In barely under a minute, above and below the little Cruiser hanger I stood in is covered with large Queen-Class Battleships, slick Cruisers and many more of the Fei war machinery.
It’s a full-on invasion.
But that’s not what I’m worried about the most. All of their troops, their weapons of war and fleet. All of it peered out of the giant white hole that split the space below open like a tear in a sheet of paper.
That tear is constantly sustained by the heavy beam that hums and thunders even louder than that of the massive fleet that surrounds me now.
The mining facility.
It’s become the gateway, the key to two separate places in the universe. A wormhole.
“You’ve created a wormhole.” I mutter under my breath. Too shocked to speak any louder than this.
The Scientist sniggers, “With your research, I’d like to say I helped but I only realized the potential you overlooked and I’ve successfully exploited it.”
She’s right. This has been a huge mistake; one I cannot even begin to fathom.
How is it that the entire scientific community of the Sildor Alignment didn’t see this? Didn’t realize what my Drill could be capable of accomplishing?
How could I not know my own work?
It horrifies me, perhaps even more than the scene below.
“You could have provided you civilisation to the fastest means of transportation and yet all you saw was mining equipment.” She chides, “It’s a shame you don’t realize your own potential, but thanks to that, I’m living the best possible life. I am grateful, eternally so!”
She continues to laugh madly all while ahead, the warships begin to take position over Rim.
“You’re going to destroy my home…aren’t you?”
Here she only smiles and watches the orbital bombardment begin to unfold.
My heart tears and breaks; I’m horrified to watch but too petrified to look away. My home, my future, my people.
Oscar.
There’s a bright glow below and a thin blue grid appears over the planet’s atmosphere. The shield generators have come online, by now the world knows what hangs above their heads and they know, deep down, that there’s no saving them.
The Planetary Shields won’t hold for long, not under this much fire power. In fact, the Fei seem rather lax in their assault, only having two Cruisers fire the red planet with all sorts of arms.
Most of the fleet is now moving to the next system, it’s obvious by their direction. But another has split off to dismantle, or rather, destroy the Dyson Swarm around the bright blue sun.
Rim’s main power source. With it destroyed the Planetary Shields will fall within mere minutes.
I…I can’t just stand here and watch. I can’t stand here and watch my home be destroyed; my peoples hard work be stripped away.
My chance at a happy life be stolen…
Resolved to do something I look about myself and search for an out. And escape, a weak point I can exploit and save the day like in those shows I watched as a kid.
There’s nothing. No where for me to run, no where for me to escape too. The only exit is either into the void of space or farther into the ship, and I don’t like either direction.
So how do I get out of here and in the facility that’s miles above my head?
Here in the hangar of the cackling scientists Cruiser, there is much other than some essential equipment, my captured escape pod and a handful of Strike Craft.
Strike Craft?
I blink at the curved wing shaped space craft. They’re equipped with their own personal energy blasters and but don’t have their own shields so are usually remote controlled.
But the remote-controlled Strike Craft has only been a recent production and as far as I can tell, the Fei don’t value this scientist as much as she thinks.
This Cruiser is far from brand new.
The doors steam and take far too long to open and close and it doesn’t even have a tractor beam if my capture was anything to go by.
If all is well, then these Strike Craft could possibly be old enough to be flown manually.
But how do I get to it?
“You seem disturbed, Xerai.” The scientist speaks, breaking the large chain of escape and attack thoughts.
“You’re destroying my home.” I answer.
“Attempting to. The Shield isn’t down yet, your people still have a chance to evacuate. Not that we’d let them get away…”
“They’re civilians! That’s a war crime!”
“The Fei do not abide by such petty obstructions to our goal.”
“What could you possibly gain from destroy Rim? From killing innocents!” I cry out.
Many at times, alien life is simply best left alone. But there’ll always be invaders, people like the Fei knocking on your door and demanding death and subservience.
“I wouldn’t expect you to comprehend the intentions of my people, after all, you can barely recognise your own ingenuity.” She chuckles wryly.
