(A/N: Sorry if this chapter comes out kinda crappy. I was working on it late at night, and I wasn't at all senses)
Before Perfection
by The Great Red Dragon
Chapter 4
The only way into the lab area was through a panel-door in the back of the lab. I hadn't been outside before, and I knew that only little progress could be made by running blind. I took control of the lab's mainframe computer and accessed the area map. After only a few seconds of studying, I made out that the lab and the gym were at the end of a complex system of corridors:
A maze of metal.
I scanned the map quickly, copying a mental picture into my mind. I had an extensive memory system, so it was quite easy to do so.
Then I noticed something - About eight bleeping red dots had appeared at the end of the screen. They were labeled 'Beta 1', 'Beta 2', and so on. It didn't take a genius to guess that these were the security robots.
They were fast…but then again, so was I.
I opened the auto-ship program and started a warm-up on the main star cruiser (Jumba didn't own too many, so I'm just saying 'main' to be formal. What I was dealing with was a small 6-7Y 'Skeeter' cruiser).
I have no idea what I was thinking or any idea where I was planning to go, I just wanted to get out of Jumba's lair and move on to something else. With a series of clicks I imputed an auto-navigational course (meaning that once I reached the ship, I would just need to jump into the cockpit and hit the lift-off) that would get me out of my current orbit.
When the power-up was complete, I tore down towards the corridors.
Whoa, was it ever bright! I was so used to the dim light of the lab and the gym, that the overhead lamps that decorated the ceiling hit me like a fully-charged shock-blaster. It took a few seconds for me to adjust to this situation, and that loss of time kinda slowed me down.
I was hoping find an airshaft above the ceiling that I would be able to climb through. I did indeed find one, but by then the guards were already closer than I had hoped. I pried away a panel on the down-side of the ceiling, and found a small ventilation tunnel just large enough for me to crawl through. I cursed silently as my head banged against the ceiling inside of the ceiling. Not so much in pain, but in desperation. I prayed that the robots hadn't picked up that sound yet.
I started to crawl quickly through the shaft. It was a complex cuniculus, of winding passageways that rose and fell with the elevation, and it almost got me dizzy.
I was able to get about fifty meters or so covered before I heard the obvious hum of their gravitation-engines. I stopped short and remained as quiet as I could. Through the venting-holes that I was crawling on, I was able to observe what was happening below me.
There they were: eight H-67 security/combat droids. Disguised to look like plain protocols, they had a squared-shaped body, and were no more than three feet tall. They glided about a meter off of the ground, and a small line of thrusters stuck to their bottom-side. A glowing red 'eye' in their front gave them an almost demonic appearance. The eye drew only shortly away their armaments, which were usually tucked out of sight. Their primary weapons were twin machine rays on either of their sides that fired devastating laser beams at a high rate. Below their main bodies hung a separate weapon that resembled a shotgun; this thing was commonly called a 'shakrieter'. Why it had this name, I'll never know (just like 'Uzi').
Anywho, I continued to lye silent and hidden away above the ground, with eight big-time fighting machines traveling right below me. I wouldn't have been too worried had I been on my feet at their level, but I was much more of a target inside a tight airshaft with no place to run. Heck, I couldn't even run!
Their ominous hum boomed in my ears dangerously. These things had no mind, and they would not delay their mission in any way, that was to terminate me. I held my breath and waited.
Oh God, was I ever scared. One sound, one cough, one clink of metal, and I would be gone.
"Okay, get a grip on yourself, 541", I thought to myself.
"They haven't heard or seen you, so there's no reason to worry. See, they're almost passed. Once their sensors are out of range, you can start moving again. Just wait, just be calm-"
REEEHHH...
Oh no. I had been so pre-occupied with keeping an eye on those drones that I hadn't seen that the particular slate of metal that I had been lying on was completely rusted, and a small crack had already to spread through it.
"Shit-"
CRASH!
It gave way, and I plummeted ten feet to the floor below. I landed hard on my butt, but [?] I didn't have time to tend to my bruised heiny. I grabbed my dropped plasma guns and without hesitation, I took to running.
I didn't have to turn to know that I was being followed. Only seconds later, the hot lasers began shooting around me. H-67s aren't the best target-masters, but when eight of them are gunning for you, the situation becomes just a bit tricky.
ZHEEEWWW!
ZHEEEWWW!
ZHEEEWWW!
I felt a stinging pain on my upper left shoulder, and the next a smell of burning filled my sensitive nose. I had been cleaved by a bolt of laser, but the wound didn't seem too serious. I aimed the bigger two of my weapons behind me and fired blindly into the mess of them. I hit one of them; a loud explosion behind me signified that. One was down, but the others were still kicking, and they were gonna start with my ass.
They were closing in, and unless I found something to use as a barricade or shield, I was a sitting duck. Another shot whizzed by my cheek. Man, just how fast were these things? I had a maximum speed of 15 mph, but these things had to be at an average over 20!
