"Mr. Carrington?"
Carrington awoke abruptly. "Joanna, what time is it?"
"2300 hours sir, or 11:00 at night."
"Did you just get back?"
"Yes sir. I've been a bit rushed today."
"I know, I know. It's better that you came in now. Everyone else is thinking I'm still asleep, so that means we can talk about everything that happened."
"Well, the mission was successful… but, shortly after dropping me off, the Jumpship was shot down. The pilot died."
Carrington nodded grimly. "I was hoping that wouldn't happen. We can't keep losing agents. We'll have problems as it is with tomorrow night."
"What's happening tomorrow night?"
"I've decided that's when our agents will infiltrate the satellite. No one from the training base survived, and Jonathan 'just happened to be out for a walk' when it was destroyed. He has been reassigned onto the satellite already. Other agents, less than thirty, unfortunately, will be available to head up to the satellite. That thing must be blown out of the sky, so neither Faww nor any other madman can use it.
"You'll need to be ready approximately 25 hours from now, at midnight. The next day is going to be rather boring. Catch up on a book, do some training, whatever you want to do to pass the time. I'm not sending anyone anywhere else until this satellite is gone."
"How are you going to sneak all of us out of here tomorrow night?"
Carrington grinned. "You'll all be inexplicably abducted by aliens."
- - - - -
Joanna checked her watch. She turned to the bush next to hers, whispering. "Ten 'til midnight. All ready?"
Velvet's whispers couldn't hide the excitement in her voice. "Of course I am. I can't wait to kick their asses."
"First time in outer space then?"
"Well, that's always a plus."
At this point, Maian saucers flew down from the sky. They hovered over each agent, beaming down a bright light on them. "Nice effects…" Joanna muttered as she floated up into a saucer.
Even after two years, Joanna was still as cramped in a saucer as before. Her pilot burbled something in his language, and she could tell from his hand motions that it basically was, "Buckle up." She twisted around to become as comfortable and safe as possible, and the ships began floating back up again.
It took only minutes to clear the Earth's atmosphere. Joanna found a place to be able to look out into space. It was as beautiful as she remembered. They were approaching the satellite quickly. While she looked around space, her pilot was pressing buttons and talking to the other ships.
Joanna peeked out. Next to the satellite, there was some sort of comet, but it wasn't moving. Something about it seemed familiar to her. She checked what she assumed was the radar. There was nothing there. She looked out again as they got closer. Her eyes widened.
"That's a Skedar assault ship!" Her pilot looked at her quizzically, pressed some buttons, and then they could hear Elvis' voice. "Joanna, what is it?"
"Elvis! Don't you recognize it? That's an assault ship! The one I was captured on."
There was a pause, and his now shaky voice came back again. "That… that's impossible. We destroyed the Skedar two years ago. There's no way…"
The assault ship turned towards the Maian ships as they got nearer. A hangar opened, and dozens of ships flew out. Joanna only recognized the shuttles, like the one Elvis had stolen before. They flew out at the Maians, guns blazing.
The Maian ships executed a countless number of maneuvers to get past the wave of Skedar ships. Joanna would have been thrown out around the cockpit is she weren't so cramped. Outside she could see guns firing and ships on both sides exploding.
One particular ship set its sites on Joanna's. Though her pilot was very good at maneuvering, he couldn't shake the Skedar. They exchanged shots, and the Maian circled around to try and get behind the Skedar. He opened fire, but the Skedar shot out small, flare-like projectiles from under the engines. These hit, starting a fire on the ship.
The Maian yelled angrily as he fought to keep control of the ship. Looking around, he saw the only place to land safely: the assault ship. Joanna realized what he was doing once the hangar got closer and closer.
"Damn. I don't want to have to go through this again." The ship slowed as it flew into the hangar. It slid against the bottom of the deck until it came to a screeching halt.
Recovering from the rough landing, Joanna and her pilot looked around. Ten Skedar had already surrounded the ship, Maulers drawn. The Maian opened the door and they emerged, hands in the air.
