Star Guild: Episodes 4, 5 & 6 (Star Guild Saga) Read online

“You okay?”

  Jerrod opened his eyes. “Not entirely, but I’m alive.”

  Crystal turned and looked at the two dead enemies on the ground, oozing red blood from their suits. For a moment, she thought she saw pink skin through a ripped sleeve. Then her Mech shuddered from being pushed too hard. She turned back around to see Daf waiving her Mech's arms wildly, smashing green humanoids and shoving them to the ground like rag dolls. A sudden flurry of laser fire riddled Daf's Mech, making her Mech stumble backwards. Crystal ran at the line of green giants pelting Daf with rapid fire and slammed her Mech's arm on the head of the first one and was reaching for a another when a laser hit Crystal's window, producing a black smudge. “Dammit!”

  She landed a crushing blow on another head but then suddenly stopped, took a step backwards, and gaped at a triangular craft soaring over the edge of the plateau. She knew it would chop them to pieces, just like Hendricks.

  “That doesn't look good!” shouted Jerrod, his eyes shifting from the smudged window to Crystal.

  Crystal could see the craft speeding right towards them, but it was still a ways away. She had to dodge a giant's dead body and slug a live one back to the ground before she could look around for an escape route.

  “Daf, Daf! Can you hear me?!” Crystal slammed her Mech's fist into another giant. It lost its balance and fell off the cliff of the plateau.

  “Here, Crystal!” replied Daf, her breath fast and jerky.

  Crystal sighed relief. “I thought your com link was down.”

  “Gee, thanks for thinking of my com link.”

  Crystal eyed the craft still flying toward them, estimating that it would start firing in less than thirty seconds. “You see the starfighter coming at us?”

  “I do! What the hell do we do?”

  “Disengage from the humanoids and follow me! We dodge behind that huge boulder up ahead.”

  “Aye, Chief!”

  Crystal raced forward with Daf close behind. Rocks and boulders littered the ground, yet none were large enough to conceal them. The boulder she had already spotted was perfect. They could hide behind it, protected from any immediate fire. The main problem was speed. Could they get their Mech's moving fast enough and to reach it before lasers rained down on them?

  Crystal pounded her Mech's legs harder against the ground as the heat gauge’s blinking light went solid. You can make it. Go, go! Push it, Mech!

  A steady stream of thick laser fire erupted out of the starfighter's wings, strafing just in front of the boulder in a straight line as rock blasted into fire and dust. The starfighter was coming at them lower and faster than Crystal had previously thought. “Move faster Daf! Move!”

  Daf's Mech suddenly appeared alongside Crystal and began to out pace her when Crystal looked up at the sky, her eyes filling with horror. The starfighter would catch them out in the open.

  “Jump!” she yelled, and Crystal's Mech jumped into the air, straining with all of her might and willing her Mech to jump as high as it could, but the starfighter didn’t deviate from its course. She screamed, automatically pulling her Mech into a somersault, and the starfighter banked right just in time to avoid hitting her. Crystal reached forward, pressing the air compression button on the HDC. Please work! Slow me down!

  She heard the tearing of metal followed by an explosive crash that must’ve been the starfighter. Her air compressors blew air, just in time to break her fall, allowing her Mech to land feet first on the ground. Then it vibrated, paused, and gave a heavy shudder, causing Jerrod to finally lose his grip. He flopped on the floor with a yelp.

  “Chief! You okay?”

  “Don't worry about me, Daf—move to Sirona as fast as you can!”

  “Will do. You saved our asses!”

  Daf's Mech sped past her with a clear path to the starship. A laser zipped by Crystal's Mech out of nowhere. Shards of rock splayed against her Mech. Crystal twisted around to find the source of the laser, seeing dozens of giant humanoids running toward them.

  They don't learn.

  If the humanoids had been paying attention, they would’ve already seen Daf and Crystal take a dozen of them on without much contest, but then Crystal gasped in horror when she saw half a dozen Mechs almost twice the size of her Mech, and each one had a laser cannon mounted on its shoulder .

