said to himself, "We have absolutely no way of saving the pilots. Not in the amount of time given."
Just then, a small blip sounded on the radar. The operator took a hard glance at it then jumped up from his spot.
"Captain, we've detected another ship!"
"What!" he asked.
"It's the Dogma."
Just before the attack occurred, Ripley sat on the platform with Damien, trying her hand at a game of poker. She was getting beat and Damien was starting to get over confident.
"You might as well just pass those coins over to me, Rip. You already lost three times." Damien said, tapping a coin on the metal floor with a grin on his face.
"You might right, Damien, but I'll be getting my money back either way." Ripley replied.
Damien blew another puff of smoke into the air and turned his head toward the glass across from the platform. He saw Bleise's ship along with a carrier slowly approaching. He took the cigarette from his mouth.
"Hey, here comes Bleise." he said.
Ripley, getting annoyed, replied, "Who cares. Are you all in or not?"
Damien watched for a few, long enough to stir Ripley's curiosity. She looked to the side right when other ships appeared out of nowhere and little balls of light began flashing in the distance.
"Oh, crap. Well that isn't good…all in." Damien said with little concern.
"That can ruin anyone's day." Ripley said as she stood up, cards still in hand.
Damien looked up at her and asked, "You going?"
With a smirk, Ripley replied, "Just gonna go prove a point."
Damien shook his head and said, "Got a funny way of doing that, don't ya?"
Ripley didn't say anything but snickered and dropped her hand of cards on the box they were using. She darted to the steps and disappeared down the platform leaving Damien to stare at the royal flush.
"Well, I be danged."
Ripley rushed down the metal pier to her ship. The canopy automatically unlocked and lifted up when she climbed onto the wing. Ripley jumped into the pilot's seat and fired up the engine, closing the canopy at the same time. The hum of the engine filled her ears while she pressed several different buttons, one opening the airlock doors to the loading dock and another bringing up location statuses and coordinates on the glass in front. Ripley placed the ear piece in her right ear and brought the mic to her mouth.
"Launching, Dogma."
Ripley directed the Dogma out of the airlock and onto the main strip. A voice yelled in her ear from the ear pierce.
"Launching! You don't have authorization to launch, pilot! Cease launch now!" yelled the voice.
"If you want me to cease launch so bad then come out here and do it yourself." Ripley replied back.
She snickered to herself when she heard the person barking orders to hit the killswitch.
"Idiots can never remember that Dogma doesn't have a killswitch." she said to herself.
Ripley opened the thrusters all the way and blasted out of the ship bay. She coasted along for a few before diving down under the Atraios's hull. Its surface zoomed by underneath her as she reached the other side and turned Dogma right side up. In the distance, Ripley could already see the recon team struggling against their opposers and Bleise trying to fly away as far as possible.
"That freakin' coward." Ripley said.
She was drawing nearer to the battle. Ripley began to get readings on the number of attacking ships in the area. A total of 21 appeared on the screen. She looked up and saw that one already noticed her. It started flying directly at Dogma and firing rounds of red plasma, each shot missing the wings.
Ripley raised an eye brow and said, "Guy can't shoot worth jack."
The girl took aim and fired plasma rounds of her own with every round nailing the cockpit. The ship burst into flames and Ripley pulled up to avoid the debris. She saw one recon ship take down two others before another attacker shot down one of its thrusters. Luckily, the recon ship was covered by a fellow recon pilot. Finally, she joined the battle.
"Need any help?" she asked over the radio.
"Aeon!" a shocked voice exclaimed back.
"Yeah, I know. What am I doing here? Did they send me? Yadda, yadda. Let's stay on subject. Looks like you guys need some help."
"Yeah, I think that's pretty flippin' obvious." said another voice.
"What needs to be done?"
"We need to get the cargo back to the ship. In no way can a single round hit it. If that happens, we're screwed." the commanding pilot replied.
"That sensitive? What can I do?" Ripley asked.
"Take out those freakin' pirates!" an irritated voice yelled in reply.
"Gotcha." Ripley answered.
At that, Ripley targeted a pirate nearing the carrier. She crossed in front of it and fired an arc bomb, obliterating the ship along with its pilot. The readings on her screen locked onto another above her, and Ripley yanked back on the controls. Dogma went vertical and fired wild rounds at the ship above her, blowing it into a ball of fire. Ripley destroyed ship after ship, round after round. There was no sign of Bleise until a plea sounded over the radio.
"Help! I can't get this guy off me!" he panicked.
Ripley locked onto Bleise's location and saw that the enemy ship was catching up to his ship. Seeing that there were no other ships near the cargo carrier, Ripley turned her attention to the pirate going after Bleise. She set Dogma to full throttle and flew off after them. Ripley could hear Bleise's panicking freak outs and curses in her ear piece as she got closer. The pirate unleashed a rain of plasma on Bleise. Ripley was coming up on the pirate. In a matter of seconds, the pirate fired a plasma bomb to destroy his ship altogether.
