Chapter 16: At what price does victory become profit?
"All strapped in up there?" Jedi buzzed in over the radio.
"Yep. Main systems are go. Are you sure that you want to do this? I mean it's risky with the engines firing like you want them to and...."
"Don't worry about me, you just worry about getting up to your position and stay there until I reach you." Jedi turned off the local radio and went under the shuttle. In about ten seconds, the landing gear would retract, meaning that he would be the only thing keeping the Phoenix off the ground.
"002 is 6 miles out. The Dortde infantry are beginning to bombard the outer shielding, thankfully we got it up in time."
"Okay, hold the fort down. If all goes well, it will all be over in a few hours." Jedi said as the landing gears retracted, and the elevator started going up. In a few seconds, he would be outside. The Phoenix wasn't even felt by him, oddly enough. He almost forgot that he was holding it, until the sun put out before him the shadow of the ship.
"Full power acceleration mode! Target speed Mach 22.22." BETH chimed in at the correct time; the shields surrounding the base were going down just as he accelerated. Running forward, he moved outside the base's shield just n time for them to go back up. Now came the hard part, he had to outrun the pull of Earth's gravity. He hoped that he could go fast enough
His steps were becoming longer, and the pull was becoming less as he built up speed. Looking up, he saw that the heat shield on the old space shuttle was glowing with the heat that was being created at this speed, but it looked like it was holding. Only a little bit further until a jump would push him off of the planet. With the Phoenix as a mobile base, he would be able to make a great effort to distract the enemy. Hopefully he would buy enough time for them to target the ships with the ICBM's.
"Hello. Pathetic android 001." 002 appeared beside him. Her eyes were ablaze with hatred. "You shot my leg off in Vegas, let me repay you for that."
Jedi knew that he couldn't avoid this any longer, he threw the Phoenix forward "BETH, transmit engine start message to the Phoenix. Then switch to Battle mode." He had thought that this could have happened, so he had had a special radio transmitter installed on the ship, giving him the ability to start the engines on his own. Michaels would just have to hold her own for a while. Or that is, just stay put until he got there. After BETH finished, he felt the battle mode taking effect. "Shields are up, defensive plating on, cloaking device ready, main cannons on and charging, and the rapid fire and rifle lasers are on standby."
"What's this? The baby has to have some new toys, does he? Oh look at him, so cute in his little suit. Hah! How pathetic. I know that you know what my antimatter blast will do to you. Why don't you just give up and surrender to me and let me take you to Black Ghost were you can be changed into a good little boy."
"Now listen here, Julie." Jedi knew that they were equally matched, she was much faster than him, how that was managed, he didn't know, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying to break whatever spell she was under, this wasn't the girl that he knew. She had been such a nice girl. He could still remember her smile. "I have prepared myself for this battle, there is no way that I will surrender. You hear me? I will fight you until there is nothing left in me. As much as you want me to, I will not allow man to be destroyed, for I was one of them, and that means that I should defend them. I swore an oath just a few days ago to fight for the right to live, you get that? Now it is my turn to give the ultimatum. You surrender to me. You don't pull any tricks. I will put you offline, and we will get you looked at. You aren't yourself. You either do that, or I will have to...."
"Don't give me that! You know that we are the winning side here. We are the winners, you are the losers. That means that we get to do with man any way that we wish, and we have decided to destroy you. I was also human once, but I have gone beyond that. I would be an old woman by now, if it hadn't been for Black Ghost and his glorious plans with he Dortde."
"What do you mean by that. Did Black Ghost bring the Dortde, here to Earth, telling them that we were going to be easy to conquer? If that is so true, then why are there still people left after so many days? Here, let me answer that your you. We are still here because of the human sprit. You lost yours for some reason. I may be responsible for that, or maybe it was the amount of time since. But I will see to it that you find it again."
"Heh, that's enough talk, it's obvious that you won't surrender, so I might as well destroy you." She went into the form that would give her the antimatter blast. "So let me go ahead and fill you in on a little secret. You were a sign of good faith to the Dortde, well, you were to be, until that idiot pilot shot you into the moon instead. And the United States launched a preemptive strike on the moon base. So Black Ghost abducted me, turned me into a cyborg, stuck me in one of those tubes, filled it with dormant nanobots, and sent me to Alpha Centari, the home of the Dortde. For 30 years I was floating in space on my way there, unlike you, I wasn't worked on, I was just rotting in that tube. Ha! But now I get my revenge!!!" As she had been explaining, antimatter was collected and formed into a blue ball.
Jedi was in shock; he was a fluke of sorts. The tables should be turned, how easily things could have been different. He couldn't let him self be destroyed, and he couldn't destroy her. He had to do something. Was there any way to deactivate her for a while? There had to be, it was just a matter of thinking things out. He wouldn't have long to do it, since she was about to fire her main weapon. "Jedi, Jedi! There is a way, but you won't be able to do any real repairs for a while. You can send nanobots over there, and she would have to shut down while she fights them, maybe even they will be successful, and we can help her. Only problem is that we have to get in really close, less than 3 meters actually. I will get the nanobots ready if you wish me to."
"I hate to do this, but I have to 002, BETH engage!" Jedi began to move forward.
"You stay back, Black Ghost would prefer you alive, but if you come any closer I will destroy you!"
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Back at the base
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"Sir, we are registering a massive explosion 5 miles outside the outer shields. It looks like the source was some kind of antimatter weapon."
"Any sign on who survived?"
"No sir."
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Herald of light: Sorry about the dropoff in getting new chaps up, I have had a lot of things pop up which have kept me away from the computer. I will get the story done, belive me. If anyone has any questions, comments, rude details, please post them or email me :)
