Jeff – Chapter 4:

Jeff and Flint waited in the corridor behind a makeshift barricade made of metallic crates and an overturned table. While Jeff did not think that Green Two had a pass card to get into the ship, they would not be surprised if he had a few grenades or a block of C4, or whatever the future variant of C4 was. Jeff went back towards the hatch to see if Green Two had managed to enter the ship. Just as he neared the corridor that led to the hatch, he saw it open. He immediately retreated as he saw not only the man that he assumed to be Green Two, due to the flight suit, enter the ship, but three other men come in along with Green Two. Jeff quickly realized that one of the soldiers that had entered was not even human. The gray suit, the seemingly tentacle-like arms, the visor, and emblem on the chest gave the new visitor away as a Starman. His diminutive size made Jeff think that this was a Starman Junior. From what Ness had told him during their last adventure, Starman Juniors were not as strong as normal Starmen. This gave Jeff no comfort, though, because Starmen Juniors had psychic attacks, such as PSI Fire and PSI Freeze, both of which could be cast at both the Alpha and Beta levels.

Jeff ran back the way he came and dove behind the cover that Flint had managed to erect. "I really hope you either have some grenades or there were some grenades lying around," Jeff called to Flint, his voice a clear indication that things had gone from bad to worse.

"No, sorry. Why do you ask?"

"Because Green Two got some reinforcements." He then paused before continuing in an ominous tone. "And one of them is a Starman Junior. He's not as powerful as a normal Starman physically, but he more than makes up for it with powerful psychic attacks."

"Can we beat them?" Flint asked with a note of concern.

"Yes, but it won't be easy. We have to take out that Starman Junior before he manages to launch a psychic attack. He could kill the two of us with ease."

Almost immediately after Jeff had taken the laser pistol, Green Two and his reinforcements appeared from around the corner. Jeff quickly scanned the soldiers, three humans and the Starman Junior. He immediately fired a pulse of energy from the pistol. The scarlet pulse struck the Starman Junior in the chest and burned a hole into the alien creature. He quickly fired two more pulses, one struck the Starman Junior in the abdomen, and the other in the head. The Starman Junior fell backwards with three holes in its body. After it fell to the ground, it ceased its movement. Jeff hoped that it was dead.

Meanwhile, Flint had managed to fell one of his attackers before the other two, one of them being Green Two, ducked back around the corner.

"You can't win, Flint," the familiar voice of Green Two yelled. "The PSI Aliens know where you are. You won't escape this ship alive. The White Ship will be destroyed. That can't be avoided."

"Do you really think that we'll simply lay down and die without a fight?" Flint countered. "The odds have evened out considerably."

"It doesn't matter what happens to us," Green Two said, trying to make his voice sound convincing, but both Jeff and Flint could tell that he was having second thoughts about his decision to side with the PSI Aliens, mainly because there was a good chance that he was going to die soon. "We'll still be able to take down the two of you." His confidence in his voice, or rather, the lack thereof, did not match the confidence of his words.

Soon, Green Two and his cohort quickly emerged from the cover of the corner and took some shots at Flint and Jeff. Their assault rifles spitting out a steady stream of bullets in the direction of Flint and Jeff. The makeshift cover that Flint had erected, however, had proven effective and managed stop the gunfire of Green Two and his cohort. Jeff and Flint quickly emerged from cover and returned fire, a hail of bullets and laser pulses boring holes into the two remaining assailants. Green Two and his cohort attempted to retreat behind the corner, but the first shots of both Jeff and Flint had managed to find their marks. The subsequent volley of gun and laser fire merely sealed the deal. Within seconds, Green Two and his cohort were dead. Jeff quickly emerged from cover and ran towards the still quivering corpses of Green Two and his cohort, a female soldier that wore robes that Jeff had recognized as those that had been worn by Middle Eastern terrorists of the late twentieth century, quickly searched their bodies for ammunition clips and for any other weapons that they may have carried. He found that they had several extra clips for the standard nine-millimeter caliber handgun as well as two grenades each, as well as a couple of flashbangs. Jeff also took their assault rifles and then headed back to Flint.

Once he returned to Flint they evenly divided the spoils of the fight. Once each of them was armed, they made their way further through the ship. Jeff knew that it would not be long before the enemy either sent more troops to attack the ship, or simply fired on the White Ship itself and kill two birds with one stone.

"Hurry," Flint told Jeff, grabbing him by the hand and leading him deeper into the ship. "We have to get to the engineering section to start up the ship. Then we'll have to go to the bridge to actually begin to pilot it."

This got Jeff's attention and he glanced quizzically back at Flint. "What do you know about this ship? And why do we have to pilot it?"

"A lot. I know its entire layout."

