Galaxy War

[Mewfour]

Yup, after numerous delays, Galaxy War, my very first idea for a story I thought up waaaaaay back in 1996, two years prior to the formal birth of the Asylum of the Damned in 1998, is finally here on TPM!

Now, before I go posting th eprologue, let me just say that his fic is but one of many, many sequels and prequels. But, for simplicity sake, I'll just post this first one and then build upon it's sequels later.

And now, the prologue. Pay attention now, this prologue is vital to the entire Galaxy War series...

The Asylum of the Damned presents...

-

Far away in a distant galaxy in a distant future time, there lay a small, blue, white and green planet. Its surface was coated with oxygen and nitrogen gases, and surrounding the planet was a barrier of ozone, shielding it from the hostilities of outer space. When mankind first discovered it, they thought they had accidentally found their own planet, until they realized that it was two years worth of space travel away from Earth. Its similarities to Earth were hauntingly exact- a near-perfect replica. It revolved around a star which humans called Alpha at exactly the same distance as the Earth once revolved around the star known as the Sun. It was amply capable of supporting life, and it had already sported its pale skinned, large black eyed homo erectus living in packs, which appeared to be the sole mammal species of the planet. How or when it was formed, and why it developed so similarly to Earth, no one could make an exact inference. Thus, they called it "Planet Unknown," or as the name it was given later in the year it was discovered.

"X."

-

A Production of the Damned original feature....

-

With the human colonization of X fifty years later, there came not only humans, but human culture, human religion, and, unfortunately, human sicknesses. The primitive human-like pale-skinned creatures that populated the planet bore a stunning resemblance to primitive humans. Their wild long hair, coming in variations of green, blonde, black and pink, and their large black pupils which forced out the whites of their eyes from view in their sockets, a set of vampire-like teeth and their two nasal slits in the middle of their faces never failed to catch the attention of newly-arriving humans on the planet.

Nearly a thousand years later, the primitive life forms, or Xians as they were called, began to look like modern humans, except they still carried their hair colors and their odd black eyes. They became capable of fluent speech, and soon made English their global language (with some help from the humans of course). Thirty years later, they formed their own world-wide government over the Xians of X. Not soon after that, they accomplished complete sovereignty among themselves, without any interference from the humans.

-

Inspired by the works of Hideo Kojima, Gunpei Yokoi, and George Lucas....

-

A few decades later, on March 15, 1022 of the New Century, the humans left X, never to return, leaving the Xians to fend for themselves. The destiny of the Xians, however, would not lie entirely in their own hands....

-

GALAXY WAR

-

The sun was shining through his bedroom window when his alarm clock on the night table beside his bed buzzed. He groaned and smashed his fist blindly onto the nightstand at the alarm clock. He missed, and his hand landed in the half-eaten sandwich beside it. "Oh cripes," he muttered, dragging himself to the edge of his bed as the alarm continued to blare. "Aw, shut up you stupid alarm," he grumbled, wiping his hand clean and slamming his hand onto the top of the flat digital clock, instantly silencing the alarm.

Wearily, he trudged out of bed and into the bathroom wearing only a pair of boxers. When he looked at himself in the mirror, a small calm monotone electronic voice said to him, "Good morning, Nondel Populas."

"Muhnin'" he grumbled.

"Would you like your eggs over easy as usual?" the voice asked him.

"Sure."

Nondel bared his fanged teeth as a thin robotic arm slid out of the wall beside the mirror and stuck it's blunt tip with tiny bristles on Nondel's teeth. Instantly, a white foam bubbled from the appendage and the arm began to vigorously brush against his teeth. When the arm stopped a minute later, it retracted and slid back into the wall. Nondel spit the foam out of his mouth into the sink, where a sudden flush of water from the tap automatically sent it down the drain.

"I have a joke for you," came the electronic voice again.

"Yeah?" Ventured Nondel as another robotic arm with a hairbrush attached to its end stroked his long green hair.

"What do you call a dead Earthling?"

"What?" he asked as the hairbrush arm finished putting the short hair on the top of his head in spikes, letting the rest of the long hair fall on his back to his shoulders.

"Pushing up the daisies."

Nondel groaned. "Remind me to fix your humor disk."

"Affirmative," replied the voice. "For what date?"

Nondel sighed. "Cancel command."

"Command cancelled," replied the voice. "Would you like me to tell you your statistics today?"

"Okay," Nondel said as a thin black shirt was slipped over his head by another pair of robotic arms, "What the hell."

"You are," the voice said with a lengthy pause, "seventeen Xian years, which is twenty-two Earth years, six feet, four point seven nine four inches, two hundred and twenty pounds. Your evening height will be six feet, three point seven eight two inches," it said as the pair of robotic arms disappeared back into the walls, which were quickly replaced with another pair, this time holding a pair of long black pants, visibly made of thicker material than the black shirt preceding it. "Would you care for regular coffee today, or double-caffinated?"

Nondel took the trousers from the arms and slipped them on. "Double shot," he said as the two arms slithered back to whence they came.

"Confirmed," replied the voice. "Shall I provide you the rest of your full uniform?"

"Just let me have the rest," Nondel replied. Instantly, another pair of robot arms popped down from the ceiling, holding a large orange vest with what seemed to be large pointy shoulder pads attached to it.

"Will that be all?" the voice asked.

"Just start the car," Nondel replied.

"Hover car started," the voice stated. "Your breakfast is ready."

Just as Nondel was about to exit the bathroom with the vest, he heard the voice call him. "Nondel," it said, "I have just received an instant message from General Rion. Shall I read it?"

Nondel leaned up against the doorframe. "Read it."

"Captain Nondel J. Populas," recited the voice, "We have a special duty for you today. Our recent skirmish with Andromeda Galaxy Two has turned ugly. An unknown transmission was intercepted from AG2 yesterday night, describing a vast increase of military production in their mainland. We need you and Simui Latoor, who will be your partner for this mission, to infiltrate AG2 and take reconnaissance photographs of their newest battlements-"

Nondel sighed. "End it there," he said, "Rion will go on forever. I'll just read it when I get to the base."

"Affirmative," replied the voice.

-

When Nondel walked into his small office, he was greeted with an unusual surprise. Standing by his desk was a tall, long pink-haired female Xian, holding a clipboard. "Oh, good morning, Nondel," she said as Nondel entered the room, dusting off her black sleeveless shirt.

"Morning, Simui," Nondel replied. "To what do I owe the occasion?"

Simui lightly blushed. "Well, Rion just told me to meet you here," she murmured with a weak smile.

Nondel walked to his desk and stood beside Simui, who adjusted her black miniskirt away from Nondel's view. "So, what for?"

"To give you this," she said, handing the clipboard to Nondel.

Nondel took the clipboard and looked over it. "Fly right ino the fire," he muttered. "Hope we don't get burned," he sighed, handing the clipboard back to Simui, "And we're supposed to leave now. I'll be in the flight decks," said Nondel, walking to the door. "Oh, and Simui," he said as he left, "you look nice today."

"Well, gee, thanks," Simui murmured, blushing violently and quickly staring at the floor as Nondel vanished.

[Mewfour]

The plot thickens...

---

It was a grim atmosphere in the cockpit of the reconnaissance ship a few hours after Nondel had arrived. “Ready?” He wearily asked Simui as he sat down in the pilot’s seat of the Speeder ship.

“Ready, I think,” Simui quietly replied, taking a deep breath in the co- pilot’s seat beside Nondel.

Nondel looked out of the windscreen of the Speeder and saw a tiny image of inside the hangar’s control deck. A Xian from behind a desk in the control deck waved Nondel off. Nondel nodded and Simui flicked on a few overhead switches. Immediately the ship echoed with subtly screaming engines as she gave Nondel a return nod. Nondel clutched the gear shift, throttling it into liftoff. The craft began to lift off the ground and hovered a few meters off the floor as the giant dock doors opened into the sky. And with a few more gear shifting and switch flicking, Nondel and Simui were soon rocketing off past the stratosphere and into the reaches of outer space in less than a few seconds.

-

Nondel sighed and flicked a switch labeled autopilot and leaned back in his seat as the Speeder cruised the galaxy. “So, how’ve you been, Simui?” Nondel asked, resting his feet up on top of the dash.

“Pretty good,” Simui quietly replied. “Although this might be my last mission as co-pilot.”

“Oh?” Nondel asked, “Do tell.”

Simui sighed. “Well, they say that I just really don’t have, well, ‘it.’”

“It?” Nondel asked, “What’s ‘it?’”

“Oh, not, well, fearlessly risking life-and-limb enough,” she said placidly.

Nondel gave a short whistle. “What are you gonna’ do when you leave piloting?”

“Spotter,” Simui said, “They said I’m much more suited for it.”

“Spotter?” Nondel asked.

“Yeah, you know,” said Simui, “Someone who watches a soldier’s back in enemy territory. Sort of like a guardian angel via sattelite.”

Nondel snorted. “I wouldn’t be caught dead with a spotter helping me,” he said. Noticing Simui’s resulting sag, Nondel said, “Of course, maybe not all spotters.”

Simui sighed. “When will we be there?”

Nondel hummed. “About seven Decarounds.”

“In hours, please?”

Nondel groaned. “All right, five hours. Those damn Earthlings,” he muttered under his breath.

“Damn Earthlings?” Simui weakly asked, “You don’t like them?”

“I hate them,” Nondel blankly replied. “They come to X and make us a miniature them. Like we’re some- ant farm!”

“Well, they did speed up our social progression,” Simui softly murmured, “they made two thousand years into twenty.”

Nondel grumbled bitterly and put his feet down back on the floor. “I still hate them,” he pouted stubbornly.

Simui sighed again. “Well, I’ll just make some system checks,” Simui said, rising from her seat and walking by Nondel and into the small hallway of the Speeder.

“Knock yerself out,” Nondel grumbled.

-

After Simui had rejoined Nondel at her seat and just before they were halfway to AG2, a sudden rumbling shook the ship briefly. Nondel, who had just taken a sip of steaming coffee from his mug, was jolted in his seat, coughing and sputtering. Simui gave a quick yelp as she clung to the side of her chair as the ship pitched. When the Speeder leveled off, Nondel cleared his throat loudly and Simui gave a quiet sigh of relief. “What was that?” Nondel asked, looking at Simui.

“I don’t know,” Simui murmured.

Nondel turned to his dash and pulled out a small keyboard attached to the dash from a small compartment on the top. Punching in a few keys and then looking up at a small monitor on the side of the ship by his seat, Nondel murmured, “Engine jam… again,” he groaned.

Simui moaned. “Again?” She complained.

“Worthless heap of junk,” Nondel quietly cursed under his breath, “I can’t believe they still consider this wreck space worthy!” Nondel looked at the keyboard again, punched in a few more commands, and then looked at the monitor again. “And a hull tear,” he muttered, “Piece of crap for a ship…” Nondel rose from his seat and walked down the hall of the Speeder. “I’ll fix the engine,” he said, picking up a metal box of tools sitting on a shelf of the hallway before reaching the stairway down below the decks.

Simui got up as well and brushed her long pink hair with her hand. “I guess I’ll go out and fix the tear then,” she murmured.

“Go ahead,” Nondel said, “And don’t forget your belt beacon,” he added, waving her off as he descended the stairs.

-

Nondel tapped the side of the large cylindrical engine with the wrench in his hand. “Twice a month I have to **** about with you,” Nondel grumbled at the machine, giving it another tap. “First a core malfunction. Then a worn down moderator. Then a snapped fan belt. And more and more and more, and now a God damn loose stabilizer rod and an engine jam. What else can go wrong today?” he groaned, getting on his knees and poking his head underneath the machine. His cheek was met by a little drop of black oil splashing onto him. Nondel groaned as he flicked the droplet off his cheek and said, “Better get to work…”

-

Half an hour later, Nondel came back up onto the deck, rubbing his stained oily hands on a white towel. “Better late than never, huh, Simui?” Nondel joked half-heartedly as he rose from below the decks on the staircase.

The control pit and hallway was silent. Simui was nowhere to be seen. “Simui?” Nondel called out. Nondel scratched the back of his neck and tossed the towel onto the shelf beside him. He walked over to the dash and leaned over it as a tiny bleeping from the nearby monitor screen softly rung through the air, peering out the windscreen and into space. Simui was nowhere to be found. Nondel shifted to the right side of the dash and looked out the windscreen. Simui was still missing. Nondel quickly dashed to the left and looked out the windscreen. Simui was still missing.

The monitor screen still bleeped as Nondel continued to gaze out into space, searching for Simui. Then, Nondel laid eyes upon a flashing yellow button on the control panel of the dash, the playback button of recorded messages. Noticing that the button was not flashing before he left, Nondel poked the button with a quick jab of his finger. The static-riddled recording clicked on, and began to play.

“Okay N…del,” came the broken-up recorded voice of Simui from the panel, “I’m almo… done fixing the hull tear… should be done in f…fteen minutes…” Suddenly, Simui uttered a quick yelp. “Nondel! I-I’m losing my gr… something… some for… pulling me aw…” The static became even more fierce as the playback continued. “…can’t h… ch longer… Non…l, I’m sli… ay! H…lp…” a string of static blared after Simui’s last words. The panel clicked again and the playback ended.

“Oh ****,” Nondel muttered in shock. Nondel’s heart skipped a beat as his hands flew to the small keyboard on the dash. His fingers flew all over the keyboard in a flurry of commands. The monitor beeped again and came up blank. “****!” Nondel swore. Again he punched in more commands in the keyboard. The screen flashed again, beeped, and turned up blank. Nondel growled nervously to himself with his hands tightly clutching the keyboard.

Then, the tiny bleeping allowed itself to be heard. Nondel looked at the screen again, and saw that a little red dot was flashing and bleeping in the bottom right hand corner of the monitor. “The beacon!” Nondel gasped aloud, “Simui’s belt beacon!” Nondel’s hands flew back on top of the keys again as he furiously typed in a new function. The screen flashed again, and a black screen flooded the monitor, with a little red dot flashing on the top left corner. “There she is!” Nondel exclaimed to himself, “And she’s moving fast away from me too!”

Nondel threw himself into the pilot’s seat and grasped the flight controls. “Hang on Simui, I’m coming!”

[Mewfour]

As soon as the Speeder ship touched down on the barren planet LV001's surface, the airlock popped open with a hiss of steam and unfurled a ramp down from the exit to the ground, with Nondel quickly running down it and onto the planet's surface. Nondel paused as soon as his feet touched the barren earth of the planet and pulled out a small device from his pocket. It beeped, revealing a small radar screen on the top, with a tiny faint dot on the right hand corner. "Simui's close!" Nondel exclaimed to himself, dashing off into the direction designated by the radar.

No sooner than a few minutes after Nondel had left the ship and was in the midst of a dark forest following Simui's beacon, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a faint nose rumbling in the foliage. Nondel slid his hand over the small plasma pistol in its holder strapped to his waist and glanced around. His eyes scanned the dense mess of trees and shrubs, still hearing the rumbling in the bushes. "Hello?" Nondel weakly called into the air. He only received another rumble, like an animal's growl, in reply. Nondel looked down at his feet and saw a smooth brown rock at the side of his right boot. Nondel scooped up the rock, looked into the bushes once more, and gently lobbed the stone into the shrub. He heard a soft thud and a horrendous feral yowl in the bush, and a large brown beast leapt from the foliage, raving and snarling furiously. "Oh ****," Nondel murmured, gazing upon the enraged beast's enormous teeth and jaws.

Suddenly, the beast dove at Nondel. Purely on instinct, Nondel whipped out his pistol and fired a single shot at the beast. The pistol shot out a thin blast of energy into the animal's chest, making the animal roar and fall to the ground a few inches shy of Nondel's feet. Nondel breathed a quick sigh of relief and tucked his pistol back into his holster.

No sooner had he begun to continue to follow Simui's beacon, Nondel heard an army of ravaging snarls and roars echo through the forest. Nondel immediately pulled out his plasma pistol again. Suddenly, a mass of shadows rushed around him, trapping him in a circle. Nondel found that the shadows were in fact more of the same kind of beast he had shot. Every one of the animals bared their fangs and snarled ferociously at him.

Another animal leapt up at him, with Nondel quickly shooting it down. Another beast lunged at him, this time with Nondel putting a plasma blast through its skull. Then, the rest of the beasts charged at him. Nondel jumped as high into the air as he could, letting the swarm of animals crash into each other below him. Nondel landed on the head of one beast, and then leapt onto the back of another, flattening it. Nondel leapt from the beast and onto the ground again and dashed off. As he was running, Nondel took a quick look over his shoulder and found that the pack of animals were chasing after him, snarling and howling away. Nondel whirled around on his heel and began to run backwards, aiming his gun at the ground before the beasts and fired a shot. The blast kicked up a cloud of smoke and dirt, blowing one animal into the air behind the rest of the pack. The rest kept on charging after him, still snarling and yowling away. Nondel spotted a pair of two tall thick-trunked trees ahead of him, dashed up to one and leapt up at it, kicking himself away from it as he leapt towards the other tree. Nondel kicked him foot against the other tree as well, rebounding himself further up between the two trees. Nondel repeated this process until he was in the lower set of branches where he stopped his tree jumping and scrambled up to a thick branch, sat out on the limb and looked down at the beasts at the foot of the tree. "Suckers," Nondel laughed to himself, looking below him as the animals stood up on their hind legs, trying to snap at Nondel with their jaws. Nondel laughed again as he lazily aimed his pistol at the gang of animals. His laughter was cut short when he saw one beast begin to claw its way up the trunk of the tree he was in, soon followed by the other animals. Panicked, Nondel shot the first animal. The beast fell off the tree, collided with the one below it and both crushed a third at the base of the tree. No sooner had they fallen, the rest of the beasts clawed their way up the tree. As soon as Nondel could shoot one off, another beast took its place. Soon, Nondel found the jaws of the beasts to be snapping inches from his feet, and it was then that Nondel decided to leap out of the tree and resume his retreat. The beasts were closing in on him quickly. Nondel could see the end of the forest ahead of him; with it's shimmering of light peering through the dark foliage of the forest. Just as the beasts were almost alongside him, Nondel shot out of the forest and back into the open plain. Almost as instantly as the sun shone on the beasts, the howled horrendously and ran back into the forest. Nondel stopped and turned around, gazing at the retreating beasts in confused wonder. Nondel took a deep breath and sat down upon the ground. "Whew," he muttered.

-

It was not long before the radar led Nondel to the gates of a kiosk of a large wall that seemed to stretch across the land for miles on end. Nondel walked up and rapped on the window of the booth. A pair of large blocky, clawed hands, belonging to an even larger and blockier man of insectoid race, raised the window. "Whaddaya' want?" He grumbled.

"Hey there," began Nondel, "My copilot went missing during some in-space repairs, and I've tracked her beacon here. She seems to be inside those walls. Can I get in?"

