Chapter 2 - Raid on Gaia (1)

The explosion shook all of Gaia. Although it was difficult to tell for sure where it came from, for those in Lieutenant Ivory’s office, it wasn’t hard to guess. Lieutenant Ivory looked at the station overview.

“Th-that’s…” Quin stuttered a bit, “Did that come from the prison floor?”

Lieutenant Ivory slammed her fist on her desk and exclaimed, “Damn it!” 

Flickering red lights came on throughout the station, indicating an emergency.

“This isn’t good,” said Eizik, “Lieutenant Ivory, is there anyone being held here that those pirates would have an interest in?”

“Probably their captain, we’ve had him here for a couple of weeks, and we’ve been trying to capture the remnants of the crew, it’s just…”

“They don’t seem to have faltered at all since their captain was captured,” Eizik finished Ivory’s thought, “in fact, it’s strange that they would be able to afford stealth systems that could bypass this station’s scanners.”

“Why does any of that matter? Shouldn’t we just go take care of them?” Quin asked frantically and turned to Eizik, “C’mon, you’re a Lord, right? You’ve gotta help us out here.”

Eizik held a solemn look on his face, “I’m sorry…”

“You’re kidding, right? What are you even here for? Mariah is out there! The captain of that crew was pretty tough. If he gets let loose, she doesn’t stand a chance.”

“See that plant over there?” Eizik pointed to a pot in a corner of the room, “That’s a leatherleaf fern from Earth. Gaia is filled with plants like it. There is no soil from another planet on this station. Only a Human Ranger would be authorized to act here without approval from a higher up on Earth’s end.”

Quin looked to Lieutenant Ivory.

“Don’t ask me, my rank isn’t high enough to authorize something like this.”

Quin clenched his fists, gritted his teeth and turned towards the door, “Fine, I’ll go myself.”

“Do you think you’ll fare any better than Mariah could? Stand down, this is an order.”

“I am permitted to act independently in times of crisis, didn’t you know that?” 

Quin stormed out through the door.

“Why didn’t you stop him?” asked Lieutenant Ivory.

Eizik raised his hands and shrugged, “It’s not my place.”

“At the very least could you follow him to guide him in case that thing happens?”

“Why don’t you do it?”

“I have to stay here and handle the situation from afar,” she replied, “Besides, it never did happen to me.”

“Very well, I’ll be on my way then.”

Eizik walked through the door slowly.

Lieutenant Ivory sighed, “Ironic. I once wanted to be the strongest Ranger out there, now the best I can do is boss people around,” she leaned forward in her desk and spoke into her earpiece, “Listen up! Gaia has been breached!”

**

Mariah knelt down. There was blood dripping down from her shoulder. There was a rough hole blown through the side of the hallway, leading into empty space. If it weren’t for the quick activation of the station’s veil system, the same one that lets ships in and out of the hangar, everything in the vicinity would have been sucked out into the vacuum of space. 

A group of eight Tothans walked past her. The two guards she had with her were on the floor, their blood flowing out. She didn’t know if they were dead or alive. Not knowing what to do, she stared down at the ground.

“You find out what cell he’s being held in?”

“Yeah, 1-A. Nothing but the best for Captain Lek,” said the prisoner.

“Good, good. Let’s get you out of those chains, buddy,” one of the pirates said as he pulled out a strange sort of dremel. It emitted light in a circular motion like a buzzsaw and he moved it to the prisoner’s chains.

“We even brought you your favorite spear,” one of the other pirates exclaimed, holding a long spear with cloth wrapped around the head, “We were tired of using it to chop vegetables.”

The cuffs on Kaaran’s wrists snapped. He stretched his arms for a moment and quickly snatched his spear out of his crewmate’s hands.

“Thanks for keeping it safe, jackass,” he said, “Now let’s get a move on, I’ll lead the way.”

Mariah snapped out of her trance and tried to lift her rifle, but no avail, her left arm was too injured. She instead reached for her pistol with her right arm, and turned her body part of the way around and aimed into the crowd.

“Wai-” she was cut off by a foot slamming into her arm, knocking her weapon out as it misfired into a wall. She cried out, “Ah!” The force of the impact knocked her to the ground.

Kaaran thrusted his spear into the floor next to her head, “What do we do with her?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” one of the pirates responded, “We may be pirates, but it goes outside of our captain's code to kill someone so defenseless.”

“You’re right,” he said. He turned to look Mariah in the eyes before speaking, “Hey, if you try something like that again, we won’t be so nice.”

He pulled his spear out from the ground, and they all turned around and walked away.

