Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
PREVIOUSLY: In their search for Red Klaw, the pirates discovered the top secret WHISPER proto-type shipyard; recognizing Red Klaw's agent among the marine Generals, they decide to press her for information...
Fay and May reach the General's and their entourage first. No one notices them until bodies at the back of the group start to hit the floor.
With his staff Garr sweeps the legs out from a hapless aid near General Hannon. Hannon whirls around and lunges barehanded at Garr.
Laurine whips out a sleek gun from under her light coat. She shoots at Rue as he comes toward her. He dives behind a stack of steel crates. She just misses.
General Dubaal scurries for cover as fast as his fat body will take him. His assistants move toward the invisible attackers that are leaving a pile of bodies in their wake. As Dubaal ducks behind a hunk of heavy equipment, he trips over the unconscious body of the deck hand.
Val runs headlong for the control panel. He has no idea how to lock the docking bay doors, but he's going push every button until something works.
Commander Dillian stands frozen just outside of the fray, his mouth hanging open. The shit just hit the fan, and he has no idea what to do.
Rue pulls out his impressively large gun and fires back at Laurine. She runs for cover this time. They trade shots.
Hannon and Garr are like two titans, slamming each other back and forth into crates and machinery. Garr has the upper hand with his staff, but Hannon is in a full steroid enhanced rage. He attacks unrelentingly.
Val's fingers fly over the keys on the control panel near the access tube to WHISPER. The large sliding doors to the station remain closed, but he's not sure for how long.
Fay and May make short work of the last few assistants. General Goddard stands amidst the chaos, calm and unfazed. As the last of his assistants hit the deck he lifts his head and bellows, "ENOUGH!" The sound thunders through the docking bay. Everyone stops fighting; stunned that such a mighty sound came from such a scrawny old man.
"Who are you people? What is the meaning of this?!" His voice has a razor sharp edge to it that is neither frightened nor angry, he's just irritated.
For a moments no one speaks. It's frighteningly quiet, then Rue steps out from behind the stack of crates. "We came for Red Klaw!" He demands calmly.
Goddard looks to Laurine, well? She straightens up, her gun still ready. She smiles wickedly at Rue but doesn't say a word. There is no force in the entire universe that will pry that information from her lips!
WHISPER'S pilot, Mireck, appears at the end of the access tube. He stops dead in his tracks when he sees the situation. The tension is palpable.
Dubaal peers out from his hiding place, careful not to expose too much of his bulbous flesh in case the shooting starts again.
The tension is too much for Dillian, finally he blurts out, "He's not here!"
Laurine whirls around to glare at him, but now the floodgate is open, he can't stop himself, "He has other business on--"
BLAM! Laurine shoots him! Her bullet rips straight through his throat to the tiny explosive Red Klaw has implanted in all of his closest operatives--BOOM! His head explodes right off of his shoulders. Everyone gapes.
A heavy pounding on the doors to the station makes everyone jump! Muffled voices come from the outside; the cavalry has arrived.
Rue glances at Val, Val's face says it all--the door won't hold for long! Rue pounces on his only opportunity, "Garr!" He nods toward the access tube as he runs. Val sees where Rue is going and be-lines for the tube, completely bowling Mireck over. Laurine tries to shoot, but Goddard is between her and Rue.
Garr cracks Hannon under the chin with the pommel of his staff, knocking him unconscious. Then turns for Fay and May, "C'mon!" He growls. The girls turn and dart for WHISPER ahead him.
"Stop them!" Goddard bellows as he steps out of the way. Laurine fires, she grazes Garr's shoulder before he disappears into the tube. He doesn't even notice.
She races after them still shooting. Behind her the doors finally slide open, a flood of troops rush into the docking bay.
"Get them off my ship!" Goddard commands.
Inside WHISPER'S cargo bay, Val looks around breathlessly. For a brief moment he is overwhelmed by the vastness of the ship. As Garr squeezes through the access tube, Val regains his senses. He kneels down and begins to crank the manual seal on the tube.
Rue kneels next to him to take over, "Get these doors closed!" He commands.
Val jumps up and looks around. Instinctively he runs toward the engineering section. The control panels are obvious and easy to figure out. "Look out!" He shouts to the others as the doors begin to close painfully slowly.
Rue ignores the warning and continues to crank, even as Laurine's shots skiff past him. The access tube seals just as Laurine reaches it, she pounds on it. The soft flexible material bends, but won’t break.
Rue steps back from the seal as the massive doors finally close. Now he looks around him, like the others his eyes grow wide in amazement. Val wanders out of the engineering section, “We’ve got a while before they break through those doors, but they will break through.”
The others have spread out to explore a bit. Rue looks at Val, “Think you can fly this thing?”
Val’s face breaks into a huge grin, “Are you kidding? I was born to fly this thing!” He walks toward the dark battle bays, “This is why I am here, this is the proto type, this is what they were training us for!” His words tumble out excitedly, his former military career suddenly all makes sense. “I just gotta’ find the bridge...”
With the others trailing behind him, he pokes his head into the battle bay, this is definitely not it. He moves on to the fore section of the cargo bay. The only thing here is a lift. Val opens the door.
“So what, you're just going to go deck by deck?” Fay demands behind him.
Val shrugs, “You got a better idea?” He steps onto the lift. The others join him, obviously they don’t. Behind them the marines have broken through the seal on the access tube. They pound on the cargo bay doors.
On WHISPER’S second level the group pours out of the lift. They spread out, each heading for a different door, Val walks straight ahead, bingo! When he sees the captain’s chair he knows immediately he’s in the right spot. “Got it!” He calls.
The others are shocked, that was easy. Val steps onto the bridge and can’t help but catch his breath at the huge windows and ergonomic work stations. Behind him the other gasp as well.
Val shakes himself out of his revere and hurries into the captain’s chair. It’s clearly designed for some one of Rue's size, he looks like a little kid. But that doesn’t detour him, his fingers fly over the controls on the arm rests.
The soft purr of WHISPER’S engines vibrates gently around them. While he waits for the ship to power up, Val turns to the others, “You might want to hang onto something, this is going to be rough!”