The insectoid only grunted and picked up a phone receiver from his side of the kiosk and held it to his ear. "Yeah. I got some guy here n'- yeah, he wants t' get in. sumfin' 'bout a friend of his inside here and- wha'? Yah, 'kay, I'll ask him." The insectoid put a clawed hand over the mouthpiece and glared at Nondel from his large compact eyes. "What are y'?" he grumbled a question.

"What do you mean?"

"You, you a human, an arachnus, a wha'?"

"Xian," Nondel replied.

The insectoid spoke into the receiver again. "Xian. What- yeah, okay, I got that," he muttered, putting the receiver back down. "Th' boss tells y' to get the hell away from here."

"What?" Nondel gasped.

"He don't want yer kind here. So get lost."

"But-! My co-pilot-!"

The insectoid held up the barrel of a small laser pistol to the window of the kiosk, aiming it at Nondel. "I said, get lost," he said gravely. Nondel growled under his breath as he reluctantly turned on his heel and trudged away.

-

A few hours after a pitch-black night had fallen upon LV001, Nondel snuck behind a nearby shrub in front of the kiosk. He tapped on his bulletproof orange vest, hearing the reassuring sound of its thick fabric. Nondel patted the plasma pistol tucked snugly in its holder at his side, and then dug into his pocket. "Nothing's going to stop me from finding Simui," Nondel muttered quietly to himself as he took out a miniature crossbow, the size of a small twig, placed a thin needle inside the grooves and brought the bow back, holding it in place as he took aim from out of the shrub and aimed it a the window of the kiosk. He waited there silently, barley making a sound as his quiet breath hummed through the air. He knew he could not radio back to X for help- it would take them half a day to arrive. "And Simui could be in grave danger," Nondel thought. As soon as the insectoid guard made himself visible in the window, Nondel released the bow. The needle sped through the air silently towards the closed window. Nondel waited silently until he heard the faint sound of shattering glass and a surprised groggy groan from the guard, shortly hearing the thump of a collapsing body hit the floor. Nondel quickly dashed over to the kiosk and leapt through the shattered window and into the small dark kiosk. The insectoid guard lay slumped up against the wall with the thin needle lodged in the side of his neck. Nondel quietly chuckled to himself, reaching down to the guard and playfully patting his cheek. "Sweet dreams."

[Mewfour]

And now, the good stuff begins!

---

Nondel slid the keycard he acquired from the unconscious guard into the keycard slot beside the gigantic steel doors to the compound that lay inside the kiosk's wall. With a faint beeping, the doors split apart, allowing Nondel to quietly slip in. Once inside the dark interior room, Nondel drew his plasma pistol again and peered into the darkness. Only a few dim lights illuminated the dark corridor in which Nondel stood. Nondel quietly crept forward with his finger wrapped around his pistol's trigger. Sensing that there was no one around, Nondel quickly pulled out the small radar from his pocket and looked at the screen. The blip that was Simui's beacon was close, and Nondel inferred that she was still somewhere inside the complex. Slipping the radar back into his pocket, Nondel pressed himself against the wall of the corridor and slid himself forwards along it with his hands tightly curled around his pistol. Suddenly, Nondel bumped up against something solid. In the darkness of the dim corridor, he could hardly tell if it was a wall or something else. Nondel uneasily slid his hand along the smooth surface and found it to be cold and metallic like the wall he pressed up against. Nondel shifted his body onto the new wall and edged his way over along the wall, soon finding that the wall took a sharp turn inwards into an open passageway. Nondel flattened himself against the wall and slowly poked his head around the corner, holding his long green hair behind his shoulder with his free hand. After finding the adjacent room to be vacant, Nondel quietly slipped into the room and made himself flat against another wall. Just as he was about to move forward, Nondel found something to be pressing against his shoulder armor's tip. When he squinted his large eyes into the near dark and to his shoulder, he found that he was nearby a wire-link fence. Curious, Nondel stealthily moved to the center of the room and looked at the caged-off area by the wall. It contained a large cylindrical tank labeled, "Tank Three. Danger! High- pressurized photon particles!" connected to a series of pipes and wires which burrowed into the walls and ceiling. Nondel grinned. "One shot from my blaster," he smirked to himself, "and this thing'll go up like Earth's July Fourth!" Then he began to wonder where tanks one and two could be found and if there were more than just three. Nondel quickly dispelled those thoughts from his head and concentrated once more on finding Simui and navigating through the complex undetected.

Nondel noticed another passageway in front of the tank and quickly slipped through it. He found the room to be much larger and more adequately lit than the last one, illuminated only by a large hanging ceiling lamp. Now able to see more clearly, Nondel relaxed his grip on his weapon and looked at his surroundings. Not only was the room the size of a conference hall, but also it was nearly desolate of any machinery or other objects. Nondel found the room had only one exit, located at the other side of the room, and slowly and calmly walked towards it.

Suddenly, as soon as Nondel put his left foot onto the ground in the middle of the room, the white lighting turned crimson red and a loud siren blared. Nondel froze and his eyes darted about the room as his heart sped up rapidly, looking for what triggered the sudden alarm. Soon finding a small electronic box sitting by the corner of the room, Nondel inferred that it was a security beam emitter, and he had just stepped right in front of it.

Nondel's quiet panic was no longer silent once he heard a machine's monotone voice bark at him from behind, "Intruder!" Nondel quickly spun around to find a hulking humanoid robot towering well above him and looking down upon him with one red eye. "Intruder!" The robot blared again, pointing its left arm towards Nondel, bearing the barrel of a laser pistol in place of what would be its hand. Before Nondel could take another breath, the robot let a short blast rocket from his gun, barley missing Nondel by a few inches. Nondel aimed his pistol up towards the robot's eye and steadied his arm with his other hand holding his wrist. The robot sent out another burst of energy that zoomed over Nondel's head as he quickly sunk to his knee, keeping his aim on the robot's eye. With a quick pull of the trigger, Nondel shot a short blast of plasma energy from his gun, sending it into the robot's head. The blast ricocheted off of the robot's skull, driving a shower of sparks and a loud hum of short-circuiting wires. The robot threw its arms up into the air and waved them about, swaying back and forth. Before Nondel could celebrate, the robot swung its right arm at Nondel, bludgeoning him on his cheek and sending him and his gun sprawled across the floor. Nondel lay on his stomach, rubbing his cut and bleeding cheek as he wearily got back to his feet. The robot was now walking closer to him still chanting, "Intruder!" Nondel quickly slid across the room and picked up his gun again, narrowly avoiding another laser blast from the robot's left arm. Nondel quickly repositioned his hands on his gun and aimed the barrel back at the robot's eye and fired a string of shots at it. The robot was stunned by the blasts to its head and staggered backwards, flailing its arms about wildly. Nondel, frustrated over the robot's stamina, continued to blast the robot on its head and the robot still writhed about. Then, Nondel noticed a gap between the armor on the robot's neck, revealing the circuitry and insides of the robot that connected the head to the rest of the body. With a quick blast from his gun, Nondel shot at the exposed innards. The robot shrieked horrifically as the blast penetrated its body, driving the robot to its knees. The last thing the robot ever saw was Nondel rushing towards it and smashing his boot into its head, crushing its skull onto the floor. Nondel took a loud breath of relief and wiped his sweaty brow. The sirens had finally died off, although the lighting was still hued red. Nondel walked over to the disabled robot and kicked its side, and the lights instantly shone white once more.

Suddenly, a sea of insectoids like the kiosk guard rushed into the room from where Nondel had entered, each brandishing his own laser rifle. "Put your hands in the air!" one insectoid from the front of the army ordered. Nondel glanced around the room and let his arms hang in midair. His eye suddenly caught sight of another cylindrical tank labeled "Tank Five." "Put your hands up!" the insectoid barked again.

Nondel wore a smug grin as he obeyed, slowly raising both hands into the air, letting his pistol dangle by its trigger ring around his finger. "I'd move if I were you," said Nondel with a silly grin to the insectoid who had yelled at him, "Or you'll all get killed."

"Shut up, you!" the insectoid growled back, "With one order my men could turn you into laser ashes!"

"Oh, I can too," Nondel smirked.

"Yeah?" the insectoid growled.

With a lightning-quick flick of his wrist, Nondel fastened his grip on his blaster again and let a single shot ring out from it with his hands still in the air. Before the insectoid platoon could return fire, the blast punctured the cylindrical tank, detonating in a brilliant flash of light and flames. Nondel was blown onto his backside from the blast with an insane rush of heat. Nondel sat up, rubbed his eyes and groaned. When the flash had faded, he saw the remains of the tank burning brightly, with half of the room around it demolished and the sea of insectoids either half- incinerated or lying dead on the floor. Nondel sighed with a chuckle as he put his arms back to his sides. "Should've listened to me," he hummed, walking over to one insectoid and picking up his laser rifle.

Stuffing his pistol back into his hip-holster, Nondel held the rifle in one hands and dug into his pocket with the other, Nondel pulled out his small radar and looked at the screen. Simui was close to his location. Nondel began to walk forward while looking at the radar, following Simui's beacon further and further into the complex.

[Ghost]

Good job, I like it! Post up more! I'll be waiting... A few mistakes but other then that good * Gets one of those Hover Cars and flys away*

[Mewfour]

"One less security system to worry about," Nondel hummed to himself as he continued to follow the beacon in the lightly illuminated chamber until he came to a large set of double doors. Nondel glanced up at them and then he looked back down at his radar. The little blip that was Simui's beacon was growing stronger from within the doors. Nondel dug into his pocket and took out the keycard that he had taken from the insectoid guard and slid it between the cracks of the doors. With a loud creak, the doors split open, shedding a piercing light into the darkened corridor. As soon as the doors were open wide enough, Nondel quietly slid into the well-lit room with his new laser rifle strapped on his back.

Nondel replaced the keycard in his hand with his plasma pistol again and glanced about the room. It was littered with computers, monitors and controls, like it was a control deck for something.

Suddenly, the doors behind him slammed shut. Nondel whirled around to find a tall, blocky, cloaked figure in front of the doors. "Excellent performance, Mr. Populas," the figure said in a grave voice.

"Who are you?" Nondel asked, aiming his pistol at the figure.

The figure only shrugged and tossed off his cloak, revealing a dark blue suit of armor on his body. "Meldevos is my name," the figure replied from underneath a helmet which covered all but his eyes, "And you seem to have broken into my stronghold."

"I'm looking for someone," Nondel said, "Someone about my height-"

"I know who you're looking for," Meldevos cut in, "And I know where she is."

Nondel shifted uneasily. "Really? Where is she?"

Meldevos snorted a laugh. "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

"What?" Nondel muttered in disbelief, "What do you mean? Where is she?"

"I'm not to happy with you destroying my security system, wiping out almost all of my troops, and destroying a fifth of my base either," Meldevos growled at Nondel.

"Just answer me!" Nondel roared impatently, "Where is she?"

Meldevos stood upright and snorted. "You'll die with that question, Xian," he growled.

Nondel's finger itched around the trigger of his gun. "Tell me, or I'll have to force you!"

Suddenly, Meldevos raised his open palm above his head, and a large silver battle axe flew into his waiting hands from the ceiling above. "Force? Me?" Meldevos chuckled, "Many have tried to force me, and many have died trying."

"What-? Where's Simui?" Nondel roared his question.

Meldevos took lumbering steps towards Nondel, clutching his battle axe in both hands tightly. "Maybe I'll tell you just before I kill you," he said with a quiet laugh.

Before another second passed, Nondel rang off a single shot towards Meldevos. Meldevos swung his axe blade in front of his face immediately, deflecting the blast into the wall. With a burst of speed, Meldevos dashed towards Nondel with his axe poised above his head. Nondel quickly leapt to his side as Meldevos swung his axe down, narrowly missing Nondel and wedging it into the floor. As soon as Nondel landed, he took aim with his pistol and fired off three shots at Meldevos. Two shots bounced off Meldevos' helmet while the third sailed by him. Meldevos only shook his head, barely stunned by the blasts. "I'm wearing hyper-armor you know," Meldevos sinisterly chuckled, "You'll have to do better than that!" he grunted, pulling is axe out of the floor.

Nondel quickly stuffed his pistol back into its holster and took the laser rifle off from around his shoulders and aimed the barrel at Meldevos. Nondel let out a blast of laser energy at Meldevos, but it hardly seemed to stun him as he slowly advanced on him. With another sudden burst of speed, Meldevos raced towards Nondel, taking another wild swipe at him with his giant axe. Nondel danced backwards, just avoiding the blade of the axe. Aiming his rifle again, Nondel fired another blast at Meldevos. The blast took Meldevos off guard as he recovered from his swing, bowling him over on his back. Nondel grinned to himself and stepped backwards a few paces as Meldevos groggily rose to his feet, groaning and shaking. Before Meldevos could stand up again, Nondel let loose another blast into Meldevos' chest, knocking him back onto his back. Still firmly holding his axe in his hand, Meldevos rolled over to his stomach and used his axe to push himself up off the ground. Before Nondel could shoot at Meldevos again, Meldevos suddenly swung his axe around him, slicing through Nondel's armored vest. Nondel's heart skipped a beat as he stepped back and looked at the tear in his vest, right above his heart. When Nondel looked up at Meldevos again, he saw that Meldevos was breathing heavily, clutching his ribs as he laboured each breath. "Hyper-armor huh?" Nondel snorted, "It isn't doing you much good."

Suddenly, Meldevos raised his axe high above his head and viciously swung it into the ground, sending a glowing blue wave of evergy rocketing towards Nondel. Nondel was caught completely off guard by the sudden attack and was blown backwards by the wave as it exploded in a brilliant flash when it smashed into his chest. Nondel landed roughly on his back from the blast and tumbled over onto his belly. His laser rifle lay ahead of him on the floor between him and Meldevos, who was busy trying to wrench his axe out of the floor again. Nondel wearily got to his feet again and dashed over to his rifle. Just before Nondel could scoop it up again, Meldevos had freed his axe and sent another blue blast from the blade again, slamming into Nondel and detonating in another bright flash. Nondel was blown back onto his stomach as the wave sent his laser rifle flying into the air and landing well behind him.

As soon as Nondel wearily got back to his feet, Meldevos charged madly at him again, ramming his armored shoulder into Nondel's chest, bashing the Xian over onto his back. Meldevos' heavy armor kept him going for awhile, just enough to let Nondel grasp his ankles as he lay on the floor. Using Meldevos as a cane, Nondel vaulted himself up to his feet again, sending Meldevos crashing to the floor on his stomach. Quickly drawing his pisol again, Nondel perched on top of Meldevos' back and jabbed the barrel of his gun into his neck. "Where is she?" Nondel asked, panting.

"You can go to hell," Meldevos weakly growled back at him. Meldevos yelped when Nondel swiftly kicked him in the side with his armored boot.

Placing the barrel back to Meldevos' neck again, Nondel growled, "Tell me where she is! Now!"

"You want the truth?" Meldevos weakly snickered.

"Tell me. Now."

"You can't handle the truth-"

Meldevos' words were cut short when Nondel forcefully rolled him over to his back and jabbed the pistol into his face. "Tell me," Nondel snarled.

"Check that radar of yours," Meldevos snickered again.

Nondel stuck his boot on top of Meldevos' chest and dug around in his pocket and fished out his radar screen again. The signal from Simui's beacon was nearly non-existant. Nondel threw his weight upon Meldevos. "What's happened to her?" He snarled at him.

"She didn't just lose her grip on the ship, you know," Meldevos chuckled cruelly, "I abducted her."

With a roar, Nondel sent his fist sailing into Meldevos' helmet. The sharp edges of Meldevos' armored face tore multiple bleeding cuts into Nondel's knuckles, although Nondel was much too enraged to notice them. Meldevos' head rocked back and forth along the ground, groaning. "What've you done to her?" Nondel snarled, grabbing Meldevos by the collar of his armor and pulling Meldevos' face to his.

"Sent her off somewhere else," he weakly replied, "She was transported while we were fighting. I just delayed you- and it worked! Ha!"

Nondel furiously smashed the back of Meldevos' head onto the floor in rage. "Why'd you kidnap her?" He roared.

"I was just following orders," Meldevos groaned.

"Orders? From who?"

Meldevos began to weakly snicker again. "You sure you want to know?" Nondel shoved his pistol barrel into Meldevos' face again. "Okay then, I was ordered by none other than Deth."

At the sound of the name, Nondel's blood ran cold. "Deth?" he murmured.

Meldevos weakly nodded. "You've heard of him, huh?" He moaned with a weak chuckle.

"Deth. as in, Deth, the galactic warlord who controls one third of this galaxy?" Nondel weakly asked.

Meldevos nodded. "The one and only!" he laughed. "What's the matter?" Meldevos cruelly snickered, "I thought you'd be happy if I told you."

Nondel released Meldevos and rose to his feet again. "Where is Simui now?" Nondel barked at Meldevos.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Meldevos weakly grumbled. When Nondel kicked him in the ribs again, Meldevos yelped, "Probably on Aqquatia!"

Nondel took a large sigh of relief and tucked his pistol back into its holster. "I'll let you live," Nondel muttered, "but I don't want to hear of or see you again. Got that?" Meldevos weakly nodded and groaned. Then, with a heavy sigh, Meldevos fainted, lying in the middle of the room.

Nondel limped to his laser rifle, picked it up, and hobbled out of the room.

[Mewfour]

Nondel grimaced as he sat down in the pilot's seat of the Speeder ship. Even after the ship cleared LV001's ozone layer, Nondel still wore a grim expression. "Deth," Nondel muttered to himself, "He's behind this."

Nondel put the ship on autopilot and took out the small keyboard from the dash again. Setting it in his lap, Nondel punched in a series of keys and loudly tapped the input key. The smaller monitor on his left fizzled with static, and then brought up an image of a figure's face hidden behind a steel mask. The creature's golden hair was wildly strewn about in the air in spikes, sporting one solid black eye on his right and a milky-white eye in place of his left. The caption below the picture read, "Deth," and another menu popped up beside the image, listing a vast amount of text inside it. Nondel glanced at the screen and then typed in a few more commands. The monitor beeped and the image disappeared, making room for the menu to expand and fill the whole screen. Nondel tapped on the screen and it instantly erased all the words inside the window and replaced it with new text, rapidly rewriting and scrolling down as it went. Finally, the text stopped after a minute, allowing Nondel to begin to read the screen.

Subject: DETH Classification: Level 5 offender- CURRENTLY AT LARGE Charges: (117)Robbery, (144)grand theft, (762)war crimes, (1191)evading arrest, (4)genocide, (546)destruction of public and private property, (3)slave trading, (340)first-degree murder.

Nondel yawned. "If I looked up all the charges this guy has, I'd be doin' it for days," he grumbled, tapping a few different keys on the keyboard. The screen flashed again, revealing a new text window.

Repeat offender. His organization controls the northern half of Delta Quadrant and all of Beta Quadrant. Recent reports confirm that he has illegally integrated his entire body with a cybernetic suit of armor. He appears to have lost his left eye and has had it replaced with an artificial eye. It is alleged that he wears the steel mask to hide a disfiguring burn on the left side of his face, which may also be the cause of his absent real left eye.

