02-08-2011, 01:51 AM
Sigfried gripped firmly onto his seat as the flyer rocked and bounced around violently. He noticed the several spiraling alien crafts dancing towards their little cruiser, weapons already locked. The red lights and sirens flashed all around him in a seizure inducing mash of senses as voices attempted to scream over the madness.
“What happened?!” Vic’s voice shrieked out through the mangled mass of sounds.
The inexperienced leader looked around frantically, snatching the harness up in his hands as their craft dealt with the vicious inertia that the pilot put it through. “I don’t know!” He choked down a wad of terror as he answered the huntress. “They got the jump on us!”
Their pilot began to issue back several numeric reads to the home craft as he struggled valiantly with the controls. “This isn’t looking good, at this rate-“
Sigfried’s eyes went wide as he saw the flicker of the wing mounted laser flash, a strangely holographic red beam slicing through their shield before eating away at the hull. In a flash the engine core went up in a vicious explosion, hurdling the crew and cargo into the void of space.
Space is a strange place to feel. Scorching hot on the part of you that is facing the sun, and frigid on the other. The lack of an atmosphere allowed the radiation to blast down upon you while simultaneously allowing you to freeze. The air is snatched out of your lungs, you don’t really have much choice in the matter. It’s just a matter of pressure differentials.
His eyes finally opened, and below him he saw the wreckage of their craft drifting down towards the massive arch that had been constructed around the surface of the planet. His fingers stretched out in what felt like slow motion towards it, as though he could call it back.
Suddenly fluttering pink entered his sight. He glanced down past one of the bodies the explosion had created and he saw Victoria free floating. Half of her suit had been blown off, her skin and hair burnt and torn. He reached out to her, wrapping his thin arms around her body and tucking his head next to hers, fingers pushing under the fractured remains of her flight suit and against her skin.
The flight suit was elegant in its simplicity, but astounding in its operation. That was all that Sigfried could think of. The space suit that now clung to Victoria’s form had been created somewhere within the reaches of the boy’s mind, but he had no ideations on how it worked. All he knew was that it worked.
He felt almost disembodied from his physical form now, almost senseless or at least his senses were so different from what they usually were he could barely interpret them. The golden visor that shielded Victoria’s face was somehow the center of his visuals, he could tell that much. Kinda. Well sort of, he could also see her from behind as though it was an over-the-shoulder shooter. Whatever, he didn’t have much time to ruminate over it.
“Great…” Victoria’s bitter voice groaned from somewhere within him. She flexed his fingers- Her fingers? In any case fingers were flexed as she looked over the carefully embroidered gold edges of her bright red suit. Or maybe she was moving one of the dead bodies away from her face. Once again, everything was really weird as a sentient space suit.
“Care to explain to me how to managed to do that?” She sounded a bit pissed that the seemingly normal demi-fuckup that Sigfried pretended to be just clung to her and changed into an astral leotard. He knew his cover was blown as far as the whole, “normal person” thin went, but that was a problem for later. When they weren’t floating through the void of space.
Later, let's get this finished, and hope that the ship can pick us up. He spoke to her in the only way he knew how, and wondered if she could hear him. She seemed to.
“I need to get closer, hold on, I’ve never flown before…” It was soon apparent the poor young thing had never been in space before. Her separation from any source of popular media probably didn’t help with her ideas about how to propel yourself in space, but Sigfried figured the flailing attempts she was making had the intention of being somewhat like swimming. This was not the correct answer. Soon however she planted a foot on a chunk of their craft and pushed off, flinging them towards the golden wall of death technology.
Sigfried felt the weave of the suit slowly begin to warm as the hunter’s body began to glow a dim indigo, casting strange blue lights over the surface of the strange structure. She extended her palm and the sensation of the static magnetic energy flowed over him. It was very odd, to say the least. Chunks of his form tugged and others pushed while her hairs stood up on her skin. Fairly overwhelming.
A sudden electrical wave struck out in a single dancing bolt and engulfed the wall of glimmering gold and lights, dulling it all in an instant.
“Success. My EMP has disrupted the flow of the alien power, but I don't know how long it will last.” The young woman attempted to turn around in the anti-gravity only to find herself spinning in tiny circles.
“Is there any way you can use that mind-speak to get a hold of the ship?” So she could hear him. “I imagine they'll see our efforts and head this way. I don't know about you, but I like having my feet on the ground.” He would have nodded in agreement, had he a head of his own.
He saw a sudden flash from the Utterance’s hull signified the remaining personal jets departure. The woman spun to face them, kicking off of a hunk of scrap to hasten her departure from space.
A quick screen of light called their attention and soon he felt her heart sink within. A small group of drones was flying around the edge of the great halo towards the seemingly lone combatant and the incoming fighters.
“Oh no…” Victoria’s voice drew out, the fear of being trapped out in space slowly enveloping her.
We’ll have to fight. He slowly realized that a strange voice echoing cryptically in somebody’s head might remind them a bit too much of a specter come to whisk them away to the afterlife.
The soundlessness of space was crushing in the heat of the moment, as the warrior flailed and spun in an attempt to get to the wreckage, simply in order to have something to push off of or perhaps to hide within the wreckage and hope for the best.
It came as a shock when the fighters hurdled overhead in a flash. The speed that vehicles were allowed to accelerate at in space was simply astonishing; most of all for people who had never witnessed a dog fight first hand.
Thanks to the quick wit of the hunter, she took advantage of their friend’s sudden approach and lifted a palm out towards a low coasting craft. A sudden crackle of static arced between them and she was yanked up towards it. Her hand clung steadfastly to the hull of the flier and our heroes were taken along for the ride. If it wasn’t for her super-toughness and his being an inanimate object, the G-forces of the catch would probably have killed them, but thankfully that was not the situation.
Whizzing along the two hitchhikers slowly crawled up to the head of the ship and peered out past the nose. The upcoming enemy quickly strafed to the side of the Bravo pilot, but the attack was missed rather quickly. The pilot of the craft they were stuck to blasted onward towards their prey, and Sigfried could practically taste the target lock as the systems whirred and wriggled following the quick moving robot. The frustration of the pilot was apparent, swiveling back and forth in attempt to get a clear shot without endangering their fellow with friendly fire.
