| Author |
Gone On Holiday (FanFic Story) |
Kanman
Grand Admiral
Pitch Black
Joined: August 26, 2005
Posts: 1017
From: Virginia, United States
|  Posted: 2006-06-29 21:01
I like writing short stories, but have never written one for DS before. Well, Here is mine. You all will surely like it, as GothThug is in it, in a good way. 
Gone on Holiday
---------------------The Briefing
Admiral Kanman, dressed in his formal attire walks down the blue stone sidewalks of Maurbon’s largest city, Asani. He moves at a half-rushed pace as he has been summoned to an Officer’s meeting at the U.G.T.O. Headquarters right when he was preparing to depart for his vacation. It is an easily identifiable building, as it is the only structure in the city to have been built of a landed station with its thin central spire leading up to an expansion into a saucer-like dome. From the ground, it is truly an enormous sight.
As he rushes along, Kanman looks over the railing along the right side of the sidewalk. About fifty feet down below is a garden park, with lush grass, green and orange trees and a small pond with crystal-clear water and a fountain spraying it up from the center almost as high as the sidewalk. He sees a small group of children playing, running around and laughing. Among them is a small young girl, perhaps three of four Earth years of age. She looks up at him as she smiles and laughs. They make distant eye contact fore only a fraction of a second and then she looks away just as quickly and keeps playing with her friends. It seemed longer to Kanman, and eases his tension over the meeting he is rushing to, reminding him of the youth and innocence, which he fights to protect.
He reaches the base of the spire and enters the MagLev elevator. He presses the button for level 314. The screen indicates he needs an authorization code to enter that level. He presses the floor number buttons in a specific manner, the way he was instructed when he was summoned: 112, 324, 086, 257. The screen confirms, and he steps back from the door. The door closes, inertial dampeners activate, and it shoots off at incredible speeds, reaching the 314th floor in mere seconds.
Kanman steps out onto the floor and follows it down to the meeting room he was instructed to go to. The doors recognize him and that he is authorized to attend this meeting, and they slide open. Within the room is a long, gray meeting table with ten chairs along the sides and one more at the back end. On the other side of the table is just enough space for one to present information, with the aid of a liquid-crystal view screen about three square feet in size.
Kanman’s Fleet Commander, Fleet Admiral Veron, is already there, as well as Admiral Musiq, and Vice Admiral GothThug. As they are all in the same fleet, V.C.A., they know each other and have worked together many times before. Kanman takes a seat and looks around at everyone, greeting them with silent head nods. On the table, there are four folders. Kanman sits at the seat with the last folder and begins to leaf through it. It includes general mission information, pages and pages of number data, and a few images, nothing that really catches his eye.
After only a minute or so, Grand Admiral Doran enters the room. He approaches the presentation end of the table, activates the view screen and begins the briefing.
“I apologize for the short notice, but this just came down the line from our intelligence network.” Doran says, clicking a button on a small remote in his hand, changing the image on the view screen to show a K’luth space station barely visible in the heavy glare of a star. The image is grainy, as it was taken by a covert operative in a small spy ship. “This K’luth station is located in the Andosia system. It has only just been detected as it decloaked for only a few brief moments, trying to hide behind the glare of the star, as it recharged its cloaking generators.”
“So this is why we have been unable to take Andosia.” Says Veron, “I have been keeping up with the mission reports, and every attack we send is swarmed by incredible numbers of fighters. We have lost a lot of ships in that system recently.”
“Yes,” Continues Doran, “This is the reason. Needless to say, it must be dealt with.” He clicks the remote again, changing the image on the view screen to show a much closer view of the K’luth station. It shows a tiny waste extruding port on the side of one of the top spires. “We will be launching a final offensive into this system to take it once and for all, but we need to be able to detect this station if we are to defeat it. That’s where you come in. Your mission is to take a spy ship and sneak into this hole in the slimy monster. You will sneak in, find your way to the cloaking device, place a covert-locator beacon on it, and get out.”
“Are we going to be under threat of friendly fire on our evac?” Asks Kanman, “Beacons are located quickly by K’luth these days. They will surely find it not long after we activate it, so the attack must be close behind us, right?”
“Not this beacon.” Says Doran, “This beacon will not be detectable. The attack won’t actually begin for over a day after you return from your mission. You will be on your own all the way out, so keep a low profile. We can’t have them find out you were there and begin searching for the beacon.” Doran again clicks the remote, changing the view screen to show a star map with an outlined coordinate. “When you are through with your mission, you will go to this location. It’s over three hundred thousand G.U.s from any K’luth worlds. At precisely 0500 Hours, U.G.T.O. standard time, we will crack you guys a wormhole back to the Maurbon cluster for debriefing. You will be taking the long way there though, as a security measure. No need to rouse their suspicions too early. If the spy ship could travel there and back on a single tank of fuel, you wouldn’t be getting a wormhole at all. You leave immediately. Be sure to drop off yesterday’s copy of your memories on the way to the spy ship, so in the event that you are killed, you can be cloned again. Normal, up to the minute memory transmission won’t work, as your memory transmitters could blow your cover. Your ship is on Pad C. Dismissed.”
