To Hell and Back
In order to prove 626 was the best and greatest fighting machine he would go to Chenadiss and have 626 raid the warehouse in order to find the crystallic inverter and maybe some trouble. He hurried arround the lab, shutting down all other experiments in progress that would not need to run while he was gone. He had asked Zri to watch the lab while he was gone. Jumba would only be taking 626 with him, There was great risk of endangerment to any other experiment if a Federation cruiser searched them.
As Jumba carried a box of various needs for the trip, he past the front entrance and not a step more the buzzer went off. "Who the?" Jumba asked himself. He set the box down and mosyed over to the door. He opened it, regaurdless of whoever might be outside. The door hissed up, revealing the tall heigth of Zri, wearing the same clothes as always. "I won't be leaving untill later tonight, or before lunch if things get packed well." Jumba informed him. "I know. Just stopped by to ask if there is any special task that would require my presence." Zri said, justifiying his stop-in. He adjusted something behind his log white lab coat. "None that I can think of right now, You can come back later when I leave and ask 327." Jumba picked up his box, acting as if it were the most important thing at the moment.
"327 is the pink one, right?" Zri confirmed, sensing Jumba's aggrivation with him. "Yes, now I would be most delighted if you left. I really need to get packing." Jumba politely pushed him out with the box. He closed the door, "Good day to you too..." he grumbled, walking off to the ship. Something about Zri didn't seem right, he'd never popped in like that before, and ontop of that his actions clearly showed that he didn't want to leave.
Something rose out of the white void, he stared hard, it was a small human girl with hair black as the night itself. Her skin was a dark brown, like a real good suntan. She looked to be about eight years old, give or take a few. A curious smell drifted up to his nose, a smell unknown to him, but he did recognize salinity in the aroma. Some how he felt Jumba had betrayed him some where, he now had a hatred for his creator. He got an empty feeling in his stomach, not a hungy feeling, but a lonely one. 327 was gone, a phantom nowhere to be seen, she vanished in the mist of his mind. Water, there was water all over, he couldn't escape, it was everywhere, he sat upon a rock in the middle of the Ocean. The girl appeared more frequent, she seemed to be with him every step he took.
A white flash, he stood on the landing ramp of a ship, hands bound in cuffs, the little girl had tears that welled up in her eyes. Strangely enough he had feeling for her. He saw a park filled with all kinds of rusting equipment. Behind was a scene of chaos, a fairly large city was burning, the smoke plumes rose high into the air, chokming out the sun, admist all this dammage he felt attached to it. He was being taken away from the black haired girl, his fate unknown to him. It repeated, he again stood upon the landing ramp still bound in handcuffs, a park filled with all kinds of equipment that was clean and well oiled. The buildings were standing and no sign of destruction was evident. He and the girl stood hand in hand gazing into the sunset, neither said a word.
He jumped out of bed and landed on the floor in a defensive crouch, exactly what Zri had taught him to do in trouble. Sweat rolled down his face and into his eyes. He was tense and strung out, the dream frustrated him, he didn't know what it meant. Whatever it was spooked him, 327 was gone and he didn't like that thought. Where was 327? Was she dead? All these thought sped through his brain, he shivered at the though of 327 dead. When he realized he was awake and no danger was present, he stood up and yawned casually, brushing the dream from his immediate attention. Jumba was expecting him early today, he had a job to do.
Stretching as he walked over to the locker and grabbed an orange suit, slippd it on and went to find Jumba. He found him on the landing pad for the huge red cruiser that he had. The landing gear was out, making the huge ship look ever bigger. 626 watched as Jumba loaded up some weapons in a crate and a box of supplies. 626 walked up the loading ramp that led to the cargo bay in the rear of the red crusier. "Whoa." he gasped.
It looked somewhat like a Boeing 747, with a huge cockpit that was 70% of the ship's mass. The thin row of windows at the top of the huge head of the crusier. Two fins emmerged from the rear. The damn thing looked like it was nose heavy. Two huge turbines sat on either side of the crusier in about mid-wing. Inside was made from mostly earth materials, leather sofa, hickory cabnets, wool rugs. Anyhting from earth was rare and very expensive. There was a bed room that perfectly fit Jumba's enormous size, complete with shower, kitchen and lounge. In the rear was the bedroom, the kitchen was attached to the lounge then the cockpit.This was a luxury crusier, not a fighting vessle or transporter, weapons were nil and the onboard armnaments were what you carried on. Guidence computers and Hyper drive were some of the extra features thet Jumba had recently installed.
He boarded the ship, the smell of newness floated through the air, the cargo hold was fairly big. Jumba moved around easily, and 626 could have bulit an apartment inside. Jumba was securing the box of weapons amidst the sea of crates. 626 went to see what he was doing. "Your finally up 626, good now we can get going." Jumba walked up some stairs and emmerged into the lounge through a door on the side, 626 followed him up. He closed the cargo door via button in the cock pit, and went to finish up some stuff in the Lab. 626 sat on the expensive leather couch, he took one look at his claws and grinned.
"327, remember to rotate the stock every five hours and.." She cut in,"Yes, yes, I know, make sure to lock the place down after 1900 hours." she huffed. "Right," Jumba applauded, "Zri will be comming over every hour, just to check in so let him inside." "Yeah, whatever." 327 muttered and turned back to the computer, she'd found an interesting article on hacker tracing. She needed to read on that to make sure she couldn't be traced. Or it might be a way to make thier hacks easier to trace. Jumba grabbed the only loaf of bread left in the cabnet, he didn't want to waste it on 625. He headed for the cruiser on the pad.