  Oh, my Guild! She twisted around and sped her Mech forward, sighting Daf's Mech way ahead, and even though she knew her Mech was in desperate need of a rest, she ran at full speed and leaped as much as she could to get to Sirona as fast as she could.

  “Chief?”

  “What now?” responded Crystal.

  As she ran, Crystal pulled her eyes off Sirona to eye Daf's Mech just ahead of her, standing at the edge of the plateau and gazing down at Sirona a hundred of feet below. It was her mom's starship, the size of a hundred Mech warehouses—probably more. It was heavily armored, and since photon torpedoes couldn't be launched anywhere except in space, the massive amount of ground fire power striking Sirona wasn’t doing too much damage to the ship.

  “You jump and hit the air compressor, Daf, and better hurry!”

  Daf replied, “Um... no, I don't think so. You see how far down that is? Let's find another way.”

  “I'm going to push you if you don't jump! Look behind you!”

  Daf turned her Mech around to see several of the giant Mechs leading the pack and closing in on them. “What the hell are those?!”

  Crystal shouted, “I don't know! Jump, Daf!”

  Then, the one in the lead shot an ion bolt at them, missing slightly high.

  “I'm jumping!” screamed Daf as she leaped into the sky.

  “Get a hold of—” An ion blast hammered Crystal's Mech, toppling her over and she heard the doctor gasp. “We're off the cliff!”

  A blur of dark blue and light spun in circles through the window as they fell. She saw Jerrod. At least he isn't flopping around everywhere.

  Crystal reached a finger toward the air compression button but missed, feeling the dizzying spin grab hold of her, not allowing her to position her finger just right on the holographic button. She tried again, but missed. She felt like throwing up.

  C'mon! Push it, Crystal. Push the damn button!

  She looked at the HDC to see how many more feet she had until they hit the ground, but couldn't focus on the numbers.

  In desperation, she reached her hand forward again to press the air compression button knowing that if she didn't, she and the doctor would be a pile of broken bones when they hit the ground, not to mention dead. She wondered if they’d fall on Daf. The attackers would get two kills with one blow. At least they'd be happy.

  One more reach! She extended her finger; wiggling it around, making sure she hit something, any button for all she cared. The Mech abruptly slowed as the air compressors switched on, automatically calculating the Mech's center of gravity and mechanically moving the air compressor tubes exactly where they needed to be, pushing air out and successfully flipping Crystal's Mech upright. She had leveled out, her Mech's feet now pointing to the ground. The HDC spun numbers and registered 32 feet until ground impact. She gripped the cockpit straps with all of her strength. Even though she was in the right position to land, she hadn't readied her Mech's legs and feet to land softly. Most of the shock absorption would bypass the feet and legs so her low back and torso would take the brunt of it and the doctor would get it even worse.

  “Brace yourself, doctor!”

  When they hit ground, a solid pound sounded in the cockpit and the Mech shook. They swayed back and forth for a moment and then stopped. Dust blocked the window and Crystal glanced around the cockpit. Jerrod was leaning against the window behind the HDC column, his broken leg outstretched on the flooring, his other knee against his chest. He exhaled loudly, not realizing he'd been holding his breath the whole time. He pressed his hands against his eyes, rubbing them. “Nice landing.”

  That's right. Her Mech had landed. How she was able to do that without killin
g them both she did not know. Luck was on her side. No harsh repercussions so far and the Mech hadn’t toppled over.

  Now what?

  She peered out of the window, seeing Starship Sirona covered by shadows that overtook the land at this time of night on planet Lumus.

  “Crystal!”

  Surprised that Daf had even landed her Mech yet, Crystal turned her head and her Mech did the same. “Where are you, Daf?” She saw the starship in front of her, flat lands to the left and right. Turning around, she looked at the base of the large ridge she’d just been blasted off of.

  “Inside Sirona. Bay 15 is open.”

  Crystal lifted her hands up, shrugging an I-don't-know. “Where the hell is that?”

  “Starboard side, near the back of the ship.”

  Jerrod pointed to the right. “Around the ship there.”

  Crystal stepped her Mech to the right, seeing a wide, open bay. “I see it! I'm coming to the Thunderbird launching bay!”

