16
11.2.43
GCS Dante, Sol System
2109 Hours
"Aw, shit, one of them is on board!" Sabre cried. Neither Transa nor Vrakan had to ask what one of "them" was. Nowadays that term was used to refer soley to Necrons.
Vrakan cursed loudly in Danti. Transa did the same.
Sabre moved to a comm panel as fast as he could.
"Bridge, this is Sabre, we have been compromised, repeat, we have been compromised! Start the lockdown, now! Bring the scanners on-line."
"Aye, sir!" When the second, louder, and much more ominous claxon sounded, the entire crew knew what it meant. The crew had thirty seconds to get to their designated post before every single hatch on the ship locked. They only unlock if the alarm was stopped, after entering the proper authorization codes, which only Sabre knew. The scanners were specially designed to detect a Necron presence. They were not kept on-line all the time becuase they drew an enormous amount of energy, almost equivalent to the entire ship output.
"Sir, it'll take about five minutes to bring 'em on-line," was the response from the bridge.
"We don't have time for that... damn, where could it be?" Unfortunately, his previous moment of clarity was quickly overshadowed by the throbbing in his head. These things just kept popping up out of nowhere, it was really becoming worrisome. He racked his brain for anything that might have helped. He was still cursing himself when a cry over the intercom interrupted him.
"Shit! To anyone who can hear me, the goddamn thing's in the infirmary, say again it's--" The transmission was abruptly cut off.
Sabre transmitted himself to the infirmary just in time to see Renara impaled upon the arm of the Necron. When it saw Sabre it retracted its arm and cloaked itself. Sabre switched optic modes and was able to see it move over to Eve's body, still in its resting place on the infirmary bed. When the Necron noticed Sabre's eyes follow it, it knew it was time to become a trickster.
Sabre powered up, his white ki flaring to life, when all of a sudden there were a dozen of the damn things. To play it safe, he went for the one closest to Eve's body. When his fist connected with the air, he knew this was going to be a difficult fight. The creatures were dancing around the room now, almost mocking him, when he got an unexpected helping hand.
When Goku felt Sabre power up, he knew something was really wrong. He just thought the claxons meant dinner or something. He was alsp curious as to why Vegeta powered up to begin with, but when it dropped again he thought nothing of it. After all, it was Vegeta. Now, this was Sabre's second time powering up, and he was sure that he was fighting something. He focused on his energy and transmitted himself.
Goku appeared in the infirmary to see Sabre wildly swinging in the air. He was about to ask what was going on when he saw a funny-looking alien appear out of nowhere above one of the infirmary beds. It was very similar to one of the things he saw in the briefing. It did not notice the Saiyan and went about its task, oblivious to the curious onlooker. When it raised its hand to crush the life out of the seemingly dead creature on the infirmary bed, Goku knew what to do. He transformed into a Super Saiyan in a brilliant flash of gold and nailed the Necron in the side of the head with the full force of his punch .
When all the creatures disappeared, Sabre was thankful. He looked about to see Goku next to Eve's bed, with the Necron knocked into the bulkhead. Goku looked back at him as if to say, "what the fuck?"
"I got this," Sabre told Goku as he grabbed the stunned alien. He transmitted himself and the creature to an empty waste disposal hangar. He dropped his alien cargo and slammed the emergency decompression button. He then transmitted back to the infirmary and powered down. When Goku saw him do this, he did the same.
"What's going on?" Goku asked.
"Well, you just hit your first Necron."
"You mean that was one of them?"
"Yeah."
"But what was it doing on the ship?"
"I don't know, I guess it must have hidden itself here. I guess that other one I killed back on earth had a friend."
"Are there any more?"
"We'll know as soon as the scanners come on-line." Suddenly there was the sound of a dull explosion and the ship rocked a little.
"What was that?" Goku wondered.
"The reason why we can never keep Necrons on a ship. They self-destruct if they are damaged or captured. Or sucked into space."
"Oh. Uh, is that that Eve girl on the bed over there?
Sabre felt his stomach turn. He didn't want to have to do this.
"Yeah."
"Is she sick?"
"She's dead."
"What? How'd that happen? Did that thing get her?"
"No, it was strange...I'm still not sure what happened. Renara and I-" Sabre stopped in midspeech when he remembered the doctor. "Shit, doc!" he cried, turning to the corner in which he was laying in, filled with blood. He had completely forgotten about Renara. This was getting bad.
Sabre frantically reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the few remaining pills. He slipped it into the doctor's bloody mouth and managed to get him to swallow it. The gaping hole in his chest healed at an incredible pace, and in a few moments the doctor was as good as new.
"Sorry doc, I forgot about you..."
"Aw, hey, don't worry about it. I'm alive. And you have some of the X-233 pills. I thought we were damn near out of them after the Necrons hit the plant on Jwela.
