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More from Winter_Night
This is the first book of my series called Mercury. The title of the book is also Mercury lol. Everything belongs to me.
Phoenix pushed the engines of his small fighter to the max as he weaved in out of the asteroid field he was in. The albino tiger was doing the best he could do to keep up with his prey, but the asteroids weren’t making it easy. Not a single one was floating at the same speed or direction. "Damn it, Derek didn’t say anything about how fast that ship is" Up ahead he could see the ship he was after. All he had to do was get closer and destroy it. Once this was over he would go collect his credits and go to outpost one and drink to his heart’s content. But first he had to catch up. Pulling back on the controls, he brought the nose of his fighter up and did a roll as he avoided a small asteroid. Luckily the maneuver had just put him into a great firing position.
Phoenix took aim and pulled the trigger, unleashing a hail of bullets from the twin side guns. Bullets whizzed through space hitting asteroids blowing chunks and pieces out of them. He smiled with satisfaction when he saw the starboard engine of his prey’s ship burst into smoke, just before it could disappear behind an asteroid. Now it was just a matter of time, with one engine down there was no way Jack would escape alive, Phoenix just had to get closer to use the guided missile he had ready.
At first he wasn’t sure what he was seeing, but his mind put it together faster than any other pilot could of. Two little points of light quickly got closer showing their true nature, two rockets were coming right for Phoenix. He threw the controls hard over putting his fighter into a spin, the first rocket took a glancing hit off of his wing and it went spinning off into an asteroid blowing it to pieces. As bits of the asteroid were bouncing of the hull of his fighter making clunking sounds, he pulled back hard on the controls just as the second rocket went flying right under his ship. But he had pulled up to fast, his ship pulled right up and smashed the top into an asteroid making a deafening sound as the upper hull plating buckled and some came tearing off flying into space with chunks of asteroid.
One of his alarms started to sound letting him know that he was leaking air, but it was a slow leak nothing that would hurt him. But it was hard finding Jack's ship in these asteroids, its black hull made it hard to find by sight, and for some reason the ship would not show up on sensors unless he was right on top of it. Then he saw it a little blip on his radar, not far ahead. He put the engines all ahead as fast as they would go and as he cleared another asteroid he caught sight of the ship again. Its starboard engine was still smoking badly, but something was wrong, the ship was heading straight for a massive asteroid like it couldn’t maneuver...that was it he had done more damage than he thought, he had disabled Jack’s ship and it was going to crash head on into an asteroid. But that wasn’t enough, Jack had done damage to his beloved fighter and had to be destroyed by his own hands.
He flipped the safety switch and activated the guided missile sending it flying off for Jack’s ship. Phoenix watched as it got closer and closer to Jacks ship as the ship got closer to the asteroid. Phoenix couldn’t tell how Jack met his end it all happened to fast at the same time, he saw the missile reach the ship at the same time it reached the asteroid, and in an instant everything was gone in an explosion that destroyed the asteroid, but strangely it looked like Jacks ship just disappeared a split second before the explosion, but phoenix knew that wasn’t possible. But he didn’t care, he had done his job and it was time to go to collect his pay and go back to outpost one for drinks and repairs. He turned his ship around and headed out of the asteroid field leaving behind Jacks dead body.
CHAPTER 1
1 hr earlier
Jack watched through the cockpit window as outpost one got closer, its plain old hull looking uninviting. His ship the Mercury flew closer gracefully and undetectable by conventional sensors. Her plain black hull not noticeable unless if you were looking for her. Jack pulled back on the throttle and the engines idled down to a slow cruising speed. He thought back to the last time he had visited outpost one and got into a little trouble with some pirates, sure he was in debt to them but the way he saw it was if they really wanted the money they would never of given it to him. Because of last time he figured it best to dock at one of the maintenance ports where no one would be at.
"Why is it that you keep coming back here if all you do is get into trouble? One of these days you're going to get killed by a pirate" Said Mercury's AI
Jack laughed "’Cuz it’s the best place in this part of the galaxy to get some drinks"
Jack love the mercury's AI, it was the best thing he had added to his beaten up ship. It had taken him a good while to find the voice that fitted his taste. He had settled on a drop dead sexy female voice, though any voice was good for him after spending the last 5 1/2 years alone on his little ship.
"That’s the stupidest of reasons to get yourself killed" she replied
"What’s wrong you? You love me so much you can’t stand to think of me getting killed?"
"Who said anything about love? My software puts up with you is all"
Jack grabbed his chest in a playful way and gave a fake sad face "Aww, Lucy that hurts me you know “Jack looked around” especially since you and the Mercury are the only things in this world I have and love"
"Ok Jack so maybe i do care what happens to you ‘cuz I’ve grown attached to you, after all you’re the best looking fox I have ever seen." Now she did a serious tone. "But what if you run into Cyrus again? He might not be happy about last time"
Jack grinned "you mean the time I punched him in the muzzle? Or the time I tossed him through a glass table?"
"I thought that both of those happened at the same time"
"Oh you're right, they did. But I’m sure he has forgotten by now. And if not ill just remind him why you don't mess with Jack"
"Good God you are trying to get yourself killed"
"No, I’m not, but now’s not the time we're here. we can continue this conversation when i get back"
"If you get back"
Jack guided the mercury over the upper hull of the outpost and slowly docked the mercury’s bottom hatch over the outpost's hatch. The inside of the Mercury made several loud clunks as the magnetic seals held the Mercury in position. Jack rose out of his seat and turned off the ships engines.
"I’ll be back really soon my darling, so don’t go anywhere" Jack said as he grabbed his long coat hanging by the hatch that lead from the cockpit to the aft storage room. He tossed his old worn Jacket on, with it old ranks of captain still on the sleeves.
"And why do you think the pirates won’t find you on an outpost that’s run by them? Asked the AI
"’Cuz the only place that they won’t be looking for me is right under their nose's"
"How is it you have managed to stay alive this long with your ideas of thinking?"
Jack pushed open the hatch and closed it behind him as he began to make his way toward the center of the storage room. Really it wasn’t a storage room any more it was his living quarters, there was his bed, a small bathroom a little kitchen and in the center of the room a ladder that ran from the top to the bottom of the ship. He had installed the ladder system himself, the way it worked was he could dock below or above something and climb up the ladder or down the ladder, into the ship or station he was docked at. There was the main ladder that never moved and in front of it another ladder that would move down or up through the open hatch for him to climb.
