"Keep up!" Lyudmila yelled.
Guy wondered again what the heck he was doing. Panting as he ran along behind the Russian... whatever she was. Spetznaz or whatever. That was what they called it wasn't it? He was pretty sure. Or maybe something KGB related? No, that was before the...
"I SAID KEEP UP!" she shouted again.
He wiped the sweat from his head and ran on, somehow managing to keep up with her. It had been like this for the last week. He'd been attempting to get her to try the Nebulizers (again) and she'd instead said they needed to 'start from scratch'. So, here he was, doing push ups, or lifting weights, or otherwise humiliating himself in front of her for nearly eight days now! He wasn't a triathlete or anything!
The run lead out onto the outer decks once more and Guy glanced out the window, just in time to see the purple wash of Distortion space fade and stars flash back.
"Huh *pant* looks like we're at the rendezvous point." Guy gasped, then as he passed another window he blinked, skidded to a stop and went back to the window. "Hey, is that a ship? It doesn't look like the Protector."
"Taking another break?" Lyudmila said, frowning back at him as she jogged in place. "You'll never improve like that!"
"It's just there's a ship out there and it's not ours or Malthazars?" he said, trying to get his breath back. "We should check it out."
"You are just looking for excuse da?" She frowned. "This is not..."
*CRASH!*
The corridor shook and both of them fell to the floor. Dazedly Guy picked himself up and peered out the window seeing a flash of energy zoom towards them.
"Brace yourself!" he yelled, just before the room shook again. "We're under attack!"
Jumping to his feet as sirens went off around the ship Guy found energy he didn't know he had and dashed back to the security quarters. He needed his weaponry!
"Report!" Jason said, holding on to his chair. "Who the hell is it?"
Tommy was maneuvering the ship around and on the viewer Jason could see four, no five contacts zipping around them as they fired on him.
"I... I'm not sure. They're small." Anderson said from science.
"I can see that!" Jason said irritatedly. "Is the armor holding?"
"Ninety percent, now that it's up." Anderson said, gulping. He'd been a little slow bringing the plasma armor online after Jason had yelled for him to raise it. "It's holding."
"Gwen, hail them." Jason said as Tommy flung them in another maneuver to attempt to avoid the weapons fire. "And see if you can find the Protector Two Anderson. Malthazar should be here."
Jason wished Alex had made his shift! Dang it, for all the times for him to be late. At least he seemed to know the controls, even if he was rather reticent about using them normally.
"I'm... not getting anything from them Jason... I mean commander." Gwen said after a few moments.
"OK, that's it. No more mister nice guy!" Jason said. "Bring us around onto a bearing to the nearest ship Lieutenant Laredo. All particle cannons on target."
Tommy nodded with a grin and the view swung around dizzyingly on to one dot on the viewscreen. Bright flickering beams, both red and blue, shot towards it. The enemy ship was small and dodged most, but one shot struck true and it spun abruptly, sparks flying.
"Again, see if you can scare them off."
Again flashes of beams struck out, and this time three connected and the target vanished in a blast of light.
"Uhhhh..." Anderson said. "I think... yes. These other two are inbound. They're going to ra..."
The ship shook as two of the small ships struck hard, ramming the Protector from two direction at once.
"DAMAGE REPORT!" Jason yelled again.
"Ungh." Anderson managed to pick himself from the floor and held onto his console. "Armor... gone. Recharging. Minimal hull damage. Wait, one of the ships didn't break up on impact. It's stuck itself to the hull!"
"Tommy, get us out of here. Max thrust! Anderson, get that armor back up, divert all weapon power to the armor!"
The ship spun and then shot off at a random direction and Jason saw the two remaining ships swipe by them, surprised by the rapid maneuver. They pulled back on their tail, but it gave enough time for a bit of armor to build. Enough to take the two shots they put across the Protector's bow.
"OK, keep ahead of them Tommy. Dodge, but mainly just try and outpace them. You can outpace them, right?"
Tommy glanced at a couple of his screens as he flew then smiled. "Yeah, only just but yeah, gonna need a lot of power to the drives though."
"Sure. Anderson, reallocate to drives, just keep enough to maintain the armor." Before Anderson could respond he turned back and hit the comm switch. "Bridge to security. We have boarders in..." He turned and looked meaningfully to Anderson. Anderson stared back for a moment, not getting it. Annoyed Jason clicked comms off "Where, where did that ship dock?" he yelled to the man.
