Star Raiders and the Lost Expidition (27 page)

“
Guards prepare her,” Drax ordered.

Tila could not believe her ears, “You are mad!” She raised her gun at him and fired, but Drax was fast and more agile that he barely got hit. The invisible blast however struck a nearby pillar, damaging it. “Traitor!” The one of the guards then grabbed her and took her weapon.

“
For that action you should be executed,” Drax said as the soldier brought her to the altar. Tila kicked and screamed like a brat child that she was. She tried in all of her training as a solder to escape but it was hopeless. Mike and Justin just stood there in awe. They did not know what to do as Tygla’s body still floated above them waiting.

Tygla’s body continued to hover over them, watching as they have found a puritan. The Xatu solder laid Tila on the altar and held her down as she kept on squirming. She then stopped as Drax stooped over her. His hand formed a sharp blade again and looked towards Tygla.

“
Oh great Creator I hope this will satisfy you.”

“
Indeed Xatu, proceed.”

Drax looked down and asked, “Do you have any last words my dear?”

Tila spat at him and replied angrily, “Go to hell you male pig!”

Drax frowned, wiped the saliva from his face, and said, “Your services will be remembered.” He then plunged his sharp knife like blade deep in her chest. Tila screamed in pain then silence as blood splattered everywhere. She was dead. Her blood began to drip from the altar.

“
You wish has been granted,” The Creator said.

She then used Tygla’s mouth, smiled, and laughed as if she won. The glow around Tygla faded and she fell to the ground. Mike rushed over to see if she was all right. Tygla was unconscious, but still alive which made Mike feel better.

Suddenly the ground began to tremble. To Mike, it seemed like a small earthquake. Bits and pieces fell from the ceiling and he knew that the building was not safe to stay as the damaged pillar gave away, but that was only the beginning, when the quake started a high intensive golden ray shot up from the altar and it beamed through the sky light and into the sky itself. The altar itself disintegrated with the body of Tila and started to grow larger by the minute.

Mike picked up Tygla and said to the others, “This place is not safe, I suggest we all we all get out of here.”

Drax nodded in agreement, “I will radio my flagship to pick us up.”

Mike was unsure about that idea, but then the debris got larger, walls and pillars began to fall. Justin helped Mike as the group quickly exited the altar room. They heard a large rumbling noise behind them as the wall crushed the two soldiers in the rubble. Drax stopped briefly to see what has happed then continued more swiftly. He urged the trio to move faster until they finally got out into the daylight.

Chapter 15

A New Star

Just outside of Uno’s planetary system where Xman and CRAIG were battling it out alone with the Xatu’s space force, Xman was suddenly overwhelmed with the odds the Empire was dishing out. Usually he liked those odds, but he never knew that Empire would send out so many ships for just one fighter. Ship upon ship exploded as Xman fired strategically trying not to get killed. CRAIG looked at his instruments on the ship behind Xman. There were a couple of screens, but the one he was interested was ships status. He was concerned about the shield condition as it plunged down to 87%. He warned Xman, but he did not care to react with worry in his mind.

“
You know there are too many ships,” CRAIG started, “I knew we should’ve waited.”

Xman did not quickly reply as he was dodging laser bolts. Once he got a minute’s thought, he knew CRAIG was right. He opened the mouth to reply when a hailing beep sounded. CRAIG looked back to the other screen and saw that there was another ship entering the system. CRAIG pressed a couple of buttons to enlarge the image, but to his surprise, which was illogical to his computerized brain. The ship resembled the
Golden Condor
.

“
Sir, you will not believe this but, I think we’ve got some help,” CRAIG informed him.

Xman replied, “Good we are going to need it. Who is it? The
Rebirth
?”

“
It’s-,” CRAIG said, but a voiced interrupted him.

It boomed through the cockpit of the
Thunder Claw
, “Prince Xman?”

“
Yeah? Who is this?” Xman said destroying a B’tar.

“
Digan Brund, A friend of Mike Tippin” he answered. “You know where I can find him?”

Xman was perplexed on how he knew his name. It seems that while Mike and Justin were on Felinorn, Justin called he is old friend to see if there was another job. He told him of Tygla’s situation with Xman, and all he could do is laugh gracefully. Digan reminded Justin about female felinises and to tell Mike to watch it.

A couple of flashes of blasts surrounded the
Thunder Claw
and replied, “He’s on the planet below. Listen, I could another hand with these space scums. Then maybe we can get him together.”

“
That sound like good idea,” Digan replied, “Hold on.”

Xman did not even want to wonder how it was possible. As long as there was another fighter in the battle, he did not care. The
Condor
blazed through space firing its laser bolts. It missed a few time but then the pilot has not flown into battle since the Great War. The two colonial ships crisscrossed firing wildly. The Xatu army was in greater numbers, but it was diminishing slowly as the
Thunder Claw
and the
Golden Condor
was destroying them one by one. Digan finally got in to the rhythm. He and Xman were in fighting in unison.

“
Xman,” CRAIG said, “This is interesting, the energy on the planet. It has now a positive reading on it.”

Xman responded, “You mean we can actually contact them, maybe even pick them up?”

“
I believe so,” the android replied, “But the energy source could be too high and dangerous to even land.”

Digan then replied though the DR, “I’ll get them, just give me some coverage.”

“
You got it,” Xman said grimly.