The team picks up their folders and heads out to the MagLevs to go all the way back down to ground level, where the landing pads are located. They find their ship, which is absolutely tiny. There is just enough room for two people to survive for a couple days. They will be cruising towards the Andosia system for the next three days, with four people. Most of the cargo space is consumed by an over-sized E.C.M. device and a slightly enlarged life-support system to accommodate the extra people. They cramp themselves in, close the doors and soar off. Musiq takes the controls, while Veron, Kanman, and GothThug review the details of the file folders, which they will have the next few days to become experts on.
--------------------The Incursion
After days of cruising in a straight line, taking turns at the helm, and constantly being in physical contact with another smelly, dirty guy or two, they are all just ready to be there finally. Off in the distance, Kanman can just make out Andosia Prime and its moons as they go by. He wonders how many K’luth ships are in orbit over there. In this rinky-dink ship, a rogue bulkhead could destroy them, so combat would be unthinkable.
At long last, they approach the location programmed into their navigation computer and begin looking around for any sign of the K’luth station. The station is of course cloaked and there is nothing to be found. The glare from the star being so close is almost blinding. Then, GothThug sees something. He points up, out the front window. They all lean in close to the glass and peer upward. There are five K’luth fighters flying in a delta-wing formation. Keeping their distance, Veron pilots the spy ship to follow the fighters until they go to dock.
After a couple hours of running around in a patrol loop, the fighters make an unexpected turn. The entire delta wing turns to come straight towards the spy ship. The fighters pick up speed and rotate on axis to bring all weapons to bear.
“Are we detected?!” Shouts GothThug.
“Get us out of here, Veron.” Says Kanman.
“No, wait.” Insists Musiq, “It’s not us.” He points out an asteroid flying in toward the star, pulled by its enormous gravity. The fighters close in on it and blast it to rubble. Then, they turn back and return to their patrol path, passing only a few dozen G.U.s from the spy ship.
“What was that all about?” Asks Kanman.
“Why would a patrol break formation like that?” Asks GothThug.
“Perhaps it was weapons testing or target practice.” Suggests Veron.
“Doubtful.” Says Musiq, “I think we have found our station.” The others look at him confused. “Look, an asteroid impact like that on a K’luth armor plate would be devastating.” Musiq opens up the navigation screen history directory and rewinds the sensor data a few minutes. “If we extrapolate the drift path of the asteroid we can see where it was going. Then, we cross that line with the distance from the star the station was in the photo. Let’s assume the station is in orbit of the star to conserve fuel, instead of fighting a constant gravitational pull from just sitting still.” The screen displays that the asteroid would have crossed that orbital path in five minutes.
“Excellent!” Exclaims Veron, “Now we know where the station will be in five minutes. I’ll head there.”
“Careful, Veron.” Cautions GothThug, “I don’t want to get smashed by a cloaked K’luth station that comes around in a speedy orbit.”
“And, we still don’t know where that port we need to aim for is located.” States Kanman, “It is barely the size of this ship and we will need precise coordinates to have any chance of flying into it.”
“One thing at a time.” Says Veron. He turns the ship and speeds off towards what he hopes will be the location of the station.
Minutes later, they are sitting still in space, burning precious fuel to hold position from the star, and waiting for any sign of the station. As if by magic, five more fighters appear out of nowhere, one at a time.
“There it is!” Shouts GothThug, a little too excited over it. Musiq pecks away at the helm over Veron’s shoulders and gets the navigation screen to project the outline of the K’luth station from data files over the pilot window, basing the location on the point the fighters appeared being the fighter bay. It also highlights the location of the waste extruding port. Veron carefully pilots the spy ship over to the port and begins a slow approach. Just as they get right up to the outline of the ship, a purple lightning field begins shaking the spy ship violently, tossing Veron’s hands from the controls for a second. The ship drifts off course as it breaks through the cloaking field, and the left engine is ripped from the side of the ship as it scrapes along the side of the tunnel. Veron fights the ship for control now, as a small hull breach begins venting their air, and the right engine alone keeps trying to twist the ship around. The shared fuel tank drains quickly through the left engines intake hose and out into the extruding tube.
Up ahead Veron can see a couple of circular, fleshy flaps that keep opening and closing rapidly, allowing waste out, but maintaining internal atmosphere for the living station. Dodging the radioactive fecal matter clumps, each about the size of the spy ship itself, Veron twists and wobbles the ship up to the flaps. The engines suddenly cut off as the last of the fuel drains away through the left side of the ship, and the ship is left helplessly tumbling forward. The flaps close so rapidly and with such force. If they drift in too slowly, one of the flaps could crush the ship completely. Fortune smiles on the team though, and they drift through just barely making past the second one.
Almost as soon as they are through, the spy ship feels the full force of the K’luth station’s artificial gravity and drops down into a thick, runny pond of station waste. Veron assigns GothThug to sealing the breach before too much of that toxic stuff gets into the cabin. The titanium-urdaniam alloy ship sinks quickly to the bottom of the waste pool and gets caught up in yet another flap of fleshy K’luth engineering. This ship is completely stuck and stops moving at all. The front window hangs down through the flap, showing a thirty-foot fall into yet another pool of fluid.