"Oh, right. Uh..." Anderson flicked through a couple of screens. "Deck three, section eight."
Jason clicked comms back on. "... in section eight on deck three. A ship rammed us there and appears to have held on. Secure the area and make find out how many got on board."
"Nearly *pant* there!" came the call back from Guy. Whoah, sounded like he was already en-route. Jason raised his eyebrows. Maybe guy was taking his job seriously after all?
Running from security, Lyudmila easily keeping pace with him, Guy checked his pistols. He'd grabbed two, just for the hell of it, and now was nearing the intersection where the ship had crashed. He'd already checked the computer report, he hadn't needed the commander's warning and had already been heading there. Heck, what were computers for anyway?
"Nearly *pant* there." he repeated. Then he caught something black moving across the corridor and jerked sideways, slamming Lyudmila into an adjoining room. The two landed in an awkward pile and Guy blinked, staring at...
"Please get off me." Lyudmila said, ice in her voice.
Guy very quickly removed his face from the Russian's chest and gulped as he got up and headed back to the door.
"Yeah, sorry. Uh. We got company!" he said, trying to change the subject. "Bad guys. That away!"
"How you know? I saw nothing?"
"We don't have anyone wearing jet black armor do we? No, I don't think so. I saw a guy, or something, move back there and they were all in black. Best be safe huh?"
Lyudmila frowned and pulled out her SMGs, one in each hand.
"We will see about that!" She ran up to the door frame and peered around the side. "I don't see any... wait. Yes! Ugh! Ugly!"
Guy peeked past her himself and saw... a bug. A seven foot long bug holding some kind of rifle! It looked like a huge, jet black beetle, but two of the 'legs' were arms. Lyudmila was right, it was ugly.
"I only see one. We clear this corridor, dash down to that opening and we have sight on crash point, yes?"
Guy saw what she meant. The access-way there, near the primary crew quarters, gave a clear view up the adjoining corridor to where the enemy ship had crashed. A bit of cover, and they should be able to see who was boarding and how many there were.
"Sounds good. OK, first we..."
Lyudmila didn't even listen, she tensed, then dashed across the hallway, blazing away with her guns, before entering the door opposite. Sparks flew off the skin of the insect... no, it had some kind of bluish halo. Some kind of energy armor? The bullets had bounced of it. The creature didn't even seem phased by her shots!
"Mudak!" Lyudmila gasped, as she saw her rounds have little effect.
"It's protected by some kind of energy barrier." Guy said. "Those kind of things draw a lot of juice. If you can keep firing maybe it'll weaken the..."
Before he could say anything a blur of black shot past him, bounced off the wall by his door, and shot towards Lyudmila. The woman was quick, and threw herself out of the way as the bug landed just where she'd been standing, but she fell to the ground and looked up to see it leaning over her as it pulled back to strike.
*Spang. SPLOTCH!*
The bug disintegrated in a very unimpressive pop of energy, sparkles spanging off the walls. Guy blew non-existent smoke from the barrel of his Nebulizer and peered round the wall down the corridor again.
"Looks clear." He said, not registering the shock on Lyudmila's face. "Come on. Hopefully there aren't too many of those guys."
He dashed, awkwardly, down the corridor, waving his pistols around as he ran. The guy looked like an idiot, but as Lyudmila picked herself up and followed she realized she'd misjudged him before. Maybe he did know what he was doing after all! She smiled and followed him into the access way.
Alex was trapped! He'd overslept and was awakened by the alert sirens blaring and the room shaking. Blearily he'd dressed, wondering if this was Colson's idea of a drill or something. Finally he'd got out of his room and two... things, had rushed up and pinned him to the wall. They looked like Pill Bugs, squashed heat to foot (or whatever), jet black with six limbs under their wide carapace, two limbs holding stubby looking guns or other implements.
They hadn't said a word, just stood there, one holding him to the wall, the other fiddling with a wall panel.
"Um... take me to your leader?" He said, wincing at the inanity of it.
The bug didn't even respond. He could see it typing something on the access panel but couldn't see what it was. It didn't seem to be having much luck whatever it was trying to do.
