Juno sat in the bridge of the Siegfried, rubbing his forehead as he watched a radar screen in front of him. His twin sister, Vela, monitored the ship's systems, "Anything new?" she asked.
"It looks like Goldwood is being attacked," Juno replied.
"Why can't we just go in and at least rescue the Tribals?"
"We need permission from Jet Force Command in order to take action," Juno explained, "but Command isn't taking Mizar seriously."
A look of frustration immediately etched itself into Vela's face, "Why the #&$ wouldn't Command want to take action against him?" she asked angrily, "He's already deployed a battle cruiser, he's taking over a planet, and..."
"Vela," Juno interrupted, "I've already contacted Command; they told me, 'Let him have a couple stars and planets, maybe a system or two. Tyrants come and tyrants go, just give it enough time and he'll fade too.'"
Vela stood in shock for a moment, "How could they think that? He isn't even remotely similar to tyrants before him. He didn't start off ruling a planet or using diplomatic ploys to gain rank and popularity. He created an army and is forcefully invading a planet now. Goldwood hardly has a military force worth recognizing, we might have two Jet Force Squadrons deployed down there. It doesn't stand a chance, no part of this system is prepared for a massive assault; we have to do something!" Vela exclaimed.
"We need permission from Command," Juno calmly repeated.
"$&# Command!" Vela angrily responded. A small dog let out a whimper, immediately causing a look of remorse to cross Vela's face, "I'm sorry, Lupus," she said apologetically, "Was I being too loud?" Lupus ran toward her as she dropped to her knees and petted him. After a couple seconds, Lupus barked in appreciation. He ran to the window looking out the front of the Siegfried when the ship suddenly shook, "What was that?" Vela asked, looking to Juno.
Juno looked down at the radar screen, "It's a cloaked vessel, they just docked on the rear hatch." his voice suddenly quieted down. Juno drew out his standard issue Jet Force Pistol, "Run to the escape ships," he ordered Vela and Lupus.
"No way," Vela said, "I'll defend the ship with you."
"Vela, I'm not trying to save the ship," Juno informed her, "The Siegfried can't take an attack like this. I'm just going to hold them off long enough for us to get out."
"Okay," Vela conceded. She turned to Lupus, "Come on, boy, we've gotta go."
Lupus barked as he followed her out of the bridge, "Go to Goldwood," Juno called to them.
Vela and Lupus ran down a hallway with one corridor leading into it on the left side, about halfway down. At the end of the hallway were three tubes going up through the ceiling leading to the escape ships. Lupus stepped in the one on the far left while Vela stepped into the middle one. The two of them were almost instantly whisked away to their ships in the bay above them.
Juno ran into the hallway a couple seconds after Vela and Lupus made it to the end of the hall. As he ran towards the tube to reach his escape ship, he heard a roar. He turned around and quickly aimed the pistol at head level. Entering the corridor was a human-sized ant, with two arms and two legs, wielding a pistol like Juno's, but rather than being blue, it was a plain black color. The ant was dark blue in appearance and its black pincers moved back and forth menacingly, as if taunting Juno.
Juno aimed the white barrel of the pistol between the ant's eyes. Juno pulled the trigger and launched a bright blue beam at the ant; bits of green liquid flew out the bug as it shrieked and fell to the ground. Five more ants ran in to take its place. Juno picked his shots carefully yet quickly, managing to kill two of them before they had an opportunity to fire at him. Three more ants took the place of their fallen comrades, "I have to get out..." Juno thought to himself. He backed up to his escape tube, searching for a moment to escape, but none presented itself.
An ant drew out a small gray sphere; the sphere's ends split to reveal a glowing blue cylinder connecting them. "A grenade!" Juno thought aloud. He aimed his pistol at the bug and pulled the trigger, but his pistol had overheated and wouldn't fire for a moment.
Juno checked the temperature gauge, "One-hundred-fifty-eight degrees..." he read, "it has to get down to one-hundred-fifty before I can fire."
The bug threw the grenade in seemingly slow motion.
"155..." Juno read. The grenade sailed over the head of one of the ants.
"153..." The grenade passed another's head.
"151..." The grenade had just passed the ants, "It might be too close to me already..." Juno thought but he couldn't delay any longer; he took aim at the grenade and pulled the trigger; suddenly, a blinding bright blue flash filled the hallway.
In the bay, two ships launched; one ship was like a red box with engines on the sides that fired vertically and separate engines attached to them that fired horizontally, the other ship was light blue and shaped somewhat like an upside down "T" when viewed from the front or back. The two ships sped toward a small planet covered in forests, Goldwood.