A few moments later, they reached cell 1-A. Captain Lek was fidgeting impatiently. One of the pirates placed something on the cell door’s lock, and it produced a small explosion, breaking only the part that kept the door shut.

“What took you guys so long? Do you have any idea what they feed us here? It’s disgusting,” Lek said.

“Sorry, it was hard to find a good time to get captured,” Kaaran said, “Besides, you’re the one who agreed to this plan.”

“Tch,” Lek scoffed, “Well, it’ll all be worth it if *they* hold up their end of the deal. We’ll make it out rich.”

One of the pirates used the dremel on the pirate captain's chains. The chains, which were wrapped around Lek’s whole body, began gently glowing in a strange pattern.

“You sure this is gonna work?” Kaaran asked.

“It should, I just have to find the core,” the pirate with the dremel responded, “These chains work by drawing out Arima radiation and dispersing it throughout. If I find the core and overload it with energy, the whole mechanism will collapse.”

Suddenly, there was the sound of several boots hitting the ground coming toward the pirate crew’s location. Ten armed guards stopped in their tracks and aimed their weapons.

“Halt,” one of them said clearly, “Surrender peacefully or we will open fire.”

Kaaran groaned, “It's gonna hurt to fight this many at once without the captain. Did they give you anything to deal with something like this?”

One of the pirates responded, “Yeah, but it’s better that we don’t use too much of these. They only work once, and sell for lots on the black market.”

“Really?” Kaaran sighed, “Always thinking about money, huh? Whatever, just do it.”

The pirate reached into his back pocket and threw out a small device.

“Open fire!” 

The guards began firing their weapons in unison, beams of light filling the room, or rather just part of the room. Before the beams could cross over to strike the invaders, a square shaped veil erected itself out of the device that the pirate threw, absorbing the blasts into itself. It covered the entire hall.

“That won’t hold for long, let’s hurry.”

“In the meantime,” Karaan stepped forward, brandishing his spear, “Any of you want to step forward? Veils like these don’t stop physical objects.”

One of the guards yelled out, charging across the veil, preparing to fire the moment that he could.

Within an instant of him being in reach, a spear slashed through his torso, his blood splattered on the wall. He fired a shot, but it missed the target completely. The rest of the guards faltered. 

“Anyone else?”

No one else stepped forward. 

“Orders from the Lieutenant,” yelled out the leader of the small squadron, “Focus fire on the veil, it should crack in no time!”

The remaining nine guards fired relentlessly into the veil. Small cracks formed and repaired themselves. It didn’t seem like it was doing much, but the opacity of the veil did slowly seem to be fading.

“Not fast enough,” said the pirate with the dremel. 

The core of the chains had been found, and after loading it with energy, it was no longer able to keep up. Sparks traveled along the glowing parts of it, and then it subsided. 

Captain Lek shifted about before he started to struggle against the chains. After a couple of seconds, they snapped completely. Despite his large frame, it was difficult to imagine that he could break through any sort of metal like that. 

“Finally!” he exclaimed.

“Welcome back to freedom, Captain.”

“Yeah, I’ve missed being able to move my arms.”

“You said it,” remarked Kaaran.

“No time for reminiscing,” Lek replied, “First order of business, these guys look like they know nothing about anything.”

He stepped out of the cell and faced the squad firing at the veil. Suddenly, there was a weapon in his hand. It was a crude sort of pistol, by Human standards, it would be called a flintlock. It had strange markings lined about it. He pointed it at the veil and the guards’ faces seemed to become nervous, their firing slightly slowing down.

“Where were you hiding that thing?” ask Kaaran.Lek smirked, “Inside my body, of course.”

“Gross.”

Lek held down the trigger of his pistol, and the barrel of it glowed violently, before everything that was built up in it was released, sending a beam of energy out at an incomprehensible speed. It pierced through the veil easily, and it shattered into pieces.

The beam continued forward, hitting two guards on its way before piercing through even the floor, which was curving upward in either direction due to the cylindrical shape of the holding area. 

“Now that’s how you deal with a veil,” Lek sneered, blowing the smoke coming off the end of his pistol.

The firing from the guards immediately stopped.

“Mission failed! Retreat!” yelled the leader.

The guards began running in the opposite direction, their figures eventually vanishing as they ran through the halls.

“Tch, a bunch of cowards,” one of the pirates scoffed.

“No matter, just less work for us. The trial rangers are our real target, ya know? Let’s get a move on.”

They started walking toward where the guards came from, before a stern voice yelled out from behind them.

“I told you to wait.”

“Huh?” Lek exclaimed as he turned around.

Trial Ranger Sampson was standing tall. There was a faint glow shrouding her body.