Chapter 7: Last Stand for Terra
Midway over the Appalachian Mountains, the International Fleet cobbled together by Keaton and the other Federation officials not willing to stand up to his orders. The fleet was made of Earth's alone, and had more than simple plasma and missile cannons. Some of the more strategic ships carried nuclear warheads, and that was what Keaton planned to mount against the mechs. The mechs may be impervious to all physical attack, but a nuclear blast would blow them to pieces.
On Keaton's famous flagship, the Excalibur, the bridge was slightly less populous, some of Keaton's crew had refused to accompany him, and he went ahead and fired them too. Keaton, in his comfortable seat on the bridge, overlooking a view screen wide and manned by several communications officers, was growing impatient.
"First Officer, how long until we reach the energy outpost?"
A taller human, but confirming Keaton's orders smoothly, answered,
"8 hours at the current impulse, the rest of the fleet is struggling to catch up. It would be wise to wait for the rest of the fleet, sir."
"What? How long will we have until our objective at that pace?"
"12 hours sir, unless you want to leave them behind, and start the battle alone, which could seriously damage us before the rest of the fleet arrives."
Keaton slammed his fist down on his armrest and grumbled loudly enough for everyone on the bridge to hear. "Why…can't we do anything during the time that we need time the most? Why are things moving so slowly?! I…fine…order engineering to slow down and catch up with the rest of the fleet – we need those nukes with us at the battle. I'll get them yet." Keaton grumbled again, and the officers left on board saluted, replied with a swift 'Yes Sir', and got to work. It would be almost 12 hours before they could attack the mechs, since they were after all, a little behind schedule. Just a little…
* * * * *
"So you've been married for several decades and you never told us?"
"Yes, and you never brought up the subject. You could've told from my position that more was going on and had to be done without my presence on Acuar. My husband does mutinitions, applications, and finance that contribute to the war effort."
Miss Gentes was speaking with Samus about her now known Mrs. Gentes. They were seated just outside the Federation Headquarters, and already did most of the recruiting work. They should have a fleet equal to Keaton's in a few hours. Before they could continue the subject, a roaring noise heard in the distance was heard, and only shortly after, a white limousine with rockets on its fenders pulled up to the lobby and parked there, boldly, but officially. Out stepped Mr. Gentes himself, wearing a formal tuxedo with a black jacket over his white shirt. His black beard trimmed lightly, so that he didn't look gruff at all. He walked up to Mrs. Gentes and hugged her. He may have been a little smaller than her, but they were a happy couple, and apparently efficient business partners. He smiled to Samus as he held his wife around the shoulder, and spoke to her in a cheerful and expecting voice that woke you up from any sleepy stare,
"Hello Samus? How are the arrangements going? I hear my wife is organizing things rather well." As he smiled, a row of perfectly white and straight teeth shone brightly in the afternoon sunlight.
"Hello Mr. Gentes; everything's in order. We just need some help from Timberwolf to get some intel about Keaton's forces that left here about a few hours ago. But other than that, things are great. I'm hoping we reach the mechs in time."
"Good, good; what do you say we take a walk to Timberwolf now? He's feeling much better and recharged after his escape, and he seems eager to help. He also offered some information about his armor plating that makes the mechs so powerful. But that's said and done, and our ships are being refitted as we speak. This way please."
Samus was full of anxiety to meet Timberwolf again, and he apparently found the human inside of him, and grasped it with understanding. They all walk briskly to the training grounds, where Timberwolf is teaching some armored vehicle regiments some tricks and tips to stick with during the heat of battle, and this made the vehicles more useful in battle, rather than just distractions.
"EXCELLENT GROUP ONE, EXCELLENT; YOU EVADED MY FIRE USING YOUR EVASIVE HOVER CAPABILITY, AND TURNED YOUR TURRETS TOWARDS ME WHILE MOVING. YOU'RE REALLY GETTING THE HANG OF IT." With this, Timberwolf noticed his audience and torso turned to Samus and the Gentes couple. He nodded as well as he could with a metal mech torso, and spoke to them gently, but confidently.
