5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

[oldwrench]

No, they went home.......... mama's weren't to happy with me....... I've used up around 15 gallons of paint so far. Just 5 more rooms to go. Hope the house doesn't get to heavy and sag.

[Zeratul2k]

I wonder how oldwrench is doing with this..?

[oldwrench]

Trying......... if only I had unlimited time....... ((goes back to working on time machine)).

I'm struggling a bit with getting the scenes in my head onto the computer.

[oldwrench]

Finally, another chapter. Things again are heating up. Georgianna is back in the thick of things, and not about to let this turn into another Tarsonis incident. Can the colonel keep her in line? Can he defend the Krikav in case of another attack? Will General Parker ever get communications through to the Krikav? Let's see what sparks will fly.

Chapter 70

John sat with the other pilots as the colonel filled Georgianna in on the events of the last
couple hours. He tried not to laugh as he watched Aiden. The captain was trying his best not to
look at Georgianna, and turning a bit red every time his eyes were drawn to the tall woman. John
well knew what Georgianna preferred to wear when she was sleeping, and could just imagine
what an eyeful Aiden got when he woke her. Maybe he could get some fun out of that, later.

“Captain McFarlaine, Your squad will consist of lieutenants Kerlov, Wolfman and
Crichton.” The colonel ordered. “Lieutenant Herrmann, I’m giving you a field promotion to
captain. Your squad will be lieutenants Yamato, Higgins and Kaze. Captain McFarlaine, your
squad is on alert. I have Yuki running full scan sweeps and we have remotes on the other side of
this little moon. If they mount an attack, I want to be ready for them.”

Georgianna frowned as Colonel Hellwind finished, “So, we have some kind of high
power cannon on the planet, and two units somewhere on the surface. I request permission to
take my squad down to destroy that cannon and bring them back.”

“Request denied!” The colonel barked, sharper than he needed to. “You’ll remain with
the ship until the fleet gets here. I will not allow the ship to be open to attack. I will not let them
destroy my command.”

Georgianna leaned angrily on the table glaring at the colonel on the other side, “Are you
just going to leave two of your men down there? Aren’t you going to send a rescue?”

“I won’t risk my command for deserters,” Daniel growled. “They disobeyed direct orders,
besides, they could be dead by now.”

Arisa gasped, “no, they can’t be. We have to go rescue...........”

“No!” Daniel barked. “You will stay here and defend the ship. We will hold out till the
fleet gets here.”

“You know the EDF is just going to use this as an excuse to bomb that planet to ashes.”
Georgianna’s voice was edging on hysteria. “If we don’t destroy that weapon, put down their
rebellion, the EDF will kill everyone on Mar Sara. They don’t give a damn who it is, they just kill
them all. I won’t let it........”

An alarm sounded and Yuki’s voice came over the com, “Enemy approaching, ten units,
unknown configuration, they are cloaked. ETA, twelve point seven minutes.”

“Captains, get your squads launched.” Dan barked. “Red leads the defensive box. I want
both Lancers stationed on the moon, they are not to engage the enemy, they can watch for any
enemy that break through to the ship.”

“This isn’t over, colonel,” Georgianna fumed as she rushed out of the room. She’d stop
this attack, annihilate those black mechs, then she’d have it out with Hellwind, even if he court-
marshaled her. Ghosts of Tarsonis haunted her every step. She had to stop the EDF from
massacring the people of Mar Sara.

Greg flopped down in the chair by his desk. It had been a tough time, getting the power
circuits repaired so the ship systems could all be powered up. The mech techs had all been
drafted to help since they had lost several ship techs in the attack. Greg turned and noticed the
blinking icon on his monitor. Damn, that kid had been on the subspace with Jack when the power
went dead. He could just about imagine jack chewing his knuckles while waiting to see if Greg
would come back on line. Greg booted up the subspace transmitter and typed out a rather lengthy
message explaining the situation of the last few hours. He sat back, wondering if Jack was
watching and if he’d get a reply.

“They’re back on,” Jack yelled to Tom and Doctor Moeller. “Greg’s sending a message, I
can reply as soon as he gets done.”

