What's up everyone? I'm back again with the next chapter! Life has been a madhouse these past few weeks. Everything important happened all at the same time, thus delaying this chapter even longer. Either way, I'd like to say thank you to those who reviewed the story so far. I do not own any characters, weapons, gadgets, or references to the original series, nor do I own the basis of any other references I may make. Just sayin, it's gonna be a shorter one this time. Probably. Anyways, I will work my hardest to put out the next one before the turn of the century. In the meantime, enjoy Chapter IX.

CHAPTER IX: SHIPS AND THE CITY

Cobalia

Plarith City Spaceport, 08:30 hours

"Yup. This old girl's definitely going to need a tune up before we can fly her again. Heck, I'm impressed she made it this far."

Smoke rose from Avalon's engine. They had miraculously made it to Plarith City without any other encounters, but the damage sustained from the previous battle had really hurt the ship.

"I guess it's a good thing your parents were mechanics, Sam. We would have been screwed if you hadn't been here." Jason was relieved to hear this information when it first came up. He didn't want to have just found his father's prized cruiser, only to wreck it at the first sign of combat.

"I'm all for the fixing of the ship guys, but don't we have to find the Defence Force in order to, oh I dunno, save the friggin galaxy? There's only so much we can do without help." The Notch interjected, still feeling the adrenaline in his veins.

"Notch is right. We're not gonna avenge anybody if we don't get in contact with them."

"Woah, Woah, Woah...Notch is the voice of reason this time? I'm surprised." Sam quipped, looking over her shoulder at the two boys.

"Come on Sam. I can't go joking around all the time, can I?"

"Guys, come on! We don't have the time for this." Jason called them back to reality. "Notch, You and I are going out to find the D.F. offices. Sam, here's some bolts. Hit the local vendors and find us the parts Avalon needs to fly again. We don't have much to work with, so don't worry about the minor problems. We'll meet back here to brief each other on what we find at… about 11 hundred hours or so."

"See! That, I'm used to! Just remember to state the facts Notch." Joked Sam as she grabbed her tools and headed towards the door of the starship.

"Whatever. Lets just go Jason" The two left Sam behind, steadily making their way to the Defense Force HQ.

11:00 hours

"THE WHAT'S BEEN WHAT NOW?!" Sam cried out in a fit of frustration.

It had taken them a good deal of time to find the Defense Force building, due to every building in the older part of the city looking almost identical. As it turned out, the trip wasn't worth the walk.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger! The Division Leader didn't know any more about it than the guy at the front desk." Jason was desperately trying to reason with her as she rampaged around the shipyard, lobbing anything she could find into the depths of the swamplands around them.

When Jason and Notch arrived at the two story, brick, Defense Force office building, they were greeted heartily by a friendly, Markazian receptionist. After briefly summarizing the events of the battle to both the receptionist and the division leader, the DF soldiers explained their situation. To the Lombax's dismay, interplanetary communications throughout the entire city had been unresponsive since late the previous night. The cause was still unknown. They had agreed to dispatch a courier ship with a military escort to the main military base, but could do nothing else to help the situation. The worn out cadettes had left the building soon after agreeing that, considering the circumstances, splitting up would be more productive. Jason returned to the shipyard to deliver the news to Sam and Notch set out to set up a temporary base of operations.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE WE CAME ALL THIS WAY JUST TO FIND OUT THE DAMN COMMUNICATIONS ARE DOWN!" Sam bellowed as she kicked the nearest toolbox, creating a boot sized dent in the metal.

"Would you calm down Sam! Geez! You're gonna get us kicked out of the shipyard!"

"Oh-ho-ho!" A maniacal laugh slipped past her lips. Next thing he knew, Jason was staring cross-eyed at the business end of Sam's Combuster pistol.

"Don't. You. EVER!" Jason's ears fell back in terror, eyes widening as she spoke through clenched teeth. "Tell an angry woman to calm down!"

