Jack Ryson hated the patrol days, long hours of loneliness without anyone
but the stars to talk to. His slyphid fighter rolled over casually, gently
sweeping through the debre field, littered with ghost ships...tirolian and
human alike, great gaping holes in their hulls, weapons silent, engines not
burning bright, and cabin lights not making their tiny glows in the eternal
blackness of space. The previously horrifying power of the tirolian mother
ships was gone, as they floated quietly in the void, all life had faded
from them, salvage teams had already picked apart everything they could
from the wrecks. Jack bobbed under a dead bioroid, large holes in its
armor, the faceplate blown open, blue chunks of metal black where plasma
bolts had burned through the heavy armor. It wasn't bad looking at
destoryed bioroids, which Jack had seen plenty off in those last few
horrible months of the war, but it was this section of the patrol that
brought heavy sadness to his heart. Hovertanks, slyphid fighters, loagans,
and ajax copters were everywhere, completely obliterated. Jack engaged the
auto pilot, and in his own tradition, made a sharp salute to the massive
graveyard of fallen human mecha. The journey through that segment took mere
minutes, but it bore a heavy load on Jack's heart...because that area was
where his old unit had been destoryed, until he had been reassigned to
another. He cleared that area, and the autopilot disengaged. Jack took the
stick, and pulled up, gracefully arcing the slyphid over the ow of the
fallen tristar cruiser omega which had sacraficed itself to take out a
tirolian heavy cruiser. The ship might have made it had they not tried to
fire all their weapons in one devastating barrage...which did work
sucessfully, but it overloaded the reactor, and the life support systems
failed...everyone suffocated. Jack had gone through the graveyard a million
times...and everytime, he did the same thing...until this time. His sensors
bleeped for his attention, knocking him out of his trance like state. He
glanced at the display and frowned...there was a faint protocultre signal
coming from one of most historcal wrecks there was...the wreck of the
command ship tristar, which had rammed the lead mothership to destory it.
Jack mumbled something under his breath, and flipped his com gear on.
"Phoenix 7 to Phoenix Lead, we got anyone in the tristar area?" he said
slowly. There was a click as his squadron leader came back. "Negative
Phoenix 7...whats going on Jack, you got somethin?" he asked with the
slightest hint of concern in his voice. Jack frowned and double checked his
reading. "Sir, I have protocultre emissions from that region, reccomend
yellow alert, permission to investigate." he said professionally. His
squadron leader paused. "Attention all units, protocultre emissons located
by Phoenix 7 in the Tristar region, yellow alert, I reapeat yellow alert,
converge to investigate." he said over the open channel. Jack lit his
engines, and accelerated to full speed, his fighter dodging debree. When he
came to the Tristar region, the signal was as strong as three standard
bioroids. Jack shifted the deadly looking slyphid into battleoid mode,
plasma rifle coming into the right hand. He reached down to pull open some
sheet of metal...and his fighter was tackled by a massive bioroid, painted
entirely in black. Jack didn't waste a second..."RED ALERT! I'M UNDER
ATTACK! RED ALERT! NEED BACKUP NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he yelled, grabbing
at his control sticks, flipping the battleoid into a crouch, aiming at the
bioroid...which was amazingly flying on its own, without a hover craft. It
raised its arms, and ion beams shot from them, another impossible
feature...bioroids needed weapons drums...but none the less, Jack went
evasive, returning fire with his plasma rifle, shots missing wildly. He was
amazed by the speed of the thing, it reacted instantly, closing the gap and
nearly scoring a wild right cross as it closed to melee range. Jack spun
his battleiod, accelerating, and smashed into the back of the 'roid, using
the rifle as a club, the butt of it smashing into the bioroids back. It
went sailing into the hull of the mothership, but as soon as it touched
down, it kicked off, the plasma bolts crashing into the hull, burning
through in a few places. The black bioroid fired at him again, darting
through space in a zig zag patteren, Jack barely able to track him. Jack
did manage to dodge the blasts, and get under the thing, firing away,
plasma bolts shooting up at it. The bioroid wasn't quite fast enough to
dodge them all, and one smacked into its chest. Sparks flew, and it was
sent reeling. Jack flew up at it, changing to fighter mode, and laugning
off every missile he had. The missiles streaked in at their target, and the
black bioroid was blasted by dozens of explosions...but when the smoke was
gone...it was drifting, intact, apparently completely stunned. Jack's squad
arrived..and after a brief recap...they hauled it back to space station
Liberty for examination.