"Well, at least you guys seem to have a better special effects budget that we do." Again, no response.
He was just about to try something else when there was a cry, the bug on the console jerked and turned around, and sparks started flying off it's shell. Alex heard the bark of a machine gun of some kind.
"Ricochets!" The angry voice of Guy came from up the corridor. "For gods sake, ricochets!"
The bug shot up the corridor, it's four legs pistoning impossibly fast as it ran, almost bouncing off the corridor walls as it jinked from side to side. Then it literally exploded, a blossoming pop that almost looked like a firework going off, a few fragments of black carapace pinging off the walls.
Alex caught sight of Guy and that Russian woman up there, Guy holding her back while he pointed his ray gun down at the remaining bug. The bug in question was acting jittery, but was keeping by Alex, pinning him to the wall still.
"A little help here!" Alex yelled, but then gasped as a chitinous arm pressed to his throat.
"In a minute!" Guy yelled back tiredly.
What, was this some kind of game to him? Alex was going to kill him! If he lived through this.
The bug holding him lifted it's weapon up and bright orange flashes shot up the corridor, Guy and the Russian darting into cover. An incoherent screech echoed through the ship as the Bug warbled... something. Then it turned, it's arm grabbing Alex by the throat and lifting him up the wall, his feet dangling uselessly.
"ARRGH!" He gasped, fighting for breath. "For god's sake! Help!"
Alex caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye and looked across just in time to see the Russian woman charge out of a nearby door and slam into the creature, knocking it backwards. Alex, still clutched by the neck, flew with it, and felt a crunch as he hit the ground, the bug bouncing off his chest, then rolling down the hallway. Letting out a scream grabbed at his leg, feeling the bones grate horribly. After a moment he managed to grit his teeth and just panted.
"Oh christ! 'Break a leg' is supposed to be metaphorical!" He managed through clenched teeth.
Suddenly Guy was next to him, peering down while the Russian woman tried to see where the bug had gone.
"Are you OK Alex?" Guy said, offering a hand to him.
"No of course I'm not alright!" He said, grimmacing. "I've got a broken leg!"
"Heh. Don't worry. We'll have you all patched up in no time."
Alex fixed the security chief with a withering stare. He didn't have a lot of faith in the medical bay they'd 'reconstructed' on this ship. It was hardly as if...
Suddenly there was a cry, the Russian turned and Alex saw what she'd seen, the bug rushing out into the corridor towards her and... Alex gasped as Guy spun, drew his pistol and fired in less than a second. Another sizzling pop and the creature vanished in a trail of sparks, a single chitinous leg flying inches from Alex's face to bounce against the far wall.
"You OK Lyudmila?" He said. "Damned those things are fast! I think that's all of them." Guy flicked open a communicator. "Security to the bridge. We got three, but Dane's... I mean doctor Lazarus is down. Broken leg. Can sensors tell if there are any more?"
"Hang on, we're checking." Came Jason's voice. "No, that seems to be it, and Anderson assures me their docked ship is empty too. When we've pulled away from the alien ships we'll get it free and pull it into the hanger to examine it. Good job Chief. Bring Alex to the med bay."
Alex groaned, then gritted his teeth as a wave of pain flooded over him.
"I think moving is the last thing I want right now."
Guy put his pistol away and crouched down beside him.
"Don't worry, we'll figure this out, just like in episode forty five with the Zestral phantoms."
Alex stared at him, face blank.
"Seriously? You're still quoting the damned series? Get a life!"
"Doctor Dane," The Russian said in a soothing tone, "we will ensure your safety. Do not worry."
Alex sank back against the wall with a sigh and tried to avoid wincing. Even small movements felt like broken glass grating inside his leg! Damn it all! He'd kept a straight face while playing in front of a full audience at the Albert Hall with a sprained ankle once. He damned well wasn't going to let this floor him!
"Anderson, how is that armor?" Jason said over his shoulder, gripping the chair arms tight as Tommy threw the ship through some tight maneuvers.
"So far, steady about about five percent. They've not got very powerful weapons, but with the two crashes wiping the armor out... if they get a few lucky shots it could wipeus out."
"Tommy, great flying. Keep it up and get us out of their range."
