Chariot 3: Conception

“Shon, our sensors detected a large ship approaching our location.”

“How large?” Flumen`s trembling words could not hide his concern.

“V-Nus, take-off!” Shoffer`s immediate thought was to survive.

The second after, the crew of Chariot 3 finally saw, for the first time, the immense Grey mothership on its entirety as its dark silhouette posed in front of the sun far on the horizon.

The ship had a black triangular shaped design with a second triangle superimposed which extended to the back with both geometries pointing the same direction. As the mothership moved they could observe the uneven and multi-faceted surfaces that once Chariot 3 had flown over.

“A triangle on the top of a triangle.” Flumen`s simplistic words expressed a very precise description of what they looked at. “And part of it is moving” he added.

Listening to Flumen`s words, V-Nus took a closer look and then noticed the second dark silhouette moving on their direction. “It`s not part of it. It`s a craft…a big one.”

“Cai Yiu, prepare for the combat! V-Nus, we need to reach the black hole. Sissy, take us to the correct time this time.” Although it rimed, Shoffer`s voice sounded as serious as his words.

His heart biped vigorously and as his blood fevered on his veins, his body immersed itself into an unwanted adrenaline as the Captain prepared for what could be his last battle.

“Captain, what do I do?” Flumen gained the Captain`s attention, noticing he was the only one who were not assigned any task.

The Captain hesitated, his voice trembled discomforted with the answer he had in mind. “Keep doing what you have been doing so far, Flumen.”

“Yes Sir.” He agreed with a vague look, uncertain of what that really meant. After all, when summoned for the mission, his assignment was to provide any intellectual support he could offer to the crew, based on his academic achievements.

The heavy looking craft started to get close to Chariot 3.

Unshaken, V-Nus kept flying Chariot 3 towards the enemy.

The Martian then dodged the two massive discharges shot on their direction and added a sharp turn towards space.

As the crew looked to the side, they watched the imposing Grey craft turn on their chase. Not far behind it, a whole squadron of stingrays joined the pursuit.

“I am afraid to inform that there are six transporting beams being pointed to our ship. Evasive maneuvering is recommended.” Sissy advised the crew while enabling the transparency view above their heads.

The crew then watched the white light reach their ship and entered its hull, reviewing much more of what the Grey tech was capable off.

As the light beam reached the Nibirian ship, Cai Yiu Hun performed a variety of evasive turns, decreased, and then increased their speed in an attempt to scape.

For the astonishment of the crew on the Nibirian ship, the big stingray followed them, executing the exact same moves with an astonishing perfection. “Enemy craft has locked itself against us through its transporting beams and it is mimicking every single one of our moves.” Sissy informed them.

“Please tell us something we don`t know yet, Sissy.” V-Nus stressed.

“Every single movement?” The then realized, quietly turning off the ship`s propulsion.

Without explanation, Chariot 3 stopped in the air for a brief second and started to fall.

“Incoming intruders.” Sissy added while Flumen and Shoffer looked up watching the Grey creatures exiting their craft, transported by the beams.

Cai Yiu Hun disconnected from his seat, stood on his feet, and cracked his fingers while he measured the surrounding space.

He continued by cracking his neck to the left then to the right. After a deep breath, he stretched his shoulders, and in a sublime motion drew his gisra out of its holster, splitting it into two extremely sharpen daggers which caused a metallic sound, echoed around the ship.

The handles adopted a baton shape upheld on each of his hands. The blades then elongated a bit just before projecting an involving surface that covered his fists. Cai Yiu Hun slightly flexed his knees and looked up just in time to strike the first two creatures that would land on his blades.

In the company of Flumen and Cai Yiu, the unarmed Captain stood on his feet and watched six invaders crossing the ship`s deckhead all at the same time.

The two Greys who landed in front of Cai Yiu Hun were stricken before they even touched the deck as the Nibirian blades moved from bottom to top.

With no time to react, the first attacker felt the impact of the blade between his legs which lifted his body back into the air, without slicing him in half, thanks to his uniform. At the same time, the second attacker blocked Cai Yiu`s stroke with his weapon, a metallic cylinder upheld in both his hands.

After the first stroke, the Grey weapon elongated, achieving the length of its warrior`s height and projected a sharp edge on each one of its ends. With an unrivaled look on his face, the Grey warrior counter-attacked Cai Yiu with an enraged stroke.

The blades proficiently spin against the Nibirian while his eyes searched for a weakness somewhere within the enemy`s armor, far more resistant than he anticipated.

“The neck or the hand” Cai Yiu silently wondered before carrying on a series of attacks with both his blades. “The foot!”, an alert popped on the corner of his lenses before he noticed the unguarded limb.

As he short bended his knees, dodging the blade of his enemy that passed closely above his head, Cai Yiu Hun improvised an assault, dilacerating the enemy`s foot just under the ankle, leavening him out of guard.

Merciless, the enemy`s right hand tasted Cai Yiu`s blade the second after and with a kick, Cai Yiu pushed the defeated warrior against one of his fellow intruders.

With a plan in mind, V-Nus carefully recovered the ship`s propulsion, and started a new trajectory towards the Grey squadron that came on their encounter.

With one of Grey beams still connected to Chariot 3, V-Nus conducted a series of accrobacies towards the incoming crafts.

