TAK'S ESCAPE
A/N: Here's my first original chapter, I hope you like it
The Massive floats through space, along with The Armada, its typical following of other, less menacing ships. A shuttle launches from its docking bay and flies off towards another large ship, one of the Viral Tanks that inhabit The Armada. On this ships docking bay a walkway extends out of the shuttles main entrance and an entire platoon of soldiers march out of the doorway and line the sides of the ramp.
The Tallests hover out of the doorway, Red seems almost interested to be there, Purple just seems bored. Immediately after them come some servants who are so laden with their leaders snacks that they are seconds away from being crushed. "Welcome my Tallests! We are so happy that you decided to visit!" an Irken in a scientists robe steps forward to greet his leaders.
"Calm down! This is only a routine visit, it's not like we abandoned you!" Red backs up as the scientist tries to hug him. One of the guards on the ramp steps forward and pushes the scientist back into line. "I'm sorry, it's just we've been working without break for the past month or so and I just don't want it to be for nothing" the scientist shakes nervously a bit while he speaks.
Purple has grabbed a snack from his servant and tries to say something, but can't through his mouthful of food. "Oh, eh…I'm sorry my Tallests but you can't eat anything in the labs" the scientist nervously says, everyone else in the room emits gasps of shock. "I'm sorry but some of the experiments are very sensitive and you shouldn't eat anything near them…" the scientist continues as Purple swallows his snack.
"OF TO THE DUNGEONS WITH'IM!" Purple shouts. Two Irkens at the front of the ramp jump up and drag the scientist away, the second in command steps forward once he is gone. "I apologize for my colleagues absurd comments, shall we start the tour?" the second scientist gestures toward the door and the entire entourage gets on its way. "In this area we are constructing the newest Mechs with which the empire shall crush its enemies" the nerd says as he opens an absurdly thick door.
Inside a bunch of robots are stomping around, stepping on cardboard cutouts of other alien races. "WOOO! Lookit me go!" an overly excited Irken screams with excitement as he pilots an evil looking robot. He stops running, turns toward some cardboard Meekrob and presses a button, some missile silos pop out of its back and launch a pair, and the cutout goes up in a fireball, raining flaming cardboard bits over testing area.
The second Scientist turns to the Tallests, looking for approval. Purple is slurping on a soda, but Red at least looks interested. "Well, how about we go look at the hand held weapons area" the scientist turns and leads the group down a series of hallways. The group arrives at a door, the sign outside the door says 'aim at the red, not the purple. They walk through the door and find themselves in a long room with a window on one side. Through the window the Tallests observe a long, mostly red room. At one end, near a purple wall they see a table with a bunch of menacing, experimental looking guns on top of it.
The second scientist presses and intercom button, "Okay Koffa, you may try the DoomShot 5000 now". A few seconds an Irken that looks like he's been blown up more than once walks out and grabs one of the larger guns. He heaves it over to a specially marked out area and takes aim. Lights on the guns barrel flash for a bit and a high pitched whine fills the air, Purple has stopped sipping his drink long enough to pay attention.
BLAM!
A stream of energy issues forth from the barrel, sending Koffa back into the purple wall and a mattress that looks as if it's been placed there solely to catch testers. The stream flies forward, striking the target dead on and filling half of the room with flames. "Ohhhhhh" Purple is actually paying attention for once. "Well now that you seem satisfied you can head off to the cafeteria while we warm up the engines on some experimental spaceships" the second scientist says as he directs the group out of the firing range and down a hallway.
"Hey, what's behind that door?" Purple asks as he points down to the door at the other end of the hallway. "Ohhhhh nuthin' just a door! It's just like every other door in existence; boring, let's go to the cafeteria shall we?" The scientist starts babbling about all the awesome snack machines they have in the cafeteria, but the Tallests are more interested in the door. "What's 'Fringe Science'?" Purple points to the writing above the door as his servant hands him another soda.