"Yes ma'am." Jason's reply was swift and meek, terror and a sudden burst of wisdom preventing him from responding any other way.

"You know how my morning's been? I was given had three and a half hours to get your ship into flying condition. Something none of these amateur mechanics could have done!" Numerous mechanics overhearing the conversation spouted curses in many different languages, but her rant did not stop. "And have you EVER tried to buy parts without raritanium? IT'S A BITCH! Not many dealers are willing to accept bolts. And because of THAT, I've crawled through three scrap yards that smelled like the underside of a Blargian Snagglebeast, killed six swamp rats, and on top of that endured the lame pick up lines of every ship fanatic on this planet!"

"Oh come on Sam! It couldn't have been that ba-" Jason didn't even have time to finish the sentence before Sam slammed a filthy duffel bag onto a pile of old parts, opened it up, and revealed the greasy remains of paper bits stuffed inside.

"Holy-...How many of those do you have?"

"347. But who's counting?"

"GEEZ! I didn't think there'd be that many hot-rodder guys on one planet."

"Not all of them were guys."

"Okay then."

A few minutes later, Sam had finally stopped raging about and had taken position leaning up against the ship's hull.

"Stupid people aside, I fixed up your ship as best as I could. She needed some real love, that's for sure. Could definitely use some more of it."

"Any idea how much this cost me?" He asked, sitting down next to her.

"You couldn't afford to fix everything. The voice control won't activate, the weapons system is still crap, but it works better now, and the auxiliary thrusters have definitely seen better days. She definitely won't be able to pull out of here in a hurry. Other than that, she seems to be fine...for the time being at least. As for your change...Well...you're broke."

Jason sighed. So much for getting that sidearm he was thinking about.

"Well, at least we can fly her again. That's a start. We'll probably have to take her to a professional when we get the bolts, raritanium, whatever they're dealing in these days. We'll figure that out when we get to it. All that's left to do now is wait for Notch to get back." Jason finished his statement and turned towards the city.

It was the first time he was actually able to take a good look at it. The buildings rose toward the sky with about as much finesse as you could get from a swamp planet. A geletonium factory sat to the east of the city, though it had clearly been abandoned for who knows how long. It seemed like a nice, semi-not-so-quiet place to settle down, if you thought of a bustling city with thousands of lights, people, and hovercars as "semi-not-so-quiet."

They waited in the shipyard for almost an hour, observing what they could see of the area. Jason, however, had felt restless ever since he had left the D.F.'s headquarters. Something was bugging him, and no matter how hard he tried to convince himself, he couldn't shake the feeling.

"You seem troubled." Sam's statement only pointed out the obvious.

"Something just doesn't add up. The failed communications, I mean."

"What about it? You think something's up?"

"I'm not sure…" Jason pondered the events of that day, desperately searching for that one thing that was sending his mind into a constant tumble.

"JASON! SAM!" Notch's voice came barreling nonstop from across the shipyard, his legs pounding the ground as he made his way toward them.

"Oh shit." Jason had finally figured out what was bugging him.

"What now?" The words had barely left her mouth when Notch arrived.

He was covered in a cold sweat. Eyes wide, he bent over, desperately trying to catch his breath.

"Geez! What the crap Notch? What made you think you had to run all the way here?

"Th- they're… They're here..." Notch, panting, struggled to get the words out of his mouth. Jason heard the low rumble of engines in the distance. "...They followed us! The gorram lizards followed us!"

Well, that about wraps it up for this chapter. Things will be heating up for the next couple chapters, so I hope you guys will stay tuned. Also, I've brought in a good friend to join in on the editing process. She's currently going through the earlier chapters of the story, so expect to see some changes sometime soon. Anyways, If you like what you see, be sure to review. It makes me happy to see people enjoying my handiwork. Flamers will be efficiently used to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. Chestnuts if it's the holiday season. I'll see you guys in Chapter IX.

-STG