"And how do you know so much about the ship?" Jeff inquired. "I know that you were chosen, but were you one of its builders?"

"No," Flint answered. "When the plans for the White Ship were drawn up, things were really looking grim for the world. Terrorists were bombing cities in the U.S. and in other NATO countries. America and the other NATO countries responded with extreme force. Sometimes they even responded with nuclear force just to send the message that they had had enough. Just when it seemed as if the war was going to end, the Eastern Coalition unleashed a new weapon. It was a bioweapon, some new type of bioengineered animals, on the world. Soon, the Middle Eastern Alliance and the NATO Alliance got access to these animals and engineered some more. The war started all over again, with even more destruction occurring because they could lay waste to cities without having to worry about the radioactive fallout that comes with the use of nukes. General Scamp and a few others knew where the world was headed, so they drew up and began construction on the White Ship. We used advanced alien technology that we had reverse engineered back at Area 51 to design the 4th-D Slip Drive. We can use 4th-D Slip to evade the oncoming saucer. It is likely that that saucer has the firepower to destroy, or damage it sufficiently to force this White Ship to be scrapped, in little more than one shot, and without any escape craft, it's probably our only chance of getting out of here, unless those aliens land one of their UFOs, which isn't likely.

"I had been given a boarding pass because I had not only proven my skills as a pilot, but because I also had originally had aspirations of being an archaeologist, and had been raised as a farmer. On this ship are, or will be, all of the basics that we need to build ourselves a new life, and even a new and simpler way of life. Once this ship is fully stocked, it will be supplied with food, water, medicine, farming and building tools and equipment, everything except weapons or the ammunition necessary to use them." Flint then gave a chuckle. "Which is ironic because weapons, or rather ammunition, is the one thing we need right now."

Jeff did not join in Flint's chuckle. "But what good does that do us?" Jeff asked, wondering what Flint was thinking. "This ship hasn't even had a shakedown cruise and if there are no weapons on this ship, then there's no way for us to fight off the other saucer."

"According to the data that Scamp gave me before about this ship, the maneuver that it would use to allow the occupants of the ship to survive until we reach an area that has as of yet been untouched by modern humans is called the Fourth Dee Slip. It is based upon a psychic technique that was used by one of the first known confirmed psychics in the world, a person that went by the name of Ninten. In battle, it merely allowed him to escape from a group of enemies should things look bad by phasing into another dimension and fleeing the scene unnoticed, then phasing back once the danger had passed. That, in essence, is what the people of the White Ship are going to do. They are going to flee the world and its war and secretly find a safe haven where humanity can start anew without our current technology. There are also rumors that there are other plans in place. One of them is the replacement of the memories of everyone onboard the White Ship when we reach our final destination."

Jeff could hear the note of disapproval in Flint's voice while talking about the plan to replace people's memories with new ones. Jeff also did not like the plan that Flint was talking about. Jeff hoped that they were still just rumors. Now, more than ever, he was hoping and praying that the peace process would work out. For if humanity was forced to use the White Ship to escape, and erased their memories, all of this could very well happen again in the future.

As the two continued to make their way to the engineering section of the vessel, Jeff was looking closely at the junk that was strewn around the corridors, searching for something that could be either salvaged or converted into something usable. Along the way, he found the remains of a couple of broken harmonicas and collected them while Flint continued to make his way forward. Jeff remembered from the first War Against Giygas that he could use the Broken Harmonica to build a Baddest Beam gun with the proper materials and a little bit of hard work. Anyhow, it would be better than the laser pistol that he was currently stuck with. All he needed now were some spare parts and maybe a wire or small tube, and maybe a battery of some sort and then he would be in business. He quickly found discarded wires, small tubes, and even some batteries strewn around the ship. Jeff had also found some flak jackets with reinforced trauma plates in order to protect them from enemy fire. He quickly followed the corridor until he found Flint near a staircase. When he reached Flint, he handed Flint the flak jacket. Flint removed his flight suit, revealing what looked to be a cowboy outfit underneath and placed the flak jacket over his shirt. Jeff did likewise and soon, they made their way up the staircase. Until they had the power on, the stairs were the only way to get from deck to deck. The two of them quickly climbed up the staircase until they were on the engineering deck.