"Bleise, hard left!" Ripley yelled in her mic.
Bleise turned in time for the bomb to only catch the tip of the wing and blow it off. Ripley took this chance to fire another arc bomb and made a direct hit. Bleise was still rolling away in his one-winged ship.
Ripley watched in humor and contacted another recon ship, "Hey, we're gonna need a pulley over here."
"Kay, I got him." replied a voice.
A recon ship left the others and flew out towards Bleise. Ripley sat there for a few and listened to Bleise's infuriation about repairing the wing and such. The moment was ruined when enemy readings alerted her of another pirate, that went unnoticed, flying at top speed towards the carrier. She turned Dogma around at the sound of chaos buzzing in her ear from the carrier pilots.
Ripley full throttled Dogma towards the carrier, hoping to intersect the pirate while it charged a plasma bomb. She prepared to fire another arc bomb as she got closer.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Ripley said over and over while gritting her teeth.
The pirate fired the red ball of plasma at the cargo hauler of the carrier, too late for Ripley to intersect. Now, she had to take a random shot at a projectile moving faster than what her eyes could keep up with. In less than a second, Ripley made her decision and fired without aim. The blue orb fired from the barrel at the front and rapidly made its way forward to the carrier ship.
"Ah, crap."
The captain along with the rest of the crew watched in suspense as the two orbs of energy came closer and closer together. A moment of slow motion passed through the command deck. A nervous drop of sweat ran down the captain's face as he leaned forward over the panel. The silence of all crews was sickening even if it did last only a few seconds. Just then, the blue orb collided with the red one and exploded ten feet from the cargo.
The captain wasted no time in letting the smoke clear and demanded, "Damage report, now! What's the condition of the cargo?"
One crew member scattered his fingers across the keyboard to find the answer.
Impatient, the captain yelled, "Hurry up!"
"The cargo is still intact. The haul has a hole in it from the explosion, but no signs of damage from the cargo." the nervous alien replied.
The captain let out a sigh of relief, "That kid…has got to be…the most reckless pilot in this fleet."
"Hey, at least I get the job done." Ripley's voice said over the monitors.
The captain lowered his head and gave a small smile.
"Just like Roland…"
Ripley began to rejoin the recon team after Bleise was towed back to Astraios in the ugliest of fashions. From a distance away from them, she saw a dark, round tank slip from the hole in the corner of the haul. The carrier was unknowingly leaving it behind. The gravitational pull of Vexon was pulling it away.
"Hey, you guys dropped one out the back." Ripley said into the mic.
"Ah, dang it. We'll have to retrieve it later." replied a voice on the other end.
Ripley turned Dogma in the direction of the drifting tank, "No worries, I'll get it."
As Ripley eased her ship to the tank caught in Vexon's gravitational pull, a small light flickered in the corner of her eye. She slowly turned her head to the left, then the screen made a startling bleeping sound to alarm her of an approaching enemy ship. Ripley switched to an offensive mode, opening the cannons and plasma turrets on Dogma.
"Where is it?" Ripley asked herself while she frantically looked around.
A sudden flash of violet light struck the tank ahead of her. Ripley raised her eye brow, confused about where it came from. Another one struck the tank. Now, Ripley looked in all directions. She gave a quick look at her screen on the canopy. The scanner was unable to calculate the unknown attacker's ship. Several more violet lights struck the tank. Ripley was getting frustrated.
"Dang it, where the heck is it coming from!"
A blue light began to seep from the tank with its contents shaking violently. Ripley's focus turned to the tank.
"What the…"
"Aeon, get out of there now! The tank's gonna blow!" screamed a voice in her ear.
"As in explode!" Ripley asked, alarmed.
"Yes, as in explode, BOOM, KABANG, Hiroshima, Nagasaki!" the panicked voice replied.
"Pilot, you better get to flying out of there." the captain's voice said.
The blue light was starting to jolt and burst from the tank's shell. Ripley made a hard right and blasted away at max speed, the g-force pushing her back in her seat. The carrier was already at least several miles back to Astraios.
"Captain, the tank's reactor is at critical levels!" a crew member alerted.
"What's the possible blast radius?" the captain demanded.
"Four maybe five miles. The aftershock is sure to hit Astraios."
The captain pointed to a group of crew members and ordered, "Prepare the ship for impact! Alert all personnel to take cover!"
"Yes, sir!" they said, scrambling to their positions.
Immediately after he gave the order, a bright flash filled the command deck followed by violent quakes knocking personnel from their seats and over the railings. The captain gripped tightly to the panel in front of him as all the systems shut down.
