SWNOVELS Chapter CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The following three days were spent planning and travelling. A mysterious fault with all long range signal transmitters had stricken the Universe during the trio’s time spent in peril. This had ended any hope they had of broadcasting the OEO’s plot to the Universe at large. Luckily, Yukimi had told the crew about a communications device in Zeffross’ possession, which had the ability to reach every communications channel in the Universe. Her plan was to send the data she had collected to the entire Universe at the same time. They still had no idea just how they were going to get to this miraculous device, as the planet seemed impregnable. Even if they did make it to the surface, they would surely die before they even got close to Zeffross or his laboratory.
The adverts they saw on media transmissions informed them that POP’s new drink (Which they had called ‘Ultimate Soda’) had been on sale throughout most of the known Universe for over a week already. The effects of it could already be seen; gameshow contestants were more gullible. Even some of the hosts weren’t sure whether to believe the answers on their cards or what the contestants thought were the answers. Prank shows seemed staged, as it was incredible how many people now fell for them. The Universe was growing more stupid by the day. However, as much bad news as the media streams revealed, they would also hold the key to solving all of their problems.
Although they had no clear plan of attack, they were all agreed on one point; they didn’t have enough fire power. As such, Van and D00D had chartered a course for a trash moon, so they could scavenge for weapons that Dallas might be able to restore.
Trash moons were floating piles of space debris, which were held together by a core comprised of an artificial gravity generator. They were often found in sectors that had seen a lot of war. They even had atmospheres, as damaged vessels were known to frequent them when in desperate need of spare parts.
They landed on one of the poles, to ensure they didn’t lose D00D or the Bessie again. Van and Dallas went out to search while Yukimi stayed on board to work on the plan. (That was the reason she gave them anyway, the truth was that she needed a break from them). The Moon was a mess of archaic ship parts, a graveyard of interstellar warfare. Decimated war ships jutted out like mountains, casting angular silhouettes against the light of the horizon. At the base of one of the metal mountains, a miracle was happening. An old jackboot with a rotted foot inside had a very special plant growing from it. This wasn’t a rare species of flora, nor was it a particularly interesting plant. What made it so special was that in all the years the moon had been there, a plant had never grown on it. That was until now. The soft green stem of the new life form stretched up and felt the sun kiss its soft, budding petals. It began to open, showing off the bright flower within. Then it burst into flame as a beam of accelerated ions vaporised it.
“This particle cannon still works,” shouted Dallas, powering down the partially dismantled weapon.
“You wanna carry it back?” Van yelled back rhetorically, “It’s designed to be mounted on a ship.”
“I could mount it on the Bessie, I noticed you don’t have a single weapon system on board.”
“I’ve never needed one before,” replied Van, “Dude! Get over here and check this out!”
Dallas made his way over to Van. He was stood in a crater, looking at a large door that was rusted shut. The door was humungous. Circular in shape, it was an old blast door from a galactic cruiser. The door was scarred with the marks of previous discoverers. Drill hole and cutting damage covered its impregnable outer skin. Throughout the many sieges it had endured, it had remained un-plundered. And, if the vault it covered had survived, so too had its cargo. Its cargo would be very helpful to them now as the only thing that galactic cruisers carried, were weapons of war.
Dallas eyed the wall of blast plating. “Huh, If only we could get in there,” he said.
“Who says we can’t?” replied Van.
“Looking at the fresh damage to it; I’d say that everyone who found it before you, would say that we aren’t getting in.”
Van smiled, “Good job we have a key then isn’t it.” Dallas looked confused as Van took several steps back. He grabbed Charlotte from his holster and began fiddling with the side access panel. “You know why I love this beautiful gun so much?” he asked Dallas. Dallas shook his head. “Because,” Van continued, extending his arm and aiming Charlotte at the centre of the door, “it can do this!”
BOOM!!! Van was thrown back by the power of the shot. Smoke billowed from a circular hole in the middle of the door. It was glowing with white hot heat and was audibly ‘sizzling’. Dallas ran over to Van and helped him to his feet. He was laughing with excitement, “Did it work?” he asked.
“Did what work?” asked Dallas, honestly wondering what the point of this futile effort had been. But the effort hadn’t been futile. The sizzling sound was growing louder. Dallas turned around to see that the hole had grown larger and seemed to be melting through the rest of the door. He stared at it in disbelief, “How did you do that?”
Van smiled, smugly, “I’m magic.”
“REALLY?” asked Dallas with a twinkle of hope in his eyes.
“No,” answered Van, “Don’t be a twat. That thing’s rusted to fuck, right? So I loaded some aluminium shards into Charlotte and turned it into Thermite. She’s a railgun, so removing the restrictors let the shot burn hot enough to react. It’s basic science. Come on, let’s see what we won.”
The two men entered the crypt-like, metal cave. The air was stagnant and thick with dust. They stepped into the shaft of light cast by the nearby sun, wafting the space in front of their faces. The dense walls of the vault made it unnaturally silent inside. Van reached into his pocket and pulled out a grey, translucent orb and shook it vigorously. The orb began to shine with a bright blue light. He threw it into the air and the orb floated in the space above him, shining light in all directions.
