Amare quickly set a course to planet Hazan, a nearby planet believed to hold life. The trip took mere minutes. He looked down on the tranquil surface of the planet. Lush blues and greens dominated the landscape, and he could swear he even saw plant life. He began his descent.
He practically jumped when the silence of space was suddenly replaced
by the roar of thrusters and the whistle of wind rushing past. Once
the noises died down, he noticed a *ping* sound. He looked to
the radar, which found an Object of Interest southwest of his
location. Following the radar, he was now right above the dot. He
looked out the window, and gasped.
In front of him, there was a
crashed spaceship, along with strange writing. He promptly brought
the scanner online, and did a thorough analysis of the crash sight.
The scanner noticed usable equipment aboard the wreck, and
automatically brought them aboard. There was some kind of encrypted
map, missiles, and something that reminded Amare of the
Interplanetary drive in the ship, but, more advanced. Upon further
analysis, the scanner determined that the mystery device could power
interstellar flight! The ship converted both to work with its own
hardware. Before Amare could enter coordinates to return home, the
ship got a mind of its own. It sped off, faster than Amare had ever
gone, towards the coordinates on the map.
The ship stopped at an unknown planet, far away from Hivatt, his home. After exploring the planet for a while, he discovered what looked like the ruins of a city. Once again, his first response was to scan it. The scan came up blank for the first time. The radar, however, noticed 3 objects heading towards the ship. The com opened.
"WARNING! GROX INTRUDERS DETECTED. ALL GROX INTRUDERS WILL BE
TERMINATED."
Amare didn't know how to react. On one hand, he
just discovered evidence of civilization on another planet! On the
other hand, they didn't sound so friendly. Hoping the hostility was a
misunderstanding, Amare replied over the com link:
"Grox?"
The voice, which he could now tell was
electronic, persisted.
"ALL GROX INTRUDERS WILL BE TERMINATED."
"I am not 'Grox'! This is Captain Amare, of the Adhevian
Empire.."
The voice interrupted him.
"WARNING! ALL GROX INTRUDERS WILL BE TERMINATED!"
Amare
groaned. The situation looked really bad. He couldn't reason with the
electronic ships. Continuing an argument would just put him in more
trouble. He was in unfamilliar territory. The hostiles outnumbered
him. And to make matters worse, his aggressors probably had superior
technology.
The way he saw it, the only option was to run. He
entered Hivatt's coordinates, and proceeded to evade the attacking
ships as he gained altitute. However, he soon found out that the
interstellar drive needed to recharge. He would have to hold his own
against the drones. Then he remembered- the missiles that were beamed
aboard with the interstellar drive. They should work here. He brought
up the ship's combat interface and selected the missiles. The
targeting computer locked on to the first ship, and fired.
A direct hit! The drone was badly damage, and had a trail of smoke following behind it. However, it didn't give up its pursuit. A second missile finished it off, leaving only two drones. A spark of hope ignited in Amare- "I have a fighting chance!" he thought, as he locked on to the second ship. The first missile hit dead on, but the second one missed, only to correct its course to follow the third fighter. The third fighter was hit right in the thrusters, and it quickly lost power and crashed. Amare locked on to the second fighter, and was about to fire, when he realized the missile launchers needed to recharge. He looked at the last drone in utter horror; without the missiles, he would be defenseless untill they could recharge. Amare switched to the laser, knowing that little damage is better than none. He dodged the drone's laser pulses as he countered with his own, each leaving minor marks where they hit. Looking at the Interstellar drive's charge, he realized it was at 95%- only a minute to go. Amare broke away from the drone, and decided to keep his distance before he could return home. To Amare, that one minute felt like hours, as he weaved between the drone's laser pulses. The instant the charge was at 100%, he entered the coordinates and was on his way home.
