Once again we were given a Jara gun each, and a high-tech earpiece with the little microphone attached. With this, we could contact and keep in touch with the fighter without the other ship knowing. Or so Ithiell said.
"Tobias? Keera? Can you hear me?" Ithiell asked tapping the earpiece.
"Yeah we can. Are you sure about…"
"We're more than sure" Jake replied.
"Okay. But I have to warn you, it's been a few years since I've actually played video games. I might be a little rusty" Tobias said, sounding a little unsure of himself.
"Tobias, if I can do it, you can do it" I replied.
"Right, but you weren't trapped as a bird for…"
"Can we complain later? We've got to focus here" Robert interrupted, looking up at the screen. He was standing beside Asen, who was once again at the controls of the small craft. We were off to the side, and waiting until Ithiell and Ax gave the orders for the three ships to attack. They'd been instructed to get into three separate positions for the attack. The first part of the plan was a full-frontal assault by the three ships, and when the shields went down, we would move in and attach ourselves to the ship. The rest would depend on what kind of monsters were hiding in that ship, and how the first part of the plan worked. Hopefully, it would go as planned.
"Okay, Ax?" Ithiell looked over at Ax.
(Yes?)
"Give your crew three minutes to get into position, and then tell them to fire with everything they have. I'll tell my crew and Lowri's"
(Very well) they both contacted the ships using coded transmissions. Finally, all we had to do now was wait. I felt a cold shiver run through me, but I knew it was just pre-battle tension, and shook it off. Cassie and Jake were discretely holding hands, and Amanda briefly hugged Ithiell from behind, before moving to stand beside him. Rachel was just smiling a little, and I caught a simular look from Robert, only more distant. I couldn't see Asen's face, but I knew he was scared as well. After all, he was only a little older than us. War hadn't touched him in the way it had touched us, at least not yet.
Ax and Rtaia were sharing a few silent looks, and Ax's hand was on her shoulder. He must have said something to her, because she replied,
"I know, dear heart"
I smiled at them, hoping against hope this fight wasn't all for nothing now. If they lived… they could bring two entirely different races closer together, and maybe a more if they…
I felt a hand slip into mine, and fingers entwined with my own. I turned to look straight into Marco's eyes. Serious, determined eyes.
"When this is over, we'll go home, and… and I want to marry you"
For a moment my heart froze up, but then I nodded, smiling.
"Sounds good"
"There they go!" Asen cried, and we all looked up at the screen as the three ships revealed themselves, and began to fire, catching Inaad's ship off-guard. It rocked violently, and then I saw the shields go up. Now, the ship was firing back. It barely missed hitting Lowri's ship, but they managed to dodge it.
The repercussions of each hit rocked us and Asen and Keera fought the waves, staying as close as possible. I felt Marco's grip tighten, and I returned the pressure in assurance.
Then something exploded in the giant mase-looking ship, and the force sent us all reeling back. We were all sent spinning around in the docking ship. I hit the side wall, with Jake and Amanda beside me, and we all fell into a pile on the floor. Asen had barely stayed on his feet, and as we all got up I saw him frantically working at the controls.
"Some of the systems are damaged! We have to drop the cloak if we're going to…"
"Five seconds, then drop it" Ithiell instructed. He somehow managed to get to the controls too, still human, and was working side-by-side with Asen. Ax and Rtaia soon joined them, looking over their shoulders.
"Try this" Rtaia leaned over Asen and her fingers darted over the controls for a few seconds. It seemed to help, but the whole time this was going on, the three ships were still firing madly at the mase thing.
"Sir, Genge here. Their shields are almost down. I suggest you begin to move in now" We heard coming through our earpieces.
"Good, going in. Keera, you stay with us, and Tobias…"
"I know, I know. If something looks like it's coming at you guys, fire at them"
"Uh-huh" Ithiell said as we began our move in. I felt tense, watching as we moved slowly closer to the giant ship, with the fighter right behind us. If we were lucky… extremely lucky… they wouldn't notice us until it was too late.
