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Cyborg/Psytron would prefer to give this to
you rather than present, because presenting it will take too long. So here it
is.
Too
Close to Home
The Hierarchy built a base too close
for comfort for the New Alliance…
but what implications can that have for the Latest Edition of the Alliance?
Chapter 1 - Avenger within Alliance territory.
"Well, here we are. Safe in Alliance
territory." Darcy Kinion said to his twin brother Keith. They had just
returned from Kzer-Za/Koah-Ah territory, doing a hit-and-run mission, trying to
take apart the major colonies in that bit of space. They were the only
survivors on the lone Kruiser* craft, the ‘Psytron’. They were the only
people in it too - the Kinion brothers did a bit of additions, such as more
thrusters, turning ability, weapon speed and armour. Keith replied, "Yeah,
and just in time for New Year’s!" "Woohoo!" they say together.
Indeed, they seem to communicate like two Arilou - through direct telepathic links.
However, they insisted that they were not tall Arilou Lalee’lay exposed to too
much sun. "Time to PARTY!!!" And then an Ilwrath uncloaked.
"Well, no time like the present." Darcy opened fire on the Avenger.
Two choice hits and the Ilwrath’s right wing was taken off. However, the
cloaking device was still operational, and so the glorified spider cloaked.
Darcy fired about half the speed that the Kruiser was able to, just to keep
Dogar’s little worshipper on his toes. Then the left wing just touched the
Kruiser, and Keith hit the Point-Defence Laser at the Avenger-that-couldn’t.
The Ilwrath exploded.
"$h!t, that was close!"
"There’s probably a few more out there. Full speed to Sol."
The ’Psytron’ Cruiser was renamed the
Kruiser because the Kinion twins did so much work on it. All other human ships
are still called Cruisers, it is specific to the ‘Psytron’ - C/P
Hayes paced around the docking part of the
Starbase. "What’s taking the Kinion twins so long?"
"Request permission to dock"
"Permission granted. Where have you guys been?"
"Nuking one of the Hierarchy’s Firebreaths."
"Umm...yeah. Dock and tell me all about it."
Chapter 2 – Solar Starbase
"So an Ilwrath attacked you near here?
OK, what are Avenger’s doing out here? I thought Dogar and Kazon stopped at
Alpha Tauri. They just might have a base near here." Commander Hayes was
visibly worried. Which is hard to do, considering that the only thing that
moves is his mouth.
"And how will we stop this, Commander?"
"Well, I guess that we should...I’m not totally sure. Any ideas?"
"Well, we could send the Psytron out, with a few other support
vessels from the reserve fleet." Darcy was always ready to fight.
"Yep, ok. Who do you think?"
"Umm...Pirx, Van Rijn and...I think it’s Pike. Those squadrons should
finish them off."
"No way. Should have a few other vessels...hmm...who have we got
spare," Hayes was checking The Book. "We have some Fury’s, Nemisis’
and Scout’s spare. And no, you can’t reject the Orz because of the language
difficulties." Hayes was blocking every option.
"Damn. OK, who will we take?" Keith had enough trouble telling what
people said when they were saying things translated well - he could not
understand lifeforms with translators that were hopeless at best.
"I’d go for *Juicy*, *Tents* and *Frumple*." Hayes was pleased to
ditch the Orz.
"OK, we’ll take them, and Wudstok, Ernie and Awwky." Darcy had been
good friends with the ‘enlightened’ birds. No one else could understand them.
"And for the Shofixti, we’ll take Daikon, Hiyata and Genjiro." Keith
liked the noble Shofixti. They were fine, upstanding young mammals. You rarely
found a old Shofixti. The Shofixti ships have been described as ‘a bomb with
thrusters.’
"OK, launch this mission after New Years. In the meantime, have a
blast!"
"Thank you Commander." The most decorated twins in either Alliance
salute and go out of the Commander’s office.
The Kinion twins went to the party. This
wasn’t a very smart move on the part of Darcy.
"Whoa...natural light..." Darcy was slightly tipsy after the New
Year’s party. Keith was near sober - he was taking Keith home.