"Eh? Wha? Oh…it's just random stuff, the scientists in that area research stuff that's really…out there" as the scientist talks he makes hand gestures to indicate just how 'out there' the research is. Giving in the second in command opens the door, and the eyes of all present go wide with awe. "Why were you trying to hide this from us?" Red asks as they pass a massive chemistry lab. "Well if you really must know…some of these guys really creep me out"
The group passes a room with a large circular device in the middle of it. The group stops as the empty space in the middle of the circle fills with some form of energy, a Vortian prisoner is brought out. A scientist uses a nasty looking electro-prod to force the prisoner through the energy field, on a video screen, the Vortian emerges from another device, fused to some sort of alien fly.
"I don't know what you were worried about, all of these guys aren't creepy at all" Purple says as he watches the unnecessarily painful un-fusing process. "Yeah it wasn't those guys I was talking about…it was THEM!" the last word echoes a bit as the Irken points to a door labeled 'PAK studies'. The door opens and they enter yet another hall way. The rooms branching off of this one are filled with schematics of PAK's and PAK tools, along with some outlandish experimental ones.
The next set of rooms is a little weirder, in one a PAKless Irken sits on a chair while a bunch of other scientists watch intensely, taking notes. The Tallest watch for a few moments, at which point, the PAKless Irken jumps up and shouts "I NEEDS IT!" before grabbing his PAK from a table and reattaching it. Rejuvenated, he walks over to the other Irkens, both of which have stopwatches. The two look at each other's watches before nodding in approval, "OH YEAH! TWO MORE SECONDS!". A giant screen on the back wall starts flashing '10:23' as confetti flies through the air and the Irkens all do their own happy dance.
"and here…is the guy that makes me want to throw my PAK down a garbage chute" he laments as they come up to a door with 'Dr. Irkenstien' scrawled across it in large, menacing letters. The door opens and we see a large pillar in the middle of the room, the pillar is pulsating with electricity as an Irken at the very top of it laughs insanely. The Tallests themselves are shuddering in fear, thankfully the spectacle ends soon and the Irken does a multi-backflip off of the tall structure, landing gracefully in front of his leaders.
"AH! My Tallests! I apologize for not greeting you myself but I had to scare that Meekrob into zapping my latest creations into ghastly life!" the mad scientist declares as he guides the group towards some cages. The first cage is filled with water and houses two Irken-less PAK's moving about like jellyfish, the next has some other PAK's scuttling about on tiny crab legs. The final cage has some PAK's flying on wings and screeching as they attempt to latch onto some Vortians that were just dropped in.
"All these Irken-less PAK's are little more than drones, meant solely to enslave the local population of a planet" the crazed Irken explains as he begins to open a large door. "And while that's great and all, it's hardly what drives me, instead…THIS is my passion" the door swings open, revealing Tak, suspended in air by some nasty looking chains. There are some wires jutting out of her PAK, they are pulsating evilly with energy.
"Hey, isn't that the janitor that tried to fill Zim's planet with snacks?" Purple says as he goes back to sipping his drink. "Yep, after she was caught sabotaging that SIR competition, she was declared a Defect and shipped off to be deactivated" the mad Irken turns to a console and types something. "However this makes her the perfect subject for my greatest triumph…THE RESTORATION OF DEFECTS!" screen behind the Irken lights up, displaying all manner of Irken code and PAK diagrams.
Purple begins to choke horribly on his soft drink spewing soda droplets all over the place, Red pats his co-leader on a few time while berating the crazy scientist. "ARE YOU INSANE!? Defects can't be cured! That's why their deactivated upon discovery!" dismayed at his leaders reaction, Dr. Irkenstiens shoulders slump. "Yeah, now they are! But think of what it would mean if all Defects were capable of function! We wouldn't have to worry about rebellious shipping drones or anything like that! We'd just put the former Defects in those positions!"
As the Tallests and a clearly Defective scientist argue this out, fate is planning something horrible. Deep within the machinery holding Tak in place soda mixed with Irken spit is slowly spreading over the components. It drips and leaks all over sensitive electronics, causing short after short to compound within the machines until one droplet finds its mark, a partially stripped wire.
