Chapter 17

“Let's face it, space is a risky business. I always considered every launch a barely controlled explosion.”

— Aaron Cohen, NASA administrator

“What the hell is that?” Chief Engineer Jeffery Donovan asked as he grabbed an odd-shaped part off one of his other mechanics’ desks.

“I’m not sure, sir, it was lodged in the aft intake manifold, second shift pulled it out about an hour ago,” the junior mechanic explained to Donovan.

The object sitting on the mechanic’s desk was cylinder-shaped with a few protrusions placed seemingly in random spots, each with a definite end that didn’t seem to have a clear purpose. The object did not seem to be of Federation or Russian design. ‘It might be Legion Tech,’ he had thought, but even then, it still did not match any design he had studied from any Legion debris that had been recovered. This would have to wait; exploring new tech might have been fun for Jeffrey, however, he needed to figure out what had caused the cascade failure that brought the WarpStar crashing to the surface of this unknown world.

“Skip, did you check the inducer array?” the chief asked one of his senior mechanics.

“No, sir, that was next on our list,” replied the overworked engine technician, who had been on duty for almost a solid twenty-four hours trying to rush repairs.

“Finish up, and I'll take a crawl down in the crawl space,” the chief explained.

The crawl space is sections of the ship that lie in between decks, just barely three feet tall and only four feet wide. The space houses a vast network of cables, tubes, pipes, fuse relays, phase induction relays, life support relays, anti-gravity generators, gravity generators, among other essential systems and relays that keep the ship working steadily. Some engineers, mechanics, and technicians have called these crawl spaces a ship's “arteries."

The crawl space section that the chief was crawling through connected the main engine room with the actual engines of the ship. This network of tunnels was inherently the most dangerous in the ship. There was limited life support down in the tunnels. Oxygen flowed regularly, but there was no climate control in most of it. Only certain sections that were extremely sensitive to the heat were cooled—the engine area did have some air conditioning systems pumping into it. However, the heat from the main generators, batteries, the fusion drive, and the reaction from the main engines severely negated the cold air.

“Oof. Son of a …” the chief yelled out as he hit his head on one of the relay panels above his head trying to shift his body around to grab ahold of one of the drive assembly parts.

“Well, look at this,” he blurted out as he noticed something protruding from a panel. Grabbing ahold of another oddly shaped piece, he took out his tools, cut a few wires, unscrewed a few screws and carefully disassembled the part to take with him.

“What the hell is this shit?” he said as he completed the immediate task. Now for the equally treacherous job of getting out of the engine artery.

The two shuttles flew around the area for a few minutes, taking survey data and other readings before landing. The landing zone was a natural choice, seemingly in the middle of a park area, flat ground and an easy entry point to get back to the shuttle if needed. Also very close to a faint energy source they had discovered, and what appeared to be faint life signs.

“Sir, the energy reading is getting stronger due east,” Bob said, pointing in the direction his handheld scanner was telling him to go.

The team walked and scoured the landscape, this giant forest of concrete, metal, alloys, lights, and other various materials and items that make up a giant metropolis. The away team all had the same thoughts as they inspected each building—how was the city still in pristine condition, and not eroded and faded with time?

Scientists have theorized what Earth would look like without the presence of humans to maintain her delicate infrastructure of the cities that act as the lifeline to modern civilization. Trees, vines, and other plant life would start taking over the small cracks in the concrete. Over time, the hard, cold, smooth surfaces of the paved ground would be overrun and turned into a forest of thick green and trees. The metal would start to decay and, after a while, would no longer be able to support the enormous weight these skyscrapers hold. The total collapse of all buildings and, after that, nature would reclaim all the precious metals that humans used to create such a vast artificial forest. After at least a few centuries, there would be no trace of humans at all; this is why the ancient humans used stone to create their megalithic structures. Stone survives the test of time.

“These buildings look in good condition, well maintained,” Ensign Carr said, now among the few starting to question what they are seeing.

“Impossibly maintained,” replied John.

“This is weird,” Lieutenant Watney said. She was looking at her pad, reading some data that had been scanned from a combination of her hand unit and the O.P. Parking itself in geosynchronous orbit above the city, the probe can provide real-time data to the away team.

“What is it?” The captain dropped back as he let the Marines continue to stride ahead to make sure the area was secure.

“Sir, I ‘think’ I know why there is a lack of decay. I am reading a ton of weird biosignals all around the atmosphere, and inside everything, the rocks, the buildings, the concrete, everything.”

