Disclaimer: I don't own the BLoSC series or the movie. Now, on to the chapter!
Chapter 7
Attack on Star Command
Captain Stellaris Luna clenched the throttle as the fleet of Andromeda Star Cruisers approached the armed enemy ships from a thousand parsecs away; including the intimidating and ominous Dreadnaught stationed in the middle of the fleet before them.
Both she and Tobias are seated at the pilot seats. While Bronx was stationed behind them, monitoring the enemy ships from his radar and his face is too close to the screen, tapping his foot vigorously. The waiting was starting to get to him.
He needs to back off a little from the screen. Stellaris thought. Otherwise he'll have sore eyes from long exposure of digital light.
She glanced at Tobias' side and saw a mini Mahambas hula doll on his dashboard, jiggling from the engine's vibrations.
Somehow looking at miniature alien girl dancing calms her nerves a little. She was thankful for Tobias' weird knacks for collecting souvenirs wherever they went on missions to different planets.
BEEP BEEP
"This is Commander Nebula speaking," one of the small monitors from the side flickered on with the image of their Commander on screen, "Any movements from the enemy line?" he asked.
"None, sir. But we will remain vigilant." said Captain Luna.
"That's what I like to hear. Commander Nebula out." The video screen automatically shuts off and she could see her co-pilot slouched in his seat.
"I hope this battle will end soon. There's a party that I have to attend later, you know," said Tobias, relaxing both of his arms on the side of the chair.
She remembered her first time meeting him was at the Ranger Academy's welcoming ceremony. For her first impression of the reptilian male, she sees him like a punk, always wearing a black leather jacket and ringlets with spikes. A teenager with a bad attitude and he was put in her class.
Rumors spread across campus about the reason why he was sent there. His parents were politicians from their home world and they were fed up with his rebellious behavior. They thought that sending him to a military camp academy would straighten up his attitude.
But it gave an opposite effect.
Instead, he became more playful, rowdy and pulling pranks to his fellow rangers, receiving glares and dissapointmet from every faculty teachers.
Despite his reputation as the wild boy in the campus, he managed to rank eighth, one of the top ten graduates of the academy. When he was called on stage to join with the top ten Space Cadets, imagine seeing all the teacher's faces, their jaws fall to the ground as Tobias flashed them with a toothy smile.
She was there on stage as the batch's top graduate when they announced his name. His own kind of charm put a smile on her face.
"This is not the right time for that, Tobias," Bronx fumed, taking his eyes off from the screen to stare at Tobias when he said that.
"Can't be helped. A rookie from the lower years invited me to a party. I think his name starts with a W? Oh well~ It's going to be a HUGE one he said." Tobias exclaimed excitedly.
"This is a serious matter!"
"Don't get your panties in a twist, Bronx. The party time is after working hours. So I'm not breaking any rules and you need to relax more, my friend."
"There's an enemy fleet ahead of us and you are more concern about the party than the safety of the Galactic Alliance?" Bronx asked stiffly.
As for Bronx's case, when she and Tobias were assigned together and got back from a mission, Commander Nebula added Bronx to the team and things have gone hectic between the two boys.
They would bicker at each other all the time. Whenever they went out for a patrol, Bronx would reprimand Tobias for one of his playful mood during a stakeout outside the home of a Senator. That's what she get for having two members of her team with two different personalities clashing one another.
Or the time when he swooped in through the door of the building caught on fire to rescue a trapped person inside and Bronx was worried and mad at Tobias' recklessness.
She doesn't know how she was able to handle these two for years but thank Venus for the blessing that she can.
Her reptilian teammate was shocked and immediately turned around to face Bronx, "That's just ridiculous! Of course the lives of important people ARE important. Why do you think they are so important in the first place?"
Bronx just eye rolled at that statement.
Time for her two break up the two.
Captain Luna chuckled, "Yes, you're right about that, Tobias. But stay frosty, gents. Who knows when Zurg will strike, it could be in any moment now. Are we clear?"
