1Thank you all who reviewed! Anyway, here is the next chapter. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean
Chapter 6: Rescue
Cliff and I waited outside of the transporter room. After ten or fifteen minutes had passed, the announcement system turned on.
"Everyone who is participating in rescuing Dr. Leingod report to the transporter room at this time," said Maria. In the next few seconds people slowly started walking over to where Cliff and I were standing. Fayt came first, followed by the two Quark soldiers going down to Elicoor II with is, and finally Mirage and Maria. Maria looked around at all of us. "Is everyone ready?" We all nodded. "Good, then let's go down there and rescue Dr. Leingod."
"But first we have to beat the crap out of the Vendeeni," I said as I spun the handle of my swallow and reattached it to my belt.
"Your right about that Alex, they aren't going to give Dr. Leingod up so easily," said Cliff.
"It would be so much easier if they would actually cooperate with other races than themselves," said Maria.
"They're just overly arrogant and they prefer to handle things by themselves, those are some of the biggest reasons they would never cooperate with humans or any other race," said Mirage.
"Anyway, let's go."
"Be careful everyone."
"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine," said Fayt.
"I'm leaving you in control, Mirage," said Maria.
"Roger, Captain," said Mirage.
"See you soon." We walked into the transporter room and within a few seconds we were all on Elicoor II. We were inside that arena that was shown on that screen earlier. I looked around at the scenery, it was quiet, too quiet. The silence was broken as the Vendeeni transported down with Sophia and Dr. Leingod. But then something else transported down. It was some sort of mechanical device.
"What the?" I asked.
"A transport jammer?" Exclaimed Fayt.
"Hand over the boy," said Biwig as he gestured for Fayt to come over to him.
"I thought we had a deal!" Said Maria.
"Did you? Don't play stupid, you human scum are always up to dirty tricks. Just look at your equipment, what is that suggesting?"
"It's called coming prepared."
"Whatever, now hand over the boy."
"No! Run!" Exclaimed Sophia. The two Quark soldiers to my right and left pulled out their guns, but before they could fire the Vendeeni had out-drew them and the two soldiers were killed.
"No!" Exclaimed Maria.
"Take the boy alive, kill the rest!" Ordered Biwig. I activated my swallow and got ready to fight. The two Vendeeni soldiers went down pretty quick since they were sorely outnumbered. I walked over to where Sophia and Dr. Leingod were standing.
"Just a second, I'll get rid of these shackles," I said. I snapped my finger in front of both of their shackles. There was a flash of light and the shackles had completely disappeared. Sophia got up, looked back at me, and nodded. Then she ran over to Fayt and embraced him.
"Fayt!" Exclaimed Sophia. Dr. Leingod had gotten up as well.
"Thank you. By the way, who are you?" Asked Dr. Leingod.
"Don't worry about it. Anyway, my name is Alex Rothrock." The two of us walked back over to the others.
"Seems the tables have turned," said Maria.
"Yes, it would appear so... or so you would like to think," said Biwig. Suddenly three mechanical things transported down. They were shaped like spiders and they were pretty damn big.
"Wait, a transport jammer is here!" Exclaimed Cliff.
"Our technology only blocks those we want it to," said Biwig.
"Looks like a retreat is in order for now," I said.
"Your right. Alex, you will be at the end of our line. If they pursue, hold them off to buy us time to escape," said Maria.
"You got it," I said. I activated my swallow again and we started running. These spider like things were faster than I had thought. Maria should have just said: "I want you to hold them off and buy us some time." I stopped at the exit of the arena and got into a fighting stance. I cut the first spider like machine in half and I stabbed the other spider like machine in it's face. I pulled out my swallow just in time to block several disrupter rifle blasts. I looked up to see that several Vendeeni soldiers had been transported down. Man, these guys have a lot of reinforcements on their ship. They must have been planning this all along. I cut up a few more foes until I heard Maria call from the very end of the hallway.
"Alex! Fall back!" Good thing she told me that, I was starting to get sorely outnumbered. Almost every second six more enemies were transported down. Soon I was facing well over sixty foes. I can't do much against these guys if I limit my powers like I am doing now. But I can't show much more power than this, everyone will start to get suspicious about how I suddenly became so powerful. But that doesn't mean that I can't increase the output a little bit. Normally I keep the output at a limit of 10 of it's normal capacity, but on some occasions I will raise it up. If I were to raise it to 100 I would be as strong as Luther when he is in the Eternal Sphere and he has activated what we call: "Angel mode". I raised my max to about 4 higher and I put my swallow away. I started running down the hallway towards everyone else. Within four seconds flat I had gone from the exit of the arena all the way to where everyone was waiting for me.