The Martian evaded one, two, three of the crafts until he finally achieved what he aimed for.

As V-Nus span Chariot 3 to the left, the stingray shaped craft hit one of its allies, granting them both a sinuous fall towards the land.

In the meanwhile, Shoffer straightened his arms and grabbed the zabar – how the Nibirians would later refer to the weapon upheld by the Greys – from the defeated enemy in the air whilst the other attackers watched Cai Yiu finish two of their warriors at the same time.

“What?” Flumen froze for a moment, feeling something hitting his body. He looked down and saw the foot that once belonged to his enemy aligned to his own. Repulsed, he looked to the side and wondered what would be next.

“A foot for a hand.” V-Nus cited a Martian proverb as he noticed his friend`s face out of the corner of his eye.

Intrepid, Cai Yiu gave them with a provoking look, catching his breath for the next opponent.

Concentrated, the Nibirian warrior carefully analyzed his opponents, noticing the difference in their body structure. Unlike the previous short and slender creatures that they had met, those Greys had clearly been engineered for combat. They looked slightly stronger, at least a foot taller, and with heads smaller than the other Greys that they had the displeasure to meet. Those were “soldiers.” Cai Yiu concluded.

The four remaining Greys positioned themselves into a fighting formation. “You all die now.” The voice of the one who appeared to be the leader seemed to rebound inside their minds.

The blades on the extremities of their zabar suddenly gleamed, enlighten with an incandescent appearance of heat, almost as if its metal was close to melt.

Shoffer looked at his new weapon in the search of a switch that would activate same feature. Unsuccessful.

“Ready?” Cai Yiu enquired, looking at Shoffer out of the corner of his eye.

Shoffer raised his weapon and nodded his head answering the question.

In a synchronized movement, all creatures attacked them at the same time.

Cai Yiu blocked three of them simultaneously while Shoffer counter-attacked his one opponent with an unbridled sequence, pushing him back against the bulkhead.

At that moment, both the Nibirians recognized the actual strength of their enemies.

The moment after, Shoffer and Cai Yiu felt the heat of the incandescent zabars passing close to their faces. “V-Nus, take us out of here! Now!” Shoffer ordered while blocking the stroke that almost sliced the head if his pilot.

“I`m trying my best!” V-Nus` trepid voice replied as he sensed the heat behind his neck. “And so should you…” He thought, hoping his friends would watch for his back.

Cai Yiu swang his blades around his body following a continuous motion until one of them finally found its target, the neck of his enemy.

Desperate, The agonizing creature dropped his weapon, pressing his neck with both hands on frenetic attempt to stop the bleeding. With no success, he fell dead on the deck.

Next to Cai Yiu, a quick step to the side allowed Shoffer to deviate from his attacker whose blade moved towards Flumen`s.

Feeling something touching his leg again, Flumen looked down and saw the fallen weapon lying between his foot and the alien dilacerated limb. “Interesting”, thought Flumen as he bended his body to grab the zabar from the dead enemy. The blade that Shoffer deferred passed over Flumen`s head and ended on the back of his seat, almost beheading the defenseless Nibirian.

As the diverged zabar hit the seat, the intelligent surface allegedly softened, welcoming the blade into its structure that hardened thereafter, retaining the weapon for good.

Flumen looked back and saw the attacker trying to pull out the blade from his seat. “You despicable waste from the stars, I dare you attacking me from behind!” Angered and against his always pacific nature, Flumen kept his eyes fixed on his opponent whilst blindly stretching his arm to grab the fallen weapon.

When Flumen felt the object on the tips of his fingers , he grabbed it firmly, and without hesitation, swirled his arm against the creature that once saw what he was about to be knocked with, gave him a rather confused look.

Flumen felt the slimy liquid passing through his fingers as he rotated his arm hitting the Grey warrior on the head, just enough to push the enemy`s nape against the blade that Shoffer held in his hands. As the disoriented creature fell on the deck, its zabar retracted to its original size, still stuck on Flumen`s seat.

Feeling the slimness among his fingers, Flumen dropped what he wish was a zabar but ended being to be the dilacerated foot.

While Cai Yiu and Shoffer fought the two Greys that were still standing, Flumen stood among the two, studying the zabar jammed on his seat.

“Interesting.” Flumen`s fingers slowly touched it and then grabbed it at once after the seat deliberately pushed the weapon to his hands.

The zabar had barely touched his hands when Flumen unintentionally activated one of its still unrevealed features. Two sharp extremities were propelled out of the hilt, spiking the skulls of both enemies at the same time. The awkward noise of ripped flesh and broken bones, repugnantly new to Flumen but familiar for some of the others, brought the innocent Nibirian a guilty feeling.

The two bodies fell at the pace Flumen involuntarily retracted the blades back into the metallic stick. “Oh, my deepest apologies. Violence is certainly not part of my methods.” He excused himself while Shoffer stared at him, amazed with what his eyes had just seen.

“Why did we bring Cai Yiu if we got Flumen?” V-Nus tried to break the ice once all the Greys had been terminated and all it was left for him to worry, was a squadron of stingrays and an immense mothership on their pursuit.

“I had them both!” Cai Yiu was visibly annoyed that he was not the one bringing the end to the fight.