His enoumous size climbed the flight of stairs to the entrance on the side. He walked in to find 626 carefully removing every stitch in the sofa, then proceded to remove the fluff on the inside. "Ah, 626, destruction in it's prime." he mumbled while moving into the cockpit. "626 get up here, I'm going to teach you to fly this hunka junk." 626 wandered up into the cockpit and Jumab went over the controlls with him. 626, like always, picked up the configuration and learned quickly. He prediction was right, the ship would fly nose heavy, but he was able to compensate. Within minutes he was ready to fly the huge crusier.
327 and 625 turned up to watch the take off. Both stood at a good distance so not to get hurt by the jet engines. 626 looked out the window, spotted 327 and waved good bye, 327 blushed and waved back. 625 let his tounge hang limply in the air and drooled on the floor. 626 mouthed from the window, 'Retarded slob'. 625 picked up immediately and tried to retaliate with no avail. The two experiments went back into the Lab to avoid the shock wave of the pulsator's liftin the ship from the ground.
The ride out of the atmosphere was bumpy, 626 fought the controlls untill they broke low orbit. Jumba took control, typed the co-ordinates into the nava computer waited for them to compute then went to the kitchen to get some thing to drink. 626 wandered into the lounge to finish his business with the sofa. Jumba rummage through his supply of wine, looking for one for this occasion, he found a bottle of Ruedena, from the planet Respak. He popped the cork and poured two glasses, one for him and the other for 626. "Drink 626?" ha asked. 626 was not one to turn anything down, so be bounced over from his activity on the sofa. Jumba took a small sip, 626 looked at it curiously then downed the glass in one gulp. He coughed violently at the bitterness and acidity. "Live and learn 'eh 626?" Jumba laughed. Jumba sat down on the half shredded sofa and started a conversation with 626. The crusier few on a set course, to Chenadiss.
* * *
Hours later, the lab back on Turo seemed stone quiet without Jumba or 626. 327 said nothing as she continued with her regular duties. 625 was his noisy old self, glad 626 was gone, he now could eat his sanwiches in peace, but without the bread, courtesy of Jumba. Noisy as it seemed 327 was sure it was quiet, too quiet. Most of the other experiments were partying in a deserted part of the lab.
Experiment 594 walked down the hall to the entrance to Jumba's lab, shouting obscene thing purely because Jumba wasn't there. He was a red- yellow with a lime green stomach, white tipped his ears and he had no antenna and only a single pair of long arms. He could have swore, in fact he did, he heard the door buzzer go off. He climbed the door with his sharp navy blue claws, peering out the view port he spotted Zri who waved at him. Zri was well known by all the experiments, purely because he trained all of them. 594 opened the big heavy door via keypad.
Zri had a small automatic riffle hid under his long lab coat, just like last time. He had it set on stun. His plan was simple, stun every thing that moved, retrieve 626, wipe his memory of Jumba. Then things would go as planned.
"Is Jumba in?" he asked knowing that he wasn't. 594 gave him a look of despair,"No!" he said simply."No?, mind if I come in?" he said stepping into the lab. 594 remebered to watch his mouth arround others. Zri looked arround, "Are you all ok?, is there anything you need?" He asked cautiously. "No, but you could order a few pizzas for us." 594 spat out. "Hmmmm..., is 626 arround?, Jumba asked that I talk to him." Zri inquired. 594 gave him a skeptical look, "626 went with Jumba, to Chenadiss." he said, raising an eye brow suspiciously. He felt uneasy about Zri's presence now, he was poking at something, and not succeding. Zri's voice raised in anger slightly, 594 could tell. "I'll be on my way then." Zri turned arround and headed for the door. 594 closed it."Wait a minute!" he yelled "What about our pizza?!"
Zri ran to his comms room in a panic, Maurader was expecting a call of success, not alarm. His long fingers rapidly tapped out the code, and he stepped on the pad. Sweat rolled down his forehead, the pad beeped in success. The same shadowy figure appeared, "It's early, almost too early for you to have capured 626." the dark voice growled. Zri shook from being nervous, "N-No, he went with Jumba, to Chenadiss." he stuttered. The figure didn't move or change tone, "I'll see he doesn't make it back, out." The line cut off. Bad sign, this was not good.
* * *
The huge red crusier floated easily through the void of space, main thrusters pushing it along at top speed to Chenadiss. 626 had gotten bored and went into Jumba's bed room. This made him uneasy, 626 had been unusually quiet for the last two hours, 'Well, I do have insurance.' he thought. He looked out the window and spotted Chenadiss, "626, come up here." he called back. 626 emmerged, the room still intact. 'Amazing!.' Jumba thought, he scribbled a note on the clipboard he carried.
Chenadiss was almost void of life. Maybe five hundred thousand occupants on the entire planet. It was about two time the size of earth, and ten times as rich in minerals. Green jungles covered most of the planet. Huge bodies of water were all landlocked. Unlike Earth, Chenadiss was 75% land and the rest water. In the depths of the rainforest lay a Warehouse complex. Hidden from all prying eyes and inquiring media. Unknown events and weird experiments had been taking place for over thirty years. Rumors said this was the Galaxy's main producer of Vyskk and several other drugs. Jumba personally thought the warehouse was a cover-up for something more sinister, besides who in their right mind puts a warehouse complex on a dead planet and in the middle of nowhere. Too suspicious.