He pressed the button on the controls and the bottom hatch slide open, after another second the hatch slid open to the outpost, then the ladder began to slide down.
Jack began to climb down the ladder as he said "babe the reason I’m still alive is cuz I’m the luckiest fox alive" He skipped the last two steps of the ladder and let himself drop down to the deck. But just as he straightened himself out he was filled with a little worry as the hairs on his orange tail stood on end and his ears folded back, as he recognized the sounds of guns cocking behind him.
CHAPTER 2
Ok this is it, not good...I bet I know who it is to] Jack thought to himself as he slowly raised his hands in surrender. Without warning he was grabbed from behind and hurled face first into the bulkhead, pain shooting through his muzzle and chest. He then felt the cold metal of a paw gun being pressed quit hard against his right temple. That’s all he needed to know who it was.
"Hey Cyrus, you amazingly cute fox! How’s life been treating you buddy?" Jack wasn’t lying, he knew Cyrus was great looking, if he wasn’t a pirate that wanted him dead, he would of maybe given Cyrus a chance. He loved his white soft fur which looked so touchable. Then there was the unusual marking he had over his eye, a blue crescent shaped moon ran down the fur where his right eye was, you could only tell what shape it was when he blinked. And the body, his frame wasn’t too manly, but he didn’t look too weak either, it was a body to die for, which he might just do now if Cyrus was really still pissed about last time.
Jack felt the gun pull away as he was spun around real quick. For a split second he saw that lovely face of Cyrus, and then he saw Cyrus's fist quickly make contact with his muzzle. Jack felt even more pain shooting through his muzzle than he already had a few seconds ago. "Oww! What the hell" Jack was cut off from saying any more with a punch to his stomach. He keeled over out of breath holding his stomach while his other paw held him off the deck.
Cyrus looked down at him enjoying what he saw. "Know we are even...oh by the way" Cyrus gave Jack a good kick to the ribs, sending him to the deck. "I’m not your buddy" Cyrus motioned for the other pirate to help Jack to his feet. It wasn’t much work for the, black as night, Jaguar. He could probably of cared Jack for hours and not get tired. With Jack being held up straight Cyrus was finally able to look him in the eyes. "So Jack you owe quite a bit of debit to Diego, and guess what. He Isn’t that happy every time he ask for his money you run off. Now he wants to see you in person."
"I would rather not" said Jack after finally getting his breath back. The black jaguar let go of Jack now that he could stand on his own and gave him a hit in the back with the butt of his rifle letting Jack know to move forward. Jack moved forward cuz it was best for him to not get killed. "But I see I really have no choice"
Cyrus took a step in front of Jack making him stop. Jack looked at him confused for a second as Cyrus reached into Jacks coat rubbing his paw along Jacks sides. Then he reached back deeper in between Jack and his long coat and started to slid his paw down Jacks back. Cyrus was just about face to face with Jack, and Cyrus didn't have his handgun in a ready position any more. One thing Jack new about Cyrus was that he wasn't good when it came to being a pirate. If it wasn't for the really quite jaguar behind him, he could take care of Cyrus right now and escape. "So Cyrus, I see you are feeling frisky today, too bad we aren’t alone right now"
Cyrus didn’t even smile as he reached down till he got to Jacks pants and found what he was looking for. He pulled Jacks paw gun out of the back of his pants and handed it to the Jaguar. Cyrus looked Jack in the eyes. "Ok Jack, first of all you’re not my type"
"How am i not your type?" Jack said, which surprised him a little cuz for some reason he really wanted to know.
"You’re not funny, and second I am all ....." Cyrus looked behind Jack at the Jaguar realizing he almost said too much, but Jack noticed Cyrus's gaze.
"What’s wrong? None of your other pirate..." Jack was cut off by Cyrus pointing a gun at his head.
"Another word Jack, just one more and i'll pull the trigger" Cyrus was shaking a little and Jack was convinced that Cyrus wasn’t joking. "Now start walking Jack I believe you still know the way.
"Of course i do, i take it we're going to that lovely room that Diego calls an office" Jack said as he started to walk as he was told to do. [Why didn’t I listen to Lucy?]
CHAPTER 3
Phoenix had stayed hidden behind some crates not too far from the maintenance hatch that the mercury had docked at. He pecked around the corner and saw what looked like two pirates walking this way with Jack in the lead. Jack wasn't looking happy, which Phoenix guessed was from the beating he just got. This wasn't going as planned, he was supposed to wait here for Jack, then when Jack got off his ship, he was to shot him dead. Unfortunately the pirates were here waiting for Jack too.
Phoenix pulled his paw gun out of his holster and made sure it was ready. After Jack and the pirates had walked by he got ready to make his move. It was a simple plan, shot all three of them and call it good. But that plan was quickly ruined, the pirates hadn't made it to far past him when the Jaguar had stopped walking to sniff the air. Phoenix had great hearing and knew what the jaguar was saying. "I know that smell. There a mercenary close by, its phoenix" Then the jaguar spinned around and fired his rifle. Phoenix took as much cover as he could as the crates were pelleted from gunfire.
Phoenix had enough of this, he dived out from behind the crates, and once he had landed he fired twice, both of which hit the jaguar in the chest sending blood flying. The jaguar made a loud thump as his lifeless body hit the deck, then phoenix went to aim for Jack but Jack was just running around the corner at the end of the corridor. "Damn it" muttered Phoenix.
Then cyrus who had taken cover, fired several shots at Phoenix. Bullets riquesheid of the deck around Phoenix, so he quickly rolled across the deck and tucked himself into a door frame. Phoenix blind fired back at Cyrus, which caused cyrus to duck back into cover. This gave Phoenix enough time to peek around the corner to see where Cyrus was. After a quick look he had figured Cyrus was behind another stack of crates. Not too far from the crates was a gas line running up from the deck to the ceiling. This gave Phoenix an idea, he set his paw gun from normal shot over to his explosive round, he took aim for the gas pipe, but just as he was ready to shot Cyrus jumped out of his cover and started shooting. One of the shots grazed Phoenix's arm causing him to move off target as he fired his gun.