They emerged from the staircase and found themselves in another corridor. The two of them then decided to rest since they had a defensible position in the engineering room. While Flint entered the room, Jeff remained in the corridor and began to work on the broken harmonicas that he had collected in order to convert it into a Baddest Beam guns. Within a few hours, he had built two working Baddest Beam guns. He had even managed to construct Energy Rifles for the both of them. That took another two hours. They quickly went to the first door that they found and they entered. Inside they found themselves in the reactor room. Blank consoles lined the floor in front of them. Jeff imagined the ship being active and officers sitting at the consoles, pushing buttons all day long, much like what happened onboard starships in many science fiction television shows. In the center of the room stood a large, cylindrical reactor. It was massive, easily thirty feet high from what Jeff could see. All around the reactor, there were walkways framed by railings and consoles. Flint went over to one of the consoles and pushed a single button, turning on the console. Apparently emergency power had been in standby mode. After the console had booted up, he quickly made pushed a series of buttons as he made his way through the menus until he had activated the ship's emergency power. With that, he would at least be able to activate auxiliary power, which should be sufficient for the ship to activate its 4th-D Slip. Just then, the ship lurched a bit. Jeff thought that he had heard something impact the ship.

"We have to hurry," Jeff warned. "What can I do to help?"

"Just stay out of my way," Flint responded. "The best thing you can do is simply watch the door to make sure that anyone who may have come into the ship after Green Two and his cronies does not make it in here."

He then tapped some more buttons as Jeff headed off to watch the entrance to the reactor room. Jeff went out into the corridor and quickly heard the sounds of footsteps and voices. He ducked back into the reactor room and alerted Flint to the situation, "Snap it up Flint, we've got company."

"Almost done," Flint responded while initiating the final startup sequence for the ship. "We'll still have to control the ship from the bridge, though."

We'll have to make it to the bridge first, Jeff thought unhappily. He quickly unslung his Energy Rifle and aimed it at the opening towards the stairwell. He could hear the voices of their potential pursuers approaching. He could even begin to make out the words that they were speaking.

"Keep searchin' you scum! Those two have to be here somewhere! There's a reward for killin' the boy." The speaker could not keep the sound of his greed out of his voice.

"They may have made it to the reactor room. We don't have the technical skill to overload the reactor," another had said.

"Screw that," said a third. "We have to kill these guys before Master Giygas decides to blow up the ship, and them, with us still on it."

Jeff flinched at the name Giygas. Giygas? he wondered. Did he just say Giygas? That's impossible. Giygas is dead. We killed him.

Jeff did not have much time to dwell on what the unknown voice had said, for two soldiers emerged from the stairwell and upon seeing Jeff, opened fire with their assault rifles. Jeff quickly ducked behind a door and returned fire, snapping off a volley of shots from his Energy Rifle as he ducked behind the door. Distinct high-to-low pitch whines sounded as scarlet pulses of energy erupted from the barrel of his Energy Rifle. The pulses were far more powerful than the pulses of his laser pistol and they quickly burned through the armor and flesh of the soldiers that had fired at him. The two soldiers uttered short cries as the energy pulses burned through their torsos and they fell to the ground, dead.

Just as Jeff ducked back into the reactor room, Flint looked up from his console. Jeff noticed that the reactor was online and he could see the glow of the energy erupting from the fusion of deuterium atoms inside the magnetic bottle. "Alright, the ship's online. Now all we have to do is get to the bridge."

It was not long before they heard an alarm klaxon blaring and a female voice sounding over the loudspeakers, "Warning, unauthorized personnel detected onboard the White Ship. Initiating emergency lockdown of Sectors Eighteen through Zero Nine."

"Tell me we're not in one of those sectors," Jeff begged Flint.

"We're not in one of those sectors," Flint said, responding to Jeff's plea. "However, we are in Sector Zero Eight, we should do our best to reach the bridge now before more areas are locked down."

Jeff did not need Flint to tell him twice. The two of them quickly made their way out of the reactor room and into the corridor. They then dashed over to a stairwell on the other side of the corridor. Upon entering the corridor, they continued their trek up the stairs. Not far above them, Jeff quickly saw a figure dressed in an all too familiar gray suit. A Starman had managed to make its way onto the vessel. And this was no Starman Junior, either. Jeff did not give the Starman time to search for him, for immediately upon sighting the alien he unleashed a hail of energy fire upon the creature. The Starman did not manage to comprehend that he had been under attack for he was dead after the first pulse burned through his torso. The other shots had merely been overkill. The body of the Starman tumbled down the stairs past Flint and Jeff and came to rest on a landing below them. The two of them then continued to make their way up the stairs towards the bridge.

