Author's Note: Huzzah! Jim has returned! Jim fans may commence rejoicing! I'm SO sorry for not updating in so long...lack of motivation and working on a humor fic.
Disclaimer: I don't own Outlaw Star.
On with the show...
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The Bastion Laboratory is known as the most knowledgeable data storage facility pertaining to information about the Kei pirates. Every project and mission carried out by the Kei pirates is reported to the Bastion Laboratory. Many have sought to steal this information, but so far, no one has succeeded. So far, that is...
A safe distance away, out of the range of the Bastion's radar, the Outlaw Star waited idly by for its chance to move in. In the cockpit, what seemed like forever, the Outlaw Star crew were waiting for the right moment. Jim looked at the computer screen in front of him, counting down a timer silently to himself.
"...Two, one, zero... Ok, we should be good to go now, Gene." he said aloud.
"Great. Good to have ya back, Jim." Gene said, revving up the ships engines.
"It's good to be back." Jim replied, looking back at Gene, with a big smile.
Gene smirked and leaned forward in the pilot's seat. "Alright, get ready everyone....we're going in!" he exclaimed.
Chapter 9: Bastion, The Tower Of The Kei Pirates
Gene and the others ran up to a door, in a hidden passage leading to the Bastion Laboratory. They all looked up at the sheer size of the tower. It was extremely tall structure, the tallest any of them had ever seen.
"Woah, this place is huge!" Aisha exclaimed, gazing at the tower, wide-eyed.
"Yes, it certainly is." Suzuka commented, looking elsewhere, not as impressed.
Jim was typing away on his computer, getting some more information about the facility, while keeping a close eye on another timer. Gene walked up to the door they had approached and gave a light knock. He rasied an eyebrow at the door.
"Hmm, kinda flimsy door, don't you think?" Gene said.
"That's because it's an emergency door. Incase intruders break down the main door." Jim explained while continuously looking at the computer screen."
Gene shrugged and shook his head. "Well, whatever, let's just go in." He said, grabbing the door knob only to discover it's locked. "Ah, what the hell!"
"It's locked, Gene. I could open it from out here if there wasn't the huge chance of us getting caught." Jim remarked, closing his computer and standing up.
"Can't we just break the door down?" Aisha asked.
Jim shook his head and said, "That'd just be asking for them to catch us. And we only have five more minutes before the radar scans this area again."
Melfina noticed a small vent shaft near the door. "Maybe we could go through there." she suggested.
Gene walked over to and looked at the vent. "What? There's no way I could even fit into that." he complained.
Jim gave the possible entrance a good look over. "Locke and I could fit through there." he stated.
Locke walked up next to Jim and looked at the vent as well. He nodded in agreement after a moment. Gene crossed his arms and said, "Forget it, that's way too dangerous. There could a bunch of guards waiting for you."
"Look Gene, this is the only way we can get inside with the least chance of getting detected. We don't have enough time to get the information and get the Outlaw Star out of the radar's scanning zone in time. So, three should go and three should stay." Jim said.
"Alright, fine, so who's gonna stay behind?" Gene asked the group.
Everything was silent for a moment while everyone thought about it. Just then, Suzuka stepped forward. "I'll stay." she said.
"And we're the only ones who can fit through the vent." Jim said, nodding to Locke.
Gene shrugged and said, "Alright, so, Jim, Suzuka and Locke are staying down here." he turned to Melfina and Aisha. "I guess that means we're going back to the ship."
"Gene we're running out of time, hurry up back to the ship!" Jim exclaimed, looking at the timer again.
"Right, be careful you three." Gene said, before turning and starting back towards the Outlaw Star. Melfina and Aisha followed closely behind him.
Jim turned back to the small vent shaft. Walking over to it and prying the frame off, he crawled inside. Locke followed in afterwards, clinging to his small computer. "We'll open the door from the inside, Suzuka." Jim's voice echoed out from the vent.
Suzuka simply nodded and waited, watching the Outlaw Star as it blasted off.
----------Flashback-----------
Locke slowly, and sorely, opened his eyes to see Melfina, Aisha and Suzuka looking down at him. Gene and Jim were standing off to the side, discussing something.