"Darcy." Keith was slightly annoyed at his brother.
"Yeth Keif?"
"Shut up."
Chapter 3 – Alpha Kinion
The ships go into orbit of Earth.
"The Psytron, piloted by the Kinion Brothers. Report in Squadron
leaders."
"The Rijid Flipper, piloted by Van Rijn."
"The Lotza, piloted by Pirx."
"The Defender, piloted by Pike"
"Captain Hiyata."
"Captain Daikon."
"Captain Genjiro." (No, this isn’t a cop-out, Shofixti don’t name
their ships.)
"The Peanuts, piloted by Wudstok."
"The Squawk, piloted by Awwky"
"The Burt, piloted by Ernie."
"The Squeeze, piloted by *Juicy*."
"The Campground, piloted by *Tents*."
"The Disappointment, piloted by *Frumple*."
"This is Psytron. All Squadron leaders are airborne. Let’s warp
into HyperSpace, everyone."
A red hole opens up at the end of Sol star system, and all ships warp into
Hyper Space.
"OK people, now we have to go to the place where the Psytron was
attacked. This is coreward of Sol, just short of Velpeculae." Darcy wants
to get this show on the road!
"Go to Co-ordinates 277.3 : 151.9. I think I saw a star system near
there." Keith has the cooler head of the two, which is why he isn’t in the
attack seat.
All ships go to those Co-Ordinates. And then a lone Thraddash shows up.
Darcy is told by the Thraddash that they want to open up comm. links. Darcy
agrees. The Thraddash comes up on screen. "What is it, Thradd?"
"I just want you to know that you deserve to be annihilated, as you surely
will be by all the Dreadnaughts and Podships and VUX just around the corner at
288.4 : 152.3...just telling you so you can get your butt blasted!" The
Torch opens fire. Immediately, the Psytron turns so the Mark 6 missiles miss,
then the Pkunk ships start insulting the Thraddash, and then go in, one on each
side, and do the 180 maneuver (where you go in as fast as possible, start
firing while turning around and zip around. By the time you come along the
other side, the Fury is refreshed and can blast again. Discovered &
perfected by Cyborg) and blast the Torch to the Cigar Afterlife. "baby,
twerp, stupid, idiot, moron, dummy..." The Pkunk are pumped and ready to
go to the destination. As are all the ships.
Chapter 4 - The Hierarchical Sol Base
When the 13 ships arrive at the location
(labeled Delta Kinion by all of the ships), they saw an array of Hierachy
ships. 3 Kzer-Za Dreadnoughts, 4 Mycon Podships, 3 VUX Intruders, 5 Ilwrath
Avengers, 6 Umgah Drones, 3 Thraddash Torchs and 2 Koah-Ah Marauders, but on
closer inspection there is a Kzer-Za piloting the Marauders. The Alliance fleet
are outnumbered. In fact, the Hierarchy have double the ships of the Alliance.
"Keith, the Kzer-Za want
communication."
"Give it to them."
The image of a Kzer-Za appears on the screen. "Human, you are either very
good, very unlucky or very foolish."
"We prefer to think of ourselves as very good, considering we bested an
Ilwrath and a Thraddash that you sent out against us. Rather easily, I might
add."
"Well well well, you think that because you bested two of our worst ships,
you can best a Kzer-Za? I believe you think a lot of yourself."
"Look who’s talking."
"Well, human, what shall it be? All out war, or one-on-one?"
"One-on-one. You can see yourself die easier."
"Very well human. Prepare for your death."
The Alliance and the Hierarchy get into two
rows. Squeeze, piloted by *Juice* goes first from the Alliance, against
a Mycon. Squeeze lauches a marine, the Mycon launches a plasmoid, killing the
marine and going for the Nemesis, who uses a nearby planet’s gravity to evade
the plasmoid and fires the Gauss cannon twice, both times going in the opening
in the podship, then launches another marine. Before the Orz does, fungus-face
(hey, I could be a Pkunk!) launches another Plasmoid at the Orz. The Marine
misses the Plasmoid and gets in the Podship. The Marine then causes havoc on
the Podship, taking apart the ships Plasmoid launcher before being super-heated
and killed. The Orz then easily takes apart the Podship.