"Yes, Captain!" Both of them said at the same time as they returned to their positions.
"That's the spirit." She steady the wheel to autopilot while she thought of about the enemy's formation. While they were in line defense formation, a fleet blockade one. The opposing side on the other hand moves in a triangular position, letting the Dreadnaught hovered in the middle of many star crafts.
As the lead ship of Star Cruisers, she knows the ins and outs of the battle from numerous conflicts with Zurg's empire since her rookie years.
She can calculate her enemy's movements beforehand and thinking of the best route for victory thanks to her intensive training back at Juran and the Academy days.
But there are times where she felt uneasy. Despite the overall percentage of winning against Zurg when odds were against them, it felt like something bad is going to happen and this made her more cautious than usual.
She could feel the pressure of the throttle unit breaking under her strong grip. Maybe Zurg has some other diabolical plan in mind than a simple invasion to Star Command. She can't be the only one who realizes it.
The ill feeling started when she was called to MedBay by Commander Nebula for a brief meeting.
"Gone? What do you mean by gone, Commander?"
She was at the MedBay station, sitting at the commander's side while he recovers from the static numbness still left in his body. Of course, he is still grouchy about the intruder and thus his hate for machines doubled.
"The surveillance footage from the Control Room got deleted after the LGM's investigated it for few minutes. They speculated that there was a virus left from the system and it targeted the last piece of evidence, removing any bits of pixels of that stinky hunk of metal intruder." said Commander Nebula, gritting his teeth in irritation.
"That's…that's impossible, sir," Captain Luna said in concern, "there's no one in the galaxy who's capable of that kind of hacking." She stressed.
"Well, Ranger Luna, it seems we have encountered ourselves a new unknown enemy." Commander Nebula replied, laying down on the MedBay bed while massaging his temples.
"There's also a reason why we don't let the media know about this incident."
Commander Nebula handed over a tablet to her. Once the device is on her hands, Captain Luna opened the file with a message inside.
…Dare to reveal my being, I'll release a virus so strong that you'll never operate Star Command again…
The vicious message worries her as she slowly spoke with heaviness.
"This would be classified as Threat-level SSS, closed to Zurg's level, sir."
There are different classification of threat levels for criminals from newbies to experienced ones. Most common criminals are rank below or after level A and S. Senior officers were assigned to keep an eye on those with level S criminal rank, most belong to mafia bosses to crime lord of multiple organizations.
Zurg was the only one with a threat level of SSS, with massive weapons of destruction and an army of Hornets at his disposal…until now. Only this time, it involves Cyber Crimes of the highest calibre.
"Don't worry about it, Ranger. The LGMs were able to find the bugged virus linking to our power systems," he said, "I have already contacted the Cyber Division team to work on its deletion."
Commander Nebula stretched out his arms forward, relief to feel his arms fully active, "It might take some time to decode and destroy the virus completely."
"So…postponing maintenance check for now?" she asked.
"Yeah. We can't risk activating the virus."
"Do you think it's done by Zurg, sir?" Captain Luna asked.
"I would always know that this is that bucket head's doing. I can't trust the words from that robot even if he had a paper stating "I'M NOT ONE OF ZURG'S MEN" signed by him," the Commander said with frustration.
Commander Nebula gave her the full details on what happened between him and the intruder. She, too, would be foolish enough to trust the intruder's words.
"Anyways. Ranger Luna, the reason I called you down here is that I'm assigning a mission for you and your team. Alone. Since you are the last person to view the footage, I have no doubts that you will recognize him on sight. Understood?" Commander Nebula asked.
She knew that he means serious business by the stiff tone of his voice as she stood up and saluted at him.
"That won't be a problem, sir."
"Good, find out about this intruder and bring him to justice. I'm counting on you, Ranger."
After an hour or two of her visit, they were able to get rid of the virus and Commander Nebula put a team to check all networks in the base just in case there's more. At least that lessened their worries for their base of operations.