CAUTION!: Deth is a highly skilled warrior. Sole combat against him would be fatal and should be avoided at all costs.

MAIN (KNOWN) ACCOMPLICES: Dr. MNSON, MELDEVOS, BLOQ.

Nondel muttered to himself as he switched the monitor off. "Computer," he ordered, "How long would it take to send an emergency message to heaquarters?"

"One Earth day and seventeeh Earth hours," came the synthesized voice's blank reply.

"Oh ****," Nondel breathed to himself, "By the time that message reaches X, it may already be too late for Simui. Computer, cancel command. Set autopilot course for Aqquatia."

"Affirmative."

Nondel swiveled about in his chair, thinking hard. "If Meldevos knew about Simui's beacon," he wondered aloud, "then he could have done something with it before he jettisoned Simui to throw me off," he muttered, patting his pocket that held his compact radar screen. "Well, Simui's on Aqquatia, that's for sure," Nondel pondered, "hopefully I can get some other officer of Deth's to speak to me like Meldevos." Nondel sighed grimly. "Either way, I'm still the only one who can save her."

-

Aqquatia was a planet with only one percent of its mass being dry land. Nondel landed the Speeder ship on the surface of a sandy island beach, hopping out of it before the docking ramp could be unfurled. Once outside, Nondel took out his radar and looked at the small beeping screen. Simui's beacon was on the planet and it lead underwater. Nondel stuffed the radar back into his pocket and knelt down by the shore, gazing into the deep ocean. "Well, isn't this lovely?" He muttered.

Suddenly, Nondel heard voices shouting in the distance. On instinct, Nondel dashed under the docking ramp of his ship and hid there, concealed in the shadows. After a few silent seconds had passed by, Nondel saw a small boat lazily sail past the island, carrying two stocky crab-like humanoids. "I tell ya'," said one crab to the other, "Bloq's one **** of an ******* now."

"Tell me about it," the other crab grumbled as the ship slowly glided by Nondel on the water, "Ever since we picked up that Xian ***** he's gone all tight-*** on us."

Nondel shivered. "Simui!" he quietly whispered to himself. As the two crabs continued to sail by him, Nondel dashed back into the Speeder ship. When he came out, he held a pair of replacement soles for his boots. "I thought these water-gliders would come in handy some day," he snickered to himself, slapping both soles onto the bottom of his boots. Nondel walked to the edge of the shore and looked out into the horizon. He could still see the speck that was the two crabs in their boat drifting across the sea in the distance. Taking a deep breath, Nondel stepped into the water.

As soon as Nondel's foot touched the surface of the water, his foot began to float on top of it. When Nondel pulled his other foot away from the shore and beside his other foot, it stayed firmly above the water. Setting his sights upon the fleeting speck in the distance that was the two crabs, Nondel pushed himself away from the shore with a swift push from his leg, sending him sliding along the water's surface as if he were skating on ice. Nondel continued to glide on the water, following his quarry at a distance and gaining upon it quickly.

-

As soon as the boat approached an island with a small patch of forest, one of the crabs tapped his partner who was steering the boat impatiently on the shoulder. "Uh, Pinscher?" The crab weakly asked, "Can you pull over to that island for a sec?"

"What for?" Came the reply.

"I kinda' gotta' go," The crab quickly and uneasily replied.

"Oh, for the love of-" The other crab groaned. The crab sighed and steered the boat by the shore of the forest island with his pincher-like hands, letting his partner hop off the boat hurriedly and disappear into the forest. "Make it quick!" he yelled after him. As soon as he was in the forest, the crab positioned himself in front of a tree and sighed loudly. As soon as he was in the middle of relieving himself, the crab felt a pair of muscular white arms wrap around his stubby neck. With a quick twist, the crab felt his neck bones separate from his shoulders as he blacked out and collapsed.

The other crab waited impatiently in his boat. "Come on, man! Hurry the hell up!" He yelled into the forest. After another motionless minute, he yelled, "I haven't got all ****ing day! Hurry up and piss already!" After he received no reply, the crab growled under his breath and crawled out of the boat.

As soon as the crab entered the forest's foliage, he felt a cold metal cylinder press against the back of his neck. "Where's the Xian?" A stern voice asked him.

The crab was frozen solid in fear. "Who are you?"

"Tell me," replied the voice.

"What do you want to know for?"

"I'm her partner. I've come looking for her. Now where is she?"

"Go to hell," the crab snorted.

"Wrong answer," the voice said again. The cylinder suddenly felt like it was on fire on the crab's neck, and an instant later his head was rolling along the ground while his body flopped down.

*****

Nondel hid himself under a tarp on the small boat as it floated into the indoor docks of an Aqualta stronghold. Although he could only hear the thud of the boat clanging against the docks and a few muffled voices flying this way and that, Nondel's resolve to rescue Simui remained unhindered. Soon, the mass of muffled voices faded away, leaving only one leaning over him above the tarp. Nondel felt something poke his ribs, possibly the barrel of a laser rifle. After three more prods, Nondel felt the tarp slowly being lifted. Quickly yet carefully drawing his plasma pistol, Nondel waited with shallow breaths for the tarp to be removed from over him. As soon as the tarp no longer hid his body, Nondel let a short burst of plasma spit from his gun at a stocky figure on the dock beside his head. The creature only managed a weak moan of surprise as it keeled over into the water with a soft splash and sunk. The echo from the gunshot quietly bounced around the large docking room with Nondel quickly looking all around him to ensure that no one had heard his unnanounced arrival. After a few minutes since the fading of the gunshot echo and no other beings in sight, Nondel quietly slipped out of the boat and rolled onto the deck. Stealthily picking himself up, Nondel noticed a laser rifle lying at his feet, the one which belonged to the dead creature. Nondel picked up the rifle and reached for his own inside the boat and held one in either hand. Butting the two handles together, Nondel tossed the creature's weapon into the water and tapped the side of his own with his fingertip. Instantly a small flap on the side of the rifle popped open, revealing what looked to be like a gauge. "Full power," Nondel quietly grinned to himself, "Now to find Simui!"

-

Nondel prowled the halls like a cat prowls the night, his eyes darting all around him for any sign of danger with his finger tightly curled around the trigger of his plasma pistol. Even the slightest noise, even that of water dripping from the leaky joints in the ceiling pipes splattering tiny droplets on the floor made his nerves jump. The hallyway was dark, save only for a few cheap lights that lined the celing every five meters. Nondel spied a square of light upon the left side of the thin corridor twenty meters ahead, which he took as an open door. Again pressing his back against the left wall and flattening himself against it, Nondel cautiously slid himself along the cold concrete wall until he reached the jam of the door ahead. Gripping the barrel of his pistol tightly, Nondel poked the barrel an inch inside the doorway before slowly peeking out into the room. Looking around the well-lit room, Nondel noticed various charts and notepaper strewn about a large metal desk, surrounded by many other plastic counters and tables sporting various vials and beakers and other laboratory equipment. Nondel quickly slipped into the room and rested his back on the other side of the wall. He quickly glanced over at the main metal desk and found a sign that read, "Dr. Msnon." Although he did not know why, Nondel swore he had heard the name before. Quietly Nondel made his way to the desk with swift silent strides, stopping before the desk's large plush wheeling chair and gazing at the large mess of notepapers that littered the desk. Curious, Nondel picked the one that was most convienient to his hand and began to read.

November 18, 7802
My project has hit a snag. The wiring is completely off-scale and malfunctional. That's the last time I ever hire someone to do work of my calibre! Mechanos will be built! Even if I have to slave night and day, I'll see it done!

Nondel put down the paper and read another one.

February 9, 7803
Mechanos is almost finished! Never send a commonboy to do a genious' work, I say! When Mechanos is complete, I'll surley get a much-deserved raise! Of corse, a little bit of begging on my part may neccesary to get one, but who cares? Money is money, and my work is my life!

Nondel discared the notepaper and picked up another.

May 24, 7803
Mechanos is complete! Of course, I've still to test my magnicicent creation yet, but I rarley make mistakes. After all, Mechanos is my greatest creation yet! It is flawless! Or at least that's what I think at this moment... surley it will be true when-

A sudden slam echoing through the hallway made Nondel's spine jolt, dropping the paper and pointing his gun around the room. Faint footsteps echoed the hallway, coming slowly closer and closer to the doorway. With his heart racing, Nondel quickly looked around the room for another way out. He quickly found a trap door by the opposite wall of the laboratory and did not hesitate to run over to it and flip it open. Nondel quickly clambered down the dark shaft and closed the door above him.

[Mewfour]

The underground passage that Nondel found himself in was almost in complete darkness. Nondel held his arms out in front of him, searching blindly for and objects in his path using his hands as his eyes, wandering slowly down the darkened corridor. Although he could not see it, Nondel knew that the ceiling and walls were very tightly knit together as the pressure around them seeped into his lungs. Suddenly, right in front of him, Nondel saw a thin sliver of light. Moving straight towards the beam, Nondel reached out and grasped what seemed to him to be a door when he approached. Slowly and cautiously, Nondel let the door open crack by crack, gripping his pistol tighter and tighter with every passing second. When the door was opened halfway, Nondel craned his neck around and peeked through the doorway.

All he saw was a large circular room, completely devoid of any objects. Nondel stepped into the doorway and looked up to the ceiling, finding it higher than the one in the corridor by only a few meters. Nondel looked at the floor and saw some fine tears in lining the circular floor, each forming a curved line spiraling to meet in the center of the room. Curious, Nondel quietly ventured to the center of the room and knelt down to were all the seams met. When he found nothing of importance, Nondel stood up once again.

Just before he could take a step out of the center, a large cylindrical glass container slammed over top of him, catching him like a rat in a cage. Nondel pressed his hands against the clear container searching for a way out, until he heard another voice say to him, "We finally meet, Mr. Populas."

Nondel spun around to see a wide window up near the top of the wall, and behind the glass was a small pale-skinned creature wearing large oversized glasses. "Who are you?" Nondel asked, resting both hands against the cylinder.

"You may call me Doctor Mnson," the creature chuckled. "Did you like poking around my lab, yes?"

"Your lab?"

"Reading my notes on Mechanos, yes?" Msnson hummed with a laugh. Nondel gritted his teeth and held the barrel of his blaster to the glass. "And that glass is laserproof," Mnson added, "Fire on it and it'll bounce right back at you." Nondel snarled silently to himself as he let his blaster fall to his side and glared up at Mnson. "Tell me," said Mnson, "Why did you come to Aqqualita?"

"I'm looking for something," Nondel replied with a growl.

"The other Xian, yes?" Mnson chcukled again.

"Simui!" Nondel gasped, "Where is she?"

"I'm not going to tell you," Mnson said tauntingly, "but let me assure you she's very comfortable right now."

"What do you mean?" Nondel roared.

"She's enjoying her treatment quite well, yes," Mnson replied.

"Treatment?" Nondel snarled, "What treatment? What are you doing to her?"

"That's for me to know and for you to die wanting to know, Mr. Populas," Mnson chuckled cruelly again.

Nondel snarled. "If you even think of hurting her-!"

"Hurt?" Msnon burst into laughter, "Mr. Populas, the last thing we want to do is harm her!"

"Then, what-?" Nondel stammered.

"Well, I've some more important business to attend to, yes," Mnson hummed, "I'll let you say hello to Muffin for me," Msnson chuckled subtly as he vanished from the window. As the room was left silent, the name Muffin sent a shiver up Nondel's spine.

Suddenly, the seams on the floor separated and shrunk into the walls, leaving Nondel to plummet below them. Nondel was surprised to feel water splash against him inside the container as he realized that he was now inside a large pool of water. Nondel took a deep breath and dove underneath the walls of the glass cylinder and resurfaced out of his clear prison. Once he was free, Nondel quickly looked around the room. There was no visible escape anywhere, even the door he had came from was barred up and sealed shut. Nondel was about to dive below the surface again to look for another way out when he suddely felt a swift blast of current brush upon his shins. Looking to his left, Nondel's blood ran cold when he saw a thin string of bubbles popping along the surface running straight towards him. Nondel quickly rolled onto his stomach and began to swim away, but the bubbles quickly caught up to him and Nondel found a gigantic bony pincher catch him around the waist and drag him underwater. Nondel struggled against the water and the pincher, only having a few breaths worth of air in his lungs. Nondel quickly followed the arm on the pincher to a gigantic underwater monster who was glaring at him blankly with unwavering yellow eyes. Nondel felt the pincher pulling him closer and closer to the beast as the monster opened its jaws. Although the jaws were small in comparison to the rest of the body, Nondel knew that he would be eaten alive in two bites. Thinking quickly, Nondel aimed his blaster at the face of the behemoth and fired. The blast sped through the water and hit the beast dead between the eyes. The moster howled and released Nondel from its grasp, shrinking back to the depths of the water. Nondel quickly took this time to race back to the surface and grab another lungful of air. As soon as Nondel felt the same current rush upon his feet, Nondel tucked away his blaster back in its holder and took the laser rifle off his back and aimed it into the water. Firing blindly into the briny deep, Nondel set the gently rocking water into a turbulent frenzy as he let a hailstorm of laser blasts shoot through the water. When the rifle finally ran out of energy, Nondel struggled to steady himself against the raging waters. When the tide finally settled once more, Nondel took a large sigh and steadied his racing heart. Looking into the water below him again, Nondel saw no sign of the monstrous creature. Deciding to look for another way out below the surface, Nondel slung the rifle back over his shoulder and dove under again.

Nondel looked this way and that along the underwater tank, until he found a small underwater control panel sporting a flashing red light. Nondel quickly swam towards the panel and looked around it. Above the flashing red light Nondel saw a sign reading, "WATER DRAIN VALVE."

Just before Nondel could push the light, the same enormous claw snared his foot and violently pulled him into the center of the pool. The pincher released Nondel's foot just long enough for the second pincher to capture Nondel around his waist again. Nondel was once again face to face with the underwater monster, once again being glared at with those empty yellow eyes. Nondel struggled to reach his blaster again, but the tight grip of the claws around him pinned his arm motionless. Again Nondel found the claw slowly dragging him towards the open mouth of the monster, its jaws lined with rows of sharp, flesh-tearing teeth. Just as Nondel was meters away from the gaping jaws, he viciously jabbed his foot into the beast's lip. The creature roared in agony again, releasing Nondel from its grasp. With his arm now free, Nondel pulled out his blaster and took aim at the beast's left eye and fired. The blast shot through the creature's eye, driving the beast into a delirious roaring fit, squirming and writhing violently, churning the water around it. Nondel was sucked into the turbulent water, battered around in every direction by the vicious colliding currents. When the volatile currents dies away, Nondel weakly resurfaced and took another deep gasp of air.

One split-second after Nondel looked back into the depths again, he saw the sillioutte of the monster with one remaining yellow eye rushing towards him up to the surface. As the beast reached out at him with its gigantic pincher again, Nondel took aim with his blaster at the other eye of the beast and fired seven shots at it. The first two blasts sailed past the beat, the third hit it in its last eye, and the other four pummeled upon its body. The creature let out one last ear-splitting roar before it was still, and slowly floated towards the surface. Nondel was on top of the beast's body as it floated to the surface. Multiple wounds lined its body, although none of them shed any blood at all. Nondel tapped on the creature's shoulder and found it to be an armor-like bone. Nondel breathed a sigh of relief as he remembered of a similar Earth-creature like this one called a crab.

Once he has his wits and energy collected again, Nondel dove beneath the surface and headed towards the flashing red light again. Wishing for the best result, Nondel pressed the light once with his whole hand.

As soon as he let his hand go, a soft whirr of machinery filled the water. Suddenly, a large door on the wall of the tank beside Nondel slid open, sucking the water out of the tank and taking Nondel with it, with the Xian powerless to fight the current. Nondel was slurped out of the tank in a raging surge of current as the draining water fell like a waterfall down a deep and seemingly bottomless pit.

[Mewfour]

When Nondel's senses recovered, he found himself lying face-up on a sandy beach. His armored vest, still laced with beads of water, dripped lightly onto his soggy uniform. A sudden rush filled his head when he sat up, driving his left eye shut as he rubbed the back of his head. "Wouldn't like to do that again," he muttered, wearily picking himself up off the ground. Nondel was glad to see that his small laser pistol, lying in the sand beside his foot, had washed up along with him. He was even happier to see that it still had a decent level of charge left in it when he picked it up. He was also suddenly dismayed to see the absence of his radar. Nondel brushed the wet sand off his back the best he could as he looked around him. The small island upon which he stood, when compared to the vast open oceans of Aqqualtia, seemed like one ink spot on a frothy blue wall. Immediately, he thought of finding a way to get off the island and find his speeder ship, and his eyes quickly caught a glimpse of some driftwood floating lazily in the water.

One makeshift raft later, Nondel finally found his ship on the same small island on which he left it, the boarding ramp still unfurled. Upon setting foot on land again, Nondel kicked away the flotsam, sending it drifting aimlessly amongst the seas again. Kicking the water out of his heavy armored boots, Nondel headed up the boarding ramp to his speeder ship and immediately went for the pilot's seat.

"So if Simui's not here," Nondel pondered to himself, "Then maybe Meldevos did throw me off." Nondel tapped on the side monitor of the control deck, displaying the belt beacon radar again. "But if that Mnson knew of her, then surley she was once here- I must have just missed her!" Then, Nondel's thoughts shifted. "But what did Mnson mean by 'treatment?'" Nondel's blood ran cold. "I think it's time I paid LV001 another visit..."

***

Nondel's speeder ship touched down upon LV001's surface for the second time. Even though Simui had been missing for only five hours, to Nondel, it seemed like an eternity. He had to everything short of biting his lip off to stop himself from thinking what Mnson meant by "treatment." Slowly walking out of the speeder ship, Nondel took one scan around of the barren planet he fought Meldevos on. It was still a desolate wasteland, save for the small forest he was once in, and the bonfire of the destroyed part of Meldevos' headquarters in the background, throwing up a thick cloud of smog into the sky.

That was what troubled him. He had left LV001 only four hours ago, and the flames that he left behind from the explosion were extinguished. Something within Nondel told his that he would find answers to Simui's abduction in the remains of Meldevos' hideout, and so he walked, with stern and powerful strides, over to the remaining portion of the base.

He came across the same fence again when he approached, yet this time, the kiosks were vacant- even the glass he had broken in one to get in was still shattered. Vaulting himself into the kiosk, he opened the back door and quietly slipped inside the perimeter of the base. Fortunately, the keycard he had stolen from the guard at the kiosk earlier still worked when he slid it into the small slot by the main entrance doors, allowing Nondel, with blaster gripped tightly in his hand, to slip inside once more.

The complex was no more different than how he left it. The tank he detonated was still in shambles, and the room was still partially incinerated. Even the destroyed security robot Nondel had dismantled earlier was still lying on the floor in a heap. Nondel walked over to it and playfully kicked it in the side. The robot twitched, electricity cackled and a few sparks darted into the air, making Nondel smirk to himself. "You're not going anywhere soon," he rhetorically taunted the robot, walking past again.