"Well, I managed to 'procure' some from a friend of mine. Besides, these things are too damn useful to not have." Sabre slurred the last few words of his sentence, something the doctor picked up on."
"You, Major, need to get some sleep. And stop drinking."
"Yeah, you're right. Hey, Goku, tell the others what happened, but leave Eve out of it. I'll tell them tomorrow."
"Alright. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"No. When the scanners come on-line, I'll be able to handle anything that pops up. You just go back to your friends."
"Okay..." Goku put two fingers to his head and disappeared to another part of the ship.
"Shit, doc, I'm really sorry."
"Nah, don't worry about it. The hole is gone, although I must admit I was disappointed that there was no white light. Isn't there supposed to be a white light?" Renara asked sarcastically.
"Beats me. I've never been dead." Although he'd come close a few times.
"Major," the call came through the intercom, "the scanners will be on-line in thirty seconds."
"Great. Okay doc, see ya later. I've got to get the bridge. Oh, and I'll be bringing by one of the passengers, Vegeta. I had to put him out of commission." With that, Sabre transmitted himself to the bridge. The countdown was almost complete.
"Major, we'll know how many of them are around in a second," Commander Jakar, the current deck officer, informed him.
"Right."
The entire bridge waited tensely for the scanners to finish charging. When they were finished they would emit a series of high and low frequency waves that scanned all the space in and around the ship in all possible ways. It used gamma, x, radio, uv, and infrared waves, as well as numerous other methods of scanning. There was no hiding from these things.
As the charge finished, the Commander turned to Sabre. Sabre nodded his head and Jakar initiated the scan. A strange feeling passed over all of the people in the ship as various waves passed through their bodies. The scan lasted for only ten seconds; any longer and it would endanger their health.
When the results flashed on the view screen he was relieved. 0 contamination. This meant that only two of the things had followed him. He then strolled over to the emergency override console and punched in a number/letter combination. The claxons on the ship stopped blaring.
"This isn't good." Sabre sighed.
"What is it, sir?"
"Well, we had one of those mind-warping necrons on board. It sent Vegeta into a frenzy and he managed to blow out some vital reactor components. We can't get into warp unless we get a totally new system. Send out a distress signal, it's all we can do."
"Aye, sir. Is there anything else?"
"Yeah, send whoever you can down to engineering to assist Transa and Vrakan with any repairs they can make. Hopefully, we'll be able to at least use our conventional drvies, but I'm not sure how much damage Vegeta caused. Speaking of which, I have to take him to the infirmary. I knocked him through a few bulkheads..."
"Way to go, sir. That guy is an asshole."
"Yeah, but he's an asshole that may help us save the universe."
The Commander shrugged at this and began to get to his business. Sabre transmitted down to engineering to grab Vegeta and check out how bad the damage really was. When he appeared Vrakan and Transa looked depressed.
"What's the matter, guys?"
Transa gave him the situation. "This is going to be an obscene amount of work. That damn Saiyan fried more systems than we first thought. A lot of his energy seeped into the circuitry and overloaded it. This is why you're no supposed to power up down here. As you already know we'll need replacement parts for the reactor matrix regulators, those things are fucking melted, and spares for the containment generators. This sucks."
"Well, if it helps at all, you'll be getting some assistance with the repairs. We have put out a distress signal so hopefully the Coalition will get the message and send us some help."
"Hopefully." Transa muttered.
"Well, that's all for now, I have to take our illustrious guest to the infirmary. I don't feel like powering up again."
"Do what you feel like, sir. C'mon Vrakan, let's get to work."
"Goddamned second-rate two-bit ancient pice-of-shit cargo..." Vrakan mumbled as he turned to follow Transa. Sabre walked through the series of holes in the bulkheads and found Vegeta, still unconscious, implanted in the wall. He peeled him out and transmitted to the infirmary.
Renara was cleaning up the mess that their "visitor" had made, rearranging the dishoveled room. When Sabre appeared he took the small Saiyan from his arms and placed him on one of the infirmary beds. The doctor hooked him up to a few machines designed to heal his broken bones and nurse him back to health.
"Well, doc, I'm going to hit the sack. It's been too long of a day. Things just haven't been going according to plan. Especially with Eve. God, this is so much harder than it should be..."
"Hey, you and I both know that nothing ever goes right with missions like these. People die, machines break, but we'll get through it, we always do."
"Whatever. Look, I'm going to bed. I feel like crap. I'll be by tomorrow, I'm going to have a nasty hangover."
Renara just shook his head as Sabre disappeared.
When he got to his room, he walked over to his bed, pulled off the sheets, and slipped into bed. He shut down all of the thoughts racing in his head about the recent events and just focused on her. God, he really did love her. He drifted to sleep thinking of Resa. He wondered when he would see her again, which, unkown to him, would be sooner than he thought.