On the lower decks, though, a new figure boarded the ship. This figure was a being of tremendous power. At the mere sight of this being, the human soldiers quaked in fear and horror. The alien, a humanoid figure dressed in a silver space suit with spikes on its helmet and shoulders approached the closed blast door. The human soldiers that had managed to blast their way onboard simply stood to one side as the alien approached, expressions of absolute terror etched onto their faces as he passed. The alien paid them no heed. When he was standing next to the blast door, he merely stood still. His visor began to glow and the metallic barrier retracted. In fact, the security systems of the entire ship were now offline and the blast doors were retracting. The human followers of the PSI Aliens, and their Starmen soldiers, charged through the ship at full speed, half hoping to catch up with Flint and Jeff, half wanting to get as far away from this alien. From underneath his visor, the Starman Deluxe smirked. They were so foolish. The Starman Deluxe did not need their help at all. He did not even consider these human "soldiers" to be soldiers at all. After all, they had previously been thieves, murders, rapists, assassins, drug dealers, etcetera. Their lives were meaningless to him and his master. Soon, he would destroy this ship, and everyone on it, "friend" and foe alike.

Deeper inside the ship, Flint and Jeff raced towards the bridge. They had encountered two Mooks and a Starman Super on their way. All three of the alien enemies fell amid a hail of energy fire from the Energy Rifles of Flint and Jeff. Once that threat had been neutralized, the two continued towards the bridge of the ship, which was on the very top level. Soon, they reached Deck Two. The bridge was one deck above. As they emerged from the stairwell, they were greeted by a squad of four enemy soldiers. The soldiers were dressed in military uniforms but Jeff could see an emblem on their chests that did not belong to any country that he knew of. This emblem, an upside down triangle, with two rectangles arranged vertically, with a square just left of the upper rectangle from the wearer's perspective, was all too familiar to Jeff. It was the emblem that the Starmen wore on their uniforms. The emblem was black, which Jeff took to signify that the wearers were low-ranking members of the PSI Alien army. Jeff grimaced. Already, more humans had sold their souls to the PSI Aliens to try to escape the potential devastation, or on the promise of greater power. Jeff felt no sympathy or even empathy for these people. Unlike people who were mind-controlled, he was almost certain, as evidenced by the grins on their faces at the sight of their quarry, that they were completely willing in their service. That made killing them outright easy for Jeff. Still, the human soldiers had the advantage since Jeff and Flint were not expecting to see them just before reaching the bridge. They leveled their assault rifles at the child and his companion and opened fire.

Flint and Jeff ducked back behind the door while bullets whizzed past their heads. Flint soon emerged from the cover of the metal door and snapped off a couple of shots from his rifle. The shots struck one of the soldiers in the chest, burning two large holes in his body. The soldier fell over, dead, leaving only three soldiers for Flint and Jeff to deal with. Jeff then emerged to take a shot and another soldier. A scarlet pulse of energy erupted from his rifle and felled a second human servant of the PSI Aliens. The two remaining soldiers then ducked behind a wooden crate in the middle of the floor for cover, knowing that their two opponents had experience with the guns that they were using. However, the crate was not sufficient to cover the soldiers from the energy fire of Flint and Jeff's rifles. They set their Energy Rifles to full auto fire and unleashed their fury against the crates. Scarlet energy pulses blew through the crates as if they were made of tissue paper. It was not long before Flint and Jeff heard the two soldiers fall to the floor. After a few moments, Flint and Jeff emerged from cover and made their way past the dead enemy soldiers and to the staircase that led to the bridge.

Upon setting foot on the bridge, Flint and Jeff immediately searched for the tactical and the navigation consoles. That was easier than it normally would have been since the bridge of the ship had a layout similar to the bridge of numerous science fiction starships, particularly from Star Trek. Since Jeff had often watched the various Star Trek series and movies, he was quickly able to find the navigation console a few meters in the front and to the left of a trio of plush seats that he took for being the Captain's chair. When he arrived at the console, he turned back towards Flint, who now occupied the tactical console, for instructions.

Flint quickly called out to Jeff, "Okay, the steering of the ship is done via both manual input as well as by automation. I'll activate the 4th-D Slip to get us away from that large UFO above us."

"What's our destination going to be?" Jeff inquired, wanting to make sure that he knew where they were going to end up.

"We're going back to the base outside of Threed. We should be able to put the ship in the underground hangar. That should keep it out of sight for anyone until the ship is fully completed."

Satisfied with the answer, Jeff returned his attention to the console. "When I've spooled up the 4th-D Slip Drive, I'll instruct you on how to enter the coordinates. Then, it's just a matter of waiting out the process."

After a few moments, the 4th-D Slip Drive was ready. "4th-D Slip Drive online and spooled up," Flint called out to Jeff. "Set coordinates to…" but before Flint could finish, an explosion rocked the ship. Jeff half expected to see sparks shoot into the air as the ship rocked due to the explosion. While no sparks erupted from any of the consoles, the lights went out right after the explosion sounded. They were now stuck on emergency power. The two then heard a voice laugh.

