Disclaimer: Sorry for the long delay. I ended up having to rewrite the fight scene in this chapter. I love this chapter, and I hope you enjoy it as well. Thanks to all who've reviewed so far.
By the time Sky arrived at the scene, it was dusk and the only thing that aided in sight were the fires caused by the crash.
The S.P.S. Tantalus was one of SPD's first scout ships into the galaxy, in search of crime and corruption. How ironic that its ultimate fate would be to house the very criminals it captured amongst its various revolving door cast of crewmates. The pirates upheld the SPD code of honor loosely; they stole, lied, and cheated their way into the pockets of the rich, but they were always first in line to aid SPD and their affiliates (if it was assured that they weren't turned in, of course…) along with dishing out their own style of vigilante justice.
The pirates (who would call themselves The Marauders) stuck to the standard system of SPD ranking: A Squad did all of the high-priority missions and had a set of five officers; B Squad did detailed work and cleaned up after A Squad, bolstering another set of five members. C Squad did menial jobs such as recon work and mercenary jobs for SPD, along with various heist jobs and quick swindles, and had a group number of five; D squad was the lowest class and was usually used as a distraction group, as every member of D Squad possessed talents, abilities, or skills that were critical in catching the attention of C Squad's victims, and there were only four of them.
D Squad was the smallest in size, but largest in potential; the group was always comprised of children and young adults, and the ship's captain took a liking to this group above all. He had them put on musical shows and plays, although he occasionally had them practice thieving and robbing on fairly unprotected areas, and he trained them to be excellent warriors of various fields of combat. However, as free, unobligated, and low ranking as they were, they always seemed to feel wanted, needed, and respected.
Sky sighed as he inspected the hull of the ship. He never wanted to see the ship again, but as fate would have it, he couldn't escape it.
"Welcome back." He muttered to himself as he began to climb up the ladder to the main access point.
Sky walked in expecting the smell of death to be overwhelming, but when he made his way out of the depressurizing chamber, a warm smell of patchouli and mixed flowers rose up to greet him. If the dents in the walls and the disheveled furniture hadn't made mentions to a massacre happening in the ship, Sky would've thought that he had suddenly warped onto another ship entirely.
An eerie reminder of days gone by sat on the couch; a splintered violin and a snapped bow had been half-smushed into the cushions. Paintings scattered around the coffee table drenched in various colors of blood stuck to the floor and furniture, but refused to give off a strong odor that came with coagulated blood. The whole room was cold; Sky felt like dozens of cold hands were reaching out to drag him to the rest of them as he traveled through the lounge, towards the dormitories.
There were four common rooms, each with three rooms jutting off from it, and although the SPD code of co-ed rooms was nullified, the rule stating that all forms of fornication were subject to an ejection of both parties was still intact. Nobody had ever been ejected, although boys and girls sharing rooms was a common sight (especially among pairs that had been together before joining The Marauders).
Sky entered the D Squad Commons and took the first door on his left. The smell of old books and dried paint surrounded him like an airborne plague as he entered the room.
The bed to the left was shrouded in red; red sheets, red pillows, red plush comfort pillow, and even a red hand camera sat on the pillow. Sky smiled and took the camera. He checked the memory card holder and found a small chip inside. He smiled and pulled out the chip, sliding it into the small pocket on the inside of his uniform's jacket. He then looked at the rest of the room, trying to salvage what he could.
The night stand separating the two beds held several things, including a picture of the room's previous owners; a young boy and girl, who were dressed in a blue tuxedo and a red cocktail dress respectively, smiling brightly at the camera in an attempt to show off how tired they were from their last gig. Sky frowned a bit, and turned the picture face down. He then bent down and looked underneath the bed on the right, digging out the blue comfort pillow that had been tossed there during the owner's last visit. He then turned around and grabbed the red comfort pillow, then took a metal suitcase in the walk-in closet. He opened up the suitcase, shoved the red comfort pillow on the bottom, then placed the blue pillow on top of it.
Sky then headed toward the front of the ship, dodging fallen debris and turning corners, quickly entering the main area of the ship. With a gentle swing of his right arm, his force field was made and he used it to smash into the control room door at the end of the hallway. Both the strength of Sky's force field and the speed at which he was going was enough to severely dent and shatter the locks on the steel doors, allowing Sky to use the edge of his shield like a crowbar and wedge it open. He walked in and slowly looked around, gently setting the suitcase down on the ground. He stared at the wide commander's bay window that still was spattered in blood, in the empty command center that was devoid of corpses, and spotted a set of lights turn on, indicating that something had just turned on. He turned around to his right and noticed the security station, although half of the monitors were smashed, he could tell that the machine was hardly touched. Somebody wanted the records kept intact, it seemed.