He could feel the woman within his current form pressing her hands together, each faced counter to the other. Her eyes sealed shut firmly and began to hum and electrical power trickled from her body in the form of ki. He could feel the polar effects of the energy, one negative and the other positive as they played against one another, attempting to draw away.
With a grunt, Vic once again pointed her digits in the direction of her target, this time letting loose a single shimmering ball of crackling electrical ki that flew directly at the enemy ship. It impacted with a soft sway of the craft. It didn’t seem to do much, and Sigfried what honestly a little disappointed with the anti-climax of the blast. With a grunt the seasoned killer stuck her feet to the underbelly of the fighter and stood up. Sigfried went to tell her to stop, not to fire, that she might endanger the other pilot, but his thought was cut short when they were catapulted from the hull at blinding speed towards the enemy.
Victoria roared in primal fury as she slapped her hands together. One of her limbs began to spark and cast out tiny beads of light as a massive orb of power crackled between her fingers. He could sense the chittering of the orb, though he could not hear it within the void. With a final huff of air she lobbed her glowing fingers at the craft with all of her might.
Her fist sunk through the foreign metal first, before the ki could even be discharged. Crisp white and blue wisps flowed out of the thing’s core before a implosion strangled the machine with the smoldering hole at its epicenter.
Her inertia continued forward as she spun around the ship, her arm still firmly lodged in place. As she reached the apex of the crooked orbit, she kicked off with a terrible ferocity and sent the heap into the golden wall behind it. She flew off in the opposite direction, wildly rotating in dizzying loops and strange axis.
As the ship she just saved crossed her patch she snatched out again and grabbed a hold of the astral jet’s wing. As soon as they had affixed themselves, the pilot banked harshly and began to fly back towards the Utterance, leaving their comrades to fight to bring back the two warriors. Victoria glanced back at the flurried conflict. Sigfried knew she wanted to be there, in the heart of it all, fighting. There was no way, however. Not only was she too valuable an asset on the ground to lose in a fight with some drones, but she couldn’t pilot a ship as far as Sigfried knew and she sure as hell wasn’t going to get very far trying to punch all of them out of the sky. Ok, well, it had worked once he conceded to himself, but it was doubtful to work that well again.
The ship swooped in to dock, the crew working quickly to ready the pilot and her impromptu cargo. When the ship was safely within the airlock and the atmosphere had been normalized Victoria quickly fell from the ship and grasped at her helmet, tugging firmly.
“How do I get this off?” Her voice was short, tempered, but ultimately furious.
Sigfried appeared next to the woman before crumpling to the ground, simmultaniously shivering and sizzling on one half of his body. His fingers twitched and he gasped for air, the effects of space not quite having enough time to diffuse in the normalized atmosphere. He coughed heavily once, a stray spatter of blood streaking out onto the ground as he attempted to pull himself to his feet.
The huntress looked down at him and quickly accepted the silver thermal blanket from a rushing engineer. She wrapped the metallic material around her body and it stuck to her sweaty frame. “So, how was it, wrapped around me like that?” She was quiet, spiteful.
With one final tremor, Sigfried shook his head. “It’s not like that.” His irritation carried over in the deadpan in his tone.
“Oh no?” She stepped forward, tiny sparks of electricity sparkling along behind her heel. She loomed over him, her powerful body seeming more imposing than it ever had before. He knew she would have him in an instant, death would be certain if she wished it. He wondered who, if anybody, could stop her on the ship.
“No.” As foolish as it was, Sigfried was always willing to face confrontation with what he knew best: rage. “I’m sorry I tried to save you. We should have both died in the vacuum.” He wiped a few shards of crystallized ice and carbon from his red jacket before turning to the fighter.
Victoria stomped her bare foot, leaving a tiny dent in the metal flooring. “That isn’t what this is about.” Sigfried stopped cold in his tracs, hoping to simply duck the conversation. “How did you do that?”
He turned slowly and looked into her eyes. “Vic. This has to wait for another time, ok?” He tried with all of his might to restrain his volatility, to quell that reaction to conflict. He wanted her on his side. He liked her. He needed her.
She shook her head furiously. “No, not this time. I deserve to know!” The similarity of the boy’s powers and those her superior’s on Earth rubbed her the wrong way. It elicited feelings of mistrust, that he might be after Vic just like she was.
The young leader took a long moment of looking into Victoria’s eyes. Those blue eyes that haunted him for some reason. He could feel the scratching from inside his skull, a thought that had gone out of control . It had gained more than Sigfried had put into it, and now it rebelled within him. He wanted to run to her, to wrap her up and engulf her. Some strange urge born of both his hatred of her female archetype and a completely alien undying love. It tormented him.
“Fine, listen after this, we can talk.” He turned and began to march down the hallway away from the woman, almost hoping she didn’t take him up on the offer. “But first, I have to handle this.”
“Sigfried!” Jarka’s voice summoned him, and he spent several seconds glancing around to find where it came from. Only after thorough befuddlement did he realize that it came from the fighter that had collected him from the void. “Are you ok?” The stout little chef hustled from the craft and checked him over swiftly. Skoll soon departed from the ship as well, nonchalantly plodding after.
“What the fuck are you doing Jarka?” Sigfried’s first statement was at first a hybrid of anger and being genuinely confused. “That was you? You almost got shot down!” He gripped her shoulder firmly as his wide eyes peered into hers.
With a scowl she swatted his fingers away. “A ‘Thanks’ would be nice too.”
After a moment of agitation he took in a deep breath and exhaled, allowing the tension to flow freely away with the air. He looked into the tiny woman’s face and smirked. “Yeah. Yeah, good job out there.” He nodded to her and pat her shoulder. “I’ve got to get to the deck though and see what the hell is going on.” He turned and began sprinting away, waving to the two as he departed. “I will talk to both of you soon! I swear!” He wasn’t sure how good his swear was, but it was out there now.
The young man rushed through the hallways and towards the lift. He had seven sectors to go up from this part in the ship to get to the helm, and all of the scrambling men and women in their mixed uniforms seemed only to get in his way.