"Looks like you won't be goin' anywhere, will ya?" came a deep male voice from the rear of the bridge. He then gave off a laugh, mocking the two comrades in arms.

Flint turned around and saw that the bearer of the voice was wearing a military uniform with a PSI Alien insignia. The man pointed an assault rifle at the head of Flint. "Don't even think about it," the man snapped with scorn, noticing Flint preparing to go for his sidearm. The soldier grinned. "Looks like I'm gonna get a nice reward from the PSI Aliens, after all. After all, without that 4th-D Slip Drive, you can't phase to whatever universe you'd phase to in order to escape us." He soon gave off an evil laugh. His victory was all but assured.

What the traitorous soldier did not realize was that by focusing only on Flint, Jeff had managed to find cover and draw his Baddest Beam gun without drawing attention to himself. Now, he was lining the sight of his pistol on the soldier's head. With a single pull of the trigger, Jeff burned a hole in the head of the traitor to humanity and ended his threat permanently. Jeff quickly made his way to the tactical station and took a look at its display. The display showed that the 4th-D Slip Drive had been destroyed by an explosion inside the ship. It was likely that the ship had been infiltrated by whatever mercenary or terrorist organization had now cast its lot in with the PSI Aliens and detonated the 4th-D Slip Drive. That was not the worst of it, though. The display also read that the containment system for the fusion reactor was offline and much of the room had suffered damage. With the containment system offline, the reactor automatically shut down in order to prevent an explosion that would have annihilated the ship, and likely the surrounding area as well.

"We're out of luck, Jeff," Flint told him after checking the display on internal sensors. "The reactor's been shut down and we can't get back the containment system back on line in order to restart it. The ship's nothing but dead weight now."

"Soon it will be nothing at all," a sinister mechanical voice came from the stairwell.

Flint and Jeff turned and found the Starman Deluxe staring at them. "This ship is the White Ship, and its destruction is the will of Master Giygas. You cannot stop us Jeff Andonuts, ally of Ness, Paula Polestar, and Prince Poo formerly of Dalaam." Turning to Flint, he the spoke again. "And you are Lieutenant Flint Sanders, a pilot in the United States Air Force. Your commanding officer is General Scamp. You are married to a human woman named Hinawa.

Jeff's eyes went wide in shock. This alien had just scanned both Flint and Jeff despite the fact that Jeff had the Counter Telepathy Helmet on. The Starman Deluxe then telekinetically lifted the helmet off of Jeff's head. An invisible hand then reached out and crushed the metallic helmet. The crumpled form of the helmet then fell to the floor. Flint quickly grabbed his Energy Rifle and opened fire on the alien. Jeff also joined in, firing off a volley of energy fire at the alien from his rifle. The pulses of scarlet energy harmlessly bounced off the shield that the alien had erected. "There is nothing you can do to defeat me," the Starman told them. "Without the others of the Chosen Four or your stronger weapons to assist you, you lack the ability to defeat me before I kill you."

Jeff's heart was pounding now. The Starman Deluxe was right. There was nothing the two of them could do to stop him at the moment. They just did not have the necessary firepower to do so. It did not help that this Starman Deluxe seemed to be stronger than the Starman Deluxe that Jeff and the others had encountered during the War Against Giygas. It was not long before a Starman in a yellow suit, which Jeff recognized as a Starman Super, approached the Starman Deluxe and said, "Sir, the assault ship is ready to destroy this vessel."

The Starman Deluxe turned to his subordinate and said, "Tell them to assemble a strike force and go to these coordinates now. I will destroy this ship myself. You lead the attack on the base."

"Understood," The alien said as it saluted and then disappeared into thin air.

The Starman Deluxe then turned to face the two human opponents in front of him. It was then that Jeff and Flint each grabbed one of their grenades and tossed them at the Starman Deluxe. The Starman reached out with his mind and stopped the grenades mid-flight and brought them close to his face, until his visor was merely millimeters away from the grenades. The two humans quickly dove behind the tactical console to escape the blast of the grenades. After a few seconds the grenades exploded. Both Jeff and Flint emerged from their cover to see the result. The cloud of smoke still obscured the image of the alien. Just then, the cloud of smoke parted, revealing the alien, who was completely unharmed.

"Oh no," Jeff stammered in horror.

"Those grenades didn't even phase him," Flint managed to say, agreeing with Jeff.

The Starman Deluxe slowly approached the two humans. "If you join with us, Master Giygas can assure your survival when the rest of humanity is destroyed. Not only you, but your pregnant wife as well. Master Giygas has authorized me to make this invitation to the two of you since you have fought bravely and are a credit to your species."

"Not a chance!" Jeff roared in response.

"We would rather die than betray our own species like those humans who serve you," Flint agreed. "We will not betray our friends and loved ones."