Biting my lips and clenching my fists, refusing to let the tears welling up in my eyes fall I shout, “Well at least I have the ingenuity to create such in the first place, much unlike you lower intelligent species.”
She steps forward, into my space, her grey lips curled in a sneer, “You dare?”
Sneering right back, I spit in her face as I take the golden opportunity to swerve around and behind her, locking my arm around her neck and having her knees buckle as I place my trusty screwdriver at her neck. I’m glad I obsessively carry this with me.
“Ack!” she screams and in a flash all of her goons have their weapons trained on me.
“Oh no you don’t! One wrong move and you’ll be scrambling for some stema-spray and then it’ll be far too late!”
They seem to relax in their hostility, looking about each other, completely mindless about how to respond.
Good.
With the goons putting two and two together I begin to slowly back away, the Fei scientist in my arms drags her feet across the floor.
“Don’t even think about going limp or else I’m make sure you stay that way.” I say in the most threatening voice I can muster.
“A screw driver? Really- ack!” she chokes as I tighten my arm around her neck some more.
“Just shut up and tell your goons to toss their blasters aside.”
She manages to chuckle under my grip, “So what do I do first? Shut up or tell them to-”
“Tell them to toss the blasters!” Frustrated I press the screwdriver deep against her skin, “This is a blunt object, it won’t be fun getting pierced by a blunt object.” I warn.
Reluctantly, she gives the order, “Toss your weapons boys, she won’t get far with me, there’s nowhere to run.”
“Who says I’m running?” I snort.
By now I’ve scooted close enough to the nearest Strike Craft, and in a stroke of brilliance, one of her goons is there to help me with my escape.
“Hey you, yeah you! Give me your blaster, the small one dumbass.”
The nameless, faceless goon tosses me his mini-blaster. Swiftly, I pocket my screwdriver with spare time to catch and aim the far more efficient blaster at the tiring Fei scientist.
“Great, now get this Craft working.”
The idiot takes his commanders precious time to look at his colleagues for affirmation and in response to this I begin to prime the blaster.
“Now you tool!” I’ve got places to be and a universe to save.
The idiot, finds himself once more and hops into the Strike Craft, booting it up and then looks at me.
“Well, hop out will you? Ugh.”
The scientist in my violent custody chuckles wryly, “I’m looking forward to the spectacle of genius you’re about to perform.”
Annoying. The Strike Craft has its pilots climb in from the wings and only has one seat. Taking the Fei with me will be difficult…or down right impossible.
“Well, if I can’t take the Craft then I’ll just take your entire Cruiser!”
“What!” she screams and immediately begins flailing in my arms.
Unable to keep her in place with a single arm, she escapes. However, I’m waiting for her with the blaster primed at her face.
“Don’t move.”
Her lips thrill and a clicking, growling sound escapes her throat, “You’ll be shot dead before you get this Cruiser to move an inch.”
As though on command, her goons immediately all rearm and aim right at me.
Back at square one. Great.
“Well then. I guess I’ll die.” I whisper and without a single bit of care in the universe, begin to mount the Strike Craft.
The Fei Scientist and her troop of goons can only watch with an anger. An anger at their inability to stop me.
A smirk crawls onto my face as relief begins to wash over me.
My hunch was right. They can’t stop me.
“Go ahead Fei, shoot me down.” I taunt as I chipperly go about setting the Craft to suit my flight needs.
She snarls at me, “I’m not just any Fei, worm, I’m the Commander of this Cruiser and the scientist behind this glorious wonder of the universe before you. I am Scrakna”
“Well, this worm just happens to have the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle, don’t I?” I chuckle, “I’m not sure what’s wrong with what you’ve come up with but I’m sure you need my help to fix it.
As I hit the final button on the dashboard and get sealed into the small, comfy pressurized cockpit of the Strike Craft, I add, “Don’t worry though, I’ll find the problem as I’m dismantling that atrocity to my work.”
With the final word mine, I set off, undeterred and undisturbed in the borrowed Strike Craft. My destination? The facility with my Drill poking a hole through space and time.
Goal? Destroy it.