Suddenly, the room was filled with a dull mechanical roar. Nondel whirled around to see the security robot picking itself up again. "Innnnnn.... lert...." was all it could manage to say, its speech riddled with static and glitches. Nondel aimed his blaster at the smashed-in face of the robot and let two shots crash into it. The head only jerked backwards as the robot staggered towards Nondel. "Innnnn tru-tru-tru derrrr," It moaned it its obotic monotone. Nondel kept firing at the head of the mechanical monster, yet his shots simply bounced off of its armor skin. Strafing to his side, Nondel fired a shot at the robot's shoulder, blowing the robot's arm clear off his torso. Even with showers of sparks and debris leaking out of its arm socket, the robot continued to advance on Nondel. Taking aim on the other arm, Nondel quickly shot the robot's opposite limb off, even though it hardly stunned the robotic menace. Now without any arms, the robot suddenly picked up speed and charged at Nondel. Caught off-guard by the sudden attack strategy, Nondel's midsection was rammed by the robot plunging its head into him, smashing him against a wall. The wall left a small Xian-sixed crater behind after the robot released Nondel, leaving him to slump onto the floor. Nondel quickly struggled to regain his breath in spite of his aching backbone as the robot stepped back a few paces before lowering its head and charging at him again. Without so much as a second to think, Nondel quickly thew his belly to the ground, letting the robot's running headbutt sail over him, embedding the robot firmly shoulder-deep into the wall. Not wanting te robot to cause any more injury to him, Nondel quickly leapt up on the robot's back and reached into the crack of the robot's armor by tthe base of its neck. Even though the robot struggled mightily, Nondel still managed to dig his fingers into the robot's neck, grasp whatever came into his palm, and violently jerking his hand out. With a horrific roar, the robot fell still. Nondel opened his hand to find a ball of torn wires in his fist, breathing a sigh of relief. Sliding off the robot's back, Nondel wiped the blood off of his lips and rubbed his ribs. They were bruised at the most, or at least that was what Nondel interpereted. Nondel picked up his gun that he had forgotten that he had dropped, recollected and recalibrated his senses, and then continued on down the hallway.

The wreckage of the headquarters was still lying all about the corridor and rooms, some still smoking. Nondel thought about going back to the chamber where he had met Meldevos, until his eyes suddenly caught on to a small security camera, anchored onto the ceiling, nearly invisible in the darkened corridor. "That must've been what caught me the last time," Nondel muttered, quietly slipping into an ajacent hallway, hoping that the camera did not pick him up.

Just as Nondel surveyed the damage to the new corridor he was in, he saw a large gap in the wall, blown apart by what Nondel readily assumed was only part of the aftermath of his previous visit to the complex.

Nondel was busy deciding wether to explore the new opening, long enough for two insectoids to suddenly burst into the corridor up ahead. "You again!" One insectoid shrieked. Nondel instinctively drew his blaster and fired a single shot, piercing the insectoid in the head. The second returned Nondel's fire with a pistol of his own. With not even a split-second to think, Nondel quickly dove into the large gap in the wall, narrowly avoiding the insectoid guard's laser blast. Just as soon as Nondel thought of using the gap as a shield to gunfight the insectoid, two laser explosions rocked the corridor, and suddenly a pile of rubble fell in front of the opening, completely barricading it, shutting the thin passageway into perfect darkness. "****!" Nondel blurted out, rushing towards the pile of debris and pushing with all his might against it. Struggle as he might, Nondel could not move the rubble one inch at all. Forcing himself to calm down, Nondel held his breath and listened silently for anything on the other end. He could hear the insectoid shrieking about how he had caught Nondel, urgently calling for help. Knowing that the whole platoon of insectoids that would come to collect him overpower him easily if he tried to fight back, Nondel immediately thought of trying to illuminate the corridor. Remembering the special functions of his blaster, Nondel remembered that, with the push of one of the many buttons on the blaster, a low, harmless beam of energy would slowly light up inside the barrel of the blaster, acting effectivley as a flashlight. But jsut as Nondel's finger touched the side of his pistol, he wondered, "But which one is it?"

One push of the wrong button, whatever wrong one it may be, would end him. If the pistol didn't explode or melt, then it would be rendered completely useless. As many other shouts from the other side of the rubble became increasingly loud and frequent, Nondel held his breath, wished for the best, and blindly pressed a button.

When light spilled into the corridor, Nondel nearly dropped the blaster in a sudden fright. After realizing that he had indeed hit the right button, Nondel breathed a quiet sigh of relief as he rubbed the beads of sweat off of his forehead. Flashing the barrel of his pistol around, Nondel found a small pit at the end of the shambled hallway, just large enough for him to slip through. Nondel began to contemplate wether or not he should venture down further into the hideout or not, wondering what other perils awaited him. When the rubble at the other end of the corridor suddeny groaned and shifted ever so slightly, that was all the motive needed to send Nondel leaping into the pit and into the depths below.

Nondel landed with a grunt on his feet after he smashed through the ceiling. Quickly switching his pistol to laser mode again, Nondel quickly pointed the barrel all around the underground corridor. After a minute passed and no guard came running at him, Nondel relaxed and stepped out of the rubble that the crumbled ceiling that lay on the floor, crunching briskly beneath his heavy armored feet. With pistol still aimed in front of him, and nothing but raw courage fuelling him, Nondel continued to venture down the corridor...

[Mewfour]

The winding corridor seemed to get only longer, and Nondel was beginning to wonder if the hallway was, in fact, leading up to a dead end. Suddenly, something caught Nondel's eye. It was the door with a sign on it marked, "SECURITY ROOM." Taking out the keycard, Nondel slid it into the card slot, resulting in the soft whirr on maachinery. Soon, the door quietly slid open, letting Nondel slip into the room and look around.

Computer monitors were lined up on top of a long counter that lined all four walls of the small room. Surveilance camera screens were littered all over the walls, and various other machines were scattered about the room, each performing whatever it was they were supposed to do.

Cautiously, Nondel crept into the room. With his pistol aimed straight ahead of him, Nondel soon saw a large glass window, allowing a view of a larger room below. Curious, Nondel edged towards the window, and peered down into the room below. The sight that met his eyes made him gasp.

It was Simui, and she was lying on some sort of island counter in the middle of the room, sleeping peacefully.

Nondel needed more futher incentive to shoot a single blast into the glass, shattering what it didn't melt upon contact. Vaulting himself over the counter, Nondel sprung through the window and landed inside the lower room. It was completely bare except for a single doorway, barricaded with large metal bars, and Simui, lying on the counter in the middle of the room.

Dashing to Simui's side, Nondel looked over her body. She was still in her armored uniform, and she looked completely unharmed. "Wake up, Simui," Nondel whispered quietly, moving to gently stroke her cheek.

When Nondel should have touched her pale skin, his hand passed right through her face, and her body suddenly faded in and out of the air.

"I didn't think you were really that stupid enough to fall for this tra," came a gruff voice from behind Nondel.

Nondel whirled around to see a large, blocky figure, his body underneath his thin uniform bulging with muscles. "Who are you?" Nondel demanded.

"The name's Bloq," replied the bald figure, bearing pale blue skin. "You wouldn't know anything about an explosion here earlier today, would you?"

"I might," Nondel grimaced, gripping the handle of his pistol tightly.

"This isn't your first visit here, is it?" Bloq asked.

"Maybe not," Nondel replied, slowly rubbing his trigger finger against his trigger.

"Meldevos told me of a Xian with green hair, just like you, came here looking for another Xian, like that hologram over there," Bloq said, pointing over Nondel's shoulder to the fake Simui, "And he told me that same green-haired Xian caused the explosion and roughed him up," Bloq said coolly. "You're that Xian, aren't you?"

"What if I am?" Nondel snarled back. "What if I did come here before?"

"Then now I'll have to kill you," Bloq said, calmly pulling out a pistol like Nondel's, aiming it for the Xian. Nondel in turn aimed his blaster at Bloq. "Nothing personal, really," said Bloq closing one eye and lining up his blaster with his other, "It's just business."

Simultaneously, they both pulled their triggers. Bloq's shot richoceted off of Nondel's chest armor, while Nondel's blast clearly sunk into Bloq's shoulder. Nondel cold only manage to let his jaw drop in surprise when Bloq only laughed quietly and flexed his shot shoulder painlessly. "My skin is a natural energy-absorber, Xian," Bloq chuckled. "So go ahead, shoot me!"

Nondel obliged, and pumped a whole round of laser energy into Bloq. The beast only laughed after Nondel's shots kept sinking into him, leaving Nondel uharmed. Just before Nondel's blaster could recharge another round, Bloq aimed his blaster at Nondel again and shot out a hailstorm of laser blasts. Nondel quickly dove over the counter wih the hologram Simui, shielding himself from Bloq's assault. "Don't bother trying to fight me, Xian," Bloq laughed, "There's no way you can begin to harm me."

"Why don't you put that gun down if you're so good, huh?" Nondel spat back from behind the counter.

Bloq only laughed. "What, you think you can outmuscle me?" he snickered, flexing his tree-trunk-thick arms. "Don't be a fool, Populas. Die quietly. Then you'll surely save yourself a lot of pain."

"Well, this is useless," Nondel thought to himself, looking at his blaster. "If only there was some way to use this oaf's own arrogance against him-"

Nondel's eyes gleamed. "Okay, Bloq, I give up."

Bloq's lip curled into a mean grin. "Come to your senses, eh?" he chuckled as Nondel slowly rose from behind the counter, his blaster dangling limply on his finger from the trigger guard.

"But I don't want to be killed," Nondel said calmly, "I'd rather be captured."

Bloq shrugged. "I was expecting you to ask me to finish you off," he hummed, "But if you want to die the more painful way, fine by me," he said, walking over to Nondel. Nondel's blaster still dangled around his fingers as Bloq stepped right in front of him.

Just as Bloq reached for his hand in the air, Nondel suddenly brought it down upon him, smashing the hilt of his blaster on top of Bloq's bald head. Bloq winced from the sudden blow, allowing Nondel to viciously stirke Bloq again and again with his gun on his neck and shoulders.

Suddenly, with a wild roar, Bloq threw himself upright and grasped Nondel tightly by his throat with both fof his enormous hands. Nondel thought Bloq's grip around his neck was tight enough to crush his neckbone if he wanted. Hoisting Nondel up into the air by his neck, Bloq snarled angrily a him, a thin drible of blood running down the middle of his face. Then, without so much as a word, Bloq swiveled his tosro around and threw Nondel across the room, tossing Nondel into the opposite wall. Nondel's spine felt like it shattered into a million pieces as he slowly sunk to the ground. "Nice try, Xian," Bloq muttered, rubbing the back of his neck, "I told you you couldn't outmuscle me."

Nondel groaned and weakly rose to his feet as Bloq's heavy footsteps came towards him. "It was worth a try," Nondel bitterly muttered to himself.

"I was going to kill you anyway," Bloq said, tucking away his blaster into his holster on his waist, "But now, I think you deserve a slow, and very painful, death."

Nondel desperately fired all of his blaster's remaining energy at Bloq's head as he advanced, but the beast kept approaching him, hardly stunned by the torrent of lasers that rained on his face. When Nondel's blaster went on clicking in his hands, Bloq suddenly charged at Nondel, throwing his fist at his head. Nondel barely managed to avoid getting his head smashed flat against the wall, but not quikcly enough to avoid Bloq grabbing him by his blaster and viciously yanking it out of his hand. After shoving Nondel to the ground, Bloq dropped the pistol to the ground and smashed it effortlessly underneath his boot.

Nondel scramled to his feet and threw a quick full-swung punch to Bloq's cheek, with all the power he could muster fuelling it. Yet, despite his incredible effort, Bloq was hardly hurt at all. Calmly, Bloq rubbed his cheek gingerly, wiping away the blood of the new cut Nondel had given him. Then, the instant Bloq took his hand away from his face, he delivered a sharp swat to Nondel's face, flooring the Xian immediately. Just as Nondel, bloody cheek and all, rose onto his hands and knees, Bloq had brought his foot up into Nondel's ribs, knocking the Xian onto his side. Nondel gnashed his teeth in agony, coughing up a glob of blood, clutching his ribcage. Bloq put his foot on top of Nondel's shoulder and rolled him over onto his back. Just before Bloq could stomp on Nondel's chest, Nondel quickly rolled up onto his feet and, using the spinning momentum as an aide, he leapt up into the air and struck out his foot, his flying kick striking Bloq square on his chin. Bloq's head snapped back, but even the immense force behind Nondel's vicious kick was only enough to make the large monster stumble backwards. Quickly following up on his attack, Nondel dashed towards the counter, leapt onto the edge of the surface through the holographic Simui, and springboarded himself like a missile, feet first, into Bloq's chest. Bloq gave a weeze of surprise as Nondel's feet smashed into his chest, but again, the blow only managed to stun him further. Landing on one hand and a foot, Nondel quickly swept out at Bloq's knee with his foot, bringing the bulky giant to a kneel. Knowing that he would never get another chance like this again, Nondel sprung to his feet and whipped himself in a circle on his heel, lashing the face of his foot into Bloq's ear at a brutal velocity. The thock that echoed around the room sent shivers down Nondel's spine as Bloq groaned, leaned forward, and collapsed onto the ground.

Nondel breathed a heavy sigh of relief and collapsed onto the counter beside Simui's hologram. Resting himself on the counter by Simui's midsection, Nondel looked at Bloq's slumped body on the floor. "Glad I don't have to do that again," Nondel breathlessly weezed to himself, trying to steady his racing heart. Nondel suddely felt heat seeping though his arms, and noticed that they were fully inside Simui's hologram. "Must be energy-based," Nondel weezed.

Suddenly, Bloq's body put itself onto its hands and knees. And with a short groan, Bloq rose to his knees, Nondel's blood froze in horror as Bloq began to slowly raise himself back to one knee. As quickly as he could, Nondel sprang back to his feet and dashed over to Bloq, aiming a low shin-kick to Bloq's ear again. Jsut as Nondel's leg was about to make contact, Bloq's arm lashed out and caught him by the ankle. Before Nondel knew it, Bloq had him by the shoulder as well, and he was now being hoisted above Bloq's head. Then, with a feral roar, Bloq threw Nondel against the wall like a spear. Nondel did not notcie that he had landed a second later, all he remembered was hitting the wall on his shoulders with dizzying results. Nondel lay slumped up against the wall, dazed and completely disorientated. He never noticed Bloq slowly limping towards him, heavily favoring his injured knee. Nondel finally recovered his senses just as Bloq grasped him by the collar again, slowly dragging his back up against the wall by his throat. When Bloq placed one hand behind Nondel's head and another on his chin, he knew that in a matter of seconds, Bloq was going to snap his neck. And from a person like Bloq, Nondel knew his would snap like a twig. Just as Bloq put pressure on his upper neck, Nondel's quick thinking told him to viciously jerk his knee up. He did, and Bloq suddenly winced, his eyes gone suddenly vacant and filled with pain. Bloq released Nondel, huffing and puffing, hunched over and covering his groin. Now realising that Bloq was now helpless to defend himself, Nondel pressed his back against the wall, lifted his knees up to his chest, and violently shot his legs out from him like a pair of rockets, smashing into Bloq's throat. As Nondel fell to the floor on his bottom, Bloq stumbled backwards, his back just inches away from the counter and hologram. Bloq wildly waved his arms about like a windmill, trying to retain his balance, trying not to fall into the holographic Xian on the counter. And Nondel quickly realized why.

"Have all the energy you want!" Nondel roared, vaulting himself off of the floor and then off the wall with whatever little energy he had left, tackling Bloq in his chest. With a wail of surprise and dismay, Bloq fell into the hologram while Nondel tumbled over the counter. The instant that Nondel hit the ground, he heard a horrfic scream from Bloq fill the room, a scream so loud that Nondel had to cover his ears. When the scream faded, Nondel slowly rose and peeked onto the counter. Bloq's body, smoking and lifeless, lay slumped across it, while the holographic Simui had completely vanished. Breathing a sigh of relief, Nondel was happy to find no thobbing underneath Bloq's chin.

Once he had his wits and body about him again, Nondel went over to the barricaded doorway and found another keycard slot. Taking out the stolen keycard, Nondel pushed it it and out quickly. The barricades did not budge. "Must be the wrong one," Nondel said, looking at his keycard.

Then Nondel noticed a lump in Bloq's pocket. Cautiously creeping over to him, Nondel reached into Bloq's pocket and took out the contents. It was only a wallet, so Nondel decided to take a peek within after to took Bloq's pistol to use as his own. Inside, Nondel was surprised to see an abundance of papar money, credit cards and spaceship licences. Nondel's eye, however, was more focused on the keycard stuck in Bloq's wallet. Slipping the keycard out of the plastic holds, Nondel walked back to the barricaded door and sliped the card in and out. With a response whirr, the barricades shrunk back into the floor, and the door creaked open. Just as Nondel was about to slip Bloq's keycard into his pocket, he felt something rough rub his fingers. Taking a second look at the card, he saw a small piece of paper with messy writing taped to it. Picking the note off the card, Nondel read. "Kill the Xian, return to Deth Sattelite 19."

"I owe you one, Bloq," Nondel smirked at the corpse on the table, stuffing the keycard, and Bloq's wallet, into his pocket.

[Mewfour]

Nondel barley managed to slip out of the base unnoticed. Even though the odd security camera or three recorded him, Nondel made it out unhindered. Now emerging from the wreckage of the ruined portion of the LV001 complex, Nondel noticed that the sky had turned from day to night, the sky dotted with sparce stars and just thin slivers of LV001's two moons. As Nondel's feet crunched the shrapnel below, he couldn't help but gaze up into the darkened sky as he walked back to his ship. Sensing deep within his consciousness that he felt that the next few hours would ultimately decide Simui's fate, Nondel quietly whispered to the night sky and himself, "Nightfall..."

---

Nondel slid Bloq's keycard into his ship's data anylasis track. "Scan card," Nondel told the computer, relaxing as much as he could from the fight with Bloq.

"Scanning," the ship's computer replied blankly. After a silent minute, the toneless synthesised voice said, "Scan complete. Display information on main screen?"

Nondel tapped a key on the keyboard of the ship's dash. Instantly, a window plastered itself onto the middle of the windshield of the ship, displaying charts, graphs, and other data. "What are the primary specs?" Nondel asked the computer.

"Level 14 keycard registered to Deputy General T. Bloq. Allows clearance for all major facillities."

Nondel rubbed the bottom of his chin. "What does it say for," Nondel paused to remember the name, "Deth Satellite Nineteen?"

"Scanning," the bland voice replied. At length, it spoke again. "Keycard gives clearance for all Deth Satellites. Keycard's magnetic data system also carries map of all locations of the Deth Satellites."

Nondel grinned. "Locate Deth Satellite Nineteen."