"This made me wonder who had the guts to invade the base and beat up the Commander," Tobias said while stretching his legs.
"Don't you remember?," Bronx responded ," That was not the case. The fiend clearly wanted something from the archives. Commander probably intervened by coincidence then the two engaged in combat."
"Yet, there's no sign on any of the files being downloaded when its clearly seen by Commander that it did," Tobias was confused by this, "i mean how is that possible? Shouldn't there be something that we haven't checked?"
This time she answered, "The Cyber Team were able to decode the viral stream and what's shocking is that not only it has the ability to wipe out our entire system, it has its own self-destruct mechanism."
Tobias looked up with his chin, " You mean..it destroys itself before we can delete it?"
"In that sense," she nodded his opinion, "Yes. The purpose of it is so that we can't replicate it or trace it back to it's origin."
Bronx whistled, "That's something hardly anyone has ever done now."
"And that's what worries the Commander so much." This one left her saddened ad frustrated.
To think that somewhere out there in the unknown region of space, someone created a machine that would put the Commander's life at risk and almost out of commission if her team hadn't arrive on time. Someone who has the mind to formulate a self-destructing virus is still lurking in the shadows of the cosmos.
Whoever the master mind is, she will make sure to find them and locked them up for good, for the safety of the people and for Star Command.
WARNING! WARNING!
The alarm bellowed from Bronx's monitor, flashing green rapidly.
WARNING! APPROACHING HIGH ENERGY READING!
"INCOMING ENEMY FIRE!" Bronx yelled from the captain's side.
Coming out from her thoughts, Captain Luna could see a neon green blast heading straight for them. With a small thrust, she swiftly disengages the autopilot sequence and threw the throttle down with her left hand like a slap to the face, changing their course dramatically and avoided the direct hit.
Fortunately, it didn't hit the Star Command fleet or Capital Planet as it flew passed-by. The sudden change of movement caused Tobias to fall out from his seat with a yelp and recovered quickly to peek at the viewing glass window.
"WHOAH! Where did that come from?!" Tobias shouted.
Once the coast is clear, she looked up at the enemy space-crafts as one of them started to move forward with lasers and blasters ready to fire.
Zurg made his first move.
The communication systems of all Star Cruisers burst into life with the voice of their commander, yelling the order to retaliate.
"ALL HANDS TO YOUR BATTLE STATIONS! GO! GO! GO!"
Engines from both left and right side of Star Cruiser 42 rocketed to the fray. Hitting the lead enemy ship head-on, Captain Luna brought the throttle down and sped up to one of the enemy ships. They were pretty much nose-to-nose – so close that you could see the light streaming from the view ports of the other ship, piloted by two Hornets.
With all that speed, infinitesimally small thrust changed the ship's trajectory and hovered over the enemy ship to get to the other side. Having passed another enemy ship and traversed into an empty space, Tobias fired a direct focused laser to an enemy ship.
"BULL'S EYE!" exclaimed Tobias, his tail wagged like a happy dog.
On the other side of the battle, one star cruiser manages to launch a return fire and blasted the enemy ship to bits but it was soon replaced with another ship. Star Cruiser 34 twirled to right to avoid the sudden dive of the enemy ship on their thrusters.
"Craters…they're so many of them." said the male sandy-haired ranger.
A female brown-haired ranger beside him checked on the monitor screen, "Captain!, multiple attackers are on us!"
"BRACE YOURSELVES!" said the sandy-haired ranger while increasing the fuel on the engines and drove fast to dodge the incoming enemy fire.
While six star-crafts were blasting crazily at Star Cruiser 34, a dark skinned human male with curly black hair and a square-shaped jaw ranger leading the Star Cruiser 16 tried to outrun the persistent star-crafts behind him.
"We need to find a way to blast them all!"
