He knew he shouldn’t do it but he HAD to, she had been someone he had loved, he couldn’t see her suffer.
Michelle sat on her bed thinking of how her life was going, and thinking of Rich. The phone beside her head beeped, message received it read. Tell Rich not to answer the door, not even to the sound of screams, I love you… the number was simple 00000000000 no way to reply. With a sudden realisation Michelle dialed her new boyfriends number as quick as she could. He answered and she told him about the note. He decided he could go out and see whats going on, but Michelle decided to tell him about Tom. Tom was sat on the back seat of a car, hurtling toward the small town of Newton Ferris, he tapped the phone off, and replaced it in his pocket, and felt for the staff there hiding. As the car neared the town, he thought a message to Rich, even though Rich didn’t even know it, he now believed he would survive through this escapade. The car bumped to a stop, the men in the front got out, and stood up, each brandished a sawn-off shotgun and carried large knives. Tom got out of the car and flexed himself, god this wasn’t going to be easy, in front of Rich's house were four men, each carried a large bowstaff. The 7 men squared up to each other, this fight was going to be messy.
Rich sat in his kitchen under the large table there. The rest of his family crouched around him. He was wondering if this macho hard nut guy had been teasing Chelle. He started to get up when the first shotgun blast went off. There was an unearthly scream from outside the front door, followed by a crackling sound which screams punctuated, rich carried on crawling to his living room and peeled back the corner of one of the curtains. Outside he could see one man was a blur of movement, when he moved he seemed to disappear, Rich could see another man was still standing, he carried half of a bowstaff, and looked pretty beaten up. Rich noted this guy was Colin, his good friend. That meant the other man was on the other side. As he watched, Colin moved in for what Rich thought was the kill, the bowstaff flicked forward, and met a whirling sphere at it reached into the sphere Colin dropped it, it was soon in a near power state. Then with an almighty crackle, the opponent came through with a sidekick faster than Rich thought humanly possible. It caught Colin on the chest and he took off, impacting with a tree at least a dozen meters behind him. With a shudder of light the figure solidified into a normal form. The man, was clearly about 6 foot tall, and carried a large cylinder of metal. And walked towards the front door as if he was invincible. So Rich decided to do what he wanted to in the first place: shoot someone. He ran to the gun cabinet, and grabbed the shotgun, loaded it and ran to the hallway. He stepped out and let rip. The volley went through the man outside, who with a flick of his hand, made Rich feel intense pain down his arms, then even though he wasn’t sure, this man stopped his attack.
“I thought I said stay inside…” the voice was familiar, Tom.
“You are going to die!” replied Rich.
Rich swung a punch and found his arm was in a lock before he’d hit halfway through the move. A burst of static electricity jangled his nerves.
“Now what were you saying?” Tom said.
By this time Rich had realised his shotgun was now in many pieces on the floor, and his arm was held in a grip like a vice.
“The only reason your still alive is because I still care for her, these men would have killed everyone. I don’t want her upset, she is worth more to me than my own life.” Tom spoke in a very solemn voice, which seemed to be of the verge of cracking, was this guy crying?
“Now all I want from you is that, a) you’ll tell Chelle that you were attacked by these guys and you and your mates beat ‘em off, and b) That you haven’t spoken to me, or seen me this night.” After saying this Tom stepped back from the house.
“Now will you do that for me please?” he said.
Rich simply nodded and stepped back
With that Tom left. Not soon after he had disappeared, a car screeched up the road and skidded to a halt. Chelle leaped out of the passenger seat and slung her arms around Rich, who was only getting to grips with the scene around him. 6 bodies lay on the ground each evenly randomly spaced but 5 showed they had been killed by brutal physical attacks and one had most of his chest missing, courtesy of a shotgun lying nearby. Another shotgun had been shattered into powder and lay in a small heap near its owner, who’s head had been cleanly been turned off.
“Was he here? I hope so, then he’d have seen you killing his mates. You’re my big hard boyfriend now. I told him you’d kill him or his mates if they did this.” Michelle kissed Rich on the lips and hugged him.