"Locating," the flavorless voice replied. "Plotting grid map," it said again. Within moments, another window replaced the one on Nondel's windscreen, this time with a three-dimensional grid map with two points, one orange and one blue. "Deth Satellite Ninteen approxmimately seven hundred and fourteen Unimiles from current position," the ship said, drawing a thin red line from the orange dot, labelled XWA-NOND, to the blue dot, labelled DETHS-19.

Nondel needed to waste no futher time. "Plot course and execute."

---

Nondel saw what looked to him as a speck of gray, colorless dust in the middle of space. "Deth Satellite Ninteen is within 14 Unimeters," the computerized voice told Nondel. "Open up a communication channel?"

"Open channel," Nondel replied, neatly tying his long, messy green hair into a ponytail behind his head.

"Commander Bloq," a staticy voice spoke on the dash's radio, "What happened to your old vessel?"

"Broke down," Nondel said, trying to immitate Bloq's gruff voice.

"Good thing you managed to keep your keycard," the voice replied, "Otherwise we wouldn't have known it was you."

"Lucky me," Nondel smirked.

The speck of dust grew larger, shaping into a small sillouhette of a space station. "Are you going to be docking?" the voice asked.

"Yes," Nondel replied.

"Okay," the voice hummed, "Hangar fourteen is clear. It's right in a straight path from your vessel."

"How convienient," Nondel said, subconsiously losing Bloq's voice.

"Commander Bloq?" the voice asked, "You sound a little different."

"Cold," Nondel quickly replied, brining back his fake voice.

"Well, the doors are open," the vocie on the other end said. "Reduce speed for proper docking. A landing crew will meet you in the hangar shortly."

Nondel grinned cruelly as his ship approached the station, now fully occupying his windscreen. "Meet them, indeed."

After landing, Nondel's speeder ship sat silently inside the hangar. The bay doors had closed a minute ago, and Nondel could tell that oxygen had already been pumped back into the docks. "Commander Bloq, the escort is entering the bay now," the voice said on the radio, "If you need anything, ju-"

Nondel quickly shut the radio off and unfurled the ramp that led into his ship. "I'll get along just fine."

With that, Nondel rose from his seat, took Bloq's keycard into his pocket, turned all the lights off on the ship, and quietly sunk into the depths of his vessel.

Seconds later, quiet footsteps echoed throughout his ship. "Commander Bloq?" one squeaky voice called out from the darkness. "Commander Bloq, what happened to your ship?" No reply came. "Commander?"

Three creatures, each of different upright-walking species, walked into the main hall of the speeder ship. "Commander?"

Those were the last words any of the creatures could utter before three seperate laser blasts pierced them in the forehead. A rusty creak of metal soon echoed in the darkness, and then Nondel dropped onto his feet from the ceiling. Rummaging through one corpse's pockets in the darkness, Nondel's fingers touched what he thought was a small book. Taking it out, Nondel walked to the control pit of his vessel and leaned over the dash with the object in hand. The lights from the bay outside shone through the windscreen, letting Nondel see that he was holding a small notebook in his hand. Quickly flipping the black book open, Nondel turned to the last page that was written on. "When Bloq comes, take him to Mnson's lab," was the only sloppily-scribbled message on the page. "Don't mind if I do," Nondel grinned to himself, walking towards the boarding ramp.

----

As always, the hallways were eeriely quiet. The gray walls, lit only by a long stream of lights along the ceiling, reflected upon Nondel's orange armor in a creepy dull light. Nondel carefully scanned the ceiling along the hallway he walked in, eyes peeled for any sign of security camera. With his eyes on the ceiling and the barrel of his gun pointed down the hallway, Nondel cautiously crept down the hallway, ready to react to anything at any moment, expecting anything at any time. Every time he heard the slightest sound out of the usual silence, his nerves jumped. Even when a light bulb from the ceiling lights flickered, his heart pounded on his ribs like a drum. He felt his hands, tightly gripped to his gun, begin to moisten up from sweat as he snuck down the hallway with all possible stealth.

Suddenly, he heard a metallic thud behind him. Nondel jumped around and frenzily pointed his gun in front of him. The hallway was silent again. Nondel held his breath so that he could hear clearer, hoping to hear something that might either help or foil him. The hallway remained silent. Another sudden crash echoed around the halls, this time from above the ceiling. Bits of dust fell gently from the ceiling and onto Nondel's forehead as another thud passed by his ears.

"All personel are to evacuate floor fifteen and higher," an automated voice suddenly rang out through the halls, startling Nondel half to death again. "Repeat, all personel are to evacuate floor fifteen and higher."

Suddenly, Nondel heard a clammering of feet coming his way. He looked to the left, and then to the right. No doors, no windows, no means of hiding were on the walls. Looking for his last option, Nondel looked up to the ceiling, and saw a large ventilation grate a few steps ahead of him. Knocking out the screws of the grate with the minimal level of laser blasts from his pistol, Nondel leapt to the left wall, springboarded himself onto the right, planting his foot square in the middle of the wall, and then pushed off up towards the ceiling, barely grasping the vent's edges with his fingertips. Prying his hand into the hole in the ceiling leading to the ventilation shaft, Nondel tore off the grate and held it in one hand, pulled himself into the vent, and held the shutter in place. Almost immediately afterwards, a rush of aliens, of all different kinds of races, trampled down the hallway underneath him. Theye were all chattering amongst themselves, mostly in languages that Nondel never heard before, much less understood. What he did understand, however, was one creatre muttering, "I bet it's Mechanos."

"Mechanos," Nondel muttered to himself, remembering the laboratory on Aqqualtia. Another sudden rumbling shook the halls, feeling even more violent inside the ventilation shaft. Nondel's eardrums shook along with the shaft, and when it stopped, Nondel thought it lasted a few minutes more. Eventually, the hallway cleared of personel, and it was once again silent. Nondel let the grate drop, clattering noisily on the floor. He waited a few silent minutes inside the vent, waiting for anyone to notice. Once sensing that the floor was completely vacant, Nondel quietly dropped out from the ceiling, gently landing on his feet in a crouch. Standing up again, Nondel rose in time for another boom, this time much louder than those before, to rock the corridor. More dust shook free from the ceiling, briefly clouding the entire hall. Quickly glancing around the hallway, Nondel saw a sign reading, "Floor 17." Cautiously, Nondel crept towards the sign and took a closer look at it. It was the standard floor map design with the legends key and everything else, including the list of floors of the station. In all, there were twenty four floors, and he was on the seventeenth.

Suddenly, the ceiling just a few meters behind him crashed to the ground. Nondel spun around to see a large object sticking out from the ceiling, touching the ground. Almost as suddenly as it arrived, the pilliar withdrew back into the ceiling, leaving an enormous pile of rubble where it once stood. Nondel's spine shivered all over as another boom echoed through the corridor, this time much louder, much closer, and much more frightening, thant he others before. Suddenly feeling in immediate danger, Nondel dashed as quickly as he could to the end of the hallway, right past the elevator. Deciding that an elevator would not be safe to travel in now, Nondel opened the door beside it, leading to a stairwell.

Nondel paused. There were a set of stairs leading down, and a set leading up. Nondel's survival instincts told him to go down right away, but something else told him to go up. Knowing that Simui could be in the same complex as he, Nondel took a deep breath, and boldy ventured up the stairs.

Floor after floor passed without him stopping. He finally reached the top, the door to floor twenty-two was right in front of him. Gripping his pistol tighter, Nondel poked the door open with the barrel of his gun. Sensing no presence behind the door, Nondel slowly slipped along the wall into the room.

The widespread destruction that littered the room was staggering. The ceiling, maybe thirty feet high, was cracked and looked like it could crumble at any moment. Debris and heaping hunks of rubble were strewn along what remained of the floor. Strangely, the only doors in the room were the one Nondel came in, and a large, steel double-door, almost as high as the ceiling, on the opposite wall.

"So, we meet again, Populas."

The sudden voice echoing around the room made Nondel jolt. Looking up to a wide window near the top of the ceiling, Nondel saw the familiar face of doctor Mnson. "You!" Was all Nondel could manage to exclaim.

"I'm rather surprised that you survived your date with Muffin," said Mnson, "And you also managed to steal Bloq's keycard." Mnson chuckled to himself. "I'm very impressed with your performance, Mr. Populas," said Mnson, "However, it's going to be such a shame that I won't get to see your true abilities..."

"What do you mean?" Nondel growled, aiming his pistol at the window.

"It's a shame I'll have to kill you so soon," Mnson sighed, "And put that gun away. Not only is this glass laser-proof, but it will do you absolutely no good for what little hours remain of your life."

"I'm not here to play games, Mnson," Nondel snarled, still pointing hs pistol at the window. "What have you done with Simui?"

"The other Xian?" Mnson mused. "You're still looking for her?"

"Why else would I be here?" Nondel snarled a reply, bearing his vampire-like fangs.

"So you've come straight to a Deth Satellite just fo find someone we were planning on releasing soon anyway?" Mnson laughed. "My, what a way to throw away your life."

"Releasing?" Nondel stammered. "What? Then why'd you kidnap her in the first place?"

"Full of questions today, aren't we?" Mnson taunted. "Don't worry, like I said before, your friend is enjoying her stay with us."

"Whatever you're doing to her," Nondel growled, "I want her back, you sick ****."

"Sick, am I?" Mnson laughed in an tone that chilled Nondel's blood immediately. "My dear boy," said Mnson, "What I do is merely in the name of science, and of the orders of Deth."

"Deth," Nondel muttered, "Of course."

"Tell me, Xian," said Mnson, "how would you like to be a grand part of history?" Mnson asked, receiving only a scowl from Nondel. "I'm glad you do, because you've just wandered out of a frying pan and into a fire."

Another boom shook the room, driving little bits of scrap falling from the ceiling, falling harmlessly about the room. "I was just testing it, and it looks like you, an example of a strong, smart, and an able soldier, will make a more than sufficient final test," Mnson chuckled creepily.

Another boom rocked the room, and more of it crumbled. This time, it was much louder than any other time before, as if it was only a few meters from within Nondel.

Another boom. More debris fell.

Another boom. Louder, more debris.

Yet another, and half of the room nearly collapsed.

Suddenly, the large doors on the other side of the room split apart, and slowly slid open. The body of a giant machine, walking upright on two legs, weilding razor-sharp talons on its powerful steel arms, and jaws that would crush a skyscraper in half, slowly trudged into the room, shaking the ground beneath Nondel's feet with every step. And as Nondel's jaw dropped wide open and his stomach filled with a void of terror, Mnson said, "Allow me to introduce you to my latest creation: Mechanos."

[Mewfour]

The sheer size of the mechanical monstrosity towering over him made his stomach wince. "For your final task, Mechanos," Mnson said, "kill the Xian!"

Upon Mnson's command, Mechanos lurched forward withh heavy, lumbering steps. Nondel stepped backwards with each step of the mechanical titan in front of him. Still struck with panic, Nondel aimed his blaster at the beast's head and fired a single shot. Mechanos never so much as twitched at the laser bouncing off of its armor skin, it only kept advancing, slowly and steadily upon Nondel. Then suddenly, Mechanos struck out its left hand at Nondel, attempting to skewer him with its talons. The speed of the metal blades zooming towards him just managed to clip the edge of Nondel's shoulder armor as he quickly dove to one side. Mechanos then lashed out at Nondel with its right hand, again nearly missing the Xian by inches. Mechanos took one giant, lurching step towards Nondel with its gigantic feet, nearly crushing him to death. Again, Mechanos stepped forward, with Nondel coming within a whisker of being flattened. Step after thuunderous, smashing step, Mechanos chased Nondel to the end of the room. Now finding himself flat against the wall, with the titanous body of Mechanos blocking all routes of escape, Nondel watched in horror as Mechanos again drew back its right arm, angling its large blades towards him. And with one fast, vicious smash, Mechanos plunged his arm into the spot on the wall where Nondel was. Half of the wall was completely demolished instantly, leaving the third quarter to slowly crumble away to the ground.

Silence passed for minutes. Mechanos was frozen in place, its lifeless eyes locked on the pile of rubble at his feet. Suddenly, Mechanos' audio receptors heard a small squeak, and then his optics caught glimpse of Nondel running towards the hole in the wall from underneath his legs. Just managing to squeeze into the gap between the hole and Mechanos' arm, Nondel slipped into the room on the other side as Mechanos withdrew its hand. And what Nondel saw in the new room made his heart leap with joy.

Lined all over the walls of the small room were a seemingly infinite cache of weaponry- from small tasers to anti-tank rocket launchers. "Don't just stand there, Mechanos!" Nondel heard Mnson' frustrated voice echo all over the other room, "Chase after him!"

Immediately afterwards, the hole in the wall completely tore apart, and soon the whole room, ceiling, walls and everything else, was layed to shambles. Now in the same room, greatly expanded by Mechanos' destructive power, Nondel was once again at the feet of the metal monster.

After only a minute of getting a blank stare from its eyes, Mechanos lashed out at Nondel with its blades again. Quickly rolling to one side, Nondel narrowly avoided being skewered. As soon as he stopped in a kneel, Nondel felt a large, metal cylinder pressing on his knee on the ground. "A rocket launcher!" Nondel yelped with joy. Just as Mechanos pulled his arm back and wound up for another jab, Nondel hoisted the rocket launcher onto his shoulder and pulled the trigger.

The blast from the rocket firing from the tube was so fierce, the kickback floored Nondel immediately. The loud boom and sudden rush of searing heat from the exploding warhead upon Mechanos's armor blasted against Nondel, deafening him and roasting him at the same time. For a moment, Nondel lost all contact with his senses, only to have them razzled and shaken when they returned. Looking up at the towering body of Mechanos, Nondel saw that the armor of the giant machine had been ruptured at the shoulder, blowing a cloud of brown smoke from the gash. As Nondel scrambled back to his feet, Mechanos stood motionless, completely frozen. "Keep attacking, Mechanos!" Mnson's voice barked over the room, just as Nondel slung the rocket launcher over his shoulder and took aim. Bracing himself, Nondel shot another rocket at Mechanos, this time just letting the kickback jar his knees. The rocket screamed as it soared into Mechanos' jaw, exploding in a brilliant flash upon impact. The metal behemoth staggered backwards, reeling from the missle shot to its chin, trembling the ground beneath Nondel as it stepped back. Nondel took aim again, and let a third rocket fly from the launcher, smashing into Mechanos' chest. Mechanos thundered backwards again, almost falling over. Nondel pulled the trigger again, but this time, instead of a sailing rocket, Nondel got a quiet clicking.

"Now," Nondel heard Mnson's voice screech over the room, "destroy him!"

Mechanos rightened itself again, the three tears in its armor smoking heavily, the one on its shoulder just beginning to shoot flames. Nondel quickly began digging through the rubble at his feet, looking for another weapon. Nondel barely managed to pull a small laser cannon from the wreckage and roll out of the way of Mechanos' stomp. Rolling to his knee, Nondel tucked the hilt of the cannon under his arm, aiming the wide barrel with his other hand. Letting a quick blast of laser fire from the cannon, Mechanos froze in its spot upon impact. "Let's see how you like this at full power," Nondel smirked to himself, grinning cruelly at Mechanos. Raising the barrel of the cannon in line with Mechanos' giant head, Nondel let the cannon rumble underneath his arm. Mechanos still stood paralyzed in its spot as the cannon continued to shake, more and more violently with every rumble, becoming so turbulent that Nondel thought it would shake the flesh off of his ribs. And at the instant when Mechanos stired again, the cannon gave a high-pitched whine as a massive blast shot from its barrel, smashing into Mechanos. The shattering force behind the cannon sent Nondel crashing to the floor, while the giant laser blast itself sent Mechanos teetering, rocking this way and that on its feet. Then, with a loud creak, Mechanos fell over on its back, the weight of its colossal body smashing easily through the floor with a crunch, and many other crunches followed afterwards.

"No!" Nondel heard Mnson shriek. "Mechanos!"

Within instants, Nondel had scurried through the gigantic doors from which Mechanos had arrived, leaving Mnson, watching the whole scene from the balcony window, shivering. Moments later, the door to the small laboratory in which he watched flung open, and a furious Nondel stood in the doorway. Mnson managed a weak, terrified smile. "M-m-m-mr. Populas," Mnson squeaked as Nondel moved towards him, "Wh-wh-what a pleasant surprise-"

Mnson squealed when Nondel grabbed him by the collar of his overcoat. Mnson was at least a foot shorter than Nondel, allowing the battle-worn Xian to hoist Mnson by his collar up in the air. "Where is she?" Nondel snarled.

"Where's who?" Mnson quickly squeaked.

Nondel jerked his arms, shaking Mnson. "Where is she?" Nondel snarled again.

"I-I-I don't know what you're talking abou-"

Mnson's words melted into a shriek as Nondel threw him to the other side of the room with a vicious roar. Mnson landed on the floor by a wall, thouroghly shaken and terrfied. With each beat of Mnson's racing heart, Nondel stepped closer and closer to him. With a quick jab of his knee, Nondel had the sole of his boot pressed underneath Mnson's jaw. "Where is she?" Nondel growled. "This is the last time I'll ask."

Mnson weezed as his eyes quickly darted about the room. A small pen amongst the laboratory equipment and papers caught his eye, just on the counter above his head. "I-i-if you let me up," Mnson weakly breathed, "I'll tell you everything."

Nondel took a deep, heavy breath as he lifted his foot off of Mnson, leaving the smaller alien to slowly struggle to his feet. Just as Mnson was standing upright again, his arm flew to the counter and his hand graped the pen like a dagger. With all the strength he could muster, Mnson stabbed the tip of the pen like a knife at Nondel. Without breaking any more sweat, Nondel effortlessly caught Mnson by the wrist. And when Nondel tightened his grip on Mnson, Mnson dropped the pen and was brought to his knees. "Where is she?" Nondel breathed.

Just as Mnson opened his mouth to speak, a roar from the room outside the window blasted through the room. Immediately, the giant head of Mechanos zoomed up in front of the window, glaring at the inside room lifelessely. Nondel barely managed to throw himself and Mnson out of the way of Mechanos' arm, smashing through the wall, demolishing it completely. "Yes!" Mnson cheered, again with his collar in Nondel's fists, "kill him!" When Mechanos opened its jaws to them, and when a glowing blue light shone from inside its mouth, Mnson trembled violently. "No, not that!"

Without nearly a second to think, Nondel threw Mnson to one side of the room, and flung himself to the other. Almost a soon as Nondel landed, an enormous blast of blue light smashed through the laboratory from Mechanos' mouth, burrowing a gigantic hole through anything in its path. Just as Nondel stood up, Mechanos began to form another glow in its mouth. Nondel looked behind him at the metal beast, seconds away from the blue blast to fire again. Suddenly, a scream echoed through the laboratory, and Nondel instinctively threw himself to the side of the room. A split-second later, Nondel saw the blue light within Mechanos had faded, and Mnson with a smoking rocket launcher on his shoulder, trembling in horror.