11.2.43
GCS Dante, Sol System
2109 Hours
"Aw, shit, one of them is on board!" Sabre cried. Neither Transa nor Vrakan had to ask what one of "them" was. Nowadays that term was used to refer soley to Necrons.
Vrakan cursed loudly in Danti. Transa did the same.
Sabre moved to a comm panel as fast as he could.
"Bridge, this is Sabre, we have been compromised, repeat, we have been compromised! Start the lockdown, now! Bring the scanners on-line."
"Aye, sir!" When the second, louder, and much more ominous claxon sounded, the entire crew knew what it meant. The crew had thirty seconds to get to their designated post before every single hatch on the ship locked. They only unlock if the alarm was stopped, after entering the proper authorization codes, which only Sabre knew. The scanners were specially designed to detect a Necron presence. They were not kept on-line all the time becuase they drew an enormous amount of energy, almost equivalent to the entire ship output.
"Sir, it'll take about five minutes to bring 'em on-line," was the response from the bridge.
"We don't have time for that... damn, where could it be?" Unfortunately, his previous moment of clarity was quickly overshadowed by the throbbing in his head. These things just kept popping up out of nowhere, it was really becoming worrisome. He racked his brain for anything that might have helped. He was still cursing himself when a cry over the intercom interrupted him.
"Shit! To anyone who can hear me, the goddamn thing's in the infirmary, say again it's--" The transmission was abruptly cut off.
Sabre transmitted himself to the infirmary just in time to see Renara impaled upon the arm of the Necron. When it saw Sabre it retracted its arm and cloaked itself. Sabre switched optic modes and was able to see it move over to Eve's body, still in its resting place on the infirmary bed. When the Necron noticed Sabre's eyes follow it, it knew it was time to become a trickster.
Sabre powered up, his white ki flaring to life, when all of a sudden there were a dozen of the damn things. To play it safe, he went for the one closest to Eve's body. When his fist connected with the air, he knew this was going to be a difficult fight. The creatures were dancing around the room now, almost mocking him, when he got an unexpected helping hand.
When Goku felt Sabre power up, he knew something was really wrong. He just thought the claxons meant dinner or something. He was alsp curious as to why Vegeta powered up to begin with, but when it dropped again he thought nothing of it. After all, it was Vegeta. Now, this was Sabre's second time powering up, and he was sure that he was fighting something. He focused on his energy and transmitted himself.
Goku appeared in the infirmary to see Sabre wildly swinging in the air. He was about to ask what was going on when he saw a funny-looking alien appear out of nowhere above one of the infirmary beds. It was very similar to one of the things he saw in the briefing. It did not notice the Saiyan and went about its task, oblivious to the curious onlooker. When it raised its hand to crush the life out of the seemingly dead creature on the infirmary bed, Goku knew what to do. He transformed into a Super Saiyan in a brilliant flash of gold and nailed the Necron in the side of the head with the full force of his punch .
When all the creatures disappeared, Sabre was thankful. He looked about to see Goku next to Eve's bed, with the Necron knocked into the bulkhead. Goku looked back at him as if to say, "what the fuck?"
"I got this," Sabre told Goku as he grabbed the stunned alien. He transmitted himself and the creature to an empty waste disposal hangar. He dropped his alien cargo and slammed the emergency decompression button. He then transmitted back to the infirmary and powered down. When Goku saw him do this, he did the same.
"What's going on?" Goku asked.
"Well, you just hit your first Necron."
"You mean that was one of them?"
"Yeah."
"But what was it doing on the ship?"
"I don't know, I guess it must have hidden itself here. I guess that other one I killed back on earth had a friend."
"Are there any more?"
"We'll know as soon as the scanners come on-line." Suddenly there was the sound of a dull explosion and the ship rocked a little.
"What was that?" Goku wondered.
"The reason why we can never keep Necrons on a ship. They self-destruct if they are damaged or captured. Or sucked into space."
"Oh. Uh, is that that Eve girl on the bed over there?
Sabre felt his stomach turn. He didn't want to have to do this.
"Yeah."
"Is she sick?"
"She's dead."
"What? How'd that happen? Did that thing get her?"
"No, it was strange...I'm still not sure what happened. Renara and I-" Sabre stopped in midspeech when he remembered the doctor. "Shit, doc!" he cried, turning to the corner in which he was laying in, filled with blood. He had completely forgotten about Renara. This was getting bad.
Sabre frantically reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the few remaining pills. He slipped it into the doctor's bloody mouth and managed to get him to swallow it. The gaping hole in his chest healed at an incredible pace, and in a few moments the doctor was as good as new.
"Sorry doc, I forgot about you..."
"Aw, hey, don't worry about it. I'm alive. And you have some of the X-233 pills. I thought we were damn near out of them after the Necrons hit the plant on Jwela.