Tom rushed back to look at the screen, frustrated that the message was taking so long, but
interested in the events it told of. “Ask him if the ship’s subspace com is working.”

Greg smiled, Jack was there, just like he’d guessed, but the reply seemed a bit strange. “Is
your ship subspace com working?” Was all it said. Greg checked with Yuki, yes, the colonel had
sent a message and gotten a reply after the attack. Greg sent off, “Yes, it wasn’t damaged in the
attack. The colonel sent off a message after the attack and got a reply.” Greg looked up as the
alarm sounded, soon pilots were jumping into their mechs in a rush to launch. Greg finished the
message. “We’re under attack again. They promised reinforcements. I hope they get here soon.”
Greg waited as he watched the mechs launch, he hoped they could hold on one more time.
His eyes snapped back to the screen as a message came through all in capitals. “YOUR SHIP
SUBSPACE COM HAS BEEN COMPROMISED! DO NOT TRUST ANY MESSAGE.
Command has been unable to contact the Krikav since you warped out.” Greg stared at the screen
for long seconds. That wasn’t possible....... was it? That would explain what had been happening.
Greg reached for his com.

Georgianna called Yuki, “can you link the sensor readouts to my mech? I want to know
where those bastards are.”

“I will link targeting resolution to your unit,” Yuki replied and ten target marks came up
on Georgianna’s screen. Georgianna snapped on her shield, now she’d find out if Chad was any
good. She hit her Minovsky drive and shot off toward the enemy.
John had gotten a targeting link as Yuki connected each mech to her sensor systems. He
guessed Georgianna would try to do this all herself, he pushed his thrusters to follow her. Epyon
may not have have a Minovsky drive but she was fast, and at this distance wouldn’t be too far
behind Reina.

Colonel Hellwind looked at the screen. What the hell was McFarlaine up to? Why was
she breaking out of the defensive formation? Damn, now Crichton was too. Dan was ready to call
them back when Aiden yelled, “four more enemy, two cloaked coming from the north of the
planet and two rail gun fighters from the south.”

Dan called orders to the Lancers, “Red three, Blue three, target the rail gun fighters.”

He was about to call orders to the other mechs when Greg came on the com. “Colonel, we
have a problem. You better get down here and see this. Our orders are a lie.”

[Zeratul2k]

Maaaaaaaan, just when you think things are about to settle down, all hell goes and breaks loose... again!

[oldwrench]

Yup, and things are just getting started for colonel Hellwind. We still have to find out what happened to Dominic, it doesn't sound too good right now. Georgianna thinks she can take on ten enemy at once. Is she over-reaching? Arisa and Ben have to take out those rail gun ships before they can fire on the Krikav, but can Arisa pull the trigger? The remaining mechs and defend the ship against the other two attackers and any that get by Georgianna and John. The only one who isn't in a tight spot is Chad. Geeze, he's got a nice frontier lady about to feed him lunch, a repair shop with pretty much anything he's going to need. He's just living the good life right now.

[oldwrench]

Ok, time to find out where Dominic ended up, and what he is going to do now that he can't see. Oh, ya...... he's tied sown, seems he won't be doing much of anything.

Chapter 71

Dominic lay despondent, This was the worst thing that he could imagine happening to
him, being blind. He heard the sound of a door latch, then, a miracle, a glimmer of light. There
was a click and a blinding glare burned his eyes. Even through closed eyelids the brightness
made his eyes water. He tried to fling his arm over his eyes but his arms were chained down to
the bed. As his eyes adjusted to the brightness, Dominic realized he had been in a sealed room,
probably underground at that mountain base.

Rydia watched from around a corner as Edward entered the room. She’d seen the EDF
pilot that had been attacking them wheeled into that room, tied down to a hospital bed. She had
been trying to get up the courage to enter that room and see one of those EDF pilots for herself.
She was afraid to face one of those murderous animals, even if he was chained down. Wait! She
could listen in on them. Rydia pulled her small tablet out and opened a link to her main computer.
She tapped into the compound’s com system.