  As she approached, she saw Daf's Mech with its arms out, waving her forward. Her Mech stepped through the doorway of the bay and orange lights suddenly flashed, making Crystal wince and look away. She stopped her Mech, not knowing where exactly in the bay she was, but not caring, either. All she wanted was for the launch bay door to close behind her. She would be safer, at least for the time being, yet knowing that safe wasn't something she'd be while on this planet.

  A thick stream of steam rose up her window. The gravity equalizers in the launch bay had activated, telling her that the bay door had closed. She let out a great sigh of relief, accompanied by an unexpected whimper. She felt her body relax as she unstrapped her belt harness and then sank to the cockpit floor, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. She started shaking. She wanted to cry more than ever, to ache in the moment and let everything out, but she withheld it. She was Chief. They don't cry.

  “Your mom would be proud, Crystal.”

  Crystal looked up to see Jerrod sitting across the floor from her, wearing a serious, exhausted expression mixed with grimaces of pain obviously caused by his now grossly bloated ankle.

  “She'd find a reason not to be.”

  Jerrod nodded with a frown. “I'm not telling you what she'd say, just what she'd think.”

  Crystal gave a curt nod, thinking he could believe what he wanted, then peered out the window, looking at the long runway. She noticed several people running toward her, wearing dark blue Star Guild uniforms.

  She stood up and opened the dome hatch, moving up and over it as she felt fresh air hitting her face. Daf was halfway up the ladder, climbing up to help her chief.

  Crystal shot Daf a quick look, then motioned to the Star Guild crew on their way over to her, waving her hand in the air and pointing into her cockpit. “I have a wounded doctor in here! He needs assistance! He needs the pods, ASAP!”

  The starship shuddered as an explosion slammed against the outside of the launch bay. Daf lost her balance and slipped off the Mech, slipping a short ways down to land awkwardly on her feet.

  Crystal looked down at Jerrod. “People are coming to help you.”

  Painfully, he smiled. “Thank you, Crystal. You saved my life.”

  Crystal bit her lip and turned back around, ignored the ladder by finding a foot hold on the side of the Mech and climbed her way down. Several men ran up the ladder, barking orders to each other.

  A soft hand landed gently on her back. She twisted around to give Daf a hug, but found herself staring into her mother's eyes.

  Admiral Diana McCoy grabbed Crystal as she choked back tears, then heard Crystal weeping in her arms as she squeezed her mom tightly.

  Diana let go of her daughter, moving her arms to Crystal's face and kissing her cheek. “I was so scared, Crystal. I couldn't find you. We searched and searched.”

  Crystal nodded, but then pointed to Daf. “You can thank her for my life.” Crystal brought her sleeve to her eyes, wiping away the embarrassing tears.

  Daf extended her hand, but Diana pushed it away, embracing her instead. “I owe you my daughter’s life.”

  Daf shook her head. “I just want to know how we can get off of this planet and back to Matrona.”

  Diana's face hardened, suddenly drained of all emotion. “That isn't happening anytime soon. Ion thrusters are off line. We're doing everything we can to repair them.”

  Crystal looked into her mom’s eyes. “That's not all that's damaged, is it?”

  Diana shook her head, then turned and walked toward a hallway at the corner of the runway. “We’re on our last reserves. Without the vacuum of space constantly recharging our ion functions, we’ve got less than 20% left. Aquaponics is still at full function, or else we'd be completely out of luck.” She pointed over her shoulder without looking. “Warehouse 26 is just over there. We've hooked into their water line and that's the only reason Aquaponics is fully functioning. That’ll last until the bastards catch on and blow the shit out of 26.” She gave a slight smile. “So don't be too shocked if your water tastes like fish.”

  Crystal eyed a Thunderbird, stopped, and grabbed her mother's arm. “How many Thunderbirds are operational?”

  “All of them,” replied Diana. “We only have about a hundred left.”

  Crystal looked back at her Mech, seeing the doctor being placed on a gurney by several Star Guild crew. A large hover car was parked next to them.

  “Mom, how many of the Thunderbird ion cannons do you have laying around?”