Jumba brought the Crusier into low orbit, and stopped all engines. He breifed 626 on the warehouse's layout fo rthe second time. It was a huge five million acres, sub atomic electrical fences bordered the ninety warehouses that were about thirty feet in width and one hundred long. A huge complex of offices and apartments lay in the center of the complex. A military bunker, armory, garage, and several large farms that supplied food were present also. He would beam 626 down several miles away from the complex so that they would think he was a sciensist looking for undiscovered species of plants. He would approach the warehouses from the south, enter from a small field, and the rest was up to 626.
He gave 626 four federation blasters, a small riffle with a scope, a small 8 inch knife, and several bricks of c-7 explosives with remote detonator and a pair of aviator goggles that just happened to fit 626. He put the c- 7's and the detonaters into a small back pack, the knife was strapped under the pack, the riffle was slung on the side and the four blasters 626 stuck into the pockets on the knees of his combat suit. Jumba dirrected 626 over to the teleporter hidden the wall. He activated it, 626 stepped on, the world spiraled out, his vision faded.
*
Slowly his world spun back into being, his head stopped swimming. He shook his head to rid himself of the side effects of the teleportation. Jungle was all around, the air was damp and reaked of decaying leaves. 626 didn't dare smell, he figured that sometime later on he would regret it. High up in the tree tops wild birds of various species chirped.
The blue alien ran off into the dirrection in which he faced. The wet leaves splashed at his face, the soft groung gave way under his feet. The thick underbrush tripped him up several times, the noise of other creatures crashed with him. He ran for a good part of the hour. He emmerged from the jungle into a field of grass so abruptly he had to stop and think. He had ran right into a feild of wheat, or something. He could make out the shape of the fence and the warehouseses, the huge buildings were where Jumba said they were. A main road went through the middle of the complex and exited out the front gate in the north side. He noticed catwalks arround all the warehouses connecting them together, he noticed several patrolls walking arround on them.
He moved to about several hundred feet from the fence and laid down in the field if wheat. Looking up, he saw a gaurd paced the catwalk. He swung his riffle down and looked through the scope, the gaurd became bigger from the magnification. The robot was a primitive chassi bot, only needed parts for function and no shiny metal for armor, just steel. They appeared almost human, except their abnormally huge arms and legs. 626 followed the gaurd in his scope, keeping the recticle on his head. 626 estimated the wind, clicked the scope to compensate for the wind, and slowly pulled the trigger. The shot flew low, pushed by the wind. It flew into the chassi bot's neck, knicking it's central processing colomn. The gaurd looked down to asess the dammage. The black oil of life dripped from it's wounds onto it's plated chest. Slowly the machine died out of existance, or would have. Instead it shut itself down before it would burn up.
626 had a solomn look across his face, he felt no sympathy for the bot, there was none. He moved slowly to the fence, the catwalk with the skeletal frame of the robot casting a shadow onto him. He examined the fence, it hummed with the surge of electricity. He looked arround, there were boxes mounted onto the sides of the warehouses, he then realized that the fence was controlled by individual segmented controlls. He aimed the riffle at the nearest box. It exploded in a firey shower of sparks, the fence infront of him stopped humming. He took out his knife and cut a neat hole and crawled through. He replaced his knife and scaled up the nearest wall, he kept the riffle in one paw while he climbed.
The quad armed alien reched the top of the structure and looked arround for more gaurds. A movement caught his eye, another gaurd walked toward the out of commision one. It beeped something to the gaurd on the ground. It scanned the frame for signs of movement. Slowly the other gaurd walked over to the body, just to make sure. When he saw the oil everywhere, his verbal transmitters whined, like they always did before audible speach. "RAISE THE- " He never got to finish, 626's blaster round went into his head, blowing the little pieces of the processing unit into the air. The second gaurd fell onto the first, missing most of his head. 626 watched as the green data chips settled to the ground. He moved on.
After hiding the Chassi bots, he searched the first few ware houses. He found several interesting items, even one with thirty two features, it said so on the box. He was disgusted with the finds, he made up his mind. he was going to the armory. He ran past an outhouse, which was primitive, and over heard some gaurds talking. He skidded to a stop and listened in. The voices were clearly comming from no robot. "Hey, Dirsk. I heard a rumor going arround the place that under the apartments there is a base of some kind with scientists doing some pretty weird stuff down there." A different one spoke. "Yea, I heard that too. But I asked the sarge, and he got real pissed. Said we shouldn't be dickin` arround, making up stuff like that." The first voice came back. "Yea, that only proves there is something down there." 626 heard enough, he scurried off to the armory.
The armory had a moat arround it. And it had a huge impenetrable door. The four walls met and made a square, each side was about twenty feet long, half the building was a weapons room and the other half was a lobby. He looked at it with utter defeat, defeat was alien to this alien. He thought of the garage, the huge powerful trucks, probably heavily armored, with speeds of up to eighty miles per hour, perfect for brining down a wall of that magnitude. He chuckled.