"…I told you this guy was creepy!" the new head scientist shouts over the massive argument that has broken out. "…No this guy's insane! You just said he was creepy" Purple shouts back at the shorter Irken. "I'm telling you! Putting cured Defects into the lowly work force would be greatly beneficial to the Empire!" the crazed Irken scientist is still trying to argue his point with Red. Red looks as if he is about to say something but then the lights in the lab flicker.
Then the machines holding Tak in place spark and then fail, her fall causing the wires to snap out of her PAK. All the scientists rush to try to repair the machines while the guards form two circles, one around the Tallests and the other around Tak. Tak snaps awake and jumps up, a guard rushes forward to try to restrain her but she leaps over his shoulders, causing his face to slam into the wall behind them. She sprints through the gap in the circle the guard just created, the two to either side of his former position try to shoot but miss and blast each other instead.
Tak runs forward into the Tallests circle, she leaps over the soldiers and lands in front of the two. They panic, making a break for the door but trip over some of their guards in the process. Taking advantage of this distraction, Tak knocks out a few more guards and then runs over to a wall. Using a random scientist as a stepping stool she leaps up and grabs hold of the outside of an air duct. Her PAK legs extend and use some sort of laser cutter to it open and then crawl inside.
From another vent she watches as one group of guards drags the crazed scientist away and another begins to escort the Tallests off the ship. Extending her PAK legs yet again Tak ascends up a vertical shaft and begins her trek through the air ducts of the massive Viral Tank. For the most part, she just wanders aimlessly not really caring where she's heading. All of a sudden, she becomes very happy and runs forward to the end of a particularly large vent, at the end of which is some sort of computer console.
Her fingers begin to fly over the console as images flash over its screen. Eventually she brings up a full ship schematic, "Let's see now, where am I?". After some more furious typing a little red dot begins flashing and the words 'you are here' flash in Irken. Some more key mashing later and Tak has found the nearest docking bay. A small gasp draws Tak's attention away from the screen, there is a service Irken in one of the side vents, she lunges for him, but it's too late, he's already out of the vent.
AIRDUCT # 42
An Irken has just finished unscrewing the grate covering the duct, he then picks up a gun and a tracking device like the one Zim had in 'The Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom'. "Are you sure you want to do this? You know how dangerous Defective can be" an Irken scientist says as he fiddles with a similar detector. "I'm sure, she's just one crazed Janitorial drone, I am a trained soldier" the first Irken says as he jumps into the vent.
He's just randomly crawling through the vents, occasionally glancing at the motion tracker. "Are you sure she's still in this area of the ship?" he asks over his alien looking walkie talkie. "We're sure, there haven't been any other sightings" the tracker begins to beep after the reply. The Irken is exited and begins to move toward the dot. He raises his gun as he begins to close in on the dot, he gets closer and closer, and then the dot is behind him.
Panicking he whirls around and fires off a few shots, but hits nothing but the inside of an air vent. Walking forward he matches the dot with is position, there's nothing here but a few scorch marks from his earlier shots. Suddenly his eyes go wide and he looks at the vertical air vent above him in time to see Tak's boot flying towards his face at full speed. The last thing the scientist hears over the talkie is a startled yelp, followed by a dull thud.
THE FIRING RANGE
A bunch of Irkens are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The scientists are collecting all the experimental guns from the somewhat disappointed testers. "Awww, why do we have to stop?" Koffa asks as the DoomShot is pulled out of his hands. "Because there's a dangerous Defective loose on the ship!" the scientist responds before he corrals Koffa away from the cart of guns. Koffa looks as if he is about to protest, but then a metallic clanging comes from the area of the cart. Everyone present turns to find Tak standing just in front of the weapons cart, underneath an airduct.