“Suit up in bio-suits.” Commands Veron, “We are going for a swim. Kanman, be sure to pack that beacon device under your suit.”
----------------------The Tank
GothThug kicks out the front window, and they all take a good look over the edge down to the pool of greenish-brown liquid. Kanman spits and watches it fall, while Musiq holds a simple radar/sonar device, or R.S.D., to determine the pool’s depth.
“It reads at thirty-four feet down and then fifteen feet deep.” states Musiq.
“Dive in, boys.” Says Veron as he dives head first off the front of the spy ship. The others just watch as he falls all the way down and splashes in. The fluid splashes like water, but with a thick, gloppy slap when it splashes and ripples around. Veron resurfaces, wipes the mucus-like slop from his bio-suit’s visor and waves the others down. Kanman and GothThug look at each other and smile with their common evil idea. They both swing their arms out fast. Musiq is peeking over the edge still, until he is hit by both Kanman and GothThug and knocked down. He tumbles around and slaps down in the pool on his back, almost head first. He comes back up to the surface quickly, wipes the fluid from his helmet and slaps his hands down on the surface of the fluid.
“You guys are buttheads!” Musiq shouts over the intercom in his helmet. Kanman and GothThug are laughing hysterically up on the spy ship, and even Veron is giggling a little, though he has turned off his intercom to hide it. Suddenly, GothThug and Kanman make eye contact and stop laughing instantly. Kanman reaches out for GothThug, and GothThug reaches out for Kanman. They toss each other off the spy ship, and they both tumble down into the slop. As soon as they surface, they start splashing each other.
“Alright, cool it you guys.” Command Veron, “We have to find a way out of this stuff. Anyone have any idea where a hatch or something might be?”
“There is no way to be sure.” Says Musiq, “Every K’luth ship, and station, is grown with genetic engineering. The overall structure remains common, but subtle details are almost impossible to predict.”
“Any idea where in the station we even are, then?” asks Veron. That is when they all notice a vapor or steam coming off Veron’s bio-suit.
“Hey, what’s up with Veron’s suit?” asks Kanman. Veron wipes his gloves over the helmet and shoulders, trying to get the fluid off, but it’s too wet and slimy.
“Oh my god!” exclaims Musiq, “We are in the stomach!” They all start a frantic swim for the edge of the pool, where the bottom ramps up and the fluid becomes shallow. All four bio-suits are releasing vapor now, as it is eaten away by the digestive acid. Veron tosses off his helmet and throws it into the pool. It sinks and bends as it disintegrates. Kanman pulls out a plasma-cutter and starts carving out a hole in the side of the tank. The side of the tank is fleshy, but hard like the inside of a ribcage. In just a minute a hole large enough for one person is open in the side of the tank. As Veron is losing his bio-suit faster than the others since he went in first, they let him climb through to the corridor on the other side first. Just after he is through, the repair bots appear, crawling down the walls and rapidly begin closing the hole. The team’s weapons are completely trashed by the acid eating through them, so they just grab the organic repair bots and toss them out into the tank fluid. Kanman cuts the hole back open, and they all dive through. As soon as Musiq is through, the next wave of repair bots arrives and within seconds the hole is sealed behind them.
Veron is already out of his bio-suit and the others fight to get theirs off before the thick, sticky acid gets through to their skin. The bio-suits are balled up as much as they can get them, and then they burn them to hide any evidence of their entry. Fortunately, K’luth ships have weak fire detection due to the high levels of various gasses in the vents and conduits that would set off constant false alarms. Kanman pockets the beacon device as Musiq tries to figure out where they are on his R.S.D. GothThug, not surprisingly, manages to find not one, but three small daggers up a sleeve or down a leg and gives everyone one, except Musiq, whom says he doesn’t need one.
“Okay. We are down near the base of this spire.” Explains Musiq as he points at his R.S.D. “We need to get down to the central promenade, which runs along the outer ring of the station, and then up two levels into Stealth and Passive Defense systems. The cloaking device will be housed there. I will have to go off to the Internal Securities sector to impede their ability to communicate or track us. I will be in radio contact.”
“I don’t like the idea of you going off on your own, Musiq.” Says Veron, “That wasn’t in the plan.”
“It has to be done.” Insists Musiq.
“I am inclined to agree with Musiq here, Veron.” Says Kanman.
“Maybe GothThug should go with you, Musiq.” Suggests Veron.
“I would really be better off on my own.” Says Musiq.
“Are you sure?” asks Veron.
“Absolutely.” Declares Musiq.
“Alright. Head off, and be careful.” Says Veron.
----------------------------The Incident
Musiq opens a hexagonal ventilation shaft and is off on his own, while Veron, GothThug and Kanman remain in the corridor and begin to carefully make their way to the promenade. They don’t get very far before the sound of marching begins to approach them.
