03-26-2010, 08:59 PM
Kazuya at his wing, the hybrid kicked his TIE-fighter into high gear. The boosters on the back of the ship burst forth in a cerulean haze, and with a mischievous chuckle and a quick glance to make sure Ander wasn’t still on their tails, Juno raced ahead after Victoria and Szar, who had gained plenty of ground during the quick skirmish they’d had with Ander.
“Kaz, we’ve got to hurry this up—kick on your boost,” the half-Saiyan urged her, but there was radio silence. “Kaz, are you there? Kazuya!”
“Hm?” the samurai-woman muttered, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you say my name. Maybe because ‘Kaz’ isn’t my name, fool.” With that little personal disclosure out of the way, the Japanese warrior followed Juno’s first suggestion, launching into high speed pursuit and evening out with her comrade. Ahead, Szar and Victoria were racing toward the energy release hatch, the clearest, easiest outlet to the central core. That was where Victoria would drop the bomb, and that would be what set off the most massive explosion the galaxy had ever witnessed.
Juno and Kazuya weren’t about to let that happen.
The two boosted ships closed in on their competitors, but Szar had other plans in mind. The lizard had finally decided to join up with his group, and now, Juno was surprised to see, proved to be one of their most valuable strategic assets—he’d practically led Kazuya into certain death not moments before, after all. If there was one thing about the changeling that the hybrid was sure of, it was that he shouldn’t be underestimated.
Second later, this hypothesis once again proved true as a single silver orb popped out of the bottom of Szar’s X-wing, and locked onto the hybrid’s ship. It raced full speed at the H-shaped spacecraft, latching onto the central orb of the TIE-fighter which housed its cockpit. “What the hell?” Juno screeched in surprise as the thing grasped onto his windshield.
A surge of electricity flowed into the controls around him, and the hybrid pushed himself into the chair as quickly as possible as the control panel before him fried. Letting loose a string of expletives, Juno pressed buttons and flipped switches, but there was nothing that could stop his ship from plummeting out of the sky now—it spun towards the ground, finally crashing into the surface of the Kill Cluster with a resounding thud, and a large, piercing noise, like that of nails scraping on a chalkboard.
The lights inside the ship were the last thing to flicker out; that left him in relative darkness, except for the ambient light of a nearby white dwarf. He closed his eyes, ensured now that his term in this game was done—he’d lost. He’d been shot down, and with the power out, he was quite sure that eventually, he’d run out of oxygen to breath, and then, he would die a slow, horrible, painful death.
“Damn it,” he muttered, defeated, slamming his fists against the control panel.
“Ouch,” something said. It was a female’s voice, but it was rather even-toned, and almost mechanized, in a way. The hybrid looked around for whatever it may have been—an android assassin, maybe, sent to take him out of his misery? But why had it said ouch after he’d hit the controls? Could it have been… connected to them?
A holographic blue orb appeared in front of him. It had a white grid painted on it, signifying that it was, indeed, a completely pixilated, computer generated image. It did, however, seem to be some sort of… artificial life form, if you could say it had life. It had a neck, as well, connecting it to a small port for holograms.
Juno stared at it for a second before speaking. “…what the hell are you?”
“I believe the proper question would be ‘who,’” the artificial intelligence replied, its ‘mouth’ being a completely vertical entity that opened and closed in a rhythmic fashion while she was speaking, and disappeared completely when she was not speaking. At least, Juno referred to it as a ‘she’—it seemed to be one, from her voice. Perhaps it would’ve been more appropriate to call her an it, but he decided that she was more personal. “I am EDI, and I am an artificial intelligence that has been attached to your ship, the Versailles.”
“That’s… handy,” the hybrid mustered, not being able to think of anything else to say.
“No, it is not,” EDI replied, “I am, unfortunately, without hands.” There was an eerie silence as Juno judged the intelligence of this thing—did it actually think he thought it had hands? EDI quickly clarified: “That was a joke.”