The shot missed the pipe and hit the bulkhead next to Cyrus. The explosion wasn't as big as if it had hit the gas pipe, but it worked out well enough. The bulkhead blew apart into pieces sending Cyrus flying and hitting the other bulkhead that was behind him, his body fell to the floor unmoving with blood around the face.
Phoenix took a look around at the two bodies on the ground, happy that only Jack remained he took off down the corridor the same way Jack had gone. "i'm coming for you Jack!"
CHAPTER 4
Jack ran as quick as he could, with out of his paw gun there was very little he could do. He ran around another corner trying to make his way back around to the Mercury so he could get the hell out of here. Then with out of warning the corridor ended, leaving him no where to go. "damn it! exclaimed Jack. "now what?" He looked around till he found a ladder that went down a deck. Jack thought about whether it was a good idea to go down when he needed to get back to the Mercury, But the sound of Phoenix catching up persuade Jack to climb down.
Jack looked around this new deck. It was all maintenance corridors with like the deck above but with more exposed wires and pipes. The lighting was a lot dimmer down here giving lots of shadows to hide in. Luckily from the looks of it, the corridors lead back to under where the Mercury was docked, and maybe there would be a way up when he got there. Running again he kept an open eye for any way to attack Phoenix, but there was nothing around he could use as a weapon.
Then he saw it, a ladder that went up roughly where the Mercury was docked. Jack climbed up the ladder as quickly as he could and was amazed at what he saw. All around there was destruction, part off the bulkhead was blown apart with scorch marks all over, with debris on everything. Then his heart stopped, and his blood went cold at the sight of Cyrus's body laying face down covered in blood. Jack ran over as quick as he could, reached down and checked for a pulse. "damnit it cyrus, don't you be dead!" shouted Jack. Sure him and Cyrus weren't on good terms any more after what had happened 2 years ago, but Jack still loved him deep down.
"Thank god!" Jack sighed with relief, Cyrus had a pulse, but there wasn't anything Jack could do for him now, he could hear the sound of phoenix coming up the ladder behind him. Jack jumped up and dived behind some crates doing his best to hide. He could see the ladder of the Mercury not too far down the corridor, but Phoenix was between him and the Mercury. Phoenix was look was heading this way, but didn't seem to know where he was hiding. Jack could smell Phoenix now that he was so close. There was little Jack could do now, it was fight or die. Jack gathered his strength and threw himself at Phoenix. Phoenix had quick reflexes, but not quick enough, Phoenix had pulled the trigger just as Jack drove his shoulder into Phoenix's stomach, the bullet just missing Jacks tail taking some fur with it.
Jack yelped out loud as him and Phoenix went crashing down onto the deck, the paw gun of Phoenix went sliding across the deck. Jack came rolling out on top of Phoenix, and gave Phoenix a few good punches to his muzzle making him bleed. Phoenix kneed Jack in the crotch causing Jack to lose his grip on Phoenix. Using this chance Phoenix bit down on Jacks muzzle leaving wounds, causing Jack to yelp out loud. Jack extended his claws and dug them into the sides of Phoenix drawing blood, making Phoenix stop biting and growl at Jack.
"i'll kill you with my own paws you bastard" howled Phoenix. Phoenix gave Jack an uppercut to the muzzle, sending Jack rolling over onto his back. Jack knew that he wasn't going to win this fight, Phoenix was too good of a fighter, Jack would have to run for his ship. Phoenix got up and stood looking down ready to attack Jack again, which gave Jack a chance. Jack kicked Phoenix in the knee, and with a pop Phoenix went collapsing to the deck. Rolling over Jack got to the ground running, he stopped just for a second to get his paw gun from the body of the dead Jaguar. When he looked back Phoenix had already made his way back to the paw gun he had lost in the fight. Jack fired two rounds making Pheonix take cover giving Jack enough time to get to the Mercurys ladder.
Jack climbed up the ladder as Phoenix fired back at Jack, all his shots just missing. Once Jack was back up in the mercury he raised the ladder and shut the hatch. "lucy we got to get out of here now!" Shouted Jack. If it wasn't for the fact that Lucy was just the Mercury's AI she might of sounded scared, but instead she responded a bit more calmly. "now what have you done Jack?"
"Nothing!" said Jack as he started the Mercury's engines and deactivated the docking magnets. "just a run in with Cyrus and Phoenix" Jack Pulled the Mercury away from out post one, and fired the engines up to full. The Mercury took off as fast as it could, but after a minute there was another ship not too far behind.
"Jack why do i detect a small fighter following use?" asked lucy. Jack took a look at the sensors and saw that she was right.
"oh that? that's just Phoenix, i think he wants me dead for some reason" replied Jack. Jack checked the sensors one more time and noticed an asteroid field not far, if he could get to it he might be able to hide long enough. "Lucy i got an idea, how about we hide in the asteroid field?
"Thats stupid! Just wait 15 more minutes and the Space Drive will be ready again" Suggested Lucy.
Jack smiles and said "Oh come on Lucy, what's the worst thing that can happen?"
CHAPTER 5
The Mercury flew head on through the asteroid field, with the sounds of smaller rocks bouncing off the hull. Jack knew he was one of the best pilots there was, even back when he was a test pilot he knew it. He also knew he had the fastest ship ever built, which was why he was just out running Phoenix. Every once in awhile Lucy would chime in to let him know he was about to hit something, and that he needed to stop showing off.
Jack was moving all around to adjust the levers and dials that ran along the front of the cockpit. The only problem flying the Mercury alone was the fact she had been built to be flown with two people, not just one. On top of that she wasn't built with weapons, every one Jack had installed himself over the 5 years he had had the Mercury. Switches had to be add to the controls so he could fire them. The whole cockpit was a mess from all the new wires and switches that had been added. She no longer looked like the brand new ship she had been, now she looked like an old run down ship, due to the fact most of the parts were just proto technology from when she was built. Lots of it had shorted, or started fires, and had to be replaced with parts scavenged from all kinds of ships Jack had found adrift.
