Chapter 14
The planet surface was not a pleasant sight, to say the least. It was sandy and barren, where there wasn’t sand, it was arid, cracks in the solid ground. This did not make trekking across the planet surface at all pleasant
“Remind me again why we couldn’t park the ship closer” I asked, panting in the intense heat. “Well” Kiera replied “we could have got closer, if you wanted to run the risk of some space pirates seeing us and blowing us to smithereens”
“Yeah, but was five miles entirely necessary?”
“Look!” Kiera stopped and looked at me “next time we land on a planet for the purpose of destroying a shield generator guarded by space pirates, you can choose the place where we park the ship!” It wouldn’t take a scholar to work out she was agitated. She was probably regretting parking so far away, but she could never admit it. I looked ahead again, we had almost reached the pirate outpost where the shield generator was located. There were pirates everywhere, all wearing dirty and torn clothes – it looked like they hadn’t seen a shower in decades! They were all armed with laser guns. “We will have to take them out somehow” Kiera said (this statement was accompanied with a thoughtful expression on her face, trying to see how this could be achieved)
“Well,” I said, a little smugly, “I have something that may be able to help” I reached into my pocket and produced the apple sized invisibility thing. “You certainly are full of surprises!” Kiera said, she smiled, this may have been the first time I had actually seen her smile, she might be warming to me (slowly, but surely, there had been no death threats recently either, so that had to be a plus) I pressed the button and looked at my hands, they were now practically invisible. I guess I could only see them because I knew they were there. I looked at Kiera and nodded. She nodded back, we both knew what had to happen next. Kiera drew her pistol and walked ahead, I followed, also drawing mine. We crept into the outpost, the buildings were ramshackle, apart from one. This ‘one’ had a massive purple beam of light bursting from the top, so I had to assume that was the one containing the shield generator. It was magnificent to look upon. I stood staring at it, suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my ribs. Kiera had elbowed me in the ribs, she gestured to the two guards by the door and formed an L shape with moved her right arm (the vertical part of the L) against her left arm, this was sign language for subdue. I nodded, we each walked to a pirate guard. I put my arm in front of his face and then pushed his head back against the wall. I heard a satisfying thwack as his legs turned to jelly and hit the floor. I ran to the door and used my lock picker. We ran inside and I turned off the invisibility field. “A lock picker as well?” Kiera asked
“Yep” I said, grinning. This was getting fun! The room we entered was not like any other generator room I had seen. The room was murky, I followed the beam down from the hole in the ceiling into a machine, surrounded by several pirates, who were not pleased to see us! They made towards us Kiera was clearly not in the mood for a fight, she drew her pistol and shot both in the head before they could reach us. They died before they hit the floor. She walked over to the console and I followed her. The keyboard had strange markings on them and so I elected to leave it alone. Kiera clearly knew what they all meant and had accessed the system. “Let’s see here” she said, squinting at the screen (the only bright thing in this horrible room) She rattled off several options including “Pirate roster” and “Black Market sales log” until she saw the one she wanted – “Shield Generator controls!” she exclaimed and she pressed a key that I assume was enter. The screen went black. “What? NO!” Kiera shouted at the empty screen
“What is it?” I asked
“They’ve cut the power!” Kiera shouted frantically
“Who have?” I asked, anyone could have noted an elevated stress pattern in my voice
“Guess!” She replied “The pirates!”
“How do we take down the generator then?” Kiera pulled out her assault rifle
“Three words. Lock and load!” she deployed her assault rifle and started shooting the generator. I stood there for a second, slightly dumbstruck. “Make yourself useful and shoot this thing!” she shouted. I got out my assault rifle and started shooting, it was strangely satisfying. The generator was sparking and after about ten seconds the thing was a pile of twisted metal, with no beam coming out the top. All that was coming out of the top was smoke. The door burst open – there were at least two dozen pirates, the only good thing was that the door had bottlenecked them, we took them down. The shots from both of our assault rifles had almost softened to melody in my ears by the time the last pirates fell. I clambered over the pile of bodies and made for the ship. Kiera was just a few steps behind me. There were hundreds of pirates chasing us. Kiera caught up to me “Watch this!” she said and pulled out a sphere the size of a ping pong ball. She slid a panel on it to reveal a red LED. She dropped it and kept running. I kept pace but looked back. The little ping pong ball exploded for a good forty metre radius. I could feel it on my back. “What was that?” I asked
“Well,” Kiera said, grinning, “you have your new gadgets, I have mine”
“Touché”
“Quite” We arrived back at the ship and got in. The ship executed a vertical takeoff whilst we were still getting in. Kiera grabbed the controls and we shot off towards the atmosphere so violently did she do this that I was thrown back in my seat and hit my head. I didn’t complain. “This will not be pleasant” Kiera said as we flew towards Tonitrua’s ship. It was even bigger than I had first seen. “How do we land then?” I asked
“Like this” Kiera said and flew into one of the sides of the ship. After a screechy sound of tearing metal we were in and flying straight into another wall, and another, and another. We had flown through the whole ship. We were back in the space surrounding it. With a yank on the wheel, the ship we were in pulled up sharply, rotated and then landed on the deck. “So why did we fly through the ship?” I asked
“Why not?”
“I guess” I said, as I pulled out my assault rifle
“Clear the deck!” Kiera shouted as she ran one way. I turned the other way and immediately got my gun knocked out of my hand by a particularly big pirate. I hit the deck and looked up at my assailant. If I had to describe in a few words it would be ‘big purple pirate beefcake’ as that is what he was. I noticed a knife on the pirate’s leg and wrenched it off. I clutched it in my hand, I was not good with fighting like this – I was used to having a gun, I rarely fought with a knife. As I held it in front of me the pirate backed up a little and drew a long sword. I took the opportunity, flipped the knife in my hand so I was holding the blade and threw it at the pirate’s head. Right on target, the knife embedded itself into the purple pirate’s head. He fell backwards. I picked up my rifle and then jogged over to the body to retrieve the knife. I pulled it out of the pirate’s head, wiped it on his tunic and then put it on my belt. It might come in handy later. I pulled out my rifle and shot down the last few pirates lurking on the side that I was told to cover. I then ran back to rendezvous with Kiera. She was crouched by a hatch on the far side of the ship. “In here?” I asked
“Yep.” She said, and dropped through the hatch. I dropped in after her.