The Orz comes back to face the new challenger, which is a VUX. The VUX suddenly
‘appears’ beside the Orz, taking apart the entire cannon off the Squeeze.
*Juicy* has only the Marine launcher left, and he uses that effectively, but
the Marine gets caught in the lympet and slows down considerbly, then gets
killed by the gigawatt laser. The Orz launches another marine, and that marine
gets in and takes a few squid, and then dies. The Nemesis suddenly goes in
range of the gigawatt laser from a planet wraparound, and falls prey to the
Intruder.
Then Peanuts comes on from the fleet and, yelling a stream of obsenities
along the way, does a strafing run, then comes back, and does the Death Blossom
manuever and down goes the VUX.
The Squid is dead. Then a Thraddash comes on the scene, being the fastest ship
there. The Pkunk is a experienced Pkunk, and knows that following the
Thraddash’s butt is a bad idea. So the Pkunk is a attempting to match Cuba’s
biggest sponsor’s speed. Which the avian does easily. The Torch turns and
fires, but not before the Fury can shoot it very rapidly and disable afterburners,
and you could hear the Thraddash’s shriek across a country. You would be able
to here it from ship to ship, but space is a vacuum. Wudstock glides over to
the Torch and ends the Thraddash’s pain of the cigar going out due to lack of
oxygen.
A Umgah comes on scene. The Peanuts turns and ducks behind the Drone,
and then takes out the back of the drone. The Umgah used retro-propulsion to
get beside the Fury, and then uses the Anti-Matter Cone and kills the Fury. OK,
maybe not. Wudstock comes back with a chorus of angels and kills the Umgah.
An Ilwrath breaks away from the main fleet. The Pkunk is having quite a lot of
fun insulting the Ilwrath. However, Wudstock looks away and he Avenger cloaks.
The Pkunk searches so long for him that the Ilwrath sneaks up behind him and
torches the Fury. Wudstock broadcasts one last message. "Enjoy the battle,
Captains. I’m off to join my brethren." And with that, the Peanuts
blew up in a spectacular blaze that the Shofixti would have been proud of.
But the Kinion brothers now had a dilemma. Who would fight?
Fortunately for them, the Disappointment broke free. The voice of
*Frumple* comes up. "*Enjoy the Sauce.* Let’s go *Dancing*" *Frumple*
fired his mortar cannon at the Ilwrath, turning between each shot, and in 4
shots took off the Ilwrath’s wings on both sides. The Ilwrath was left derelict
and tumbling through space, and died rather quickly because some life support
was in the wings. Then an Umgah comes on the scene. "*Silly Camper.* We
are going to *dance* *techno*." Of course, the Umgah had no idea what
*Frumple* was saying, so he was very distressed when he saw a cannon shot and a
marine coming towards him at opposite corners of the galaxy. The cannon shot
hit him and the marine got inside. The cannon shot took out most of the crew
and the marine finished the job. Darcy says "Whew! He has shot his
two." Then a Kzer-Za Dreadnought breaks free. It is not the lead one,
though. The Nemesis says "Uh oh. *Mean One* coming on. Time to use special
*Mean One* Tactic." The Kzer-Za thinks to himself "Kill the
interloper! Rip out its life!" The Orz shoots, and the Dreadnought evades,
but does not notice the Orz going for the planet to do a wraparound. The Orz,
after coming back from a planet wraparound, fires and fires his rotating mortar
cannon. After that barrage, the Kzer-Za is half dead, but then the Orz turned
around and stopped himself. He turned his mortar cannon around so that it faced
the Dreadnought. Then he launched two marines, and got out of there. Another
planet came up and the Orz used the *Mean One* tactic again. But this time, he
didn’t really need to. The Marines had finished off quarter of the ship, so the
Orz just had to do half of the tactic. The Orz had won! Then an Ilwrath came