"OH! YOU'RE HERE, GOOD. THE MEN YOU RECRUITED, MRS. GENTES, COULD VERY WELL BE THE BRIGHTEST MEN THE FEDERATION HAS TO OFFER. I DON'T KNOW WHAT KEATON GOT STUCK WITH, BUT WE GOT HIGH QUALITY MEN…" And then he quickly torso turned to fire accurately at the moving hovercraft, which was still moving around and taking shots off when he wasn't looking. He fired, and it hit the hovercraft. He sent a signal of disappointment and further encouragement to the craft, and ordered it to keep trying. He kept his aim and torso centered on the hovercraft, but spoke to his right where Samus and the others were standing.
"SO WHEN ARE WE GOING? ARE THE SHIPS READY? KEATON SHOULD BE INTERCEPTING THE OTHERS 10 MINUTES. WE SHOULD BE GOING SOON…" He paused and looked intently towards the hovercraft, no longer on the scorched battlefield. It was heading towards the main fleet, already emerging from orbit. Everyone gasped at the size, and thought at that moment, Keaton didn't have a chance to attack the mechs.
Hundreds of battlecruisers, fighter squadrons, carriers, and a few Chozo ships slowly made their way across the skyline of the base. The largest cruiser headed down to the HQ, and docked with its spaceport. They were beginning the counterattack.
Everyone hurried into the HQ building and ran up the stars to the roof, where the battlecruiser was hovering several feet above the landing pad, a retractable stairway leading down for the troops and officers to get on. While Samus watched the Gentes couple get on board, she saw Houston wave from the doorway, and went back in.
Before she made a step to the stairs, Timberwolf used his jump jets to burst right to the top on the building, and on the roof, nodding to Samus and inviting her to climb into his cockpit. So she climbed up his torso and climbed into his computer central. And they were off, with the rest of the ground forces, racing to the energy outpost in Washington D.C.
* * * * *
Nine hours later, the mechs reach the perimeter of the energy outpost. Gamma, done from a local patrol, reports to Alpha, who is leading the force.
"SIR, THE OUTPOST IS EMPTY. NO-ONE IS
GUARDING NOR PROTECTING THE OUPOST. NOT EVEN A LIFE SIGN TO AMBUSH US. EITHER
THEY AREN'T HERE AND AREN'T COMING, OR THEY WON'T COME FOR SOME REASON."
"IT'S A TRAP, THEN, GAMMA. HOW STUPID DO
YOU THINK THE HUMANS REALLY ARE? THEY KNEW WE WERE GOING TO GET HERE SOON, AND
NOW THEY EXPECTING US…SOMEHOW."
Who spoke that retort was Delta, now stepping back into the ranks since his 200- ton body was a little slower than the others. Alpha disagreed and spoke to them all.
"THIS IS THE POWER STATION WE WERE
INFOMRED OF. WE MUST GET OUR ENERGIES MAXIMIZED, THEN WE CAN DISCUSS WHY THE
HUMANS DID NOT DEFEND IT. FOR NOW, LET US GRASP ETERNITY TO LIVE ON THIS
PLANET."
Beta was about to back Delta up, and Alpha to stop him by pointing his cannons at Beta, when a dark and humungous shadow enveloped the entire regiment of mechs.
Keaton's fleet had arrived, and he was pissed. By the time they turned around to fire on the fleet, the mechs were already getting hit with super missiles and plasma cannons. They were rocked back a little by the hits, and returned fire with their thunder-and-lightning combo. Missiles and laser exchanged directions, and ships were falling slowly, ever so slowly. The Excalibur, for a change, wasn't taking any damage from the mechs, and was charging up its main cannons.
Keaton was ecstatic on the bridge – the mechs could not harm him and his ship, with his new shields, and the nuclear ships would be arriving to join the fight soon. Keaton frantically asked the communications officer, "How long until we have nukes in position?!" "50 minutes sir…" He paused for a moment, and Keaton went to another officer to ask something else, and then the same comm. Officer yelped in excitement.
"SIR?! There's a very large huddle that just appeared on radar!"
