Titan. Moon of Saturn.
Its rocky, orange surface sits beneath a light yellow sky. Saturn sits in the sky, seemingly crooked, its rings slightly obscured by rusted clouds.
A mountain range with sharp peaks juts out from the surface. Inside a large, cavernous room tucked in a mountain, the beach-blonde-Blake Hunter stands with his hands on his hips, looking around his surroundings.
Rocky IV, a bipedal German Shepherd whose mechanical arms and hands are covered by an orange Cosmonaut suit, walks closely behind Blake. Behind the two trails the mammoth, muscular, and mustachioed Baxter Breckenridge, while Ardra, a purple-skinned humanoid with long, red hair and shimmering face tattoos, covers the three of them at the rear.
The four make their way across the center of the cavernous room.
“Anyone see anything?” Blake asks, his Southern drawl echoing in the room.
“I can’t really look up that much,” Rocky IV says, looking up as much as he can. “Look, this is all I can do.” He leans back more. “Look at this, this is it.”
Baxter’s hands, the size of frozen turkeys, don’t hold any weapons. He doesn’t need any.
“What we’re looking for should be pretty obvious, no?” Baxter asks his crewmates.
“Well nothing’s really popping out–” Ardra replies before she hears a sound. She aims her rifle down its sights. “Wait.”
The four form into a tighter circle, each looking in a different direction. As they scan the area, Blake looks up and spots something.
“Bingo, baby!” he says, pointing.
From the cave ceiling dangles a golden statue head. The statue head glistens and appears to show a humanoid man’s face, with some sort of wreath band around its head. The statue head dangles from a goopy substance, which clings to the golden metal from a long strand beginning at the ceiling.
“Alright, let’s grab it and head on out–” Blake begins before he’s interrupted by a spiky, Armadillo-like creature rolling into the cavern. The creature then stands on two legs. The group stops in their tracks, then starts looking at each other. Blake finally steps forward, smiling.
“Hey there, friend. We’re, uhh, we’re here to take that,” he says, pointing at the statue head. “Because, uhh, well, you took it first. From somebody. So we wanna take it back, if you don’t...if that’s alright with you.”
Blake stops a few feet in front of the creature. The creature tilts its head, then retracts spikes from its round back.
“Uhh, alright guys,” Blake continues. “I think that’s a yes.”
He looks the creature in the eye.
“Thank you very much, friend. I appreciate it. Now if you wouldn’t mind helpin’ us –”
The creature quickly spins and smacks Blake in the chest with the hump of its back, sending him flying. Rocky IV, Baxter, and Ardra ready themselves.
“Blake!”
Blake rolls around on the cave floor.
“Stun! Set to stun!” he shouts in between short breaths.
Rocky IV and Ardra check their rifles as Baxter pounds his fist into his other hand. The creature that hit Blake rolls up into a ball once more, and in the blink of an eye, rolls furiously toward the three standing crew members. They just barely dive out of the way.
“Probably want to hurry!” Ardra shouts.
Blake makes his way back to his feet before looking at the crew. “Yup. Baxter, Ardra, whaddya think?”
“Already on it,” Baxter says. Eyeing the dangling statue head, Baxter picks Ardra up in his arms, spins once, twice, thrice, and throws her, sending her in the air towards the head. Blake dodges the ball creature as Rocky IV begins a mad spring towards the statue head.
Ardra grabs hold of the statue head in mid-air, her legs dangling as she begins working to pull it from the goop.
Blake eyes the ball creature as it prepares to roll again.
“How’s it comin’, Ardra?”
“Almost....got it..” Ardra grimaces. “What is this stuff?”
“I have a theory, but you’re not gonna like it,” Rocky IV answers, reaching up toward Ardra. Rocky IV looks around, and two more ball creatures emerge, one on both sides of him.
“Come on, come on, why, why, why?” he complains.
He fires short stun shots at each creature as they speedily roll toward him. Rocky IV backpedals, trips, and falls out of the way as the creatures collide with each other, bouncing away.
Ardra tears the head from the goop.
“Got it! Baxter, it’s coming down!”
