CHAPTER 8 – THE CHASE
The spacious conference room of the Khufu Pyramid had been transformed into the biggest gambling chancery this side of the Ovion planet Carillon. It looked like a real Casino! The room was packed with holiday revelers, drunks, and serious fans of the game of Pyramid. Scantily clad women and men served drinks for free and encouraged everyone who wasn't watching the professional tournament to play at one of the amateur tables. The atmosphere was fun, loud, and exuberant. It was quite the scene of indulgence.
In one corner of the chancery was a particularly fun group of about a half dozen party goers, clearly inebriated, singing a popular rag tag fleet folk song.
"We gotta find Earth! All we really need is Earth! Though it's true the Cylons try to enslave, we fight them for all their worth! We got a battlestaaaaaar that's superior by faaaaar to anything that the Cylons have got, we'll find Earth if it's not to faaaaaar! Starbuck might be a herooooooo- if he's not distracted by giiiiiirls; I might get hyper in my Viper!"
And, though the drunks messed up many of the lyrics, they were a big hit by the bar.
The high rollers and wannabe high rollers were all circled around one table at the moment. This particular match was down to its final 2 players. At one end, a large, middle aged man pushed a large pile of cubits to the center of the table. At the other end of the table sat a dashing young man with dark hair and piercing blue eyes. Noah definitely had his mother's good looks. He pushed ALL of his cubits to the middle of the table.
"Call", he said calmly.
"You're bluffing! No way you got this beat!" said the large man as he confidently tossed his cards on the table face up.
The crowd around the table reacted with oohs and ahh's! It was a great hand. Noah, undaunted, placed his cards on the table with some authority.
"A full pyramid folks!" shouted Noah.
The crowd erupted in cheers. His opponent slumped back in his seat, defeated.
Noah looked like his mother Athena. But he played cards like his father Starbuck.
Noah quickly collected his winnings and while lovely ladies surrounded him, attempting to garner his attention, his eyes found the monitors with the Triad Matches going on. He smiled. Excused himself from the group of young ladies and headed for the exits. He was off to catch the final moments of his favorite Triad player's match!
Inside the Arena of the Gods, a partisan crowd is enjoying a closely contested race. Fan favorite, Cleopatra, has steadily moved up in the field and is currently in 3rd place with 2 laps to go. Cleo slings her bike around a corner and pours on the speed down the straightaway. A ramp pops up from the ground causing her to adjust her speed and course yet using it to her advantage to explode through a Ring of Fire obstacle, which is worth significant BONUS time that had just materialized from above. The crowd goes wild. She quickly banks hard on the final turn before throttling up to full speed again. Her bike screams past her opponents and she crosses the finish line in first place. Again, the crowd roars! Cleo brings her Hover-Bike to a stop and waves to the fans in the stands, which include President Athena who is cheering and clapping furiously.
Outside the coliseum, fans begin to exit in droves, as they quickly make their way to their next chosen festivity.
"I guess we're too late", Skylar said apologetically.
"Oh felgercarb", swore Gemma to the surprise of Skylar. "I was really looking forward to my first race!"
"You know what? I have something even better than watching a Turbine race."
"What's that?"
Skylar just smiled, grabbed Gemma's hand and pulled her to follow him towards the nearby garage.
Moments later, the duo roared out of the garage on Skylar's personal, custom made Land Probe. Gemma held on for dear life with her arms around Skylar as the bike sped through the city, in and out of traffic and terrified pedestrians alike, before finally leaving Nora Novae city limits.
"Holy frak!" she screamed through the wind as it whipped around them.
"You ok back there?" shouted Skylar over the roar of the wind and the engine.
"Yes! This is amazing!"
The Land Probe zoomed over the countryside, just a couple of feet off the ground, which caused a trail of dust and dirt to appear to explode beneath and behind them as they passed.
Both Skylar and Gemma wore what appeared to be the same Pharaoh style helmets that fighter pilots used. The only discernable difference being these helmets were black. This was standard as it was the law. Riders had to wear the approved gear. After all, Turbine Hover-Bikes, or Land Probes, were military grade vehicles used in the Colonial service. They were powerful.
Gemma was having the time of her life! And, though New Kobol would never win any planetary beauty pageants, right now the countryside was absolutely gorgeous as it zoomed by. She lost complete track of time and couldn't believe the indicator on her helmet's digital visor. They had been riding for over a centaur! And, at their speeds they must be pretty far from the city at this point. Suddenly, she felt a little uneasy. Then, unexpectedly, Skylar had brought the Land Probe to a very rough, skidding stop. He whispered through their helmet com-link to keep quiet and get down. Gemma had no idea what was happening but quickly complied. From the ground beside Skylar, she watched him flip a switch on the bike, turning off hover mode. 2 wheels descended from the body of the bike and now touched the ground. He put down the kick stand and turned back toward her.
"Nomen", he whispered to her.
Her heart began to pound through her chest. They must have crossed over into Nomen territories. During their ride Skylar had tried to shout about some great view or vista he wanted to show her, but she couldn't make it out over the noise. She didn't think he had this in mind. Skylar took his helmet off, so Gemma did the same.