After a few more rushed hustling steps he swore aloud and leapt into the air. The fluttering, nervous flapping of the crow startled everyone he came by, and the incessant squawking and cawing didn’t help. One of the crew members swung a broom at him, for whatever reason they were carrying the broom he did not know, but it avoided the strike and made it into the massive circular elevator.
His finger slammed into the button, alighting it dimly as the two doors slowly closed. He saw a woman sprinting from the other end of the hallway with an outstretched hand, screaming to hold the elevator. He sneered and jammed his finger into the button a few more times, hoping the doors would somehow close faster than the terribly slow rate at which they were then.
He winced as she caught the door with her hand and snuck into the lift. She cast a venomous glance from over her clipboard, knowing better than to yell at the boy. “I was hitting the door open button,” he lied. “I dunno, it’s still a bit wonky.” He looked to the other side of the round room and coughed.
“Worked fine for me earlier today,” she snipped, bouncing on her heels.
Sigfried shrugged and cleared his throat. “Ah. I see.”
After a few moments, the rotors lurched and they began to slowly rise. He brushed a bit of scorched fiber from his shoulder as they stood there, his foot impatiently tapping. Looking down, he tapped the button a few more times in hopes it would speed their ascent.
“It’s not going to go any faster.” The woman was strangely preppy. Maybe she was from Capsule Corp. He really hoped she was, the way she was speaking to him.
He threw on a wide false grin and pointed at her, “Victoria Finger Gun” style and clicked with his mouth. “No use in not tryin’!” He did a tiny sarcastic wiggle and then allowed his features to slip back to slate quickly.
He glanced down quickly and noticed a pair of slippers on her feet. With a malicious smile he pointed down to them. “Those don’t look regulation. You just wake up?”
She narrowed her eyes at the leade of the ECM and snapped back. “Yes, I did actually. I was on my sleep cycle when the blockade run failed.” She tapped her foot impatiently and then glanced over to him. “Was it scary, almost getting blown up like that? I bet it was kind of embarrassing.” Her attempt at demeaning him reminded the youth of those college girls he so hated.
Rubbing at his chin a moment he looked over her and tilted his head to the side. “Wha- What is it that you do? I can’t tell from your uniform.”
“Informations Relay.” She tugged the dataslate that was under her arm into her chest and kept her eyes looking forward.
Sigfried let out a bitter little laugh. “Do you have to get coffee too? Is… is that a part of your job? Just get whatever?” The young lady didn’t respond, but instead insisted on glaring in to the metal before her. “Yeah… I bet there aren’t that many of you huh?”
Shaking her head, she quirked her brows petulantly. “No, actually there are quite a few. Just for little stuff around the ship.”
“Capsule Corp sent you, didn’t they?” His fists slowly curled as he turned to face her.
Her eyes peeked over from the corner of her eye nervously and she nodded. “Yes, but I volunteered for this mission.”
“Hm. Good on ya.”
Sigfied continued to stand over the young woman until the painfully slow elevator met her floor. As soon as the doors cracked open, she rushed out with as much composure as she could manage, both flustered and terrified by the strange man.
He pressed the “close door” button a few more times before it finally shut again and began to drag its way up towards his floor. If we’re this far advance, he wondered, why haven’t we invented a fuckin elevator that goes faster than like, a foot per second?
He could hear the chatter of the helm before he could exit, and he burst free of the entrapping space as soon as he could manage. He looked out across the busy place, and was almost shocked at its complexity.
“Adjust bear to one hundred and five point three one, eighty eight point oh, three hundred forty six point five oh.” Captain Alexander stood at the head of a massive holographic globe, several small red and green blips swarming about on its surface. His right hand was stuffed into the front part of his jacket and his left was neatly tucked behind his lower back. He neglected the standard massive hat that came with his job, of which Sigfried was rather happy. He had those puffy pantaloons from some several hundred years ago stuffed into tall black boots. A blue jacket, the ones that button on the inside and then it folds over and buttons again with broad shoulders was decorated boldly with ribbons and medals. A waxed mustache and short, pointy beard rested on his face under a short well cut crop of hair. He certainly looked historical.
He retracted his hand from the jacket and pointed down at one of the many arbitrators and commanded, “Use the canister rounds.” The tech nodded firmly and entered the command. “Bring the fighters in!” The insistent chatter of the techs added one more voice as military jargon was spewed through the comm lines. His head tilted down casting his eyes in shadow. “Fire when ready.”
The resounding echo of the shots fired rang even up in the command structures of the ship, and quickly the remaining blips were wiped off of the hologram. He smirked and nodded before stepping away from his map and facing Sigfried.
“Ello, cap’n.” Sigfried extended his hand and was received by a firm handshake. What class, he couldn’t help but think. “We’ve got the… whatever it is out of the picture. For now at least, it’s some weird alien shit, so I dunno what’s really going on with it.”
The commander tilted his head back, considering the information for a moment. “I suspect it’s a kind of net, to catch up ships for the drones to dispatch.” He smiled and tippe his head to Sigfried. “But now it is no worry.”
Turning away for a moment, he thrust his finger out and issued a few more commands before returning his attention to the mop-headed leader. “We were quite concerned about you, sir. I’m glad you and the girl could handle yourselves as well as expected.”
He allowed Sigfried to thank him before moving on to more pressing matters. He stepped up to the massive display of the planet’s orbit and drew the boy’s attention to a massive swarming glob of red. “This is a very large ship, sir. Larger even than the Utterance.” He nodded and used his single free hand to point out the very matter of which he spoke. “I do not think I would be wise for us, as understaffed as we find ourselves, to attempt a direct assault on Ja City, where this grand ship lies over.” He grasped at the digital structure and spun in it to face the other side of the planet. “I instead offer the stratagem to mask our presence on the blind side of Namek and begin out bombardment from there.”
Sigfried scrubbed at his chin in thought for a moment, scared to speak against the master of his craft. “But then won’t we be unable to fire upon them?”