On
Hades
, the tension was harsh as commander Hiss was overseeing the battle that was going on. He sent over almost sixty B’tars to attack one ship that was until he got reports that another ship entered the quadrant. The scanning officer informed him that it was the
Golden Condor
, Tippin’s ship, and this worried him. He wondered if Mike and his friends were on the planet surface, who was flying the ship? He thought that if that ship had found him other colonial ships would soon come and could not take that chance.

“
Lieutenant, hail all nearby imperial ssshipsss. Tell them to ssstand by for immediate asssissstatnsse,” he ordered as he turned to the first mate, “Increassse the radar ssscan. I want to know if any more colonial ssshipsss are in a five light-year range.”

The officers acknowledged and went to work. A couple of minutes have passed as Hiss was observing the holo-map. The holo-map showed him a close progress of the battle. He knew that they were losing and this enraged him. Until-.

“
Sir, I am getting a radio transmission from the planet below, its Lord Drax sir,” the communications officer told him.

Hiss looked up in disbelief and said, “Put it on the ssspeakersss.”

The communication was weak and it was breaking up, he could hear him as Drax said, “Hiss, sen…trans…hip…dow…pick…up”

“
My lord, you are breaking up, can you repeat that?” but nothing was repeated or spoken, he turned to the window where the planet reside and something was happening. The planet itself was breaking up. Hiss saw beams of light shooting out, like a proctor sphere that they used in planetariums. This did not look good. He then ordered to ready a transport ship to pick up Lord Drax.

“
I’ll get one ready in ten minutes,” a Xatu officer replied.

Hiss’ eyes narrowed and said, “You’ll get one out now! Ssss.”

The officer trembled in fear inside and said, “A-As you wish s-sir.” He then hurried off.

The planet was breaking up as the doomed world trapped the four explorers. As soon as Tygla awoke, and saw what happened as Mike carried her. He looked down at her and knew she was all right. He was about to kiss her when a deafening sound blasted all around them.

“
Can you run?” he asked her as she nodded.

“
What happened?” She asked weakly.

Mike said to her as he put her down, “I’ll explain later, right now just run!”

They fled into the wilderness, running like rabbits avoiding fire as chunks of the earth exploded all round and beams of light shot up into the sky. Mike thought that they enter a war zone as thousands of creatures sounds screeched in horror. They took the path that led them to temple, as it was a safer trail to follow. Suddenly they stopped short as the trail before them exploded and another beam of light blasted skyward. The beam was too bright that they had to cover their eyes with their hands. Mike pulled them off the trail and in to the woods.

“
What in blazes is going on Tippin?” Drax demanded.

While they ran, Mike tried to explain, “It’s your wish Drax. You wanted The Creator to release the planet’s power, well it’s doing it.”

“
I did not mean by destroying it!” Drax said furiously.

“
Don’t you see?!” Mike said as they were avoiding the lethal beams, “This planet is like second cog in a bigger machine! Its Sun. One aligned, the sun’s powerful rays, collide with the planet, magnifying it hundred times.”

The group kept running until they found themselves by the deep cliff. Mike looked from one side to the other and saw there was no way to cross. What made matters worse, the earthquake violently and Tygla lost her footing and fell down in the crevasse. Mike reacted quickly and caught her hand before it was too late. They saw her dangling on the side, as Mike was trying to pull her up. Justin looked down the ways and saw the beams of light was making its way towards them like a huge wave rushing down the cliff for the first time.

Drax just stood there watching them. He did not care to help them. He would rather see the intense light swallow up the princess. Mike then pulled her up just as soon as the wave of light rushed past them. The force was so strong that it knocked them off their feet causing them to land twenty feet from where they were. The landing knocked them out in the land of unconsciousness.

Just moments after the huge blast, Digan finally found them after he was scanning the area. He picked up a group four life forms scurrying towards a large cliff. Digan did not believe what he was witnessing. Beams of light exploded everywhere. It was as if he was in a dream. He flew in closer caustically avoiding the beams. Digan then saw Mike, and the others lying down as if they were asleep. He prayed that they were not dead. He landed, lowered the ramp and hurried out. He picked up Tygla first, then Justin and finally Mike. He then looked at Drax. Angrily as he was, he would rather leave him here. Besides, he was sure that his crewmembers would pick him up if it were not too late, and at that moment of thought he had a notion that he would seen another ship in the sky. The ground shook violently and he could not take any chances. Digan hurried into the ship, carrying Mike like a baby. He set him down on the small bed in the lounge area and hurried himself to the cockpit. He sat down and quickly took off.

At that moment, the land shook again and he heard an earth-shattering explosion. A beam of light shot up like the others, but this one hit the
Condor
, showering it in rays of luminosity as soared towards the stratosphere. To Digan’s surprise, the power increased ten times more powerful than before. This confused him, but it did not matter. He increased the thrust and the ship flew faster than ever into space.

The planet finally broke down and it seemed to explode in a brilliant display of a supernova. Every piece of earth that was once Uno’s planet now gone and the only thing that was left was a new star. Mike finally awoke to the noise. When he opened his eyes, he thought that they died because the first thing he saw was the lounge area inside the
Golden Condor
. This was impossible he thought. He looked around to see if Tygla and Justin were ok. He saw Tygla lying on the small couch and went over. When he touched her face, she awoke to see Mike and smiled lightly. He then kissed gently her as she looked about.