The huge truck roared to life when he crossed the wires. He jumped up and engaged the engines and pushed his riffle into the accelerator. The monstrous armored truck shot out of the garage toward the armory, he fought the wheel ever step of the way. The heavy vehicle flew arcoss the moat and slammed into the wall, the bricks gave way under the force of the blow. From under the wheel a two foot alien crawled out, "Remember, 626, always wear your seat belt." he mocked Jumba. He climbed out the broken windshield and into the weapons armory.
Rows and rows of weapons linned the wall, to his dismay most were Earth weapons, Beneli M Super 90 and Uzis, M79 and M16/M203. all were useless in his small paws, the handles were to big for him to grasp. He wandered into the center of the narrow room. He spotted, on a pedistal, a weapon. Small gold letters read, C-6 D-15. The fabled weapon Jumba was in awe over. It looked somewhat like an Combat Shot-gun, except the barrel was shorter and the stock was non-existant, it appeared to load from the bottom front of the weapon. It was a gun blue color, except the gold lettering. Ten of these guns were lined up on the wall, aparently they had overcome the excessive recoil. 626 grabbed one of these weapons, removed all the ammunition coils from each of the others and put them in his pack. He was about to walk out to the main lobby when he spotted a gun behind some glass. Intriegued, he examined it. It was small, designed for a hight challenged species, like him. It was a cold grey and appeared to look like two pipes varying in size bent slightly, a handle stuck out from the base, indented in the metal was the letters, Crytos III.
626 broke the glass and retrieved his prize, it was surprizingly light, weighing at only ten oz. he mentally felt. It had no sign of a ammo clip or any hole, save the barrel, for that matter. He was interested even more at what the strange weapon could do. Across the room he heard the vault door open, the creak of the hinges. Six gaurds walked inside and grabbed the nearest weapons, then ran out."I can't have them arming them selves." he muttered. Two gaurds noisily ran inside, in unison they both said, "Unit number 21 said to get the big guns." "Roger." the other bot replied. 626 scurried off behind a rack. The two gaurds found that the ammo had been swiped, they grabbed some other guns and started to walk out.
626 made his move. He scurried out in front of the gaurds, and aimed all his weapons at them. The two jumped from the sudden movement, both raised their riffles up. The one on the left had an itchy trigger finger. The single shot echoed in the small room, hitting 626 squarely in the chest. He didn't move or even grunt, the shot was absorbed, doing little or no dammage. The yellow federation blaster blew a hole into the itchy fingered gaurd's lightly armored chest, it blew wiring and other important elements all out behind him, he slumped over. The other gaurd froze, the processing unti stopped to analize the target. 626 siezed the moment, dropping all his weapons he lunged at the gaurd, knocking the riffle out the mechanical hand.
*
Jumba stared out the window of the cruiser into the inky blackness of space. He swirled his wine in the glass and sipped from it. 'Maybe 626 is dead, he's taking an awful long time down there.' He took a nother sip. 'Don't even think like that, he's the best, he'll make it.' He finished off his glass and went to pour another. "626 is most likely being delayed. It is a huge place down there, I'd even get lost." he made up an excuse. He tried to think of something else, but 626 constantly returned to his mind. He couldn't help but worry.
Time ticked slowly by, one minute seemed to last for a year, dragging on forever. He picked up a magazine from the low table in the lounge area. He read several pages but still couldn't forget 626, he threw the magazine down in disgust. "626......" he moaned. "Stop taking so long."
*
626 landed on the gaurd, they both crashed to the floor. The gaurd reached in vain for the riffle a few inches away. 626 saw his intent, he replied with bending the gaurds metal arm. The robot tried to stand, but 626 wouldn't let him, instead gaurd looked arround for another weapon close by. 626 whipped out his combat knife and plunged it into the exposed neck. The robot struggled for a second, 626 slowly sawed through the wires. He soon stopped. 626 pulled out the knife with a metal on metal sound, he shoved it into the sheath. He gathered up his weapons and exited via the opened vault door.
The lobby was nothing spectacular, a receptionist's desk, a few chairs that varied in size. A cheap floor covered the ground. 626 passed on through. He approached the glass door, riffles fired breaking it. He dove for cover. The riffle fire continued for several second. It stopped. 626 poked his small head out, eight gaurds were taking cover behind a transport. He wanted to see what the C-6 could do. He pointed the short barrel at the jeep. The recoil was not as he expected, it was relatively low, but enough to make him move a bit. A softball sized white ball with blue electricity suging across it flew into the jeep. A white flash, the ground shook, a huge explosion, a deep rumble, the air became hot, almost unbearable. The white flash faded from his eyes, the ground where the jeep once stood was scorched, the jeep had turned into a lump of molten metal that glowed red hot. The gaurds had dissappeared into a pile of white hot metal. "Whoa!" 626 exclaimed.
He raced past the piles of cooling metal and to the apartments, but was stopped halfway when a convoy truck carrying some Chassi bots crossed his path. He jumped behind a rock that was laying in the middle of the road. He hoped the gaurds didn't see him. His hope was shattered when the truck stopped and the robots hopped out to take up defensive positions. "Whe whole base is on alert now." 626 told himself. He began to take fire, although the bots hadn't any chance of hitting him.
626 stuck his riffle up and over the rock and fired several shots blindly. He then rolled out from the rock and lay prone, shots whizzed past him and spewed up dirt arround him. He took his time, aiming at one bot to the next, putting a clean hole into each of thier metal heads. He even took several shots at the truck, for good measure. After the bots were all down he leapt up and continued on his way to the apartment complex, where he was convinced the inverter was.
