Hi, everyone! I know I said I'd update on saturdays, but this week I won't be available that day for... personal reasons, so I decided to update a little bit before time. Things will start getting intense from this point on.
Lost
Chapter 3- The Sobrekt
Spittle Runner. Deep Space.
If there was something Lena would trust with her life, it was her instinct.
It was thanks to it that she had come so far. Some had wondered if she was insane for following mere instinctive thoughts instead of the PAK's logical reasoning, only to watch in astonishment as her 'hunch' turned out to be true.
It was thanks to the feeling in her squeedly-spooch that she made her way to the hangar in time to see Ilk sneaking into one of the Spittle Runners. She barely managed to sneak inside as she took off; wow, for a smeet Ilk surely had a good hang of spacecraft driving.
Lena's panic started when Ilk drove away from the safety of the Armada and into space. What was she thinking? If they were spotted by an enemy vessel they wouldn't hesitate to either bring them down or capture them.
Which is why she decided to step forward with crossed arms and a serious expression. "Ilk, what do you think you're doing?"
Ilk jumped in surprise, momentarily making the ship tremble in the process, and turned to her. "L-Lena? What are you doing here?"
"I could ask the same thing, Ilk." Lena responded in a serious tone.
"Well, I was just… I'm only…"
"You stole a Spittle Runner and now endanger yourself by flying away from the Armada."
Seeing she had been caught, Ilk sighed. "I just… I just needed to get away from it all, okay?" she leaned against the pilot's seat. "From dad and his secrets, from Larb trying to stick to me all the time, from having to train to be an Invader when I don't want to be one…!"
Lena's frown softened, but it didn't disappear. "Ilk, I understand how you feel, but what does this achieve?" she gestured to their surroundings in the ship.
"Probably a whole week worth of grounding…"
Well, at least she did understand that actions had consequences. "You do realize I have an obligation to report this to the Tallest, don't you?"
Oh, right, the famous rules. "That's okay. I wouldn't like dad and uncle Pur to throw you out of the airlock when you're very nice." Ilk stepped of the pilot's seat to allow Lena to sit in it. She dialed some of the buttons, and a few seconds later the bridge of the Massive appeared on the monitor.
"What on Irk…?" Red looked surprised; clearly he hadn't been expecting this. "Doctor Lena? Ilk?! What is the meaning of this, why are you two on a Spittle Runner?!"
"My Tallest, I'm sorry to inform you I caught Ilk here stealing one." Lena explained, going straight to the point.
She felt partly bad for Ilk when Tallest Red glared at her; it wasn't like those glares he gave to drones or 'inferior' Irkens, it was more like the typical glare a father gave to his misbehaving child. "You and I are going to have a long talk, young lady."
"I know." Ilk said, her antenna dropping.
"Now you've really done it, Ilk." Purple commented.
"You too."
"Why me?!"
Red crossed his arms and asked matter-of-factly. "Who taught her how to fly that thing?"
Purple merely took a sip from his soda.
With his point made clear, Red's attention shifted to Lena again. "Come back to the Massive immediately."
"Yes, My Tal-"
She hadn't even finished the sentence when suddenly something struck the Spittle Runner, sending Ilk backwards and Lena off the pilot's seat, setting off the alarm.
"What happened?!" Red asked.
"I don't know, My Tallest…!" Another violent jerk. Lena managed to catch Ilk in mid-air before she got hurt.
"Somebody track their location-!" Purple's order was cut off as suddenly the transmission was abruptly ended.
When the jerking finally stopped, something cut through the Spittle Runner's surface above. A long, bluish plasma blade sliced a big, perfect circle on the ceiling, then a pair of sharp claws lifted the 'lid'.
Lena realized what was happening before Ilk could recover from the fright, and pulled the smeet closer as her PAK-legs extended out and she got ready to fight. It wasn't her specialty, but she would defend her Tallest's child with her life if necessary.
Her bravado almost vanished when a Sobrekt slid through the hole and landed a few meters away. He looked at her with slit pupils and frowned.
"I thought your contact said she would be alone!" he said, looking up at the entryway.
"That's what he said!" somebody replied.
The Sobrekt muttered something under his breath and looked at Lena. "Look, lady, I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I'll be brief: hand over the smeet and we'll let you go free."
Lena narrowed her eyes. "If you want her, you'll have to go through me." She hissed.
It happened too quicky. One of her PAK-legs swiftly went in for the Sobrekt's abdomen, but he merely sidestepped, grabbed the leg and jerked her closer in a pull with such strength she couldn't resist. He grabbed her by the throat, causing the PAK-legs to retreat, but Lena's grip on the frightened smeet never wavered.
The Sobrekt examined them for a few seconds before he looked up. "Echo, do we have space for one more?"
