Version 2006 - Ch 36

CHALLENGE

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The next day we gathered in that large assembly hall without chairs. I estimated only about 100 midshipmen and cadets this time. This time Mc Elligott was there in person but standing along with the other Academy commanders on the side. Admiral Dent addressed us from his lectern "You are the twelve best teams of this year. As it is tradition the last twelve teams will compete in the final test for the Reagan Trophy. In this year's challenge you will orbital jump on a simulated hostile planet. Each team must destroy a Sensor base, make contact with the local sentient life form . Upon successfully establishing contact, the tribal leader will give the Group access to hidden D 12 shuttles. Whichever team returns to Dover first and rings the academy bell wins!" He appeared very pleased with himself. Har-Hi thought the same." I can't shake the feeling he stacked the deck to his favor!" "I do too, but what can he do? With the Admiral there and all the others?" Hans rubbed his big hands." It sounds like a nice challenge. They pulled all stops. Orbital Jumps mean Quasimodo Suits!" A day ago we had boarded a Marine Drop Ship and now we stood at the Jump Deck and each of us got fitted with a Quasimodo Battle suit and then was fitted in the Ejection Chutes. Har Hi made the okay sign knowing of my fear of space and I returned his sign faking confidence and a smile. Truth was I was afraid as always when I was about to go into Space. I told myself that I was as safe as on board a ship inside this marvel of Terran Miltec. The chute door closed with a fast hiss and the suit lights turned off. It was completely dark, not even my HUD display came on. I realized to late that my suit was not activated! Then I felt a sharp tingling sensation and I lost consciousness. It felt as if I was falling and spinning, nausea made me gag and I opened my eyes only to find myself lying on a metal floor. My hands were tied to my back and my boots where missing, but to my surprise I still had the 45. If I could only free my hands somehow. I try to see what it was that held me and it looked like memory tape. Incredibly tough. Still sick to the stomach I sat up and looked around. I was in a holding cell and the first thing that came to my mind was: not again! The cell was a half pipe alcove about four meters tall three deep and perhaps also three wide. There was no bed, no bunk, no hygiene unit, nothing. The front of the cell seemed open but I could see the shimmering borders of a force field. I spit and it hissed and my spittle turned to steam. An aggressive force field. The room beyond the cell had two similar alcoves but empty and nothing else. The loud vibrating hum of engines told me that this was a space ship of sorts and it ran with its engines near red line. I didn't have to wait very long and a humanoid man stepped into view. He appeared almost human except for the fine scaled skin. I recognized him as the Shiss Human Lieutenant that shared a dinner with us. "Ah my guest is already up. Splendid! I was already concerned I used to much energy on the Paralysator." I said nothing. "What no questions? I expected you to ask me all sorts of questions!" "I doubt you would tell me anything I really want to know." "Oh but I would. You see you are dead as far as the world is concerned. No one is looking for you! We did it right under the nose of the Old Admiral too!" "If you think he is stupid then you are on the wrong ship. He figure it out!" "They do not look for you. I told you. They think you are dead. You see your suit malfunctioned and most of you burned up in the atmosphere, the rest that slammed into the planet surface had a few traces of burned DNA left." He was very proud of himself and I could not figure out why they went through all this trouble just to get me. "It was quite a challenge to get you of the Marine ship, but we did it. Oh I wish we could have taken a Quasimodo along ,but what they pay me for you is enough to buy me a new ship." "Why me?" "I was not told why they want you!" He started thinking." I bet I could get even more money for you if I knew what it is." He suddenly left. I was in dire need to go to the bathroom and I was already contemplating how to relieve myself when he came back holding a Kermac Line Blaster. "We are here. I am going to very rich and you going to be dead soon." He deactivated the force field aiming his blaster at me." Let's go! If I have to deliver you with a leg or an arm less then so be it!" I obeyed." Can I use a toilet. I