“Ready, darling!” Baxter yells.
The Englishman strongly deflects a creature as he runs towards the hanging Ardra. Rocky IV rises to his feet while Baxter holds out his large, tree-trunk arms. Ardra drops the golden statue head, and it plummets down into the safety of Baxter’s arms. Ardra looks at the ground, hand stuck in the goop, and manages to rip herself out of it. She drops and lands on Rocky IV’s shoulders, who grabs her legs to balance her.
“Gotcha, Ards. Blake, I’d love to
go, buddy!” Rocky IV shouts.
“Sounds good! This way, the way we came!” Blake responds, waving his arm towards the cave entrance.
Ardra gets down from Rocky IV’s shoulders. The four begin to run towards the entrance when they’re halted in their tracks by a half dozen ball creatures, staring the four of them down.
“On second thought, that looks like shit,” Rocky IV whispers to his crewmates.
Spikes extend out from each creature’s back in unison.
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“Yeah, I vote against this. Maybe not the best exit,” Rocky IV continues.
Blake raises a hand to his earpiece. “Umino, you read me?”
A young, tall man with dark, medium-length hair and a black leather duster stands outside on the edge of the cliff. The man - Umino - grips a small staff in his left hand.
Behind him and to the side stands another tall man, with dark power armor, a beard, and an eyepatch. This man - Norm Gartner - faces the entryway to the cave.
Umino puts a hand to his earpiece.
“I read you,” he says, calmly.
“We might need a, uhh, alternate exit point,” Blake says through the comm.
Umino remains motionless.
“Trouble?”
“That’s fair to say, yeah.”
Umino nods.
“I’ll get you.”
Umino nods to Norm.
“We need to get to them.”
“Yeah, I heard,” Norm responds. “That thing is loud. Seriously, you might wanna turn it down. It’s not good for your poor ear.”
Umino begins running along the mountain path.
Norm begins to jog after him.
“I’m not a doctor but that seriously can’t be good,” Norm says while running.
Blake, Ardra, Baxter, and Rocky IV circle up. Ardra and Rocky IV fire warning shots at the group of spiky creatures. The shots sail over their heads, not fazing the armadillos.
“I gotta say, impaled by spiky ball people is a bad way to die. Unique, but bad,” Rocky IV laments.
“We’re not gonna die, Rocky IV,” Ardra says. “They don’t want to kill us, they just want the head.”
“Doesn’t bode well for the guy holding it though, eh, Baxter?” Rocky IV looks at his comrade.
“Yes, we should take turns holding it,” Baxter responds. “I choose the dog to go next.”
“No, I shouldn’t, you’re uhh doing such a good job with that. Plus, I’m already holding something so if I did want to hold that I’d have to—”
Blake begins trying to communicate with the armadillo creatures.
“Again, I just wanna reiterate. My name is Blake Hunter. Some of you might know me better as ‘Hunky’ Hunter?”
Absolute silence from the ball creatures.
“I was a surfer on Earth? I surfed?” Blake begins pantomiming the activity of surfing. “On water?”
“Uhh, Blake, buddy,” Rocky IV starts to whisper. “This moon is 90% rock and 10%...darker rock. I don’t know how many surfing fans there are here.”
Blake nods.
“Okay, fair enough. We’ve been tasked with retrieving this statue head here only because you all took it. So just, like, let us go and everything will be cool between us, alright? Square deal?”
Many of the creatures fold up, getting ready to charge.
Blake nods.
“That is a no.”
The cave wall to their side begins to pound.
Blake eyes the wall.
“Uhh, let’s all wait and not move for about ten seconds, huh? Whaddya guys think about that?”
The armadillos begin to spin in place as the thumping of the wall gets faster and harder.
“Maybe like, six more seconds of
quiet reflection,” Blake says to the creatures.
The armadillos are spinning in place at a blinding speed, kicking up dust. The rock wall begins crumbling until suddenly, the thumping stops. The rock wall stays intact. The crew sighs.
“Ahhh ffff--shit,” Rocky IV mumbles.