"On it, Corporal!" the eagle-headed ranger said, releasing a couple of missiles on the enemy's way and managed to blast three star-crafts but the rest zoomed through the cloud dusts, continue to fire their lasers.
Suddenly, Star Cruiser 20 appeared beside Star Cruiser 16 and opened fire on the star-crafts chasing after them.
A male grey haired ranger appeared on Star Cruiser 16's vidscreen, laughing out loud heartily.
"You need to work on your skills more, Corporal! Can't always save your skin all the time."
"I would have said thank you but now you're just teasing me," Corporal said cheekily.
Soon the number of enemy ships dwindle a little but the battle still rages on. Ships swoop around each other in an elegant dances, lashing out with brilliant beams from directed energy weapons. It was a small chance of victory for Star Command but inside the Dreadnaught control room, someone was very unhappy with the turn of events.
Brain Pod 88 could barely keep up with his writing on the clipboard, overwhelmed with all the action that is happening in front of him as fast crafters zoomed past the Dreadnaught's viewing window.
He knows that his job was to gather ideas for projects to come in a guise to aid the little girl's request, but how can he when every nerve of his brainiac body turned blood cold with every shout and curses coming from the Emperor.
"HOW CAN THIS BE?! I have them outnumbered!"
The sudden shout made him almost dropped his clipboard and pen. To see the Evil Emperor extremely mad caused all the staff on the brig to stone cold. You can just tell from the shaky antennas of Grubs and the machines that holds the Brain Pods together rattled sounds of metal to metal.
"BAH! This won't do," Zurg said as he stood up from his throne and gave an evil sneer at the viewing window.
"Prepare my ultimate weapon and set it to fire on Capital Planet!" He pointed out his finger in the direction of the blue green planet, Grubs alike scrambled on the controls to do what the Emperor says.
Ultimate Weapon..? Brain Pod 88 thought.
Then he saw a paper printed out from a tiny slot below the spy camera lens. Discreetly, he ripped out the paper from the slot and he read it in silent. It was a request task. But the task from the Emperor's daughter made him curious.
Why would she need that..?
But he remembered his buddy's words, to do what he was tasked and be done with it. He sighed tiredly. Just get through with this and he'll be out of the evil duo's plans.
Looking around and found a Brain Pod who is not doing anything but staring at the monitors.
He gathered up the fallen board and pen as Brain Pod 88 wheeled towards the Brain Pod and asked, "umm…not to intrude your time but what is this ultimate weapon is he talking about?"
"Oh, that. Evil Emperor Zurg had a Pulsar Cannon installed on the ship last week, state of the art but not yet tested. Why?" the Brain Pod said.
"Umm..Could I have the blueprints of it?"
Captain Luna skillfully led her cruiser out of the enemies' range of fire. She could see that Zurg is losing most of his ships.
They were so close to end the battle but something caught her eye. The thing that got her attention was something coming out from the Dreadnaught's deck. The compartment opened to two sides and revealed a massive Pulsar Cannon; equipped with arcadium fuel tanks on the side.
Where did he get that? But more importantly.
Base from the direction it's facing, it was aiming for the one place that made her eyes widen in horror.
It's aiming for CAPITAL PLANET!
She glance at the battlefield and not one of her fellow rangers aware about the destructive weapon, they were all too busy dealing with the remaining enemy star crafts firing at them with their lasers.
"Craters!" she cursed as she slammed her fist on the console.
"I knew that Zurg has something up in his metal sleeves," Bronx said.
"Quick!," she yelled, "Scanned the schematics on that cannon!"
Tobias logged in on the computer to scan the weapon and soon gasped at what he found, "Those are the Alpha Sector 2 Laboratory equipment that went missing last week!"
"At least now we know who had barged in the Alpha Sector 2 facility and took it," said Bronx, "However, we don't have the means to shut it down, less we blow it up with our overloaded laser charge."
"But that would mean…a Cosmic Super Explosion." Tobias gulped, his tail twitched out of nervousness.