Two weeks later, Rich sat on his bed. Michelle had gone to sleep next door, in his sisters room. Something rattled his window, he opened it to look out and nearly screamed when a head poked into the room, followed by a body. Tom stood tall in his room, “I need a favour, I am the head of an intelligence division, we are not under any government on this planet, we were here as a fact finding mission about 20 years ago, and my dad decided we should stay, so we have. I need another member to make up our strike team, this is just for this one mission. If you want to be in any more, we’ll discuss it then. Are you in?” Tom looked at Rich, then smiled.
“I know just leave her without telling her something, tell her you’re off to RAF Lynham, and I’ll give you until 8pm in 4 days, to be in Lostwithiel. If not, I will respect your wish, but I won’t stop any more hits that arrive.” With that he faded from view and disappeared.
** 4 Days Later **
Rich stood on the platform at Lostwithiel, and grimaced. He walked through the dreary town and into a park, he walked through a railway bridge to find himself confronted with Silverlake, with a deep breath he walked in, after he walked past the gateposts, a blue shimmer erupted behind him, the shield was up. A door was open when he reached the houses, he entered it, put his bag down and yelled
“Hello?” he shouted.
“Ah you must be the new guy.” A middle-aged man said from a large oak table.
“He’s in the first room on your left.” The man then carried on reading his paper.
Rich entered the room, and noticed the emptiness of it. In the center of the room, stood Tom, wearing a uniform that was blood red.
“Ready?” Tom said. Then pressed a button, the door hissed and Rich had a sensation of very fast movement. “We are now going to meet my ship.” Tom said proudly.
A thunk signified their arrival, and Tom opened the door, and stepped out, Rich followed.
Boy was it good to be going home, I stared at Rich in the turbolift, I really do hate him, I thought, but I need the extra man. The lift stopped and the door unsealed, I stepped through it. The deck plates hummed with power as usual, the star destroyer Arc’s Revenge was state of the art, just over 2000 meters long and nearly 500 wide and tall, she was the largest in the ID fleet. As a Rear Admiral I commanded this vessel, as a member of the Ubiqtorate I had the respect of her crew. I think Rich must have been a bit scared. I felt his fear, and relished it, hurt me little bastard, I’ll show you.
The bridge showed the bow of the ship as it drifted in orbit, Earth showed below, a very pretty planet, but not as beautiful as Aurora Prime, time to get there.
“Helm bring us out of orbit, engineering bring the dark-star drive to full power. Rich sit down before you pass out. Dave get me comms as soon as we arrive, I need to get in quick before the sov blasts us. Rich use my chair, the big one.” With that I guided him to it and sat him in it. I took the admirals chair, the one my father had used.
“Drive online sir.” Came a call from the crew pit.
“Engage.” I said, and felt the drives strain to tear space and time.
We were there, but I couldn’t relax.
“Dave put me on broadcast.” He nodded.
“This is ISD Arc’s Revenge, we are of strike fleet origin, code transmitting now, request deactivation of defence grid. Please respond.” I sat there, sweat beginning to form, as the scanner display registered a full wing incoming. After a second a squadron broke off from the wing, and approached.
“Greetings Arc’s Revenge, this is Praetorian lead, follow us, and welcome home sir.” Came a voice from the speaker. At this I grinned, and glanced at Rich, who had throw up.
“Come with me boy, you need some quarters, and a uniform, after you put that on, you have to call me sir, okay?” I grabbed him by the wrist and lead him through the officers quarters and into the commandos’ billets. He was assigned uniform and sworn into the imperial intelligence. He received his rank badge, and was lead off by the commando leader to be introduced to the troops. At this point I left him to write a report of how things went and what had happened.