on, and cloaked. The Orz knew not to launch marines, but he started firing his
mortar cannon at near where the Avenger should have been. He was in the wrong
direction. The Ilwrath came up beside him and torched him. Then Van Rijn came
out and the Avenger cloaked, but Van Rijn saw the stars flicking where the
Ilwrath went over them, so Van Rijn started firing where the Ilwrath was. His
aim was true, and the Avenger was destroyed. Then another Umgah came out and
switched on the Anti-matter cone. This was not in the best interests of the Umgah,
because the Rijid Flipper turned a bit and fired twice. The Umgah couldn’t turn
fast enough, and the Umgah was destroyed. Then a Thraddash came out. Van Rijn
knew that he would have to move fast before the Torch used the afterburners. So
the Rijid Flipper fired two shots quickly, then made a 180 degree turn and
moved out. The Torch used the afterburners, just in time for the Rijid Flipper
to turn again and fire another two. The Torch was destroyed. Another Ilwrath
was sent out, and the Van Rijn tried the same tactic. However, the Avenger
turned and one nuke missed, but the other one hit. The Ilwrath cloaked and the
Rijid Flipper died. Then Genjiro came out, and flicked two of the three
switches to the glory device. The Ilwrath, being careless, didn’t cloak, so the
Scout shot a Mendokusai dart, then another one, then got into the wing section
and detonated the glory device. The Scout and the Avenger died. The Hierarchy
sent out an Umgah, and the Alliance sent out another Shofixti, this time
Daikon, who did the ritual of flicking the two switches. The Umgah went in for
the kill, but didn’t go in well-prepared enough. The scout turned 180, and used
a thruster equivalent to the Drones thruster capability. The Scout fired the
Mendokusai dart enough times for the Umgah to be destroyed. The Shofixti came
back, and the Hierarchy sent a Mycon. The Shofixti was advised "Use the
tactic that the Arilou use." The Shofixti went just behind the Mycon, and
the Podship shot itself once. Then it turned just enough so that the Scout was
obliterated. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the Plasmoid that killed the Scout, it
was the Glory Device, also killing the Mycon. The Hierarchy sent out another
Kzer-Za Dreadnought, where the Alliance sent out the Squawk. The Pkunk
generally tried to stay beside the Dreadnought (not at the back, not at the
front) and pepper it from there, but the Dreadnought launched it’s fighters, so
Awwky had to get out of there. The Pkunk used and reused the 180 tactic, and
eventually killed the Dreadnought. Then the Hierarchy sent out a Mycon, and the
Pkunk tried to get in behind it. It crossed the front of the Podship on the
way, and was almost destroyed. Of course, the chorus of angels came and the
Pkunk destroyed the Podship (who was shooting itself anyway). Then a VUX
suddenly appeared beside the Pkunk and began peppering it with limpets. Only
one caught the Fury. Then the fury came behind the Intruder and promptly
finished it’s life span. Then an Ilwrath came on the scene. The Pkunk ran up to
it and damaged the cloaking system, then ran back and destroyed the Hellfire
Spout, then ran back and just totaled the Avenger. Then the Umgah came on and
the Pkunk took it on in a battle on range. The Pkunk, of course, won. Then came
the first Koah-Ah Marauder on the scene, opening with a Fiery Ring of
Inevitable and Eternal Destruction to scare the Pkunk. But it didn’t work. Then
the Pkunk closed in the gap. Whci the Koah-Ah decided to return by throwing
shuriken after shuriken at the Fury. Needless to say, bye bye Fury. The Kinion
brothers sent out the last Shofixti, Captain Hiyata. Captain Hiyata went in,
flicked the two switches, and then went in, ducking and weaving, and self
destructed. Half of the Koah-Ah was killed, but there was still the other half.