In order to prove 626 was the best and greatest fighting machine he would go to Chenadiss and have 626 raid the warehouse in order to find the crystallic inverter and maybe some trouble. He hurried arround the lab, shutting down all other experiments in progress that would not need to run while he was gone. He had asked Zri to watch the lab while he was gone. Jumba would only be taking 626 with him, There was great risk of endangerment to any other experiment if a Federation cruiser searched them.
As Jumba carried a box of various needs for the trip, he past the front entrance and not a step more the buzzer went off. "Who the?" Jumba asked himself. He set the box down and mosyed over to the door. He opened it, regaurdless of whoever might be outside. The door hissed up, revealing the tall heigth of Zri, wearing the same clothes as always. "I won't be leaving untill later tonight, or before lunch if things get packed well." Jumba informed him. "I know. Just stopped by to ask if there is any special task that would require my presence." Zri said, justifiying his stop-in. He adjusted something behind his log white lab coat. "None that I can think of right now, You can come back later when I leave and ask 327." Jumba picked up his box, acting as if it were the most important thing at the moment.
"327 is the pink one, right?" Zri confirmed, sensing Jumba's aggrivation with him. "Yes, now I would be most delighted if you left. I really need to get packing." Jumba politely pushed him out with the box. He closed the door, "Good day to you too..." he grumbled, walking off to the ship. Something about Zri didn't seem right, he'd never popped in like that before, and ontop of that his actions clearly showed that he didn't want to leave.
Something rose out of the white void, he stared hard, it was a small human girl with hair black as the night itself. Her skin was a dark brown, like a real good suntan. She looked to be about eight years old, give or take a few. A curious smell drifted up to his nose, a smell unknown to him, but he did recognize salinity in the aroma. Some how he felt Jumba had betrayed him some where, he now had a hatred for his creator. He got an empty feeling in his stomach, not a hungy feeling, but a lonely one. 327 was gone, a phantom nowhere to be seen, she vanished in the mist of his mind. Water, there was water all over, he couldn't escape, it was everywhere, he sat upon a rock in the middle of the Ocean. The girl appeared more frequent, she seemed to be with him every step he took.
A white flash, he stood on the landing ramp of a ship, hands bound in cuffs, the little girl had tears that welled up in her eyes. Strangely enough he had feeling for her. He saw a park filled with all kinds of rusting equipment. Behind was a scene of chaos, a fairly large city was burning, the smoke plumes rose high into the air, chokming out the sun, admist all this dammage he felt attached to it. He was being taken away from the black haired girl, his fate unknown to him. It repeated, he again stood upon the landing ramp still bound in handcuffs, a park filled with all kinds of equipment that was clean and well oiled. The buildings were standing and no sign of destruction was evident. He and the girl stood hand in hand gazing into the sunset, neither said a word.
He jumped out of bed and landed on the floor in a defensive crouch, exactly what Zri had taught him to do in trouble. Sweat rolled down his face and into his eyes. He was tense and strung out, the dream frustrated him, he didn't know what it meant. Whatever it was spooked him, 327 was gone and he didn't like that thought. Where was 327? Was she dead? All these thought sped through his brain, he shivered at the though of 327 dead. When he realized he was awake and no danger was present, he stood up and yawned casually, brushing the dream from his immediate attention. Jumba was expecting him early today, he had a job to do.
Stretching as he walked over to the locker and grabbed an orange suit, slippd it on and went to find Jumba. He found him on the landing pad for the huge red cruiser that he had. The landing gear was out, making the huge ship look ever bigger. 626 watched as Jumba loaded up some weapons in a crate and a box of supplies. 626 walked up the loading ramp that led to the cargo bay in the rear of the red crusier. "Whoa." he gasped.
It looked somewhat like a Boeing 747, with a huge cockpit that was 70% of the ship's mass. The thin row of windows at the top of the huge head of the crusier. Two fins emmerged from the rear. The damn thing looked like it was nose heavy. Two huge turbines sat on either side of the crusier in about mid-wing. Inside was made from mostly earth materials, leather sofa, hickory cabnets, wool rugs. Anyhting from earth was rare and very expensive. There was a bed room that perfectly fit Jumba's enormous size, complete with shower, kitchen and lounge. In the rear was the bedroom, the kitchen was attached to the lounge then the cockpit.This was a luxury crusier, not a fighting vessle or transporter, weapons were nil and the onboard armnaments were what you carried on. Guidence computers and Hyper drive were some of the extra features thet Jumba had recently installed.
He boarded the ship, the smell of newness floated through the air, the cargo hold was fairly big. Jumba moved around easily, and 626 could have bulit an apartment inside. Jumba was securing the box of weapons amidst the sea of crates. 626 went to see what he was doing. "Your finally up 626, good now we can get going." Jumba walked up some stairs and emmerged into the lounge through a door on the side, 626 followed him up. He closed the cargo door via button in the cock pit, and went to finish up some stuff in the Lab. 626 sat on the expensive leather couch, he took one look at his claws and grinned.
"327, remember to rotate the stock every five hours and.." She cut in,"Yes, yes, I know, make sure to lock the place down after 1900 hours." she huffed. "Right," Jumba applauded, "Zri will be comming over every hour, just to check in so let him inside." "Yeah, whatever." 327 muttered and turned back to the computer, she'd found an interesting article on hacker tracing. She needed to read on that to make sure she couldn't be traced. Or it might be a way to make thier hacks easier to trace. Jumba grabbed the only loaf of bread left in the cabnet, he didn't want to waste it on 625. He headed for the cruiser on the pad.