They eye the Defective nervously for a few moments, she grabs the DoomShot off of the cart and aims for the group. The Irkens take a step back and some dive for cover, Tak then whirls around and fires at the purple wall at the other end of the room. The recoil sends Tak flying into the charred, target end of the firing range. She throws herself through an exit while the other Irkens dive for cover from the fireball.
However, this fireball only fills a quarter or so of the room before it pulls back, revealing the inky blackness of space. Some of the scientists and testers make it out but the others are soon torn from the ship. Soon the entire room begins to collapse as it's pulled into the empty, soul-sucking vacuum.
THE MECH ROOM
Horrible, red warning lights flash as irritatingly frantic sirens blare. Despite all this chaos the engineers and pilots are packing the experimental mech's into overly safe looking metal crates. Suddenly, and without warning one of the engineer screams like a little girl and runs from the room. The others turn to find Tak standing at the entrance looking as if she didn't expect anyone to be in this room.
The few pilots that are still around jump into whatever happens to be the closest robot and begin shooting at her. She dodges a few missiles and energy bolts before she rolls behind a roughly human shaped robot. Taking a moment to collect herself she turns to the robots back pops a panel out and rips a few important looking wires from the mechs spine region. The robots upper torso begins to spin around like some sort of demented ice skater while its weapons discharge randomly.
Using this chaos and its explosions as a distraction Tak runs out of the door at the opposite end of the room and finds herself in a deserted hallway. She runs down the halls and turns numerous corners before she comes to the escape pod room. Throwing the door open she finds a short food service drone about to get into the last pod. However just as the door is about to shut she jumps in.
INSIDE THE POD
The pod accelerates out of its holding area so fast that the pair are slammed against the hatch. This gives them the perfect view of the Viral Tanks situation, which isn't good. On one side of the ship there is a cloud of shredded metal flying out of a hole torn in the left side pod, which is itself imploding. The acceleration lessens a bit and Tak floats over to one of the seats, she is about to strap herself in when she feels a horrible pain in one of her antenna.
"OH you horrible Defect! I'll be a HERO when I turn you in!" the food service drone has latched onto her head and his pulling on her antenna, he opens his jaw wide and then clamps down on the right one. Screeching in pain Tak slams her head into the wall repeatedly, squishing the little Irken in between her head and the wall. Eventually he lets go and Tak straps the dazed drone into a seat. She straps herself into another one when the whole pod shudders, all the flashing screens indicate that the pod has entered the atmosphere of whatever planet the Armada happened to be over at the time.
Minutes later the red hot pod is embedded in the steaming ground at the bottom of a newly formed crater. The hatch pops open and Tak jumps out, narrowly avoiding burning herself on the hot exterior of the pod. Her right antenna has several, horrible looking kinks in it from where the drone bit her, she stumbles for a bit before scrambling up the side of the crater. Peering over the rim of the crater Tak spies a large, Irken structure in the distance.
A few minutes' later Tak dives behind a large rock as a pair of Voot runners fly past in the direction of the crater. Looking over the rock, Tak estimates she has about halved the distance and is now able to tell that the building she is approaching is a prison of some sort. She resumes her trek, diving behind rocks every now and then to avoid being spotted. She is up along the base of the outer wall at this point, shuffling along she turns a corner and is excited to find a ship yard full of spacecraft just lying around, and unfortunately the entire area is surrounded by a nasty looking energy field.
A sound startles her and she flattens herself up against the wall. A few feet away a door slides open allowing some sort of hovering garbage truck out. Seeing an opportunity she begins moving once more, just as she is about to reach the door it closes. Resisting the urge to scream Tak jumps up onto the ledge above the door, activates her invisibility projector, and waits.
It is night by the time the truck arrives; it pauses before the door long enough for Tak to jump down on top of it. Hearing the whoosh of the door she flattens herself as much as she can, however it's not enough and the injured portion of her antenna brushes against the door frame. Shuddering in agony Tak stifles a scream that the prison guards don't seem to hear, feeling the truck come to a halt Tak settles down trying to overcome the pain while waiting for the others to leave.