The K’luth decorate their corridors with human bones, over which they lay grated metal plates to walk on. Veron and Kanman jump down and climb under the walkway to hide from the K’luth infantry patrol. GothThug refuses to hide. Veron orders him down, but he still refuses. Kanman grabs him from behind and drags him down into the bones. GothThug fights back, kicking and swinging, while Kanman holds a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. GothThug breaks free and holds still, but looks like he is on the verge of jumping out and trying to start something. As the K’luth infantry pass by overhead, Kanman and Veron hold still, so as not to rattle the bones, and they stare at GothThug nervously, unsure if he will try something stupid. The patrol passes slowly.
K’luth infantry are difficult to describe. If humans were monkeys, then K’luth would be squid. The K’luth have long, thick tentacles instead of arms or legs. Their heads are like a ball of tentacles that twist around to protect the nervous core, similar to a brain, underneath. Their three eyes are on stiff rods on the head, but the rods are hidden under the boil of twisting tentacles. To move the eyes around, they squirm their tentacles, pushing the rods along the paths between the tentacles. The only part of them that is easy to identify is their weapons, simple laser blaster guns. No confusion there.
The K’luth infantry pass and GothThug, for once, restrains himself. He does nothing and lets the K’luth pass without making a sound. When the marching thumps are almost gone, they begin to climb out of the bones and back up onto the corridor walkway. Just as they get on their feet, they can hear a loud rumbling approaching. The patrol is returning, and fast! A K’luth soldier comes around the corner and fires a blast as soon as he can see the team. Veron dives for the floor, narrowly avoiding a hit. Kanman throws his dagger at the K’luth soldier, but the K’luth soldier actually catches it with its head-tentacles and fires again. Again, it shoots at Veron. Veron rolls away, evading the shot, and rises back to his feet. GothThug lunges quickly at the K’luth soldier and forces his dagger through the slits between the tentacles, destroying the brain. It drops dead immediately.
Two more K’luth soldiers come around, guns blazing. GothThug just dodges their fire, while Kanman runs over to the dead K’luth and picks up its blaster gun. He aims quickly and fires. He misses, but it is enough to slow the firing of the K’luth soldiers, as they begin to look around for cover.
“Epe gloobis Naav!” Shouts one of the K’luth soldiers to the other. This roughly translates to ‘sound the alarm!’. Kanman aims quickly and fires, aiming for the K’luth that just gave the order, as the other soldier turns to run back to the alarm switch. Kanman’s aim is better this time, and the soldier is taken out.
The other soldier manages to get to the switch just as Veron throws his dagger at him. The K’luth flips the switch, but nothing seems to happen. The dagger hits the K’luth in the back of the leg, and it drops its weapon. GothThug wastes not time getting up behind it, wrapping his arm around it, and slashing it open from one side to the other before he throws it down like garbage.
“Musiq!” shouts Veron into his intercom device, “We have been discovered, and the alarm has been triggered.”
“Did you contain the incident?” asks Musiq.
“Aff.” Replies Veron, “The soldiers have been neutralized, but one triggered a silent alarm.”
“That’s a negative.” Says Musiq, “Their internal alarm systems have been disabled. No alarm has been sent out. Leave the bodies there. I can see you on my feed into their sensors. I will take care of the bodies. Keep moving to the objective.”
“Roger.” Agrees Veron.
----------------------------The Mission
Each slides his dagger into his belt and carries a K’luth blaster instead, now. In just a couple minutes, they are up overlooking the promenade. There are dozens of K’luth infantry, officers, pilots and scientists everywhere they look.
“No way we can take all that.” Whispers Kanman.
“We can try.” Whispers GothThug.
“Are you trying to get us killed, or have you just gone insane from the long trip?” Kanman whispers.
“Silence!” whispers Veron, “We are not going down there. We will have to find a way around.”
“I can take them!” whispers GothThug insistently.
“I said no!” whispers Veron, “Now fall in line, Vice Admiral!”
GothThug stands down reluctantly and resentfully.
“I see a way.” whispers Kanman, pointing out another hexagonal vent. “We could follow this intake vent all the way around the promenade.”
“Excellent!” whispers Veron, “Let’s go.”
They follow the vent around the outer edge of the promenade all the way to the Stealth and Passive Defense sector. Climbing out of the vent, they find themselves in a cargo bay full of supplies for repairing and maintaining E.C.M. and cloaking devices. A peek out through the half-open cargo bay door shows four K’luth technicians maintaining the massive machinery of the cloaking device. They are unarmed and unsuspecting. GothThug takes aim with his blaster, but Veron extends his hand and stops him.
“Too loud.” Veron says, “Daggers this time, I think.”
“We should move in slowly.” Says Kanman, “I will cover the door. You two take out those two on the left, first.”