"Sir, I found a place to dock. From my readings, it's like a cargo bay of some sorts…"
"Let's go in then. And everyone? Good luck"
(There is nothing good about this) Ax muttered.
"Optimism Ax-man. Have faith" Marco said.
I could see Ax was looking at him funny, but by then it was too late to say anything to that. We were there, with the docking clamps in place and the cutters getting to work, grinding into the thick metal of the hull. The ship tried to pull away from us then, and nearly shook us loose, but Asen maintained control of the small ship, working hard to keep us next to it. It was only then that I realised they weren't trying to get away from us; they were trying to manoeuvre away from the attacking ships.
"Okay, we're locked on. Pressurising… and opening the doors…"
"Everyone, get into positions!" Ithiell yelled. We ran to the hatch and Ax and Rtaia took up the front, holding their weapons out to the opening doors. We all stepped through into the middle room… carefully… and then into the large ship itself. It was fairly dark, with only a few small orange lights on the ceiling, but other than that it was quiet. Bits and pieces were stacked everywhere, some boxes I saw looking trapezium shaped, but there was still enough room to move between them. Two body lengths, at least.
It struck me as strange that no-one had noticed or heard the grinders cutting their way through, but then…
"Look out!" Robert yelled, and in seconds I was on the ground, the wind knocked out of me, with Robert landing above me on his hands and knees. Past him, I saw my friends taking cover and firing their Jara guns. I saw red streaks of light go past Jake, and another nearly get Asen who had just joined us, but they were too fast. Robert got up, yanking me up with him. We took a position behind a stack of metal cases of something as whatever it was fired at us again.
"What are they?! What's firing at us?!" Cassie yelled in absolute terror.
"Whatever the hell works on this ship, that's what?!" Marco yelled back.
"Runchak! It's got to be!" Rtaia yelled as she leaned out from whatever she was hiding behind, and taking a few shots, before being nearly missed by more laser fire.
"Okay, all at once we lean out and fire. On my command… fire!" We all did as Jake said, firing all out weapons at once into the near-darkness, watching as some hit and missed, and a terrible shrieking come from whatever it was that we'd hit. Then, there was nothing. No laser fire or… anything.
"Ithiell?" Jake enquired.
"I'll go first. Just keep everyone back" Ithiell replied, and I saw him moving in the darkness… slowly, and carefully… towards where the things were. Seconds later my new headset crackled to life.
"It's all right guys. We got them all" Ithiell said, and we stepped out to join him. It was only then that I saw what we'd fired on. They were so hideous… I bit back a terrified gasp.
The eyes of these things had no eyelids, so their blood red eyes stared up at us. The top part of their faces were like a sideways oval, and the bottom half was shaped more like a trapezium. The mouth… the mouth had sharp, gruesome looking teeth. Two of their teeth looked more like giant vampire fangs.
The body itself was covered in coarse black hair… or fur, and the legs had no feet, just stumps were feet would be. The legs were almost like a Terinans; the knee joints reversed, only they were much longer and thicker than a Terinans. The hands were crab-like, and came to sharp, jagged-pincered ends. The tails (yes, each had two tails) looked more like someone had just attached two giant snakes to their spines.
"Well, there's an ugly-looking mug if I ever did see one" Robert commented.
"That's at least… I dunno, eight feet tall!" Amanda cried.
"Well, it might be if it was standing up" Asen said.
"Runchak?" I wondered.
"Must be. Come on, let's go. I don't want to have those ships out there fighting any longer than they have to" Ithiell said, stepping over the charred bodies and towards a giant door we had all just noticed. Ithiell began working at the panel beside it, with Ax helping him.
"He's right of course. Let's just do what we came here to do and leave" Jake said, looking around. He was tense, I saw. Then again, we all were.
"Okay, we'll open this door when everyone's out of sight. You all know where to go, don't you?"
"Yes, we know! Now can we get a move on??" Rachel asked.
"All right. Positions!"
(I have set the doors to open after a ten second delay) Ax said as he and Ithiell came and hid with us. Ten seconds later, the doors opened into chaos. There were dozens of these big furry things running back and forth, and when a few noticed the door was now open…
"TIILLLII TILLII!"