“What exactly does that mean?” John was intrigued, and more curious as to know how a security officer knows anything at all about science.

“Sir, I did some studying at M.I.T. before signing up for the corp, my field was theoretical bio-engineering.”

“Bio-engineering?” John had never heard of that field before, and he grew ever more curious.

“Yes, sir, it’s not mainstream yet, nor has anyone been able to produce anything yet successfully. However, it is the theory of the possibility to create programmable, repairable, biological machines. Some as big as, say, a Cruiser, and some as small as a single cell. But in theory, if we could produce microbes to repair structures and control the growth of wildlife constantly, this exact process to preserve a city has been hypothesized. It’s just never been tested in any way since we can't produce the genetics yet.”

“So, basically, what you are telling me, is we are dealing with someone who has a far superior level of technology than we do?” John asked.

“Sir, I am not sure who would. No nations on Earth could produce this, not even the Federation, nor the Republic.”

“Lieutenant, I was not talking about humans.”

Heidi Watney could not believe she heard the captain right. Was he referring to aliens? Proper aliens? The concept is foreign on Earth. Although humans are a space-faring race and have been for well over several hundred years now, there has never been any proof or support for alien life. Even though Hyperdrive was discovered on Luna, it is widely believed an unknown group of humans had developed it and left it for them at an unknown point in history. Other people think it is a sign from God, and other Gods, as well as a gift. The Legion was not technically “alien,” since they are a group of mechanical robots running around killing everything. Again, people made the same argument for the Legion as they did for hyper-drive. Humanity still widely believes they are the only intelligent life in the Universe.

One thing that kept standing out to the team as they strolled down this alien world was the lack of roads. Back on Earth, streets, roads, interstate highways, and other forms of on-ground pathways for vehicles have been built since recorded history. Even the car infrastructure built in the early 20th century was maintained and well-preserved, some wheel-based vehicles still travel down them today. While most of Earth's transportation utilize repulse lift and anti-grav technologies, cities are still built with large roads in mind. Here, in front of the ground team, the pathways that would be considered roads are small, the space between each building exceedingly small. By earth standards, a small two-lane road, if that. John had also noticed the lack of vehicles—well, somewhat. The only vehicle he saw was the occasional one or two passenger bike that closely resembled a hover-bike on Earth.

“Robert,” John called his old friend while stepping aside towards one of the buildings.

Rob walked over to John and stopped right in front of a strange device.

“What do you suppose this is?” John asked.

Sitting in front of them was a small circular pad with a control console sitting next to it. They both tried to access the controls, but the panel and device were powered off. They had noticed these pads all around the city.

The next building they walked across had another pad; this one was larger. Much larger. It also had a sign above it, labeled “Freight Delivery, City Infrastructure.”

“Boss,” Rob said. “Why is that sign written in English?”

“Haven’t you noticed? Everything is in English here. This place keeps getting weirder.”

Every street sign they encountered, every shop sign that was not electronic, billboard, ad, any form of wording they saw—everything was in Earth English

“Sir, I think I know what these pads are. They appear to be Transport Pads.”

“A Transporter System?” John replied, shocked.

“Aye, sir, based on how the city is laid out, they couldn’t haul freight in these tight corners. Trucks wouldn’t be able to get anywhere, plus there are no vehicles anywhere, besides a handful of Hover Bikes. Now, these pads," Jackson stepped towards a large pad near an access hatch to a building, "are conveniently located and in mass quantity so they could act as transport systems all over the city.”

“How? Transporters are not ideal for biologics,” said John, referring to the system of transportation that the Federation had developed. The idea of moving one object from one point in space to another has been theorized since the 20th century. During the great technological boom of the 22nd century, it was discovered that it was possible to dematerialize an object and move it across space. Over the next few hundred years, the technology was perfected. Nonbiological objects could be transported a total distance of five thousand miles without any degradation, and biological objects could be transported over three thousand miles. The transportation of biological, however, is avoided unless necessary. The process involving removing your molecules is not pleasant. The few people who have undergone the process can feel their atoms and molecules being ripped apart. The pain involved is far worse than anything the human body can withstand. People undergoing reassembly feel that pain again when the system reassembles the bonds. A total of three people have died from the pain involved since the technology's inception. There has been no law restricting the biological use of transporters, but an unspoken rule among military personal avoids all use of it.

“I’m not sure, sir,” replied Jackson. “Whoever these people are must have found a way to prevent cellular tear.”