“Nice to know,” Juno scoffed. He sat back in his seat, “Great, so the only thing not fried when that thing hit was an AI with a corny sense of humor. I’m sure this is going to work out well.”
“Your sarcasm is misplaced, Juno,” EDI retorted, “But that is another topic for another day. For now, we must figure out how to get you back up and running. I’m sure it would not be in yours or the Misleading Guy’s best interest to be grounded through such a pathetic use of an EMP. Allow me to work for a moment to get you back online.”
With that, the orb disappeared for a brief second. Juno pondered, quickly, what she’d said. He supposed this Misleading Guy must’ve been Gamer, though it could’ve just been another one of the teenager’s common incorrect references.
It didn’t take long for EDI to reappear. Juno crossed his arms, waiting for her inevitable explanation of the situation to commence, but it appeared that she would prefer to let her work to the talking this time. Smart girl, he supposed, and watched as the control panel lit up once again. He glanced out the window—the scuffs in the vertical ‘wings’ of the TIE-fighter seemed to bind back into the metal, as if it was regenerating itself. I’ve got to learn how to do that, the hybrid thought to himself, and the blue artificial intelligence circled around three-hundred and sixty degrees to observe her work at length. After all the lights had turned on, and everything had re-synced, the seer finally broke the silence.
“Impressive, EDI,” he muttered, “What did you do?”
“I simply connected our broken power source to the backup generators located in the opposite wing,” the AI smiled. “Systems are operational again. You may start flight at any time, Commander Juno.”
“…Commander Juno,” the hybrid muttered, “I like the sound of that, EDI.”
“I am glad, Commander,” the artificial intelligence muttered.
“Call me Juno, EDI,” the semi-Saiyan told her, and he could see the slightest smile slip onto her mechanized, holographic features, though it disappeared within seconds.
Contented, Juno turned the keys in the ignition of the TIE-fighter once again, and pressed on the control stick in front of him. The Versailles, as EDI had referred to it, wrenched itself out of the metallic surface of the Kill Cluster, and with the flip of a switch, the hybrid was back on course, and the signals of Kazuya, Szar, and Victoria were quickly growing closer.
It didn’t take long for the onyx-haired pilot to catch up to the trio. Szar and Kazuya weaved masterfully out of the way of each others’ attacks, shooting almost exactly as they evaded the other’s shots. With Szar noticeably occupied, the hybrid took the opportunity and went low, flying beneath the ships.
“Juno?” he heard Kazuya say over the radio, and quickly, the changeling was alerted to his presence. “Juno, you’re… alive?”
“Well, that sucks,” Szar hissed over the comm, “Victoria, you’ve got the black-haired kid coming at you. Be ready!”
Shoot, Juno said inwardly as he raced up onto Victoria’s tail. The X-wing that housed the pink-haired girl began to bob slightly, as if preparing for him to shoot a volley of lasers in one direction or another. Thankfully, that wasn’t exactly his plan. On his radar he could see the energy release port just ahead—the Insurgents were getting close, and he wasn’t about to let them get there. He dove past Victoria, and the pink-haired vixen glanced over at him with a confused glint in her eye.
“EDI,” he said, “Get ready to save my ass.”
“Saving your ass is my job, Juno,” EDI informed the Conglomeration pilot in a mechanical fashion, before adding an addendum: “That was a joke.”
The port was now within eyesight. He readied the ship, gripping the controls with an increased determination and will to survive. He hoped the artificial intelligence pulled through—he was doing what he was about to do with the intent of living through it, but when you were performing a plan as risky as the one he’d cooked up on his way over here… well, it was never a very sure thing. He had to get back to the carnival though. He kept thinking that, knowing it would happen if he did: he had to go back; he had to go back… He gulped, noticeably fearful about his next move, but approaching it with the sullen confidence he approached situations like this. When he’d been chasing Rosemary, he had approached her with a surefire front, no matter how scared he may have been. There was just one problem with that example—he hadn’t come out of that one and lived to fight another day in Friend or Foe. Alive—yes. Yet not exactly the result he’d been hoping for.
