Authors note: Well here's a nice long chapter to keep you going while I
move; hope you enjoy it, I'll post the next part when I can, but I promise
it will be worth waiting for.
Please don't let this be
Chapter 7 - One down four to go
Harper sat staring at the flexi in his hands it contained his rescue plan; the only problem was 'How to take out six orbital defence platforms simultaneously by Seamus Harper' was all it said.
"Oh Man" he said out loud "this tests the power of even a genius like my self." Andromeda heard this but chose to remain silent; Harper would find a way he always did. A few moments later she was not disappointed.
"The FMS! Andromeda I got it the FMS; we send out the Maru on auto pilot with the Foot print magnification system and make it look like us; a much bigger worthwhile target then we send in smaller cloaked attack drones and blow those platforms out the sky!" Harper said gesturing dramatically.
"Harper we don't have cloaked attack drones" Andromeda stated.
"No yet, but we will do babe" replied Harper.
"How?"
"There we go with the how again, but this time I have the answer; super deluxe shielding designed by yours truly making them invisible to scanner's."
"How long will the modifications take?" asked Andromeda
"Not long, my sweetheart, not long 20minutes tops."
20 minutes later the Maru left the hanger bay headed for the planet shortly followed by 6 cloaked attack drones all remote controlled. The plan was working the Maru was drawing all the shots and the attack drones went unnoticed.
"Ok Andromeda; time to blow those platforms out the sky! Targeting platforms 1 through 6. Prepare to fire all drones; now!"
"Firing" Andromeda replied.
All 6 drones destroyed their targets simultaneously. "Yes! We did it! We rock!" shouted Harper.
Just then the Maru rocked under another explosion and burst into flames it had already taken heavy damage. "Oh crap, Beka's gonna kill me when she sees what I did to her ship."
"First we have to find her." came the disembodied voice of Andromeda.
"I'm working on it!" Was her response. "Get the Maru back in here and prepare for landing" Harper commented. "Hey I'm getting the hang of this whole captain thing." He declared. Andromeda's hologram looked at him sternly arms crossed and said "Don't get to comfortable Harper."
Andromeda made it down to the planets surface with little damage the small planet based weapons were no match for her.
Harper hovered at Andromeda's air lock he suddenly felt very alone he had to do this by himself Andromeda could not project her image outside the ship. Andromeda appeared before Harper for a few seconds she was quite, and then she simply said "Bring my crew back Harper" she feel silent again but her image remained. "What?" prompted Harper. "Take care" she added then faded away.
What faced Harper when he exited the ship was a gigantic cliff beyond that lay a vast dark construction from which the signal was originating. The signal was now weaker which puzzled and yet also worried Harper the signal should get stronger the closer he got not weaker.
Harper stared at the cliff it did not get any smaller no matter how he looked at it "Dam" he muttered and started to descend the cliff towards his target. The cliff seemed to go on everlastingly and Harper was already starting to tier; suddenly he lost his grip and started plummeting downhill.
The fall seemed to last for eternity but eventually he came to a halt "oww" he groaned but amazingly he seemed undamaged "well that's one way to get down" he muttered to himself.
The hike shortened and the thought of his missing friends spurred Harper on, and he hurried down the rest of the rock face; the dark building loomed ahead. Harper checked his signal it was gone he hoped that the device was simply damaged in the fall but he doubted that was the case. Harper wasn't sure what this meant but he was sure it wasn't good; he headed on hastening his pace.
Harper rounded the corner to the building it was vast, and without the signal Harper had no clue were to look. But more problematic at the moment was the 4 guards posted outside; Harper couldn't take them all on himself "Man I wish Tyr were here" he groaned. Tyr could take them out without breaking a sweat he thought; well that's all the more reason to rescue him isn't it?
Harper threw a large rock over in the opposite direction from him; luck he thought must be on his side as 2 guards fell for it leaving only two guards for Harper to deal with; still 2 guards was too many he thought, but with the element of surprise on his side he may just stand a chance.
Harper fired on the first guard and he fell the other guard had however now spotted Harper, but Harper had not spent his life on earth with out learning how to fight; shortly the guard fell unconscious to the ground. Harper headed into the building force lance at the ready. Little did Harper know that the other guards would not be so easy to take out for those he had meet outside were just the captors paid help.