Seconds later, an ear-shattering boom echoed within the adjacent room, and Mechanos's metal body, most of it erupting in clouds of smoke, creaked and groaned loudly. Flame and smoke billowed from Mechanos' tremendous jaws, as the metal monstrosity collapsed to its knees. "My creation!" Mnson wailed mournfully.

Then, with one last boom, Mechanos collapsed to the ground, igniting in flames as a pile of crumbled, torn metal.

Mnson let the rocket launcher drop from his shoulder and bounce onto the ground. His stare of horror seemed to pass right through Nondel as the Xian truded towards him. Now having Mnson by the collar again, Nondel breathed, "Now where is she?"

"I-I don't know," Mnson squeaked.

Nondel sighed quietly in annoyance. Taking a quick glance around the room, Nondel grinned once he saw a small beaker on a counter, one arm's reach away, labelled, "Truth."

Without a breath later, Nondel grasped the beaker and smashed it into the side of Mnson's head. Mnson shrieked as the glass shattered on his skull, lodging bits and pieces of the beaker in his cheeks and temples. "Tell me, Mnson," Nondel said calmly, wearing a cruel grin, "That was a truth serum, wasn't it?"

Mnson's jaw trembled before he murmured, "Yes..."

"And when did you make it? And why?"

"I made it a few hours ago," Mnson cringed.

"Why?" Nondel asked again.

"T-t-t-t-t-t," Mnson stuttered violently, trying to control his tongue.

"To?" Nondel asked, grinning just wide enough to display his fanged teeth to Mnson.

"T-t-t-t-t-to," Mnson stuttered, "use on... on..."

"To use on Simui?" Nondel quickly spat out.

Mnson weakly nodded.

One second later, Mnson found Nondel's tight grip around his throat. "What for?"

"I-i-in case the," Mnson weezed, "scanner doesn't work-"

"What scanner?"

"A-a-a," Mnson stammered, "a scanner where we're keeping her."

"And where would you be keeping her?" Nondel growled.

"D-" Mnson stammered. "D-" he stuttered again. And suddenly, Mnson blurted out, "Deth Fortress!"

Nondel froze. "Deth Fortress?" Nondel gasped, "Deth's main headquaters?"

"The very same," Mnson weakly chuckled smugly.

"Is there a convoy ship that will fly from here to the Fortress?"

Mnson stammered before muttering, "Yes."

"When?"

"In one hour."

Mnson began to cringe as Nondel tightned his grip on Mnson. "Now, what's this about using some scanner on Simui?"

Mnson stammered more feverishly than before. His jaw trembled again, trying to hold back his tongue. Suddenly, Mnson lurched forward and smashed his forehead on Nondel's. Nondel winced as he let go of Mnson, leaving Mnson to slump to the ground. Rubbing the new welt on his forehead, Nondel knelt down to Mnson's side and pressed his finger underneath his jaw. "He's knocked himself out," Nondel muttered to himself, bitterly cursing inwardly. Nondel stood up and grumbled, raising his foot above Mnson's head. Just as he was about to smash his foot down, Nondel put his foot back down on the ground. "I still might need you," Nondel muttered to the unconsious Mnson, moving towards the door.

---

The ride amongst the cargo was a bumpy one. Nondel nearly got crushed by the shifting crates and containers in the dark, damp and cramped cargo bay. The two large boxes he had wedged himself between kept him firmly in one place, leaving just the top of his head poking out above the tops of the boxes. He had been jostled about by the rumblings of the ship's engine as it propelled the convoy through space, headed straight for Deth Fortress.

Even though Nondel knew his bravery was the only thing that kept him alive throughout this whole ordeal, even he doubted his courage as he sat in between the crates. Here he was, about to sneak into the primary headquarters of Deth, armed with only a laser pistol and a package of delayed explosives, strapped neatly in a pouch on his hip which he picked up from the ruins of Deth Sattelite Ninteen. Nondel began to wonder if his courage was just plain stupidity, whether it was incredibly couragous or blatantly suicidal. In his deep thinking, Nondel lost all track of time in his head, and he awoke suddenly from his thoughts when the ship came to a sudden halt, and then the floor jolted quickly in a quake Nondel knew all too well.

The ship had docked.

He was now inside Deth Fortress.

[Mewfour]

C'mon, y'all! Hurry up and post something before this goes to Completed Fiction!

---

He could hear numerous footsteps pattering outside the hulls of the cargo bays soon after the ship had docked. When thin slivers of light spilled into the bay, Nondel sucked in his stomach and slid himself right below the crates, hiding him from sight completely. Suddenly, Nondel heard a loud, rough voice holler, "Hey, where do you want these ones here?"

"Sector fifteen-C," another voice answered. Just as a pair of feet trudged Nondel's way, the voice spoke again, "Hey listen, I'm heading up to Mnson's lab with these ones here. You can take care of the rest yourself?"

"Yeah, should be no problem," the voice closest to Nondel replied, stepping even closer to the crates which hid him.

"Right, see you at the lab," the fading reply came.

When Nondel was expecting the owner of the only voice left in the bay to start moving the crates in front of him, Nondel heard a heavy body plop itself onto one of the two crates that he hid between. "Move 'em all by myself, yeah right," the shadowed, bulky figure muttered. "No one can be bothered to help little old me move all these ****ing boxes to fifteen-C," the figure complained aloud to himself. "Just leave it to the big guy while we all go and sip our ****ing chillers."

Nondel rolled his eyes from behind the crates. "Someone's not happy with their job," Nondel smirked inwardly to himself.

"Why?" the figure moaned. "Why does everyone think I can do this all by myself? Leaving me by myself inside the docking bays to unload this whole ****ing convoy by myself?"

Nondel quickly grinned. "Slippery tongue, buddy," he thought thankfully.

"I mean, what if there were someone hiding in here?" the figure complained, unaware of Nondel's shadow silently sliding up behind him. "Sure, I could take care of him," the figure muttered, not even noticing Nondel arching his arms towards his neck behind him, "but still. What a stupid protocol violation! I wouldn't be surprised if some guy just sneaked by me from here and just-"

After a sharp crack echoed through the air, the bay fell silent.

---

The hallways seemed much quieter than the others he had snuck down before. Every breath he took seemed heavier. Every beat of his heart seemed harder. Every sound, even the tiniest little squeak or creak, nearly triggered a heart attack. With his pistol still pointed in front of him, Nondel carefully eyed the ceiling as he slowly crept through the halls, watching for any security cameras. The new laser rifle he had picked up from the dead guard was slung neatly over his shoulder on a strap, the butt of its handle rested Nondel's shoulder blades, ready for a quick draw and fire.

Suddenly, Nondel heard footsteps pattering his way. Quickly looking for anything to hide in or behind, Nondel's heart quickened as the footsteps echoing in the hallway became louder. Spotting a door a few meters ahead of him, Nondel quickly popped the door open and slipped inside. As quietly as he had openned it, Nondel shut the door quickly behind him. Flattening himself against the door, Nondel took a silent, calming breath, taking a quick peek at the energy gauge at the side of his pistol. "Only twelve percent left?" Nondel quietly groaned to himself. Stuffing the pistol into his holster, Nondel flipped the laser rifle across his chest and looked at the side of the body. The energy meter on the side was only about half full, barely more than fifty-one percent. Sliding the rifle back behind his shoulders, Nondel stuffed his hand in the pouch on his right hip, fumbling around with the small explosives inside. "One, two, four," Nondel muttered, "Only four minor bombs, a half-powered rifle and a nearly wasted pistol, and stuck inside Deth Fortress." Nondel grimaced. "This isn't good."

Suddenly, more footsteps clambered through the hallway behind the door, forcing Nondel to look around the new room for a way of hiding. Lockers and benches lined the walls and stood in rows, and a faint reek of sweat and soap drifted in the air. As the footsteps pounded closer and closer to the door, Nondel decided to quickly dash to the first locker he came to. When he tugged violently on the handle, he only got a stubborn rattle. Quickly hopping to the next locker, Nondel tried to swing it open, again receiving stiff resistance. Nondel heard the door slowly creak open, driving him behind one row of lockers on the other side of the room. Nondel heard a pair of feet walking along the other side of the room, one heavy and lumbering, the other soft and quick.

"You sure this guy's here?" Nondel heard a deep and gruff voice mutter.

"Positive," a high and quick voice replied. "The cameras got him at least three times."

Nondel froze. "Cameras?" he thought to himself. "What cameras? There were cameras?" Nondel gritted his teeth. "Dammit!"

"Hey, you smell that?" the deeper voice asked.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad in here," the smaller voice replied.

"No, I ain't talkin' about the sweat," the deep voice muttered, "I smell fear."

"Fear?"

"Fear," the booming voice said again. "Someone is afraid here in this room. Very afraid."

Nondel's pulse quickened. "The hell you mean, fear?" The smaller voice yapped.

"I can smell it in the air," the deeper voice hissed. "He's here. He's here."

Nondel quickly peeked from behind the row into the passage between the lockers. Almost as quickly as he poked his head around, he snapped it back, catching a brief glimpse of a large, black-skinned alien and a smaller, thinner, green-skinned alien. "You're crazy," the smaller alien muttered. "This place smells the same as it always does. Bad."

"Then why don't you somewhere else, and let me handle this guy?" the larger alien retorted, suddenly walking around the corner of the lockers. Nondel quickly slid along the other side of the lockers, just as the alien took his former spot.

"There's no one here," the smaller alien squeaked.

"No," came the bigger voice, "He's here. I know it."

"Then maybe we should split up," the small alien proposed. "You look for him here if you're so sure, and I'll look on A-deck."

"A-deck?" the larger alien snorted as their footsteps stopped. "What would he be doing there?"

"What would he be doing here?" the smaller alien snapped back quickly.

The larger alien grunted. "Fine, go." Nondel heard the smaller alien slowly dawdle towards the door, and soon saw the alien reach for the handle.

As the larger alien was quietly scoping the rows of lockers, he heard a sudden crunch echo though the room. "He's here!" he exclaimed, "I knew it!" Within seconds, a hail of laser fire erupted from the large alien's rifle, pumping laser shots systematically though the rows of lockers. More fidgeting sounds echoed through the room, and the alien responded with another storm of fire through the other row of lockers, punching numerous holes in every locker in sight. Rounding an isle, the alien let a hail of laser pump though the new row of lockers. When he released the trigger, the room fell quiet. After a few seconds of steady silence, the guard laughed to himself. "Hope some of you boys don't mind a few holes in your clothes," he chuckled to himself. Rustling with his belt, the alien took out a small radio. "Took care of him," he spat out, "He won't give us any more trouble." The guard stuffed the radio back on his belt and trudged out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Silence ruled the room as smoke poured out of the numerous holes in the lockers. Out of one locker in the middle of the isle, blood dribbled out of the nine holes in the metal door, spilling onto the floor in a large puddle. Suddenly, the door fell off of its hinges and clanged loudly onto the floor, drenched in blood. The body of the thin alien, riddled with multiple wounds, flopped onto the door, adding to the mess of blood on the floor, splashing it onto the row on the other side of the isle. Nondel calmly stepped out of the same locker, looking over the body of the dead alien. "I'll be taking these," Nondel grinned, relieving the dead body of its laser rifle and radio. After stuffing the radio onto his own belt, Nondel brandished his own laser rifle, holding the other in his other hand. Butting the clips of the two rifles together, Nondel tossed the dead guard's rifle onto the floor, leaving it clattering on the floor. Nondel looked at the energy gauge of his rifle, and smirked. "Full power," he hummed to himself, arming the rifle. With the rifle now clutched firmly in his hands, Nondel poked his way out of the room and continued down the hallway...

[Mewfour]

Mnson ruffled the papers on his desk uneasisly. Somewhere, lurking around inside the same complex as he, the Xian was on the loose. The numerous computer databases that lined the darkened room all blinked numerous lights and gauges, making tiny squeaks and bleeps. The power that these computers consumed to keep running had drained the electricity from the lights in the room ever since they were put to use, throwing the room into an eerie illuminated glow, fuelled by a long, coffin-like casket that rested on the floor in the corner, giving off a dull blue glow. It's black surface reflected the dim light all over the room, creating a virtual twilight. Mnson quickly glanced at the coffin again. Gazing at it, Mnson let himself lose track of space and time, awakening with a startle when the door to the room slid open. With a quiet gasp, Mnson swivled around in his chair too see a large, blocky shilloutte standing in the doorway. "Oh, m-m-m'lord, please, come in."

The figure took one heavy step into the room, its heavy boot lighty shaking the floor beneath it. Closing the door behind it, the figure slowly approaced Mnson, the basic features of its nature beginning to show with the dull illumination. "What is it?" the figure asked in a hoarse, deep voice.

Mnson trembled. "Th-th-the scanner," Mnson stammered, "I-i-i-it's still not doing the job."

The glow from the casket-like machine highlighted the figure's thin royal-red robe, attached to two large shoulder armor units on its shoulders. Raising an armored arm from within his robes, the figure brushed its spiky blonde hair from behind its cold, steel mask. The left eye created a faint mechanical creak as it scanned the room along with the figure's black right eye. "What do you mean?" the figure asked.

Mnson shivered more violently. "Th-the mind probe," Mnson weakly murmured, glancing at the casket, "it's working perfectly," said he. "Bu-"

"So?" The figure interrupted, concealing his arm within his robe again, "What's the problem?"

"It's not getting what we want," Mnson squeaked.

The figure glared sharply at Mnson. Mnson's teeth chattered wildly as he shrunk lower into his chair, with his eyes filled with terror. "You disappoint me, Mnson," the figure growled.

"F-f-forgive me, l-lord Deth," Mnson hastily blurted out.

The figure snorted. "Are you sure she was the one?" it asked, glancing at the coffin.

"That's what the team that picked her up said, lord Deth," Mnson murmured nervously.

The figure walked heavily up to the casket, running a white-gloved hand over the sleek black surface. "Open it," the figure growled.

Mnson nodded quickly and flicked a nearby switch on his desk. Half of the top of the casket creaked open in response, opening in front of the figure's eyes. Light from within the casket spilled into the room, fully exposing the figure's features as he leaned over the casket. "That's her," Mnson squeaked, "the Xian."

Simui lay in the casket in her black shirt and skirt, her eyes closed and her lips parted slightly, sleeping peacefully. The figure paid Mnson no mind as it gazed upon her, studying her face. "I trust she was not harmed?" The figure asked.

"Not a scratch," Mnson said, taking a deep breath to calm himself.

"And the rest of her uniform?"

"Right beside the scanner, lord Deth" said Mnson.

The figure stood up, still looking at Simui. "And her partner?" Deth asked, "Is he still running around in here?"

"Y-yes," Mnson nervously stuttered. "But don't worry, lord Deth. Every available team is hunting him- shoot on site-"

The figure growled to himself, placing his gloved hand on his steel-masked chin, silencing Mnson instantly. "No," the figure hummed, "don't kill him."

"L-l-lord Deth?" Mnson squeaked.

"Yes, let him live," the figure muttered. "Let him live, just as we will her."

"B-but, why?"

The figure shot Mnson another glare. Mnson nearly fell off his chair with a heart attack. "No. When the scanner finishes, we will release her to him. And then, we will send them back on their way to X."

Suddenly, Mnson weakly smiled. "Oh I see! Brilliant plan, lord Deth!"

The figure let out a barely audiable chuckle. "Yes, brilliant indeed." The figure turned back towards the door and moved towards it. "Continue, doctor," said the shadow, "Take all the time you need."

***

Nondel pressed himself as flat as he could against the wall. The smell in the air was slightly pungent, sometimes forcing Nondel to cover his nasal slits. "I must've stumbled into some sort of sewage system," Nondel muttered to himself. Mildew and grime lined the walls and floors of the sickly yellow corridors, sometimes the slimy clumps were as slippery as ice, nearly making Nondel crash to the floor a few times. With his pistol tucked into his holster, his rifle slung behind his shoulder, and his pouch of small bombs strapped around his waist, Nondel cautiously crept along the filthy corridor. He kept an almost constant watch on the ceiling, looking for anything that might resemble any sort of security camera.

Suddenly, Nondel heard faint, muffled voices speaking futher down the corridor, around a full corridor turn. Not able to hear them clearly, Nondel snuck up against the wall of the bend and poked his head around the corner. As soon as he pushed his head in, Nondel pulled it back again. Three guards, each a bizarre species, stood around each other, talking.

"He's got a bomb pouch with him," Nondel heard one of the three voices say.

"And a rifle, and a gun," chimed in another.

Nondel heard the third alien mutter to himself. "Is he still here in the drain system?"

"Yeah. Good thing he has no idea where the cameras are," said the second. All three voices chuckled knowingly.

"****!" Nondel growled inwardly.

"Those bombs he has," the third voice said, "Did you get a U-signature on them?"

"Fifty-seven U-waves given off per minute, commander," the first voice said, "Those bombs are ours."

"Good," said the third voice. "Have you got your detonator set to fifty-seven?"

"Fifty-seven and already ready to blow that Xian to bits," the first voice snickered.

"Well, don't push it yet," said the third voice. "Xian!" The voice said in a suddenly loud voice, "If you can hear me, those D-Packs you have with you are about to explode."

Nondel hastily and quietly slipped the pouch off of his waist.

"Unless you don't want to be more of the mess inside these drain systems, I suggest you follow my voice and give yourself up."

"Wouldn't he just ditch the bombs somewhere, commander?" Nondel heard the second voice ask.

"No," said the third. "Then he'd be telling us exactly where he is."

Nondel gritted his teeth, glaring at the pouch of bombs angrily.

"You have five seconds, Xian," Nondel heard the commander announce. "Five seconds to turn yourself in, or else these bombs explode. Five..."

Nondel's mind raced.

"Four..."

He opened the pouch, glancing frantically at the four small bombs inside.

"Three..."

Panicked, Nondel began to craft a three-second plan.

"Two..."

Nondel suddenly grinned.

"One. Hit the bombs," the commander barked. Just as the alien's hand went to his device, the small tan pouch of bombs slid along the floor, stopping right in the middle of their circle.

Nondel couldn't stop himself from chuckling quietly to as a violent explosion rocked the corridor. "That was almost too easy," Nondel laughed to himself. Slipping around the corner, Nondel saw the charred remains of two aliens, sprawled out on the floor, amidst the nearly demolished hallway. The commander, Nondel readily assumed, had been incinerated, judging by the large black crater in the middle of the hallway. "Did that hurt?" Nondel rhetorically asked one blackened body, laughing as he playfully kicked the corpse in the ribs. Kneeling down to the dead guard, Nondel searched his remains, unaware that a limping shadow was slowly approaching him from behind, aiming the barrel of a gun at his neck. Just as Nondel laid eyes on a thin blade stuffed in the soldier's pocket, he heard the bloodied commander groan, "Hold it right there, Xian."

Nondel slowly raised his hands up. "That was pretty clever of you, Xian," the commander, looking almost like a minature version of Bloq, muttered weakly, "But not clever enough."

"What are you waiting for?" Nondel asked without any trace of fear in his voice.