"What?! Our Nuclear ships are far behind us! What could be that big?"
All the crewmen on the bridge stared in awe at the radar blip, as big as a quarter of the scanning field, and coming closer, labeled red for hostile.
A voice came over the comm. System.
"Chairman Keaton of the Galactic Federation, stand down!"
Keaton was buffed up and ready to fume at the intruders,
"This is Keaton, who the hell do you think you are interrupting this affair? This is Federation work, and you're using my ships illegally. Now get off your weapons ports and stop, and surrender or else we'll have to blow you out of the sky! Answer!"
To this, a large sleek missile was fired from the ground, from a formidable humanoid shape. The missile penetrated the shields of the Excalibur and forced the shields down to almost nothingness.
A new voice, computerized, but full of pride, come onto the channel.
"ATTENTION KEATON –
I HAVE GIVEN YOU OUR ANSWER. STOP AT ONCE OR ELSE IT IS US WHO WILL
DESTROY YOU! STAND DOWN FROM YOUR ATTACK ON THE MECHS!"
Keaton, who did not like getting angry at the comm. System, replied by ordering all his officers to manage the battle and send out the fighter squadrons, and protect the nuclear ships getting in position. He would have to deal with the mechs on one side, and a massive fleet on the other. Just then, a wave of energy peeled over the Excalibur and the ship rocked violently, and soon got its balance again.
"SIR?!
There is another attack force emerging from the south! It's a ground regiment,
and there's a mech helping them too!"
"Calm down you lazy bum, they're just hovercraft, slow and not very accurate, ignore them, we can handle the little damage they decide to dish out." But no sooner had he said this, a STA missile hit home and the ship rocked again in violent damage.
"End it now Keaton! I know you know when to quit! And we're all ready to defend the mechs with our lives!"
Keaton gasped and yelled at the nearest officer, "On screen!"
And up popped the image of Samus, in full battle armor, in what looked like a wiry and computerized cockpit of some machine. She had an upright pose, and her voice cold and demanding.
"Now Keaton! Or else we convince the mech force that your ship is more worth their time than ever. It is I, Samus Aran, that challenge you and the remnants of the Federation that remain loyal to such a stubborn crook. I will assume command now!"
And she turned off the view screen and turned Timberwolf's torso to Mrs. Gentes personal frigate, and Mrs. Gentes, in a full battle uniform, was manning the missile turret on the top of the hovercraft herself. She too, had heard the demand over the PA, and gave Timberwolf and Samus a thumbs-up.
* * * * *
Only when Keaton managed to smuggle aboard a nuclear warhead did his ship become a big problem. He had it ready to fire, and raged at Samus and the others,
"What
now?! I have the nuclear missile pointed at the mechs! Any more damage to my
ship and I'll fire it off! The station will absorb the blast and expand the
explosion to a much higher degree. Now look who's in charge, eh?"
Samus and Timberwolf developed a small plan that she hid from her expression and she had Timberwolf jump-jet to the docking port of the Excalibur that Keaton had lost security sight on. When she climbed out in time when Timberwolf was running low on jet fuel, another craft flew into view.
It was a space shuttle, fully armed, and ready for battle. Escorting it, was another shuttle, and the first did not appear to be working. Obviously, the cockpit opened and out jumped Rick onto the open docking deck, slipping on the edge of the port, with Samus grabbing him and bringing into the hallway.
"What are you doing here? I thought I never told anyone."
Rick answered coolly, "You didn't, but I knew you were thinking of infiltrating Keaton."
* * * * *
The two bounty hunters slipped past the primitive security systems of the Excalibur, and they didn't even meet any officers in the many winding hallways and turbolifts. Maybe Keaton didn't find that much manpower to support him, not that I think he did it the normal way, there's not much of a crew on board. Samus thought as she gave to okay to Rick, who had motioned to her, there were on the bridge level and would probably run into some hostiles beyond the next blast door.
Rick opened the door hastily and then the two saw all that manpower that they had missed out on – A flood of officers and crewman more than a crowded day at a high school passing period, Keaton had jam-packed everyone into one deck!
