Chapter Three

The Great War

Aelita was at the helm of the skid piloting it into the ruins of Lyoko city, from afar smoke was billowing out from the ruins. Parker was flying alongside the skid as William was in the extra navskid that was never used, they entered the city and landed in what was once the plaza where the portal device was once located. Parker landed at the remains of the portal and looked around, the place was completely abandoned and all the monsters had left once they leveled the city. Aelita and the others disembarked the skid and were standing next to him looking up at the destroyed tower that was once the power supply for the whole city. "This way," said Parker pointing down an alley between the government building and the remains of an office complex. The team walked down the alley toward the industrial sector where parker had said to them earlier that all the ships that the evacuees used were built. "The factory was in the process of building a war ship when we entered the great sleep," said Parker turning a corner and walking toward a warehouse. "When Lyoko was destroyed and we awoke and saved William we continued to work on the warship. It was finished when we were attacked but one ship would have not survived a battle with the enemy forces."

William ran his hand along the stone wall of the warehouse as they came up to the door. It was locked with a keypad access code and was reinforced. Parker entered his code and the doors locks released, the warehouse was mostly untouched the roof was still intact and the contents of the warehouse were mostly undisturbed. "I remember this place you showed it to me the day I arrived," said William.

"Yes," said Parker using one of his Lyoko powers to move creates out of the way of a secret door on the floor. "The ships skeleton was built but the hull was not yet bolted on." The door swung open and Parker began to float down to the bottom of the shaft.

Once the others had managed to climb all the way to the bottom Parker had already powered up to rooms generator and restored the lights to the room. Parker was looking over the diagnostic reports on the war ship to see if any damage had come to the ship. "The hull is still intact, no damage to any systems," said Parker moving from the control room to another steal door.

The door opened with a load creak as Parker and Aelita walked through the doors into the hanger housing the warship. Aelita was in amazement at the size of the vessel that was sitting on the hanger floor. The other members of the team all formed around the others and looked at the warship. "It's amazing," said Odd looking at the warship from the groups viewing point high above the main floor.

Parker sighed as he watched the lights onboard the warship come to life, "Franz Hopper was the one who thought we should build this ship. It was his designs that lead to this final ship."

"His designs?" asked Jeremy listening in from the lab on Earth.

Parker looked up and said, "Yes my…" He turned to look at Aelita and continued, "Our father designed the vessels my people used to escape we built this one off the designs of them." Parker turned and started to walk to the far side of the platform where a platform extended out from the normal one. "Stand on a teleport spot." The group took positions on the bull's-eyes and the teleported came to life and they were beamed onto the bridge of the ship.

The ship came to life almost instantly as the group appeared on the bridge, Ulrich and Odd appeared near the doors leading to the ships elevator. The bridge was high Tec almost like the skids cockpit; parker took station in the center seat while the others moved to take seats at the stations spread around the room. There were five stations each mend by a member of the team while Parker brought the ships core systems online. Aelita looked over the ships engine systems and notice a big problem, "Parker looks like when the tower was destroyed it sent a feedback pulse through the electrical system short secreting the ships drive core."

Parker jumped from his seat and ran over to Aelita's station and saw that the whole power grid was fried and the core had melted down and flooded the engineering deck. "Danmitt this ship is useless." Parker sat down on the floor and thought to himself about what their next move should be.

Back in the lab Jeremy was running scans on the dead warship and looking over the blueprints of the skid. "I have an idea," said Jeremy.

"We are listening," said Aelita.

Jeremy began to type commands into the computer while he talked, "I notice that the warship has some crystal command chips inside them along with some more advanced weapons then what the skid has. If you brought some of the components to sector five I could analyze the devices and upgrade the skid."

"I can do better than that," said Parker. "I'll send all the ships blueprints too you with all the data on the weapons and computer systems as well as some upgrades for the shields."

Aelita and Jeremy got busy working on the skid upgrades and the others went for a walk in town while they waited for news of when they would make their next move. Parker and William were walking together while Odd and Ulrich walked with Yumi, as they rounded the corner of the park and head into the forest Parker began to think. While Parker was thinking Yumi asked, "What were thoughs crystals that Jeremy was talking about?"

Parker took a moment to think about the story behind them and said, "They were from the original warships that the Virtual humans had built back when they fought Xana's army when they were not control by Xana but a different AI that excessed back then. When they arrived in the skies of Lyoko they took apart there warship and used them to build the current city that is now destroyed."

Ulrich and the others stopped at a bench in the woods and sat down to listen to the whole story. "So there was a war before this one?" asked Ulrich.

"Yes," said Parker. "It was called the great war, an AI that swarmed through the digital sea many years before Lyoko found Carthage and attacked the digital humans. The first waves of attackers were easily stopped but each time they came back they got stronger, the digital humans were at the height of their technological scale. They were more advanced than us; they had city's that could fly through the digital sea and adventure the entire sea. When the army hit them they had to build warship at a fast pass to counter the attack, eventually they came across a doom that would eventually be Lyoko way outside the war zone. When there cities began to fall they moved there people to a city that they built in the skies of Lyoko it could never travel out of Lyoko but it would be safe. That is when mine and Aelita's father found them and used the data that we had on the AI to create Xana. Xana attacked the AI and destroyed it then turned on Franz Hopper and attacked my people, we built the barrier to hold the AI army under Xana's control back and keep Xana out of Lyoko City."