Chapter 37: Far Drop Attacked
Date: April 30, 3658
Location: Brink
A week. That was all they needed for hell to come after them. They had found, from an anonymous source, that Duke Skyheed was experimenting on his own people with dark eco and as it turned out Phoenix was, actually, an ex-soldier in Skyheed's army and the castaway had actually been the lead scientist on the dark eco project that would had led to Jak being experimented upon.
'Talk about going full circle,' Daxter thought as he steered the Jolly Roger towards Far Drop for a supply run. Then to top things off, the Duke now had the eco core which had been hidden under the old research station that had been built over an old Precursorean building. "So now we have a super strong, super insane Duke high up on dark eco and has an ego larger than Gol's Precursor robot head had been," Daxter said, causing Jak to look at him. "Am I missing anything?"
"Ancient dark gods trying to destroy our world," she added causing Daxter's eye to twitch.
"Sometimes I hate being the good guy," Daxter mumbled as his scanner suddenly began to go off. "It's an S.O.S. from Far Drop!"
Phoenix frowned. "What does it say?" he demanded upon approaching the helm.
"The Aropians are attacking Far Drop," Daxter answered as he scrolled through the message.
"Damn it!" Phoenix cursed. "Before his betrayal and death, Klouse must have given the location to Far Drop to them." He turned towards Jak. "Jak, I implore you, please help us protect Far Drop and no matter what, I personally will take you to find the channelers who live out in the Brink."
"I knew it!" Daxter cried out. "You know where they are!"
Jak looked back at Phoenix, the look on his face was serious. "I'll do this, but if you go back on your word..."
"I'll personally allow you to gut me," he promised.
Jak smirked at this. "Deal," she said shaking his hand. "Daxter, take the Precursorean ship, Phoenix can handle the Jolly Roger, while Adriana and I will fight using dark eco attacks."
Daxter nodded. "I'll focus on the air ships while you two take out the mothership," he countered.
"I hate to do this," Phoenix began. "But it's possible that there are still innocent people upon that ship."
"We won't destroy it," Jak assured him. "Instead we will just damage it to the point that they'll have no choice but to retreat."
With the agreement settled upon, Jak and Daxter quickly left the bridge to go to the docking area, leaving Phoenix alone with the other two helmsmen. "Sir?" one began, his hair was a bluish color, as were his eyes. "Are you truly going to give them the whereabouts of the others?"
"What about your father's wishes to remain hidden from the world?" the second male asked, his hair a bright yellowish orange color with amber colored eyes to match.
"If the world is to burn, would you wish to watch it and your loved ones die?" he asked the two. "Or, would you do everything in your power to protect them and fight for your right to life?" He looked at both men, neither knowing what to say. "I say to you that I will fight with every breath in me to live or die trying."
Jak felt her body shift into the flight form that Adriana had transformed into when they'd encountered the Flying Fortress in Spargus City. Thinking of her father's city, she was curious as to how they were fairing without her. She knew the wastelanders were some of the toughest people around, but that didn't mean she didn't worry about those of them that she considered her friends.
Flexing her wings, stretching her fingers out and readying herself for her fight, Jak pulled her sword from its scapboard. The sword seeming to sing at the chance at being used. As the docking bay doors opened, with one flap of her wings the dark eco empowered channeler jumped out of the doors and into the open air. It was refreshing to have the air going through the now white hair and caressing her skin like a long lost lover.
'Speaking of lovers,' Adriana thought, causing Jak to raise a pale brow. Looking to her right, she watched as Daxter brought the Precursor ship out. Chuckling, Jak landed on the roof of the ship, saving time and energy by hitching a ride upon the old ship. As they neared Far Drop, Jak's overly sensitive ears picked up screams for help and of death by the citizens of the pirate base. Growling, she felt a deep hatred fill her.
Through the smoke and haze of burning building, she spotted the mothership. Within her ear the communication device sounded with Daxter's voice. "Focus that anger on the bad guy in front of us babe," he told her. "Afterwards we'll protect the citizens from the foot soldiers."