"Wow, that was fast," said Fayt.
"Let's go, they are following us," I said. We ran down a few hallways and we got near a door. Fayt looked back to see Sophia limping behind us.
"Are you okay Sophia?" Asked Fayt.
"Yeah, I'm fine," said Sophia. Fayt bent down.
"Let me see your leg." Sophia pulled up her right pant leg up a little bit to reveal a bloody wound. Must have been from that battle earlier.
"Why didn't you tell me you were hurt?" Exclaimed Fayt.
"I didn't want to slow you guys down," said Sophia.
"Let's find somewhere to hide for now," said Maria. We entered the nearby room, it was a good sized kitchen with plenty of space. I looked back to hear the sound of footsteps.
"Damn, they just keep coming," I said.
"I'll distract them. You take a break Alex," said Cliff. He stepped outside and partially closed the door.
"There's one!" Exclaimed a Vendeeni soldier as they ran past the door. There was a few moments of silence.
"Their transport jammer should have a 2-kilometer range of effect, right?" Asked Maria as she broke the silence.
"That is our technology, the Vendeeni technology might have a greater range of effect," said Dr. Leingod.
"We can discuss what to do when Cliff get's back," said Fayt. He looked over at his father. "In the meantime, there is something I want to ask you Dad."
"So you finally found out," said Dr. Leingod. He took a deep breath and continued talking. "Know this: I never once thought of you as a tool for my research. You were born because your Mother and I wanted a child of our own. It's time I..."
"Tell us why! How could you perform genetic engineering on your own son?" Exploded Maria. I almost jumped ten feet in the air from the unexpected outburst from Maria. I never knew she could be that loud. Dr. Leingod looked at Maria and then back at his son.
"Who is she?"
"That's Maria Traydor, leader of Quark. You performed genetic engineering on her too," explained Fayt.
"Traydor? So you must be Jessie's child."
"Explain yourself Dr. Leingod, I think we have the right to know!" Exclaimed Maria. Dr. Leingod was silent for a moment and then he spoke.
"I did it for the sake of our Universe." For their Universe? Does that mean that Dr. Leingod knows about us?
"Our Universe? How could manipulating our genes be related to such a grand scale?" Asked Maria.
"It's true, I modified your genes to counter an enemy that would one day threaten the existence of all that lives." I felt uneasy hearing this, they are getting closer to finding out the truth. If they discover the truth about me and the Eternal Sphere then I will be in a lot of danger. "I can't explain it here, all I ask is that you trust me for now."
"Is that it? You expect us to accept an answer like that?" Asked Maria furiously.
"Maria..." Said Fayt slowly.
"That's not what I wanted to hear!" Shouted Maria. I looked over at Maria.
"I can understand how you couldn't accept an answer like that. But Dr. Leingod is right, now is not the time to discuss..."
"You don't understand! You don't know a damn thing! None of this is any of your concern or business! So stay out of it!" Shouted Maria as she turned her glare at me.
"I know that!" I shouted starting to get a little mad about getting dished out crap for no reason. Maria seemed a bit taken aback at my reply. "I know this is none of my business, I understand that very well. But think logically here and look at our situation. We are in a kitchen, in a building that is overrun and under control of the enemy that is looking for us! We don't have time to sit down and talk things over, if we do that we will be found and most of us will get killed! Would you rather find out why Dr. Leingod manipulated your genes in this world or the AFTERLIFE? We should discuss this in a more safer place like the Diplo wouldn't you agree?" Maria looked down at the ground and then looked back up at me.
"Your... your right Alex. I'm sorry, I lost my cool. I didn't mean to..." I simply raised my hand.
"It's alright. Your reaction is understandable."
"Alex, right?" Asked Dr. Leingod. I looked back at him.
"Yeah, that's my name." Dr. Leingod looked at my clothes and then he looked back into my eyes. Suddenly his eyes widened and he gasped. "You, you're..." Dr. Leingod's shock disappeared. "I never would have expected someone else besides them from where you come from. Why are you here?" So Dr. Leingod really does know where I am from and he knows about the Executioners. I guess I can tell him a few things.