"One more?" a feminine voice asked.
"Yes or no will suffice, we don't have time to argue!"
"Yes!"
The last thing Lena felt was Ilk being torn out of her protective hold, then darkness…
Captain had seen lots of things, but this was interesting.
The female they captured along their target had an unusual height for an Irken, which meant she probably had a high rank in the Armada, and the way she held the Irken-child made him wonder if she was her mother. No, it couldn't be, as far as he knew Irken-children were not employed as soldiers.
Which raised even more questions: why was this Irken-child in the Irken Armada's flagship then?
"Let go off me!" the Irken-child cried out, wiggling in Captain's hold as he returned to the Ibris through the same hole, while carrying the unconscious Irkenette on his shoulder.
"Ha, we did it!" Masouri cheered, already holding a bottle of grootbeer. "Who wants a toast?"
"I'll have one." Foxtrot lifted a cardboar vase.
"This mision isn't over yet until we're back on Sobr and hand her over to the Shuryo," Captain reminded them. "Besides, now we have an... extra guest."
The Irken-child continued to wiggle in a feeble attempt to free herself. "Wait until my dad finds out about this! He's going to blow you all up!"
"How about we save the discussion for later?" Echo said with a roll of her eyes. "They contacted the Massive before we interrupted the transmission. If we stay for long the Armada will blow us up."
Captain nodded and looked at Masouri. "Get us out of here."
"On it, Captain!" Masouri pressed some buttons and pulled a few levers, releasing the now-empty Spittle Runner into space, activating the ship's camouflage and then flying the ship away to prepare the hyperdrive.
"So what do we do with her?" Foxtrot inquired, pointing a clawed finger at the tall Irkenette.
"We take her along for the time being. The Shuryo will decide what to do with her," Captain looked at the Irken-child. "You, on the other hand… We have big plans for you." He called out. "Blue, come here!"
The Kryvtor in question walked into the ship's bridge. His scales were a silvery shade of grayish blue with a metallic blue stripe with white edges running horizontally down his eye down to the tip of his tail. His feather crest was an icy azure as well.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Take our… guest to her 'suite', will you?" Captain stated.
"What about the other one?" Blue pointed out.
"I'll deal with the tall one, you take care of the Package."
Blue glanced at the Irken-child curiously before nodding. "Aye, Captain."
Ilk had never been so frightened in her entire life.
She knew little about the Sobrekt other than whatever article she managed to get her hands on, but she knew enough to realize she and Lena were in danger.
Blue was almost as tall as her father, and currently he was dragging her into the ship by the arm despite her attempts at somehow slipping it from his grip. "Let go of me!"
"Be careful, miss, you don't want me to use my claws." Blue said with strange politeness. What? Just because she was a prisoner didn't mean he had to be rude, right?
"What is that big croc going to do to Lena?!"
Blue blinked at the unfamiliar term, but decided to save the question of what a 'croc' was for later. "Your companion will not be harmed, if that's what worries you. Captain will just make sure she cannot use her PAK," he noticed Ilk going pale. "They won't remove it, if that's what worries you. Foxtrot will run a small virus that will prevent her from accessing the tools, other than that it will function normally."
"What do you want with me?!"
Blue looked at her again. So she didn't know… This would make things a little more difficult, it would be futile to interrogate her. Oh, well, as long as they got what they came for.
As they were going through one of the corridors and passing by what seemed to be a sort of cage, a long, clawed arm swiftly stuck through the bars and reached out for Ilk; Blue managed to pull her back just in time.
"Fury, don't do that!" he snapped at the Indokuro inside. "In half an hour we'll get home, okay?"
Fury snorted and went back to sulking on the back of his cage, banging the bars with his long whip-like tail.
"Sorry about that, Indokuros hate cages." Blue apologized, but there was no reply. He looked down at Ilk and noticed she was frozen, staring at Fury with wide eyes and dropped antenna. "Miss?"
Ilk didn't hear anything he said. The mere sight of the beast, Blue called it an Indokuro, brought back memories of those nights as a smeet; the times she'd wake up screaming, kicking at her covers in an attempt to scare away the Shadow that haunted her dreams, wailing her squeedly-spooch out until her father came into her room and held her close, saying it was just a nightmare.
I'm scared, daddy... Can I... Can I sleep with you tonight?
She remained frozen as Blue had to carry her the rest of the way to the cell blocks, gently placed her inside one and placed a thin but warm blanket on top of her before stepping out and activating the cell's forcefield to block the only way out.
As soon as she had something she could hide in, Ilk buried herself underneath the blanket and started to sob.
The Massive.
Both Tallest almost had a squeedly-spooch attack when the transmission was cut off out of sudden.
They immediately sent two dozen ships to retrieve the Spittle Runner, but by the time they retrieved it had been too late.
