STORY - The End Result... (Chapters 1-8)

[dragondream]

The End Result... (Chapters 1-8 )

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This is my new story I am writing about happens 200 years after Terran Conflict. I will add a new chapter to it every week. Hope you guys enjoy it ...

Introduction

3 years after the Terran Conflict began - This time the X-universe stood no chance against the Xenon (formerly known as AGI). They had grown too powerful, too intelligent, too many. Before them lay billions of fearing people desperate to survive, and behind them lay a path of destruction. The Terrans were now no longer resented for invading the Commonwealth, for all now knew the Terrans were their last chance of surviving the Xenon. However deep down in their hearts, they knew there was no hope. Not even the Terrans were confident anymore that they really knew how to defeat the Xenon. The Xenon carried on destructing all sectors in their way, almost unhindered by the Terran efforts to destroy them. Finally when all hope was lost, the Terrans came up with the best and worst plan ever invented. They would recreate AGI to battle against the Xenon, in the hopes that at the climax they would mutually destruct for being equally powerful...

This plan was the best plan in that it was the only way of destroying the Xenon, but it had the worst effect. Unintentionally the Terran group of scientist that recreated AGI had programmed it too smart. Smarter than the Xenon. So when the Xenon were destroyed, the Universe now faced a new horror. The end result was inevitable, the complete and whole destruction of all the races of the universe. So the Terrans sent out a self-supplying ship 3 times the size of the Valhalla. On board was a group of 1,500 engineers, scientists, soldiers, architects, workers, pilots and a senator, that were set out on a task of either repopulating in a galaxy far away or coming up with a lasting solution of destroying the newly created AGI and to look for survivors. Either way they were sent out as a gaurantee that the Terrans themselves would never die out completely.

One by one the races of the universe died out from the plague known as AGI. The split, the teladi, the paranid, the argon, the boron, the yaki, the terran and eventually even the Kha'ak were so broken up by the newly created Xenon that they could no longer be considered as a race. The candle of organic life that lighted up the galaxies had died out. All that was left was the eternal horror of artificial life and a small band of Terrans set out on a task that deep down in their hearts they knew was impossible...


Hope you guys enjoyed the intro... next week I will start writing the first proper chapter.

[dragondream]

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Chapter 1 - A New Beginning

200 years after the Terran Conflict - The Savior III drifted slowly and gracefully through the once thriving PTNI HeadQuarters. Now of course it was just a heap of rubble drifting sadly through space. The gigantic spaceship sailed by the remains of the HQ building that once was the pride of the Teladi Company. It represented hundreds of years of built up wealth from the Teladi, and in a matter of hours it represented their downfall.

Robert Fender, fighter pilot, tall and dark in appearance, touched the glass of his window as if it was a dream and nightmare that floated past the ship. He saw the ruin of the massive structure and debris of the very ships that fought to defend it. He stepped back and forced himself to look away so as not to be haunted in his sleep by the dreadful scene. It then struck him that this building not only represented the ruin of the Teladi, but the ruin of every race, even the Terrans. He put on his pilot suit and started walking towards the hangar to report for duty.

Saria, his closest friend came walking round the corner that very minute.

"Hey Bob, I was just coming to look for you. Did you get a chance to see the view outside?" She asked.

Robert nodded in silence.

"What did you think? Amazing right?"

"Well that's one of putting it I guess." He did not have the heart to tell her that for him looking at the ruins it was almost as if looking straight at a Xenon itself. He never saw things for it's outer appearance, but for what it represented.

"Anyway I gotta go now, otherwise the Captain will complain about me being late again."

"Yeah, me too. See ya later."

"You too," she said.

Bob walked on towards the hangar and decided to clear his mind of any thoughts and emotions before he got there. Besides, flying in an M3 fighter isn't really the time to think about the scene that morning or Saria. Not when there's a chance that Xenon fighters will come screeching round the corners any minute. Before he even turned the corner from the passageway into the hangar his Sergeant was shouting at him for being late.

"Do you know what time it is?!" Sgt. Banks shouted at the top of his voice. "You're two minutes late! There could be a Xenon Capital ship jumping to this sector this very minute!"

"Well in that case we're doomed and it makes no difference if I'm late or not," he answered acidly.

"What?! Are you crazy Fender? I won't take that kind of attitude from you. I want you to be five minutes early tomorrow and no excuses this time, understood?"

"Yes, sir," he answered and without saying another word got into the cockpit of his fighter. He greeted his turretman Harold Smith, who was also one of his best friends and then seated himself at the pilot controls.

"You got some kinda guts, I'll give you that Bobby," he said laughingly at Robert.

"Yeah yeah, keep it to yourself Harry," he replied in the same joking mood all of a sudden. He noticed Harry was reading something. "What you busy reading?"

"Killing Xenon for Dummies, pretty interesting, but it looks like one of our cooks could have written it."

Robert burst out laughing. "You're gonna need more than that book to learn how to survive in a dogfight with a Xenon fighter."

He started up the controls eased the ship out of the hangar. Leaving the homeship in a fighter gave him a sense of power. He was no longer being transported on a ship flown by 40 crew members each having their own task, but in a fighting ship and he had complete control of it.

"So nice to be back in my fighter again," he said to Harry.

"You're telling me. I couldn't wait to be off that heap of junk again. It's 200 years old you know..."

Robert did know, but his mind was delved too deeply in the scenery again to even notice that Harry had spoken to him. The feel of being in space in a fighter is different to that of being in a Capital ship. In a fighter it feels almost as if floating in space itself. He turned the thrust to full and set off on the routine course. The purpose of the set course was to check the perimeters for any hidden dangers, and take out any Xenon ships if they encoutered one. However the coast seemed clear of any of these dangers.