Nodding in agreement, Jak took flight once more. Gathering in her hand what was considered a dark bomb, she chucked it towards the large ship that had the eco core at the top of it. The shield came down immediately, but suddenly the eco core shot out tiny balls of eco towards her. Gasping with wide eyes, she quickly evaded the balls as they exploded behind her.
In the cockpit of the Precursor ship, Daxter felt his jaw drop as the balls of eco shot out towards Jak. Of course, Jak evaded them easily. Getting an idea, Daxter began to scan the eco core and found that Skyheed had intergrated all the ship systems into the eco core. "Jak!" he yelled into his microphone. "If you overload the eco core you'll overload the ship's systems! Skyheed will have no choice but to leave and find a safe place to fix the ship."
"Thanks Daxter!" she yelled back.
Daxter then caught sight of the air ships coming out of the docking area. "Lookie, lookie..." he said sounding happy as the three ships seemed to ignore him for Jak. "Watch your six babe," he told her as he flew in and began to shoot the ships to smithereens. Ship parts scattering everywhere as the super-heated laser beams shot through the holds, damages engine parts and the integrity of the air ships. "Woohoo!" Daxter yelled as a grin spread across his face.
Suddenly a dozen more ships shot out from the docking bay from either side of the ship. Turning his ship away from the Far Drop cove system, Daxter took to the free space outside of the caves. The small air ships followed before they began shooting at him.
"I know you ain't shootin' that shit at me!" he yelled at them as he barrel-rolled his ship to evade before turning it around headed back towards the smaller ships. Activating the Viral VI, he typed into the system total destruction of the smaller ships. As he passed the ships from below them, he ejected small magnetic balls that attached to the undersides of the air ships. Moments later, the VI's activated and launched their viruses that caused all twelve ships to explode.
"Hell yeah!" Daxter yelled happily. "Hey, babe. Remind me to thank Annalina for this ship. I love the gadgets in here."
Jak chuckled at Daxter's words. "Sure," she said as she once again chucked another dark bomb at the mothership. The eco core sent more eco balls towards her, causing her to evade it. The ship then began shooting its canons at her, only for her to create a dark shield around herself. 'Okay, how'd we do that?' she asked the dark creature who just chuckled at her question.
Shaking her head, Jak focused an electrical ball of dark energy between her hands before shooting it towards the ship. The canons exploded into a fiery show of explosions.
Just then a ball of blue condensed eco shot towards the eco core, causing the eco core to overheat. A blast of eco exploded into the air from eco core. The large ship then began to retreat. "Jak," Phoenix's voice came over the comm system. "You go help the people of Far Drop, while I stay here to help Daxter take care of the small air ships."
"Sure thing," she said as she swooped down towards the town. Upon seeing Barter and several other pirates putting up a resistance against the foot soldiers, Jak chucked a ball of eco at the soldiers who were destroyed by the eco.
Landing in front of the group, Jak wasn't too surprised when their guns turned towards her. Returning to her original form, she held her hands up. "Wait, I'm on your side!" she yelled at them.
"Jak!" Barter yelled in surprise. The lurker creature ran towards her. "We need your help. Since you can fly, you can get to the different levels of Far Drop faster. Save our people and we will reward you."
"I'd do it for free," she said. "Besides, Phoenix is already paying me."
"Even better!" Barter yelled happily as he threw her a gun mod for a new collapsible staff weapon. "Press the red button and you get a blaster gun that shoots electrified armor piercing bullets," he explained gaining a grin from the dark channeler.
"Thanks," Jak thanked him as she transformed once again. Her wings flexing before she took to the air. The screams of her enemies quickly filling the air.
M-Angel: Sorry for not updating this story. I've been ignoring a few stories lately and I'm sorry for not updating like I said I would. Any way, I just got a job, so a few of my other stories will suffer from not being updated as often too. At least until I get use to my new schedule. I hope everyone enjoyed this update!
xoxoangii: Woo hoo! We're getting to the good stuff. See you guys in the reviews. 😊