The hatch was just ahead. “See ya around, EDI!” he called excitedly, attempting to counteract the nerves.
As the energy release hatch began to pass below him, he made a sharp move on the control stick, turning his vehicle directly down and jamming it into the hatch. “Ejecting,” EDI said, and Juno vaulted out of his seat and through the windshield, shattered glass flying everywhere as the friction slowed the lodged TIE-fighter to a stop. He fell from above, flying slowly toward the metal walkways surrounding the control core.
“Hooooooooooooooly shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiii—ngh!”
His expletives were interrupted by a loud thud as he slammed into the catwalks, faceplanting into the metallic surface. He breathed slowly and heavily, pulling himself up off the ground and leaning over the railing, vomiting a little bit into the abyss below the Kill Cluster’s central core. He glanced up briefly—the now completely disabled Versailles had effectively blocked the hatch, which would stop the bomb from going through and getting to the core. And, as far as he knew, that was the only access point.
He smiled as he glanced contentedly toward the central power system, which glowed bright yellow as it sat idly in what could’ve been its final moments. It was one of the most impressive displays he’d ever seen, a miniature metallic tower, with golden rays floating off of it like it was a star.
Juno looked up at the hatch, the rustic form of the Versailles tightly wedged into the space. He smiled victoriously; the trio of Insurgents—Victoria, Ander, and Szar—would have had a tough enough time trying to get a clear enough shot to hit the core anyway, but with the obstruction, they now had the added challenge of having to get two direct hits. As he was well aware from his earlier stunt, this was not an easy task, and accomplishing it while Alex and Kazuya were on their sixes wouldn’t be easy. Was it possible? Yes. Did he think they were skilled enough to do it? It didn’t seem likely, to be sure.
He glanced at the power core stoically, knowing that unless they weren’t able to accomplish their mission, or Gamer decided to pull some stunt to save him, that he would die if the bomb reached the inner caverns of the Kill Cluster. His eyes turned once again toward the space battle above, toward Kazuya and Alex, and he knew that he had done his piece to help the team. Now, it was up to them.
His eyes focused once more on the power core, and he wondered absentmindedly how long it had been since he’d seen the sun.
“Kaz, we’ve got to hurry this up—kick on your boost,” the half-Saiyan urged her, but there was radio silence. “Kaz, are you there? Kazuya!”
“Hm?” the samurai-woman muttered, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you say my name. Maybe because ‘Kaz’ isn’t my name, fool.” With that little personal disclosure out of the way, the Japanese warrior followed Juno’s first suggestion, launching into high speed pursuit and evening out with her comrade. Ahead, Szar and Victoria were racing toward the energy release hatch, the clearest, easiest outlet to the central core. That was where Victoria would drop the bomb, and that would be what set off the most massive explosion the galaxy had ever witnessed.
Juno and Kazuya weren’t about to let that happen.
The two boosted ships closed in on their competitors, but Szar had other plans in mind. The lizard had finally decided to join up with his group, and now, Juno was surprised to see, proved to be one of their most valuable strategic assets—he’d practically led Kazuya into certain death not moments before, after all. If there was one thing about the changeling that the hybrid was sure of, it was that he shouldn’t be underestimated.
Second later, this hypothesis once again proved true as a single silver orb popped out of the bottom of Szar’s X-wing, and locked onto the hybrid’s ship. It raced full speed at the H-shaped spacecraft, latching onto the central orb of the TIE-fighter which housed its cockpit. “What the hell?” Juno screeched in surprise as the thing grasped onto his windshield.
A surge of electricity flowed into the controls around him, and the hybrid pushed himself into the chair as quickly as possible as the control panel before him fried. Letting loose a string of expletives, Juno pressed buttons and flipped switches, but there was nothing that could stop his ship from plummeting out of the sky now—it spun towards the ground, finally crashing into the surface of the Kill Cluster with a resounding thud, and a large, piercing noise, like that of nails scraping on a chalkboard.