"Then you will die," the Starman said coldly, and somewhat mechanically. Jeff noted that there was no arrogance in that statement at all, which surprised him somewhat.

After a few seconds, a few human servants of the PSI Aliens appeared behind him. These were dressed in rags. Apparently, they were not the PSI Aliens' first line troops. "The ship's reactor had been destroyed, sir," the first person that had appeared behind the Starman Deluxe.

While the Starman Deluxe had turned to face his cohorts, Jeff and Flint took this opportunity to flee. Jeff tried to keep his mind blank in order to keep the Starman from noticing their escape, but inwardly, he figured that psychic alien knew that they were running away. They knew that they had no chance trying to flee through the ship, it was probably crawling with Starmen and human servants of the PSI Aliens anyway, so they went the only place that was still available to them, up. Jeff and Flint fled the bridge and went out onto the observation deck.

Outside, they found two Fighter UFOs flying high above the White Ship. They also saw the large UFO leaving in the general direction of the Air Force base outside of Threed. The two humans knew that they had a chance, now. Flint turned to Jeff and asked, "Jeff, can you fly one of those things?"

Jeff had dreaded that question. His response was, "Yes, I can fly it, but don't expect me to be able to land that thing intact. My last attempts at flying were less than successful when it came to landing the craft."

"As long as we can walk away from the landing, I'll call it successful," Flint said quickly, satisfied.

The two of them then climbed to the top external deck of the White Ship in order to get close to one of the UFOs in order to commandeer it. As they reached the top, the Starman Deluxe appeared directly in front of them. Flint and Jeff quickly took aim with their Energy Rifles and opened fire on the alien. As expected, the energy fire splashed harmlessly against the Starman's shield. The Starman Deluxe then stretched out his hand and the rifles then flew from the hands of the two humans.

While the Starman had been occupied stripping them of their weapons, though, Flint and Jeff threw their flashbangs towards the alien. The Starman Deluxe noticed the bombs and he raised a shield in order to protect him from their detonations. However, it was apparent that he had not taken the time to scan either of the humans. The bombs struck his shield and exploded. Jeff and Flint had immediately covered their ears and closed their eyes just as they threw their flashbangs. The explosions blinded the Starman and disoriented him for a few seconds. Those few seconds were all that they needed to jump to one of the UFOs that had come down to try to assist the stunned alien. Jeff had been tempted to shoot the Starman with his Baddest Beam gun, but he suspected that the alien's shield would still be active, even if he had been disoriented by the bombs. They quickly jumped on the UFO that had edged too close to the ship's hull. Once onboard the ship, Jeff pulled out his Baddest Beam gun and shot the control panel to the hatch. The hatch immediately opened and they made their way into the UFO.

Inside the UFO, the two humans were met by two Starmen. Flint drew his Baddest Beam gun while Jeff had already leveled his gun at the lead Starmen. Jeff pulled the trigger and a scarlet bolt of energy erupted from the Baddest Beam gun. That bolt of energy burned a hole into the Starman's head and the alien fell over. Flint then dispatched his Starman in a similar fashion before it managed to respond to what was happening.

After the brief skirmish, the two of them went to the controls of the UFO. They were both surprised at how simple the control scheme appeared. Even though the controls were written in an alien language, they were surprisingly easy to understand. The acceleration and braking were controlled by two pedals, much like a car's acceleration and braking, and the steering and ascent were controlled by a joystick. This was similar to an arcade game. It was not long before Jeff and Flint were able to control the UFO without any difficulty. They then rose away from the White Ship and headed back towards the air base at their maximum speed. Jeff guessed that it would take a few hours to get back to the air base.

Back on the White Ship, the Starman Deluxe had already recovered his sight and from his disorientation by the time Jeff and Flint had managed to flee onboard the UFO. He gazed upwards and saw one of the UFOs streaking towards the military base. He did not need his psychic abilities to know that Jeff and his friend were on that UFO. The entire attack with those flash bombs had been nothing more than a decoy. He had underestimated them. He scowled. It was not the first time he had made such a mistake. It had not even been the second. He needed to make sure, though, that it would be the last. He turned and he soon noticed the Starman Super in charge of the human allies.

"Sir, we have lost contact with Battle Saucer TSR-493," the Starman Super said, stating the obvious. "Shall we pursue?"

"Negative," the Starman Deluxe responded. "There is nothing that they can do to us in the long term. Even if the peace process goes forward as planned and is successful, they will still not be strong enough to defeat us."

"Understood, sir."

"Go to the Command Saucer, and lead the attack on the base. I will join you shortly."

"Yes sir." The Starman Super the teleported away.