- - - - -
They were roughly thrown into a cell as the door slid shut. The pilot immediately ran over to the door controls, pressing random buttons. Joanna was about to ask a question, then remembered he didn't speak English. She stood patiently as he played around with the controls.
The door slid open, and the Skedar who had been guarding them turned. The Maian ran out and kicked, trying to trip the Skedar. It moved out of the way and swiped down at him. He rolled under its claw, and before it could turn around, he grabbed onto the tail and pulled. The Skedar was ripped out; its mechanical shell immediately fell over, useless. The Maian happily jumped up and down, stomping on the Skedar until it died.
He grabbed the Mauler and said something in his language. With his hand motions and the fact that he started walking right afterwards, she guessed that he said "Follow me." They found an elevator and walked into it.
The elevator took them one floor up; very similar to the one they had just been in. "I'll bet this is another cell. We'd better check and see that no one else was captured. The Maian recognized it as well, and pressed a button on the Mauler. It began to glow red.
They could hear footsteps getting closer to the elevator, and before Joanna could react to it, the Maian jumped out and fired. The Skedar cried out and fell to the ground, dead. She walked out, taking its Mauler. They looked around, and she spotted the cell. She ran up to it, her pilot backing her up.
Joanna opened the door and a foot swung at her. She grabbed the foot with one hand and pointed her gun at the man. They both stopped suddenly. "Ray? What are you doing here?"
"Our ship was captured by the Skedar. I thought you were another one coming in…. You know, you can let go of my foot now." She let go, and he brushed himself off. He looked down at the body next to him. "They killed my pilot. I was afraid I was next."
"Let's get a move on. We need to get out of here." Joanna walked out of the cell as another Skedar walked into the room. This time, she got off the first shot, and it slumped to the ground. She threw Ray the gun as they ran to the elevator.
The elevator took them up another floor, into the hangar. "Hm. I've noticed this is pretty similar to the one I was on before. I thought they would have made more changes to the design." She drifted off into thought until gunfire shattered her concentration.
"Kiss my alien butt!" A Phoenix was heard, small explosions hitting a dying Skedar.
"Oh! You want some more?" Another Skedar cried out as it fell to the ground. Joanna recognized the shot of the Falcon 2. She also recognized the voices, and ran up to meet them.
"Elvis! Velvet! Mind if we join in?" The three shot off with their Maulers as more Skedar ran into the hangar. After a few minutes, it became silent. They regrouped near some doors.
"We saw the ships fly into the hangar, and decided we'd come and rescue you." Velvet smirked as she pulled up a hovercrate. She pressed a button and the top slid open. "Now, Carrington was able to ship us some of your weapons," Elvis began. He threw a Callisto to the other Maian. Joanna's eyes lit up as he handed her an RCP-120. "I guess I'll keep the Maulers." Ray took the two from Joanna and her pilot, then ran around the hangar, getting ammo from the dead Skedar.
"These doors should lead us deeper into the ship," Elvis continued. "If you didn't notice, the basic design is pretty much the same as before."
"I don't suppose we could just forget about it and continue on to the satellite," Ray said as he came back to them.
Elvis shook his head. "There are too many Skedar on this ship. We need to destroy it; otherwise, we'll have a lot more to deal with on the satellite. Now, there should be a room with a blueprint of the ship's interior. We'll have to find that first."
They all readied their weapons, and Joanna opened the door. The hallway was empty, but had bright lights and winding turns, like before. They ran through what seemed like a maze, finding no resistance. "I guess they all came out into the hangar," Elvis said. They finally came up to a door, and Joanna again opened it.
Inside were a small group of computers, and three Skedar typing into them. They turned around as soon as the doors opened, and fired at the intruders. With the new variety of weapons, the team easily wasted the Skedar. Elvis and the other Maian ran up to the computers.