Alexander appeared to laugh internally as he shook his head. “No, we will be able to use the gravitational pull of the planet to use long-range bombardment techniques, if we so desire to strike.” He nodded to the young man. “The same tactic is easily used for your unorthodox answer to the problem of the ground forces, though we will be temporally disabled for the duration of the firing sequence.” He scrubbed his fingers together for a moment, glancing down at whatever grit he was removing. “Antoher reason I would suggest we stay in orbit on the ‘dark’ side, sir.”
Sigfried had read a bit about space conflicts that occurred within the orbit of planets, but he wasn’t a tactician, to be sure. He agreed with the proud captain and nodded his head. “Yes, that sounds to be a good strategy, Captain.” He grinned and bowed his head. “I’m glad we have somebody competent enough to run things around here.”
The good natured profession smiled and gave a short bow. “Well, we all have our specialties.”
With that he returned to his post and began giving the order to duck under the halo with the massive Utterance of Kai.
“So, I can shapechange.” Sigfried didn’t feel like sugar coating it. It was a long time coming and she deserved to know it. “I have changed my form and deceived the general populace in order to help my agendas. Those agendas include the destruction and reconstruction of the current Earth government and using the gained military and civilian support to bring a better, more organized fight to the Invaders.” He paused and looked into Victoria’s eyes. “The Invaders never were coming to Earth.”
The cherry blossoms in her hair seemed to tremble as she looked onto him. “How much of it was a lie?” He knew what she meant by this, but she clarified anyways. “Was Roy lying? Did he know about all of this?”
Sigfried shook his head slowly, and he wasn’t lying. Roy really had no idea what was going on, or that he wasn’t a whole person all on his own. She didn’t need to know anything else beyond that. Some people needed a lie.
“I mean, you ca-“ Sigfried’s chat was cut off by a blaring loudspeaker, calling his name. “Mr. Hunin, you are required along with Ms. Victoria on Level Sub One immediately.
He sighed and slapped his hands against his thighs. “Damn it!” He looked across the room to Victoria once again. “I’m sorry this has to be this way, so soon.” He worried she wouldn’t cooperate now. But, even if she was angry, she had her mission to live up to. “I need your help once again, Vic.”
He led the warrior through the hallways and corridors, raging down the ship like a well-oiled machine. He led her to a single room, near the generators for the ship. There was a single room, black and yellow warning stripes coving the entire door.
“This is it Vic. The last favor I’m gonna ask of you.” He looked into those cool blue eyes once again. “Then you can do whatever you want.” He wasn’t sure if she was silent because she was angry, sad, anything. He had no idea what was going through her head. It really didn’t matter right then.
He opened the door as a number of engineers and workers scuffled about frantically, attempting to ready the machine. “Inside, there’s a power coil. I need to you grab it and give it every last drop of what you got, Vic. It’s our only hope at winning this thing on the ground.”
She squinted at him and tilted her head. “What is it?”
“It’s a railgun.” His voice dipped low as he explained the process. “It’s a railgun so big that even when we power down every nonessential system, right on down to life support, we still won’t have enough power to fire it. We’ve selected the highest population area of the invading force, and we’re going to fire the rail gun at it.”
Her eyes opened wide as she heard the proposal. “And you need me to help? Is that all I am to you? A fucking battery?!”
Sigfried dropped his head and stared into the floor. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say. It’s our last option.”
She slammed her fist into the wall, fuming. A four knuckled imprint was left when she retracted her arm. She growled and posed one last question. “What are we even firing if it’s that big?”
He looked up to her and nodded his head slowly. “Remember that asteroid we stopped and picked up?”
Taken aback, she shook her head slowly. “No. No way! You’ll destroy the planet!”
“We’ve done the projections!” His patience was burning short now. “The dense, brittle outer shell will fragment and then metallic core with hit the surface after a short time in the atmosphere. It shouldn’t set the planet off orbit but for a few micrometers!” He placed his hand on Victoria’s shoulder gently. “Trust me one last itme.”
She slapped his hand away and stormed into the room. “I’ll never trust you, Sigfried.”
The door slammed shut and Sigfried let loose his exasperated sigh before racing towards the command post to watch the action. He wanted to stay with Victoria to make sure everything was alright, but he couldn’t afford sentimentality right now. He had to make sure the mission was clear.
Soon, a massive pylon with a crooked coil began to noisily detach itself from the bottom of the ship, hissing and thrumming as it perfected it’s targeting to account for orbit and planet spin. Soon a thunderous shaking lock went into place and the machine was set.
“Powering down all nonessential systems.” The overhead communication was loud and terrifying, even more so when accompanied by the stillness that followed it. Systems slowly went quiet, and the lights went black. All that anyone could see was the glimmer of the planet below. He could hear only his breath.
“Activating Bioelectrical power coil in…” Sigfried caught his breath and waited for the signal. Vic would have to cooperate. She had to.
“Three…” He glanced down the hallways, hoping to catch a glimpse of light from the cell he had cast her into.
“Two…” What if she didn’t do it? They were sitting ducks! The surface to air weaponry would surely lock on to them soon enough in their vulnerable state and blow them from the starway.
“One.”
A horrendous scream ripped through the ship as a blinding blue and white light flashed across the entire floor, consuming everything. Sigfried was blinded for a moment and was forced to step away from the window, the sheer force of Victoria’s power quaking the craft from stern to aft.
Soon the several white lights along the rimmed outer coil of the railgun began to alight, signifying sufficient power. The howls went on and on as Victoria pushed her very soul into the power converter, the energy of one of the most powerful fighters on Earth being harnessed through the ship.
Finally, the red warning signals began to ring through the ship, and Captain Alexander’s voice spoke calmly. “Brace for fire.”
The force of the blast was explosive, shuttering every layer of the behemoth carrier as the asteroid was fired at super-sonic speeds into the planet’s atmosphere. Sigfried woul have done well to brace, because he was literally thrown back off of his feet and into the adjacent wall as the weapon fired, making him unable to see the rock’s initial descent.
Soon through he clambered to his feet in time to see it strike the red-hot shell of the planet’s gravitational pull, splintering and shattering the rough exterior. Fragments shattered off in flaming specks and he wondered if they had miscalculated. Maybe it wouldn’t make it through the heat.
Then again, he was no expert. The rock pierced the viel of that outer surface and rocketed in towards Namek. He wasn’t sure where it hit or how hard. I was on the other side of the surface, beyond his vision.