Lucky Jack had stolen a prototype AI program 3 years ago and installed it to the Mercury. She helped Jack with running minor programs so he could focus on flying the ship, and she was the only company he really had for the last 3 year. Sure she was only a computer program but Jack loved her. "Lucy! I need you to activate the two aft rockets now" Jack said as he weaved the Mercury in and out of the asteroids, trying to stay out of Phoenix's line of fire.
"What are you going to do kill him?" Lucy replied.
"No, i was just going to let him kill us....Of course i'm going to fight back!" Jack responded hastily.
Without warning there was the sound of bullets tearing through the aft section of the Mercury, followed by a loud bang and shudder as the starboard engine took several hits causing the fuel line in the engine to catch fire. The force fields within the framing of the Mercury's hull activated preventing air from leaking out. The force field would hold as long as the actual frame of the hull wasn't damaged.
Lucy responded right away "Starboard engine has been hit, the fuel line is on fire, if we don't shut off the engine the fuel tank can explode taking the whole ship with it."
"Then shutdown the engine, we just need to outrun him a little longer" Jack said, as he fired the aft rockets.
"I never finished programing those, now they will probably miss" replied Lucy.
"Now you tell me!" Jack said as he tried to turn the Mercury, but nothing happend. "Lucy!, the Mercury is turning!
"Scanning......The flight control computer was hit and is off line, it will take 2 minutes to switch over to the secondary." Said Lucy.
Jack glanced up for a second and the fur on his tail stood on end, the Mercury was on a head on collision course with an asteroid. "Lucy we don't have 2 minutes!"
"Jack i'm detecting an asteroid dead ahead, Estimated time to impact, less than a minute." replied Lucy as calm as ever.
"You don't say! Damn it, not good!........the infinity drive? is it ready?" asked Jack.
"No its not. The Infinity drive won't be ready for another five minutes" said Lucy.
"Well i guess things can't get any worse.." The blaring of an alarm cut Jack off.
"Theres a guided missile looked onto us, time till impact of both the asteroid and guided missile...20 seconds" Said Lucy.
"No choice Lucy prepare the infinity drive" Ordered Jack.
"If we jump the ship early there is a high chance that the ship will be destroyed from a system overload, and if we do make it, theres not enough time to program a location, it would have to be random" said Lucy.
“Any where as better than being dead!” shouted Jack. “just prepare the infinity drive.”
“.......The infinity drive is programed, but still hasn't finished its cool down and reset time” said Lucy.
Jack looked up with his paw posed over the switch to activate the infinity drive. The asteroid was seconds away, with the missile right on top of the Mercury, time had run out it was now or never. With out of waiting for Lucy to say the system was ready Jack hit the button.
The Mercury vanished from where it was at the very moment the missile had caught up. The less that a second the missile had gone through where the Mercury had been, and crashed into the asteroid blowing up. With in a second the explosion was no more being suffocated by space. The asteroid field was once again quiet.
CHAPTER 6
The Mercury existed in two different places in the universe at the same time, but only for what could be called a fraction of a fraction of a second. The Mercury had bent and folded space in a way so it was in two places at once, where it had been, and where it was going. When space snapped back to normal it left the Mercury in its new location, adrift in a dyeing solar system.
Jack was forced to cover his face as part of the copilot control panel blew apart into pieces, debri hitting Jack and the bulkheads. Coughing as the smoke cleared, Jack took a look around and after a few seconds was happy that the Mercury seemed to still be in one piece. “lucy i need a status report.” said Jack.
Lucy took a few seconds to respond, “ The structural integrity is unchanged, the secondary flight controls are all most switched over....the port side energy converter for the infinity drive has been destroyed, until we can find an acceptable replacement for it, the Mercury will be unable to jump again.....also sensors indicate that the star in this solar system is going nova” said Lucy.
“When?” Asked Jack.
“Its is going nova right now Jack, about a few hrs before we got here. There is a shock wave heading right for us, time to impact is about 2 hr 20 minutes.” Said Lucy.
“Why is it that everything wants me dead today? Ok so we need a new energy converter for the infinity drive or else we are dead. Start scanning for any ships or stations nearby that might of been left abandoned.” Ordered Jack.
“scanning....i’m detecting a large vessel adrift, loading the coordinates to the flight computer...oh by the way the flight computer is now switched over.” Said Lucy.
“well lets take a look, see if we can find something that will work the infinity drive.” Jack said as he brought the Mercury about. As the Mercury finished her turn heading off in the direction of the large ship, Jack could see the fiery red sun way off in the distance, with the shock wave moving away from it in all directions. “My God!” exclaimed Jack as he watch the one of the planets get torn apart by the shock wave. Jack grabbed the throttle controls and pushed them all the way forward sending the mercury as fast as it could go, sending her flying straight for the large ship, and the shock wave.
It took about 20 minutes for the Mercury to get to the large ship, once Jack was close enough he could see that not only was it a large ship, it was also a passenger liner. She was adrift with no signs of life, her engines were out cold. Jack brought the Mercury close to the other ships hull so he could see into the ships windows, but he couldn't see anyone. He slowly took the Mercury up and around the ships bridge, taking a look into the ships bridge he could see no command crew.
“well it looks like this ship really is abandoned and adrift.” Jack told Lucy. “ i’m going to dock on top of the ships bridge and cut a hole since i don't see any hatches to dock at.” Slowly Jack sat the Mercury down on top of the passenger liner. The magnetic seals activated holding the Mercury in one spot. Jack activated the auto torch which ran around the inside part of the seal, when the torch activated it slowly moved along the Mercury's lower hatch cutting through the hull of the passenger liner. With a clunk the piece of hull that had been cut fell to the deck of the bridge.
“Jack you do know that the energy converter for the passenger liners engines will be too much for the Mercury to handle.” Said Lucy.
“Yes i know that, i’m thinking that a smaller one from the ships galley, or one from a deck that uses a lot of energy.” said Jack. Jack started to make his way back to the AFT section of the Mercury where his sleeping and living quarters were. He walked up to the ladder in the middle of the room and opened the hatch, and lowered the ladder down into the passenger liners bridge. Jack climbed down the ladder and dropped down into the bridge, taking a look around it was like he expected, the ship had no one around.