"I've been ordered not to kill you," the commander muttered, "yet." The alien shook his pistol in the air. "Get up." Nondel slowly rose to his feet. "Take your rifle off slowly," the commander instructed. Nondel slowly eased the rifle's shoulder strap off of his back, letting the rifle slide gently down his arm to his hand. Holding the rifle by the strap, Nondel let the butt touch the ground lightly. "Now put it down," the commander growled. Nondel released his grip on the strap, letting the rifle clatter harmlesly on the ground. "And now your gun," the commannder ordered. Soon, Nondel's pistol was on the floor with his rifle. "And now," said the commander, "put your hands behind your back." Nondel slowly lowered his hands down from the air, and rested them on his tailbone.

"What do you need me alive for?" Nondel growled a question as the commander approached from behind, brandishing a pair of handcuffs.

"I don't need you alive," the commander replied, opening the cuffs, "Deth does."

Suddenly, Nondel raised his left arm sharply, swinging his wrist behind him blindly. The commander yelped in sudden agony, leaving Nondel time to spin around on his heel and thrust the heel of his left hand into the commander's forehead. The commander gave one last moan of dismay as his body suddenly relaxed, with his eyes rolling back into their sockets. The commander's body slumped onto the ground, a bloody wound on his forehead gushing blood all over the floor. Nondel breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the bloodied blade jutting out from his wrist, it's handle stuck firmly underneath Nondel's sleeve. "Then tell Deth to come get me himself," Nondel spat at the dead commander, pushing the blade back underneath his sleeve, hiding it completely. Picking up the commander's pistol and his laser rifle, Nondel took one last look at the comander before he stepped over him and ventured further into the depths of Deth Fortress....

[Mewfour]

Mnson stared at the computer monitors intently. His face was a mix of anticipation and fear. He knew that the scanner would eventually glean what Deth wanted, but he also knew that Nondel was still inside Deth Fortress with him. Even more disturbing, Deth was there as well.

Mnson had always felt uneasy around Deth. Even though Mnson knew that his technical and chemical knowledge was much too valuable for Deth to eliminate, Mnson still kept a fearful eye on Deth whenever he was near. He had been working for Deth long enough, too long for his liking, to know that the reports of Deth's ruthless personality, high intellect and lethal ability were a severe understatement, especially the ruthlessness. When he thought about it, Mnson realized that Deth was the ultimate warrior, an undefeatable one-man-army, who had been known on several occasions to fend off an entire enemy platoon by himself. Mnson knew the suit of cybernetic armor that was integrated with Deth's body well, as he had repaired it many a time before. Removing it was impossible, so Mnson had to repair it with Deth inside, with Mnson constantly being subjected to whatever mutterings or schemings Deth spoke to himself underneath his colorless steel mask. It was a habit Mnson wished Deth did not have, as many of his lord's spoken plans horrified him to his marrow. Deth's frequent ideas of genocide and torturous enslavery filled the air, unwillingly absorbed into Mnson's memory through his ears. Mnson dared not ask Deth to reconsider an new plan that did not disturb him, not even to politlely inform Deth that he did not wish to hear his schemes. As Mnson read over the data that the monitors spit out onto thier screens, Mnson wished that he could recieve all the materials he needed, just like Deth had always supplied him, to build whatever he pleased on his own accord. For Mnson, he could not stand to exist beside Deth's horrific nature, and neither could he find simplistic happiness in building incredibly complex machines without the finest source of materials and workers in the galaxy in infinite quantity, paid for and provided by the one he feared.

Suddenly, Mnson felt peculiar. "I've got to get a drink," Mnson muttered to himself, rising from his chair and hobbling out of his darkened workstation. Closing the door securely behind him, Mnson shielded his eyes at the sudden bright light of the hallway, windows peering into the vast openess of space on the opposite wall. Rubbing his eyes and adjusting to the bright light, Mnson ambled down the corridor and disappeared down a corner.

Seconds later, Nondel appeared in the same hallway on the opposite end. Gripping the stolen pistol firmly in his hands, Nondel cautiously inched himself against the wall, hoping to avoid any sort of the well-hidden security cameras, wherever they were. The door to Mnson's station was the only door in the hallway, so Nondel decided to peek into there. When he reached for the handle and turned, all he recieved was a stubbon clicking. It was then that he noticed a small box-like device mounted on the wall beside the door, looking to have a small microphone speaker inside of it. "Damn voice-lock," Nondel muttered to himself.

As if on queue, the voice-lock said, "Voice pattern invalid. Voice-lock acessable only by Deth or Doctor Mnson."

Nondel breathed coolly. "I'll have to find Doctor Mnson then," he muttered to himself.

"Voice pattern invalid. Voice-lock acessable only by-"

"Oh, shut up," Nondel muttered, continuing his stealthy sneaking down the hallway.

"Voice pattern invalid. Voice-lock acessable only by..."

***

Nondel breathed heavily. The damaged fuse box sparked wildly, illuminating the dark room. The dead guard lay on the floor, bleeding heavily from his fully pierced throat. Nondel's gun was still smoking, along with the three wide burn marks lacing his chest armor. Nondel was surprised at the guard's vigor when he was still alive- those three laser blasts the alien fired caught him completely by surprise. Somewhere during the gunfight, Nondel shot the fusebox, throwing the room into nearly complete blackness. By pure luck, one of his next two blind shots Nondel fired into the darkness hit the guard right underneath his chin. Knowing that other crew members would come to investigate the sudden blackout in the nearby corridors, Nondel quickly slipped further down the passageway.

Suddenly, Nondel heard faraway voices down the hallway. "That Xian is highly trained and dangerous, remember, boys. Whatever you do, don't underestimate him!" Nondel could hardly tell how far away the voice was, much less see anything in the darkness past a meter in front of him. "Everybody ready?" Came the voice again, "Good. Put on your nightvision goggles."

Suddenly, Nondel saw five pairs of green circular eyes glare at him two meters down the corridor. "There he is!" Nondel heard a voice shriek as soon as the green eyes cut through the blanket of black.

"Shoot to cripple!"

Nondel quickly flattened himself against the wall, narrowly avoiding a rush of speeding lasers. On reflex, Nondel whipped his pistol into the darkness and rang out a few blind shots. The green eyes did not waiver, and another storm of gunfire nearly skewered him again. Running backwards as fast as he could as he returned fire, Nondel barley managed to round a corner in the halls in one piece. His armor was now almost completely charred, making Nondel wonder how much more damage it could take before it would leave him vulnerable. "Move it!" Nondel heard a voice bark stiffly from around the corner, followed by many galloping feet headed his way. Nondel galloped away too, hoping that, somewhere in this darkness, there would be something to help him survive. Suddenly stumbling when his foot kicked a light, hollow object, Nondel found that he had knocked upon a large, empty box. Just as the soldiers rushed into the corridor, Nondel had completely hidden himself inside the cardboard.

"Where'd he go?" Nondel heard a voice bark.

"****! Look at all these boxes here!" Fumed a second. "Damn stockpile room!"

"He could be hiding in or behind any of these boxes, men," Nondel heard an oddly collected voice say, "and becuase this room is so large, he could slip out from behind our backs at any time. So search carefully! You two search those ones in that corner, you and I will search those, and you search those over there."

On queue, Nondel heard a pair of feet trample over to his box. Nondel felt the guard struggling with all his might trying to move his box. "Damn! what the hell is in here?" Nondel heard the guard grunt, releasing the box. Just as the soldier opened the flaps of the box, Nondel shot his hands upward.

A muffled yelp echoed through the room. "What was that?" a voice shrieked.

"He's here!" another yelled, followed by a few gunshots.

Seconds later, the rest of the footsteps crowded around the box. "Long hair, wide chest armor," said one voice, looking at the unconscious and bleeding body in the box, "We've got him."

"But sir," said another voice, "Our goggles only see in shades of green. What if that Xian switched armors with someone else?"

"He'd have to be an impossibly fast switch artist," the voice stiffly replied. "Now haul him out and take him in." The body was dragged out of the box and along the hallway, leaving a wide trail of blood behind him in the soldier's arms.

Just as the party rounded a corner, one soldier quietly snuck into a room with an open door. "Nothing's impossible if you practice it well enough," the soldier grinned to himself. "And maybe I should've thanked that guy for letting me borrow his armor..."

[Mewfour]

His new armor, red, large and bulky, felt very restrictive. Even the laser rifle he had slung over his shoulder felt awkward over the blocky armor. The guard he had exhanged his old armor with was much wider than he, leaving Nondel inside an oversized armor that limited full mobility. Nondel knew he had to find new armor, similar to the familiar orange armor of his Xian outfit, and he immediately thought of Simui. Retracing his steps back to the voice-locked door, Nondel quietly slipped around a corner of the hall, waiting in total silence. Ever since he came across the lock, Nondel could not shake the feeling that something important lay behind the door. And Nondel thought his suspicions would be rewarded soon once he heard tiny, pattering footsteps in the hallway.

With his thirst quenched, Mnson slowly hobbled his way to the voice-lock. Knowing he had a lot of work ahead of him, Mnson sighed quietly and wiped his brow, facing the voice-lock. "Doctor Mnson," Mnson quickly recited into the voice-lock.

"Voice pattern accepted," replied the voice-lock, filling the air with a brief yet loud click.

Just as Mnson put his hand on the door handle, he felt a metal cylinder press against the back of his neck. Mnson nearly died of a sudden heart attack. "I thought I'd find you if I waited around here long enough," came the voice of Nondel from behind him.

"You're still alive?" Mnson squeaked in terror.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Nondel replied blankly. "Now open the door."

Nervously, Mnson slowly let the door creak open. Then, when the door was only half open, Mnson stopped. "Open it," Nondel repeated. Mnson's lower lip trembled as if he were trying to speak, but his jaw was frozen from fear. "What's in there, Mnson?"

Mnson wimpered quietly as he continued to slowly open the door. Soon, the door was wide open, revealing the entire blackened workstation. Prodding Mnson along in front of him with the barrel of his gun, Nondel ventured into the room. Even though all of the computer monitors caught Nondel's eye often, his focus was quickly ensnared by the black casket in the corner of the room. "What's in there?"

"Where?" Mnson quickly squeaked.

Nondel thrust the barrel deeper into Mnson's neck. "You know where," Nondel growled. "Open it."

"I-i-if you'll allow me to my keyboard," Mnson nervously murmured, cautiously motioning to the desk that sported the numerous screens. Nondel's gun, still poking Mnson's vertebrae, followed Mnson to the desk as Mnson typed away at the keyboard on the desk. Seconds later, half of the casket opened, and Nondel suddenly felt an unparalleled joy.

"Simui!" Nondel gasped, looking at the sleeping Xian inside the casket. Pushing the barrel of his gun further into the back of Mnson's neck. "You've got some explaining to do."

Mnson wimpered. "It's a mind scanner," he murmured.

"And why are you using it on Simui?"

Mnson stuttered nervously. "Wait," Nondel said, "Don't answer that yet. First, tell me how I know you're not lying."

"Because the truth serum is still work-" Mnson eagerly blurted out, and abruptly shut his mouth and covered it with his hands, a look of shocked horror and dismay burning in his eyes.

Nondel grinned. "You tried to lie to me again, didn't you?" Nondel asked with a smirk, displaying his short vampire-like fangs.

Mnson quietly cringed. "Yes."

"Now, back to the question. Why are you doing this to Simui?"

"Deth wants me to," Mnson quickly murmured. "He knew an Xian ship was headed to the AG2 galaxy, and he wanted a Xian, one with inside knowledge of X's military, to capture."

"And you caught Simui, and you're now scanning her brain for information about X?"

"Yes," Mnson pitifully muttered.

Nondel paused. "How did Deth know we were headed to AG2?"

"Because he lured you," Mnson squeaked. "We made a fake broadcast about AG2 increasing their weapons development, and-"

"Waited for us to take the bait," Nondel grimly finished Mnson's sentence. Mnson weakly nodded as Nondel looked at the moniters. "How much information do you have on X?"

"Nothing yet," Mnson murmured. "The scanner hasn't found the right memory pattern yet."

Nondel glanced at Simui again. "Shut it off," Nondel ordered.

"But-" Mnson stammered, "But that would take two hours to shut down!" Mnson squeaked. Nondel forcefully jabbed his gun into Mnson's neck. With a defeated wimper, Mnson typed away again at the keyboard. Within seconds, a hum of depressurizing air escaping from containment filled the air. Nondel glanced at a moniter again, finding one message displayed across the middle of the screen: "Mindscan terminated. Mindscan cannot be reactivated until full shutdown is complete."

Picking up some nearby unused computer cable, Nondel wrapped it around Mnson and the chair he was sitting in, snugly fastening the two together. Leaning over the casket, Nondel gazed at Simui. Not wanting to stay any longer in Deth Fortress, and not wanting to run into Deth himself, Nondel reached his hand into Simui's casket.

"Don't touch her!" Mnson suddely yelped in alarm. When Nondel quickly shot Mnson a glare, Mnson murmured, "Right now, she's in a super-subconsious state. If anyone so much as breathes too hard on her, the shock on her nervous system will kill her."

Nondel snarled inwardly, gazing back at Simui. "So, she's not going to be ready to wake up in two hours?" Nondel growled a question to Mnson.

"Two hours," Mnson bitterly muttered.

Nondel stood up and walked to Simui's orange armor, discarding his blocky red armor and picking up Simui's. The remarkable flexibility of the Xian armor quickly adjusted to its new owner's body, and Nondel suddenly felt much less restrained. Nondel walked to the door, dragging Mnson on the chair along with him as he left the room, securely closing the door behind him. Hoisting Mnson onto his level by his collar, Nondel presented Mnson's face to the voice-lock. "Change the lock," Nondel ordered.

"Command voice change," Mnson wimpered into the lock.

"Voice pattern accepted," replied the lock, "Record new voice pattern."

Just before Mnson could quickly blurt out his own name, Nondel clamped a hand over his mouth. "Nondel Populas," Nondel spat into the voice-lock, with Mnson's muffled protests all but muted underneath Nondel's hand.

"Voice pattern changed. Voice-lock pattern is set for, Nondel Populas. Have a nice day."

Nondel dropped Mnson and the chair he was tied to, clattering noisily on the floor. "Now, what to do for two whole hours," Nondel pondered to himself quietly, nonchalantly strolling down the hallway, slipping out of sight.

Mnson lay in the hallway, tipped over onto his side, struggling against the cables that fastned him to the chair. Minutes after Nondel had left the hallway silent, Mnson heard heavy thuds of footsteps coming his way. Mnson was suddenly terrified. He knew who was coming his way. And when the gold-capped boots stopped right in front of his eyes, Mnson nervously looked up to their owner. "L-l-lord Deth," Mnson murmured, trying his best to sound content and polite, "how nice to see you again."

"He's still alive, isn't he?" Was the solemn reply Mnson recieved.

Wishing that Nondel had not found the truth serum on Deth Sattelite Ninteen, Mnson regretfully squeaked, "Yes."

The being that wore the boots snarled. Stepping over Mnson, the boots heavily trudged down the hallway, followed by the dancings of the wide red robe behind it. "Must I do everything myself?" Mnson heard his lord growl aloud, as he too disappeared down the hallway.

[Mewfour]

"Evacuate Deth Fortress immediately! Repeat, evacuate!"

The sudden barked order over the stolen radio on Nondel's belt made him jolt. Nondel doubted that the resulting rush of crew would come trampling into the blacked-out section of Deth Fortress, so Nondel quickly sped forth to the damaged sector again. Nondel barely managed to conceal himself in the darkness before a stampede of aliens, soldiers, guards, and technitians rushed down the corridors that were still lit. Pressing himself flat agaist a wall in the darkness, Nondel watched as masses of crew rushed down the hall to the docking bays, presumably to their spacecrafts. Even when the hall was emptied and not a sound was to be heard, Nondel still wondered why an evacuation order was given. Suddenly, it dawned on him. Deth was trying to flush him out either by having the evacuating crew spot him, or possibly by narrowing down the number of beings on board Deth Fortress, thus having a greater chance of some guard catching him. The thought of Deth planning to destroy Deth Fortess crossed Nondel's mind one time or another, but he dismissed the idea easily, knowing that Deth Fortress was too valuable for Deth to lose. But whatever Deth was planning, Nondel felt, he did not like it at all.

Stepping out of the darkness, Nondel was suddenly surprised to see a small, long object lying on the floor. Nondel picked the small object up, finding it to look like a handle of some sort. Assuming that one of the rushing aliens had dropped it, Nondel held the handle in his hand and examined it with scrutiny. By accident, Nondel's pointer finger slipped and rubbed across one of the small bumps that lined the end of the handle with an ominous hole, and a sudden blast of green light shot from the hilt of the handle, nearly making Nondel drop it in surprise. Instead of shooting straight through the ceiling as Nondel expected, the green light projected itself into a glowing blade of energy, looking exactly like a sword in Nondel's hand. "A beam saber!" Nondel cheered to himself. Running a finger over one of the numerous bumps on the saber again, the beam suddenly disappated into the air. Stuffing the handle between his hip and his belt, Nondel steadied his grip on his pistol and looked around the corridor. Now that the corridors were completely empty, Nondel felt a strange sense of security. Instinctually feeling that wandering around aimlessly about a seemingly vacant Deth Fortress was unneccesarily risky, Nondel began to think of something to do during his two-hour wait for Simui to awaken.

Suddenly, the gears in Nondel's head hit a groove. Grinning cruelly to himself, Nondel chuckled, "Sabotage time!"

***

Exactly one hour later, Nondel shared a chuckle with himself. He remembered the last machine he tampered with, how it bleeped frantically before it burst alight. "Damned if this ship ever works again," Nondel grinned to himself, slinking down another corridor. Suddenly finding himself at a dead end, Nondel noticed a door on the wall at the end of the corridor. Nondel slid down to the end of the hall to the door, finding it unlocked. Poking the barrel of his pistol into the room with the door as a shield, Nondel slowly edged into the room.

The plain room looked like the docking bays which he had snuck into Deth Fortress from, except that it was devoid of any airlocks, vessels, or any other acessories any docking bay would have, Nondel realized that he was instead in a cargo hold. Boxes and steel crates lay scattered over the floor, the walls of the room stacked to the rafters with other containers. Hoping to find something useful or something else to tamper with, Nondel strolled over to one stack of metal crates and tapped once on the steel surface.

Almost in response, Nondel heard a loud click echo through the high-ceiling room from behind him. The door had closed and locked behind him, and a large figure was standing in front of the door. "Nondel Populas, I presume?" The figure asked in a voice that was more coarse than unrefined gravel mixed with broken glass.

When he looked at the cloaked shadow, Nondel's blood ran cold, and he suddenly wished he had never dared to toy with death.

"You slipped into Meldevos' headquarters," the figure said, "snuck into the lab on Aqqualita, went back to LV001, and you had the courage to infiltrate Deth Sattelite Ninteen." The figure suddenly took a step forward with its heavy boot. "And now you boldly walk into Deth Fortress itself," the figure said, glaring at Nondel through its steel mask.