For a single second though, he was sure the world stopped spinning.
“What happened?!” Vic’s voice shrieked out through the mangled mass of sounds.
The inexperienced leader looked around frantically, snatching the harness up in his hands as their craft dealt with the vicious inertia that the pilot put it through. “I don’t know!” He choked down a wad of terror as he answered the huntress. “They got the jump on us!”
Their pilot began to issue back several numeric reads to the home craft as he struggled valiantly with the controls. “This isn’t looking good, at this rate-“
Sigfried’s eyes went wide as he saw the flicker of the wing mounted laser flash, a strangely holographic red beam slicing through their shield before eating away at the hull. In a flash the engine core went up in a vicious explosion, hurdling the crew and cargo into the void of space.
Space is a strange place to feel. Scorching hot on the part of you that is facing the sun, and frigid on the other. The lack of an atmosphere allowed the radiation to blast down upon you while simultaneously allowing you to freeze. The air is snatched out of your lungs, you don’t really have much choice in the matter. It’s just a matter of pressure differentials.
His eyes finally opened, and below him he saw the wreckage of their craft drifting down towards the massive arch that had been constructed around the surface of the planet. His fingers stretched out in what felt like slow motion towards it, as though he could call it back.
Suddenly fluttering pink entered his sight. He glanced down past one of the bodies the explosion had created and he saw Victoria free floating. Half of her suit had been blown off, her skin and hair burnt and torn. He reached out to her, wrapping his thin arms around her body and tucking his head next to hers, fingers pushing under the fractured remains of her flight suit and against her skin.
The flight suit was elegant in its simplicity, but astounding in its operation. That was all that Sigfried could think of. The space suit that now clung to Victoria’s form had been created somewhere within the reaches of the boy’s mind, but he had no ideations on how it worked. All he knew was that it worked.
He felt almost disembodied from his physical form now, almost senseless or at least his senses were so different from what they usually were he could barely interpret them. The golden visor that shielded Victoria’s face was somehow the center of his visuals, he could tell that much. Kinda. Well sort of, he could also see her from behind as though it was an over-the-shoulder shooter. Whatever, he didn’t have much time to ruminate over it.
“Great…” Victoria’s bitter voice groaned from somewhere within him. She flexed his fingers- Her fingers? In any case fingers were flexed as she looked over the carefully embroidered gold edges of her bright red suit. Or maybe she was moving one of the dead bodies away from her face. Once again, everything was really weird as a sentient space suit.
“Care to explain to me how to managed to do that?” She sounded a bit pissed that the seemingly normal demi-fuckup that Sigfried pretended to be just clung to her and changed into an astral leotard. He knew his cover was blown as far as the whole, “normal person” thin went, but that was a problem for later. When they weren’t floating through the void of space.
Later, let's get this finished, and hope that the ship can pick us up. He spoke to her in the only way he knew how, and wondered if she could hear him. She seemed to.
“I need to get closer, hold on, I’ve never flown before…” It was soon apparent the poor young thing had never been in space before. Her separation from any source of popular media probably didn’t help with her ideas about how to propel yourself in space, but Sigfried figured the flailing attempts she was making had the intention of being somewhat like swimming. This was not the correct answer. Soon however she planted a foot on a chunk of their craft and pushed off, flinging them towards the golden wall of death technology.
Sigfried felt the weave of the suit slowly begin to warm as the hunter’s body began to glow a dim indigo, casting strange blue lights over the surface of the strange structure. She extended her palm and the sensation of the static magnetic energy flowed over him. It was very odd, to say the least. Chunks of his form tugged and others pushed while her hairs stood up on her skin. Fairly overwhelming.
A sudden electrical wave struck out in a single dancing bolt and engulfed the wall of glimmering gold and lights, dulling it all in an instant.
“Success. My EMP has disrupted the flow of the alien power, but I don't know how long it will last.” The young woman attempted to turn around in the anti-gravity only to find herself spinning in tiny circles.
“Is there any way you can use that mind-speak to get a hold of the ship?” So she could hear him. “I imagine they'll see our efforts and head this way. I don't know about you, but I like having my feet on the ground.” He would have nodded in agreement, had he a head of his own.
He saw a sudden flash from the Utterance’s hull signified the remaining personal jets departure. The woman spun to face them, kicking off of a hunk of scrap to hasten her departure from space.
A quick screen of light called their attention and soon he felt her heart sink within. A small group of drones was flying around the edge of the great halo towards the seemingly lone combatant and the incoming fighters.
“Oh no…” Victoria’s voice drew out, the fear of being trapped out in space slowly enveloping her.
We’ll have to fight. He slowly realized that a strange voice echoing cryptically in somebody’s head might remind them a bit too much of a specter come to whisk them away to the afterlife.
The soundlessness of space was crushing in the heat of the moment, as the warrior flailed and spun in an attempt to get to the wreckage, simply in order to have something to push off of or perhaps to hide within the wreckage and hope for the best.
It came as a shock when the fighters hurdled overhead in a flash. The speed that vehicles were allowed to accelerate at in space was simply astonishing; most of all for people who had never witnessed a dog fight first hand.
Thanks to the quick wit of the hunter, she took advantage of their friend’s sudden approach and lifted a palm out towards a low coasting craft. A sudden crackle of static arced between them and she was yanked up towards it. Her hand clung steadfastly to the hull of the flier and our heroes were taken along for the ride. If it wasn’t for her super-toughness and his being an inanimate object, the G-forces of the catch would probably have killed them, but thankfully that was not the situation.
Whizzing along the two hitchhikers slowly crawled up to the head of the ship and peered out past the nose. The upcoming enemy quickly strafed to the side of the Bravo pilot, but the attack was missed rather quickly. The pilot of the craft they were stuck to blasted onward towards their prey, and Sigfried could practically taste the target lock as the systems whirred and wriggled following the quick moving robot. The frustration of the pilot was apparent, swiveling back and forth in attempt to get a clear shot without endangering their fellow with friendly fire.