Before long, the many officers noticed them, and one shouted out,
"It's them! Seize them immediately!" And all the crowd of soldiers ran to the door, which Rick closed and locked abruptly in their faces.
"That won't hold them for long! We need to find a way around that hall, Samus, you lead the way!"
Samus grunted in displeasure, how polite of Rick to stop guiding her and then just tell her it was her job to find Keaton. Before they got a few paces, the door previously locked burst open with blaster fire and troops with blazing weaponry emerged at the two experienced bounty hunters. Rick, who had found a better time to use such a device, prevented lightning from striking twice – he let off a smoke bomb, and yelled to Samus,
"GO! I can hold them off for a while; just stop Keaton from launching those nukes! Hurry, everyone can't stall him forever!"
And so Samus ran through the many hallways, dodging blaster fire from every doorway like some adventurer in the Dungeons and Dragon movie. As she rolled away from what could have been direct hits, she emerged from her morphing ball and fired a super missile at a nearby security power control, shutting down all the automatic systems she had to dodge so often in all the mayhem. She eventually turned into a hallway filled with rough barricades and blaster cannons – at the end was a highly decorated double blast doorway that could very likely be the bridge. Before she could take a shot off at the nearest barricade of troops, she was knocked back by a manual plasma turret and her armored suit sparked in resistance, she scrambled back around the corner as more plasma fire came from the bridge hallway. Her suit was scarred badly by waves and torrents of plasma energy from the numerous turrets, and their number was too overwhelming.
"Keaton, you shoulda never declared war on one of the Aran family…" Samus whispered to herself as she switched her arm cannon to HYPER and got her space jump and screw attack capabilities charged up for one more push into the enemy lines.
Samus burst around the corner with her HYPER beam firing pure energy through the barricades and soldiers behind them. Her beam liquidated half the turrets in sight within the first second, and Samus immediately withdrew into her space jump after gathering up much speed and momentum and activated her screw attack the instant she knew she would impact on anything ahead of her. She was in a state of destructive flux, which she only felt for an instant, but the world around her was exploding and being destroyed as she tore through everything in her way to the bridge. In the instant after such the chaos ended, she landed on her feet and emerged from her crouched position.
She turned around to look at what had been a seemingly invincible defense system, but then again, they weren't expecting Samus Aran, the famous bounty hunter, to crash their party. She frowned at the mess all over the floor. Why did these people trust Keaton, why did they not think for a moment why they were firing at me? Why fire at me, when I have done nothing against them, and they know who I am, but yet they take orders from Keaton as though they thought they were doing the right thing? I need to talk with him, NOW. Samus was sorry for the soldiers that decided to go against their consciences and take Keaton's orders, and turned around and fired blankly at the first blast door, it liquefied before she was done thinking about what she was doing. She stopped when she heard someone calling to her around the corner of the hallway.
"Samus! I'm coming to help you with Keaton's personal guard! I…"
Rick stopped short when he saw all that lie on the floor of the hallway, and he looked up to Samus, her reflection in his shiny golden solar visor. He spoke with some confusion, as if she hired him to help old ladies across the street.
"Huh? Single-handedly destroyed Keaton's infamous personal elite guard? How…how in the Milky Way galaxy could you…you've been out of shape and not done bounty hunting for years…and I had been doing it for…how…?"
Samus grabbed his white astronaut suit and dragged him behind her and she fired with her other hand and fired at the final blast door, which fell before them like a hot bardiche cutting through butter (that word is so much more powerful than knife). She marched into the bridge and found Keaton immediately in his brown robe, staring at her and Rick in horror. Rick, who got free of Samus, straightened out his astronaut armor and dusted himself off and tried his very best to look intimidating. And it worked, he faked to start a tackle at a nearby officer and he cowered away in reaction, and Rick laughed hard within his computerized voice system in his helmet.
Samus stepped forward and spoke to Keaton,
"Keaton you are hereby under
arrest for disbelief of Federation informants, mistrust of diplomats who sought
to end the war, maltreatment of beings new to this world, for not giving them a
chance to show their wish to end the war also, and for firing on Federation
civilians.