"Oh! He's waking up!" Melfina exclaimed.
Locke weakly put a hand to his head and tried to surpress a painful headache. "...ahh..."
"It's surprising you're awake after only a few hours of unconsciousness with an injury like yours." Suzuka commented.
"Yeah, you're tougher than you look." Aisha said, smiling happily.
Locke smiled momentarily but that was replaced the pain from his headache.
Jim glanced over at Locke for a moment, then looked back at Gene. "So, what exactly do we do now, Gene?" he asked.
"Well, I wanna know what's so important about Locke that they'd send Kyen and his gang after us." Gene remarked.
"Good idea...and I just happen to know where we can get that information." Jim said with a smirk.
Gene looked confused. "What? Where?" he asked.
-----------End Flashback------------
Aboard the Outlaw Star, everyone waited in silence. They couldn't make radio contact with the others for at least another 20 minutes. Gene just sat there in his seat, staring down at the timer.
"This Bastion place is more trouble than it's worth." he sighed, sitting back in his seat.
"Don't be so sure, Gene. The Bastion Laboratory has the most information regarding the Kei pirates, just like Jim said." Gilliam claimed.
"Yeah yeah..." Gene grumbled and crossed his arms.
"I just hope they're alright down there." Melfina said.
"Ah, they'll be fine. Suzu can handle it." Aisha commented in between eating doughnuts.
"I hope you're right." Gene said, leaning forward again.
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Jim and Locke had opened the door for Suzuka and were now looking at Jim's computer again. Suzuka kept a close watch on the two hallways before them. Jim skimmed through the layout of the tower.
"Where is it? Where is it?" Jim mumbled as he kept looking at his screen. "Ah! I got it! It's on the ninth floor." he exclaimed, pointing to a spot on the screen.
Suzuka turned to Jim and Locke. "We will have to hurry if we wish to make it back in time." she said.
Jim closed his computer again and nodded. "Right, come on, it's this way." he said, pointing and running down the right hallway.
Suzuka and Locke followed Jim as he ran down the hallway. Stopping at a corner Jim peered around the corner, there was a guard patrolling the next hall. "Crap...we need to get past that guy." he whispered back to the others.
Suzuka said nothing, but rushed out from the hallway and right at the guard. The guard turned but that's all he did before Suzuka struck him down with her sword. She turned back to Jim and Locke who were watching wide-eyed. "It's all clear." she said.
"I'm glad she came along with us." Locke typed.
Jim nodded in astonishment of how fast Suzuka defeated her target. He shook off his surprise and started down the next hall, with Locke right behind him. Suzuka continued to take out the patrolling guards in the various hallways as they passed through each floor. But when they got to the eighth floor, they ran into a problem...
Suzuka rushed forward, taking out multiple guards in the hall. Before she could reach the last guard, he managed to yell into his walkie-talkie, "We got intruders on floor eigh--" Suzuka struck him down. Alarms started going off and the lights and halls turned red.
"Oh crap! Now they know we're here!" Jim shouted.
"We must hurry." Suzuka said, running ahead.
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A man, clad in a red coat, watched as the alarms started blaring as he leaned against the wall on the ninth floor. He smirked and pulled out a cell-phone from his pocket. He lifted to his head to hear a familiar vocie, "Looks like they were stupid enough to set off the alarms."
The man chuckled and replied, "Take care of the Outlaw Star, I'll finish up down here." He pulled out a Caster from his coat.
"We can kill everyone else besides Melfina, right?" the familiar voice asked.
"Of course, it's payback for the Leyline." the man answered.
The familiar voice let out a sadistic laugh. "Great..."
The man continued to lean on the wall while he waited for his prey to arrive.
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Gene had finally stopped watching the timer; it seemed to be going slower the more he watched it. He laid back in his seat and rested his arms behind his head. Twenty minutes never seemed so long. The ship was very quiet, with the exception of the sounds of a well-conditioned ship. That silence was broken when Aisha let out a obnoxiously loud yawn.
The Ctarl Ctarl stretched out her arms and let them fall back to her sides. "I'm just so bored...." she grumbled.
"There's still just seven more minutes until we can head back in." Melfina stated. She looked at Gene, who been quietly for an uncommon amount of time.