Captain Luna could see the glimpse of fear from the eyes of her teammates. A Cosmic Explosion is almost the size as the Star Command space station. If they were to blast it, not only it will damage the Dreadnaught heavily, it will cause a wave of energy influx to the other star cruisers around it thus they'll be sucked in from the impact and destroyed from within.
The tension quickly rises as her monitor indicates that the plasma canon is charging up, close to forty percent to completion of gathered energy.
She needs to hatch a plan before it's too late. There has got to be another way to contain such an explosion…think, Luna, think! Remembering what she had learned from the weapon class, recalling on all the notes she written on her book and she found the way to do it. Though it's a bit risky but someone has to stop the cannon from launching the plasma ray to Capital Planet.
"I have an idea." She said suddenly.
Both Tobias and Bronx focused their attention on their Captain. Tobias was the first to realize the plan when he saw her flick one of the buttons to override the deflector shields on her dashboard.
"Capt'! You're not thinking of…" Tobias asked nervously.
"Yes I am, Ranger."
"But!...But…that's suicide!" Tobias cried, "We'll be blown to pieces and I won't experience the party of the lifetime."
She can't blame the reptilian man and his refusal to it was expected but Bronx on the other hand, wore a serious face and nodded to her plan.
"We'll do it." Bronx responded.
"And you're as crazy as the Captain!" Tobias shrieked at Bronx.
"Please, Tobias." Captain Luna said finally.
Tobias looked back and forth between his buddy and his captain desperately, until he finally sighed and grasped the wheel in front of him with determination in his eyes.
"Okay, I'm up for it. But both of you owe me a high grade if we survive this." Tobias said
Captain Luna smiled. "Thank you."
She looked over her shoulder to Bronx and said, "You know what to do, Ranger Bronx."
Bronx nodded and typed furiously on the monitor, rerouting the power to the engines. They felt a surge of energy pulse throughout the ship as Captain Luna pushed the throttle forward and the star cruiser blasted off in full speed, heading towards to where the Dreadnaught was, far behind a barricade of enemy ships.
"Get me contact with Star Cruiser 16," she said.
The video screen turned on to the leader of Star Cruiser 16.
"Ranger Luna! We are trying to get in close to the Dreadnaught but those pesky ships are blocking our way to it."
"I know, Corporal! I have a plan but I need you and the other teams to distract the other star ships while we'll stop the cannon."
"Copy that, Captain Luna!"
Corporal switched on an open comm link to all Star Cruisers and spoke.
"ATTENTION ALL STAR CRUISERS! We need to make an opening for Captain Luna and her team to get near Zurg's flag ship. Engage all enemy targets at all cost!"
All Star Cruisers responded positively with a "Roger" and fiercely put themselves in the enemies' way. Star Cruiser 42 successfully maneuvered through the small open space between two ships and headed straight for the Pulsar Cannon.
"I'm picking up a reading on the cannon, Captain. Close to Sixty-six percent!" Bronx yelled.
Commander Nebula's face fizzled on the video screen, looking grim and worried.
"Ranger Luna! What in blazes are you doing?!"
"Commander, sir. I know how we can stop that machine from firing at Capital Planet."
"Explain!"
"By crashing the ship to the cannon and activate the deflector shield to maximum power within at the same time," Captain Luna said, "that way we can trapped the explosion to implosion, reducing heavy amount of cosmic damage in the area."
"Are you out of your mind?! THAT'S SUICIDE!" Commander Nebula yelled.
"I said the same thing too, Chief. But they won't budge." said Tobias, shrugging.
"IT'S TOO RISKY. Call off the plan and return back to Star Command. NOW! We can think of another way to stop it!"
Captain Luna replied abruptly, "Sir, with all due respect, we don't have much time. I have to for once disobey your order. This is the only way."
She knows that she never went out of line or disobey a direct order from her superior. But her gut feeling is telling her that it is the right thing to do.
"For the sake of protecting the Galactic Alliance…Please…Let us do this." She pleaded softly.