"Well, I managed to 'procure' some from a friend of mine. Besides, these things are too damn useful to not have." Sabre slurred the last few words of his sentence, something the doctor picked up on."
"You, Major, need to get some sleep. And stop drinking."
"Yeah, you're right. Hey, Goku, tell the others what happened, but leave Eve out of it. I'll tell them tomorrow."
"Alright. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"No. When the scanners come on-line, I'll be able to handle anything that pops up. You just go back to your friends."
"Okay..." Goku put two fingers to his head and disappeared to another part of the ship.
"Shit, doc, I'm really sorry."
"Nah, don't worry about it. The hole is gone, although I must admit I was disappointed that there was no white light. Isn't there supposed to be a white light?" Renara asked sarcastically.
"Beats me. I've never been dead." Although he'd come close a few times.
"Major," the call came through the intercom, "the scanners will be on-line in thirty seconds."
"Great. Okay doc, see ya later. I've got to get the bridge. Oh, and I'll be bringing by one of the passengers, Vegeta. I had to put him out of commission." With that, Sabre transmitted himself to the bridge. The countdown was almost complete.
"Major, we'll know how many of them are around in a second," Commander Jakar, the current deck officer, informed him.
"Right."
The entire bridge waited tensely for the scanners to finish charging. When they were finished they would emit a series of high and low frequency waves that scanned all the space in and around the ship in all possible ways. It used gamma, x, radio, uv, and infrared waves, as well as numerous other methods of scanning. There was no hiding from these things.
As the charge finished, the Commander turned to Sabre. Sabre nodded his head and Jakar initiated the scan. A strange feeling passed over all of the people in the ship as various waves passed through their bodies. The scan lasted for only ten seconds; any longer and it would endanger their health.
When the results flashed on the view screen he was relieved. 0 contamination. This meant that only two of the things had followed him. He then strolled over to the emergency override console and punched in a number/letter combination. The claxons on the ship stopped blaring.
"This isn't good." Sabre sighed.
"What is it, sir?"
"Well, we had one of those mind-warping necrons on board. It sent Vegeta into a frenzy and he managed to blow out some vital reactor components. We can't get into warp unless we get a totally new system. Send out a distress signal, it's all we can do."
"Aye, sir. Is there anything else?"
"Yeah, send whoever you can down to engineering to assist Transa and Vrakan with any repairs they can make. Hopefully, we'll be able to at least use our conventional drvies, but I'm not sure how much damage Vegeta caused. Speaking of which, I have to take him to the infirmary. I knocked him through a few bulkheads..."
"Way to go, sir. That guy is an asshole."
"Yeah, but he's an asshole that may help us save the universe."
The Commander shrugged at this and began to get to his business. Sabre transmitted down to engineering to grab Vegeta and check out how bad the damage really was. When he appeared Vrakan and Transa looked depressed.
"What's the matter, guys?"
Transa gave him the situation. "This is going to be an obscene amount of work. That damn Saiyan fried more systems than we first thought. A lot of his energy seeped into the circuitry and overloaded it. This is why you're no supposed to power up down here. As you already know we'll need replacement parts for the reactor matrix regulators, those things are fucking melted, and spares for the containment generators. This sucks."
"Well, if it helps at all, you'll be getting some assistance with the repairs. We have put out a distress signal so hopefully the Coalition will get the message and send us some help."
"Hopefully." Transa muttered.
"Well, that's all for now, I have to take our illustrious guest to the infirmary. I don't feel like powering up again."
"Do what you feel like, sir. C'mon Vrakan, let's get to work."
"Goddamned second-rate two-bit ancient pice-of-shit cargo..." Vrakan mumbled as he turned to follow Transa. Sabre walked through the series of holes in the bulkheads and found Vegeta, still unconscious, implanted in the wall. He peeled him out and transmitted to the infirmary.
Renara was cleaning up the mess that their "visitor" had made, rearranging the dishoveled room. When Sabre appeared he took the small Saiyan from his arms and placed him on one of the infirmary beds. The doctor hooked him up to a few machines designed to heal his broken bones and nurse him back to health.
"Well, doc, I'm going to hit the sack. It's been too long of a day. Things just haven't been going according to plan. Especially with Eve. God, this is so much harder than it should be..."
"Hey, you and I both know that nothing ever goes right with missions like these. People die, machines break, but we'll get through it, we always do."
"Whatever. Look, I'm going to bed. I feel like crap. I'll be by tomorrow, I'm going to have a nasty hangover."
Renara just shook his head as Sabre disappeared.
When he got to his room, he walked over to his bed, pulled off the sheets, and slipped into bed. He shut down all of the thoughts racing in his head about the recent events and just focused on her. God, he really did love her. He drifted to sleep thinking of Resa. He wondered when he would see her again, which, unkown to him, would be sooner than he thought.