It was empty.
The engineer that examined it noted the hole on the superior part of the Runner had been cut with plasma blades, and the dents on the sides coincided with the lockholding claws used by certain spacecraft to hold smaller ships while the crew assaulted it.
What species is known for its laser induced plasma tools and space-pirating habits?
"I'M BLOWING UP THEIR SCALY ASSES IN TWO!"
The pilots flinched when Bob was thrown against the wall without any sort of consideration (which scattered lots of nachos and doughnuts around) by Tallest Red, and Skoodge was next. Purple watched as his co-Tallest vented off his frustration with whoever was unfortunate enough to be in front of him.
Okay, that was the twelfth. Maybe now would be a good time to get him to calm down. "H-Hey, Red, it's okay… Calm down-"
Bad idea. "MY DAUGHTER WAS TAKEN BY THOSE OVERGROWN, PEA-BRAINED, COLD-BLOODED REPTILES AND YOU TELL ME TO CALM DOWN?!"
"Well, you won't achieve anything by just throwing random pilots against the wall," Purple pointed out. "Let's calm down and think what to do. The newbie doctor is with her anyhow, she won't let anything happen to her," he added quickly. "She better not."
Right. Lena. Yes, she'd make sure Ilk was safe.
And he hated to admit it, but Purple was right. Yelling random insults and threats wasn't going to help Ilk, he had to keep his head cool. First he'd save Ilk and Lena (why was he so worried about her too, now that he think of it?), then he'd blow Sobr into tiny million bits.
"Should we set course for Sobr, My Tallest?" one of the pilots asked.
"I don't think they'd take her there," Larb commented. And being Larb, his word was taken into account by the Tallest. "If they're such tactical geniuses they wouldn't risk their homeworld knowing we'd go after them. Even if they did, surely they must have a counter measure if we appear at Sobr."
"One of the planets they conquered is a research station, maybe they took her there?" Tenn pointed out. "I mean, whatever they want with her must have to do with what happened to the Moondrop flower."
Frankly they still couldn't believe the Sobrekt made such a ruckus over a stupid plant! Sure, the Irkens had stolen it, withered it and didn't even bother to give it back, but it had been for a good cause; it was thanks to it that Ilk was still around for them to worry about.
"Actually, I have a better idea as to figure out where they took her." Red said. He'd have to reveal his little secret, but he'd worry about that later. He ushered some technicians away from the nearest console and started sending some commands through the buttons.
A few seconds later a map of the universe appeared on the monitor, and a tiny, moving red spot was beeping just a few space kilometers away from their location before turning pale white.
Tenn blinked. "Is that what I think it is?"
Red nodded. "Yes."
"You put a tracker on Ilk?" Purple asked before anyone else could get ahead. "That's a bit exaggerate, don't you think?"
"I did it because I love her! And as you can see, thanks to this we'll know where the Sobrekt are taking her as soon as their ship leaves hyper-space."
"But really, a tracker?"
Skoodge pointed at the monitor. "Look!"
The tracker's signal had turned red again and appeared a good distance away from their position. However, that area of the map was completely blank; it was unexplored territory, at least for the Irkens.
Then the signal simply disappeared.
"That's weird," Skoodge pointed out. "Why did it just… vanish? You don't think…?"
Red didn't allow him to finish the sentence. "Prepare a ship. I'm going to save my daughter personally."
"I'm in!" Larb announced.
"Me too!" Tenn followed.
Skoodge and Stink joined in, the former because he really wanted to help save Ilk and the latter because he didn't want Larb to take all the credit again.
"Oh, no, if you think you'll leave me hanging here by myself you're wrong. I'm going to save my niece too! Meanwhile…" Purple looked around and pointed at the tallest pilot. "You are in charge."
Said pilot saluted.
Red was unimpressed, "If you want to come hurry up. I'm leaving in five minutes." That being said, he was off down the hall to don his battle armor.
He would save Ilk. And Lena too now that he was on it.
The Ibris. Unknown System.
"What on Sobr…?"
The Ibris was coming out of hyper-space, but there were supposed to be ten more minutes to go. Masouri tried to check what was happening, but the console had shut down for a reason he couldn't explain. The emergency lights lit up seconds later only to flicker in and out every few seconds.
"Masouri, what's happening?!" Foxtrot started typing into the console himself, but the computer was out.
"I don't know, everything just shut off!" Masouri looked through the bridge's window and noticed they were flying towards a planet whose surface was covered in thick gray clouds. "Oh, shit…"
Captain and Echo rushed into the bridge. "Masouri, what's going on?!" The former asked in alarm.