"Well, this is what I was looking for." Elvis pressed different buttons on the computer. "That's interesting."
"What is it?" Joanna and Velvet said at the same time. The three humans stepped up to the computer screen.
"I pulled up the map. It seems like the Skedar found a new engine system. This one is bigger, uses more power, but it is a lot faster. There is, of course, a fatal flaw." Elvis continued typing. "It seems like the power to the engines are in a central part of the ship. Blowing up that system would stop the engines from running. However, the chain reaction from the explosions should be enough to rip the ship in half. Taking out the Skedar would be a lot easier if we can get there."
"Then it's settled. We need to get to that room. Let's go quickly, before the Skedar have a chance to regroup." Ray was almost out the door as he said this.
"Wait up!" Elvis shouted. "We can't blindly go through this maze. I've found the fastest route to the room, let me lead!" The rest of them ran to catch up with Ray.
They opened the door to find him already firing on two Skedar. Blood trickled down from his right shoulder. With a charged up shot from each Mauler, the two died as they walked out.
"You shouldn't be so trigger-happy. Are you all right?" Joanna looked over his wound.
"I'm fine, don't worry about it."
Joanna frowned, but said, "Alright then. Let's keep moving. And let Elvis lead this time."
Elvis led them through another maze of hallways and smaller rooms. Any Skedar they came across was easily defeated. After a few minutes of walking, Elvis stopped in front of a door.
"This should be it. Everyone be ready, there's bound to be more Skedar here now that we are this far into the ship."
As he opened the door, they found that last sentence was an understatement. At least seven Skedar in this room were armed with Maulers, five with Reapers, and several more were unarmed and just charged.
They split up, running around the room, firing at any Skedar that was in their way. Once the room had been cleared, they met up again on the other side. The Maian pilot was the only one to remain unscathed. A bullet had grazed Joanna's side; Elvis' Phoenix was in his other hand, his right arm shot; and Velvet had taken a hit in both her left arm and left leg. Ray had a few cuts after fighting with a couple of unarmed Skedar.
Elvis looked at the reactor in the central room. "Great. We have another problem. Destroying this would take out the engines, of course. However, we'd never make it off the ship alive. We'd either be caught in the explosions or sucked into space when the ship rips apart."
The other Maian started speaking in his own language. He sounded brave and surprisingly calm. Elvis shook his head, but translated for him.
"He says he wants to take it out. The rest of us can get back to a ship, and he'll stay behind to destroy the engines."
"There's no need to die as a hero," Joanna responded. "There must be some way we can do this."
"Did you by any chance get any explosives in that crate?" Ray suggested.
Velvet shook her head. "No. We had only a little time to smuggle weapons out and the others were given to other agents before we even lifted off."
Everyone was silent for a moment. The Maian spoke up again, and Elvis translated. "He says there is no other way. Someone would have to stay behind, and he wants to be the one to do it."
They looked at each other, and finally nodded in agreement. "Okay, let's get out of here then," Elvis said. "Give us five minutes." The pilot reloaded his weapon and found a safe place to snipe out intruders.
"We'd better get out then." Velvet led the way out of the room. Ray was about to run, then turned to the Maian. "Here. I guess you can use these more than I can." He laid down his Maulers next to him. The pilot smiled.
As the door closed behind Ray, they heard another door open and gunfire started. Joanna slowed and turned to go in, but he pulled her back. "Joanna, we don't have time to stop. We need to leave." She looked at the door for a moment, but continued with him.
They made their way back to the hangar, this time finding no resistance. "Okay. The only Maian ship we could use only has room for two people," Elvis said. "We should just steal one of the Skedar shuttles."
They all agreed and boarded the closest ship. As Elvis took the controls, Joanna looked around the ship. "There has to be some sort of first-aid kit aboard, right?"
"I found it!" Ray pulled it out and Elvis started the engines. Even in the hangar, they could hear the explosions starting. Elvis lifted off of the floor and flew out of the ship as it was destroyed.