Kanman slips out and behind some crates, working his way to the door, staying low and out of sight. Veron and GothThug sneak out and get behind their targets. At once, they both jump out. Veron stabs his target with the dagger straight between its tentacles, painlessly severing the nerve stem and killing the K’luth engineer. GothThug stabs his target in the leg and arm tentacles, then gouges an eye, then carves a ring around the head tentacles. He drops the K’luth, leaving it to bleed to death painfully over the next couple of seconds. The other two K’luth barely have time to react, as one runs for the door and the other is trapped up on a platform overlooking the power transfer chamber of the cloaking device. Kanman jumps out quickly and stabs the one running for the door before he can get away. One good upward stab and the eye facing Kanman blinks and winces with pain until the K’luth falls. GothThug smiles ruthlessly, running up the platform to the last, terrified K’luth engineer. It raises its tentacles in surrender, but this does nothing to slow GothThug’s brutality. GothThug slashes off one of its arm tentacles and then grabs it by the neck and tosses it over the guardrail down into the power transfer chamber. The fall is over one hundred feet down, passing dozens of massive tesla coils shooting purple lightning from one side of the chamber to the other. The K’luth is fried and disintegrates on the way down. GothThug peers down, watching with glee and a smile. Kanman and Veron regroup on GothThug.
“Was that brutality entirely necessary?” asks Veron.
“They are our enemy, aren’t they?” replies GothThug.
“I am with Veron on this one.” Says Kanman, “Just kill them. There is no need to brutalize them.”
“Indeed.” Agrees Veron, “It is the honorable thing to do. Treat your enemies with respect, even when killing them.”
“Honor?! Respect?!” Shouts GothThug, “They have decimated fleets of our ships lately! What about honoring and respecting them?!”
“We honor their memory by carrying ourselves with dignity in their stead.” Says Veron.
“Whatever.” Spouts GothThug, blowing Veron off.
“Excuse me, Vice Admiral GothThug?” declares Veron, “Did I hear that correctly? Did you just talk down to your Fleet Commander?! If I hear anything out of you beyond ‘Yes, Sir’ or ‘No, Sir’, I will have you executed for treason! Is that understood?!”
“Yes, Sir.” Replies GothThug grudgingly.
“Ahem.” Says Kanman, “Back on topic, I think the best place for the beacon device will be up there.” He points to a large cloak field-monitoring relay. “A small bubble of cloak field is maintained there to mimic the outside conditions. Placing it there will make it almost invisible to them.”
“Agreed.” Says Veron, “Climb on up and place it there, carefully.”
Kanman climbs up and places it just inside the small cloak bubble, hiding it from view and over twenty feet above the walkway. Kanman is confident that the K’luth will never find it there. He flips the activation switch and it powers up, then climbs back down to the others.
“Mission accomplished.” Kanman says confidently. “Let’s find a way out of here.”
“Good work.” Says Veron, “Let’s find a way back out to the promenade. Then, we can see about hooking up with Musiq and getting out of here.”
-------------------------The Discovery
Once back out in the vents of the promenade, the three find there way around to a part of the ship along the outer ring, which seems to be in sleep-mode. There is no one around and most of the lights are off. They climb out and look around, trying to get their bearings. That is when they see it. They can see out the windows about three hundred G.U.s away from the station is an I.C.C. cruiser. The ship is neither firing, nor under fire. It is powered up and appears to be running normally. They can see that the station is uncloaked and several K’luth fighter squadrons are circling the I.C.C. cruiser like escorts in a holding pattern. Veron immediately tries to raise Musiq on his intercom.
“Musiq!” exclaims Veron, “Musiq! We have a problem! The I.C.C. are here, and they aren’t fighting.
“I know.” Whispers Musiq, “Can’t talk now. Radio silence, out.”
While Veron is talking with Musiq, Kanman manages to patch into the K’luth communications channels and now they can hear the comm-traffic.
“The I.C.C. High Council is willing to release ownership of the BD system, but Tripwik and R33 are ours and shall remain that way.” Negotiates Coeus from the I.C.C. cruiser.
“Then it is agreed.” Says Smartin, whom is in command of the K’luth station. “The Sol and Lalande systems will go to the I.C.C. humans, but all other humans of the U.G.T.O. will be decimated. Gather your ships and prepare to assault the Maurbon cluster as soon as your superiors receive the alliance documents.”
“Our bombers are ready.” Confirms Coeus, “Just so long as you hold up your end of the bargain and bring the combat and fighter support we will need.”
“We will be there.” Assures Smartin.
“On behalf of the I.C.C. I would like to salute you as our new ally.” States Coeus.
The communications link ends, and the I.C.C. cruiser begins preparing for departure.
“We have to stop that ship from returning to I.C.C. territory!” insists Kanman.
“Agreed,” says Veron, “but we need a plan. Perhaps we could sabotage it before it leaves.”
“I am afraid I cannot allow that.” Declares GothThug, as he raises his blaster to aim at Veron and Kanman. “We have been working on this alliance for months and we cannot have you fouling it up now.”
“GothThug!” shouts Veron, “Lower your weapon. That’s an order!”
“Sorry, Veron.” Says GothThug casually, “I won’t be taking anymore of your orders. I am afraid I have different orders I must follow, orders from Admiral Coeus.”
“GothThug? An I.C.C. spy?” Kanman asks, almost unwilling to accept it.
“We spies are everywhere.” States GothThug, “But sadly, you know way too much to be kept alive. So, who wants it first?”
Veron stands ready to accept his fate, while Kanman subtly points to Veron. Just as GothThug is squeezing the trigger, a dozen or so K’luth infantry jump out, surrounding them all and taking them all into custody. They are taken deep into the station and separated.