The lights inside the ship were the last thing to flicker out; that left him in relative darkness, except for the ambient light of a nearby white dwarf. He closed his eyes, ensured now that his term in this game was done—he’d lost. He’d been shot down, and with the power out, he was quite sure that eventually, he’d run out of oxygen to breath, and then, he would die a slow, horrible, painful death.
“Damn it,” he muttered, defeated, slamming his fists against the control panel.
“Ouch,” something said. It was a female’s voice, but it was rather even-toned, and almost mechanized, in a way. The hybrid looked around for whatever it may have been—an android assassin, maybe, sent to take him out of his misery? But why had it said ouch after he’d hit the controls? Could it have been… connected to them?
A holographic blue orb appeared in front of him. It had a white grid painted on it, signifying that it was, indeed, a completely pixilated, computer generated image. It did, however, seem to be some sort of… artificial life form, if you could say it had life. It had a neck, as well, connecting it to a small port for holograms.
Juno stared at it for a second before speaking. “…what the hell are you?”
“I believe the proper question would be ‘who,’” the artificial intelligence replied, its ‘mouth’ being a completely vertical entity that opened and closed in a rhythmic fashion while she was speaking, and disappeared completely when she was not speaking. At least, Juno referred to it as a ‘she’—it seemed to be one, from her voice. Perhaps it would’ve been more appropriate to call her an it, but he decided that she was more personal. “I am EDI, and I am an artificial intelligence that has been attached to your ship, the Versailles.”
“That’s… handy,” the hybrid mustered, not being able to think of anything else to say.
“No, it is not,” EDI replied, “I am, unfortunately, without hands.” There was an eerie silence as Juno judged the intelligence of this thing—did it actually think he thought it had hands? EDI quickly clarified: “That was a joke.”
“Nice to know,” Juno scoffed. He sat back in his seat, “Great, so the only thing not fried when that thing hit was an AI with a corny sense of humor. I’m sure this is going to work out well.”
“Your sarcasm is misplaced, Juno,” EDI retorted, “But that is another topic for another day. For now, we must figure out how to get you back up and running. I’m sure it would not be in yours or the Misleading Guy’s best interest to be grounded through such a pathetic use of an EMP. Allow me to work for a moment to get you back online.”
With that, the orb disappeared for a brief second. Juno pondered, quickly, what she’d said. He supposed this Misleading Guy must’ve been Gamer, though it could’ve just been another one of the teenager’s common incorrect references.
It didn’t take long for EDI to reappear. Juno crossed his arms, waiting for her inevitable explanation of the situation to commence, but it appeared that she would prefer to let her work to the talking this time. Smart girl, he supposed, and watched as the control panel lit up once again. He glanced out the window—the scuffs in the vertical ‘wings’ of the TIE-fighter seemed to bind back into the metal, as if it was regenerating itself. I’ve got to learn how to do that, the hybrid thought to himself, and the blue artificial intelligence circled around three-hundred and sixty degrees to observe her work at length. After all the lights had turned on, and everything had re-synced, the seer finally broke the silence.
“Impressive, EDI,” he muttered, “What did you do?”
“I simply connected our broken power source to the backup generators located in the opposite wing,” the AI smiled. “Systems are operational again. You may start flight at any time, Commander Juno.”
“…Commander Juno,” the hybrid muttered, “I like the sound of that, EDI.”
“I am glad, Commander,” the artificial intelligence muttered.
“Call me Juno, EDI,” the semi-Saiyan told her, and he could see the slightest smile slip onto her mechanized, holographic features, though it disappeared within seconds.
Contented, Juno turned the keys in the ignition of the TIE-fighter once again, and pressed on the control stick in front of him. The Versailles, as EDI had referred to it, wrenched itself out of the metallic surface of the Kill Cluster, and with the flip of a switch, the hybrid was back on course, and the signals of Kazuya, Szar, and Victoria were quickly growing closer.