Jack walked across the bridge to the statues screens, the first one showed showed that there hadn't been any activity on board by any crew members since 2 weeks ago. The screen also indicated the ship was at high alert, but not what the alert was for. No escape pods had been launched. This was starting to seem a little strange, but not for Jack to worry about. The next screen showed the layout of the ship, this one Jack studied closely looking for where he might find a energy converter that wouldn't be to much for the Mercury, yet powerful enough to run the infinity drive. Then he found it, three decks down there was a large casino that took up nearly half of one deck. The energy that ran through the converter for that casino was just about the same as the infinity drive used.
The lights on the bridge flickered for a few seconds before going back to steady. Jack looked at more readouts and noticed that some decks had no power, while most the decks had partial power, and the crew areas still had full power. Looking through the rest Jack noticed that the passenger liners power generators had failed two days ago, and that the backup batteries were losing power. After getting all the information he needed Jack walked up to the bridge hatch that lead to a corridor, that would take him to a ladder he could use to get to the casino deck.
As Jack approached the hatch, the sensor detected him and slid the hatch open for him. Just as the hatch opened up the bloodied body of a raccoon fell to Jacks feet. Jack jumped back with a loud yelp. Once he had calmed down he got down on his knees to check the body. Looking at the uniform on the raccoon he could tell it was one of the ships officers, and the rank told him it was the ship's first officer. He had been shot 4 times in the chest and had a small paw gun clutched in his paw. Jack looked down the corridor and was horrified to see half a dozen more bodies laying against bulkheads and sprawled out across the deck. All of them officers, and had been shot to dead.
“Pirates!” Jack muttered to himself. He got back to his feet and checked to make sure his paw gun was still in his shoulder holster under his long coat. Finding it he felt a bit more relieved but knew he really didn't need it since pirates had been here 2 weeks ago, and would not of been here for a few hours afterwards. Jack continued down the corridor stepping over bodies until he got to the end where the ladder was. He descended down the ladder deck by deck untill he got to the casino deck. Opening the hatch by paw took some strength since the hatch had lost power, but he got it to open and when he stepped through he found himself on the second level of the casino deck.
It was an amazing site, he was on the balcony that ran around the deck, with little shops along the bulkheads of the balcony, and looking down he could see more shops and casinos, with fountains, and decorations everywhere. This would've been nice to hang around for a while if it weren't for the bodies of officers, passengers, staff members that were all over the place. There had to be hundreds of bodies on the decks here.
Jack continued along the balcony, trying to avoid bodies and blood that was everywhere he looked. It was slow going but he made his way closer to the bulkhead that had the energy converter hidden behind it. From behind him he heard the sound of something small hitting the deck not to far behind him. Jack looked back to where he thought he had heard the sound, but saw nothing there, Jack thought of what the sound could have been. He had just walked by there, so it could have been something he disturbed by a table, that had then just rolled of, or it could be his imagination getting to him, because it was a bit spooky with half the lights out casting shadows everywhere, or maybe there was something really there, but no there couldn't be.
Jack finished walking and stopped in front of the bulkhead, he grabbed the handles on it and pulled it away revealing a bunch of wires and conduits underneath. He tossed the heavy piece of metal to the deck with a loud thud. Then he saw it the energy converter, Jack flipped a few switches by the converter to shut off the power going to it. For a few seconds all the light on the casino deck went out leaving Jack in the dark, then slowly emergency lights turned on. They were very dim leaving lots of the area in the dark, and shadows.
With the little bit of lighting he had he went back to work on pulling out the energy converter. Slowly it slide out and with a pop it was free, and with satisfaction Jack smiled to himself. Then one of the shadow by him moved and disappeared into more shadow, Jack got stood still as he looked into the shadows, this time he was positive he had seen something, he knew his imagination normally didn't play tricks on him like this, but again there was nothing there. With a small sigh of relief Jack decided to just get back to the Mercury, he didn't have time to worry about things that didn't exist, something more deadly was ripping its way through space and was going to destroy this passenger liner with him on it or not.
Just as Jack took a step forward, he let out a loud yelp as the back of his head was in instant pain. He collapsed to his knees as everything around him grew darker, and as he thinking slowed and his vision blurred, he fell over and blacked out.
CHAPTER 7
Slowly the world around Jack came back to him, his vision still blurry, but he could make out the outline of a figure standing over him in the dim light. After a few seconds he could see the figure, a female cat that looked like she was in her mid 20's, with white fur. Her clothes were torn, and dirty, with some blood on them. Here jeans were pretty tight, and so was here red tank top. In her paw was a statue made of bronze that must of come from one of the decorations of the casino. “Did you hit me with that?” Jack asked as he held the back of his head.
“yes and if you make any sudden moves i'll hit you again.” She said as she got the statue ready again.
“Why the hell would you hit me? Questioned Jack.
“cuz you pirates killed everyone else and took everything of value.” she said.
“I'm not a pirate lady, I'm just Jack, i'm just here to get a part for my ship so i can leave, before this ship is destroyed” Jack told her.
“What do you mean by tha...” She was cut of from finishing as the whole ship suddenly lurched to the side sending her falling back and over the railing. She grabbed onto the railing to save herself from falling to the deck below. Jack jumped up and ran to the railing giving her his paw. “Take my paw now lady!” yelled Jack. She reached out to him and just before she could reach her other paw slipped and she fell. Jack tossed himself half way over the railing as he grabbed her paw catching her, not daring to let go. The ship rocked again as there was another explosion deeper in the ship.
“DON'T DROP ME!” She yelled back to Jack.
“I'm trying not to!” Jack said back as he pulled himself back over the railing, then with all his energy he pulled her up and over the railing. Jack fell backwards with her landing on top of him. “Thank you Jack!” She said as she looked down at him.
“Any time...” This time Jack was cut of as there was an explosion from down below the balcony. A large fire ball tore its way through the casino and tore the front entrance off of the casino. The fireball was so hot Jack could feel it from up on the balcony. There was then the sound of rushing air as light papers and debris were pulled into the air and pulled thru the entrance of the casino.
Jack grabbed onto her and pulled her up with him. Then he grabbed the energy converter off the ground. “we need to go now before all the oxygen vents out into space.” said Jack as he grabbed her paw and made her run with him the way he had come. As they ran papers and light objects kept hitting them, and as the oxygen started to run out, it started to get harder to breath. The ship continued to rock as there was more explosions all over the ship, and the constant sound of the ships hull being hit.