Then the Kinion brothers sent out the Lotza. The Cruiser fired twice,
then used the planet for a wraparound, and fired again. It was through this
that the Koah-Ah was finally destroyed. The Hierarchy sent out an Umgah, which
the Lotza destroyed in two shots. Then the Hierarchy sent out the Ilwrath. The
Ilwrath weaved a bit, then the Cruiser sent out two nukes which almost killed
the Ilwrath, then the Cruiser used a planet wraparound to gain fuel. The
Cruiser fired twice. The Avenger died. Then the Hierarchy sent out the VUX. The
Earthlign fired twice, and then…well, the most accurate description would be
that the gigawatt laser of the Intruder sliced a hole through the Cruiser. Then
the Alliance sent out the Defender, who fired two shots and the VUX was
f…ed. Hey, that kinda rhymes…but back to the Hierarchy choosing the Thraddash
to combat the Defender. The Defender sent out the trusty two shots, but
the afterburner (the thraddash turned around) absorbed the shot. Then, after
the Thraddash came back into range, the Defender fired the other two
shots. The Thraddash Torch was reduced to atoms. Then the Mycon was sent to
fight the Defender. The Mycon found the Cruiser easy pickings. Then the Burt
used the tactic of making the Mycon hit itself. It worked but then the Koah-Ah
Marauder came on, slinging shuriken after shuriken. The Pkunk didn’t survive
this onslaught. Then the Campground came on and said "Shall we
*Dance*?" The Koah-Ah didn’t answer. The Orz fired, only to be answered by
a shuriken. A marine came out of the Nemesis, but the Kzer-Za didn’t notice
like a Koah-Ah pilot would have noticed. The Marauder just kept slinging
shuriken after shuriken…the Campground was destroyed, but so was half
the Marauder. So the last Orz came to fight, the Disappointment. The Marauder
kept slinging shuriken after shuriken, but the Orz started replying with mortar
after mortar, plus marines. The fight was a stalemate until the marines
destroyed the Marauder, but with one last shuriken, the Koah-Ah hit the
Nemesis, killing it.
(It was inevitable, wasn’t it. The two leaders would become face to face. That
is what happens in most stories
So Lord 6 faced up against the Psytron. The Dreadnought fired the first
shot, but didn’t reach the Psytron. The Psytron fired back, and hit the
dreadnought. The Kruiser kept firing and firing, constantly varying the angle
so that the Kzer-Za couldn’t operate the fusion cannon to block the Nukes. The
Kruiser, eventually, had won! The Psytron went back to Sol…
Chapter 4 – Homefront Danger
When the Psytron came back to Sol,
they did a scan of the area. The Results: 1Dreadnought. Plenty of Fusion Bolts.
All aimed at Mars. Darcy thought something was up. "What the hell is on
Mars?"
"Martians. What do you think?"
"Let’s check it out." So the Psytron goes to Mars Planetary
Region, and hails the Dreadnought.
"Hey, Ur-Quan! What’s so interesting about Mars?"
"Nothing anymore. You are now our prime concern." And with that, the
Ur-Quan starts firing at the Psytron. The Psytron turns as much as a Spathi,
and then starts firing back. The Psytron makes an unexpected gravity whip and
starts going as fast as it can at the Ur-Quan. The Dreadnought starts firing,
but is shocked to find that the MX Missiles from the Kruiser are nullifying the
fusion blasts! The Kruiser, then aims for the fusion blast hole in the
Dreadnought, and fires away. The dreadnought can no longer fire, and fighters
are useless, so the Dreadnought charges in to do a self-destruct maneuver, but
the Kruiser moves away, so the Ur-Quan ifnds itself heading for the planet. So
it self-destructs on the surface on Mars. This is why you cannot find any
mountains on the surface of Mars – the fusion blasts rained on all the
mountains. Then they went to the Starbase. All was not well, however…
Chapter 4.5 – The Shattered Starbase
"This is Commander Hayes. Our deep-radar scanning is deficient, our
starbase decimated. I am the last person alive…this is a recorded message. This
is Commander Hayes…"
Keith slapped his forehead. "Oh no."
Darcy just said "$h!t."
Keith turned to Darcy and said "Dock and let’s look for him." Darcy
agreed.
So they went onboard the starbase, and found corpses. The place was littered
with corpses. All of a sudden, a hand reached out for Keith. In a faint
whisper, the feminine-sounding voice said "Help…Ilwrath and
Thraddash…killed us all…Hayes and me…only survivors…get Hayes…" and with
that she passed out. Darcy said "You wanna carry her, or me?"