He could feel the woman within his current form pressing her hands together, each faced counter to the other. Her eyes sealed shut firmly and began to hum and electrical power trickled from her body in the form of ki. He could feel the polar effects of the energy, one negative and the other positive as they played against one another, attempting to draw away.
With a grunt, Vic once again pointed her digits in the direction of her target, this time letting loose a single shimmering ball of crackling electrical ki that flew directly at the enemy ship. It impacted with a soft sway of the craft. It didn’t seem to do much, and Sigfried what honestly a little disappointed with the anti-climax of the blast. With a grunt the seasoned killer stuck her feet to the underbelly of the fighter and stood up. Sigfried went to tell her to stop, not to fire, that she might endanger the other pilot, but his thought was cut short when they were catapulted from the hull at blinding speed towards the enemy.
Victoria roared in primal fury as she slapped her hands together. One of her limbs began to spark and cast out tiny beads of light as a massive orb of power crackled between her fingers. He could sense the chittering of the orb, though he could not hear it within the void. With a final huff of air she lobbed her glowing fingers at the craft with all of her might.
Her fist sunk through the foreign metal first, before the ki could even be discharged. Crisp white and blue wisps flowed out of the thing’s core before a implosion strangled the machine with the smoldering hole at its epicenter.
Her inertia continued forward as she spun around the ship, her arm still firmly lodged in place. As she reached the apex of the crooked orbit, she kicked off with a terrible ferocity and sent the heap into the golden wall behind it. She flew off in the opposite direction, wildly rotating in dizzying loops and strange axis.
As the ship she just saved crossed her patch she snatched out again and grabbed a hold of the astral jet’s wing. As soon as they had affixed themselves, the pilot banked harshly and began to fly back towards the Utterance, leaving their comrades to fight to bring back the two warriors. Victoria glanced back at the flurried conflict. Sigfried knew she wanted to be there, in the heart of it all, fighting. There was no way, however. Not only was she too valuable an asset on the ground to lose in a fight with some drones, but she couldn’t pilot a ship as far as Sigfried knew and she sure as hell wasn’t going to get very far trying to punch all of them out of the sky. Ok, well, it had worked once he conceded to himself, but it was doubtful to work that well again.
The ship swooped in to dock, the crew working quickly to ready the pilot and her impromptu cargo. When the ship was safely within the airlock and the atmosphere had been normalized Victoria quickly fell from the ship and grasped at her helmet, tugging firmly.
“How do I get this off?” Her voice was short, tempered, but ultimately furious.
Sigfried appeared next to the woman before crumpling to the ground, simmultaniously shivering and sizzling on one half of his body. His fingers twitched and he gasped for air, the effects of space not quite having enough time to diffuse in the normalized atmosphere. He coughed heavily once, a stray spatter of blood streaking out onto the ground as he attempted to pull himself to his feet.
The huntress looked down at him and quickly accepted the silver thermal blanket from a rushing engineer. She wrapped the metallic material around her body and it stuck to her sweaty frame. “So, how was it, wrapped around me like that?” She was quiet, spiteful.
With one final tremor, Sigfried shook his head. “It’s not like that.” His irritation carried over in the deadpan in his tone.
“Oh no?” She stepped forward, tiny sparks of electricity sparkling along behind her heel. She loomed over him, her powerful body seeming more imposing than it ever had before. He knew she would have him in an instant, death would be certain if she wished it. He wondered who, if anybody, could stop her on the ship.
“No.” As foolish as it was, Sigfried was always willing to face confrontation with what he knew best: rage. “I’m sorry I tried to save you. We should have both died in the vacuum.” He wiped a few shards of crystallized ice and carbon from his red jacket before turning to the fighter.
Victoria stomped her bare foot, leaving a tiny dent in the metal flooring. “That isn’t what this is about.” Sigfried stopped cold in his tracs, hoping to simply duck the conversation. “How did you do that?”
He turned slowly and looked into her eyes. “Vic. This has to wait for another time, ok?” He tried with all of his might to restrain his volatility, to quell that reaction to conflict. He wanted her on his side. He liked her. He needed her.
She shook her head furiously. “No, not this time. I deserve to know!” The similarity of the boy’s powers and those her superior’s on Earth rubbed her the wrong way. It elicited feelings of mistrust, that he might be after Vic just like she was.
The young leader took a long moment of looking into Victoria’s eyes. Those blue eyes that haunted him for some reason. He could feel the scratching from inside his skull, a thought that had gone out of control . It had gained more than Sigfried had put into it, and now it rebelled within him. He wanted to run to her, to wrap her up and engulf her. Some strange urge born of both his hatred of her female archetype and a completely alien undying love. It tormented him.
“Fine, listen after this, we can talk.” He turned and began to march down the hallway away from the woman, almost hoping she didn’t take him up on the offer. “But first, I have to handle this.”
“Sigfried!” Jarka’s voice summoned him, and he spent several seconds glancing around to find where it came from. Only after thorough befuddlement did he realize that it came from the fighter that had collected him from the void. “Are you ok?” The stout little chef hustled from the craft and checked him over swiftly. Skoll soon departed from the ship as well, nonchalantly plodding after.
“What the fuck are you doing Jarka?” Sigfried’s first statement was at first a hybrid of anger and being genuinely confused. “That was you? You almost got shot down!” He gripped her shoulder firmly as his wide eyes peered into hers.
With a scowl she swatted his fingers away. “A ‘Thanks’ would be nice too.”
After a moment of agitation he took in a deep breath and exhaled, allowing the tension to flow freely away with the air. He looked into the tiny woman’s face and smirked. “Yeah. Yeah, good job out there.” He nodded to her and pat her shoulder. “I’ve got to get to the deck though and see what the hell is going on.” He turned and began sprinting away, waving to the two as he departed. “I will talk to both of you soon! I swear!” He wasn’t sure how good his swear was, but it was out there now.
The young man rushed through the hallways and towards the lift. He had seven sectors to go up from this part in the ship to get to the helm, and all of the scrambling men and women in their mixed uniforms seemed only to get in his way.
After a few more rushed hustling steps he swore aloud and leapt into the air. The fluttering, nervous flapping of the crow startled everyone he came by, and the incessant squawking and cawing didn’t help. One of the crew members swung a broom at him, for whatever reason they were carrying the broom he did not know, but it avoided the strike and made it into the massive circular elevator.