They finally made it back to the room with the ladder, and as Jack pulled her through the open hatch, he forced it shut again to prevent the air in this section from escaping. “we got to climb up 3 decks to the bridge, i got a ship waiting there.” said Jack.
“what the hell is happening?” she questioned.
“well if i had to guess, the fragments from planets and moons, that have been destroyed by the shock wave from the sun going nova, are now hitting this ship, which means the shock wave isn't to far behind. Replied Jack.
“NOVA, SHOCK WAVE!, what the hell is going on?” she questioned.
“No time we got to go!” Jack said as he hopped onto the ladder and started to climb up. She hesitated for a second before following Jack up the ladder. When she got to the top Jack helped her step back onto the deck. “this way.” Jack said as he lead her down the corridor and onto the ships bridge. From the bridge's front windows Jack could see fragments from planets hurling by all over the place, he could see holes all over the ships bow all along the the starboard side of the ship. When he looked out the starboard windows he could see the shockwave coming and it was getting closer by the second.
“oh my god we're going to die!” she shouted.
“No we aren't!” Jack said as he dragged her towards the ladder that lead up to the Mercury.
“Nothing can outrun that!” She stated.
“No, but the Mercury doesn't have to outrun it, just stay ahead of it long enough” Jack said as he climbed up the ladder. When he got up into the Mercury he looked down and helped her up into the Mercury.
“what do you mean you don't need to outrun it?” she asked.
“No time to explain just follow me.” Jack said as he hit the switch that slid the ladder back into the Mercury, and closing the hatch of the Mercury. Jack lead her to the cockpit and pointed her to the co-pilot's seat as he took his seat on the left side. Once she sat down Jack looked at her and said “hang on to something.” Jack said as he deactivated the magnets that held the Mercury in place. They were pushed back into their seats as the air in the bridge of the passenger liner caused explosive decompression, through the hole the Mercury had cut in it, sending the Mercury spinning away.
It took Jack a few seconds to get the Mercury back under control, once she was level again Jack turned her away from the shock wave and threw the throttle all the way forward sending the Mercury full speed ahead. Jack weaved the Mercury in and out of fragments of planets that were flying past him. “Lucy take over the helm controls while i install this energy converter.” Jack said.
“Of course Jack, but you know i have always preferred my flying over yours.” Lucy said, in a slightly teasing way.
“who the hell is that?” asked the female wolf.
“I'm Lucy, and who might you be?” said Lucy.
“i'm Winter, and where are you?” Asked Winter.
“I'm everywhere, I'm the ships AI.” Said Lucy
Jack took the energy converter and climbed under the control panel in front of Winter., his tail hitting here in the knees, and her legs. “sorry lady, not use to working around company.” Jack said as his tail sat between her legs.
“Sure, perv!” she said as she grabbed his tail and tossed it to her side.
“Like i said, don't flatter yourself lady.” Jack said as he tore out the old energy converter.
“your not my type Jack, so don't bother trying.” Winter said.
“What! Im not trying, i'm just trying to instal this part before we die!” Jack tried to get the new part in just it took a bit of work since it wasn't meant to fit. Then with a pop it connected, and he shoved it into it home under the control panel. As he climbed out he hit Winter with his tail.
“Ok that time i meant to hit you.” He said as he took a seat in his pilots chair. He smiled at her like there was no danger as he took the controls from Lucy. There was a few clunks as small pieces of debris hit the Mercury. Winter's tail got puffy as she almost jumped out of her seat.
“Why are you so calm! Were about to die!” Winter said almost close to panic.
“Cuz, before you know it we will be nice and safe.” Jack said as calm as ever. He reached over and hit the button for the infinity drive. After a second of nothing happening, he hit it again, then again, and again, still nothing. Now Jack looked worried “Thats not good!” Jack said.
“What do you mean thats not good!” Questioned Winter.
Before Jack could answer a larger piece of debris hit the already damaged starboard engine tearing it off the side of the Mercury putting the small ship into a clockwise spin. The alarm inside of the Mercury's cockpit started to sound as Jack watched through the cockpit window the stars spinning by. Every time the Mercury would spin around and face the shock wave it was closer and closer. Jack had just one thing to say. “oh shit!”
Phoenix pushed the engines of his small fighter to the max as he weaved in out of the asteroid field he was in. The albino tiger was doing the best he could do to keep up with his prey, but the asteroids weren’t making it easy. Not a single one was floating at the same speed or direction. "Damn it, Derek didn’t say anything about how fast that ship is" Up ahead he could see the ship he was after. All he had to do was get closer and destroy it. Once this was over he would go collect his credits and go to outpost one and drink to his heart’s content. But first he had to catch up. Pulling back on the controls, he brought the nose of his fighter up and did a roll as he avoided a small asteroid. Luckily the maneuver had just put him into a great firing position.
Phoenix took aim and pulled the trigger, unleashing a hail of bullets from the twin side guns. Bullets whizzed through space hitting asteroids blowing chunks and pieces out of them. He smiled with satisfaction when he saw the starboard engine of his prey’s ship burst into smoke, just before it could disappear behind an asteroid. Now it was just a matter of time, with one engine down there was no way Jack would escape alive, Phoenix just had to get closer to use the guided missile he had ready.
At first he wasn’t sure what he was seeing, but his mind put it together faster than any other pilot could of. Two little points of light quickly got closer showing their true nature, two rockets were coming right for Phoenix. He threw the controls hard over putting his fighter into a spin, the first rocket took a glancing hit off of his wing and it went spinning off into an asteroid blowing it to pieces. As bits of the asteroid were bouncing of the hull of his fighter making clunking sounds, he pulled back hard on the controls just as the second rocket went flying right under his ship. But he had pulled up to fast, his ship pulled right up and smashed the top into an asteroid making a deafening sound as the upper hull plating buckled and some came tearing off flying into space with chunks of asteroid.