--------------------------The Chamber
Kanman is locked in a room, which is oddly damp and smells of acid. There are a few bright lights in the corners, pointed right at him of course. He is chained to the chair by some kind of worms with spiny teeth, which have dug into his hands to grip him. He bleeds from his wrists a little, but nothing life threatening. It is very hot in the chamber, too, and Kanman sweats a lot. He is trapped there for what feels like hours before a K’luth walks him. It wastes no time, cutting straight to the chase.
“Why were you on this vessel?” asks the K’luth. “Where you sent to spy on the alliance negotiations or were you sent to sabotage this vessel?”
“We were hungry.” Replies Kanman. “Thought we would hit an Arby’s. We took a wrong turn and got lost.”
“Hmm.” Says the K’luth. “I see you won’t cooperate right away. That’s fine. Most humans don’t. But, know this. I have gotten far more experienced officers than you to talk. And I assure you, no amount of Arby’s hitting will save you from the pain I will be dealing.”
The K’luth pulls a fistful of long jagged spines from his pocket. They are very thin and have reverse-facing hooks, like a fishing hook.
“Have you ever seen one of these before?” asks the K’luth. “This is a Psi-needle.” The K’luth walks over behind Kanman and places a thin needle point on his shoulder. Waiting for only a second, he presses it into Kanman’s arm. Kanman winces with pain, but fights the urge to cry out. “The funny thing about these little pretties is that you hardly even feel them go in. It’s on the way out that you notice them slightly.”
The K’luth begins pulling the needle back out, causing the hooks to shred his flesh all along the way. Kanman moans with pain, but fights to keep it in.
“Now.” Says the K’luth. “Let’s try this again. Why are you here?”
“I’m just a sucker for road trips.” Says Kanman defiantly. “I heard Andosia was nice this time of yearaagghhhhhhh!!!”
“Oh.” Says the K’luth. “I’m sorry. Did I forget to mention the neural toxin on the needles? I am so forgetful. I hear it is truly unbearable. First, it tenses up all your muscles until you think you are going to rip them all in half. Then, it relaxes them all and starts triggering every little pain-sensing cell in your weak, human body.”
Kanman pulses and squirms with excruciating pain.
“Oh, don’t worry. It won’t kill you.” Laughs the K’luth. “It took us a while to get the formula right, though. In the early experiments, I actually witnessed a human chest break open, and the heart fall from the chasm on to the floor. The funny thing was that he still didn’t die… for over a minute. He just layed there, slumped over in his chair, convulsing in pain, staring at his own heart down at his feet. But, I get off topic. Let’s talk about you for a while. Let’s start with why you are on this station.”
“We…” huffs Kanman, as he drools and jerks with pain. “… We… we…”
“Yes?” awaits the K’luth eagerly.
“… heard you guys had the biggest rubber band ball, and just had to see it.” Says Kanman, sitting up and fighting to act like the neural toxin isn’t hurting him.”
The K’luth begins to loose his patience and raises another needle, waving it in Kanman’s facing.
“I have all day, and a whole cargo bay full of these delightful things.” Says the K’luth. “But, maybe we won’t use these anymore, just yet. I have another toy I am just so excited to show you.”
The K’luth reaches into his pocket and pulls out a vile of some liquid.
“I see you are thirsty.” Says the K’luth. “Allow me to help you with that.” The K’luth drips three drops of the liquid on to Kanman’s leg. It burns through the U.G.T.O. uniform cloth and deep into his leg, like acid. It releases a dense vapor, which Kanman breathes in and feels his mouth turn dry as a baked desert.
“This lovely vile contains enough moisture sucking acid to leave you little more than a pile of dust and salt in mere moments.” Says the K’luth. “Care for another taste? Sure you do.” He drips two more drops into the open wound of the first drops. The pain is almost unbearable, but Kanman holds strong. The K’luth sticks another needle in his other arm, and tightens the worms around his wrists. Countless times over the next few hours the K’luth asks Kanman why he is there. Kanman just stops answering and completely zones out. He finds one thing to hold on to, one thing to keep him sane through all the suffering. He hides himself in the memory of walking to the briefing, and seeing that little girl playing down below. She was so far away, but he can see her face so clearly now. He thinks about the laughter and innocence, as well as the allied plot to blast that world, and that girl, to dust. He holds as long as he can. Again the K’luth asks.
“This is becoming tiresome.” Says the K’luth. “Let us end this. You just tell me one little thing and all the suffering stops. No more needles. No more acid. I will even give you a nice, tall glass of fresh water before you die. So, tell me. What is your mission?”
Kanman raises his head for the first time in hours. The K’luth sees he is going to respond and pauses to wait patiently. He kneels down and leans in close to Kanman to hear the answer, holding the vile in his hand.
“My mission.” Says Kanman.
“Yes, that’s it.” Encourages the K’luth. “Your mission. What is it?”
“My mission…” says Kanman, “is to protect her!”
