Now, before we get into this chapter, I recieved a question about some stuff regarding Maximus, you know, the gravity and atmospheric conditions... Of course I think I should make some things clear. So here is a little background before the actual story continues:
A brief summary of Maximus.
If you want to know about Maximus, you have to turn the pages back quite far. Originally, the giant piece of rock was only the home to plants, and very few, not intelligent species. The Maxians were actually the people who wanted to take that thing over, because from their home planet, this thing was blocking the view.
It is surrounded by 4 suns, making it a day night cycle of around 40 hours per day. Of course, due to its gravity, you would be getting pulled to the ground, with 40 Gs of pressure. You don't want 40 Gs.
Even the Maxians knew that, so they invented a mashine called the 'Artificial Anti-Gravity Generator' or short 'AAGG'. The prime focus of both Maxians and Skulls, yet they are rivals at normal conditions, is to keep the AAGG alive, or else nothing would be standing there anymore.
For the atmosphere, yes, Maxians breath something else than oxygen, but it somehow managed to be in a good enough concentration for humans to not die, yet the oxygen levels are lower compared to the earth, which makes breathing for untrained lungs a bit difficult at the start.
So this was the history of Maximus, and now, after all of this explaining, here is the real story:
Bolts P.O.V.
There was nothing more important than to get back home for me. „Mittens, can't you go faster?" I never really had any troubles with things taking long, in fact, I was always very patient, but this time...
„I'm sorry Bolt, but I have no idea how to use this thing!" She stared at the switch for a long time, then, moved the dongle from 'Drive' to 'FastDrive'. The engines stopped hammering blue orbs of energy into space, and instead of single rings, a bigger, consistant ring shot out of them.
„This is faster, right?" A quick look at the tempometer and I said: „Yep. From 100 to 250 km/h." Good. We were a bit quicker now. Not good enough. „Isn't there another stage?" Mittens looked at the switch again and said: „You're right! There still is... uhm... Warp drive?"
„Ok, maybe we should-" I nearly spoke to an end, when we heared a voice through a radio scaring us into jumping. „Unidentified Cruiser, this is Titan docking center. Please confirm." We are in trouble. „Rhino, you talk. You seem to know this stuff."
The hamster bounced up and down and giggled, then took what seemed to be a microphone and pressed a button next to it. A light next to the speakers turned on and Rhino pulled out his most heroic voice he could find.
„This is captain Rhino speaking! I have confirmed your call!" - „Captain Rhino, you are not listed in our dismiss folder. You have no permission to fly." - „Don't worry! We know what we're doing!" - „Sir, you had no right to take this cruiser off. Please return to the Titan immidiately."
„I cannot do that! I am in a rescue mission!" - „Sir, if you don't follow our instructions, we will send takedown hunters after you." Uh oh. Bad news. I leaned over to Mittens and whispered: „Do you think we can get home safely without being blown up?" - „I really don't think so..."
„Well then you should make them ready, because we are not flying an INCH off our course!" The radio clicked and we never heard the voice again. For two minutes of steady flight we asked ourselfes if they would really shoot us down, and after another minute we have given up all our concerns of that actually happenig.
But then Mittens spotted something in the mirror... „THE HUNTERS!" Oh god... „What? Where?" - „They are right behind us!" - „Unidentified cruiser. This is your last chance of surrender!" - „What do we do now?"
Mittens and I paniced, then tried switching the dongle to 'WarpDrive' at the same time. When our paws touched we looked each other in the eyes, and the time seemed to have stopped. But then Rhino pulled us out of each others gaze as he screamed: „JUST SWITCH TO WARP DRIVE ALREADY!"
I let go of her paw, and she used it to move the switch. As another generator started humming, we both blushed a bit, then orange lightning shot out of another pair of engines on the back. We really lost them! We were faster than them!
Not for too long though, because not only did they warp behind us too, but they also started firing at us. And if that wasn't bad enough, Maximus was getting closer too, and I could only see us crashing into the rock surface...
Just a few kilometers from the planets atmosphere away, the hunter started pulling back. Maybe they weren't allowed to come close to Maximus. „PULL THIS THING UUUUUP!", Rhino yelled, and Mittens moved the knob back to 'Steady'. The engines died. In just a matter of seconds, her paw slipped away from the control panel, hitting the switch again, and turning on 'Hover'.
We heared a mechanical sound as the four side engines turned downwards, facing the ground, and started shooting orbs again. Meanwhile the cruiser started catching fire by entering the atmosphere. To our surprise, we survived that, but sadly, the artificial gravity generator did not.
When it broke, we were pushed towards the top of the ship, with Mittens laying on top of my arm. Well, technicly under my arm, but we were upside down. I managed to grab the laughing and giggling hamster too, but for a moment, I just enjoyed the black cat resting on my arm.
Suddenly the ship managed to stabelize itself again, and we fell down. Now we were hovering over the ground. A quick look outside told us, that this is definately worse than being chased by takedown hunters. We were right over a battlefield.
„This is not good. At all." The whole cruiser started shaking as we were catapulted backwards. The alarm went on, and the cockpit started blinking and honking. Then a last crash and I lost track of the world surrounding me, as I faded into darkness.
I woke up on a bed next to Mittens and Rhino. For a second I thought it was just a dream, and in reality I was fine, but then a robot bent over me. But it looked strange, not like the other one we've seen so far, but more like a thicker version.
And it also didn't speak in a monotone voice, sure, the metallic sound was still there, but at least it used normal language and different tones. „So you are the ones that stole the cruiser? I thought you were an outlaw, but you are just animals..."
I found my speech again and told him: „We have no time to chat! We need to get back home!" - „Woah there buddy! You are heavily wounded! Don't worry, a medic is on his way." Heavily wounded? I don't feel like I am heav- pain – Oh god I am...
„Lay flat, the doctor is almost here..." Suddenly the door opened up, and a ball with spider legs came walking in. It folded away its upped half, and a few arms and instruments came out. There was the monotone voice again: „Please hold still. This will not hurt."
Yeah. The vet says that too all the time, and it doesn't help at all when getting syringed. But this time it actually didn't hurt! Instead, two spinning things were firing some sort of electricity through my body, and I couldn't feel it anymore!
While all I was wondering how all of this was possible, I looked down at my stomach to see that the spider bot was lasering, beaming, cutting, hammering and so much more with its gadgets, that I asked myself how I am not dead already.
And as sudden as it started, it stopped again, and repeated the same process with the cat and the hamster. When it was done, the doctor just walked out of the door again, leaving us four together in the room.
„So look. I see that you are lost here. But this is just an outpost. Not even a defense point, just an outpost. Choppers don't land here, they just drop off halfbots like me once in a while without ever touching the ground."
„What do you mean?" - „I mean, you can't get away from here, unless you get to the next control point." - „Where even are we right now?" Maybe this will help us. If we know where we are, then we should have a few problems less. What I didn't want to hear at all, was what he said next: „This is grid 88.1".
Ok, so I know I am making these chapters kinda short, but I think this lenght is fitting for the fast story style I am trying to accomplish. Also: Out of all the places they could have landed on, they came down on 88.1. Well that's really a coincidence right now...