Keith said "I will. You look for Hayes, I’ll go to the medical room."
So Keith went to the Sickbay and eventually restored the woman to
consciousness. But in the meantime, Darcy was looking for Commander Hayes. He
had heard the woman’s warning of ‘Ilwrath and Thraddash…killed us all…’ and was
on the lookout. He revised the techniques for dealing with an Ilwrath in
physical melee and where to shoot a Thraddash for maximum effectiveness. Then
he saw his first adversary, a Thraddash. Darcy took out his gun, but the
Thraddash rushed him, so Darcy had only enough time to pull out his gun. Fortunately,
he pulled out a gun at the right place so that it hit a Thraddash weak spot.
The Thraddash was knocked back, then Darcy shot the Thraddash dead. Darcy kept
walking with gun in front of him. Then he stumbled, and Hayes came out of
another room, with a gun in front of him. "Die, scumbag Ilwra – oh, it’s
you Darcy." Hayes lowered the gun. "So how did your mission go?"
"Very well Commander. But the reserve fleet didn’t fare as well – all 13
of them died. Each killing, on average, two ships."
"Very good, they died commendably. Unfortunately, the fleet left behind
fared badly. A series of Avengers and Torches popped up and attacked. We had
very few ships, and the Ilwrath and Thraddash docked with the starbase. Even
now, our starbase is overrun by Ilwrath and Thraddash troops. We are the only
humans alive, it seems."
"Commander, I am pleased to say that YOU ARE WRONG. Keith is in the
sickbay with a young female officer, who we found among the corpses. I don’t
know if the female is still alive."
"That pleases me greatly. Let’s go to the Sick Bay. Let’s find out how
they are…"
Chapter 5 – The Sickbay Syndrome
Darcy opened the door to the sickbay and found Keith and the female officer
lying down in adjacent beds. Hayes followed him in, and pointed to the female
"Hmm…I know that girl…I’m not sure where from, though." Darcy went to
Keith, and Hayes went to the girl. Then Darcy checked for pulse, breathing and
other life support functions. Then Darcy whispered something, and Hayes said
"What did you say?"
"I said that I can’t find breathing"
"Did you try his nose?"
"Yes"
"Did you try his mouth?"
"No…I tried his eye, though."
Hayes sighed. "Only Androids and Fred Ford breath through their eye."
"Oh. Well, he seems to have faint puffs of air from his mouth. What about
the girl?"
"Breathing very well."
"OK…that’s great Comman…"
And then Darcy fell onto the bed beside Keith, leaving Hayes to contemplate
what had happened to Darcy.
Then Hayes realized…he knew exactly what it was!
Chapter 6 – Race against Time
"Hello? Hello?! Is anyone here?"
"It looks like fusion blasts have rocked the Starbase"
"That would mean that…"
"Yes, it does. But wait – the Life Support System is still
functioning!"
"But very poorly, wouldn’t you say?"
"Yes…let’s check it out."
The single Black Spathi with his Black Arilou friend entered the Starbase. The
Arilou gasped at what he saw, being the protective (of humans) race that he is.
"Well, what do you know" said the Black Spathi. "The Kzer-Za
REALLY don’t like humans, hey!" At this the Arilou went ballistic.
"THIS IS NOT FUCKING TIME TO MAKE JOKES!"
"It’s time to do what, then?"
"Search for survivors, of course!"
So the two members of the BSS start searching the Starbase. Then they make it
into the Sickbay. Hayes looks up. "Who are you guys, and why do you have
black bands around your head…oh. You’re the Black Spathi Squadron. I remember
when Phlendo came around and took those 3 Cruisers. So…what are you doing here?
The Spathi replied "Well, doing a routine sweep of the area, actually. We
thought we might as well drop in."
"Well, that’s great. Do you know what is wrong with these guys? I think
it’s the Life Support…"
"We thought it was a bit low," said the Arilou. "Do you want us
to fix it?"
"Yes, please. But guys…"
"Yeah?"