One of his alarms started to sound letting him know that he was leaking air, but it was a slow leak nothing that would hurt him. But it was hard finding Jack's ship in these asteroids, its black hull made it hard to find by sight, and for some reason the ship would not show up on sensors unless he was right on top of it. Then he saw it a little blip on his radar, not far ahead. He put the engines all ahead as fast as they would go and as he cleared another asteroid he caught sight of the ship again. Its starboard engine was still smoking badly, but something was wrong, the ship was heading straight for a massive asteroid like it couldn’t maneuver...that was it he had done more damage than he thought, he had disabled Jack’s ship and it was going to crash head on into an asteroid. But that wasn’t enough, Jack had done damage to his beloved fighter and had to be destroyed by his own hands.
He flipped the safety switch and activated the guided missile sending it flying off for Jack’s ship. Phoenix watched as it got closer and closer to Jacks ship as the ship got closer to the asteroid. Phoenix couldn’t tell how Jack met his end it all happened to fast at the same time, he saw the missile reach the ship at the same time it reached the asteroid, and in an instant everything was gone in an explosion that destroyed the asteroid, but strangely it looked like Jacks ship just disappeared a split second before the explosion, but phoenix knew that wasn’t possible. But he didn’t care, he had done his job and it was time to go to collect his pay and go back to outpost one for drinks and repairs. He turned his ship around and headed out of the asteroid field leaving behind Jacks dead body.
CHAPTER 1
1 hr earlier
Jack watched through the cockpit window as outpost one got closer, its plain old hull looking uninviting. His ship the Mercury flew closer gracefully and undetectable by conventional sensors. Her plain black hull not noticeable unless if you were looking for her. Jack pulled back on the throttle and the engines idled down to a slow cruising speed. He thought back to the last time he had visited outpost one and got into a little trouble with some pirates, sure he was in debt to them but the way he saw it was if they really wanted the money they would never of given it to him. Because of last time he figured it best to dock at one of the maintenance ports where no one would be at.
"Why is it that you keep coming back here if all you do is get into trouble? One of these days you're going to get killed by a pirate" Said Mercury's AI
Jack laughed "’Cuz it’s the best place in this part of the galaxy to get some drinks"
Jack love the mercury's AI, it was the best thing he had added to his beaten up ship. It had taken him a good while to find the voice that fitted his taste. He had settled on a drop dead sexy female voice, though any voice was good for him after spending the last 5 1/2 years alone on his little ship.
"That’s the stupidest of reasons to get yourself killed" she replied
"What’s wrong you? You love me so much you can’t stand to think of me getting killed?"
"Who said anything about love? My software puts up with you is all"
Jack grabbed his chest in a playful way and gave a fake sad face "Aww, Lucy that hurts me you know “Jack looked around” especially since you and the Mercury are the only things in this world I have and love"
"Ok Jack so maybe i do care what happens to you ‘cuz I’ve grown attached to you, after all you’re the best looking fox I have ever seen." Now she did a serious tone. "But what if you run into Cyrus again? He might not be happy about last time"
Jack grinned "you mean the time I punched him in the muzzle? Or the time I tossed him through a glass table?"
"I thought that both of those happened at the same time"
"Oh you're right, they did. But I’m sure he has forgotten by now. And if not ill just remind him why you don't mess with Jack"
"Good God you are trying to get yourself killed"
"No, I’m not, but now’s not the time we're here. we can continue this conversation when i get back"
"If you get back"
Jack guided the mercury over the upper hull of the outpost and slowly docked the mercury’s bottom hatch over the outpost's hatch. The inside of the Mercury made several loud clunks as the magnetic seals held the Mercury in position. Jack rose out of his seat and turned off the ships engines.
"I’ll be back really soon my darling, so don’t go anywhere" Jack said as he grabbed his long coat hanging by the hatch that lead from the cockpit to the aft storage room. He tossed his old worn Jacket on, with it old ranks of captain still on the sleeves.
"And why do you think the pirates won’t find you on an outpost that’s run by them? Asked the AI
"’Cuz the only place that they won’t be looking for me is right under their nose's"
"How is it you have managed to stay alive this long with your ideas of thinking?"
Jack pushed open the hatch and closed it behind him as he began to make his way toward the center of the storage room. Really it wasn’t a storage room any more it was his living quarters, there was his bed, a small bathroom a little kitchen and in the center of the room a ladder that ran from the top to the bottom of the ship. He had installed the ladder system himself, the way it worked was he could dock below or above something and climb up the ladder or down the ladder, into the ship or station he was docked at. There was the main ladder that never moved and in front of it another ladder that would move down or up through the open hatch for him to climb.
He pressed the button on the controls and the bottom hatch slide open, after another second the hatch slid open to the outpost, then the ladder began to slide down.
Jack began to climb down the ladder as he said "babe the reason I’m still alive is cuz I’m the luckiest fox alive" He skipped the last two steps of the ladder and let himself drop down to the deck. But just as he straightened himself out he was filled with a little worry as the hairs on his orange tail stood on end and his ears folded back, as he recognized the sounds of guns cocking behind him.
CHAPTER 2
Ok this is it, not good...I bet I know who it is to] Jack thought to himself as he slowly raised his hands in surrender. Without warning he was grabbed from behind and hurled face first into the bulkhead, pain shooting through his muzzle and chest. He then felt the cold metal of a paw gun being pressed quit hard against his right temple. That’s all he needed to know who it was.
"Hey Cyrus, you amazingly cute fox! How’s life been treating you buddy?" Jack wasn’t lying, he knew Cyrus was great looking, if he wasn’t a pirate that wanted him dead, he would of maybe given Cyrus a chance. He loved his white soft fur which looked so touchable. Then there was the unusual marking he had over his eye, a blue crescent shaped moon ran down the fur where his right eye was, you could only tell what shape it was when he blinked. And the body, his frame wasn’t too manly, but he didn’t look too weak either, it was a body to die for, which he might just do now if Cyrus was really still pissed about last time.
Jack felt the gun pull away as he was spun around real quick. For a split second he saw that lovely face of Cyrus, and then he saw Cyrus's fist quickly make contact with his muzzle. Jack felt even more pain shooting through his muzzle than he already had a few seconds ago. "Oww! What the hell" Jack was cut off from saying any more with a punch to his stomach. He keeled over out of breath holding his stomach while his other paw held him off the deck.