"Gene, are you ok?" she asked.
Gene was thinking back the night he got that phone message from that person, whoever it was. He opened his eyes looked up at Gilliam. "Say Gilliam, do you know what 'Help Alpha find Omega' means?" he asked, lifting an eye brow at his own question.
"Well, let's see, I believe Alpha means beginning and Omega means end, if I'm not mistaken." Gillaim answered.
"Help the beginning find the end?" Gene asked himself.
"Gene, is there something wrong?" Melfina asked, concerned for Gene.
Geen turned in his seat to look back at Melfina. "It's nothing...Just a phrase I heard somewhere, that's all." he replied back to his navigator.
Gene smiled and turned back in his seat, he was lucky to have someone like Melfina to care about him the way she did. Gene's thought were suddenly dispersed by a loud beeping sound.
"Gene, there's ship 700 kms to starboard and closing in on us fast." Gilliam alerted. "I'll put it up on screen."
The incoming ship appeared on a small screen on the right side on Gene. Upon seeing this ship, Gene's eyes widened as far as they would go. "It that...?! No, it can't be. They both died!" Gene said aloud.
"Incoming transmition." Gilliam said, just as another screen appeared. It housed a familiar face with a familiar voice.
"Long time no see, Gene Starwind. Have you been taking good care of Melfina for me?" the familiar person said with a sadistic grin to go along with his sadistic laugh afterwards.
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Jim, Suzuka and Locke finally made it onto the ninth floor. The beautiful assassin made quick work of the whole lot of guards, who were guarding a large door, which obviously lead to the room where the information was being kept. The three inturders entered through the large metal door and came upon a dark room with a large computer standing in the back of the room. Jim's eyes lit up at the sight of such a wonderful computer. He ran up to it and just stared at it for a few moments. Then he quickly got to work, looking for information about Locke.
"Locke, let me see your hand." Jim said, no turning from the computer screen.
Locke hesitated for a second but then stuck out his hand, that held on it the bar code, in front of Jim. "LH4570..." Jim mumbled the numbers and letters to himself and typed them into a search.
Suddenly, on the computer screen, information pertaining to Project 'LH4570'. Jim read some of it to himself as he downloaded it unto his computer. Locke stared at the screen in disbelief. He had caught glimps of a sentence that crushed him inside. 'It does not matter if he is dead or alive.' Jim put a hand on Locke's shoulder and gave him a light shake.
"Hey, Locke, you okay?" he asked.
Locke blinked and slowly nodded. "Well, come on, let's get going then. We still have two and a half minutes before we can contact Gene and the others." Jim claimed, heading for the door.
Suzuka had been watching Locke the whole time. As Locke went to leave the room, Suzuka said to him, "It matters to all of us if are dead or alive."
Locke stopped at the comment and looked on, taken by surprise, as Suzuka strolled out of the room. Locke turned back to the computer and looked at it for a second, then sighed and ran after Jim and Suzuka. The three of them made their way back to the stairs leading down to floor eight, only to see someone very familiar, at least to Jim ane Suzuka, standing in their way. The man in the red coat smirked and greeted them with a loaded Caster.
"Ah! You! I thought Gene killed you!" Jim shouted, pointing at the, very much alive, man.
"I'm afraid you're mistaken. Now....hand over the boy." the man said, glancing to Locke.
TO BE CONTINUED!...
Just when I thought everything was going good, familiar rivals of ours show up to crash the party! It seems like everyone wants a piece of me lately! As I square off against an old foe in a Grappler fight, Jim and the others have to outlive another old rival behind enemy lines! This is getting to be too much, ya know? Next time on Outlaw Star: Omega Project, Chapter 10: Old Guns Reloaded! You better get ready!
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How's that for a twist? If you don't know who these familiar rivals are, then I suggest you watch the last three episodes of Outlaw Star to remember what happened! Again, I apologize for not updating in soooo long! I had to force myslef to finish this chapter. Personally, I don't really like this chapter compared to upcoming chapters in the future. But I have to advance the story somehow! R&R please! Thanks! PS. I'd like to hear comments about the new charcaters, the set-up of the story and anything that might help me improve on the story! Thanks again!