Commander Nebula's face looks conflicted. He knows that deep down that the life of being Space Rangers is a dangerous job. It is part of their line of duty. It's a tough choice to make for him to decide but he trust in his rangers as he signal them with a thumbs up.
"Do what you have to do, Rangers. We're counting on you."
"Thank you, Sir!" All three of them saluted and the video screen turned off. Looking up on the screen, he could see all Star Cruisers were able to eliminate the other enemy ships while Star Cruiser 42 sped up towards Zurg's ship.
"May the Venus' blessings be with you all." he uttered slowly.
Tucking in safely the printed blueprint of the cannon inside his machine body storage box, Brain Pod 88 was once again alarmed by the flashing green from the Grub's monitor.
"Your Evilness, sir. One of their Star Cruiser is heading towards us at high speed. Impact is imminent." said the nervous Grub beside Brain Pod 88.
Curious, Brain Pod 88 turned his eyes to the viewing port and he almost have a heart attack, watching a Star Cruiser fast approaching them at high speed.
They're crazy to do that! He thought.
"WELL?! WHAT ARE YOU SCRUBS WAITING FOR?! RELEASE THE WEAPON TO THEIR DIRECTION AND EVASIVE MEASURES!" Zurg commanded.
They managed to pass through the barricade of enemy ships and suddenly, the Pulsar Cannon safety lines got disengage from the Dreadnaught and propelled slowly towards them. Her monitor scans indicated that it is still charging up at almost eighty two percent.
We need to get there pronto.
"Steady on the thrusters!" Captain Luna shouted.
"I got it! I got it!" Tobias responds, holding for dear life on the throttle.
Their star cruiser nose-dive to the Pulsar Cannon and heavily crashed into the red box console, where they see up close in personal of the three huge tanks filled with liquid arcadium. Bolts of statics started to immerse around the cannon from the impact damage, sparking dangerously close to the Star Cruiser.
Captain Luna really hoped that this works and yelled to her co-pilot, "DO IT NOW, TOBIAS!"
With a battle roar, Tobias punched upwards to one of the ceilings buttons, releasing a green colored hexagonal shield spreading around their ship and the cannon itself. He needs to keep the shield online as long as possible for his Captain's plan to work.
Bronx rushed to the side of the brig, opened a small square port and re-wired the energy fuel line to the other pipe; leading to where Captain Luna cut the end port and connect it to the deflector shield box, holding the two ends with her bare hands.
The glow of the shield turned bright neon green as electrical statics multiplied from the cannon.
WARNING! EXPLOSION SIGNATURE RISES IN TEE MINUS TEN SECONDS.
The entire ship is shaking, energy levels from the monitors were dangerously flashing red.
..8..
"This is it...the final frontier..." Tobias heaved, trying with all his might to control the shield's capacity.
..6..
"We come a long way, haven't we?" Bronx said, whispering to himself a small prayer of hope that he and his teammates survive the aftermath.
..4..
"GENTS!", Captain Luna said while not letting her strength waned from holding the end ports, "It's an honor working with you for all of these years."
Memories of their past adventures flashes in their minds as they readied themselves as the countdown continue.
..2..
…
She closed her eyes, a smile plastered on her face and chuckled softly as she thought;
….Everyone…
…
..1..
…
…
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!
The darkness of space lit up to a bright light as the massive explosion of energy spread across the entire area and causing near-by star cruisers and enemy ships to short-circuited their power supplies but not enough to damage the metallic walls.
Inside the Control room of Star Command, Commander Nebula stood tall while clenching his hand and watched the red orange clouds covering where the cannon was released and felt the sudden loss.
The lights flickered off temporarily from the power surge making the whole room gloom and dark, intensifying the emotions held inside him.
Author's Note: Thanks for all of your reviews and interest in this fanfiction. This is an updated chatper (March 24. 2020) Tune in on the next chapter of Purple Flame.