"What's going on?" she asked him in a whisper.
"There is some kind of activity just over this ridge. I saw something. I'm not sure what I saw", said Skylar before trailing off, seemingly searching for their next move.
"Well, we're here", said Gemma as she began to Warrior crawl across the ground. "Let's take a look."
Skylar feigned a disapproving nod, but Gemma knew better.
"I'm a reporter and you're a Warrior. I know you want to take a peek!"
Moments later the pair found themselves lying on their stomachs at the edge of a fairly large crater. Gemma activated her recorder on the hidden IFB camera that she had forgotten was on her blouse. Dozens of Nomen were working with heavy machinery in a quarry of sorts and they appeared to be excavating something. On the far edge of the crater, directly across from them and at its base, they could see the opening of a cave. Nomen were moving in and out.
"What are they doing? And how come we don't know about this place?" she whispered.
"I think I might know" said Skylar as his eyes continued to dart around the perimeter of the crater. "Look at those towers placed intermittently around the edge of the crater."
"What about them?"
"Those look like camouflage dampeners!"
"I don't follow."
"That's DR Z tech. The same tech that creates and powers our Camouflage Cloaking Nets around our city", explained Skylar. "I'm betting a thousand cubits those towers are the reason we can't see this from the air."
"But what could they possibly be doing? We've been here for over 10 yahrens."
"Maybe they found something", said Skylar right before the ground next to them exploded from a weapon's blast.
They had been spotted and were under fire. Nearby Nomen were throwing their Laser Bola weapons at them. The laser bola is a traditional weapon of the Borellian Nomen. Up to three are usually slung on bandoliers on Nomen. When thrown, they appear as two glowing balls connected by a red line: a laser beam.
"Time to go!" shouted Skylar as he sprung up, threw his helmet on, and hopped on their bike.
"Go! Go! Go!" screamed Gemma as she did the same and flung her arms around his waist to hang on.
A turbo flame much like a viper trail exploded from the back of the Land Probe as it sped away at great speeds.
Dybokk, the leader of the Borellian Nomen, having observed the disturbance, turned abruptly leading his posse of warriors back into the depths of the mysterious cave.
Skylar and Gemma could not breathe easy just yet. Nomen Crawlers were in hot pursuit. A Crawler did anything but crawl. They certainly were not slow. They did, however, look like a giant crawlon insect complete with six legs for when they were in "ground mode". In this high-speed pursuit, the legs were up and the craft hovered much like a Turbine Hover-Bike. The Crawler had a tail on the back end with a forward-facing curve over the back ending in a stinger or laser gun. Stinger fire exploded all around them.
Skylar looked back over his shoulder to see that there were two Nomen Crawlers chasing them, each manned by two Nomen Warriors. One was a pilot and the other a gunner. He could see one Nomen on each craft preparing to fire their Bola Staffs. A bola staff was similar to a regular Laser Bola, however the 2 power crystals sat at the tip of a long staff. This allowed Nomen Warriors to swing the staff in a circular motion, working up power and energy, before swinging the staff forward with great power and shooting the crystal laser bola great distances. And Nomen were deadly accurate!
"Oh frak!" cried Skylar, fully understanding the gravity of the situation. "Grab my laser and start shooting!"
"What?!" shouted Gemma. "I can't do that!"
"Start firing or we're dead! They don't miss very often!"
Gemma grabbed the laser from Skylar's holster, pivoted her torso as much as she could and depressed the trigger, firing blindly behind them. Most of the laser beams fell way off target, but some were at least close enough to hitting Crawlers that it forced the Nomen to take evasive action, slowing down their onslaught. Gemma was essentially providing some cover fire. That is, until she dropped the laser gun.
"I lost the gun!" she shouted to Skylar.
"What?!"
"I said…I lost the-"
A stinger blast from the Crawlers tail gun struck the ground directly below their Land Probe sending Gemma and Skylar tumbling to the ground violently. Skylar's helmet struck the rocky ground dangerously hard, knocking him unconscious even with the protection of his helmet. Gemma was bloodied and bruised but conscious. She looked up and through blurry vision could see the Crawlers closing, though they were still well in the distance. As the Nomen continued to close, Gemma started to tremble with the understanding that she was about to die. Nomen gunners were swinging their Bola Staffs, about to release the final salvos that would signal Gemma's demise. She closed her eyes and took what she thought would be her last deep breath.
With her eyes closed, Gemma never did see the landram size moon meteor that crashed directly into both Nomen Crawlers, killing both crews instantly. She opened her eyes in time to see the dirt and rock being expelled high into the air from the meteors impact. There was no evidence of the Nomen at all. She turned and crawled to Skylar's position. He was woozy but coming to. More explosions boomed in the distance. She looked up to see what appeared to be a meteor shower; large and small streaks of light crossing the sky. A big one struck in the distance. Her heart was in her throat now. A moment later the sound of that impact and a whoosh of air reached her, knocking her back. She cried out.
"Gods of Kobol! No!"
The large meteor appeared to have struck in the general area of what she believed would be the capital, Nora Novae.