His finger slammed into the button, alighting it dimly as the two doors slowly closed. He saw a woman sprinting from the other end of the hallway with an outstretched hand, screaming to hold the elevator. He sneered and jammed his finger into the button a few more times, hoping the doors would somehow close faster than the terribly slow rate at which they were then.
He winced as she caught the door with her hand and snuck into the lift. She cast a venomous glance from over her clipboard, knowing better than to yell at the boy. “I was hitting the door open button,” he lied. “I dunno, it’s still a bit wonky.” He looked to the other side of the round room and coughed.
“Worked fine for me earlier today,” she snipped, bouncing on her heels.
Sigfried shrugged and cleared his throat. “Ah. I see.”
After a few moments, the rotors lurched and they began to slowly rise. He brushed a bit of scorched fiber from his shoulder as they stood there, his foot impatiently tapping. Looking down, he tapped the button a few more times in hopes it would speed their ascent.
“It’s not going to go any faster.” The woman was strangely preppy. Maybe she was from Capsule Corp. He really hoped she was, the way she was speaking to him.
He threw on a wide false grin and pointed at her, “Victoria Finger Gun” style and clicked with his mouth. “No use in not tryin’!” He did a tiny sarcastic wiggle and then allowed his features to slip back to slate quickly.
He glanced down quickly and noticed a pair of slippers on her feet. With a malicious smile he pointed down to them. “Those don’t look regulation. You just wake up?”
She narrowed her eyes at the leade of the ECM and snapped back. “Yes, I did actually. I was on my sleep cycle when the blockade run failed.” She tapped her foot impatiently and then glanced over to him. “Was it scary, almost getting blown up like that? I bet it was kind of embarrassing.” Her attempt at demeaning him reminded the youth of those college girls he so hated.
Rubbing at his chin a moment he looked over her and tilted his head to the side. “Wha- What is it that you do? I can’t tell from your uniform.”
“Informations Relay.” She tugged the dataslate that was under her arm into her chest and kept her eyes looking forward.
Sigfried let out a bitter little laugh. “Do you have to get coffee too? Is… is that a part of your job? Just get whatever?” The young lady didn’t respond, but instead insisted on glaring in to the metal before her. “Yeah… I bet there aren’t that many of you huh?”
Shaking her head, she quirked her brows petulantly. “No, actually there are quite a few. Just for little stuff around the ship.”
“Capsule Corp sent you, didn’t they?” His fists slowly curled as he turned to face her.
Her eyes peeked over from the corner of her eye nervously and she nodded. “Yes, but I volunteered for this mission.”
“Hm. Good on ya.”
Sigfied continued to stand over the young woman until the painfully slow elevator met her floor. As soon as the doors cracked open, she rushed out with as much composure as she could manage, both flustered and terrified by the strange man.
He pressed the “close door” button a few more times before it finally shut again and began to drag its way up towards his floor. If we’re this far advance, he wondered, why haven’t we invented a fuckin elevator that goes faster than like, a foot per second?
He could hear the chatter of the helm before he could exit, and he burst free of the entrapping space as soon as he could manage. He looked out across the busy place, and was almost shocked at its complexity.
“Adjust bear to one hundred and five point three one, eighty eight point oh, three hundred forty six point five oh.” Captain Alexander stood at the head of a massive holographic globe, several small red and green blips swarming about on its surface. His right hand was stuffed into the front part of his jacket and his left was neatly tucked behind his lower back. He neglected the standard massive hat that came with his job, of which Sigfried was rather happy. He had those puffy pantaloons from some several hundred years ago stuffed into tall black boots. A blue jacket, the ones that button on the inside and then it folds over and buttons again with broad shoulders was decorated boldly with ribbons and medals. A waxed mustache and short, pointy beard rested on his face under a short well cut crop of hair. He certainly looked historical.
He retracted his hand from the jacket and pointed down at one of the many arbitrators and commanded, “Use the canister rounds.” The tech nodded firmly and entered the command. “Bring the fighters in!” The insistent chatter of the techs added one more voice as military jargon was spewed through the comm lines. His head tilted down casting his eyes in shadow. “Fire when ready.”
The resounding echo of the shots fired rang even up in the command structures of the ship, and quickly the remaining blips were wiped off of the hologram. He smirked and nodded before stepping away from his map and facing Sigfried.
“Ello, cap’n.” Sigfried extended his hand and was received by a firm handshake. What class, he couldn’t help but think. “We’ve got the… whatever it is out of the picture. For now at least, it’s some weird alien shit, so I dunno what’s really going on with it.”
The commander tilted his head back, considering the information for a moment. “I suspect it’s a kind of net, to catch up ships for the drones to dispatch.” He smiled and tippe his head to Sigfried. “But now it is no worry.”
Turning away for a moment, he thrust his finger out and issued a few more commands before returning his attention to the mop-headed leader. “We were quite concerned about you, sir. I’m glad you and the girl could handle yourselves as well as expected.”
He allowed Sigfried to thank him before moving on to more pressing matters. He stepped up to the massive display of the planet’s orbit and drew the boy’s attention to a massive swarming glob of red. “This is a very large ship, sir. Larger even than the Utterance.” He nodded and used his single free hand to point out the very matter of which he spoke. “I do not think I would be wise for us, as understaffed as we find ourselves, to attempt a direct assault on Ja City, where this grand ship lies over.” He grasped at the digital structure and spun in it to face the other side of the planet. “I instead offer the stratagem to mask our presence on the blind side of Namek and begin out bombardment from there.”
Sigfried scrubbed at his chin in thought for a moment, scared to speak against the master of his craft. “But then won’t we be unable to fire upon them?”
Alexander appeared to laugh internally as he shook his head. “No, we will be able to use the gravitational pull of the planet to use long-range bombardment techniques, if we so desire to strike.” He nodded to the young man. “The same tactic is easily used for your unorthodox answer to the problem of the ground forces, though we will be temporally disabled for the duration of the firing sequence.” He scrubbed his fingers together for a moment, glancing down at whatever grit he was removing. “Antoher reason I would suggest we stay in orbit on the ‘dark’ side, sir.”