  Diana shrugged her shoulders. “I don't know. Like I said, they aren’t at full capacity.”

  “What are you getting at?” asked Daf.

  Crystal ignored the question as she continued to walk, following her mother down toward the hallway. “How many Mech's are in Warehouse 26?”

  Diana shook her head, puffing out her lower lip, estimating. “I guess a couple dozen?”

  “I need to talk with Tech. If they can find a way to hook an ion cannon to our Mechs, then we would have infantry—a powerful infantry. Any way to mount lasers on them too?”

  A blast against the starship knocked them off their feet and then a hover car zoomed past. Diana, sitting on her rump as she stared at her daughter, furrowed her brow. “Crystal, I just got you back! I'm not letting you go out there, nor anyone else except the Thunderbirds. We stay on Sirona until I can get her repaired enough to get off of this shitty planet.”

  Crystal stood up, patted her now sore hip, and walked past her mother and Daf, not saying a word.

  “Where do you think you're going?” asked Diana.

  “To Tech!”

  “Stay here, Crystal! That's an order!” demanded Admiral Diana, watching Crystal head toward an entirely different hallway.

  Crystal stopped and put her hands on her hips. “There's a question I need to ask them!” She turned around and entered the hall. She was on her way to find Tech Quarters.

  Daf and Diana gave each other a look. Diana crossed her arms and called after Crystal. “Stop leading me, girl! If there’s a question for Tech, it's a question for me!”

  Crystal continued to walk, not bothering to look back when she said, “I need to see our earliest specs. The enemy Mechs are identical to ours. Someone has either given the enemy our Mech blueprints or we somehow got ours from them!”

  Episode 5

  The Kill Off

  Sphere Six Overseer, Savanna Levens, was sitting in her office, gazing through a large observation window overlooking Matrona's biosphere. Teary eyed, she watched as a waterfall cascaded down a rock precipice.

  She held papers in her hand, feeling lost and imprisoned by the unrelenting grip of sorrow, having spent the last few days in an endless sojourn of weeping and crying interspersed with the necessities of survival.

  First, her son had died in an attack killing tens of thousands of people. It came and went as if enemy marauders were just passing by on a joy ride, killing and leaving once their fun was over.

  Secondly, and adding t
o her melancholy, someone who had demonstrated himself to be a true friend time and again throughout the years, Fleet Admiral James Byrd, was being tried as a traitor. And, if found guilty, he would be executed on the morrow. She had attempted to see him, but each time was told he wasn't accepting any visitors.

  She squeezed her hand, crinkling papers, but quickly eased up and looked down at them—yet another reason for her tears.

  I have to keep going. Life doesn't end here, Savanna. You have an entire population to keep safe, she told herself.

  “The Kill Off? I guess it's a fitting title,” commented a young man sitting in a chair on the other side of Savanna's ebb rock desk. His voice was low and tense. Savanna was sitting with her back to him and turned around in her chair, eying the young man. His name was Devon Gray, an assistant of hers and a savvy technician who knew the ins and outs of HDC mainframes like no one else. Last night, she had given him the task of intercepting all messages to and from Zim's HDC, with the sole purpose of helping Admiral Byrd by finding anything he could on the Prime Director.

  At first the messages were hack proof, hard encrypted through the com lines. But within a couple of hours the tech genius had broken into the holographic mainframes, deciphered the encryptions, uncovered the cryptography and translated them. And the codes weren't just a bunch of random messages like Devon and Savanna had first thought. They were correspondence labeled “The Kill Off” that were related to a series of events already set in motion, and were to finish playing out over the next two weeks.

  Savanna pressed her hands onto the window, her palms open and fingers splayed flat on its cold surface. Two weeks—only two weeks? Then she turned back around and pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket to wipe her tears and blow her nose, which she did as quietly as she could. She returned the soggy cloth to its pocket and rested her hand along the window sill, again staring at the waterfall. “It's heartbreaking to think that this place—our starbase—won't be here much longer.” She turned around again to face Devon. “The animals, the plants, the people…who would want to end all of this? And why?”