His enoumous size climbed the flight of stairs to the entrance on the side. He walked in to find 626 carefully removing every stitch in the sofa, then proceded to remove the fluff on the inside. "Ah, 626, destruction in it's prime." he mumbled while moving into the cockpit. "626 get up here, I'm going to teach you to fly this hunka junk." 626 wandered up into the cockpit and Jumab went over the controlls with him. 626, like always, picked up the configuration and learned quickly. He prediction was right, the ship would fly nose heavy, but he was able to compensate. Within minutes he was ready to fly the huge crusier.
327 and 625 turned up to watch the take off. Both stood at a good distance so not to get hurt by the jet engines. 626 looked out the window, spotted 327 and waved good bye, 327 blushed and waved back. 625 let his tounge hang limply in the air and drooled on the floor. 626 mouthed from the window, 'Retarded slob'. 625 picked up immediately and tried to retaliate with no avail. The two experiments went back into the Lab to avoid the shock wave of the pulsator's liftin the ship from the ground.
The ride out of the atmosphere was bumpy, 626 fought the controlls untill they broke low orbit. Jumba took control, typed the co-ordinates into the nava computer waited for them to compute then went to the kitchen to get some thing to drink. 626 wandered into the lounge to finish his business with the sofa. Jumba rummage through his supply of wine, looking for one for this occasion, he found a bottle of Ruedena, from the planet Respak. He popped the cork and poured two glasses, one for him and the other for 626. "Drink 626?" ha asked. 626 was not one to turn anything down, so be bounced over from his activity on the sofa. Jumba took a small sip, 626 looked at it curiously then downed the glass in one gulp. He coughed violently at the bitterness and acidity. "Live and learn 'eh 626?" Jumba laughed. Jumba sat down on the half shredded sofa and started a conversation with 626. The crusier few on a set course, to Chenadiss.
* * *
Hours later, the lab back on Turo seemed stone quiet without Jumba or 626. 327 said nothing as she continued with her regular duties. 625 was his noisy old self, glad 626 was gone, he now could eat his sanwiches in peace, but without the bread, courtesy of Jumba. Noisy as it seemed 327 was sure it was quiet, too quiet. Most of the other experiments were partying in a deserted part of the lab.
Experiment 594 walked down the hall to the entrance to Jumba's lab, shouting obscene thing purely because Jumba wasn't there. He was a red- yellow with a lime green stomach, white tipped his ears and he had no antenna and only a single pair of long arms. He could have swore, in fact he did, he heard the door buzzer go off. He climbed the door with his sharp navy blue claws, peering out the view port he spotted Zri who waved at him. Zri was well known by all the experiments, purely because he trained all of them. 594 opened the big heavy door via keypad.
Zri had a small automatic riffle hid under his long lab coat, just like last time. He had it set on stun. His plan was simple, stun every thing that moved, retrieve 626, wipe his memory of Jumba. Then things would go as planned.
"Is Jumba in?" he asked knowing that he wasn't. 594 gave him a look of despair,"No!" he said simply."No?, mind if I come in?" he said stepping into the lab. 594 remebered to watch his mouth arround others. Zri looked arround, "Are you all ok?, is there anything you need?" He asked cautiously. "No, but you could order a few pizzas for us." 594 spat out. "Hmmmm..., is 626 arround?, Jumba asked that I talk to him." Zri inquired. 594 gave him a skeptical look, "626 went with Jumba, to Chenadiss." he said, raising an eye brow suspiciously. He felt uneasy about Zri's presence now, he was poking at something, and not succeding. Zri's voice raised in anger slightly, 594 could tell. "I'll be on my way then." Zri turned arround and headed for the door. 594 closed it."Wait a minute!" he yelled "What about our pizza?!"
Zri ran to his comms room in a panic, Maurader was expecting a call of success, not alarm. His long fingers rapidly tapped out the code, and he stepped on the pad. Sweat rolled down his forehead, the pad beeped in success. The same shadowy figure appeared, "It's early, almost too early for you to have capured 626." the dark voice growled. Zri shook from being nervous, "N-No, he went with Jumba, to Chenadiss." he stuttered. The figure didn't move or change tone, "I'll see he doesn't make it back, out." The line cut off. Bad sign, this was not good.
* * *
The huge red crusier floated easily through the void of space, main thrusters pushing it along at top speed to Chenadiss. 626 had gotten bored and went into Jumba's bed room. This made him uneasy, 626 had been unusually quiet for the last two hours, 'Well, I do have insurance.' he thought. He looked out the window and spotted Chenadiss, "626, come up here." he called back. 626 emmerged, the room still intact. 'Amazing!.' Jumba thought, he scribbled a note on the clipboard he carried.
Chenadiss was almost void of life. Maybe five hundred thousand occupants on the entire planet. It was about two time the size of earth, and ten times as rich in minerals. Green jungles covered most of the planet. Huge bodies of water were all landlocked. Unlike Earth, Chenadiss was 75% land and the rest water. In the depths of the rainforest lay a Warehouse complex. Hidden from all prying eyes and inquiring media. Unknown events and weird experiments had been taking place for over thirty years. Rumors said this was the Galaxy's main producer of Vyskk and several other drugs. Jumba personally thought the warehouse was a cover-up for something more sinister, besides who in their right mind puts a warehouse complex on a dead planet and in the middle of nowhere. Too suspicious.