really need to go!" "I don't care what you need! As soon as we are outside you may simply let it go! Just don't soil my ship!" "I get you. I promise I will get you one day!" "We stepped on a platform and it lowered itself to the ground. The ship as I know saw was an old Kartanian Courier ship and we had landed on what looked like a space port. The air smelled of fire and waste the sky deep red and a pair of suns. It was very warm. The landing field once made out of Duro-crete or a similar material was cracked and busted up almost everywhere. There where piles of trash, burned out ship wrecks and piles of twisted metal one still burning. In the distance the skyline of an immense city, but there too I saw columns of smoke. A sleek looking speeder with two Energy projectors approached and my captor smiled." Ah my payday is approaching!" Suddenly a bright energy bolt hammered into the speeder and a second one into the Courier ships drive section! The speeder lost its Arti-grav and screeched over the Duro-crete crashing into a pile of waste. My captor forgot about me as he turned to see the damage on his ship and he cursed. I took the chance and bolted as fast as I could and jumped over a busted shipping crate ,rolled over my shoulder barley avoiding a blaster shot. the crate had sharp edges and I pressed the tape against it and started rubbing. I heard fast steps, the tape ripped, my 45 into my bleeding fist I rolled on my back, the Shiss Human appeared over the edge of the crate and I fired. The 45 made a satisfying deep roaring bang and an ugly black hole was punched right between his eyes, blood and brain spraying from the back of his head as he was thrown back!" That's for not letting me piss!" I crawled forward peeked around the Crate and saw three men crawl out of the now burning speeder. Each of them heavily armed. With two fingers and hoping they did not see me right away I fished for the Line Blaster. Out of what looked like a twisted metal wreck broke an old but powerful Nul-Nul Battle tank. Aiming its main guns at the three men. Two I recognized as Kermac, the third was Humanoid and I could not determine what he was exactly from this distance. A loudspeaker squealed from the tank." Drop your guns! You have a fancy flier and seem to have business with a ship! So you have money! Not paying the Port Rats is dangerous!" I had no idea where I was, but I knew sticking around was not a good idea. While they were busy with each other I crawled to the next pile of dirt. After I had reached a fourth pile . I saw two men and a Quadiped float out of the tank, quite obvious against their will. The Kermac used telekinetics! I heard one of them." You mindless scum! Do you know who you are dealing with?" The Line Blaster was a decent weapon and fired long bolts of energy, and were nicknamed Line Blasters because of it. However the Kermac had Battle armor and I saw shimmering Force fields. I would not be able to kill them before they could use their cursed telekinetics. It was quite obvious they had come to get me, for whatever reason I could not fathom. Except perhaps it had to do with the Y'All or something like that. I risked to run a little distance to the next cover. A piece of landing gear it appeared. The Tank crew floating screamed in agony. But the Tank fired again! the main gun of that machine had no problem vaporizing one of the Kermac and their human companion. From the distance I saw another speeder arrive, similar to the first. Firing at the tank, ripping it halfway open and exposing a burning robot at the controls. The newly arrived Speeder stopped not too far from my new hiding spot and the remaining Kermac approached it, his shield gone and armor damaged. The door of the Speeder opened and a black robed man, with activated personal shield holding a Terran Thompson E Blaster appeared. I remembered a man on Perryton wearing the same type of robe and skull symbol. He snarled with a commanding voice "Where is the Narth Friend?" "What business is it of yours? We paid the worm!" "Don't even try your Psionics on me! I am well protected against it. Answer my question now!" "I don't know! We were unable to make the exchange. He could be still in the ship or out here somewhere! Those fools fired on the ship and on us! Maybe he is dead!" The black robed man cursed." I told those idiots to wait till the exchange was complete!" The Kermac howled." You are responsible for this? The Worm and the Kermac will hunt you down each of you including your First Son!" "Ah but they will never know. Because you will die now!" "You forget I am