“Whoever these people are.” John began to say, but was interrupted by the loud ‘bang’ of some form of explosion, followed by two or three faint ‘zaps.’

The captain and his operations officer both looked at each other, a tad confused. Rob checked his datapad, pulled up the screen for the O.P., then checked the area for anything unusual, but nothing. All scans were clear.

“Report,” John yelled to the whole landing party.

“Sir, it sounded like energy weapons discharge,” Lt. Watney replied.

“Weapons fire?” John remarked, showing confusion.

‘Zap zap zap…..zap zap……..zap zap zap’

More weapons discharge was audible in the background, then came a loud screech. “AAAARRRRRHHHHHHH.”

The whole team heard the cry for help. Without needing orders from their captain, they all ran towards the building that appeared to be the source of all the commotion.

After taking tactical formations around the door, Jackson pulled up the datapad, re-accessed the O.P. screen, focused it on this area, nothing. Jackson switched it to infrared, and there it was—four bodies.

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“Sir, I got something... The probe is picking up what looks like four people in there. One looks injured…” Jackson explained, but was continuously interrupted by what is now known as weapons fire, over and over ‘zap zap zap zap.’ There appears to be no end. The infrared screen showed blasts being exchanged by two larger people firing on the other two, while only one was returning fire.

“Sir, two of them appear to be behind some object, looks like taking cover while firing on the other two, who are behind another object. One of them is returning fire while the other appears to be incapacitated on the ground,” Jackson continued to read off data from his pad.

“What the hell is going on?” John asked. He spoke into his com unit, opening the comms channel to the Destroyer.

“O’Connell here, what’s going on, sir?” the X.O. replied.

“Did a ship land here after we arrived?”

“Yes, sir, we traced and recorded a craft entering the atmosphere about thirty minutes ago. It burned up and made a crash landing thirty-five hundred clicks from our location. It was giving off a Federation signal. I was getting WarpStar primed for atmospheric flight to investigate,” O'Connell replied.

“Thirty-five-hundred clicks?” John repeated.

“Yes, sir, quite a hike for you guys."

“Damnit, so this can't be them. Is this system anywhere near known Republic space?”

“No, sir, according to our charts, we are way off in unknown space.”

“Roger that, proceed with the investigation of the downed craft, maintain the link with O.P. and monitor our situation. We have four unknown hostiles and are about to investigate.”

With that, the captain cut off communications and waved for the squad of Marines to his position.

“Sir,” the major replied.

“Looking at the scan here, major, they are right inside this door. We don’t know who they are. They could be trapped Federation Citizens engaging in the Republic, or the other way around. Breach protocol, do not fire unless fired upon.”

“Aye, sir,” the major said, waving his hands around to his men, giving them commands.

Two men stood on one side of the door, two men on the opposite. The major placed a charge on each corner of the door, set a few buttons, then stood a few feet back with his weapon pointed at the door. The remaining landing party was behind a road barrier, a good twenty feet away. The whole time they were waiting they could hear more ‘zap zap zap.’

The major held up his hand, three fingers up, two, then one, then boom! Four explosions erupted at the same time, collapsing the door that stood in their way. Immediately after the explosions, all five Marines flooded the doorway, weapons at their shoulder aiming at whatever was on the other side, all while screaming “Federation Navy, drop your weapons, hands in the air!!!”

The captain ran in right behind the Marines, and what he saw made everyone’s jaws drop. Standing in front of the Marines were two giant beasts. The first beast stood easily at nine feet tall. The other was just slightly smaller, around eight and a half feet. The creatures were not only tall but bulky. Judging by their appearance, they were pushing four hundred to five hundred pounds each. They were both wearing crude and ragged body armor made from fabric, with no apparent markings or a uniform. The exposed body parts were covered in fur or hair. They had two large horns of varied shapes protruding from their heads. They both had a long snout, and their knees were backward, instead of bending forward, with hooves for feet.

The explosion startled the beasts but didn’t stop them. They turned quickly towards the Marines and pointed their giant guns—the guns looked like they belonged mounted on fighters, instead of in a soldier’s arms—then let out an ear-shattering growl. “Raaaaaaaawwwr.”