Rich still felt bad, his stomach hurt, his head hurt, he felt unnerved. In this world, one of his worst enemies was a respected man. Now he knew why Tom didn’t do much. Captain Stenn was showing Rich where he was sleeping introduced him to the other commandos who nodded and smiled. Rich got himself a shower in the shower-type thing. It was communal and unisex so both the male and female commandos all used it, and a few of the females were there right now. All Rich could do was hide in the corner of the shower block and keep to himself.
I stood and waited, the comm system was whirring through its usual security protocols, my skin was beginning to return to its natural tint of olive green, the tainting pills I had been taking were wearing off and with it I could feel my strength returning. With a beep, the comm system signalled a connection, and a hologram bloomed into view.
“Ah Tom, how was home?” came the voice of the supreme director.
“It was fine sir, its still not as beautiful as here.” I replied.
“Tom, cut the sir crap, you know I don’t like it.”
“Okay Sam, so how are things here? Is the dungeon still ticking?” I asked.
“All fine, I take it the ship stayed unseen, and boy does she look good, I knew it was a good thing to sign the creation warrant for the design. I’ll see you soon.” With that the hologram cut out.
I turned and left the comm. centre, but as I reached the door one of the officers stood.
“Sir, we have a call coming in on the dark-star system.” The officer said.
“I’ll take it and get the newbie up here quick.” I replied
With a thought I activated the holosystem and started for the display disk.
“Yes dad? You wanted something?” I spoke.
“Ah yes Tom, we’ve got her royal conivingness at the door and she wants to know where Rich is, and she thinks you know.” My father looked very annoyed.
“Well bring her here, please, and try not to kill her with the stun blast. Do you need my shuttle? Its here if you do.” I replied and cut off the transmission.
Michelle stood on the porch of the house, and frowned, the old bastard was taking his time. Ah well, he had to stir a coward out of his hole. A clunk and the front door opened again, the old guy waved her through. She followed him into the house, and into a large room, she hadn’t seen before. With a whirr, a switch was thrown and light blazed into what seemed to be a hanger bay, the thing in the middle looked like a large metallic bird. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was the old man holding what seemed to be a gun.
Rich was lead to the chamber by guards in black armour, which gleamed as brightly as the weapons they carried. The guards stopped by the large door, and it opened, Rich was shoved through and the door slammed shut behind him.
The room was large, it contained a large chair with spikes and assorted hooks sticking out of it. Someone coughed, and Rich’s attention was now on six people sitting at even distances around the room, behind a black desk, that spanned them all. In the centre a man sat in a high backed chair, the uniform he wore was blood red. Tom sat on one end of this desk, he cleared his throat and stood.
I couldn’t believe this, he’d broken my trust, and now I had to protect him from the Ubiqtorate. “What did you say to her” I asked him, putting as much emphasis on the fact he had to tell us the truth. “Er, I erm told her I was going to see Tom.” His reply saved him, if he’d said anything about the other things he would have been spaced then and there.
“Fine you do of course realise she is a threat to security and has been taken care of.” I smiled coldly. “YOU MURDERER!” he stammered. Then he started to stagger forwards toward the desk.
“By that I meant she is on her way here, and you are on the death sentence until we find out how much she knows, if she knows more than what you told us, you’ll die slowly.” The verdict was given, with that the guards entered and carried Rich off.
The humming of something close to her was what woke her. She opened her eyes to see a big window with stars in it. She gulped and noticed a large object appear to get closer it was huge, bigger than a city. The man at the controls wasn’t Tom’s father he was a nondescript person of average height, even as she stared at the window, flashes of light started around the huge ship. A voice came across the cockpit. “Imperial shuttle prepare to surrender or be destroyed.” And with that a bang rocked the shuttle, sparks flew out of the console next to the cockpit, who immediately pulled a lever, another explosion rocked the shuttle and it stopped, then the pilot gagged and slumped on the controls. All Michelle could hear was a buzz of engines, and a loud clunk sounded then the shuttle started to move again. Another bang and the shuttle filled with smoke.