It didn’t take long for the onyx-haired pilot to catch up to the trio. Szar and Kazuya weaved masterfully out of the way of each others’ attacks, shooting almost exactly as they evaded the other’s shots. With Szar noticeably occupied, the hybrid took the opportunity and went low, flying beneath the ships.
“Juno?” he heard Kazuya say over the radio, and quickly, the changeling was alerted to his presence. “Juno, you’re… alive?”
“Well, that sucks,” Szar hissed over the comm, “Victoria, you’ve got the black-haired kid coming at you. Be ready!”
Shoot, Juno said inwardly as he raced up onto Victoria’s tail. The X-wing that housed the pink-haired girl began to bob slightly, as if preparing for him to shoot a volley of lasers in one direction or another. Thankfully, that wasn’t exactly his plan. On his radar he could see the energy release port just ahead—the Insurgents were getting close, and he wasn’t about to let them get there. He dove past Victoria, and the pink-haired vixen glanced over at him with a confused glint in her eye.
“EDI,” he said, “Get ready to save my ass.”
“Saving your ass is my job, Juno,” EDI informed the Conglomeration pilot in a mechanical fashion, before adding an addendum: “That was a joke.”
The port was now within eyesight. He readied the ship, gripping the controls with an increased determination and will to survive. He hoped the artificial intelligence pulled through—he was doing what he was about to do with the intent of living through it, but when you were performing a plan as risky as the one he’d cooked up on his way over here… well, it was never a very sure thing. He had to get back to the carnival though. He kept thinking that, knowing it would happen if he did: he had to go back; he had to go back… He gulped, noticeably fearful about his next move, but approaching it with the sullen confidence he approached situations like this. When he’d been chasing Rosemary, he had approached her with a surefire front, no matter how scared he may have been. There was just one problem with that example—he hadn’t come out of that one and lived to fight another day in Friend or Foe. Alive—yes. Yet not exactly the result he’d been hoping for.
The hatch was just ahead. “See ya around, EDI!” he called excitedly, attempting to counteract the nerves.
As the energy release hatch began to pass below him, he made a sharp move on the control stick, turning his vehicle directly down and jamming it into the hatch. “Ejecting,” EDI said, and Juno vaulted out of his seat and through the windshield, shattered glass flying everywhere as the friction slowed the lodged TIE-fighter to a stop. He fell from above, flying slowly toward the metal walkways surrounding the control core.
“Hooooooooooooooly shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiii—ngh!”
His expletives were interrupted by a loud thud as he slammed into the catwalks, faceplanting into the metallic surface. He breathed slowly and heavily, pulling himself up off the ground and leaning over the railing, vomiting a little bit into the abyss below the Kill Cluster’s central core. He glanced up briefly—the now completely disabled Versailles had effectively blocked the hatch, which would stop the bomb from going through and getting to the core. And, as far as he knew, that was the only access point.
He smiled as he glanced contentedly toward the central power system, which glowed bright yellow as it sat idly in what could’ve been its final moments. It was one of the most impressive displays he’d ever seen, a miniature metallic tower, with golden rays floating off of it like it was a star.
Juno looked up at the hatch, the rustic form of the Versailles tightly wedged into the space. He smiled victoriously; the trio of Insurgents—Victoria, Ander, and Szar—would have had a tough enough time trying to get a clear enough shot to hit the core anyway, but with the obstruction, they now had the added challenge of having to get two direct hits. As he was well aware from his earlier stunt, this was not an easy task, and accomplishing it while Alex and Kazuya were on their sixes wouldn’t be easy. Was it possible? Yes. Did he think they were skilled enough to do it? It didn’t seem likely, to be sure.
He glanced at the power core stoically, knowing that unless they weren’t able to accomplish their mission, or Gamer decided to pull some stunt to save him, that he would die if the bomb reached the inner caverns of the Kill Cluster. His eyes turned once again toward the space battle above, toward Kazuya and Alex, and he knew that he had done his piece to help the team. Now, it was up to them.
His eyes focused once more on the power core, and he wondered absentmindedly how long it had been since he’d seen the sun.