Without hesitation, the Marines opened fire. 'Zap! Zap! Zap!!' the Fusion Energy Displacement guns, or ‘F.E.D.’ guns for short, were humanity’s first take on particle weapons. The weapons were at least a hundred years old, invented around the same time as particle weapons mounted on ships. The United States Army created the weapons as a counter to the Russian-invented kinetic deflection shields, which easily deflected any type of projectile round. Each Marine carried one F.E.D, which was attached to the bottom of the barrel of an M9 assault rifle.

'Zap! Zap! Zap!' The blue bolts of energy ran out of the Marine’s weapons, quickly striking the two beasts thanks to the proper firearms training of the Federation Marine Corps, but it didn’t seem to harm the monsters, only annoy them. The creatures let out two blasts of their own, one of them striking a Marine who instantly exploded. One blast sent the poor soldier's body parts flying in every direction—burnt blood, guts, and skin flying over everyone. The second blast struck the ceiling above the Marines and caused some minor damage to the structure, causing small rocks and flooring pieces to fall.

Seeing what one blast did to his friend, a Marine switched his rifle from fusion power to kinetic, chambered a round, removed the safety, and started firing.

The automatic weapons fire from the M9 echoed throughout the building. Every single bullet struck the creature, causing the beast to scream in pain and agony. The beast shot uncontrollably at the floor, causing a vast crater to form between the monsters and the Marines.

Noticing the effect standard bullets were having on the beasts, the remaining four Marines all set their M9 rifles to kinetic fire mode and released a horizontal rain of tungsten in the direction of the monsters. The shots hit both of them, and the Marines saw blood fly everywhere, but the beasts were not dropping. They just cried out, "Aaaaahhhhrrrr' louder and louder, eventually running behind them and fleeing the battlefield.

“Let them go,” John yelled out.

The other Marines huddled around the other two unknown people, who were hiding behind a downed bookcase. The one who was still conscious was holding a weapon towards the Marines.

“Please, go away, leave us alone!” the apparent alient spoke in clear English, in a high-pitched voice.

The two remaining aliens were vastly different than the beasts the crew had just encountered. They were still tall, but not as tall. They stood around 6 to 7 feet tall, with elongated skulls. Both had fair tan to dark skin tones; the female had long brown hair, the unconscious male was bald. They both had on what appeared to be uniforms, covered in brown and gold colorings with unknown symbols pinned in military-style and positions. The uniforms were unlike anything John and his crew had seen.

“Please,” the female alien continued her plea.

“Major, put the gun down,” the captain said as he approached her.

Major Thomson lowered his weapon and nodded to his captain. He was walking behind the away team; he ordered his Marines to form a perimeter around the room, protecting the crew from any other dangers.

“My name is Captain Johnathan Eugene Henderson, commanding officer of the Federation Naval Starship WarpStar. We mean you no harm!” John said as he held his hands mildly up in an innocent pose.

The female took a few looks around, studied the captain up and down a few times, and contemplated for a few seconds before deciding to put her weapon down. The crew deduced that she either chose to put trust in them or figured she would be dead either way, as she couldn’t fend off eight people. The alien female broke down, sobbing as she held her companion. He was injured from a wound in his side; she held him while he bled to death.

“Medic!” John waved one of the Marines over to look at the wounded.

The Marine came over with his pack, examined the alien, took out a small cylindrical device, pushed a few buttons, and then applied a foam over the wound, sealing it up.

“Sir, this is alien biology, however, I know a bad bleed when I see one. He needs to be stitched up, at least. I stopped the bleeding for now, but we need to get him to the ship. I can’t tell his vitals, it looks like he’s still alive, but again, I have no idea.”

“We need to take your friend to our ship for medical treatment,” John spoke to the sobbing female alien.

“No!” she yelled, “We will treat him on our ship!”

“Where is your ship?”

“On the southern hemisphere.”

“Sir,” Jackson interrupted “We are on the north-western hemisphere, that’s at least seven thousand miles out.”

“Miss,” Henderson said (‘Is that even proper to call her miss?’ he thought) “That’s too far, we need to get him moved now, or he could die.”

In the background, they heard a roar, hinting the return of the beasts.

“Sir, we need to move now!” the major cried out.

“Agreed," John replied to the major. "Sorry ma’am, we don’t have time, you need to come along.”

“No!” She held her companion tighter while she sobbed and cried harder, unwilling to let these alien beings take her loved one. “We die here, with our dignity intact!”

“Ma’am, I assure you. We mean you no harm. We are a peaceful people, and we will treat you and your companion, and return you to your ship. We will protect you from whatever those—” John hesitated for a minute to think of a word to call the monsters. “‘things’ are.”