"You," Nondel stammered, "You're... Deth!"

The figure nodded once. "You are either incredibly brave, Xian," Deth replied, "Or you want to commit suicide."

Nondel gripped his pistol tightly in his hand. "I didn't come here to fight you, Deth," Nondel snarled, "I came for Simui."

"And that weakling Mnson told you all about my plan," said Deth. "Now, instead of letting the both of you live, I'll end up killing you, and her if I have to." Deth said as he reached up to his chest, putting his finger on the chain that connected the two halves of his shoulder armor and robe. With a tiny click, the chain fell limp. And with fluid shuffling of his shoulders, the armor and robe fell off of Deth's back, collapsing into a heap onto the floor.

His dark blue armor reflected the light in the room with a flawless polish. The smooth blue armor on his chest and forearms accented his white gloved hands perfectly as Deth gripped a handle attached to his belt, plucking it off sharply with all casualness. The handle, connected to an odd device that sprouted an beam outlet on the top and sides, had an eerie look about it, gripped in Deth's hand. With a sudden sound of energy escaping confinement, the top outlet of the device sprouted a wide beam of energy, exactly like the beam sabre Nondel had picked up earlier. In response, Nondel aimed his blaster at Deth, ready to fire or draw and activate his beam sabre at any moment. Deth lined his blade up with Nondel, and the two glared at each other, locking their eyes in a mutual stare. "For your foolish bravery, Xian," Deth muttered, "I promise you a quick and painless death."

Before Nondel's heart could take another beat, a small panel on Deth's forearm that held aloft his beam sabre to him raised itself up, and two thin blasts of energy sped towards Nondel. Nondel narrowly managed to strafe to his left in time, avoiding the shots by mere inches. On immediate reflex, Nondel unloaded a full round of pistol energy at Deth. Deth only stood his ground as the shots bounced off of his armor, not even dimming its shining polish. Nondel and Deth stood motionless, with Nondel gazing at Deth's armor in stunned disbelief and Deth gazing back at Nondel in perverse satisfaction at his surprise. Suddenly, Deth took off on his feet, dashing with lightning speed toward Nondel. With a flash of red sailing by his shoulder, Nondel barely managed to twist his body out of Deth's saber's way, slicing the air apart as it glided through the air. Backhanding his arm, Deth brought his sabre towards Nondel again, this time having his crimson blade blocked by Nondel's green energy sword. Roling his shoulder around, Deth swung his saber at Nondel again, with the Xian again halting Deth's attack with his own blade. Now on the clear offensive, Deth let his blade sail upon Nondel's again and again, stepping forward agressively, forcing Nondel to steadily retreat. Every blow of Deth's blade upon Nondel's made Nondel's shoulder jolt. Deth's raw strength and power was nothing short of unbelievable to Nondel, leaving Nondel on the defensive. Suddenly, Deth took a wild, vicious swipe at Nondel. Nondel slipped to his side, narrowly avoiding being sliced in two. Noticing a gap between he and Deth, Nondel sped to a mess of sloppily stacked crates and dove behind them. Tossing his blaster away, Nondel slid the rifle onto his chect, quickly gripping it for immediate use. Leaping to his feet, Nondel unleased a torrent of lasers at Deth as soon as he spotted him. Even though Deth skillfully weaved around the blasts to sheild himself behind another mountain of containers, one shot hit his shoulder armor, visibly shaking him as he took cover.

Nondel quickly sunk back behind the crates, breathing heavily. Slowly poking the barrel of his rifle above the crates, Nondel eyed the pile of stock that Deth hid behind, waiting for Deth to show himself. Nondel was suddenly greeted by Deth's right forearm peeking at him above the crates, sporting another one of the same panels from it that housed the red lasers. Just as Nondel slid behind the crates again, he heard the high-pitched scream of steam-propelled rockets. Without so much as a breath later, Nondel sprung away from the crates, seconds before they exploded in a dazzling flash of flames. Almost as soon as Nondel hit the ground, Nondel scrambled back to his feet as a storm of lasers bit for his heels. Quickly diving behind another row of crates, Nondel readied his rifle and blindly fired it behind him, hearing his shot smash into something metallic. A sudden snarl from behind him told Nondel that he had managed to hit Deth. Kneeling behind the crates, Nondel kept a steady torrent of laser fire sailing into the crates, keeping Deth below them.

Suddenly, a small rocket shot from between a small space in the wall of Deth's crate shield, forcing Nondel to dash to another pile of stock as his other crate shield detonated wildly. Suddenly feeling that he had landed awkwardly on his shoulder, Nondel grimaced as a following hail of laser fire from Deth pummeled Nondel's wall of crates. Once the barrrage ceased, Nondel let loose a heavy sigh of tension, knowing that the reports of Deth's level of skill and power were severely below reality. Nondel began to wonder how much longer this mutual stalemate would last, probably until either one of them ran out of ammunition. Nondel looked at his rifle's energy gauge. With only forty-two percent of its maximum capacity left in it, and with no vital knowledge of Deth's weapons, Nondel admitted to himself that the odds were more than likely stacked against him.

Another rush of lasers blasted against Nondel's cover, rattling Nondel's spine as he pressed his back against the crates. As soon as the assault of laser blasts were over, Nondel popped up above the level of his shelter and let a fury of indiscriminating blasts shoot from his rifle. Knowing that Deth had hidden himself behind the crates again, Nondel ceased fire and hid behind his stack of containers again. A minute of silence passed before Nondel's ears were once againn greeted with a clatter of lasers raining upon the metal boxes. Suddenly, a high-pitched whine Nondel knew all too well filled the air, and the torrent of laser fire abruptly stopped. "He's overheated something!" Nondel found himself nearly joyfully screaming aloud. Nondel waited behind his shield for a few minutes, and nothing but his and Deth's heavy breathing filled the room. The thought of Deth running out of lasers and rockets crossed his mind intrusively, but just as soon as he dismissed the idea, a sudden flash of red flashed above his head. Nondel barely managed to roll to his side in time, narrowly avoiding being sliced in two by a glowing red blade of energy. Leaping back to his feet, Nondel drew and unleashed his own beam saber, finding himself locked in another staring contest with Deth, who had now left the safety of his crate shield.

Nondel gritted his teeth, bearing his set of vampire-like fangs, as he glared at Deth. Deth glared back at Nondel, the thin lines in his artificial eye that Nondel readily assumed fuctioned as its pupil studied Nondel doggedly. Deth held the tip of his odd saber at Nondel, and Nondel did the same with his saber to Deth. Both of them knew that if either one were to strike suddenly, it would be easily countered and reversed upon them. Nondel let that knowlege lull himself into a sense of security, a security that was suddenly shattered when the blade of Deth's saber disappeared, and a set of dual beam blades produced themselves from the side outlets of Deth's sabre. With blinding speed, Deth quickly adjusted his grip on his saber. Now holding his saber as a dual-bladed staff, Deth's new style of subsequent attacks nearly caught Nondel off guard, almost managing to sever Nondel's head with his swift swinging of the blades. Try as he might, Nondel found it near impossibly difficult to fend off two blades with just one, and the Xian soon found himself subjected to Deth's agressive advances. Nondel felt his laser rifle clatter noisily on his armor as Deth continued his ruthless assault, the fury and speed of his attacks keeping Nondel on a barely effective defensive. Just as Deth gave Nondel a vicious one-handed swipe of his staff, the panel on his left forearm raised itself again out of Nondel's sight, letting the twin lasers blast against the armor on Nondel's ribs. Nondel howled in pain, collapsing onto his knee. Just as Deth was about to use his blade as a spear and skewer Nondel with it, Nondel quickly took the barrel of his rifle and shove it up to Deth's level, blindly jabbing it into Deth's chest armor and letting one blast shoot. The explosive kick behind the extremely close-range attack floored Nondel immediately while sending Deth into the air, landing loudly on his back with a metallic crunch. The pain that rocketed though Nondel's spine tickled his every nerve. The flesh on his shoulder felt like it had torn right off the bone, driving Nondel's teeth into a furious gnashing. Nondel rolled himself onto his stomach, finding enough strength left in him to crane his neck upwards. He was shocked to see the gold-capped boots of Deth standing right in front of his eyes. Just as Nondel looked further upwards to see the mask of Deth, the boot kicked him in the ribs, spinning him over onto his back with a yelp. Almost as soon as he landed, Nondel felt Deth place his large boot on his chest, and begin to press him into the ground. Nondel weezed in futility, barely noticing something metallic rub against his hand.

"Did you really think you'd suceed, Xian?" Deth asked Nondel, still pressing on Nondel's chest. "Did you really think you could slip out from under my nose and live to tell about it?" Deth mocked. When Nondel could not reply, Deth continued, "Did you even think you could enter my own fortress and survive?"

Nondel sputtered. "I... had to try," Nondel managed to cough up. "Someone... has to... stop you."

Deth snorted. "Arrogance is a flaw, Xian," said Deth, relieving some pressure off of Nondel's chest. "And pain is an excellent teacher. I've learned my lessons," Deth growled, just as Nondel grabbed whatever was touching his hand in desperation, "And now it's time that you learn yours."

Just before Deth could drive his heel into Nondel's sternum, Nondel jabbed his hand upward with the object clenched firmly in his fist, spearing Deth in the back of the knee. Deth let out a howl of pain and surprise as his knee buckled inward from under him, sprawling him onto the floor. Coughing madly, Nondel weakly stumbled to his feet, just at the same time that Deth picked himself up. As soon as they made eye contact, Nondel's hands discovered that they held his laser rifle, and Nondel immediately thrust the butt of the rifle between Deth's eyes. Deth's head snapped backwards, sending him stumbling backwards. Without wasting a second, Nondel swung the rifle into firing position, carefully lining up the barrel with Deth's bare neck.

The trigger only clicked.

"****!" Nondel screamed through his bloody lips.

As soon as Deth recovered from Nondel's strike, his face was greeted again by the end of Nondel's rifle, this time sending Deth stumbling halfway across the room, landing stiffly on his back against the wall.

Nondel breathed heavily as he watched Deth's head loll from side to side, finding satisfaction that he had Deth reeling. As soon as Nondel saw a thick river of blood stream down Deth's neck from underneath his steel mask, Nondel unknowingly snorted out a laugh. Deth groaned, barely able to stand without using the wall for support with his hand. For minutes, Nondel and Deth stared at each other, locking eyes and glaring holes into the other. Then, with one quick flick of his wrist, Deth uncovered a panel on the wall he leaned up against, and jabbed a large red button with his thumb.

Suddenly, a wall of glass shot from the ceiling and onto the ground, seperating Nondel and Deth. Nondel glared at the glass wall, ready to face anything imaginable as Deth stood on his own from the other side. Just as Deth walked over to an odd indentation in the wall on his side of the glass, just about the same size as he was, Deth turned his head to Nondel and shot him a quick glare. Although Nondel did not know why, he felt Deth was grinning cruelly at him. Then, Deth placed himself into the crevasse, and two thin walls of metal swallowed him up.

"Warning!" A loud voice suddenly blared over the room, "Escape pod jettisoned. Complete O2 draining onboard Deth Fortress commencing! Evacuate immediately!"

Nondel needed no further prompting to quickly scoop up the handle of his beam sword and dash to the door.

[Mewfour]

Nondel never ran faster in his life than what he was right now. He did not know if he could find Simui and escape in time, much less find his way through the gigantic space station, even less so did he know how to escape before all the oxygen in Deth Fortress was sucked into space. Nondel rounded corner after corner as his brain raced and raced, digging up memories of the corridors and spewing it to him in frenzied bursts.

Suddenly, Nondel felt like his heart sucked in a giant air bubble, sending him collapasing to the ground as he ran, tumbling head over heels as he gasped furiously. His lungs felt lighter already as the loud voice blared thoughout Deth Fortress, "Fifteen minutes until O2 drainage. Evacuate immediately!"

Nondel caught his breath, scrambled to his feet, and dashed down the corridor. "Like I'm not trying!" Nondel snarled to himself.

"Thirteen minutes until O2 drainage," the same voice announced just as Nondel suddenly fell onto his stomach. The air inside of him felt like it was floating, and Nondel suddenly felt a lot lighter. Staggering to his feet as quickly as he could, Nondel sudddenly felt a blow of dizziness whack him in the back of the head. Stumbling around and breathing furiously, Nondel struggled to keep moving as best he could down the hallway.

Nondel nearly wept for joy when he saw the door to Mnson's workstation. Slopping himself against the doorjam, Nondel groaned into the voice-lock. "Nondel Populas."

"Voice patteren invalid," the voice lock replied, "Voice-lock is set for, Nondel Populas."

"Damn it!" Nondel weezed as his lungs suddenly heaved. "Nondel... Populas!" Nondel spat out.

"Voice pattern invalid," the lock said again. "Voice-lock is set for, Nondel Populas."

Nondel roared in frustration. Either someone had tampered with the lock when he left, or the gasps and weezes that now ridded his words masked his voice. Taking a deep breath as the air in his lungs shifted painfully within them, Nondel breathed, "Nondel, Populas."

"Voice pattern accepted," said the lock, with a tiny click echoing through the vacant halls. Just before Nondel could push open the door, another air attack inside of him sent him collapsing to the floor again, sprawling his body all over the floor and knocking the door wide open. Dragging himself along the floor until he regained enough strength to stand again, Nondel slumped himself over Simui's casket, staring at her soft, beautiful face. Nondel took a quick glance at the nearby monitors, each of them saying the shutdown was complete. Nondel unsteadily slid his hands around Simui's shoulders, biting his lip if his touch would kill her. Nondel nearly died of a heart attack when Simui softly groaned as Nondel held her, sighing subconsiously to herself in her sleep. With a loud grunt, Nondel summoned whatever strength he had left in his battered and oxegen-deprived body to pull Simui over his shoulder. As soon as he stood up, Nondel collapsed to his knees, letting loose a sudden scream of agony. The blood within his veins began to ache, making Nondel feel that every muscle in his body were about to explode. Howling loudly again, Nondel steadily rose to his feet, secured Simui over his shoulder, and rushed blindly out of the room.

Nondel could not bear to keep his eyes open any longer. Now relying only on a sixth sense, Nondel rushed down the hallways and stairs of Deth Fortress, hoping to find some way of escape. A sudden blast of agony within his lungs sent him and Simui spilling onto the floor, leaving both Xians motionless. A minute later, Nondel found the strength to look up around him, and was overjoyed to see a large sign mounted on the wall of the corridor saying, "Docking Bays" with a large drawn arror pointing in the same direction that he was headed. Snarling his way back to his feet, Nondel weakly truded over to Simui's head. Grasping Simui by her shoulders, Nondel used whatever remained of his spent stamina to drag Simui along the floor with him, weezing and yowling with agony with every heavy step he took. Finally coming to the docking bay doors, Nondel barely managed to open them before another dizzying bout of oxegen deprivation clobbered him. Tightly sealing the door to the bays behind him once he had dragged himself and Simui into the docks, Nondel towed Simui into whatever spacecraft he saw first- a small one-person spacefighter. With the last ounce of air in his lungs, Nondel pulled the door to the cockpit open, dumping Simui inside before he climbed in himself.

The sudden rush of oxygen still within the fighter was a heavenly sensation for Nondel, even if it was a little stale. Nondel positioned himself on the seat of the cramped cockpit with Simui, still sleeping away, propped up on his lap. Fumbling with the various switches on the foreign craft, Nondel soon started the engine, and the craft roared to life. Gripping the control sticks as best he could with Simui hindering his movement and vision, Nondel fired whatever weapon at the docking doors that the first button he found triggered. Immediately, the ship was sucked into space with the screaming engine thrusting them further into the dark blue void.

EPILOGUE

Simui yawned before she awoke. "Simui, are you okay?" Nondel asked quietly.

Simui moaned once, letting her head loll onto her shoulder. "What... happened?" Simui groaned.

"You don't remember, huh?" Nondel asked, tilting his head to his right to see past Simui's head and into space from the tiny cockpit.

"Remember?" Simui muttered in confusion. "I don't..."

"I didn't think you would," Nondel muttered.

"No," Simui groaned, "I don't remember... anything..."

Nondel blinked worriedly. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I don't remember," Simui moaned again. "Who are you?" Simui groaned, "Who am I?"

"Oh no," Nondel gasped. "Simui? Don't you remember? Your name? Simui Latoor?"

Simui paused. "No," she said at great length. "Who are you?"

"Nondel," Nondel muttered bitterly. "My name is Nondel Populas. I'm a friend of yours, remember? Do you at least remember that?"

"Nondel," Simui muttered to herself, "Nondel, Nondel," she sighed dispairingly. "I don't," Simui sniffled.

"What about X?" Nondel asked in desperation. "You've got to at least remember X?"

"I don't," Simui murmured. "Who am I?" she swallowed mournfully. "Why can't I remember?" she cringed.

"Don't worry, Simui," said Nondel as the spacefighter rocketed through space, "When we get back to X, we'll help you remember everything... hopefully..."

THE END

--

Nope, not quite the end yet. But how? Just sit tight a bit and you'll see....

[Mewfour]

Yep, that's right, here's the REAL ending!

EPILOGUE

Simui yawned before she awoke. "Simui, are you okay?" Nondel asked quietly.

"Nondel...?" Simui murmured sleepily. "Nondel, is that you?"

"It's me, Simui," Nondel replied, breathing a sigh of relief.

"What... what happened?" Simui moaned, yawning.

"Don't you remember anything?" Nondel asked.

"No," Simui murmured, "Not everything. I remember the ship breaking down, you went below the decks to fix the engine and I went out to repair the hull, and then," Simui suddenly stopped.

"And then?" Nondel asked.

"Then, I felt something pulling me away, like some kind of gale or something," Simui groaned.

"What next?"

"I..." Simui murmured, "I don't remember... but next thing I know, I'm here with you..." she trailed off softly.

Nondel breathed, completely relieved. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"A little woozy," Simui moaned, "I've got a little bit of a headache too."

"Well, thank God you're okay," Nondel sighed. "The sooner we get back to X, the better."

They flew through space a little longer in silence before Simui asked, "Nondel, where's our ship?"

"Gone," Nondel said.

"Gone where?" Simui asked.

"It's best we leave it where it is," Nondel muttered.

"Why's that?"

Nondel sighed deeply to himself. "Simui, you'd never believe me if I told you..."

THE END

---

Hot damn, baby! Yo, Oz! Psi! Break out the shrinkwrap and handi-seal! This baby's ready to go to Completed Fiction! Boo-yah!

[Andrew]

Ah good work Mewfour! You finished another piece of work! Now back to your Asylumnation of your Trainer Fic! Now :P! Hee! Ah well.

More than happy to help, I would've read this if I did like, Metroid, Star Trek or Wars or that other one it was mixed with, but I'm not a big Sci-Fi/Fantasy Fan :S

Oh well...

*Closes and moves* ^^