And so things begin again. A new mission for the Storm Hawks with it's own mystery and dangers. Let's hope they come out better than their last mission.


Terra Rium...Back in Action

Aerrow opened his eyes in time to see the fresh morning sun blaring through his window. He knew that he was probably the only one awake right now, so the shower would be free. He quickly cleaned up and put on his usual uniform. He moved down the hallway to get a good look of the morning sky from the more open view available on the bridge. Stepping through the doors he caught view of Stork, apparently busy reassembling the steering controls.

"Morning Stork." Aerrow said cheerfully as he moved to look out the large windshield. Stork mumbled a reply that Aerrow couldn't quite make out. "What was that? Couldn't really hear ya."

"Have a good night?" Stork grumbled in a low voice.

"Ya." Aerrow replied, a confused expression on his face. "It was okay, I guess. Why?"

Stork grumbled something under his breath and turned away from Aerrow. An uncomfortable air seemed to have settled on the bridge, and Aerrow was unsure why. Thankfully, the rest of the team soon came onto the bridge just moments later, helping to relieve the tension in the air. Piper began to ask the usual questions of what everyone wanted for breakfast, making sure Junko could only choose three things instead of the usual dozen.

"Um, Piper?" Aerrow walked close to Piper, keeping his voice low. "Could you talk to Stork? He seems to be in an odd mood. Don't worry about breakfast, we can all make our own today."

Piper shot Aerrow a cautious look. "Okay, but try not make a mess. We just got the ship back together, let's try not mess it up already."

"No problem." The three boys said in unison before moving out of the bridge, towards the kitchen.

Piper sighed, she knew there would be a big mess to clean up before the morning was over. Then she turned to look at Stork, who was completely absorbed in checking every spring, wire, and bolt in the steering console. She knew this was a sign that something was bugging him.

"So." She began with as cheery a tone of voice that she could muster. "Anything bothering you?"

Stork gave a quick look from over his shoulder before returning his attention to the console.

"I'll take that as a yes." She said with a small laugh. Piper thought for a moment, then remembered Stork's odd behavior just last night. "Is something bothering you from yesterday?"

The image of Piper and Aerrow hugging came to the surface of Stork's mind, causing him to lose focus on where he was placing wires. A strong shock went up his arm as he crossed the wrong wires. Stork jumped back, cradling his arm and shouting various unintelligible curses.

Piper moved up behind Stork, placing her hand on his shoulder. "Stork, just talk to me, I'm sure I can help you if you just tell me what's bothering you."

"You wanna know what's bothering me!?" Stork yelled as he turned to look at Piper, shaking her hand off as he turned. "YOU! Your bothering me! Alright!" He quickly stormed off towards the door leading to the rest of the ship. "If anyone needs me I'll be in my room!" He yelled before moving out of sight through the door.

Piper was left standing in place, shock over the sudden burst of anger from Stork had left her rooted in place. Aerrow suddenly appeared in the door way that Stork had left through only moments before.

"I'm guessing things didn't go well." Aerrow said a look of concern. He moved into the bridge and moved towards Piper. "So what happened? I could hear stork yelling all the way in the kitchen, and then I passed him in the hallway. He had a really angry look on his face when he saw me."

"I don't know." Piper said, her voice a little shaky. "He's usually more than willing to vent on what ever is bothering him, but this time he was just so angry."

Aerrow looked around the room, he noticed various tools laying around and panels that seemed to have been recently worked on. "It looks like he was up all night in here." Aerrow thought for a moment. "Maybe if we..."

Aerrow was cut of by a sudden ringing through the ship.

Aerrow looked around confused. "Uh, what was that?"

The ringing came again, longer this time with a second ringing right after.

"It sounds like..." Piper gave Aerrow a confused expression. "...a doorbell?"

Aerrow was surprised, and it showed clearly on his face. "We have a doorbell?"

Aerrow and Piper quickly made their way to the side hatch that lead out to the docking port. Aerrow quickly opened the door, revealing a man wearing a postman's uniform.

"Um..." Aerrow said hesitantly. "...can I help you?"

"Aerrow of the Storm Hawks, correct?" The man asked. Aerrow gave a simple nod. The man reached into his bag and pulled out a large manila envelope, handing it to Aerrow. "Official package from the Sky Council." The man then thrust oust out a clipboard with a pen dangling from a strap. "Sign here please."

Aerrow handed the large envelope to Piper and signed the sheet on the clipboard, handing it back to the postman when he was done. The postman looked at the signature and then left, leaving Aerrow and Piper curious about what they had just recieved.

They moved into the kitchen to see Junko and Finn fighting over a plate of bacon. Piper surveyed the room and saw several spills and a stack of dishes in the sink. She let out a sigh as she gave the three boys a dirty look.

"What?" Finn said defensively. "I'll clean it up eventually."

Piper rolled her eyes and moved to stand beside Aerrow as he opened the envelope and slid the contents onto the table. Inside the envelope was a small stack of papers that were stapled together as well as a folded piece of paper that had the seal of the Sky Council on it. Aerrow picked up the folded paper first, carefully undoing the seal and folding the paper.

"It's a mission." He said simply as he read over the details that were written out on the paper. "They want us to go help out the settlement on Terra Rium. It seems they have been under attack by Repton."

"Rium?" Piper said, something familiar struck her when she heard the name. "I think I've heard of that terra before."

"Well I haven't." Finn said in a annoyed tone. "But they want us to go there when we just got finished putting The Condor back together and they want us to go and have new holes put through the side."