“So, you’re awake.” Edward said as he entered the room. He stopped by a table and
picked up the pilot’s helmet. The left side appeared to have been smashed with a big hammer.
The damage done by a cannon shell that broke through the cockpit and glanced off Dominic’s
helmet. “You must be as hard headed as you look.”

“Ya, it helps sometimes,” Dominic replied as he squinted through the glare at the man
across the room from him. “Ok,......... where am I and who are you?”

Edward put the helmet down and came closer to the bed. “I’m General Edward Geraldine
and you are a captive of the Red Faction.”

Dom rattled his chains as he tried to move his arms, “Great, what’s all this about? Who’s
the Red Faction?”

“About?” Ed returned the question, “this is about liberty, freedom. We are the
organization of the outer planets that is going to bring down the tyranny of the Earth Empire.”

Dom sighed, “Damn, I get captured by a bunch of crazies. There’s no way you’ll defeat
the empire. Hell, it won’t even be a war. They’ll bring a fleet and, if you don’t surrender, wipe
out your little group of nuts. It’s been tried before, by a better organized group than this. They
had more than half the colonies banded together in the colony war, you have nothing like that
here.”

“We have more than you imagine,” Ed assured him. “You haven’t seen half of the
weapons we have on this planet. But those are just toys compared to Atropos. With our new
weapons, we’ll be able to devastate the EDF fleets. All the colonies will soon be joining us.”

“Just why would all the colonies want to join you?” Dominic questioned. “The empire
might have it’s problems but it hasn’t been that bad. The colonies are doing well enough and the
empire has kept things relatively peaceful among them.”

“Peace, yes, by keeping the colonies under their thumb.” Ed sneered. “They keep strict
regulation on trade. They only allow their sanctioned companies to have warp ships. They strictly
regulate any research. They have every colony under their thumb. That’s why we’re fighting
them.”

“Do you actually think war is going to bring you freedom?” Dom asked. “That violence
can bring on peace? Wouldn’t it be better to negotiate, to try to work out your differences without
a war? I don’t think you can get half the colonies to join you in a war against the empire. They
wouldn’t have enough reason.”

“Oh, they’ll have reason enough after the EDF destroys this planet, like they did
Tarsonis.” Edward told Dom. “Once we destroy that ship you came on, the EDF will follow
orders and bomb this planet to ashes.”

“They won’t make that mistake again,” Dominic was sure of that. “They’ll have some top
brass along, they won’t just give orders do kill everyone. Besides, your whole group would be
killed off along with everyone else.”

“Oh, I’ve anticipated that,” Edward told him, with an evil laugh. “Our leader has
transport coming, as we speak, to extract us from Mar Sara. Then it’s just a matter of Atropos
destroying the flagship of the EDF fleet, and maybe a couple others and they will be more than
willing to follow our orders like the good little soldiers they are. Once the EDF bombs this planet
to dust, it will be easy to convince the rest of the colonies to join us. It is all going according to
the Leader’s plans.”

“That’s madness,” Dom yelled at Edward’s back, as Edward started to leave.

Edward stopped at the door. “You’ll change your mind, after the Leader trains you........
The empire will only listen to might.” Ed left, and shut the door.

Rydia starred at her tablet. She couldn’t believe what she’d heard. The pilot didn’t sound
like a murderous madman........ just the opposite. But Edward had always been so kind, and
reasonable. How could the things he said be true? Tears welled up in her eyes. It couldn’t be.
Was he just using her to build weapons so he could kill those people? Rydia turned and ran to her
room. She had been so close to giving Edward the whole operating system for Atropos. She had
trusted that he was going to use her weapon to defend the people, like he had promised her. She
threw herself on her bed. What could she do? What was the truth?

[Sakura]

Still no update by catmail?

[oldwrench]

I'm sorry..... I'll work on it this weekend, if I remember. Foggy old brain cells seem to lose things. All I need is a bit more time. I though I was supposed to have more time for things when I retired.......... I don't!!

[Zeratul2k]

Maaaaaaan, i wonder what will happen to Dominic now! :p