The alien stared at John for a moment while the roars of the beasts grew louder, followed by the thumping of hooves striking the ground.

“Sir!” Major Thomson shouted.

“Okay, we will go to your ship!”

John nodded and stepped back, motioning the medic his job.

The medic took out two small rods from his pack, pushed a button on both of them, which extended poles out from both directions of the rod, making both of them seven feet long. He placed the rods on either side of the unconscious alien. It scanned him, flashed a readout real quick instructing the medic to put the rods evenly on both sides, then a bright red energy beam flooded the space between both rods. A faint hum came from the device as the medic lowered the rods, the energy field passing through him. When the rods were on the floor, they flashed red a few times. The energy field turned green, indicating a solid lock. The Marine pushed another button, and two more rods from the top and bottom came out, connecting the two rods and making comfortable handles for two people. He called out another Marine to help, and each grabbed a side and lifted. The energy-powered stretcher worked like a charm; the alien appeared to be lifted on a bed of bright green light.

“Alright, let’s move out!” John ordered out to the group.

A louder roar was heard in the background.

“They’re close,” Watney cried out.

“Charr,” John yelled. “Get the dropship here!”

“Aye, sir,” a frantic Charlene Carr wiped out her datapad, punched a few buttons to bring up the dropship remote systems, firing up the engines and setting the autopilot to come to their location.

They came out of the building to see the two beasts waiting for them. Taking out their giant guns, they started firing on the group, striking another Marine, which ended in his body saturating the area.

“Take cover!” the Major yelled out. Everyone hid behind a few small four-foot-tall, eight-foot wide protrusions out of the ground, what appeared to be power generators, or relay stations, or many different things. The material seemed to be able to withstand the blasts of the beasts’ mighty guns, as they only suffered minor burn marks from the continued onslaught.

“Shit! Sir, we cannot hold this position,” Heidi yelled out, “they got the only clearing covered. We won't be able to board the dropship!”

Just as she said that, the dropship came in over a few buildings, hovering over them, making a relatively large disturbance of air over the entire area. The beasts noticed the dropship, took aim, and fired. 'Zap! Zap! Zap!' Three shots, but only one direct hit. That is all it took, and the engines exploded in a huge fireball. The dropship made a large ‘Thud’ as it came crashing down to the surface.

“Well, there goes our ride,” Jackson said, making the observation everyone was thinking.

“Ma’am, is there any way to stop these beasts?” Henderson said.

“No, our ship can withstand their weapons, but we have no way to contact them!”

‘Shit!’ John thought. They were pinned down by two alien forces and seemingly no options.

“WarpStar, are you there?” John opened his comms.

“Yes, sir,” Charles's voice was heard on the other line.

“Are you still airborne?”

“Yes, sir, we retrieved a Federation pilot, he’s in critical condition. Doc is patching him…” O'Connell was interrupted by the sound of energy weapons discharge “….Sir, are you alright?”

“Negative, we are under enemy fire, require immediate evac.”

Listening to the comms, O’Connell couldn’t figure out who was firing. Russian forces were not detected anywhere near the area, nor was the pilot shot down. The executive officer pushed those thoughts to the back of his head for another time and went to the helm to talk to the junior officer piloting the mighty destroyer.

“Can you take us into their location?”

“Sir, I have only piloted this ship in sims. I didn’t even do any atmospheric sims, and I don’t think I can!”

“Damnit!” O’Connell said softly to himself. “John, we can't get to you, not able to fly in the Metropolis area.”

“Damnit, it's not that hard!” Carr yelled out.

“Maybe for you, Mrs. Ace,” O'Connell replied.

‘Fuck!’ Carr thought. If she had stayed in the ship, they would not be in this situation. They needed her on WarpStar, desperately. She scanned her surroundings for any possible solution. The captain and the XO were going over ideas. She heard them mention the transporters. No! She would not let them be subject to the pain involved in that. In the corner of her eye, the solution hit her. She saw a hoverbike just sitting there. Without knowing if it would work or how they worked, she let her instinct take over and decide for her.

“WarpStar,” Carr interrupted the captain and took command. “Meet me at the following coordinates, land and prepare for me.” She typed in a few keys to the datapad then threw it down. She didn’t need it anymore.

“Ensign!” John shouted.

“John,” she said as his friend, not as his subordinate. “Trust me, and … give me cover fire.”