"Well, well, well, Mordom, it seems your ego has been your demise." Sky commented with a smile. He picked up the suitcase and walked over to the security station. Within a few moments and a few keystrokes, he saved the computer's entire security camera backlog onto a single removable zip disk. He removed the disk and smiled as he opened up the suitcase and slid the disk between the pillows, making sure not to scratch the disk's smooth surface. He then closed up his suitcase, shut the security station down and began to leave.
He got to the doorframe and heard a noise. He turned and spotted a Krybot.
"Oh no you don't…" Sky said, chasing down the Krybot. He heard a mini-explosion before he turned the corner, followed by a shout.
"Dammit! Why are you following me?" It was Corona. Sky rounded the corner and spotted Corona shouting at Bridge as he was holstering his regulation pistol.
Sky looked at the situation and assessed that Bridge had obviously shot the Krybot as it turned the corner, and that the Krybot, from its position, may have attempted to attack Corona. However, the reasoning as to why both of them were in the hallway was still not apparent.
"I was just doing what I was to-" Bridge noticed Sky at the end of the hall and nearly jumped. "Sky! What are you doing here?" Bridge asked.
"I'm here on a mission. What're you two doing here?"
"This is my old home, Schuyler. I'm here to see if I left anything behind." Corona replied. She then pointed at Bridge. "He's the suspicious one; he's been stalking me all night!"
"Cruger assigned me to keep an eye on you and keep Grumm from getting his hands on you." Bridge replied.
"I can take care of myself!" Corona shouted.
"So that's what you two were doing together this morning?" Sky asked.
"That was a misunderstanding. My stupid AI program set us up without my permission."
"Sure it did." Sky said with a sly grin.
"Oh shut up." She then spotted the suitcase. "Hey! That's my suitcase!"
"I'm using it for the moment, and I'll give it back when I'm done. That is, if you can behave yourself until we return to base. I'll see to it that Cruger goes easy on you for sneaking out."
"Sky, give her a bit of a break. I mean, if my former residence crashed into the ground after not being in it for a while, I'd visit to see if everything was okay, too." Bridge replied.
Sky looked down. He had to admit, Bridge had a point. "Alright, I'll mark it down as a moment of curiosity…if I'm asked. Now let's go. None of us need to be here anymore."
As Sky began to walk down the hallway towards the auxiliary exit, Corona cleared her throat. "Schuyler, what happened to the memory chip in my camera?"
"I don't know."
"And my comfort pillow?"
"Not sure."
"And what about-"
"Shut it!" She jumped slightly, then sighed. Sky was being an asshole again. The sounds of several more Krybots approaching alerted the trio, giving Sky and Bridge a reason to draw their pistols. Two Krybots jumped out in front of Sky and two of them ran up behind Bridge. The sound of more footsteps was becoming heavier.
"Oh crap. We're screwed." Bridge replied.
"Not necessarily…Schuyler…?" Corona seemed to be making a reference Sky understood.
"Absolutely not."
"Fine, the three of us can die because you're being selfish."
Sky huffed. "Fine. Let's make this quick." Sky and Corona stood back to back, then quickly threw up their shields. Corona's natural shield expanded from her body; it seemed to be a bit painful for her to be doing it. Sky dropped the suitcase gently behind his back. "Alright now, Bridge, get between us." The Krybots were intent on closing in around the trio, which was becoming a bad situation, since more of them were coming down the hallway from both directions.
Bridge gave Sky a strange look, then wedged himself between Corona and Sky, facing Sky's back. "That good?" Bridge asked.
"Of course. Now gimme your hands and get this over with."
Corona sighed, then interlocked her fingers with Sky's. The shields began to meld at the sides, turning both a shade of lavender.
"Your hands are cold." Sky commented.
"It's not exactly warm in here." Corona chimed back.
As the shields were beginning to fully meld, a Bluehead ran around the corner and fired at Corona. She made a pained noise and flinched as the Bluehead struck part of the shield that was still red.
"I wish this would happen faster…" Corona commented.
As soon as the lavender shield was finished, Sky and Corona began to move in Sky's forward direction. The sudden jolt of movement caught Bridge off guard and sent him falling face-first into the inside of the shield. Luckily it didn't cause any damage.
"Oops, sorry Bridge." Corona said as Bridge pushed himself back up. "Grab the suitcase and walk with my feet."
"Okay." Bridge grabbed the suitcase and slowly walked along with Sky and Corona As more Krybots and Blueheads started moving in, Sky and Corona became more and more mentally strained by having to withstand all of their attacks.