“God damnit, get my fighter ready, scramble praetorian, sir with your permission I’ll lead the rescue mission.” I received the nod from the SDIR, and left the room, running to the fighter bay. Next to the battered TIE Praetor, my personal craft, lay another twelve and a squadron of assault transports was loading with stormtroopers. With a flick of effort I jumped onto the top of the fighter scrambled into the cockpit and started the ion drives.
“Revenge control I need fighter status.” I spoke into the Mic.
“Mortis, we read all fighters ready awaiting your command.”
“Launch, and request you follow us, we may need heavy weaponry.” I turned the mic off, and eased the fighter out of the hanger. With a hum of energy the fighter lifted and flew into the void.
“okay come about to vector 153, by 12, by 90, and prepare to go to hyperspace.” The commands were given all I had to do now was follow them. With my free hand I felt for the lightsaber at my belt, a welcome feeling.
Lines shrunk into pinpoints, and the rebel fleet appeared, it wasn’t all that big, a cruiser, its escort and a fleet carrier. The cruiser was waiting, simply waiting, coruscant had sent it out of a mission, secure a dark star system, that or someone who knows what it can do, or its technical readouts.
“Wake up.” Came the voice, very insistent.
“You were once very close to someone, and that person has now taken something valuable to you. We need you to work out how his mind works. So tell me now, then I don’t have to take it from your mind.” The voice again.
Michelle opened her eyes to see a room, she had been strapped to a table, and a man in a cloak, with the hood up. She opened her mouth and started to talk.
“1 minute to reversion.” Came a mechanical voice.
I grasped the hyperspace drive controls, and grabbed the yoke. Here we go, once more unto the breach dear friends. I watched the numbers reach zeros and pulled the levers.
With a swirl of light, I hit sublight. A cruiser sat ahead, behind me 84 fighters exited hyperspace, and half a second later came the Arc’s Revenge, and the assault transports.
“Fighters form up, attack speed, disable the cruiser, the rest can simply disappear.” I said these words with a twinge of hate for the rebels.
With that the battle was join, I looped up and around the stern of a frigate and dropped a couple of proton torpedoes into a shield generator, which disappeared in a bright orange glare. Then I headed for the cruiser, with a shimmer the main fighterbay shield came down, a second later fighters started boiling out. As they did I slammed the throttles wide open and roared into it. With the laser cannons I raked the hanger with terra-joules of energy, the remaining hanger crew were vaporised, the one remaining fighter had lifted a foot off the ground, a quad linked blast stopped that. After the smoke cleared I set the fighter down and leaped out of the hatch, I slipped under the door, and it slammed shut just afterwards.
“Greetings Admiral.” Came a familiar voice.
“I have a friend of yours, and you know me enough to know I’ll kill her, take a look at the display.” The screen next to me crackled to life, it showed a small room, with a table and a body on said table, a figure in a cloak stood over the now recognisable figure of Chelle, her eyes closed, looking serene.
The figure reached for its belt and pulled a lightsabre which it then ignited, its jade blade shone brightly. “Now surrender or she dies.” The display clicked off.
With a bang the hangerbay door was blown inwards, following the pieces of the door, were stormtroopers, an unending tide of white. They surged forward and had to follow me, I was running forwards lightsabre in hand deflecting bolts that came my way, and sending a few back from the blaster rifle in my other hand. A soldier pooped his head out of an entryway, his head bounced twice then lay still on the ground, the rest of his body stayed upright for a second then toppled backwards out of sight. I surged onwards, towards the bright feeling of light in the force, rage surged through my soul, and nothing stood in my way. I reached a large blast-door, which crumbled when it felt my power. Beyond was the table I had seen, it had been hacked in two, a bit of blood stained it. Beyond it stood the cloaked figure, who crumbled into a heap on the floor, and screamed in agony, as I fired all of his pain receptors in waves. I only just felt the stun, blast, and turned in time to scythe my sabre through the barrel, which glowed hot and fell onto the ground, the blaster holder started to cry.
“Chelle, what did he do to you? Come here, I have someone to meet you. Troopers, bring Agent Nicholls to me. I told you you wouldn’t have any trouble from me. Thanks to you, Rich is under Death sentence untill we can question you.”