"Hey Harry how 'bout we take this fighter for a spin before we head back to the hangar?" He asked.

"Fine by me, I'm not too eager to head back right now myself."

Robert changed the ship's course and explored the surrounding area. He then boosted the ship to it's maximum speed and turned and manoevred the ship in all kinds of directions and did some heavy stunts with the small space craft. When he saw that he was 50 km from the base ship he started to head back. Then as if struck by some nightmare he saw in front if the Savior's path lay three Xenon J's ready to fire at any minute. He looked at his fighter's instruments and saw that the Savior was Jumping and he was 50 km away from the ship!

He sped his plane as quickly as possible towards the ship, even though he knew he could never make it in time. The Savior was about to jump away leaving them behind with three Xenon capital ships and undoubtedly plenty Xenon fighters as well.

"Oh my..." Harry didn't finish his sentence because a blinding light flashed into the cockpit. His heart sank when he realised the ship had jumped. However Bob was screaming with joy.

"Why on earth are you happy?!" Harry demanded.

Robert didn't have time to explain so he spun his ship around to what was probably the most amazing sight ever. Before them was the Savior III coming to rescue them. The ship had jumped back to the point where the Thor fighter was. Just then they received a comm from the Savior ship.

"We never leave our men behind..." the message from the Captain on board was.

Overcome with joy Robert responded. "Savior you are our savior..."

He landed the ship into the hangar, where Saria was waiting for him. She rushed up to him and hugged him. "I thought we lost you when we made the jump..."

"Don't worry," Robert responded with a smile. "I'm back and safe."

At that same minute the whir of the jumpdrive charging up could be heard and seconds later a blinding flash of light...

[dragondream]

Please tell me if I have made any mistakes so I can correct them ...

[dragondream]

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Chapter 2 - The Blockade

"Today gentlemen," briefed Sgt. Banks, "We will be landing on a nearby planet. The ship sustained some heavy damage during the jump and we will need to refuel on crystals. It is our job to make sure that there are no dangers that lurk round the corner. No Xenon ships. No unexpected attacks. Which is why today we're going on double alert and we're putting all our fighters out there to protect the Savior and escort it down to the planet. Because of this we have fitted your ships with Heat-Resistant shields instead of your usual 25MJ shields. That means you will take more damage from any Xenon ships but you will able to enter the atmosphere without any major problems. Any questions?"

"Yes sir," Robert said. "Would you like us to hand over any Xenon ships on a silver or gold platter?"

Sgt. Banks raised his hand to cut him off. "That will be enough of that Fender, but your attitude will sure change when a Xenon LX comes screaming round an asteroid and fires a missile straight at your ship."

"Well if he comes screaming round an asteroid I'll be sure to hear him sir."

The Seargant did not bother to respond. He had more important things to think about than some cheeky remarks from one of his pilots. "All right gentlemen, start flying those Thors out of my hangar and start protecting the Savior."

Robert and Harold got into their fighters and started up the engines. Robert gave the Seargant a salute and wave before he shot out of the hangar at full thrust. The Sergeant however did not wave back. He had grown to somewhat dislike Robert and was just glad to see him leave the hangar completely.

"All right, report Blue Wing...", came the Blue Wing leader's voice of the comm.

"Blue One reporting in," said Robert back over the comm. The rest of the Wing followed after that. He turned to face Harold and pointed to the Savior. "There she goes in all it's 200 year-old glory."

Harold did not bother to look. "We really need a new ship..."

Robert chuckled. He knew he would probably be staring at the same ship for the rest of his life, and maybe even for endless generations to come alike.

"Wonder what the ship originally looked like," said Harold. "Probably a brand new spanking ship that made everyone drool over it. Now it's just a sad heap of junk floating hopelessy through space still trying to fulfil our great-great grandfathers dreams."

"I think they did it for us. A promise that one day we could have a precious jewel like Earth back."

"Yeah, well wake me up from this nightmare when we get there."

"V formation Blue Wing. Slowly turn round the ship's perimeter until we get furthur instructions..." The Wing Commander's voice was ever so calm yet firm, carrying along complete authority.

The M3 Fighters hustled together into a V-Wing shape and started to turn around the perimeter of the Savior. Robert put the Thor on autopilot and picked up a magazine to read. Although stricly off limits to be distracted like that in this kind of routine, he knew none of the other pilots could ever see through the tinted glass of his cockpit. He read about five pages of the magazine and started to doze off. He slept for about 15 minutes before waking up startled as the Wing Commader's voice came over the comm.

"Move into Delta formation. Set course to the asteroid field 75 km furthur along the Savior's set course. Scan all of it. Report back in exactly 15 minutes."

"Yes, sir." Robert moved the Fighter into Delta formation and began scanning for hostile ships that could be hiding in the asteroid belt. Directly behind the asteroids lay a desert planet that made his skin feel scorched just looking at it. Once they arrived at the asteroid field the Fighters split up in different directions and searched every rock and looked in every crater of the asteroid field. Robert couldn't find any sign of hostile ships in the area and reported it clear after the 15 minutes ended.

"Ok boys, head back within 5 km of homebase," came the voice of the Wing Commander loud and clear.

The Savior III eventually drew near to the asteroid field that Robert and the rest of the Blue Wing had searched. A total of 150 fighters escorted the gigantic ship through the asteroid field. At a slow and steady pace the Savior was almost halfway through the field and would arrive at the planet within the day at the same pace. Then out of nowhere, vast amounts of Xenon ships, big and small, jumped into the sector all around the asteroid field. While the Xenon Capital ships covered every exit of escaping LX's, L's, M's and N's were sent in to hunt down the enemy Terran Fighters and attack the Savior III. Robert counted over 500 fighters on his radar. He commed the Captain on board the Savior.