John didn’t exactly know what she was going to do. He knew she was going to pilot the ship to them, but how was she going to get to the WarpStar quickly? He didn’t know, and he didn’t care. He saw it in her eyes, the confident feeling Charlene Carr always had when about to perform a crazy stunt. She was good, and her crazy stunts always won. Without question, John trusted his friend and yelled out the only command he needed to. “Alright, folks, everyone lay down suppression and cover fire!”

They did just that, everyone who had a weapon started firing on the two beasts, landing almost every shot. The beasts took notice and went behind some cover of their own. The tactic worked the way they wanted it—the weapons fire would not drop the beasts, but it slowed their weapons down. It distracted them from what Carr was about to do.

Carr saw her opportunity; a clear spot opened up when all the Marines and a few of the crew were firing, and the beasts were taking cover. She saw her bike then darted off, running full speed towards it. The beasts saw, got up, and tried to fire at the frightened Ensign. She ducked and dove, barely missing a few shots, got up behind the bike as the beasts got battered with an onslaught of blue energy blasts and tungsten. The beasts continued to take cover behind the wall and fired shots blindly at both Carr and the team, covering themselves from the Federation’s weapons fire.

A few shots came close to Carr, but never on her or the bike. She huddled close to it, examining it closely. No keys, but there was a control panel. No visible buttons. She tried to tap the control panel, but it remained unresponsive. A few blasts close to her made her get low and hide behind the bike, which allowed her to see a small red button under the belly of the seat. What the hell, she thought, nothing to lose at this point. She pressed it, and a moderate hum emitted from the bike as it came to life. The control panel lit up and displayed clear English. She pressed “Start” and an even louder hum and grinding noise emitted as the bike lifted off the ground. She saw the apparent throttle on the handlebars, climbed on it, ducked, and flew out of the area as fast as she could.

“What the hell!” John shouted as he saw her wiz away in an ancient hoverbike. “How the hell is that thing still able to work?”

After about ten minutes of constant fire between the beasts and the crew, nerves were beginning to wear thin, so was ammunition and power cells.

“Sir, we are down to three mags and four power cells. We won't have ammo to last more than a few more minutes,” Watney reported.

Noticeably the beasts had also slowed down their constant onslaught. Presumably, to save ammo.

“Sir, tacitly, they should have advanced on us by now,” the major replied. “They might be low on ammo; we should make a move on them.”

“Negative,” Henderson replied. ”We must hold this pos….” John was interrupted by a loud hum, and wind gusts came over them. Everyone thought at the same time, 'WarpStar!!' but their luck was sinking into the void. Without the time or the ability to confirm their fears or hopes, a energy blast came down to their spot, destroying the adjacent miniature building they were hiding behind. Looking up, they saw a ship about the size of their dropship, an ugly looking thing with about four enormous weapons training on their spot. They were firing a few more shots, destroying the building behind them and the general areas to their side.

They were surrounded. The two beasts stood up, shook their weapons in the air, and yelled a loud rawr! Presumably, a battle cry. They had walked up to the team and yelled out “Sha-Ke Prova Grom`Tho”

“What the hell was this ?” Henderson said to anyone.

“They demand our surrender,” the female alien replied. Then, under her breath, she said: “I’m sorry, Enki, I have failed you.”

“Enki?” Jackson said. “I know that name.” It didn’t matter; the entire team stood up, hands in the air, they couldn’t escape this. That ship could rip through anything that they would use for protection. It was over.

Until it wasn’t. As the crew was walking towards the beasts, the ship took two huge blasts, then an explosion in its rear. The alien ship came crashing down in a fiery ball, as their dropship had. The two beasts looked up and made a loud howl in disgust and horror! Gigantic weapons in hand, they pointed towards the ship in the sky hovering over their location.

“WarpStar!!” everyone cried out and cheered while the two beasts started firing on the ship. The energy weapons hit the WarpStar’s shields and just dissipated as the powerful defenses of the ship absorbed the weapons’ fire.

Just as quickly as it started, it stopped. The beasts stopped firing, then threw down their weapons. Slow, quiet at first, then louder and louder cries of pure pain and extreme agony came from the mouths of the creatures as they grabbed their bodies all over trying to quell the pain, the feeling of molecules being ripped apart, then white sparkling light engulfed them, and then they were gone—along with their screams of agony, pain, and suffering.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to thank you for flying trans WarpStar; we hope you enjoy your stay on the other side of the planet,” O’Connell’s voice was heard from a loudspeaker from the exterior of the ship.