I was given some luck, and a large carrying-cube came into sight. The thing was probably used to transport cargo, and I estimated it to be pretty thick, meaning it would be a good defense. I took a dramatic leap and landed safely behind the carrier.
Sparks flew as the droids' weapons tore at my shield. They weren't too smart, but had undoubtedly locked onto my body heat. I took the time I had to re-charge my plasma cannons. I had burned halfway through each of their ammo charges, and I decided to better insert a couple of new clips than risk running dry in the middle of a crossfire.
-ka-ching-
-ka-ching-
I was ready.
With the roar of battle booming up from my throat, I sprung my hiding place, and began ricocheting off all walls in an acrobatic display, while giving my attackers on-going double-barrels. They were clumsy, so I was able to dispatch the majority of them in my first attack. The others were obviously a tad smarter, and they were able to avoid my fire, while laying down a lot of their own.
This game went on for little over a minute. The jumping-around was starting to take its toll on me. My legs were aching and my breath was coming fast. I decided after a while that it was time to seek cover again and recharge my ammo.
Well, the decision was taken out of my hands, when right in the middle of a mid-leap, I ran dry. I landed on the ground, in full firing- range, and for just a moment I stared stupidly at my two top-arsenal.
ZHEEEOOO! ZHEEEOOO!
Bad idea.
The H-67s took advantage of my situation and started forwards, their weapons still firing. I flung myself down the corridor, faster than I had ever ran before, even faster than I ever had been on the obstacle course. I tugged viciously at my beam blasters in their holsters, but somehow they had become stuck or wedged inside of their holdings.
"Stupid, stone-aged pieces of junk!", I thought to myself.
I used the spinning turns to my advantage. I crawled along the walls, and therefore was able to make sharper turns than the H-67s. Good thing I had that huge super-computer memory. Any other guy would've gotten lost, and I took pride in knowing that.
I dared a peek behind me, and I was pretty pleased to see that I had created some distance between my pursuers and me.
I kept a good distance in front of them until I reached the aircraft hangar. At first I was a bit shocked. As I said before, Jumba didn't own many space vehicles, but the sheer size of the place that he kept his few in was pretty amazing. I wondered if he had the hangar built for him, or if he had simply taken occupation of it.
It didn't take me long to find out which spaceship was mine, but that was the time it took for me to enter the firing-range.
ZHEE-PWWWUUU!
"AAAHHH!"
I shrieked in surprise and pain as a laser bolt hit the carrying case on back, and it exploded with a bang like a dozen firecrackers [remember the grenades]. I was thrown about twenty feet forward, where I crashed painfully against the hull of my ship [coincidence]. I felt an almighty stinging on my back, and I knew that I had been severely burnt. I rolled over the vehicle's hull and came down clumsily behind it.
Moaning in agony, I made my way into the one-man cockpit and tried to pull the protective latch over my head. I wasn't fast enough. With just a few feet to spare, the lead H-67 managed to stick the muzzle of it's shakrieter inside the cockpit and fire.
BWOUCH-ing!
I just had time to move my head out of the way and avoid the blast. The shot came over my shoulder and hit the controls, frying my navigation system, and I groaned a curse word.
The shakrieter pumped to reload, and I took those few moments to grab it by the barrel and turn it around.
BW-BWOUW!
The H-67 exploded by the shot of its own weapon, and it's destroyed body bounced off of the ship and onto the ground. My hands were burnt now, too. God, I was in pain, I was a blue, walking ad for need of medical attention, call me what you want. To be linguistically creative, I don't think that it was possible to use me and the word 'comfortable' in the same sentence.
Blinded by pain and the sparking of the craft's dashboard, I did the only thing that seemed logical to me at the moment. I hit the lift-off button. At once, the ship started to hum loudly, and the hatch doors below. My ship hovered for a few seconds over the blackness of space while the H-67 fell into infinity.
The remaining droids fired upon my craft, but I had activated the defense shields [which had been left intact], and all that the lasers did was hurt my ears as they whizzed rudely off of the ship's cast. My ship began to lower itself, and I saw the hangar's scenery be replaced by black space, speckled with silver blips of stars.
Seconds later, I was flying free into the deep reaches of space. I looked behind me, and saw the gigantic grey space-station that had been my confinement for so long. Even now the sight remains etched in my mind...I had always suspected that I was being kept inside a space station, but I had never believed it to have been the size of a small planet.
I had come out of the underbelly of the mammoth ship, and I only got a clear view of it as I sped in front of it. The light from it's super- thrusters was visible even from my position.
Indeed, Turo was a true work of art and technology.
I guess that both the pain and the emotional overwhelming proved to much for me, and I passed out right then and there. Fatefully, my head fell forward, and would you believe it, hit the hyper-drive access button.
As I slipped into unconsciousness, I began my trip down the seemingly endless tunnel of light speed, and from then on, I left my fate completely in the hands of chance.