When the Starman Super had teleported away from the ship, the Starman Deluxe teleported onto a recently arrived Fighter UFO. After he appeared onboard the UFO, it began to rise into the air. As it was rising, several of the human soldiers that were loyal to the PSI Aliens had found their way onto the top deck of the ship and looked up. The Starman Deluxe stared down at them. He never liked traitors. Traitors were scum, in his mind, and they had betrayed their people for selfish reasons. These human collaborators were no different. They were not even soldiers, they were criminals: thieves, murderers, rapists, pedophilic rapists and child murderers, prostitutes. For the first time, he began to understand Master Giygas's hatred of these traitors, which could not be said about the rest of humanity. Almost all of the Human Army Against Humanity (HAAH) consisted of the dregs of society. His master felt indifferent about the rest of humanity. Destroying them was merely his duty, no more, no less, and he did not take any pleasure in the annihilation of entire species. It was merely his duty to carry out his race's mandate, the destruction of all who may one day grow strong enough to challenge the PSI Lords. And it was the Starman Deluxe's duty to obey the leader of the PSI Lords, Giegue.

Staring down at the humans, he smiled for the first time. Killing these humans was something that he would enjoy. He soon cried out, PSI Starstorm!"

Just then, blue orbs of light began to rain down on the White Ship and the surrounding area. The HAAH soldiers on the deck of the White Ship cried out in terror. "Wait, Master! Don't do it, please! You'll kill us too!"

"I cannot comply with your request," the Starman Deluxe said mechanically. However, a hint of satisfaction could be heard in his voice. He could hear the physical screams of pain and betrayal of all of the HAAH soldiers as they were annihilated by the stars striking the ship. He could also hear the cries of the HAAH soldiers that were still onboard the ship as the stars plowed their way through the hull and vaporized the remaining HAAH soldiers still onboard. It was not long before the rest of the Starstorm barrage reduced the White Ship to a smoldering wreck. The Starman took one final glance towards the wreckage of the ship. Satisfied that the ship had been destroyed, and that the HAAH soldiers had also been killed, the Starman Deluxe then teleported away in order to accomplish his next mission, the destruction of Threed's airbase since that was said to be the location of the peace process the next day. Not only that, one of the key signatories was stationed there, General Scamp.

Flint and Jeff's journey back to the Threed Air Base was uneventful. It lasted a few hours, rather than the single hour that it took to reach the White Ship. Jeff had looked back at the White Ship as the Starman Deluxe destroyed it. Jeff could have sworn that he saw human shapes on the ship before its destruction. He did not care, though. Anyone who sold their soul to the PSI Aliens in order to survive or gain power deserved whatever they got. Jeff soon took a quick nap to try to regain his strength so that he would not be exhausted when he and Flint entered the battle. The fact that the large saucer was headed towards the airbase meant that that was the Aliens' next target. After a couple of hours, he relieved Flint of flying duty and allowed the pilot to take a nap of his own.

Flint awoke to the sound of a siren. This alerted them of the presence of other UFOs. The two of them soon looked out the window and the scene before them shocked them. The base was under attack. Green energy pulses were raining down upon the base, fired by UFOs of various sizes, destroying few remaining grounded aircraft at the base. The rest of the fighter aircraft were engaged in dogfights with the UFOs attacking the base. However, there were too many UFOs coming in. For every UFO that was shot down, three more came to take its place. It was time for them to help even out the odds.

Jeff quickly manned the weapons console and deployed the Fighter UFOs cannon. He targeted the nearest UFO and once it was in his crosshairs, he fired. The green pulse of energy struck the opposing Fighter UFO and bored a hole through the center of the alien craft. A secondary explosion rocked the saucer and it began to fall to the ground, smoke trailing the stricken craft. The craft struck the ground and promptly shattered. Flint then turned the UFO and flew towards the main hangar of the base. Floating above the center tower of the base was none other than Giygas. It was not long before a voice crackled in over the radio of the UFO.

"Unidentified friendly UFO, thanks for the assistance. Please identify yourself immediately." Flint recognized the voice as belonging to General Scamp.

Flint activated the communicator and said, "This is Lieutenant Flint Sanders, United States Air Force, Special Service Number Zero, Niner, Alpha, Echo, Delta."

"Confirmed, Lieutenant Sanders. I have ordered an evacuation of the Threed Airbase. You are to cover the evacuation of the airbase personnel immediately. Once they are clear of this base, go to the secondary fallback point in Onett. There, you are to assume guard duty as the peace conference will begin tomorrow at Zero Nine Hundred hours."

"But what about you, sir?" Flint spoke into the radio, suspecting that the general had some final plan to ensure their evacuation.