"Captain, is it possible to phase jump out again? It looks like there's too many fighters to handle.." he said nervously.

"Negative. Our last jump put the jumpdrive out of commission. We can't fix it until we get our hands on more crystals, which is why we need to get to the planet. All we can do is stay and fight and hope by some miracle we win..."

[dragondream]

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Chapter 3 - Micracles Can Happen (With The Right Equipment...)

"Stay and fight?!" shouted Harry at Robert. "That's what the Captain said? I'd like to see him say the same thing while he's flying an M3 Fighter with Heat-Resistant shields and 500 hungry Xenon Fighters hunting us down. I bet that greedy, annoying Senator is down there on the bridge this very minute giving him those commands."

"It's the only logical excuse, it's that darn Senator. Why on earth did we ever vote for him?" said Robert in dismay.

At that same moment five Xenon L's came within firing range and he opened fire and shot down a few of them. Harold took his position up in the turret and began firing at the two that were left. He yelled with joy when the two ships collided into each other in the confusion. A great ball of flames burst out in all directions as both ships were instantaneously fused together and were destroyed.

"That's 5 down, 495 to go!" Harrold shouted from his turret position.

However he had been too optimistic. For at the same time Robert saw that many more ships had jumped into his Fighter's radar range. Unless they came up with a quick solution, they would soon be overpowered by the sheer volume of Xenon Fighters. For every ship that Robert destroyed it seemed that three more ships began firing at him. He quickly commed the Captain again.

"Sir, there's no way we can win this battle. We need to jump out of here!"

"Negative. Jumpdrive still inoperational. One of our specialists is working on fixing the jumpdrive, but we need those crystals..." The Captain's voice did not in any way hide his nerves and fear of what could happen if they didn't jump soon.

Robert looked out of his cockpit window in dismay. He desperately tried to come up with a solution.

"Sir," he said speaking to the Captain again. "What if one of our Fighters goes down to the planet and gets those crystals?"

The Captain thought about it and then replied. "We wouldn't be able to hold out that long in here with all these Fighters. If only we had more time..."

Time, time, time. No matter what the problem is it always involves time. Time was probably the most valuable luxury in the world, but it was also something right then they didn't have. Robert discussed with Harold for 5 minutes, while firing at oncoming hostile ships, in what way they could buy the Savior and it's Fighters some time to go down and retrieve the crystals from the nearby planet. They couldn't find any solution though. Robert banged his head against his pilot controls sending the ship spinning in a different direction. When it stopped spinning he was facing a nearby asteroid. Suddenly a plan hit him.

"The asteroids..." he said having a revelation. He quickly scanned it with his mineral scanner he had built himself a while ago on the Savior and smuggled onboard. "Of course! This used to be a Paranid sector that mined Nividium in space! A mineral rare and... highly explosive!"

"What are you saying?" asked Harold still not understanding what Robert had in mind.

Again Robert didn't have time to explain. He commed the Captain on board. "Sir, I found the solution to buy you some more time. The asteroids, they're Nividium. You need to focus your ships guns and shoot the asteroids every time several Fighters come close to one."

"But that doesn't help," said the Captain. "It will just break the asteroids up, not ignite the Nividium..."

"Which is why," Robert cut him off. "You'll need to override the laser's firing chip, and set the heat levels to maximum..."

There was a silence on the other end for a while and then the Captain responded. "Copy that. Start flying towards the planet and get those crystals..."

Then Saria's voice could be heard over the comm. "...and please be careful Bob..."

Robert smiled. "I always am."

Saria worked on the bridge and was listening in to the conversation the whole time. When she heard Robert's plan a natural feeling of concern came over her. She always worried about Robert because of him being in a Fighter out there where the real dangers are. The Captain gave her a look for interrupting in the comm message and she went back to work without another word. The Captain's look though was meaningless, since deep inside he also felt a level of concern and Saria had spoken his thoughts out loud.

Robert commed the Blue Wing Commader. "I'm gonna need you guys to escort me outta here. I'm headed to the planet."

"Roger that," said the Commander.

The Blue wing got into Delta formation and began firing a path through the Xenon Fighters clear. Together they were nearly unstoppable to the Xenon Fighters ahead of them. However avoiding fire from the Capital ships ahead was a different story. The Fighters drew near to the Xenon Capital ships.

"I'm gonna need some distraction boys," Robert said to the Blue Wing.

"No problem," responded the Wing Commander. "Good luck with your quest boys..."

"Thanks."

Seconds later the Blue Wing methodically began firing at a nearby Capital ship. Several nearby Capital ships drew nearer to the Fighters and began opening up heavy fire. Robert's heart sank as he saw several Blue Wing pilots lose control of their Thors from the heavy fire and crash into the Capital ships. The rest of the Wing though remained strong even with the heavy fire and hit several hotspots of the Xenon Capital ship they were attacking. More Xenon Capital ships drew nearer to the scene of attack. Eventually there was a gap in the circle of Xenon ships, a gap wide enough to get through without being fired upon. Robert sped up the Fighter and flew flawlessly through the gap in the Xenon firing range that the Blue Wing had succesfully created. When they were 50km away from the Xenon ships, Robert and Harold sighed a deep breath.

"Piece of cake, Harry," Robert said.

"Yeah. Getting those crystals and getting back through the blockade and to the ship is another story though."

Robert had realised this before, but was just overcome with joy that the plan had worked so far. He put the Thor on autopilot and dozed off again. Three hours later the autopilot alerted him he was drawing near to the atmosphere of the planet. He woke up and sat up straight, ready to take control if anything went wrong.

