Hey everyone! I'm back! My wireless situation is still finally settled! Sorry for the delay, but this chapter should make it up to you all. Enjoy!

Sly Cooper and the Space Thieves

Chapter 22- The Survivor

The crew of the Dragon Thief stared in shock at the scene that was before them. Beowulf spoke after a long silence. "What in the name of Crystala happened out there?" "I don't know," said Sly as he looked at the pair of wrecked ships drifting in space. "It looked like those two ships were engaged in a big battle, with neither of them as the victor." Jacor guessed. "One of those ships is Mantian, no doubt about that. But I have no idea who the other ship belonged to." Just then, Bentley got on the line again.

"Sly, my scanners detect a single life form near the wreckage. It looks like it is near the top right-hand corner of the second ship. It may be a survivor." Everyone got tense. Sly then decided to find this survivor. "Murray, take us closer to the unidentified vessel and see if you can see anything." The big hippo obeyed and took the Dragon Thief closer to the wreckage. When they were a few kilometers away, Murray halted the ship. Everyone looked carefully at the spot where Bentley picked up the life form. It took only a few seconds to spot something in that direction.

Something was floating on top of the ship, and it was held on by a cable that had come undone from the wreckage. Upon closer inspection, it was some kind of pod. "Bentley, I think we found what you detected. Penelope, teleport that pod to the medical room. Whoever is inside may be injured." The mouse hesitated. "Um, are you sure it didn't come from the Mantian vessel?" she asked nervously. "I'm sure, that Mantian insignia is not on that pod anywhere. Besides, it looks to small for any of Kanog's cronies to fit in," Sly assured her. Without another delay, Penelope activated the transporter.

The pod instantly vanished from the screen in a flash of light. A second later, Penelope told everyone that the pod was onboard. "Good work Penelope. Now let's see who we just saved." Sly got up and walked to the medical room with the others following behind him. When they arrived, they got a real good look at the pod that they brought in. It was triangle-shaped, red with orange stripes, and had an unfamiliar symbol: It resembled a red bird standing proudly between two swords. It appeared to be undamaged.

"Well," Sly spoke, "shall we?" Bentley looked over the pod with curiosity. "I've never seen a pod like this. I don't know how to open it. It may take a while to figure out how…" But before the turtle could finish his sentence, the pod hatch unclamped itself and slowly began to open. Mist came out of it as the hatch opened, and the gang stepped back a little. 'Whatever is inside that contraption may not be Mantian, but that doesn't mean it isn't hostile,' thought Jacor. Everyone else seemed to have thought the same thing. Finally the hatch was completely open, and a figure got up and stepped out of it.

The new alien appeared bird-like. It stood on two claw-like legs, about 6ft tall, and wore an orange uniform with a few medals on it. He had the head of a peregrine falcon with red feathers, black eyes, and a golden beak. It also had a scar on its left eye. It looked tough and battle weary. When it looked around and saw Sly and the others, it looked surprised. It began to speak in a calm, yet troubled voice. It sounded like a male. "Who are you? Where am I? What has happened to my ship?"

Sly and the gang stared at the bird alien with troubled looks of their own. Sly decided to speak first. "Hey, it's alright. No one here is going to hurt you. Just relax." The stranger looked at Sly for a moment, and then he relaxed a bit. "I believe you. Now please tell me, who are you and what is going on here?" Sly smiled as he introduced himself. "My name is Sly Cooper, captain of the Dragon Thief, the ship you are on." He then pointed to his friends. "These are my friends: Carmelita Fox, Murray, Bentley, Guru, Penelope, Panda King, and Dimitri. And they," he pointed to Beowulf and Jacor, "are my most recent allies, King Beowulf of Crystala and Chancellor Jacor of Dolphus."

The wolf and the dolphin nodded at the stranger with smiles on their faces. He looked honored to meet other leaders. "I am honored to be in the presence of other leaders. I am Captain Rovax from the world of Dramar." He said as he bowed to them. "You were the ones who found my pod out in space?" Carmelita answered. "Yea, we saw it in the middle of the 2-ship wreckage outside. We transported you in here in case of injuries." Rovax looked stunned. "Did you say wreckage?" She nodded. Rovax then sat down on one of the chairs in the room, his face in his hands.

"So it did work, the other ship was destroyed. The only cost was my own," the captain said to himself. Sly and the rest looked confused. "Captain Rovax, what are you talking about?" asked Sly. Rovax looked up at their faces with a deeply troubled look. "You mean you did not see what happened out there before you found me?" he asked. They all shook their heads. The captain then gave a big sigh. "Very well, I'll tell you what happened. It will not be a pleasant story." The whole gang waited for the Dramaran captain to begin his story. He took a deep breath, and began to talk.

"It all started when Queen Wingdra, my planet's leader, asked me to test out our new flagship, the Talon. I was honored to be given the task, and I lost no time in finding a fine crew to operate it. We took off several hours later, entering outer space. We were testing our engines and navigational systems. All seemed to work perfectly. I was pleased so far. I decided to test our weapons on some of the asteroids that surround our solar system. Before we got into range to fire them, however, something completely unexpected happened: We were attacked." Everyone looked surprised at this.

He continued. "It came out of nowhere and attacked us for no reason. I had ordered the Talon's shields to be activated. They did, but not before we took some damage. I have tried to contact the other ship to get answers, but it did not respond. It just kept firing at us. So I decided if that they wanted a fight, we would give them one. My crew began to fire on the other ship in retaliation. However, the unknown vessel had shields too. Nothing we used could get through, and we were losing our shields fast.