On the screen the stars swirled left to right, twisting and jerking, as Tommy 'Laredo' fought the ship, whilst still trying to pull ahead of the two remaining vessels.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" Came the shout from the doorway as Colson stormed in, almost falling over as the ship made a sharp turn.
"Oh, nothing much general. Just a few aliens trying to kills us." Jason said sardonically, trying to maintain focus.
The ship lurched again from a glancing blow and Colson almost lost his grip on the door jam.
"Ungh! I thought this thing had some kind of compensator or something for maneuvering?"
"Heh, the studio thought it would be much cooler if the viewers could see the reaction of the crew to damage or sharp turns. Thus it doesn't deal with everything. I'm going to have a word with them about that for sure!" Jason managed. "Tommy, head into that system, see if you can make a few tight turns around those moons. Maybe if we can get the rock between us and the ships for a minute the armor can build up."
"You got it Jason."
Colson staggered over alongside the Commander as he fumed, but grudgingly began to realize butting in right now would likely make things worse.
"Situation grim, huh?" He said softly.
Jason peered up at him questioningly.
"Something like that. We got jumped shortly after leaving Distortion space by five ships. One we zapped, two crashed into us, toasting our plasma armor in the process, and the remaining two are..." Jason jerked forwards in his seat, watching both the viewscreen and the little display on his seat armrest with an overview of the combat. "Tommy! Go for the other moon! We want to keep them together on our tail, not split them up."
Tommy just nodded and yanked the ship to starboard.
"Well, you see where we are General."
"Can we fight back?"
"Right now, possibly, but it'd take power away from engines or armor, and the armor is almost out. If you want to risk taking hull damage we can flip around and try it, or even switch some power out to fire the rear launchers, but I wouldn't recommend it."
"How about the fighters?"
Jason closed his eyes.
"Dammit! I'd forgotten we even had them!" He pushed a button on the armrest. "Bridge to Leftenant Merriweather! Get to the flight bay and launch a fighter. We need those ships on our tail harried, now!"
Gwen looked askance at Jason and mouthed the word 'Harried' at him questioningly, and he just shrugged back. Then the ship shook again and it was a few seconds before the comms answered.
"Roger Commander. Heading to the flight bay now!"
The view showed the stars whirling, bright energy blasts shooting off ahead as the tailing vessels fired past them, so far mostly missing. Up ahead a gas giant and a hoard of small moons and two large ones started to fill the screen.
"How come the armor got so low? Those crashes?" Colson asked, hanging on to the side of Jason's chair.
Jason couldn't resist glaring over at Anderson, and Colson did notice, but didn't say anything. Jason just nodded and focused on the battle. Colson glanced between Jason and Anderson, a curious look on his face as he pondered the situation.
"He's away Commander." Anderson said shortly, and Jason saw on his tactical view a dot representing a fighter speed away from the Protector.
"Main viewer to rear." Jason said, and Gwen quietly repeated the command to the computer.
The main view screen switched to rear and showed the two ships tailing them, jinking hard, but so far both were a ways back and quite far apart from each other, but still spitting energy fire at them. In the foreground a bright light shot backwards, then curled in towards the left of the two and a couple of sparks glowed on the enemy ship as Jeremy engaged the enemy. That one craft spun off to one side, dealing with the fighter more than the Protector.
"OK, he's got one off our backs... Laredo?" Jason said, this time getting the 'lieutenant's name right. "We've just got the one tailing us. See if you can get a moon between the two of us and let us build some armor. Anderson, watch the levels. I need to switch to weapons as fast as possible once we've got... twenty percent on the armor. View to forwards."
Again Gwen repeated the command and the view switched to forwards view, showing the gas giant large on the screen on the upper left and to the right one of the larger moons swelling rapidly.
"All right. Anderson, ease off on the engine power, build the armor." Jason nodded to Tommy again. "You can do this with just maneuvering tight, right Laredo? You don't need high speed down there?"
"Heh, heck no! Piece of cake commander." Tommy replied with a smile. "He won't know what hit him!"
The protector shot down towards the moon, the grey, rugged surface looming up towards them, and the surprisingly agile Protector started literally dodging mountains, putting as much rock between themselves and the following craft as possible. When the enemy started to pull up above them to fire down the Protector sped back up, curling around the moon's curvature to draw ahead, forcing the tailing craft to pull back down lest he fall behind.