"Now let's just hope those Heat-Resistant shields do what they say they do..." he said to Harold, who had now also woken up from his nap.

"Two Xenon L's coming up from behind!" shouted Harold, who had taken up his position at the turret again. "I'll shoot 'em down."

One of them launched several wasp missiles at the Thor. Robert took over control of the ship and took evasive action to avoid being hit, but it was too late. Eight of the wasp missiles fired hit the ship in the thrust engine. Seconds later Harold shot both Fighters down. His sigh of relief could be heard from the cockpit.

"Darn these shields," said Robert. "We've taken hull damage Harry."

Robert began his re-entry on the planet. He tried to slow the ship down by pulling back the throttle, but with no effect. In desperation he tried to steer the ship around, but again with no effect. His controls alerted him that the ship was going too fast for re-entry into the atmosphere.

"Harry we're in trouble! I can't slow the ship down."

Harold ran to the emergency brake that could efficiently cut the engine and pull up the brakes for landing. He was too late however, for by the time he pulled the lever the ship was 50 meters from ground level. The ship crashed into a forest with a loud bang, and a cloud of smoke could be seen from a mile away. The emergency brake had saved Robert's and Harold's lives but the ship now lay in a wreck. Robert opened the cockpit and a cloud of dust and smoke came out of the Fighter. Both pilot and turretman came out startled and dazed from the crash. Robert sat down by a nearby tree. He put his head in his hands and nearly cried. Here he was on an abandoned planet, with no food or water and no ship, and a mission to save the Savior III which at that very moment was under heavy attack by Xenon Fighters.

[dragondream]

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Chapter 4 - Outnumbered

A Xenon Fighter flew towards the Savior at full speed and opened fire at the ship. It was the last thing the Fighter ever did as the Savior III shot a super-hot Electro-Magnetic Laser at a nearby Nividium asteroid. The crew that had fired the laser watched as the Fighter transformed into a ball of flames and it's lasers that had been fired died out. The Captain on board cleverly manoeuvred the Savior through the field of Nividium loaded asteroids, as he ship's turrets fired at the asteroids as soon as two or more Fighters came within the Nividium's exploding range. The Thors shot round the ship and nearby asteroids at high speed and took out any left over Xenon Fighters that didn't die in a heap of Nividium flames.

"Less ships are appearing on the radar sir," reported Officer Derek van Hauser. "It appears we are making good progress as far as destroying the Fighters are concerned."

"Good, good. Anything else?" asked the Captain.

"Actually, sir," said the Officer a little worried about the Captain's reaction. "I do bring a bit of bad news."

"Bad? How bad? Spit it out Officer."

"Well, sir. We lost comm with Pilot Fender and Turretman Smith 30 minutes ago. They were only 2km from the planet's atmosphere when two Xenon L's appeared on radar close by. Minutes later both Xenon L's and Thor disappeared off radar. Our scanners also show that Pilot Fender lost control of the Thor and went hurtling into the atmosphere above the save landing limit. There's no way of knowing what happened or who survived."

The Captain, all of a sudden, looked extremely depressed. "If they never made it," he said slowly, holding back his emotions, "Then we are all doomed..."

The Captain dismissed Officer van Hauser and sat uncomfortably in his Captain's chair.

"George," his wife had come to speak with him. "I'm sure they'll be alright."

"Shouldn't you be back in the food preparation area working?"

"No one can work when you can hear Xenon Fighter's shooting at the ship and absolute chaos can be heard outside, dear."

The Captain knew this only all too well. All his years of training and preparation for this job counted for almost nothing when facing the real thing. When he had done the courses, it was in a calm, almost stress-free environment. The tests you had to do to become Captain gave you many hours to deal with theoretical problems, often combat related. Nothing, however, could prepare you for a Xenon attack with split-seconds to come up with solutions to keep the ship and it's residents alive. It was in these split-second scenarios that the Captain ignored his training and had to rely completely on his instincts and suggestions of those around him.

"Sir, the Xenon Capital ships! They're closing in!" shouted Officer van Hauser.

Sure enough the Xenon Capital ships could faintly be seen coming closer and closer. Methodically, and with intelligence of that superior to man, the Xenon Capital ships manoeuvred through the asteroid field. Groups of Fighters, each escorting one the Capital ships, shot away the bigger asteroids that lay directly in their path. The Capital ships followed closely behind, with a deadly air of fear about them.

The Gold Wing Commander commed the Savior from on board his Thor, "Sir! They're coming in...no way we can stop them...die...34 Fighters lost...going down..." His voice died away as the comm was interrupted by an explosion and his Fighter disappeared off radar. Three other Wing Commanders followed a similar course. One by one the Terran Fighters seemed to be wiped clean off the radar by a devastating plague.

Saria looked in shock as she heard Fighter pilots comm the Savior and say their last words just before they were blown up by the closing in Xenon ships, but no more shock than when she had heard that Robert had disappeared off radar along with two Xenon Fighters a few kilometers from the planet earlier on. It was almost impossible for any of the crew to do their job properly with all this chaos around them. It seemed as if there was almost no hope, and that no hope would ever come...

[dragondream]

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Chapter 5 - Stranded

Robert slowly picked himself up from off the ground. He looked long and hard at the wrecked Thor. Harold, who had degrees in both mechanics and engineering, had been checking the damage to the ship. In truth the damage was way too much to list on paper, but Harold still wrote a list of serious faults and damages externally and internally. He climbed out of the Thor to speak with Robert. Robert prepared himself for the long list of damages to the ship.

"Well," Harold started off. "The list really is too long to mention, but I will sum it up for you. The primary engine is cooked, the autopilot is offline and will stay that way, the SETA is completely destroyed, lights, lasers and firing chips are all cooked."