Small, white, furry creatures were dancing around a campfire, all happily singing. One of the small creatures stepped forward, "King Chris!" the others happily announced. The king began to dance wildly about the fire, his elaborate hat trailing beads all around and waving his tribal staff about.
Suddenly, a pod shaped like a pyramid with the top cut off fell on top of the king. All the festivities came to a halt as similar pods dropped into the village, crushing other Tribals, huts, or vegetation. Four doors slowly opened on each pod, one on each side of the pyramid shaped pods. Blue ants began pouring out and slaughtering the Tribals, leaving only the weak and helpless. Some of the able-bodied Tribals attempted to retaliate, but were mercilessly gunned down by some of the blue ants, who laughed as they did it. One group of Tribals managed to escape from the battlefield, the able- bodied ones carried the weaker Tribals to safety. Soon afterwards, all the remaining Tribals in the area were taken captive by the ants and the ants placed forces all around, guarding the area.
Juno opened his eyes to see a mess of dead bodies littering the hallway, he'd hit the grenade in time, but he took a hit too. Juno looked at his armor, the shiny, bright blue resilience was slightly faded, but the damage wasn't critical. As he opened the tube's hatch, he noticed something; there was a flame. Suddenly, he realized what was happening; the ship was being destroyed! Juno entered the tube quickly and flew up the tube. He entered his ship, which also looked like a red box, but instead of having stationary engines, the engines swiveled. His ship came to life and flew toward the bay exit when a brilliant explosion obliterated the Siegfried.
Vela stood with Lupus at her side, "We already relayed our coordinates to his ship, he should be here," she told Lupus. After waiting another couple minutes, Vela sat down and looked up at the sky, "He should be here by now," she muttered.
An hour passed with no sign of Juno. Vela gave up, "He's gone..." she realized, trying to accept the fact. She started to tear up, but Lupus nuzzled her leg, "At least I've got you," she said as she rubbed behind his ears.
Lupus let out a small bark as he playfully rolled around on the ground while Vela played with him. Suddenly, the ground began to tremble; both Vela and Lupus paused and began looking around, searching for what was causing the tremors. Vela drew out her pistol and began moving through the trees, searching for anything suspicious. Lupus followed her with the pistol on his back ready for combat.
Lupus let out a small bark and stood still. Vela turned around and looked at him, "What is it?" she asked. Lupus barked again, continued running through the woods a little ways, and paused. Vela caught up with him and looked around a little bit, trying to spot what he was getting so excited about. Lupus took off again, totally taking Vela by surprise. She ran after him again, chasing him until he stopped again, "Don't do that!" she scolded him.
Lupus wasn't paying attention, he was staring at something. Vela turned to look at what he was staring at; at that moment, she realized that the rumbling had intensified and she saw why. A giant yellow transport ship at least two miles long was lifting off. On the side of it the name "S.S. Anubis" was painted on. Insects were posted everywhere as the S.S. Anubis slowly lifted off. Not only were there blue ants, known as soldier drones, but also green ants bearing snipers and huge purple bugs bearing guns almost as tall as the other drones, along with masses of other insects.
"We've gotta do something about that ship," Vela whispered. Lupus barked in agreement, drawing the attention of two soldier drones. The drones began approaching the forest; Vela and Lupus quickly hid behind trees for cover, they couldn't afford a firefight with their current weaponry. The drones warily walked between the trees Vela and Lupus were hiding behind.
Immediately, Vela dove across and grabbed one of the bugs while Lupus tackled the other. Vela put the drone in a chokehold and shot it in the head, ending its life silently. Lupus shot his drone as he brought it to the ground, then he placed a paw on its throat as it hit the ground, also finishing it off with complete stealth. They took the weapons from the bodies and used them to charge their pistols. Lupus led the way back to the ships as the S.S. Anubis began to rise over the treetops. Vela entered the blue escape ship, "Lupus, wait for Juno," she said, hoping that he still might show up. Lupus barked in acknowledgement and then whimpered, "We'll meet at Ichor," Vela added, "they might have a couple soldiers there we can rescue." Lupus howled as Vela's ship flew away in pursuit of the S.S. Anubis.
Juno's ship went hurtling towards Goldwood. "My navigation systems are down from the shock of that explosion," Juno thought, "I'll just point to a clearing and repair my systems when I land." Juno's ship went flying toward a small lake, "This looks safe..." he thought to himself as he prepared to land.
A large platform raised out of the water for Juno's ship, "How convenient," he commented. To the best of his ability, Juno tried to make a graceful landing, but the ship was a little shaky due to the damage it sustained. Eventually, he set the ship down on the platform and exited. Juno looked up, at last, he was at Goldwood; his mission was about to begin.