Inside the building long dimly lit corridors, made of what looked like stone or rock, came into view. The place looked huge but luckily there were no guards in sight, unluckily Harper still had no idea were to look; he decided to risk contacting Andromeda "Can you detect their life signs?" He asked "No" she replied" but my sensors cannot penetrate this building it appears to have some kind of natural shielding."
Harper disheartened but far from giving up ran though the corridors eventually he came to a large chamber with an immense desk where several tall scary looking aliens sat; Harper ducked back into the shadows and poked his head round. The guards were watching what appeared to a large Holo projection with interest Harper realised with Horror that it was Trance, Beka, Tyr and Rommie who were being studied; in the corner of the screen another image was superimposed Dylan. They appeared to be held captive with Dylan in a separate cell.
On the Holo screen Harper could see Rommie slumped unmoving against the wall; the others did not look much better either. "Don't fear the Harpers here" he whispered almost silently, but he was afraid.
The Holo images did not tell Harper were the others were held; he still had to find them him self but Harper being the genius he was reconfigured his scanner to search the data stream that was being sent to the projector. Now having a signal to trace Harper set off to rescuer his friends.
Of course two camera feeds meant two data steams and Harper had no idea who's he was tracing, but along he crept sticking to the shadows praying that he didn't get caught.
When Harper finally reached the source of the signal he was came face to face with a stonewall, it looked like a dead end, yet the signal insisted that it originated there. A few scans conformed that there was a room behind the wall, but with no door how was he going to get in there? Or for that matter get out.
Harper sank to the floor despair filling him, he felt like crying, he'd come this far but the situation seemed hopeless. The sound of a guard approaching caused Harper to sink back further into the shadows then the unexpected happened the guard touched a band on his arm and the air shimmered creating a portal in the wall which the guard walked though.
Hope flicked back to life in Harpers eyes; this walking though walls thing he had seen before, of course! The tesseract device, how could he have forgotten it all ready, no not forgotten: repressed a part of this mind told him, too bad his was destroyed it would come in handy right about now.
I need that armband, and I bet that guards not gonna part with it easily he thought; so Harper lay in wait when the guard re-emerged from the wall Harper fired, being careful of course to avoid the precious armband. Harper removed the device from the fallen guard activated it, and stepped though the portal; cool a cross between a tesseract device and transporter thought a small corner of his mind.
"Hey Boss" said Harper with his trademark smile as he appeared in the cell just like it was some thing he did every day.
To be continued.
Please don't let this be
Chapter 7 - One down four to go
Harper sat staring at the flexi in his hands it contained his rescue plan; the only problem was 'How to take out six orbital defence platforms simultaneously by Seamus Harper' was all it said.
"Oh Man" he said out loud "this tests the power of even a genius like my self." Andromeda heard this but chose to remain silent; Harper would find a way he always did. A few moments later she was not disappointed.
"The FMS! Andromeda I got it the FMS; we send out the Maru on auto pilot with the Foot print magnification system and make it look like us; a much bigger worthwhile target then we send in smaller cloaked attack drones and blow those platforms out the sky!" Harper said gesturing dramatically.
"Harper we don't have cloaked attack drones" Andromeda stated.
"No yet, but we will do babe" replied Harper.
"How?"
"There we go with the how again, but this time I have the answer; super deluxe shielding designed by yours truly making them invisible to scanner's."
"How long will the modifications take?" asked Andromeda
"Not long, my sweetheart, not long 20minutes tops."
20 minutes later the Maru left the hanger bay headed for the planet shortly followed by 6 cloaked attack drones all remote controlled. The plan was working the Maru was drawing all the shots and the attack drones went unnoticed.
"Ok Andromeda; time to blow those platforms out the sky! Targeting platforms 1 through 6. Prepare to fire all drones; now!"
"Firing" Andromeda replied.
All 6 drones destroyed their targets simultaneously. "Yes! We did it! We rock!" shouted Harper.
Just then the Maru rocked under another explosion and burst into flames it had already taken heavy damage. "Oh crap, Beka's gonna kill me when she sees what I did to her ship."
"First we have to find her." came the disembodied voice of Andromeda.
"I'm working on it!" Was her response. "Get the Maru back in here and prepare for landing" Harper commented. "Hey I'm getting the hang of this whole captain thing." He declared. Andromeda's hologram looked at him sternly arms crossed and said "Don't get to comfortable Harper."
Andromeda made it down to the planets surface with little damage the small planet based weapons were no match for her.