"Alright, I'm gonna charge the ones in front of us. Get ready." Sky warned. Three seconds later, Sky bent into a running position, then started to sprint. The expected response was for Bridge and Corona to fly forwards, but neither of them did. In fact, this time they kept up. They rammed into the front line of Krybots, shooting an energy wave through the ranks and smashing the front line into the back lines. It completely decimated the ranks and cleared a path for the trio to escape. However, Corona was having difficulties holding up the flank. Her shield, even though it was reinforced by Sky's shield, was not strong enough to hold up to several shots connecting at the same time.
"Schuyler, turn around! This really hurts! I don't know how much longed I can keep this up…"
"Guys, lemme morph and draw fire. I'm not doing anybody any good by being wedged in here." Bridge suddenly interjected.
"Okay, here's what we do. I'll turn around, and you can drop your shield, and Bridge can morph."
"Got it." Bridge and Corona simultaneously replied. Sky suddenly turned to his right, giving Corona a chance to let go of Sky's right hand and letting Bridge out of the shield on the safe side with the suitcase in hand. Bridge set the suitcase down as soon as Sky was facing the Krybots and Blueheads.
"SPD! Emergency!" Bridge called out, morphing into the B Squad Green Ranger in record time. He quickly set up his Deltamax Striker.
"After we destroy these Krybots, we're going to split up. Bridge, you're going to escort Miss Tantalus to her vehicle through the exit down that hallway, and I'm going to sweep the rest of this ship. Is that understood?"
"Affirmative." Corona dropped her shield as Bridge replied.
Bridge took aim over a corner of Sky's shield and began shooting. He quickly took out the Bluehead but was nearly hit while the two Blueheads that had just run up in front of Sky fired at what little of Bridge's body was outside a shield.
"Whoa!" Bridge ducked and fired off several shots in response. A Bluehead snuck up behind the trio and fired at Corona. She tried to put up her shield, but the well-aimed shot to the head knocked her down. Bridge caught her and quickly retaliated by firing off several shots and taking out the last of the Krybots that had been closing in on her.
"Sky, Corona's down. What should we do?"
"Get that Bluehead!" Sky replied. Bridge replied by firing three shots straight into its helmet, causing major sparks to erupt from its head and dropping it like a potato sack. Bridge went to help Corona up, but she pushed him off.
"Hey, I'm okay, I'm okay…" Corona said as she got up. "Just a little fall, needed to recover, and I'm okay now." She smiled as she clenched her fist. The shield around her hand began to elongate and shot up to a point, imitating a large spike.
"Okay, I'm ready." Corona said, charging towards several Krybots that had just arrived up the back area. As she jammed the shield spike into the Krybots, she punctured their armor, ruptured their internal mechanics, and utterly destroyed them. As Bridge took care of the rest of the Krybots in front of Sky, Sky dropped his shield and morphed as well.
"Okay, you two go that way. I'll meet you at the front." Corona and Bridge nodded, then headed towards the entrance.
Sky grabbed the suitcase and took the other way out of the ship, taking out the Krybots who had snuck in for a sneak attack.
"This is almost too easy!" Sky said with a smile. He ran outside the door to see a horrifying scene; nearly four dozen Krybots waiting near the bottom of the ship, waiting for Bridge and Corona to run through the front door. He started drawing fire as soon as Bridge and Corona ran out the door. He leaped off the back of the ship and started firing at the Krybots. He destroyed several of them before they began to respond; this gave Bridge enough time to take out all the Blueheads, while Corona made her way through the Krybots with Sky's backup fire.
By the time Sky reached the ground, most of the Krybots and Blueheads were destroyed. "Guys! Let's go! I see more Krybots coming this way!" Corona shouted.
"We gotta get rid of them, then!" Sky replied.
"No, it's too risky!" Bridge shot back.
"We can't let them take the ship!"
"Why not? You have what Cruger wants, right? Nothing else is important!"
"It's just…" Sky turned around and sighed. It was a lost cause to go back, so he dropped it. "let's just go." Bridge and Sky powered down as they reached their Patrol Cycles. The trio returned to SPD Headquarters promptly.
As they arrived at Headquarters, Sky briskly walked past Corona and Bridge, which pissed Corona off.
"Hey, aren't you even going to thank us?"
"You shouldn't have been there anyways."
"You would've been dead without us!" Corona replied.
"Doesn't change the point of the matter. That was my job, and you're not authorized to be there."
"Damn you, Schuyler! Why can't you just drop the asshole attitude?"
Sky didn't respond. He was too busy caught up in the debriefing to listen. Besides, he had some clips of his own to watch.