"HaaaHAKAKAKAKA!!!" They screeched, and in seconds more had flooded the room. Fifteen at least.
"FIRE!!!" Ithiell roared, and in seconds half of these monstrous things were downed and the others screaming in terror. Others in the hallway and every one of them seemed to scatter. Soon, we were looking into an empty hallway. Ax, Ithiell and Rtaia stepped out of the shadows first, all of them peeping out the corridor.
"All clear" Rtaia said, and we all went to stand beside them. I moved up next to Ax, looking left and right, and realising there were three hallways. One was almost right in front of us, and the other two went left and right.
"Well, this looks fun" Rachel said rolling her eyes.
"Well, we planned to split up into three groups anyway" Cassie said from beside me.
"Uh-huh" I muttered.
"Whatever we're doing, we have to hurry. There might be more of those things… or something worse on the way" Jake pointed out.
"Hey guys, how's it going?" I heard Tobias ask through my earpiece.
"Great. We're already in trouble" Marco muttered.
"Uh, I don't know if you know this Marco, but you were in trouble the moment you stepped on board that thing"
"This is insane" Marco muttered, ignoring Tobias's comment.
"Whatever. Are you guys ok?"
"All right. We're as well as we can be"
"Enough talk Tobias. We can't afford to waste any more time" Ithiell said, glaring out at the hallways.
"Ithiell's right. Three groups still. So let's go!"
"Asen, you know what to do, don't you?"
"Yes sir. Hopefully I'll find…"
"Yes, now let's go!" We split up. Asen, Rachel, Ax and Jake went left in hallway. Rtaia, Cassie, Amanda and Marco went straight ahead. Ithiell, Robert and I took the right. We ran, the hallways almost empty except for a single alien every now and then. They were big, but apparently not that bright, and not that fast either.
Finally, we came to one thing I thought I'd never see in an alien vessel this far out in space.
"A dropshaft?" Robert raised an eyebrow.
"Apparently so"
"Yeerk technology, you can bet on it" Ithiell said, then smiled a little.
"What?"
"This could be exactly what we're looking for"
"So, does it work like the Yeerk vessels?"
"Probably. In any case, I'm guessing we'll need to stop at a certain floor and go from there to the bridge"
"Ithiell? Are you ready for this?"
"I've been ready for six months Jade"
"Okay then, lets…"
"Let's do it!" Robert said, imitating Rachel. Seconds later I heard,
"Hey, that's my line!"
"Sorry. Get into position and we'll see you later"
"Whatever"
Ithiell stepped forward and into the dropshaft, and in seconds he was blown upward. I went next, then Robert.
Bridge, I thought, focusing my mind on getting to that floor. In seconds, it felt like something pulling me upwards and in seconds I was deposited on a certain floor, beside Ithiell, who had his Jara gun levelled and ready.
"No one here yet" he said as I moved aside, just before Robert joined us. We were now facing a single hallway, leading straight to giant closed double doors at the other end. Seconds later, my earpiece came to life again.
"All right, we found it and we're in position" Jake said.
"As are we" Rtaia added.
"We had a little trouble with those giant things, but it's all right now" Marco informed us.
"Great. Well, we're here. Now it's just getting in there" Ithiell sighed, lowering his weapon.
"You can do this Ithiell. I believe in you" Amanda's words seemed to help him. He smiled.
"Yeah, I know. But all of you be careful, ok? Something about all this feels wrong"
"I got the same feeling" Marco muttered.
Then there was nothing as the three of us made our way slowly to the big double doors, Jara guns levelled, eyes locked on those doors. But then my mind did a double take, and I began to look around, then back at the dropshaft. And what I saw did not make me feel very confident.
Review now people, or you don't get da rest of the story, ok? Constructive criticism appreciated. Also people saying 'hey, I lurve it!' The more reviews, the more chappies you get.
Also to LittleMidgett; yay! You're back! My muse has returned (I haven't been able to write until i read your chappies) hehehehe! Okay, byz! I'm off to write da next chappie!