"Is that it?" asked Robert, half-expecting the rest of a dreadfully long list.

"No. Strafe drive, inoperational. Eject control, fried. Steering, disabled. Pilot's instruments, broken." Harold checked the list to see if there was anything else worth mentioning and then looked up with a smiling face. "Oh and the worst part, the coffee machine isn't working anymore..."

"Darn it. Do you think the insurance will cover all the damage of the ship?" Robert asked with a dry sense of humour.

"I seriously doubt it," replied Harold smiling and then turned serious again. "Now for the list of materials needed to even dream of this ship ever setting off again. We are gonna need loads of crystals, some nividium, and energy cells, which will be produced by the ship once we have the crystal, and of course we need faith..."

"Faith?"

"Faith that this heap of junk flies after I'm done with it and that it doesn't blow up in mid air."

"Oh, I see," said Robert looking depressed.

The list of materials needed to get the ship flying again made it seem as if they would never make it with the crystals back in time. He decided to waste no more time and began searching for the materials while Harold began fixing the minor damage on the ship that could be fixed without materials. He found himself tripping over rocks and tree roots while searching for crystals. Finally, after half an hour, he stumbled into a cavern. He switched on his torch and walked slowly, carefully through the cave. The cave seemed to stretch on for miles, sloping slighty downwards at the same time. After a while the light from his torch seemed to touch the end of the cave, but drawing nearer he could see that the cave only turned sharply to the right. He halted with a fright as he turned the corner. He stopped only inches from an endless steep drop down into pitch blackness. His fright had thrown himself back, but then he slowly inched forward to examine his new discovery. He took a nearby stone and let it drop down the seemingly endless hole in the cave's ground to see how far it stretched down. The result, however, brought more fear, for he never heard the rock hit the bottom of the deep gorge. He swallowed his fear as he realised that the deeper he went, the more chance he would have of finding crystal. He threw his backpack over one shoulder and began climbing down the steep wall without rope or piton. Harold's voice came over the mobile comm that Robert had taken.

"Progress check. How you doing? Find anything yet?"

Robert clutched a handhold in the rock and grabbed the comm with the other hand. "Do I really need to answer that right now Harry? I'm dangling several hundred meters above a steep drop to the end of a gorge. I found a cave and I'm sure there must be crystal at the bottom of this."

"What?! Are you crazy Robert? Do you wanna die this young? Do yourself a life-saving favour and get out of that cave now!"

"Harry calm down. We came here for crystals, so that's what I'm doing. Now I'm pretty sure that there must be crystals at the bottom of this cave, but I need to get lower down to find out. Just worry about that ship for now, and leave the rest to me, ok?"

There was a silence on the other end for 30 seconds and then Harry responded. "Just don't do anything crazy. We still need you alive you know, and I'm sure Saria wouldn't like to hear that you died falling down a cave shaft. Anyway, I better get back to getting the comm working again. Over and out."

Robert froze in his tracks. His emotions over Saria got to him, and he started to wonder if he was doing the right thing. Saria was the most important person to him in the universe, and preferably would like to see her again. On the other hand he knew he had to risk his life to save the Savior, which had Saria on board, from dying. He continued on his downward journey, but this time with double the amount of caution. Now let's just hope that there actualy is crystal at the bottom of this, he thought to himself. After climbing down another 50 meters, he took out his torch again and shone it towards the bottom of the endless pit. The light of his torch bounced off something at the bottom, making the reflected object glisten in the darkness, but he couldn't make out what. He activated his comm again to talk to Harold.

"Harold, come in. Over." He waited for a reply.

"What is it Bobby?"

"I think I found something, but I can't see what it is yet. My torch is showing that there's something at the bottom of the gorge."

"Ok, take your time, be careful, and when you see what it is comm back again and tell me."

"Sure," Robert replied and de-activated his comm again.

Bit by bit, he climbed down the rock face, always making sure he had a stable foothold. When he came 20 meters from the bottom he shone his torch to the bottom again. This time he could clearly see an ocean of crystals, majestically protruding from the ground. He lowered himself to the ground and stood in awe and amazement as he examined the sea of crystals. Some of the crystals were even bigger than he was. He picked up his comm to tell Harold , but decided to delay it for a while to give him a chance to explore the surroundings. He quickly found an open path through the crystals and followed it for a few minutes. In front of him, now stood a huge opening in the cliff, and behind that a passage way that seemed to extend forever. He followed the passage way until he came to a massive opening.

The walls were covered with alien-like pictures and illustrations of a huge war. Many pictures displayed huge spaceships with strange beings on them battling against a robot-like being that controlled the opposing space ships. Other illustrations depicted many of the organic beings being killed and slaughtered by the robots. Robert stood in amazement and shock at the many frightening images. In the middle stood a book, lighted by a huge ray of light that seemed to come out of nowhere. He walked slowly towards the book to see it more closely. On the book's cover stood large gold letters in an alien language. Robert took out his translator and put in the alien letters. The device told him that the language was one used long ago by the Old Ones, a mysterious race that had either died out or lived in secrect, and that the letters translated read "The Sohnen"...

[dragondream]

Please share any comments or thoughts on the story so far to keep me going. I need to know you're enjoying the story if you want me to write more .

[dragondream]

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Chapter 6 - Countdown

Harold finished working on the comm, which he had spent the whole time trying to fix. He wiped his hands clean on a cloth and examined his work, in his mind deciding whether it would work or not. He pushed the comm button and tuned into the Savior's wavelength. He leaned up against the comm and spoke through the microphone built in the comm.