Ripley was suddenly blinded by a bright flash, but she kept on the controls. From what she could see from a screen displaying the rear view of Dogma, a rippling blue wave engulfing the blackness of space behind her was growing and expanding. Her eyes widened as she felt that cold, stomach twisting chill run up her spine and into the back of her head. The only thing she could do was keep the thrusters open and Dogma at full throttle.
"Don't stall. Don't stall." she prayed when she saw Dogma's instruments and lights starting to shut down and kick back on.
Dogma's thrusters were starting to blow out and blast back on in a constant pattern. The power flickered on and off from the violent blast that was now engulfing her ship. Ripley looked around for an idea. She was desperate for anything now. She heard a rough creaking sound in the back of the ship. A box popped up on the screen along with an alarm sounding in the cockpit alerting her of Dogma's thrusters failing.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding!" Ripley yelled in frustration.
She threw a small fit by kicking her feet around and slamming her head on the controls.
"This is such bullcrap! Total bullcrap. Bull, bull, bull! BULL OF FREAKIN' CRAP!"
In the midst of her fit, she noticed a switch she never saw before. After reading the words "back-up power", Ripley gave a small grin.
"Dogma, you cease to amaze me." Ripley said as she flipped the switch and Dogma's thrusters kicked back on to full power, blasting her out of the destructive wave and into the clear. She glanced at the rear screen and saw that the wave had stopped expanding. Ripley stared for a few before another smile creeped onto her face. She gave a few chuckles that suddenly burst into a laugh.
Ripley's laugh was interrupted when Dogma's power suddenly cut out. She sat back in her seat as her ship coasted along, hands on her lap.
"Of course, it's just never that simple."
An unexpected aftershock struck her ship and knocked it into several spins, going in every direction. Ripley was thrown around in her seat, hitting the sides, controls, and just about everything else before finally slamming her head into the controls again. When things calmed down again seconds after, Ripley sat up holding her red nose.
"It always has to be something if not something else." she said in a nuzzled tone.
A crack formed in the thick glass of the canopy.
"Oh now, come on!" Ripley began yelling again out of frustration.
"Aeon! Pilot Ripley Aeon, do you read! Are you there!" said a voice in the ear piece that had been knocked out of Ripley's ear by the aftershock.
Ripley picked up the ear piece from the floor and placed it back in her ear, bringing the mic to her mouth, "Yeah, I'm still here."
The captain's voice sounded in her ear, "Good to hear you're still alive, pilot. What's Dogma's condition?"
"A little banged up, but nothing it can't handle. Unfortunately, Dogma shut down on me all together. Can you send me a tow?"
"Right away, pilot. I'll send someone to bring you back."
"Thanks, sir."
Static from there on covered the channel. Ripley took the ear piece out and dropped it.
"Take the cargo to the high security bay." the captain ordered the commanding recon officer.
"Sir, what about—"
"I don't want anyone touching the tanks until we find out what they are and why Vexon had them." the captain cut him off.
"Yes, sir." the officer said, saluting the captain before leaving the command deck.
The captain turned to his crew and swiftly ordered them out. As soon as they all quietly left, he stepped over to his panel and pressed several different buttons. Seconds later, a box appeared on the glass ahead of him. The outline of something that could be classified as an Insectoid or a Grey came into view followed by a snobbishly toned voice that made his nose twitch.
"My, my. Captain Vandersan, this is an unusual call." said the female voice.
"We might have something of concern here." the captain said, not wanting to waste any time.
"Well, do tell."
Ripley rested back against one of the passenger seats in the cabin of a carrier. Riley sat across from her, going on about the aftershock striking Astraios.
"Then suddenly, I was knocked over the railing and almost fell right on one of those mecha things. Man, that guy was ticked. He was about ready to pound me a good one, but then he fell back. Kinda reminded me of a turtle." Riley said.
Damien, standing to the side of Ripley's seat, said, "Yeah, power went out and everything. The whole main deck was a mess. Maintenance wasn't too happy either."
"I bet. Machinery gone completely hay wire mixed with the chaos of the aftershock. No doubt they'd be a little peeved." Ripley replied.
"Rip, I told you Dogma is a hunk of junk. That thing is gonna get you killed." said Damien, changing the subject.
"Say what you will about Dogma, but if it was any other ship but Dogma, it would have fallen apart in the blast. I think it did all right this time." Ripley countered.
"That was freaky though. Just one tank and kaboom." Riley added.
"Yeah, no kidding. Makes me wonder what it would have been like if the whole cargo did that." said Damien.
Ripley leaned forward in her seat to look out the window at the blue mist left behind by the blast.
"Just what the heck was it?"