Masouri growled. "I don't know! Everything's shut down and we're being attracted by the gravitational field of that planet!" he pointed at the dust-covered giant just outside. Seriously, why did everybody think that he knew the answer every time something happened with the ship? Sure, he was the pilot and mechanic of the Ibris, but there were certain things that were out of his control.
This was one of those situations.
"Well, do something to fix it!" Captain snapped.
"The problem is we don't have anything to fix it with, Captain! Whatever shut us down also affected the energy systems!"
"And the computer!" Foxtrot groaned, letting his closed fist fall on top of the keyboard.
"In other words, we're going to have a very rough landing." Echo summed it up.
Foxtrot and Masouri exchanged glances. The former then nodded. "Yup."
At that moment, Blue burst in. "Masouri-!"
The kryvtor got on his feet and snarled. "I swear, if I hear 'what's going on' one more time I'll throw myself out of the airlock!"
Blue lifted his hands defensively. "Actually I wanted to tell you the engines are down…"
Echo glanced up at Captain. "Orders, sir?"
"By the way, I don't mean to rush you but we seem to be entering the mesosphere!" Masouri whined.
Captain didn't have much time to ponder on their options; whatever they did, however, they had to make sure the Package remained alive and breathing.
"To the escape pods! NOW!" he glanced at Blue and then Masouri. "Blue, you take the two Irkens with you! Masouri, you take the egg!"
Blue nodded.
"Everyone, the meeting point will be the Ibris's crash-site! Take whatever supplies you can before departing! Now GO!"
After a quick salute, the group separated for the time being. Blue immediately went to Fury's cage, where the Indokuro was pounding against the bars like mad. "I know, I'm letting you out!" Since the electronic lock was deactivated he was able to lift the gate the old fashioned way, and was aided by Fury lending him a hand with his head.
"Fury, eyes on me, listen carefully!" Blue grabbed the Indokuro's head and looked into his eyes. "Fetch the two green-skins from the cells and bring them to the escape pods! Quickly! Go!"
With that he sent him on his way, and the Indokuro ran through the corridors and into the detention blocks.
The Ibris's detention cells, meanwhile...
Lena finally started to regain consciousness. The first thing she noticed was that she was locked in a cell in an unknown ship… No wait, there were no bars or any force fields blocking the entryway.
"Lena!" Ilk was clinging unto her, trying to shake her awake. "Thank Irk, Lena! Wake up!"
"What… Ilk?" Lena rubbed her sore head as her senses returned. "Where are we…?"
"We were captured by Sobrekt! But for some reason the cells opened, we have to get to an escape pod and contact dad!"
Lena only needed to hear the word 'Sobrekt' to realize they were in danger. Though her head was still throbbing she managed to get on her feet while Ilk helped her stand up. But when she tried to bring out her PAK-legs, they didn't respond.
"The Sobrekt put a virus on your PAK so you wouldn't be able to use your tools!" Ilk cried.
Lena cursed in Irken. Great, it meant they would have to get away the old-fashioned way. "Stay close to me, Ilk!" She grabbed Ilk's hand and led her out of the cell.
Both stopped when the Indokuro stopped at the doorway leading into the corridor and gave a loud shriek. Ilk immediately hid behind Lena, freezing at the sight of the creature.
"Stay away!" Lena snarled, pushing Ilk further behind her in an attempt to keep her out of the creature's sight.
The ship began to tremble and shook violently, moment he took advantage of to rush forward and grab Lena's thin waist in one large, clawed hand, while holding Ilk by the skirt of her dress in his jaws.
Lena wiggled in the creature's hold, but he was restraining her arms too. "Let us go, you monster!"
Fury ignored them and rushed through the halls until arriving to the escape pods; two were already missing, leaving only one left (the Ibris was a small vessel designed for an equally small crew); Blue was already waiting outside.
"Good boy, Fury!" Blue congratulated his indokuro with a pat in the neck. "Now get in!"
"What is going on?!" Lena shrieked as Fury hopped into the escape pod, finally releasing her and Ilk. Lena pulled Ilk closer when Blue entered the pod and closed it; it was a little cramped in there with Fury half-curled up inside.
"In short, the ship shut down and we're going to crashland!" Blue stated, typing a few commands into the manual pad. "Hang on tight, we're going to have a rough landing!"
"What?!"
Too late. Blue pressed the button that sent the escape pod flying out of the ship.
The pod shook violently for a few seconds as it fell down towards the surface; it took about twenty seconds it to go through the layer of clouds concealing it from view, and by the time it did Blue managed to see mountains and forests covered in what seemed to be snow.
He didn't have time to admire the scenery as the pod crashed.
His head came into contact against the wall with such force his consciousness faded.
Looks like things have gone south. Hopefully it'll get better... right? I mean, what can possibly go wrong?
Next chapter: Our heroes become stranded on an unknown planet, and soon after get some unexpected arrivals.