"There’s Ilwrath and Thraddash out there. Watch it."
"Thanks. Be right back."
And the two members of the Black Spathi Squadron went out to fix the Life
Support System. This was about the time when Keith woke up.
"You let Black Spathi walk out there in
our Starbase unattended?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I just had a waking dream that you aren’t going to see those guys
again."
"A waking WHAT?"
"Where I saw a fragment of the future. Call me psychotic if you want, but
you haven’t got anyone to treat me. So get out of my way."
"Keith…" Keith hit Hayes
across the jaw – not hard enough to knock him out, but hard enough to put him
on his butt.
Ilwrath and Thraddash weren’t all that was in the Starbase. Now there was a
more serious threat.
Keith Kinion was on the loose. He remembered that his dreams usually came true.
And if he was right, then there was a Dnyarri on the StarBase. And Keith was
going to take apart the mind-controller.
And Keith was not someone to be messed with. He had learnt from a religious
sect of people who were experts in resisting mind-control…Keith was their
Zwisath, the pinnicle of their students. Then he left them to join the
Alliance.
Keith’s dream was true.
But he had passed the place where the Dnyarri was…
Chapter 7 – The Sentient Rat- um, Shrew.
A rat crawled out of the hole where it had been hiding after the Dnyarri
started it’s mental emanations. It
wasn’t an ordinary rat. This was a
sentient rat, made sentient by the mental emanations (?!?). The rat was now promoted to a Shrew.
And this Shrew was Angry, so it decided that it’s name should be AngryShrew,
for now.
AngryShrew couldn’t communicate in the ordinary way, and it knew that the
Dnyarri was dangerous. Then it sensed a
human – AngryShrew’s only hope, he realized.
Keith came down the corridor, and AngryShrew jumped in his way. Keith’s foot went astray and kicked
AngryShrew. AngryShrew went
ballistic. It crawled up Keith’s leg
and started punching and kicking his knee.
Keith had a football injury earlier in his life, so AngryShrew got
noticed. He was picked up by the tail,
then AngryShrew got on his hand and pointed where he had come from.
”You want me do go that way?”
AngryShrew nodded. “Ok, but I’m
going to kick your ratass so hard, the next you is going to feel it.”
AngryShrew had a sad look to it’s face, then nodded. Keith started walking,
with AngryShrew as his guide.
Eventually they got into the sickbay.
AngryShrew pointed in there.
”WHAT?!? The Dn…” AngryShrew put a finger to his mouth, as if
saying ‘shhhh…’
”OK, but you remember what I told you…”
AngryShrew nods. Keith burst in,
and there was a toad-like creature sitting on the bed where the girl was.
”What the…”
The Dnyarri ‘smiles’. “You are
surprised, Human. Yes, I am one of the
few Dnyarri…especially one that is metamorphic…” AngryShrew got a quizzical
look to his face. “Shape changing,
Sentient Rat. As I was saying, I am a
metamorphic Dnyarri. Tell me…do you
have a handy rock?”
”What do you call this starbase?”
”Ahh…that would be why you didn’t get caught.
Yes, you got Commander Hayes for me effectively didn’t you? You took me here, Hayes here, Darcy here…of
course the Black Spathi…and now you.
So…say goodbye to your sentient rat, human…>GO TO SLEEP<”
Keith fell down in a dazed sleep, and AngryShrew jumped down. The Dnyarri sat back, relaxed. ‘Now, what next…’
Chapter 8 – The Ratty Revenge
AngryShrew decided that AngryShrew was a bad name. It didn’t suit his character. Something more like ‘PissedShrew’
Then AngryShrew decided that changing his name at every step wouldn’t be a good
idea. AngryShrew would have to do. Then he plotted his next course of action.
Kill the Dnyarri.
At all points, AngryShrew had been seemingly immune to the Dnyarri’s
compulsions. The only question was how
the Dnyarri could be destroyed.
It would have to be with AngryShrew’s own claws, AngryShrew reasoned, because
he couldn’t lift anything. Now…where
was the Dnyarri’s weak spot? Of course –
the top of his head! Rip apart the
bleating creature…AngryShrew could only think one thought – DEATH!!! DEATH!!!