"I decided to use our most powerful weapon: The Power Disrupter. It was designed to not only knock out an enemy ship's shields, but to disable all their operating systems as well. I knew it was a big risk to take because it was never tested, but we had no choice. The Power Disrupter was fired and it hit the enemy ship. To my intense relief and the relief of the crew, it had worked; the ship was completely disabled. However, our ship took a bit of damage too. I was informed that the effects of the disrupter would wear off in 15 minutes.

"I had an opportunity to destroy the hostile craft with everything we got, but I did not take that opportunity. It would be a cowardly thing to do, to kill an enemy when he is down and being defenseless. Besides, I want answers from them. Luckily, their communication systems were still operational. So we tried to contact them again, and this time they responded. I saw a big alien wearing grey armor and had a really pissed look on his face. I had asked him to identify himself and why he attacked my ship without warning. He said, "It does not matter why we attacked you, it is no concern of yours. As soon as our weapons are online again, we will destroy you all." The screen went blank.

"It was clear to me that these aliens are completely hostile and would not hesitate to destroy anyone that got in their way. I had then made a real tough decision. I ordered my crew to evacuate the Talon to the emergency escape ships and to return to Dramar to inform the queen of what has happened. I stayed behind and made an extremely risky move. I had set the ship's thrusters to fire at maximum so that when the Talon hit the other ship with its shields down, it would destroy it. Once the crew was safely out of range, I activated a timer to fire the thrusters in 30 seconds.

"I ran to the stasis hold and got into one of the pods, my only way of surviving. It was designed to open in a breathable atmosphere. I tried to eject the pod before the ship moved, but there was a malfunction. My pod would not eject; I was stuck onboard. Then the thrusters fired and the ship moved with great speed. I did not know what happened after that, for the pod had put me to sleep. I didn't know anything until I woke up here, in this unfamiliar vessel." He finished his story with a relieved look. Everyone was amazed by these events. "I am very glad to hear that the other ship didn't survive my little counterattack, even though my ship was destroyed as well. I just wish I knew who they were and why they attacked without cause!" He shouted in frustration.

Sly then sat down with the bird captain. "We know who attacked you, Captain Rovax." Rovax looked up at Sly with surprise on his face. "You do?" Sly nodded. "Then please, tell me what you know of those renegades." Sly told him with a tense voice. "They were the Mantians, a race of aliens that conquers planets one after another. Their leader is Emperor Kanog, and he is the worst of them all. We knew it was them because we recognized their symbol on the hull of their busted ship." Rovax sat there, stunned by this new information. "I see. If you don't mind me asking, how is it that you know about them?"

Sly then told the captain everything that has happened to him and his friends since Kanog abducted them from Earth, with Beowulf and Jacor giving their own stories to Sly's to make it more understandable. When they were finished, Rovax was more surprised and shocked than when he got out of his pod. After a moment or two, he spoke again. "What you have told me is unbelievable, yet it all makes sense! This Kanog must be stopped!" "I agree with you Captain," said Jacor, "but one thing still doesn't add up." "What is that?" Panda King asked.

"Why would a Mantian ship be all the way out here? They came here for a reason, a reason they would not give to Captain Rovax. But what could it be?" "I think I know." Bentley spoke up. He handed a busted looking device into the dolphin's hand. "What is that thing, Bentley?" Sly asked. The turtle turned to Sly and answered. "I found it inside the power core chamber while Penelope and I were repairing the Dragon Thief back on Beowulf's planet. It is some kind of tracking device. We forgot to tell you earlier. It must have gotten smashed when we crashed on Crystala."

Everyone in the room was shocked at this. "A tracking device, on our ship?" Carmelita said in disbelief. Bentley nodded. "It must have been installed shortly after they had converted our ship into a space vessel. They have been tracking us since we left Plaxis Prime." No one could believe that this happened right under their noses! "But why would they put a tracking device on your ship, and why was it not discovered earlier?" Beowulf asked him. "I think it must have been cloaked, just like the Mantian ship that attacked Rovax was. As for why they were tracking us, I guess Kanog wanted to make sure nothing went wrong."

"They must have thought that we had found the device and destroyed it, not knowing it was smashed by accident." Penelope said. "When they have lost track of us, Kanog must have felt that we we're on to him and decided to send a ship after us. And when that ship arrived in this system, it ran into Rovax's ship and wanted to get rid of anything that got in the way of its mission. I'll bet old Kanog knows what had happened to his search ship by now. He'll think we took it out." She finished.

"If that is the case," said Sly, "then that means he'll probably send another one to come after us." "I don't think so." Jacor said. "Since Kanog knows that we are on to him, he will take a more defensive approach. For all we know, he could be waiting for you all to return. I have a strong feeling he will prepare a defense force around his planet that will make it impossible for you all to get through." Nobody said anything for a while. Panda King broke the silence. "But we won't be fighting alone; we have your fleet to aid us in the upcoming battle."

Everyone agreed but Jacor. "Maybe so, but we will still be outnumbered, even with Yanor's rebel forces to aid us. I had hoped that we would catch him with his guard down, but now that he is aware of you acting against him he will be well prepared for the strike." Sly and the others stood there in thought. Rovax had gotten an idea. "I think I can help." Everyone turned to the bird captain. "What do you mean?" Beowulf asked. Rovax answered with confidence. "If we could make a quick stop to my planet and speak to Queen Wingdra, I'll bet you're problem of being "outnumbered" will be solved. I know the queen and I am sure she will be willing to help you."

Sly smiled at this idea. "I hope so, any help will be appreciated. What do you guys think?" The others smiled and agreed with Rovax's suggestion. Pleased at this, Sly turned back to the falcon. "Sure, just tell us where your planet is and we'll get this thing started." Rovax smirked. "Great, if we play our cards right, Emperor Kanog will get a taste of what happens when he messes with the Dramarans and its new allies."