"I was stuck here after a certain incident. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get out before they came. But don't worry, I will try to reason with him when I get back."
"I see... that might work. But I am still going to go with my original plans."
"I suppose you will explain what those plans are when we get out of here."
"Yes."
"What are you two talking about?" Asked Maria.
"It's nothing, don't worry about it," I said. Maria gave me a suspicious look.
"Yo, I'm back," said Cliff. "I cleared out all the enemies in this area. But more will be coming soon."
"With that transport jammer we have no choice but to make a stand," said Fayt.
"Sounds like a plan," I said.
"I'll contact the Diplo and tell them our plan," said Maria as she activated her communicator. "Maria to Diplo."
"I'm here," said Marietta.
"That Biwig is using a transport jammer. We are going to destroy it and defeat the Vendeeni, be ready to transport us up at that time."
"Cannot comply!"
"What's wrong?"
"The Dasvanu is currently attacking us, we have our hands full just trying to stay alive. Transports as this time would lead to disaster!" In the background there was the sound of the ship being hit by something.
"Where's the Aquaelie? It should have been there by now."
"It's being blocked by another Vendeeni ship, it needs more time!"
"Hold the Vendeeni off as best you can."
"Roger." Maria turned off her communicator.
"Damn, they must have been planning this all along," said Cliff.
"If the Vendeeni are busy fighting too, I doubt they are going to get anymore reinforcements," said Fayt.
"You've got a good point, Fayt," said Sophia.
"Then let's go and take advantage of this situation," I said.
"Let's go back up to that arena, it's time for round two," said Maria. We left the kitchen and made our way back to the Arena. We pulled out our weapons and ran out into the arena. Dr. Leingod and Sophia stayed at the entrance to the Arena.
"You've put up a nice fight, I'll give you that. But it ends now, hand over the boy!" Said Biwig. "I will say it once, it is futile. You can't transport up but we can keep on transporting reinforcements down, there's no escape." Biwig started laughing.
"The only reason you have the advantage is..." I started.
"Because of that thing you fool!" Finished another voice.
"Huh?" I looked up to see someone jump from the top of the arena wall. The person drew their sword and slashed the transport jammer in half, destroying it. The person looked back at Biwig, it was Albel.
"What the?" Asked Cliff.
"Albel?" Asked Fayt.
"Are you so confident about your so called: 'upper hand' now?" Taunted Albel with a sneer.
"Damn you!" Exclaimed Biwig as he shot several blasts at Albel. Albel had managed to dodge a few but then one of them grazed his shoulder. He let out a scream and fell to the ground.
"Biwig!" Exclaimed Fayt furiously.
"The destruction of our transport jammer means nothing. Our flagship can crush your flagship any second, minute, hour, day, month, year, decade, century, millennium, whenever the hell it is we can still crush you." Just as Biwig finished a group consisting of several Quark soldiers and Lieber transported down.
"You were saying?" I asked.
"Captain! Are you okay?" Asked Lieber as he turned around to look at Maria.
"What is going on? Where are the next batch of reinforcements?" Asked Biwig. The nearest Vendeeni soldier whispered something to Biwig. "What? The Aquaelie? Damn!" Biwig pulled out his communicator. "Dasvanu! Transport us up!" Biwig and his soldiers disappeared.
"Thanks, that was close," said Maria.
"No problem," said Lieber.
"Give me a status report."
"The Aquaelie just arrived, the Dasvanu stands no chance against the Diplo and the Aquaelie combined." Sophia and Dr. Leingod walked over to where we were. Maria pulled out her communicator and contacted the Diplo. I walked over to Fayt, Cliff, and Sophia who were kneeling before Albel. Albel had a wound that was between minor and major. Albel will be fine, but if we don't get him medical attention soon he will die.
"Horrible..." Said Sophia as she looked at the wound.
"What are you doing here?" Asked Fayt.
"This... is my turf... decided to drop by... and this happened..." Said Albel and then he passed out.
"Let's get him back to the Diplo, I am sure they can do something about his wound."
"Hey guys," said Maria. We turned around to face her. "The Dasvanu was just destroyed."
"Some good news," I sighed.
"But it's not over yet," said Maria as she turned off her communicator.
"Huh?" Asked Fayt.