"I'm going to remain behind. You cover the evacuees. I'll lure their forces in and deal with them myself. Hurry, the planes are already leaving."

Sure enough, Flint saw several C-5 Galaxies and C-130 Hercules planes emerging from the main hangar. There were enough planes to evacuate all of the base's personnel. The planes, however, would not assemble at any one base. Once they were safely away, they would split up and land at various airbases, and the personnel onboard would be pumped for information about this new enemy. Flint then heard the radio crackle once more, "It has been an honor to serve with you, Lieutenant," General Scamp said in a somber tone. Flint could hear the voice straining as he said those worlds. It took him a few moments to be able to muster his final response.

"It has been an honor to serve with you too, General," Flint eventually responded, blinking back tears, his emotion evident in his voice.

With that, Flint took his UFO to the main hangar and fired into a crowd of enemy UFOs that were targeting the C-5s and the C-130s that were taking off. Several UFOs were struck with debilitating blasts of energy and crashed into he ground, no longer able to stay aloft. As the cargo planes took off, the surviving fighters, mainly F-24 Wraiths and a few F-28 Phantasms, provided cover for the planes, shooting down any UFO that dared to get too close to the planes, as well as providing a screen for the cargo planes. The UFOs fired their energy cannons into the fighter screen and managed to score a few hits, taking down a few of the fighters as a result, before being shot down by the remaining fighters. One thing that stood out to Flint, not only in this battle, but also in the Battle for the White Ship, was the fact that human fighters seemed to consistently outperform their alien counterparts whenever they engaged in an air battle. The aliens needed to have numerical superiority in order to have a chance. Glancing down at the wreckage and alien bodies strewn about the grounds of the air base, it was obvious that the PSI Aliens had taken severe casualties in the taking of the base. And the battle was not yet complete. Flint continued to fly cover for the cargo planes until they were a safe distance away. Once they were safely away, the cargo planes split apart and made their way to their various destinations, with the surviving fighters breaking off into squadrons and escorting the fleeing troops.

Back at the air base, General Scamp stood in the control center of the base. He had set the nuclear bomb that had been situated in the center of the base to go off twenty minutes after it had been activated. It had required the presence of a senior officer, in this case Major Labs, to activate. However, once he had activated it, he locked himself out of the system. One thing he had learned fairly quickly was the fact that many of these aliens were psychic and could read minds. He wanted to make sure that even if they could read or control his mind, it would not matter. Nothing that he, or they, could do would allow them to disarm the nuke at the center of the base. He would die, and take their entire force with them. He then heard a sound behind him.

He turned around and there he stood face to face with the leader of the alien assault, the Starman Deluxe. Behind the Starman Deluxe stood two Starman Supers. "I guess I won't be greeted by your masters, then," Scamp noted, suspecting that the Starmen in front of him were only servants of the true enemy."

"Master Giygas has commanded me to destroy this base," the Starman replied. "I shall carry out that order to the fullest of my capacity."

General Scamp then smiled. "Allow me to be of assistance in that," he said as he looked at his watch. Time was up. The nuclear bomb that had been planted at the center of the base detonated. The Starmen were seemingly too late in comprehending what Scamp had meant by his words and they were all apparently vaporized in the ensuing explosion.

In orbit, over the Earth, a large alien starship hovered, looking down upon the planet. It was on the bridge of that starship that Giygas stood, awaiting report of the result of the attack on both the White Ship, as well as the site of the peace process. Standing next to him was the ship's executive officer, a Starman Deluxe. It was not long before a report came in. Giygas read the report, as did his first officer. Giygas gritted his teeth. The attacks had been costly. While the loss of almost all of the HAAH soldiers was nothing important to him, the fact that he had lost a large number of Starmen in the destruction of the base was. The Starman Deluxe to his right then turned to him and asked, "What are your orders, Master? Should I take a team down to ensure that the peace process fails?"

Giygas mulled over what to do. It would be easy to send down some forces to take out the delegates, but he already had a squad of Starmen and a couple Starman Supers for the job. Eventually, he made up his mind. "No," he said, turning to the Starman Deluxe. "Take the ship out of orbit and regroup with the rest of the First Strike Fleet. I need to oversee the final engineering and training of the latest generation of Starmen."

"Understood," the Starman Deluxe replied. He then ordered the ship to leave orbit, which it did. He then went over to his master and asked quietly, "Do you think that they'll appear here?"

A serious expression crossed Giygas's face. "I would be a fool to think that they would not." He then focused his attention on the invasion plans of Earth. Even without the Chosen Four, Earth still had a few psychics, and they could cause problems for the current generation of Starmen. The new ones would be infinitely superior to their predecessors. But most important was the fact that should the Chosen Four appear now, they would be in for a few surprises.