The K’luth leans back, angry for receiving yet another sarcastic answer. Just then, Kanman kicks up his leg, knocking the vile from the K’luth’s hand and spilling it on the worm on his right hand. The worm is burned through and Kanman breaks his arm free. He reaches over quickly and grabs one of the needles away from the K’luth before it can back away. Kanman jams the needle into the head of the K’luth, causing it to drop all the other needles to the floor. Kanman grabs another one, as the K’luth falls to the floor in agony, and uses it to stab the other worm, on his left hand. The worm tightens, but then relaxes and pulls away, releasing him. Kanman grabs a fist of the needles and jams them into the K’luth, killing it almost instantly. He rolls the K’luth over and finds a small blaster in its back tentacle fold. He takes it and heads out to find his team.
----------------------The Escape
Limping along, Kanman is very tired, disoriented and sore, but he must find the others. Easily enough, it seems all the interrogation rooms are in the same place, because he finds Veron right next door. He kicks in the door, blasts the guard on the left quickly, and rushes over to Veron’s interrogator. He punches at the K’luth’s head quickly, and his hand slides right between the tentacles and into the K’luth’s brain. Kanman can feel the fishing-net-like neural fibers, grabs a hand full and rips them out. The K’luth goes down fast. Veron is just as bad off as Kanman was. A couple of carefully placed acid drops and Veron is free of the worms. Veron grabs the guard’s blaster and they prepare to head down to the next interrogation room.
“What took you so long?” asks Veron.
“Oh, you know me.” Replies Kanman, “I just love a good conversation.”
“Let’s move.” Commands Veron.
They move down to the next interrogation chamber and find something quite interesting. Within the small window into the room they can see GothThug. He is tied to the chair and is being tortured just like they were. There, however, is one notable difference. GothThug is crying like a little girl, and begging to be released.
“Pleeease!” GothThug begs. “I told you! I am Spy Agent Twisted GothThug, of the I.C.C. armada!”
“Of course you are.” Patronizes the K’luth interrogator. “And you are just wearing that U.G.T.O. uniform for the fashion. I understand completely.”
“I am deployed as a spy to in the U.G.T.O. ranks.” Weeps GothThug. “Fleet Admiral Coeus will tell you!”
“We already contacted the I.C.C. cruiser before it left the system. He denies you have ever been a part of the I.C.C. army.” Says the K’luth interrogator.
“Of course he said that.” Pleads GothThug. “I am a SECRET spy agent.”
“Oh, well now we believe you.” Says the K’luth interrogator. “We have detected the pulses from your beacon device. Tell us where it is.”
“I will. I will tell you everything.” Says GothThug. “It is hidden on the cloaking device.”
“It’s a big device.” Says the K’luth. “Where exactly.”
GothThug begins to answer, but then realizes he wasn’t really paying attention when Kanman placed it.
“I…” he says, “…I don’t know. I was distracted.”
“Distracted mutilating and killing our unarmed engineers?” asks the K’luth interrogator.
A K’luth communications officer in the room with GothThug walks over and reports to the K’luth interrogator.
“The infantry have searched the cloaking device over already.” He reports. “They found nothing. Do not trust his misinformation anymore. Grand Admiral Smartin commands him to be put to death, but slowly for intruding upon his station.”
The K’luth interrogator smiles at GothThug.
“Well, mister GothThug.” Says the K’luth interrogator. “It seems you and I are going to spend some time together.”
“I will tell you everything.” Whimpers GothThug as he stares down at his lap, drooling, sweating and bleeding.
“Oh, shhhh.” Hushes the K’luth interrogator. “The time for talking is over now. Let me show you something.”
The lights in the room become blindingly bright, forcing Kanman and Veron to look away, as they hear GothThug shouting out in horrible agony.
“Let’s move along. Leave him.” Commands Veron.
“What?” asks Kanman. “What about respecting the enemy and all that?”
“He is not an enemy.” Says Veron. “He is a traitor. Enemies have loyalties. He has the fate he has chosen for himself.”
Veron moves off and Kanman follows. They don’t get far before Musiq jumps out from an overhead vent.
“There you guys are!” Musiq exclaims. “I have been looking all over this ship for you guys for hours! You look like crap. Having a bad day?”
“Later.” Says Veron. “We are leaving now.”
“Where’s GothThug?” asks Musiq.
“He won’t be joining us.” Says Kanman.
“I see.” Replies Musiq, “Well, I have already secured our evac. There is a fighter down in the hangar bay. It’s K’luth, so they wont be able to distinguish us from the other launching fighters. The only problem is that the weapon systems seem to be offline.”
“I’ll take what I can get.” Says Veron. “The evac wormhole is going to open in less than an hour. We have to move fast.” Veron holds up his watch. Kanman checks himself and he has nothing but his clothes.
“Never tell me where you hid that, Veron.” He says.
With Musiq leading the way, they get to the hangar bay in just a few minutes. Veron takes the helm, while Musiq and Kanman squeeze into the back seat of this organic fighter. Just then the K’luth notice that they have escaped and the hangar bay doors begin to close. Fighters are launching randomly and almost constantly, even with the doors closing. Veron pulls the throttle and the fighter shoots forward, making it out with the last group of fighters. The other fighters don’t notice the humans in the cockpit, so they form up and move off. Veron tries to blend in at first, but then breaks away and races off towards the wormhole coordinates.