Kermac. I can..." These where his last words. The Black robed man fired. Then he flew over to the Courier ship. I didn't want to wait and find out if he had any sensors in his skimmer able to find me or not. I ran as fast as I could from cover to cover towards the city. ________________________________________ INTERLUDE: Newport Academy - Lounge Har-Hi sat depressed in a lounge at Newport Academy. The others were as silent as him, Wetmouth's mask was as always but her shaking shoulders showed she was crying. Elfi held her close, her thick Saran Eye makeup dissolved into long streaks down her cheeks. The Reagan trophy standing on a table next to them. They had seen Eric's suit burn up and Har Hi had pressed them on to win the damn trophy in honor of their friend for he knew that is what he would have wanted. Dent was more than annoyed that they had won, despite their tragedy. Muhammad wiped his eyes and shook his head." I can't believe he is gone! I simply can't!" Krabbel all balled up, not even touching the ice cream someone had put on the table simply rocked back and forth. They were told to wait here till the Inquiry was completed. Cirruit leaned back and stared at the ceiling." I can't believe it either. No Quasimodo fails that way! I don't think this was an accident!" " I do not believe that either!" Said Admiral Stahl walking closer. Before anyone could jump up he said. " Not this time. I came to ask if I could wait with you until the memorial service starts!" Har Ho got up and said." Sir please have a seat with us we would be honored." The old Admiral sat down." I promise you there will be answers!" Now a black robed and hooded figure stepped into the group." I am Narth and I am a friend of Eric!" Har-Hi got up and took Narth's hand." Sit with us then, I know of you Eric always referred to you as his closest friend." "And I know of you, through Eric's eyes I have met you all and through him you are friends of Narth as well." "Do you want to know how he died?" Hans asked. "Eric is not dead! He was abducted because they think he holds the key to Narth secrets which is quite true." A stun grenade could not have had a greater effect on the group. They stared at the mysterious figure. The Admiral was the first to speak." He is alive?" "Quite so. I am not exactly sure where he is but Eric and I are bonded on a very special level and no matter where he is I can feel him. I could not if he perished. He is alive but I feel he is in danger and fights for his life. As soon as Eric knows where he is, I will know as well." "He was abducted? How could he be abducted from a Navy Ship and we did see him die!" Wetmouth said. "You saw a suit burn up laced with some easily manufactured DNA material. Eric was stuffed in a message capsule and sent on his way, the same time the Orbital Assault began. No one noticed because the Officer on the sensors was an accomplice to Commander Decker. Eric was collected by Lt. Zyzahan, also belonging to Decker's group." Stahl said." I am getting Ultras down here as we speak and I will cleanse this place. Tell me all you know!" "Many of your years ago, a Saresii with great Psionic talent was allowed to come to Narth. We always were fond of the Saresii and their child like powers and believed we could open our Isolation to become a more interactive species. However the Saresii was false and he spoke different as he thought. He wanted to uncover the Narth secret and use it for his own and he was an Agent of the Kermac. Through him the Kermac learned that there is indeed a key if you will, a way to gain tremendous power. Now Eric shared his body with me as I was killed by Cadet Wintsun during our first year at the academy. Unlike the Saresii Eric allowed us to touch and see his innermost self and opened his being to us. There was no falseness and we Narth really understood the concept of friendship. It became known to the Kermac that a Human became associated with Narth and fetched a plan to abduct Eric. For they hoped to gain knowledge about the Source of Narth power. Eric had not yet come to Narth to be taught he is unaware of it, but he does hold the same key every Narth holds. Admiral Dent of this Institute is a Kermac spy and he uses his position to plant officers loyal to him and thus to the Kermac in important posts within the fleet. His Assistant, Commander Decker is also a Spy and does the same thing but for a Group called the Worm. The Kermac paid the worm to abduct Eric and deliver him alive to Kermac-Prime were they hope extract his knowledge of Narth." ________________________________________