"Good work Laredo! I think Jeremy's dealt with the other one." Jason said, looking down at his display. "See if we can do the same. Anderson? Armor?"
"Just about at Twenty. Switching power to weapons. Give them a few seconds to charge."
"It's all we'll need." Jason said glaring at the screen ahead as they started to pull around in a long arc about the next hill.
Flinging the ship up on it's side, one engine plane bare meters from the ground, the Protector Three, heaved sharply around the hill, performing maneuvers you normally only see in an atmosphere. How it managed to bank like that with no wings or air to pull on was anyone's guess. Jason doubted even the Thermians really knew. Just that the writers hadn't thought about it in the show and routinely threw the Protector through impossible turns.
"There it is!" Jason said as the craft appeared as they rounded the hill. "Payback time!"
"Wait... Commander?" Anderson said nervously. "I'm getting an energy reading. It's... Wait..."
Suddenly the enemy ship ahead exploded, shrapnel kicking plumes of dust from the regolith below as it skittered across the lunar surface.
"Laredo?" Jason said, but he knew this wasn't their weapons.
"Wasn't me commander. Didn't get the chance to open fire."
Gwen gasped.
"Jason! Incoming call!"
Suddenly the screen switched to a familiar view, a smiling face beaming back at them.
"Commaaaander Taggaaaart. It eeees good to seeeee you."
Jason jumped up from his seat, grinning from ear to ear.
"Malthazar! That was you? Hah, you old goat. I told you you were a great commander! Great shooting there."
"Mmmm yes we were monitoring your arrival through Time Knot drive and adjusted our course, but were intercepted by these... unexpected individuals. It took us some time to deal with them."
"More of them huh? Who are they?" Jason asked, for the first time having the time to think of the 'why' rather than just react to the situation. "Or should I say who were they?"
"Teb has what, Huuuh, details we have surmised from the craft." Malthazar said, waving to one of the other smiling Thermians beside him.
"Oh yes," Teb said, continuing, "we have determined quite a lot from the debris. They did not want to communicate at all, so we have little else to go on. Our information leads us to believe they are part of the Ixian Pirate Combine, a ruthless band of cut-throats who frequent this region of space. Many moons ago they..."
"It's OK..." Jason interrupted, well used to Teb's lengthy explanations. "They're pirates, that'll do for now. Download all the relevant information to our computers, we'll check it out later." Jason said, nodding to Gwen who started readying the computer to receive the info.
"Of course Commander." Teb said, bowing slightly. "It is good to see you at the head of your starship once more."
For a moment Jason was just going to agree and carry on, then he remembered the 'script' they were going by.
"Well, not exactly Teb. This is the Protector Three. Working title here. Probably change later. We've had some issues recently and wanted a new ship, and a new crew. We're out here training the new recruits up to spec." He turned and patted Colson on the shoulder. "Malthazar, meet General Colson, soon to be the new commander of the Protector Three."
Colson coughed, looking a little lost in the conversation, though more annoyed than nervous.
"Well, yes... Thank you for the assist Malthazar." He managed.
"Ahh, a new commander will be most welcome in this region of space." Malthazar said with a grin, but then looked down at something off camera. "However I see from intercepted communications you have an injured crewman. Perhaps as a show of our appreciation for all you have done for us in the past we can assist in healing Doctor Lazarus?"
Jason glanced up at Colson, remembering how the techs and doctors were... pondering things on their new medbay.
"I... think that would be a wonderful idea. Tommy, take a pod and transfer A... Doctor Lazarus, over to the Protector Two."
Colson just shook his head.
"Knew it was a stupid name! Confusing and hell!" he muttered.
Jason leaned over to him and whispered.
"Feel free to rename her Colson, any time!" At that he almost got a smile out of the recalcitrant General. Almost.
"OK, Meet us up in orbit Malthazar and we can chat in person."
"Of course Commander. As ever, it is an honor." and all the Thermians on screen bowed. Jason, with a serious expression bowed back.
"The honor is mine Malthazar. This time it was you rescuing us. We'll see you shortly."
The view screen cut and all the crew relaxed, apart from Jason who seemed to be in his element, grinning once more.
"God it's good to be back!"
Colson just shook his head and grunted, then turned and stomped out of the bridge. Jason barely noticed.