Once she believes the room is empty she slides off the trucks roof and deactivates her invisibility. Taking stock of the parking garage she finds herself in she is dismayed at the lack of air vents for her to crawl around in. instead she goes up to the door, recalling the sounds she heard while waiting she attempts to come up with the correct sequence of beeps for the door, she fails. "Hey, is there a problem here?" the voice comes just as she is about to tear the key pad off the wall.
Turning, she finds herself face to face with a male, purple eyed guard. "Ah, yes, I'm new here and I can't seem to recall my number" she moves aside allowing the guard to type his own number. "Yeah, I remember my first day, the numbers are always so difficult" the Irken muses as he finishes typing. "so, what job did you get? Guard? Janitor? Interiga-" the Irken stops as he finds his own electro-prod jammed into his gut. "Guard" Tak says menacingly as he goes into a convulsion.
After putting on his guard outfit, Tak shoves the unconscious Irken into one of the garbage trucks and continues through the door. "Hiya Ben!" the noise greets her as she enters the guards lounge. Looking at her outfit she finds a name tag with the oddly earth-like name printed on it. Looking back up, she finds another, slightly taller Irken in a similar outfit. "hey, what's the matter? Vortian got your tongue?" the tall Irken jokes. "No, no I'm good, really…" the guard looks at her, suspicious. "Are you sure? Your voice sounds different…"
"Ummm…well-" glancing around and seeing no one else present, Tak grabs the Irkens head and slams his face into a snack machine a few times. The unconscious guard slumps over on the ground as Tak does a quick sweep of the room to make sure no one saw. Relieved that there were no witnesses Tak shoves the unconscious form into a garbage can. She then quickly examines a map before running out of the empty lounge.
"…One coming through" the Irken behind some glass kiosk says as he presses a button, letting Tak through. Tak finds herself getting more and more skittish the closer she gets to the shipyard, she is consciously weary of every guard that passes her. "Hey door drone, did ya hear what happened?" a voice behind her asks, perking her interest. "…they found that guy with the odd name, ah! Ben it was, unconscious inside a garbage truck.
"Are you sure? I just let Ben through this door not two seconds ago" the dumb door jockey says to the two other guards. Turning quickly Tak finds the two guards in question charging her, electro-prods drawn, she pulls out her own electro-prod and strikes the first in the forehead. Using his body as a spring board she leaps over the second, striking his head with the handle and knocking him flat. Ditching the guards armor she runs to the door she just came through and slides under it just as it closes.
After running for several minutes and making some guards look like incompetent boobs Tak finds herself in the actual prison area of the building. Each cell is for walls of pure energy that cast an eerie rhythmic light on the otherwise poorly lit hallway. Hearing some more guards coming Tak extends her PAK legs and squeezes through the gap between the nearest cell and the ceiling. Dropping in on the occupant, Tak clasps her hands over the Vortians mouth before he can make a sound.
The sound of the guards footsteps passes then recedes into the distance, Tak stands still for a few more seconds before releasing the Vortian. She is about climb out of the cell when a weight latches onto one of the spider legs. It's the Vortian and he has two of her PAK legs in a vice grip. "Take me with you!" the grey alien demands as she tries to shake him off. "What will you do if I don't!?"
"I'll scream for the guards!" the Vortian has somehow gotten hold of a third leg, Tak is now barely standing. "*sigh* Well we both can't fit through that gap, so what do you suggest we do?" the Vortian ponders this for a moment. Outside the cell a guard is making his rounds when all of a sudden a commotion breaks out in one of the cells. "Hey! Hey! Keep it down in there!" the guard shouts, when the noise continues he types is number into a key pad and a hole big enough for him to fit through opens in the field.
When he steps through he finds the bed and nightstand thrown about, bits and pieces of them smoldering from where they struck the cell walls. He looks around, finding no one he panics and is about to run from the cell when something falls from the ceiling and lands on top of him. Outside, another guard has grown suspicious of his comrade's absence and goes to investigate. "Hey! You know we're only allowed to beat the prisoners on Beating Day!" he says as he sticks his head into the cell, only to find an electro-prod rudely shoved in his face.