All seems to be going well. They even arrive a minute early, but then they detect their following. Hundreds of K’luth fighters are closing in on them from the station. Just then the wormhole cracks out, but is over a thousand G.U.s away! Veron races towards it as fast as he can, but the K’luth fighters are closing rapidly. Musiq tinkers away with the machinery in the back, and just manages to get the fighter to transmit U.G.T.O. signature readings before Veron dodges some fighter firepower and swings the fighter through the wormhole. Right on the other side, they see Doran’s Command station and a fleet of U.G.T.O. fighters. The few K’luth fighters that fall through the wormhole are quickly and easily mopped up. Veron receives orders from Doran to land in his fighter bay and to proceed to a meeting room debriefing. The ship lands safely, and they all breathe a sigh of relief before they climb down from it.
-----------------------------The Debriefing
The three sit at the table in the meeting room beaten and exhausted. No one says a word. Their mission was a complete failure and Kanman cannot even imagine where to begin on how to explain how wrong it all went. Finally, Doran arrives.
“I just want to congratulate you all on a job well done.” Says Grand Admiral Doran with a big smile on his face. “We are all very pleased.”
“Wait.” Says Kanman. “Excuse me? I believe we failed on every possible level. The beacon was detected. GothThug turned out to be an I.C.C. spy. We were tortured. We were unable to prevent a K’luth - I.C.C. alliance. We didn’t even return the ship you assigned us.”
“While the GothThug situation was unexpected, all went well according to Musiq’s report.” Says Doran. “We received word from our spies among the I.C.C. about the finalizing of an alliance at that station. So, we gathered your team and gave Special Operations Agent Musiq a small quantum singularity device and his covert orders. The beacon you planted was intended to be detected immediately, to distract the station security forces, while Musiq smuggled a few dead K’luth soldiers, wearing distinctive K’luth armor, onto the I.C.C. cruiser, along with the quantum singularity device. As soon as Musiq returned to the station, he was to meet up with you and you were all to make the escape. You getting tortured for hours on end was not part of the plan. I am sorry you had to endure that.
“Anyway, our spies among the I.C.C. report that Musiq did his job perfectly. Not long after Coeus left the Andosia system, the device exploded and destroyed his cruiser. The I.C.C. discovered the debris with some K’luth infantry armor mixed in. Due to the spatial warping of the quantum singularity device no up to date memory transmission was possible, and even Coeus’ latest clone doesn’t know how the negotiations went. The I.C.C. believe the K’luth have betrayed their ceasefire and they are both entangled in an all out war against each other now, depleting their fleets and resources. Well done.”
Kanman turns and looks back at Musiq.
“Special Ops?” Kanman asks.
“You need not worry about such things.” Replies Musiq, as he stands up and begins to leave the meeting room with Doran. On the way out, Doran stops to say one thing.
“And of course.” Doran says, “This mission never took place.”
Doran and Musiq leave the room. The doors close and seal behind them, locking Kanman and Veron inside. Suddenly, the vast windows open and the entire room is vented out into space towards Maurbon. Veron and Kanman are helplessly sucked out and die gasping for air as their blood boils. They are so small compared to the station and the ships that no one notices them fall into Maurbon’s atmosphere and burn up like space debris.
Using the memory recordings from the day before the mission, when Veron and Kanman were preparing to go on vacation, they are cloned and false memories of a vacation are added. Images and sounds of a beach, cool ocean waves, and laughing people playing in the sand. With a false, baked on tan, Kanman wakes up in his quarters relaxed and comfortable. He goes to the bridge of his E.A.D. and takes his seat in the center chair.
“Good morning, sir.” Says a young officer at the helm. “Did you enjoy your vacation?”
Kanman nods and smiles, but when he sits at his chair and looks at the view screen, he can’t seem to get an image out of his mind, nor remember where it came from. It is the image of a little girl, smiling up at him.
-----------------The End--------------------
Yes, I did edit out 3 possibly 'bad' words before posting. 
Edit: Line breaks added to make it easier to read.
[ This Message was edited by: Kanman *FC2* on 2007-02-25 16:40 ]
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-Smokey-
Grand Admiral
Joined: October 22, 2004
Posts: 784
From: Florida
| Posted: 2006-06-29 21:13
that aint short
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Coeus
Grand Admiral
Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: March 22, 2006
Posts: 2815
From: Philly
| Posted: 2006-06-29 21:58
Smokey. Twilight.
This is short, and good
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Do I really look like a guy with a plan?
'I'm gonna go crazy, and I'm taking you with me!'
ICC Security Council Chief Enforcer
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GothThug {C?}
Fleet Admiral
Joined: June 29, 2005
Posts: 2932
| Posted: 2006-06-29 22:02
wow, you made me into a mad man! lol oh and good taste adding the "screaming like a girl thing" ahhahahhaah
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Borgie
Chief Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: August 15, 2005
Posts: 2256
From: close by
| Posted: 2006-06-29 22:29
nice kan kinda like the part with goth begging for his life
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Supertrooper
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: March 18, 2004
Posts: 1895
From: Maryland, U.S.A
| Posted: 2006-06-29 23:16
It was nice.. bot needed more Crim..
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