Harper hovered at Andromeda's air lock he suddenly felt very alone he had to do this by himself Andromeda could not project her image outside the ship. Andromeda appeared before Harper for a few seconds she was quite, and then she simply said "Bring my crew back Harper" she feel silent again but her image remained. "What?" prompted Harper. "Take care" she added then faded away.
What faced Harper when he exited the ship was a gigantic cliff beyond that lay a vast dark construction from which the signal was originating. The signal was now weaker which puzzled and yet also worried Harper the signal should get stronger the closer he got not weaker.
Harper stared at the cliff it did not get any smaller no matter how he looked at it "Dam" he muttered and started to descend the cliff towards his target. The cliff seemed to go on everlastingly and Harper was already starting to tier; suddenly he lost his grip and started plummeting downhill.
The fall seemed to last for eternity but eventually he came to a halt "oww" he groaned but amazingly he seemed undamaged "well that's one way to get down" he muttered to himself.
The hike shortened and the thought of his missing friends spurred Harper on, and he hurried down the rest of the rock face; the dark building loomed ahead. Harper checked his signal it was gone he hoped that the device was simply damaged in the fall but he doubted that was the case. Harper wasn't sure what this meant but he was sure it wasn't good; he headed on hastening his pace.
Harper rounded the corner to the building it was vast, and without the signal Harper had no clue were to look. But more problematic at the moment was the 4 guards posted outside; Harper couldn't take them all on himself "Man I wish Tyr were here" he groaned. Tyr could take them out without breaking a sweat he thought; well that's all the more reason to rescue him isn't it?
Harper threw a large rock over in the opposite direction from him; luck he thought must be on his side as 2 guards fell for it leaving only two guards for Harper to deal with; still 2 guards was too many he thought, but with the element of surprise on his side he may just stand a chance.
Harper fired on the first guard and he fell the other guard had however now spotted Harper, but Harper had not spent his life on earth with out learning how to fight; shortly the guard fell unconscious to the ground. Harper headed into the building force lance at the ready. Little did Harper know that the other guards would not be so easy to take out for those he had meet outside were just the captors paid help.
Inside the building long dimly lit corridors, made of what looked like stone or rock, came into view. The place looked huge but luckily there were no guards in sight, unluckily Harper still had no idea were to look; he decided to risk contacting Andromeda "Can you detect their life signs?" He asked "No" she replied" but my sensors cannot penetrate this building it appears to have some kind of natural shielding."
Harper disheartened but far from giving up ran though the corridors eventually he came to a large chamber with an immense desk where several tall scary looking aliens sat; Harper ducked back into the shadows and poked his head round. The guards were watching what appeared to a large Holo projection with interest Harper realised with Horror that it was Trance, Beka, Tyr and Rommie who were being studied; in the corner of the screen another image was superimposed Dylan. They appeared to be held captive with Dylan in a separate cell.
On the Holo screen Harper could see Rommie slumped unmoving against the wall; the others did not look much better either. "Don't fear the Harpers here" he whispered almost silently, but he was afraid.
The Holo images did not tell Harper were the others were held; he still had to find them him self but Harper being the genius he was reconfigured his scanner to search the data stream that was being sent to the projector. Now having a signal to trace Harper set off to rescuer his friends.
Of course two camera feeds meant two data steams and Harper had no idea who's he was tracing, but along he crept sticking to the shadows praying that he didn't get caught.
When Harper finally reached the source of the signal he was came face to face with a stonewall, it looked like a dead end, yet the signal insisted that it originated there. A few scans conformed that there was a room behind the wall, but with no door how was he going to get in there? Or for that matter get out.
Harper sank to the floor despair filling him, he felt like crying, he'd come this far but the situation seemed hopeless. The sound of a guard approaching caused Harper to sink back further into the shadows then the unexpected happened the guard touched a band on his arm and the air shimmered creating a portal in the wall which the guard walked though.
Hope flicked back to life in Harpers eyes; this walking though walls thing he had seen before, of course! The tesseract device, how could he have forgotten it all ready, no not forgotten: repressed a part of this mind told him, too bad his was destroyed it would come in handy right about now.
I need that armband, and I bet that guards not gonna part with it easily he thought; so Harper lay in wait when the guard re-emerged from the wall Harper fired, being careful of course to avoid the precious armband. Harper removed the device from the fallen guard activated it, and stepped though the portal; cool a cross between a tesseract device and transporter thought a small corner of his mind.
"Hey Boss" said Harper with his trademark smile as he appeared in the cell just like it was some thing he did every day.
To be continued.