"Savior, come in. This is Harold Smith. We survived the crash and are still alive. Robert is looking for the crystals and we will hopefully be back with them soon. Over."

"Copy that. Signal is not very good. We are under heavy attack by the Xenon. We won't last long up here. Hurry..."

The signal was cut off as the comm blew up from an electrical shortage. Harold threw down his tools and swore loudly. He opened up the comm and swore again when he saw the comm was almost completely disintegrated beyond relief.

"Well, we won't be getting any comm messages for a while," Harold said to himself miserably.

He sat down in the pilot's seat and checked the damage to the controls. The condition of them was so bad he didn't know where to start, so he got out and took a short break looking at the sky. The sky had dimmed down quite a bit as it was slowly getting night. Not a single cloud blocked the view of the sky above and Harold thought he could almost see the Savior struggling for it's life above the planet against Xenon Fighters and Capital ships. He knew it was ridiculous, for he wouldn't be able to see the ship from down there, but it meant the same thing to him; time was running out. He got back in the Thor and looked for spare parts he could use to fix the comm again to contact Robert. He was not sure if it would work but he had to try, with hundreds of people's lives in danger.

* * * * * * * * * *

Robert did not have time to translate and read the whole book, but he knew the information in it was probably priceless, so he grabbed the book and fitted it in his backpack. Running back to the crystals he took out a laser knife, ready to use to cut the crystals to take with. He ran to a medium-sized one and started cutting at it. After a few seconds he had one small enough to fit in his hand and put it hastily into his bag. He cut piece after piece and put it into his backpack until he could fit no more. He ran to the cliff of the gorge and started climbing upwards. Struggling with all his might, because of the increase in weight, he battled the rock face and centimeter by centimeter he slowly rose towards the surface. Now halfway up, he stretched out his hand to what he thought was a stable ledge to hold onto. Slowly he lifted his weight onto the ledge. Then almost completely on the ledge, the rocks crumbled from under his hands and feet. Desperately trying to hold onto his life he gripped another rock, however it crumbled under the pressure as well. As Robert felt the last foothold slipping away he gathered all his strength and jumped up as far as he could, grabbing another rock. This time it held and Robert let out a sigh of relief. Still dangling from rock above a drop several hundred meters long he pulled himself up until he was climbing at a steady pace again.

Back on the flat surface of the cave again, Robert slid gently against a wall and sat down to catch up on his breath. He took out the book again to have a quick look at it. "The Sohnen" it was called, an entirely mechanical race created by the Old Ones many millennia ago. After it was considered to be almost a perfect race of robots, the Old Ones accepted it into their community and let it carry all the knowledge and information the Old Ones had. It grew more intelligent every day, growing more and more closely to the Old Ones, until one day the Sohnen led an uprising against their creators. The result was horrific, millions of unexpecting Old Ones died in the first day alone. The Old Ones quickly took up arms against their new enemies. The space ship battles were massive. The number of planets and homes destroyed were enormous. The casualties were countless. The Old Ones, having given all their knowledge and technology to the Sohnen, had no chance standing against them, and so the closest of friends, turned into the worst of enemies...

Robert remembering the timeframe he had to deliver the crystals, shut the book and placed it back into his bag. He got up, having cought his breath and started walking back towards the Thor. Eventually he found his way through the woods and spotted the white gleam of the Thor shining through the trees. Harold was coming out of the ship at that same time.

"Where the hell have you been?" asked Harold being extremely annoyed. "We need to go! The Savior is in big trouble."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got the crystals, but we still need the nividium..." said Robert.

"Don't worry about the nividium. I cut some out of the generator casing, which coincidentally is made of the stuff."

"But the generator could explode without the casing..."

"Well, we don't have time to go on a nividium mining expedition Bobby!"

"Ok, ok..." Robert replied with a sigh.

"Ok, give me the crystals so I can start working on repairing the engine and the primary controls."

Robert handed him the crystals from his bag one by one, while Harold took the crystals inside to the generator. After handing the last crystal, Harold spotted the book that lay in the bag.

"What is that?" Harold asked curiously, pointing at Robert's bag.

"Souvenir."

Without allowing Harold to say another word, he closed the bag and got into the Thor. Both walked to the Thor's generator and put in a small amount of crystals to start producing small amounts of energy cells again. Then taking another bunch of crystals they sealed up the engine and primary controls with the nividium Harold had gotten. Robert thinned out the crystals with his laser knife and placed some in the engine igniter, thrust control, and the pilot's controls. Robert and Harold shouted with absolute joy and relief as the Thor burst into action as Robert started up the engines. The Thor shook a bit, as if struggling to carry on, but eventually lifted safely up off the ground. Robert put the M3 Fighter into full thrust, flying out of the atmosphere at incredible speed. Within a few hours Robert could see the outline of the asteroid field again. The battle seemed much more intensified since they had last seen it. Their heart's sank as they saw three Xenon Capital ships withing firing range of the Savior, bombarding it with their Photon Pulse Cannons. Robert applied the boost to get there quicker, but it seemed as if it was still not enough. Shock filled both Robert and Harold, when they nearly entered the asteroid field, as a huge explosion of the Savior III filled the skies...

[Rimes]

Loving this story so far! Keep up the good work

I wasn't expecting the Savior to blow up, maybe some heavy damage!

[dragondream]

Thanks for the comment. Was wondering whether anyone was even reading the story . Anyway, don't worry about the Savior, just gotta wait for the next chapter .