The room was not as large as the door had led them to believe. The walls were covered in weapon racks, most were empty, but for a few shelves that were piled high with ammunition of varying types. Everything from side-arm charger-packs to power packs that looked big enough to power a tank.
“At least if we do find some guns, we know where to come for ammo,” remarked Dallas, turning to leave. He began walking towards the door, but then stopped. Van wasn’t following him. He was instead staring at four large cylinders, which were jutting out of the back wall. A smirk was beginning to spread across his face. His time spent talking to the other slaves in the dead Emperor’s service was about to pay off. He had once been aboard a galactic cruiser and had heard stories of what was stored in these containers.
He moved toward them and inspected the locks. To the left of them, built into the wall, was a large mechanical lever that would have looked right at home in a mad scientist’s laboratory. He curled his fingers around it and pulled, it was fixed in place, probably due to decades of inactivity. He began to yank at it, heaving at the handle with both hands. He began to work the stiff pole free. Forcing it down with all his strength until it could go no further. There was a ’click’ and the four cylinders slid open. He stood back, rubbing the dirt from his hands, and stared at the open containers.
“Are those what I think they are?” asked Dallas, wide-eyed with disbelief at the sight which stood before him.
Van nodded, “Uh-huh,” he said. “You think you can get’em working?”
“Maybe.” Answered Dallas, inspecting the cylinders’ contents, “I’m probably gonna have to use one or two for spare parts, but I’ll give it a try.”
“Awesome. I’m gonna grab the dolly. We’re gonna need to make a few trips to get these back on the ship, but this is totally worth it.”
“I don’t care what happens, as long as I get to use one of these things.”
It took four trips to and from the Bessie to get their haul on board, but they both agreed that it was worth the trouble. They went out once more to fetch a couple of power packs from the iron crypt. They returned to the ship and closed the cargo bay door.
They made their way to the main compartment, where they found Yukimi. She was standing in front of the view screen, her arms crossed and a look of utter despair engulfing her face.
“We’re too late,” she said softly.
It didn’t take long for the men to realise what she meant. The screen was showing a breaking news story. The female news reporter seemed shocked by what she was saying;
“We return now to our round the clock coverage of the devastating events on the planet ‘Vega Mamorae’. No new information has surfaced as to a possible motive for the massacre, that began late last night, and claimed 3.8 billion lives.
“To recap; at 14pm last night, the land dwelling Nephilim race systematically murdered every member of the water dwelling Lactophorms. The two races, who both claim Vega Mamorae as their home planet, have lived in peace throughout their history. The Genocide was achieved by poisoning their oceans and rivers, effectively destroying their own water supply in the process. The Nephilim have all been very ambivalent when questioned on the matter, saying that they wished to survive on soda anyway. Reports have come in from witnesses who have said that even children assisted in this extinction. With some even going so far as to kill Lactophorms who had chosen to live on the land.”
The screen then cut to footage of cheerful-looking Nephilim pouring large vats of oily fluid into the harbours. They acted as though they were carrying out a simple task, there was no ill intent about how they did it. The screen cut back to the reporter;
“The only explanation given for the unwarranted attack still remains that it ’needed to be done’. No one has given any further information and, quite frankly, they all seem quite content with this as a viable reason.
“The Warriors of the Wandering star, an organisation that fights injustice throughout the Galaxies, has stepped in, vowing to get to the bottom of this. A press statement, put out an hour ago by the WWS, outlined their strong resolve in handling this matter an-“
Van paused the broadcast, freezing the reporters face mid-syllable, she looked as though she really needed to sneeze. Van turned to Yukimi and Dallas; “I have an idea,” he said, heart racing in his chest, “We need an army, right?”
“Van,” said Yukimi, “I know what you’re thinking, but it won’t bring back those people.”
“Maybe not,” he said, “But we can stop things getting any worse.”
“What are you thinking?” asked Dallas, genuinely curious.
“I’m thinking; we get the WWS to help us get to Zeffross’ special transmitter thing,” Van replied, “I watched a documentary about them, this should be right up their alley!”
“Sounds like a good plan to me.”
“Even if they believed us,” said Yukimi, “Who’s to say they’d even be able to go up against the Skolarean defence system?”
“Well,” answered Van, “luckily we have someone who knows what they’re gonna be up against and can help them hold out for longer. I’m gonna give Mondo a call and tell him I’m hiding out on Thosis. He won’t be able to resist coming after me. That’ll divide the defence forces and we can sneak in during the confusion.”
“Ok,” Yukimi said, thinking through this new plan, “how good of a fight can this ‘Mondo’ person put up?”
“I hear he destroyed a whole fleet of Imperial cruisers once. If I piss him off enough when I call him he’ll bring that much power, and then some.”
Yukimi looked back at the screen, the image above the reporters shoulder had paused as a pale white child with a knife was running, in front of a bill-board for ‘Ultimate Soda’. She was grinding her teeth, trying to weigh up the options in her head. She began to nod, “Alright,” she said, ”let’s go to Vega Mamorae. The worst they can do is turn us away.”
“That’s the spirit,” said Van patting her on the back.
“Yeah, fuck it,” added Dallas, “we’ll die one day, can’t let it stop us from trying to live in the meantime.”