Jumba brought the Crusier into low orbit, and stopped all engines. He breifed 626 on the warehouse's layout fo rthe second time. It was a huge five million acres, sub atomic electrical fences bordered the ninety warehouses that were about thirty feet in width and one hundred long. A huge complex of offices and apartments lay in the center of the complex. A military bunker, armory, garage, and several large farms that supplied food were present also. He would beam 626 down several miles away from the complex so that they would think he was a sciensist looking for undiscovered species of plants. He would approach the warehouses from the south, enter from a small field, and the rest was up to 626.
He gave 626 four federation blasters, a small riffle with a scope, a small 8 inch knife, and several bricks of c-7 explosives with remote detonator and a pair of aviator goggles that just happened to fit 626. He put the c- 7's and the detonaters into a small back pack, the knife was strapped under the pack, the riffle was slung on the side and the four blasters 626 stuck into the pockets on the knees of his combat suit. Jumba dirrected 626 over to the teleporter hidden the wall. He activated it, 626 stepped on, the world spiraled out, his vision faded.
*
Slowly his world spun back into being, his head stopped swimming. He shook his head to rid himself of the side effects of the teleportation. Jungle was all around, the air was damp and reaked of decaying leaves. 626 didn't dare smell, he figured that sometime later on he would regret it. High up in the tree tops wild birds of various species chirped.
The blue alien ran off into the dirrection in which he faced. The wet leaves splashed at his face, the soft groung gave way under his feet. The thick underbrush tripped him up several times, the noise of other creatures crashed with him. He ran for a good part of the hour. He emmerged from the jungle into a field of grass so abruptly he had to stop and think. He had ran right into a feild of wheat, or something. He could make out the shape of the fence and the warehouseses, the huge buildings were where Jumba said they were. A main road went through the middle of the complex and exited out the front gate in the north side. He noticed catwalks arround all the warehouses connecting them together, he noticed several patrolls walking arround on them.
He moved to about several hundred feet from the fence and laid down in the field if wheat. Looking up, he saw a gaurd paced the catwalk. He swung his riffle down and looked through the scope, the gaurd became bigger from the magnification. The robot was a primitive chassi bot, only needed parts for function and no shiny metal for armor, just steel. They appeared almost human, except their abnormally huge arms and legs. 626 followed the gaurd in his scope, keeping the recticle on his head. 626 estimated the wind, clicked the scope to compensate for the wind, and slowly pulled the trigger. The shot flew low, pushed by the wind. It flew into the chassi bot's neck, knicking it's central processing colomn. The gaurd looked down to asess the dammage. The black oil of life dripped from it's wounds onto it's plated chest. Slowly the machine died out of existance, or would have. Instead it shut itself down before it would burn up.
626 had a solomn look across his face, he felt no sympathy for the bot, there was none. He moved slowly to the fence, the catwalk with the skeletal frame of the robot casting a shadow onto him. He examined the fence, it hummed with the surge of electricity. He looked arround, there were boxes mounted onto the sides of the warehouses, he then realized that the fence was controlled by individual segmented controlls. He aimed the riffle at the nearest box. It exploded in a firey shower of sparks, the fence infront of him stopped humming. He took out his knife and cut a neat hole and crawled through. He replaced his knife and scaled up the nearest wall, he kept the riffle in one paw while he climbed.
The quad armed alien reched the top of the structure and looked arround for more gaurds. A movement caught his eye, another gaurd walked toward the out of commision one. It beeped something to the gaurd on the ground. It scanned the frame for signs of movement. Slowly the other gaurd walked over to the body, just to make sure. When he saw the oil everywhere, his verbal transmitters whined, like they always did before audible speach. "RAISE THE- " He never got to finish, 626's blaster round went into his head, blowing the little pieces of the processing unit into the air. The second gaurd fell onto the first, missing most of his head. 626 watched as the green data chips settled to the ground. He moved on.
After hiding the Chassi bots, he searched the first few ware houses. He found several interesting items, even one with thirty two features, it said so on the box. He was disgusted with the finds, he made up his mind. he was going to the armory. He ran past an outhouse, which was primitive, and over heard some gaurds talking. He skidded to a stop and listened in. The voices were clearly comming from no robot. "Hey, Dirsk. I heard a rumor going arround the place that under the apartments there is a base of some kind with scientists doing some pretty weird stuff down there." A different one spoke. "Yea, I heard that too. But I asked the sarge, and he got real pissed. Said we shouldn't be dickin` arround, making up stuff like that." The first voice came back. "Yea, that only proves there is something down there." 626 heard enough, he scurried off to the armory.
The armory had a moat arround it. And it had a huge impenetrable door. The four walls met and made a square, each side was about twenty feet long, half the building was a weapons room and the other half was a lobby. He looked at it with utter defeat, defeat was alien to this alien. He thought of the garage, the huge powerful trucks, probably heavily armored, with speeds of up to eighty miles per hour, perfect for brining down a wall of that magnitude. He chuckled.