"C'mon Finn." Aerrow said in confident tone. "We've dealt with Repton plenty of times and come out all right. Besides, we've been out action for three months, and I'm itching to get back out there again."

Finn just rolled his eyes, giving Aerrow a dismissive wave of his hand. "Fine." He said in a annoyed voice. "Guess we could use something to do." He looked at the stack of papers on the table. "So what's with that?"

Aerrow looked at the bottom of the council document. "It says here that they have included some minor information on the terra."

Piper picked up the papers and began to skim through the pages, reading off the subjects as see read. "Geography...weather...and past relations with the council. Not really a whole lot of information on the people though from what I can tell."

"What does that section about their past relations with the council say?" Aerrow asked, his curiosity was piqued.

Piper read over the short summary, shaking her head. "Not much. Apparently they like to keep to themselves and the only real trade that goes on is from their..." She looked closer at the paper, her eyes going wide. "...crystal mining!" She quickly dropped the stack of paper on the table and ran from the kitchen. She reappeared moments later carrying a book, a look of excitement on her face. "I knew I had heard the name before." She opened the book to one of the many bookmarked pages and began to read over the page. "According to this, Terra Rium is one of the best places to find some of the most powerful weapons grade crystals in the known Atmos."

"Guess that explains why Repton has his eyes set on attacking the place." Aerrow said, he leaned in to look at the book. "Doesn't say much about the people here either."

"Just that they mostly keep to themselves and are distrustful of outsiders." Piper said, her voice still showing her excitement at being able to go to see where some of the most powerful crystals in Atmos were actually mined.

"So why are we going?" Finn asked in a still annoyed tone of voice. "Not that I wouldn't mind helping people, but that last mission we had from the council nearly killed us. Why can't they just send who ever they usually send."

Aerrow gave Finn a serious look. "They guy they usually sent out was Stryker, remember?"

"Oh, right." Finn said in a sightly embarrassed tone, he began to try his best to disappear under the table.

Aerrow thought for a moment. "The Condor only has a few mild repair left to finish, and we're more than ready to head there now. I'll go tell Stork get The Condor ready to set out for Terra Rium. The rest of you can finish up whatever else we need done before we leave the dock. Let's set out in an hour." Aerrow said confidently, ready for action.

Vacation time was over.

........

Out on the border of the known Atmos, a storm was raging. Clouds swelled and thunder roared with every flash of lightning. In the middle of this ever rampaging storm there was a small group of ships. The remains of what was once an empire, now forced to hide on the border of civilization, taking cover in storms. On the command deck of the largest ship, Ravess and Snipe were in the middle of one of their daily arguments.

"We should attack something already!" Snipe roared as he slammed his mace onto the command table. "I'm tired of hiding in these damn storms. We should be rampaging across the Atmos, bringing fear to the terras."

"And how long would that last my brother?" Ravess said in a stern voice, keeping her calm while she dealt with her brothers constant ranting. "How long before we are eventually run down and captured like common thieves?"

"It would be better than dealing with these damn storms." The deck rocked as a bolt of lightning shot near the ship, causing it to rock from the force of the concussion. "I'm going to go insane from the constant racket."

"You have to have a brain to go insane." Ravess said in an angry tone. "Yours went dead long ago from lack of use."

Snipe roared and brought his mace down again on the table, harder this time, causing it to crack in two. Ravess drew her bow, taking aim at Snipe. They both stared at each other, neither one flinching in their deathly stare.

"Uh, what's the point?" Ravess said as she loosened her grip on her bow, lowering it and placing it on the smashed in table. "We might as well just turn ourselves in. It would be better than rotting out here in these infernal storms."

Snipe let his mace fall to the ground. "I'm just...so...Bored."

A squawk came across the intercom, breaking the tense atmosphere of the room. "Commander Ravess, we have an incoming transmission for you."

Ravess moved to the wall and pressed the button on the intercom. "Who is it? Did some foolish squadron finally find us?"

"No, mam." The Talon said over the intercom. "He says his name is Dr' Heron."

Ravess rolled her eyes. "Tell him to that I have no interest in communicating with a deranged freak like him."

A moment passed, then the Talon came back on the intercom. "Mam, he says that he has something of interest to tell you."

"Fine." Ravess said in a disgusted tone. "Patch him through."

Another silent moment passed before the familiar, almost cheery, voice of came on the intercom. "Greetings my good friend Ravess. And I imagine your intelligence deficient brother is there as well?"

"What?" Snipe said in a confused voice. "What does that mean?"

"Quiet." Ravess said to her brother before turning back to the intercom. "What do you want?"

"What? No, how are things? Where have you been all this time? Or, how's the weather where you are?" Heron said in a fake hurt tone.

"Just get to business or I'm ending this annoying conversation." Ravess hissed into the intercom. She was quickly becoming annoyed with Heron, she had never liked him to begin with. He always made her feel like he was looking at her through a microscope, small and insignificant.

"Well I have recently come across some interesting information. I'm already working with some interesting people to help me with my current project. I thought you might want to help." Heron finished in a tone of voice that made Ravess feel that he was smiling his eerie smile on the other side of the transmission.

"And how would we benefit from helping you?" Ravess asked, unsure of what to make of Heron's offer.

"More than you know, my dear girl." Heron said in an almost laughing tone. "More than you know."


Next chapter will be out soon. Really feeling a rush when I'm writing this. Please review and I hope to see you all in the next chapter.