Suddenly, the section of rock wall explodes, revealing Umino and Norm. Umino holds out his vibrolance and extends it, both sides shooting out.
“This way!” Umino shouts.
The crew begins making a dash towards the opening as the armadillos begin rolling quickly after them. The crew makes it through the makeshift entrance and all six crew members begin sprinting downhill as the armadillos roll after them.
Blake puts one hand to his earpiece.”
“Mei?!” he says, huffing and puffing. “Mei, you hear me?”
On the bridge of a spaceship, a young woman leans back in the pilot’s chair in front of the ship’s elaborate console. Her feet are on the console itself and her eyes are closed. She wears a tank top, with a jacket wrapped around her waist.
Behind her, standing at a holotable, are two men. One, Douglas, is a bespectacled man in a dark blue worker’s jumpsuit. The other, Doctor Richter, is a bearded man wearing a white lab coat and thick glasses.
“I’m just saying,” Douglas continues his thought. “If we have the technology, why not just get rid of gravity altogether? What’s it doing for us?”
Doctor Richter furrows his brow.
“A lot? Do you want to just float around all the time?”
Douglas crosses his arms and looks away.
“I don’t know. I just want the option, I guess.”
Blake’s voice cuts in on the ship’s speakers.
“Mei?! Mei, you hear me?”
The young woman shoots to attention, slamming her feet on the floor and hitting a button on the console.
“Loud and clear, Cap! Ready for pickup?”
“Yup! Sooner the better. Things got a little dicey!”
“Roger that, honing in on you,” Mei begins tapping away on her console. She turns to Douglas and
Doctor Richter. “You guys might wanna head to the docking bay.”
Douglas and Doctor Richter turn and begin walking down a corridor.
“Like I was saying,” Douglas picks up again. “If I wanna just float for a bit, why can’t I?”
“I don’t know if I want to keep having this conversation,” Doctor Richter replies.
The spaceship’s engines turn on. It’s a medium-sized ship - bigger than a personal starfighter but much smaller than a frigate. The ship - with the word MAVERICK emblazoned across the side - slowly rises, before zooming off.
The six other crew members are sprinting down the hill, dodging the armadillo creatures as they try to take them out.
“I feel like…” Ardra shouts, panting. “They have a distinct advantage...in a downhill situation.”
“Well...we’re already almost down the mountain...so…” Blake sweatily replies, his brown leather jacket heating him up as he sprints.
“I agree with Ardra…” Baxter shouts. “Uphill might have suited us better…”
“This was...kind of a...spur of the moment...decision…” Blake replies.
I for one...think it was an excellent decision, Captain...no complaints...here…” Norm cuts in.
“Thanks.......Norm…” Blake spits out.
They reach the bottom of the hill and begin running across the rocky terrain.
“This moon sucks, man!” Rocky IV shouts.
“Mei, how’s it lookin’?” Blake says into his earpiece.
“Almost there, Cap, hang in there!”
The armadillo creatures continue to furiously roll after the crew as they sprint across the moon.
“They’re catching up!” Rocky IV yells.
“So run faster!” Ardra responds.
“Really missing the four legs deal right now!” Rocky IV says to himself.
“There she is!” Blake shouts, looking up at the sky.
The Maverick soars overhead, stopping a few hundred feet away from the crew. The docking bay door opens to create a ramp, revealing Douglas and Doctor Richter standing inside. The crew continue to sprint towards the ship, weaving through the armadillo creatures as they zoom by. Looking behind himself, Baxter grips the statue head.
“Catch this!” Baxter yells, hurling the statue head with tremendous force towards the Maverick.
“Catch what?” Douglas answers before the statue head hits Douglas square in the chest and sends him flying backward, sliding across the docking bay floor.
The crew members reach the docking bay and dive in.
Doctor Richter hits a comms button next to the docking bay door and slams the door control with his other hand.
“They’re in, Mei!” Doctor Richter says into the comms unit.
“Gotcha!”
The Maverick begins to elevate as the door starts to close. The armadillo ball creatures halt and return to their two-legged form. They watch as the ship zooms off, and up into space.