[Rimes]

Ah, so it isn't destroyed! Maybe change that last sentence? It does make it sound like it is destroyed:

"As they entered the the asteroid field they were filled with a sense of dread as explosions rippled through the hull of the Savior... "

[dragondream]

<<Last Chapter -- Next Chapter>>

Chapter 7 - Saved

Robert and Harold waited for the endless seconds to pass before they could see any wreckage. The noise lasted for over a minute, and the light of the explosion blinded anyone from seeing what was going on. Robert had his hand ready on the throttle, ready to escape the scene of battle before they were the next target. The seconds seemed like years, but eventually the light dimmed down and the noise evaporated. Robert screamed with absolute joy, overcome with excitement. Harold did not audibly exclaim his joy, but he felt exactly the same. The Savior stood in the same spot, proud and tall, without damage of any kind of explosion. It was, in fact, a Xenon Capital ship that had exploded, not the Savior. The Savior had fired upon a nearby nividium asteroid, successfully creating a ripple explosion through the Xenon’s hull. However, the battle was far from being won. The Savior, despite its temporary accomplishment, was still under heavy attack, and time was running out.

Robert pushed the throttle to full and sped towards the Savior, maneuvering elegantly through the asteroid field. Harold put his finger on the firing trigger, ready to pull it as soon as a Fighter came within his firing range. The number of enemy Fighters seemed triple the amount as they had last seen. Winning this battle, they both knew, was impossible, but escaping it still was a possibility. Robert caught sight of the Blue Wing, which was still miraculously alive. He sped right in front of the Wing Commander, the comm being broken, to catch his attention, who immediately recognized it as being Robert’s ship. The Wing Commander, without any question or doubt, told everyone in his wing to get into V-formation and escort Robert to the Savior. The Blue Wing perfectly flew in the formation and escorted Robert, firing at any Xenon Fighters that dared cross paths with them. The Blue Wing was famed on the Savior for having an excellent Wing Commander, who always knew exactly what to do in every situation, never losing a fight. Soon a group of Xenon Fighters closed in on the Blue Wing. They spread all the way round the Thor Fighters and boxed them in. The Xenon Fighters, who were known for being extremely tactical in combat situations, launched wasp missiles at the Thor Fighters.

”Missiles closing in!” the Wing Commander commed his wing. “Roll to your sides. Try and break out of the box the Xenon Fighters have made. Everyone now!”

Robert however did not receive the Wing Commander’s message, for the comm was broken. He watched cluelessly as the Thors split up into different directions. He was not clueless for long though, because he saw the wasp missiles closing in on his ship.

“This ship won’t last another hit from one of those missiles!” yelled Harold.

Robert cleverly maneuvered his Thor out of the Xenon Fighters, bashing one as he did. Seconds later the wasp missiles blew up the Xenon Fighters, still trying to go after the Thor, but now with the Xenon ships in the way. Robert watched as the missiles destroyed the very ships that launched it.

“Genius, Robert, genius,” complimented Harold who was extremely impressed.

“Now that one,” Robert said smilingly, “is worth the Platinum Award.”

The Blue Wing soon clustered behind Robert’s Thor again and escorted it safely to the Savior. Robert landed his Thor at a dangerously fast speed into the hangar. Sgt. Banks was there coordinating the Thors out of the hangar as soon as they had been refueled. He caught sight of Robert landing his ship and ran towards him. He looked astounded and amazed.

“How in the Sol System did you manage to come back?” he asked as if it wasn’t real. “I thought you crashed on the planet? We all thought we were going to die up here!”

“It’s a long story sir, but we need to get these crystals to the Captain soon or we will be dead soon.”

The Sergeant understood and hastily returned to his duty, while Robert and Harold grabbed the crystals and ran to the bridge. They ran into the bridge at a speed that would make an athlete jealous. Everyone turned to see Robert and Harold pouring with sweat and clutching onto the crystals with the last of their strength. The Captain stood mouth open, and stared at both of them in complete awe. Saria was crying and laughing at the same time as she saw Robert standing there safe and sound at the entrance to the bridge. At first she thought she was hallucinating, but when she realized it was real she ran to kiss Robert.

“I… I…we…you crashed and well… we thought we were gonna die…and…” She could barely get her words together.

“It’s all right,” Robert replied caringly. ”We’re safe now, back on the ship. I told you… I’m always careful.”

Saria could not help smile back. “Promise me one thing. Next time, let somebody else do the daring act.”

“I promise,” Robert said putting his arm round her shoulder.

Harold took the crystals up to the Captain, who then in reply ordered one of his assistants to immediately take them to the Head Mechanic.

“How long do you think it will take to get the jumpdrive repaired?” he asked the Captain.

“It should take about 20 minutes in total. Hopefully we will last until then.”

“With your permission sir, I would like to assist the Head Mechanic to fix the jumpdrive.”

“You have my permission,” the Captain said with a grin. “You’ve done us all a great deed, and you will both be rewarded for your efforts as soon as we get out of this mess.”

The ship shook heavily as it was being bombarded by Photon Pulse Cannons. Everyone tried to find their footing as they were being pushed backwards and forwards by the bombardment.

“Shields down to 20% Captain,” one of the flight engineers reported. “It’s dropping rapidly.”

“Darn it,” the Captain said and commed the Head Mechanic. “What’s progress on the jumpdrive?”

”We got the jumpdrive back in working order,” the mechanic said,”but it’s gonna take a while to put the casing back on. Give us another minute.”

“We may not have another minute,” the Captain said impatiently.

”Copy that, but we can’t risk more damage to the jumpdrive than what’s already been done. We need to put the casing back on.”

“Ok,” the Captain said with a sigh, “but you better work really fast.”

“Shields down to 15% Captain,” the flight engineer reported again.

“Start punching the destination for the jumpdrive,” the Captain said to the jumpdrive navigator.

“Where to?”

“Anywhere but here.”

Harold commed the Captain from the jumpdrive room. “Ok, the casing is on. Power up the jumpdrive.”