I smiled at her and hugged her.
“I’ve missed you so much.”
I then screamed and fell onto the floor, something was ripping through my mind, and not being too gentle. Then I realised what had happened, I turned to the figure that was now standing.
“You want my mind? You want my knowledge? You can now know my pain, fear and rage!” I screamed. The figure screamed as he realised what he had released, then creased and started to burn, I managed to stagger to my feet just as the troopers returned, Rich was at the center. They parted and Chelle ran to him. “The only thing I’m going to say to you, is take her home, and both of you mention nothing more of this. Remember I’ll be watching you…”
With that I signalled for them to be taken to the arc.
After they had left, I walked over to the badly burnt body on the ground, with one hand I stroked the cheek, my tears fell onto the chest.
“Good bye brother, you should not have done this.” I stood turned and left the cruiser, after returning to the arc, I stood on the bridge, closed my eyes opened them again, and said.
“Fire on the cruiser, all weaponry, maximum firepower.” And stared as the massive particle weapons and numerous heavy turbolasers, stabbed out and speared the cruiser, it detonated, and I closed my eyes and turned away.
* * * * *
A few days later, I had returned home, and was taking my turn as the officer of the watch. After a few hours it started, one second it was completely quit, the next the alarms were blaring. The navigation officer yelled. “Sir, we have 7 contacts coming from planet side, small, ICBM trident class. Shall I raise shields?”
With a grim realisation of what had happened, I sat down at my console. I punched up the coding on the new device that had been added, on the last visit to the shipyards.
“Shields up, prepare cloaking device and start antimatter drives, and get the new crystal grav device online, we’ll need it today. Enable comms, planetside GSM network please.” I tapped in a number.
“I take it you’re responsible for this, I also take it, that you’re not at home. Now tell Rich he has 2 minutes to get 10 miles away from his house.”
“You can’t be serious, what have you done? Oh and yes I am responsible, I hate you!” and with that the connection went dead.
“Weapons, give me control of and antimatter projector, and give me control of an X-ray laser.” I grinned as the command sequences appeared on my screen. With another console I targetted the implant we had placed inside Rich, activated the sensors, and got a thermal image of a man in a car with four other people.” My finger hovered over the button.
With a woosh, the bridge door opened and my father stepped out, he was bleeding from a gunshot wound in the shoulder, my mother was helping him walk, with tears in her eyes.
“They got the house son.” She said, then started to collapse, I reached them in time to see a large hole was in her stomach. The med-techs took over then.
I screamed and rushed towards my console again. The screen showed Newton Ferris, and Rich was at home, and by the transmission detectors, he was on the phone. I tapped a key and brought myself into the conversation.
“You pair are responsible, for pain in my family, the loss of my home, and an attempt to destroy my ship. Prepare to see cornwall become an island, and advise the submarine captains who launched those missiles not to shoot at something with shields.” With my spare hand I hit the fire button on the antimatter projector, the ship lurched as the missiles hit, but remained stable, I engaged the cloak and the grav-trap. Then hit the targetting laser on the x-ray laser, on the phone I could hear some shock.
“Jesus Christ, what is that red dot, I’m not even near any windows.” Came Rich’s voice.
“I’ve got one here too, but the ship has gone.” Came Michelle’s reply.
“I’m not gone, but you two will be pleased to be able to die while talking to each other. Prepare laser, fire, goodbye you bitch.” With that tortured screams rose from the speakers, one was of pain, the other was a different kind of pain.
“Woops wrong button.” I muttered.
“Tom, no please don’t, I still love you.” Came Michelle’s tortured voice.
“All I can do after you saying that, is make sure you have a cleaner death.” I switched to antimatter and vented the entire contents of the generator into the co-ordinates of the phone call. The line went dead. Out of the viewport I could see a bright dot appear, then it flashed out, several other plumes of smoke showed where the missiles had come from. This planet was history.