"Now get
away from that control console, there will be no nuclear missile fired today,
or ever, on these mechs, or any that assist them, the mechs are here to stay
and help humankind. And these mechs have lives, and should be defended
by the Federation, hence the reason you are supposedly all in the positions you
are in right now – to help those races that have no protection from the real
world, and that need social and cultural help.
"You may
not have the power to help the mechs become better beings, but you do have to
power to allow them the opportunity to do right in this world. Now, Keaton, are
you going to deprive them their rights that they have been given by the very
constitution the Federation was built on?"
Keaton gulped and turned a nasty shade of green and tried his very hardest to explain to all what his intentions were, that is before Samus chained him up in handcuffs.
* * * * *
Chapter 8: F*R*I*E*N*D*S
(Epilogue)
Keaton was in the court room, and had just finished listening to the twenty-plus charges against him, and he felt guilt yet again, (six months after the last time). And this time, Mrs. Gentes wasn't around to slug him in the gut, but he would have a loooong prison sentence. And so the judge continued and finished the ruling and the case,
"…is hereby sentenced to seventy years of prison, with a bail of…"
The judge looked down at the paper, his eyes bugled, and up at the lawyers pressing charges, who happened to be various rights activists, and sighed as he continued.
"…no less than one-hundred and fifty billion dollars. The case is now closed, and Keaton will stay in jail for the sake of many species threatened by him over the past year, Dismissed."
Samus and everyone else were at the Navy Pier in Chicago, now being rebuilt, but, fortunately, the famous amusement center at Navy Pier was not harmed during the battles with the mechs. Everyone, even Ridley was there, except Keaton, who they figured should be stewing in his cell for a looong time. Mr. And Mrs. Gentes thought the ruling too harsh, even for Keaton.
"I just don't see it fir that he end his days in his prison cell. Can't we do anything about it? I mean, back in the days of the Kihunter War, Keaton was a part of OUR group, and we can't and shouldn't have to get rid of him right?" Mrs. Gentes spoke to them all as they licked contently at their individually favorite ice cream cones. Ridley, who found a Jalapeno flavor, snorted and wolfed it all down in a single swallow, and he flew away from them all in disgust for showing appeal to Keaton. Samus continued the idea.
"C'mon guys, Keaton may be a inhuman being without feelings for others, but that's kinda how things go in the government, so why don't we lend him a hand, eh?"
And
everyone went along with Samus for her sake, and they all got a ride with
Timberwolf to the Federation Jailhouse. On the way, Timberwolf spoke to her in
public of the others. "SAMUS, I JUST
WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU'VE DONE FOR ME AND MY KIND. AND I WANTED
TO TELL YOU THAT I LOVE YOU, THAT YOU'VE CHARMED ME THE DAY I SAW HOE MUCH CARE
YOU HAD FOR OTHERS. OH, AND I HEAR IT'S GONNA BE CLEAR OUT THIS AFTERNOON,
WANNA JOIN ME FOR DINNER AT 5:00 – EVEN THOUGH I DON'T HAVE TO EAT? MY WEATHER
FORECAST RADAR SUGGESTS A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET AROUND THAT TIME."
"Oh, Timberwolf, I love you too. Even though we're completely different beings on the outside, we both can feel emotion as well as love, and we know what it means. Let's just be friends and get to know each other later this afternoon, I would love to join you for dinner. C'mon, lets go bail Keaton."
And so when the day came Keaton was brought to court for a reason he had no idea, except maybe a longer sentence from charges of others he had ruined the lives of in the past year. But he saw everyone he had worked with in the last year instead, and he found out that everyone, even Mr. And Mrs. Gentes all pitched in to pay the absurd bill of one-hundred and fifty billion dollars. He and the team was back in business.
As he left the stand to talk with them, he remarked as they walked him outside,
"Now I think I know what being human is about, and I'm ready to rebuild my life. C'mon, we have a whole civilization of mechs to support!"
And so all of them rode off into the sunset on Timberwolf's back.
And all the other mechs following in perfect marching order behind them…