"According to Marietta the Dasvanu sent something down before it's destroyed." I looked up at the northern wall of the Arena and activated my swallow.
"Some people just don't know when to die," I said. Everyone looked up to see Biwig with his disrupter rifle aimed at Fayt.
"If I can't use you, I shall eliminate you!" Exclaimed Biwig as he fired his disrupter rifle.
"No!" Exclaimed Dr. Leingod as he pushed Fayt out of the way. With a huge burst of speed I ran in front of Dr. Leingod and blocked the disrupter rifle blast.
"What the?" Exclaimed Biwig.
"Your not killing anybody!" I exclaimed.
"Get out of the way you meddling fool!"
"If you want me out of the way, you'll have to kill me first!"
"Then so be it!" Exclaimed Biwig as he shot a storm of blasts at me. I blocked all of them and then I started rushing towards the wall. I activated the gravity delay program and I started running up the wall. Biwig started firing shots at me again. I blocked them and as I got near the top Biwig slammed the back of his rifle into my gut and I was sent flying back. "Take this!" Biwig pulled something out of his pocket that was round and was blinking. He threw several of them at me, my guess was that they were bombs.
"Strike flip!" I exclaimed. In a blast of air I back flipped away from the bombs. I was just in time because as I got further away they exploded. "SWALLOW BOMB!" I focused energy into my swallow and I threw it at Biwig. As it impaled him there was an explosion of energy, killing him instantly. I back flipped several times and I landed on the ground on my two feet. I got up and snapped my finger. The swallow rose out of Biwig's corpse and flew back to me. I caught it and deactivated it.
"You've got some interesting attacks, Alex. I have never seen anything like those before," said Maria.
"Yeah, where on earth did you learn how to do things like that?" Asked Cliff.
"It's just something I can do," I said with a grin and shrugged. Everyone sighed.
"That's Alex for you," said Fayt.
"Always providing wise guy comments like that," finished Maria. Maria's communicator started beeping. Maria activated her communicator.
"Captain, are you guys okay? What did they send?" Asked Marietta.
"Biwig came back down, Alex just finished him off a few seconds ago."
"Alright. Mirage they are okay."
"That's a relief. We will transport all of you up in one minutes time," said Mirage. Just as Mirage said, within a minute we were all transported up to the Diplo. Sophia and Albel got treatment for their wounds. The rest of us were in the meeting room, waiting to hear any news about how Albel's wounds were healing. Maria looked over at Dr. Leingod.
"Now, I think it's time you explained a few things for us," said Maria.
"Your right, I owe you and my son an explanation. I have all the data you want at my lab. It would be easier if we go there and I will be able to explain everything down to the last detail," said Dr. Leingod.
"There have been several searches in your lab for data of that sort but nothing was found. Unless you know of something that we don't."
"Yes, there is a hidden file. Only I know how to access it."
"Then it's off to Moonbase," said Cliff.
"Moonbase? Sounds interesting, I want to check that place out," said a voice at the door. We turned around to see Albel standing there.
"What?" Asked Fayt.
"Do you even know what you are saying? There is the possibility that you may never return back to Elicoor II," said Maria.
"Yeah, so? The war is over and there is no excitement left in Airyglyph. Besides, I was starting to get really bored there anyway," said Albel.
"Do you really know what you are getting yourself into?" Asked Sophia.
"No, but whatever it is I will not slow you down at all."
"Well, I don't see why you can't come with us," said Fayt.
"You serious about that? He's from an underdeveloped planet, this is a completely different world for him," I said.
"Well you know Albel, he will go with us even if we don't want him to."
"I suppose." Fayt looked over at Cliff, Maria, Sophia, and his father.
"What about you guys?"
"I don't have a problem with it," said Cliff.
"No objections fro me," said Maria.
"If he wants to come, then I don't see why not," said Sophia.
"Are you sure about that, Fayt? If the feds find out there could be a lot of trouble," said Dr. Leingod.
"I don't think they will care too much about it," said Cliff.
"Good to have you with us," said Fayt as he looked over at Albel. There was a beep and the announcement system turned on.
"Captain, we received a transmission from the Aquaelie," said Mirage.
"Alright, I will be there in just a moment," said Maria. We proceeded to walk up to the bridge. On screen was Commodore Wittcomb.
"It's good to see that you are safe, Dr. Leingod," said Commodore Wittcomb.