DEATH!!!
Keith was a really nice person!
AngryShrew wanted to avenge the capture of his mind…and this was the only was
he could do it.
Eventually, AngryShrew went into the room
where the Dnyarri was. The Dnyarri was
asleep. AngryShrew crept up to him, and
got onto the bed. And that’s where the
Dnyarri woke up and saw the furry rodent.
”Get off the bed, rat.”
And that’s where AngryShrew struck. He
scratched the Dnyarri’s eyes, then ripped them out.
What Ur-Quan scientist Kzer-Za didn’t find out was that if the Dnyarri was in
pain, he would release mind-control over his subjects. Which was what the Dnyarri did. Keith, Darcy and Hayes all woke up. Darcy got up and bashed the bleating Dnyarri
to a pulp. And then something weird
happened…
Chapter 9 – Metamorphic, Ingenious or Sentimentary?
The Dnyarri changed back into the same girl that the Kinion’s rescued
earlier! The girl was awake now, and
sat up. “What happened?”
”That’s what we wanted to ask you,” said a groggy Hayes
”All I remember is telling you that Hayes was still alive, then I remember a
bumpy ride…and nothing else.”
”The Dnyarri said that it was metamorphic! Are you human…” and Hayes’ eyes got narrow. “or Dnyarri?
”Human! Earthling! I swear, I am not a Dnyarri!”
Keith walked from the back of the room.
“She is no Dnyarri.”
Hayes turned quickly. “How do you know?!?”
”Easy. She’s my ex-girlfriend. I dated her 22 years ago. Didn’t I Darcy?” Darcy turned around, and
Keith continued. “Remember me being
crazed about a girl called Tamara?”
”Yes…”
”This is her.”
”Test her!” Darcy didn’t believe
Keith. Mainly because it wasn’t 22
years ago that Keith is usually interested in, it is now.
”OK. Tamara…”
”Yes, Keith?”
”Where did we go on our first date?”
”Oh…hmm…we went to the Cinema and saw a movie.”
”Yes…then what?”
”Well, that’s easy. We went to the park
and then we kissed. It was a beautiful
moment. One of the greatest I have ever
had…except for what happened after that.
We had…”
”Stop Tamara!” Everyone looked at Hayes.
He shrugged. “That’s too much information.”
”Hey…if the starbase is not under Dnyarri control, then maybe the Starbase has
woken up” said Tamara hopefully.
”I don’t suppose you have heard of a weird thing called…Ilwraths? Or Thraddash?”
”OK…I get the hint.”
And that was when the Comm.s channel came to live. “This is Genjiro, leader of the first wave of Shofixti to help
supplement your starbase’s numbers.
Request permission to dock.”
Hayes let out a sigh of relief. “Only
if you help us clean up…”
C’est Fini!
Andrew Smith.
Cyborg/Psytron
http://interranet.faithweb.com/cyborgia/
cybor.psyt@interranet.faithweb.com
Some general shout-outs, etc:
I’d like to say a big HELLO to Jerry Hinn, Chad Derrenbacker and Shaun Green
for putting out brilliant homepages
A great, big, huge (and just a smidge bigger) shout-out to AngryShrew…thanx for
your character mate!
A big Hello to everyone that I missed…sorry…
A Huge plug for my Homepage, Interranet Cyborgia. Guys, this will have Melnorme
commentries on races, Commander Hayes’ comments, graphics in a way never seen
before. Plus the Civilization Scenario for Star Control (soon) and tons of
other stuff, including the Frungy E-group – dedicated to finding out the
mysteries of Star Control (such as ‘how to play Frungy’).
A big Sorry for people who still have no idea who the hell I am…I used to be
Cyborg commonly known as Sage, now I am the Cyborg/Psytron. The reason I am
also CyborPsyt is because I am Schizophrenic (joke) and because the E-mail
Address needed to be shortened. And CyborPsyt sounded good. :-)
And an ENORMOUS…wait for it…
I gess I wil C U SOONA RATHA THAN LAYTA!