The Captain immediately ordered the jumpdrive navigator to charge up the jumpdrive and the countdown began.

“10…9…8…7…”

“Shields down to 7%.”

“6…5…4…3…”

“3%.”

“2…1…Jumping.”

[Rimes]

Nice escape! the previous end makes sense now

[dragondream]

<<Last Chapter -- Next Chapter>>

Chapter 8 – The Sohnen

“Well, well, well. The Platinum awards,” Saria said as she walked into Robert’s room. “That isn’t your average toy from a box of cereal. Are you proud of it?”

“Of course I’m proud,” said Robert smiling at her. “Every pilot dreams of the Platinum awards. Harold will probably wearing his every day now.”

“And you? What will you do with yours?”

“Keep it in draw. Haven’t decided whether to put in the top or bottom one...”

“Why? You deserved every centimetre of that badge and you should be able to show it to everyone.”

“I don’t like to be a show-off,” he said. “I am happy I got the reward, but I won’t make everyone else feel like they are inferior.”

“Well, at least put in on display in your room then, for me.”

“For you,” he replied with a smile.

He said goodbye to Saria and went to the hangar. This time the Sergeant didn’t even complain about him being late. The Platinum Award, Robert thought, probably had gained an ounce of respect from the Sergeant.

“Good morning Sgt., here to report for duty, sir.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just get in the Thor already,” Sgt. Banks replied grumpily.

OK, maybe not an ounce of respect, Robert thought again. He got in the Thor, where he saw Harold was examining his badge with great interest.

“Well, well. Why aren’t you wearing your badge of honour today?” Harold asked, noticing the absence of platinum on Robert’s shirt.

“Didn’t feel like it.”

Harold didn’t bother pushing the question any further. He went straight back to examining his badge again.

“You know it’s not even made of platinum?” Robert said teasingly and Harold.

“Stop trying to ruin a little boy’s dream, ok?” Harold replied, getting angry.

Robert laughed. “Well, if that’s what you are, you can get out the Thor and let the men do the flying today.”

That comment made Harold stop looking at his award and he got into the turret position. Robert put the Thor at full speed as the hangar doors open and he shot out barely missing them.

“Why do you always have to do that?” Harold asked. “Can’t you leave the hangar like a normal person?”

“No.” Robert replied and at the same time spun his ship in a 360° turn.

He always loved teasing Harold in this way, who he knew would do exactly the same if he was in the pilot’s seat.

“Ok, V-formation.” The Blue Wing Commander said over the comm. ”Escort the Savior for the next 500km. Put your Fighters on autopilot.”

Robert put the Thor on autopilot and thought about what he would do for the next few hours. Harold came and sat next to him holding a cup of coffee in the one hand.

“So,” Harold said to break the silence. “That book you found on the planet. What is it? Still gonna say it’s a souvenir?”

Robert leaned into his backpack and took out the book. “I found it, in the crystal cave. I think it was written by the Old Ones.”

“Really? And what makes you think that?”

“I translated it, using my digital pocket translator. It said that it’s written in their language. It also said that the title of the book translated reads, The Sohnen.”

“What in the Sol System is a Sohnen?”

“Well I haven’t got round to translating and reading the whole thing, but so far I know that they were a mechanical race originally created by the Old Ones. They were given all the technology and knowledge the Old Ones had to share and were eventually accepted into their community as one of their own. The Sohnen however, many years later, turned on the Old Ones, killing them off like a plague.”

“So, summed up, the Old Ones made some advanced AGI, who then turned bad and killed them off.”

“Something like that, yeah,” Robert said and took out his translator. “Well there’s still a couple hours left on autopilot so we may as well read some more.”

”The Old Ones, extremely intelligent and advanced compared to other races, originally thought the uprising was caused by a malfunction. In desperate hopes to save themselves, as much as their creation, they captured a Sohnen and studied it extensively to find out what went wrong. They found, however, that it was not a malfunction of any kind, but was a result of the Sohnen’s line of thinking. The Sohnen had grown to believe, that it was in the universe’s best nature, to exterminate organic life. They believed that the universe should consist of Artificial Life, a race that would never die out, never grow weak, and never fall. A race that would live forever, which the Sohnen believed, would never be possible through organic life. This is why the Old Ones created a super weapon, a powerful gun that could be used only once, with the function of changing every Sohnen’s line of thinking and making them peaceful once more. This super weapon, though, was never used. The Old Ones were exterminated when a massive Sohnen fleet pounced on their home planet. A few surviving Old Ones fled their planet, abandoning all hopes of ever seeing it again. The scientists working on the super weapon were killed before being able to fire the gun. The actual location of the gun was never found again, since it had been made in secret, to keep it from the Sohnen...”

“Whoa,” said Harold with his mouth wide open. “That’s some story, eh?”

“I believe it to be true,” Robert told him. “If we can find this gun, it could be the key to destroying AGI forever.”

“That’s if it even exists,” Harold said pessimistically. “And you don’t even know whether this thing will work on the Xenon, since it was created for the Sohnen. Besides, how would you even find this thing?”

“If it could work for the Sohnen, it will certainly work for the Xenon. Finding it, I agree, will be the hardest part, but think about it. What other hope do we ever have of defeating the Xenon?! Or do you plan on running for the rest of your life?”

“Of course I don’t want to run for the rest of my life, but start thinking logically. This weapon was created aeons ago, and it may already be gone.”

“Harold, it’s our last hope...” Robert said, looking for Harold’s approval, although he didn’t need it.

Harold thought long and hard. “OK, Robert. When you have a plan on finding this thing, I will support you all the way, but you need a plan. Otherwise this thing is hopeless...”