"It is thanks to everyone here," said Dr. Leingod.
"Now that you have been rescued from the Vendeeni this may give the Federation some hope." Dr. Leingod looked down at the ground.
"So they really have come at last."
"Perhaps we should discuss this on my ship, would that be possible?" Dr. Leingod looked over at Maria.
"Would you mind?"
"If that's alright with you Commodore. Quark and the Federation aren't exactly friends," said Maria.
"The Aquaelie is my ship, and on my ship I decide who is friend or foe," said Commodore Wittcomb.
"Alright, we'll be over there in a few minutes."
"Commodore, could you take us to Federation Station#5?" Asked Dr. Leingod.
"Federation Station#5? That's..."
"Yes the place where my lab is."
"Why do you need to go there?"
"There is a hidden file that only I know how to access is contains the data about this upcoming crisis."
"I see, very well then. We will go to Moonbase. Bring only the required personnel." The screen went blank.
"Okay, so I will go, Fayt is going, Cliff is going, Albel is going, Sophia is going, Dr. Leingod is going, and Alex is going," said Maria. Maria looked over at Mirage and Marietta. "I am leaving you two in control, take care of her while I am gone."
"Roger," said Mirage.
"Captain... be careful," said Marietta.
"Will do," said Maria. As we started walking towards the transporter room Maria looked back at me.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I want to apologize for getting you involved in this, I am sure that you want to get back to your team."
"It's alright, besides I am quite interested in the turn of events that have been going on lately."
"Once things quiet down we will get you back to Styx."
"Okay." We went to the transporter room and within a single second we were on the Aquaelie. A man by the name of Lieutenant Fields escorted us to the Conference room where we all sat down.
"It will take us awhile to get to Moonbase, in the meantime I will explain our current situation," said Commodore Wittcomb. He exhaled and then he started talking again. "The entire galaxy is currently under attack by a new force that we were unaware of until now. We do not know much about them yet but we did receive one transmission from them."
"So who are they?" Asked Fayt.
"They call themselves the Executioners, emissaries of the Creator." So it really is the Executioners, Luther is playing a risky move to go around proclaiming things like Executioners and the Creator. If the people of the Eternal Sphere manage to put two and two together along with doing some logical thinking and research we will be in a lot of trouble, especially me. The show is over for me if everyone else finds out about my origins.
"The Creator?" Asked Sophia.
"It's not uncommon for dictators to claim divine origin," explained Commodore Wittcomb. He looked over at Dr. Leingod. "Apparently Dr. Leingod here discovered the existence of these beings long ago."
"That's right. That's what led me to genetically engineering my own son and Maria," said Dr. Leingod.
"But what good would a few humans do against a fleet of battleships? They don't look like weapons."
"But I destroyed the Invisible," said Maria.
"What? You did that?"
"And Fayt here neutralized a Vendeeni ship," I said.
"I see, then maybe we really do stand a chance against this new threat." There was a beep.
"Bridge to Commodore we have received a transmission from Federation Station#9," said someone from the bridge.
"Display it."
"Yes sir." A screen popped up, it was covered in static and it was hard to hear what the person was saying. But I managed to decipher this:
"Commodore! ...'re under att...k by a group callin... them... selves the Executioners! Req...ing immediate... Gah! Th...those aren't ships! What are they? Are... are they gods?" The screen went blank and there was dead silence.
"We've lost the signal. Federation Station#9 has been... obliterated!"
"What? Obliterated?" Exclaimed Commodore Wittcomb.
"Orders Commodore?"
"Maintain our present course."
"Yes sir." Commodore Wittcomb looked over at us.
"We will be at Moonbase within twelve hours. Take this time to rest up." We left the room and either went to our rooms or walked around in the hallways. I stood in one of the hallways looking out the window. The stars looked peaceful, but soon everything will be thrown into chaos. Once the Executioners reach the planet Earth, everything will begin.
I was afraid that I was too late, that I couldn't stop the Executioners at this point. But I had to try, there was still hope. What I was more afraid of was the possibility of Fayt and the others finding out the truth about me and the Eternal Sphere. If they find out about that then I would be in a lot of trouble. But after seeing that incident occur before my eyes I felt that death didn't seem so bad anymore.
So what incident is Alex talking about? You'll find out in the next chapter. Anyway, please review.