The huge truck roared to life when he crossed the wires. He jumped up and engaged the engines and pushed his riffle into the accelerator. The monstrous armored truck shot out of the garage toward the armory, he fought the wheel ever step of the way. The heavy vehicle flew arcoss the moat and slammed into the wall, the bricks gave way under the force of the blow. From under the wheel a two foot alien crawled out, "Remember, 626, always wear your seat belt." he mocked Jumba. He climbed out the broken windshield and into the weapons armory.
Rows and rows of weapons linned the wall, to his dismay most were Earth weapons, Beneli M Super 90 and Uzis, M79 and M16/M203. all were useless in his small paws, the handles were to big for him to grasp. He wandered into the center of the narrow room. He spotted, on a pedistal, a weapon. Small gold letters read, C-6 D-15. The fabled weapon Jumba was in awe over. It looked somewhat like an Combat Shot-gun, except the barrel was shorter and the stock was non-existant, it appeared to load from the bottom front of the weapon. It was a gun blue color, except the gold lettering. Ten of these guns were lined up on the wall, aparently they had overcome the excessive recoil. 626 grabbed one of these weapons, removed all the ammunition coils from each of the others and put them in his pack. He was about to walk out to the main lobby when he spotted a gun behind some glass. Intriegued, he examined it. It was small, designed for a hight challenged species, like him. It was a cold grey and appeared to look like two pipes varying in size bent slightly, a handle stuck out from the base, indented in the metal was the letters, Crytos III.
626 broke the glass and retrieved his prize, it was surprizingly light, weighing at only ten oz. he mentally felt. It had no sign of a ammo clip or any hole, save the barrel, for that matter. He was interested even more at what the strange weapon could do. Across the room he heard the vault door open, the creak of the hinges. Six gaurds walked inside and grabbed the nearest weapons, then ran out."I can't have them arming them selves." he muttered. Two gaurds noisily ran inside, in unison they both said, "Unit number 21 said to get the big guns." "Roger." the other bot replied. 626 scurried off behind a rack. The two gaurds found that the ammo had been swiped, they grabbed some other guns and started to walk out.
626 made his move. He scurried out in front of the gaurds, and aimed all his weapons at them. The two jumped from the sudden movement, both raised their riffles up. The one on the left had an itchy trigger finger. The single shot echoed in the small room, hitting 626 squarely in the chest. He didn't move or even grunt, the shot was absorbed, doing little or no dammage. The yellow federation blaster blew a hole into the itchy fingered gaurd's lightly armored chest, it blew wiring and other important elements all out behind him, he slumped over. The other gaurd froze, the processing unti stopped to analize the target. 626 siezed the moment, dropping all his weapons he lunged at the gaurd, knocking the riffle out the mechanical hand.
*
Jumba stared out the window of the cruiser into the inky blackness of space. He swirled his wine in the glass and sipped from it. 'Maybe 626 is dead, he's taking an awful long time down there.' He took a nother sip. 'Don't even think like that, he's the best, he'll make it.' He finished off his glass and went to pour another. "626 is most likely being delayed. It is a huge place down there, I'd even get lost." he made up an excuse. He tried to think of something else, but 626 constantly returned to his mind. He couldn't help but worry.
Time ticked slowly by, one minute seemed to last for a year, dragging on forever. He picked up a magazine from the low table in the lounge area. He read several pages but still couldn't forget 626, he threw the magazine down in disgust. "626......" he moaned. "Stop taking so long."
*
626 landed on the gaurd, they both crashed to the floor. The gaurd reached in vain for the riffle a few inches away. 626 saw his intent, he replied with bending the gaurds metal arm. The robot tried to stand, but 626 wouldn't let him, instead gaurd looked arround for another weapon close by. 626 whipped out his combat knife and plunged it into the exposed neck. The robot struggled for a second, 626 slowly sawed through the wires. He soon stopped. 626 pulled out the knife with a metal on metal sound, he shoved it into the sheath. He gathered up his weapons and exited via the opened vault door.
The lobby was nothing spectacular, a receptionist's desk, a few chairs that varied in size. A cheap floor covered the ground. 626 passed on through. He approached the glass door, riffles fired breaking it. He dove for cover. The riffle fire continued for several second. It stopped. 626 poked his small head out, eight gaurds were taking cover behind a transport. He wanted to see what the C-6 could do. He pointed the short barrel at the jeep. The recoil was not as he expected, it was relatively low, but enough to make him move a bit. A softball sized white ball with blue electricity suging across it flew into the jeep. A white flash, the ground shook, a huge explosion, a deep rumble, the air became hot, almost unbearable. The white flash faded from his eyes, the ground where the jeep once stood was scorched, the jeep had turned into a lump of molten metal that glowed red hot. The gaurds had dissappeared into a pile of white hot metal. "Whoa!" 626 exclaimed.
He raced past the piles of cooling metal and to the apartments, but was stopped halfway when a convoy truck carrying some Chassi bots crossed his path. He jumped behind a rock that was laying in the middle of the road. He hoped the gaurds didn't see him. His hope was shattered when the truck stopped and the robots hopped out to take up defensive positions. "Whe whole base is on alert now." 626 told himself. He began to take fire, although the bots hadn't any chance of hitting him.
626 stuck his riffle up and over the rock and fired several shots blindly. He then rolled out from the rock and lay prone, shots whizzed past him and spewed up dirt arround him. He took his time, aiming at one bot to the next, putting a clean hole into each of thier metal heads. He even took several shots at the truck, for good measure. After the bots were all down he leapt up and continued on his way to the apartment complex, where he was convinced the inverter was.