A while later, two guards step out of the cell, one of them has purple eyes and a crippled antenna, the other has some sort of visor pulled over his face. "Okay, well now that we're properly dressed…the shipyard is this way" Tak starts off in one direction, and the Vortian follows. They are about to turn down and important looking hallway when a tall Irken and four guards emerge from it, behind her, Tak hears the Vortians hushed voice. "Great Blorch! It's the Warden!"
Tak stands to attention, and her prison break partner follows suit. "At ease" the Warden says as if she's an army commander. "You're clearly new here, so I'll be the one to say it; you don't have to wear the visor all the time" she remarks as she points to the Vortian. "Ummm…it's stuck" the Warden frowns at this but then shrugs, motioning for the pair to follow her. "So what are your names, and how long have you been stationed here?"
"Tak, this is my first day sir!" Tak's anxiety rises the longer they follow her. "Ummm…Lard Nar, and eh…couple days" Lard Nar adds a "Sir!" after Tak elbows him. "Well that seems to be quite a common name, first the invader, and then there's the prisoner I'm going to interrogate…" the pair do not hear the rest as the panic and turn to leave. But it's already too late, the Warden has already typed her code in and is greeted with the sight of two half-naked, unconscious guards.
The Warden and her soldiers turn, but instead of seeing two retreating forms they see Tak charging them while Lard Nar watches in shock. Tak is quick, she punches the Warden in the face a few times before lifting the Irken over her head and tossing her over the railing of the walkway they are on. All four soldiers gasp and follow their leader over the edge, forming a chain of Irkens. "So I take it you're that Defective the guards have been chatting about?"
"Yep!" Tak says before she starts dragging the Resisty's leader back towards the main hallway. Just before they exit this level of the prison, Tak spots another keypad on the wall. Rushing over she types in Ben's code and selects every cell on the floor. As they dash out of the hall the sound of many energized cells deactivating is followed by panicked sirens. The pair blend in with the panic perfectly, save for the fact that they are running in the opposite direction.
They find a different path to the shipyard this time, this path has only one guarded door. "You have to open this door now!" Tak shouts at the door guard. However, this one is not as easily fooled as the other. "Reason?". Tak suppresses a frustrated sigh as she tries to think of an excuse, she glances over to Lard Nar for help. "The warden wishes us to inspect recently arrived ships for signs of stow aways"
"Yep, that's why we're here!" Tak attempts an innocent smile, but only ends up looking nervous. After eyeing them for a few seconds the door Irken lets them through and they walk out into a large yard full of ships, a shipyard I believe it's called. "Here, I know how to pilot this one" Tak says as she walks over to what appears to be a slightly larger version of her Spittle Runner. Popping the cockpit they also find that this one is also a two seater variety, sparing them a cramped awkward ride to wherever the hell they're going.
Just as the engines begin to whine to life the nearest door bursts open and out comes the Warden and a gaggle of guards. "STAND DOWN! TURN OFF THE SHIP!" she calls through an alien looking megaphone. "Give me those!" Tak grabs the electro-prods and fiddles with the batteries before tossing them into the group and slamming the canopy shut. Everyone outside dives for cover as the prods over heat and explode, kicking up enough dust to allow the ship time to get off the ground.
Taking no chances, Tak turns on the ships weapons systems and blasts a few of the larger ships. The resulting explosions damage most of the other ships and generate enough smoke that tracking the small ship becomes almost impossible within the atmosphere. Once out of the atmosphere the tiny ship weaves through the Armada, the few ships that do take notice are not fast enough to pursue and by the time anyone knows what's going on the ship has cleared the Armada.
On the cockpit Tak slams her fist down on a large, red button and the ship lurches forward, sending the unseated Lard Nar hurtling into the back of the cockpit.