Sigfried had read a bit about space conflicts that occurred within the orbit of planets, but he wasn’t a tactician, to be sure. He agreed with the proud captain and nodded his head. “Yes, that sounds to be a good strategy, Captain.” He grinned and bowed his head. “I’m glad we have somebody competent enough to run things around here.”
The good natured profession smiled and gave a short bow. “Well, we all have our specialties.”
With that he returned to his post and began giving the order to duck under the halo with the massive Utterance of Kai.
--=~*/| o |\*~=--
“So, I can shapechange.” Sigfried didn’t feel like sugar coating it. It was a long time coming and she deserved to know it. “I have changed my form and deceived the general populace in order to help my agendas. Those agendas include the destruction and reconstruction of the current Earth government and using the gained military and civilian support to bring a better, more organized fight to the Invaders.” He paused and looked into Victoria’s eyes. “The Invaders never were coming to Earth.”
The cherry blossoms in her hair seemed to tremble as she looked onto him. “How much of it was a lie?” He knew what she meant by this, but she clarified anyways. “Was Roy lying? Did he know about all of this?”
Sigfried shook his head slowly, and he wasn’t lying. Roy really had no idea what was going on, or that he wasn’t a whole person all on his own. She didn’t need to know anything else beyond that. Some people needed a lie.
“I mean, you ca-“ Sigfried’s chat was cut off by a blaring loudspeaker, calling his name. “Mr. Hunin, you are required along with Ms. Victoria on Level Sub One immediately.
He sighed and slapped his hands against his thighs. “Damn it!” He looked across the room to Victoria once again. “I’m sorry this has to be this way, so soon.” He worried she wouldn’t cooperate now. But, even if she was angry, she had her mission to live up to. “I need your help once again, Vic.”
He led the warrior through the hallways and corridors, raging down the ship like a well-oiled machine. He led her to a single room, near the generators for the ship. There was a single room, black and yellow warning stripes coving the entire door.
“This is it Vic. The last favor I’m gonna ask of you.” He looked into those cool blue eyes once again. “Then you can do whatever you want.” He wasn’t sure if she was silent because she was angry, sad, anything. He had no idea what was going through her head. It really didn’t matter right then.
He opened the door as a number of engineers and workers scuffled about frantically, attempting to ready the machine. “Inside, there’s a power coil. I need to you grab it and give it every last drop of what you got, Vic. It’s our only hope at winning this thing on the ground.”
She squinted at him and tilted her head. “What is it?”
“It’s a railgun.” His voice dipped low as he explained the process. “It’s a railgun so big that even when we power down every nonessential system, right on down to life support, we still won’t have enough power to fire it. We’ve selected the highest population area of the invading force, and we’re going to fire the rail gun at it.”
Her eyes opened wide as she heard the proposal. “And you need me to help? Is that all I am to you? A fucking battery?!”
Sigfried dropped his head and stared into the floor. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say. It’s our last option.”
She slammed her fist into the wall, fuming. A four knuckled imprint was left when she retracted her arm. She growled and posed one last question. “What are we even firing if it’s that big?”
He looked up to her and nodded his head slowly. “Remember that asteroid we stopped and picked up?”
Taken aback, she shook her head slowly. “No. No way! You’ll destroy the planet!”
“We’ve done the projections!” His patience was burning short now. “The dense, brittle outer shell will fragment and then metallic core with hit the surface after a short time in the atmosphere. It shouldn’t set the planet off orbit but for a few micrometers!” He placed his hand on Victoria’s shoulder gently. “Trust me one last itme.”
She slapped his hand away and stormed into the room. “I’ll never trust you, Sigfried.”
The door slammed shut and Sigfried let loose his exasperated sigh before racing towards the command post to watch the action. He wanted to stay with Victoria to make sure everything was alright, but he couldn’t afford sentimentality right now. He had to make sure the mission was clear.
Soon, a massive pylon with a crooked coil began to noisily detach itself from the bottom of the ship, hissing and thrumming as it perfected it’s targeting to account for orbit and planet spin. Soon a thunderous shaking lock went into place and the machine was set.
“Powering down all nonessential systems.” The overhead communication was loud and terrifying, even more so when accompanied by the stillness that followed it. Systems slowly went quiet, and the lights went black. All that anyone could see was the glimmer of the planet below. He could hear only his breath.
“Activating Bioelectrical power coil in…” Sigfried caught his breath and waited for the signal. Vic would have to cooperate. She had to.
“Three…” He glanced down the hallways, hoping to catch a glimpse of light from the cell he had cast her into.
“Two…” What if she didn’t do it? They were sitting ducks! The surface to air weaponry would surely lock on to them soon enough in their vulnerable state and blow them from the starway.
“One.”
A horrendous scream ripped through the ship as a blinding blue and white light flashed across the entire floor, consuming everything. Sigfried was blinded for a moment and was forced to step away from the window, the sheer force of Victoria’s power quaking the craft from stern to aft.
Soon the several white lights along the rimmed outer coil of the railgun began to alight, signifying sufficient power. The howls went on and on as Victoria pushed her very soul into the power converter, the energy of one of the most powerful fighters on Earth being harnessed through the ship.
Finally, the red warning signals began to ring through the ship, and Captain Alexander’s voice spoke calmly. “Brace for fire.”
The force of the blast was explosive, shuttering every layer of the behemoth carrier as the asteroid was fired at super-sonic speeds into the planet’s atmosphere. Sigfried woul have done well to brace, because he was literally thrown back off of his feet and into the adjacent wall as the weapon fired, making him unable to see the rock’s initial descent.
Soon through he clambered to his feet in time to see it strike the red-hot shell of the planet’s gravitational pull, splintering and shattering the rough exterior. Fragments shattered off in flaming specks and he wondered if they had miscalculated. Maybe it wouldn’t make it through the heat.
Then again, he was no expert. The rock pierced the viel of that outer surface and rocketed in towards Namek. He wasn’t sure where it hit or how hard. I was on the other side of the surface, beyond his vision.
For a single second though, he was sure the world stopped spinning.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]