Cyrus looked down at him enjoying what he saw. "Know we are even...oh by the way" Cyrus gave Jack a good kick to the ribs, sending him to the deck. "I’m not your buddy" Cyrus motioned for the other pirate to help Jack to his feet. It wasn’t much work for the, black as night, Jaguar. He could probably of cared Jack for hours and not get tired. With Jack being held up straight Cyrus was finally able to look him in the eyes. "So Jack you owe quite a bit of debit to Diego, and guess what. He Isn’t that happy every time he ask for his money you run off. Now he wants to see you in person."
"I would rather not" said Jack after finally getting his breath back. The black jaguar let go of Jack now that he could stand on his own and gave him a hit in the back with the butt of his rifle letting Jack know to move forward. Jack moved forward cuz it was best for him to not get killed. "But I see I really have no choice"
Cyrus took a step in front of Jack making him stop. Jack looked at him confused for a second as Cyrus reached into Jacks coat rubbing his paw along Jacks sides. Then he reached back deeper in between Jack and his long coat and started to slid his paw down Jacks back. Cyrus was just about face to face with Jack, and Cyrus didn't have his handgun in a ready position any more. One thing Jack new about Cyrus was that he wasn't good when it came to being a pirate. If it wasn't for the really quite jaguar behind him, he could take care of Cyrus right now and escape. "So Cyrus, I see you are feeling frisky today, too bad we aren’t alone right now"
Cyrus didn’t even smile as he reached down till he got to Jacks pants and found what he was looking for. He pulled Jacks paw gun out of the back of his pants and handed it to the Jaguar. Cyrus looked Jack in the eyes. "Ok Jack, first of all you’re not my type"
"How am i not your type?" Jack said, which surprised him a little cuz for some reason he really wanted to know.
"You’re not funny, and second I am all ....." Cyrus looked behind Jack at the Jaguar realizing he almost said too much, but Jack noticed Cyrus's gaze.
"What’s wrong? None of your other pirate..." Jack was cut off by Cyrus pointing a gun at his head.
"Another word Jack, just one more and i'll pull the trigger" Cyrus was shaking a little and Jack was convinced that Cyrus wasn’t joking. "Now start walking Jack I believe you still know the way.
"Of course i do, i take it we're going to that lovely room that Diego calls an office" Jack said as he started to walk as he was told to do. [Why didn’t I listen to Lucy?]
CHAPTER 3
Phoenix had stayed hidden behind some crates not too far from the maintenance hatch that the mercury had docked at. He pecked around the corner and saw what looked like two pirates walking this way with Jack in the lead. Jack wasn't looking happy, which Phoenix guessed was from the beating he just got. This wasn't going as planned, he was supposed to wait here for Jack, then when Jack got off his ship, he was to shot him dead. Unfortunately the pirates were here waiting for Jack too.
Phoenix pulled his paw gun out of his holster and made sure it was ready. After Jack and the pirates had walked by he got ready to make his move. It was a simple plan, shot all three of them and call it good. But that plan was quickly ruined, the pirates hadn't made it to far past him when the Jaguar had stopped walking to sniff the air. Phoenix had great hearing and knew what the jaguar was saying. "I know that smell. There a mercenary close by, its phoenix" Then the jaguar spinned around and fired his rifle. Phoenix took as much cover as he could as the crates were pelleted from gunfire.
Phoenix had enough of this, he dived out from behind the crates, and once he had landed he fired twice, both of which hit the jaguar in the chest sending blood flying. The jaguar made a loud thump as his lifeless body hit the deck, then phoenix went to aim for Jack but Jack was just running around the corner at the end of the corridor. "Damn it" muttered Phoenix.
Then cyrus who had taken cover, fired several shots at Phoenix. Bullets riquesheid of the deck around Phoenix, so he quickly rolled across the deck and tucked himself into a door frame. Phoenix blind fired back at Cyrus, which caused cyrus to duck back into cover. This gave Phoenix enough time to peek around the corner to see where Cyrus was. After a quick look he had figured Cyrus was behind another stack of crates. Not too far from the crates was a gas line running up from the deck to the ceiling. This gave Phoenix an idea, he set his paw gun from normal shot over to his explosive round, he took aim for the gas pipe, but just as he was ready to shot Cyrus jumped out of his cover and started shooting. One of the shots grazed Phoenix's arm causing him to move off target as he fired his gun.
The shot missed the pipe and hit the bulkhead next to Cyrus. The explosion wasn't as big as if it had hit the gas pipe, but it worked out well enough. The bulkhead blew apart into pieces sending Cyrus flying and hitting the other bulkhead that was behind him, his body fell to the floor unmoving with blood around the face.
Phoenix took a look around at the two bodies on the ground, happy that only Jack remained he took off down the corridor the same way Jack had gone. "i'm coming for you Jack!"
CHAPTER 4
Jack ran as quick as he could, with out of his paw gun there was very little he could do. He ran around another corner trying to make his way back around to the Mercury so he could get the hell out of here. Then with out of warning the corridor ended, leaving him no where to go. "damn it! exclaimed Jack. "now what?" He looked around till he found a ladder that went down a deck. Jack thought about whether it was a good idea to go down when he needed to get back to the Mercury, But the sound of Phoenix catching up persuade Jack to climb down.
Jack looked around this new deck. It was all maintenance corridors with like the deck above but with more exposed wires and pipes. The lighting was a lot dimmer down here giving lots of shadows to hide in. Luckily from the looks of it, the corridors lead back to under where the Mercury was docked, and maybe there would be a way up when he got there. Running again he kept an open eye for any way to attack Phoenix, but there was nothing around he could use as a weapon.
Then he saw it, a ladder that went up roughly where the Mercury was docked. Jack climbed up the ladder as quickly as he could and was amazed at what he saw. All around there was destruction, part off the bulkhead was blown apart with scorch marks all over, with debris on everything. Then his heart stopped, and his blood went cold at the sight of Cyrus's body laying face down covered in blood. Jack ran over as quick as he could, reached down and checked for a pulse. "damnit it cyrus, don't you be dead!" shouted Jack. Sure him and Cyrus weren't on good terms any more after what had happened 2 years ago, but Jack still loved him deep down.
"Thank god!" Jack sighed with relief, Cyrus had a pulse, but there wasn't anything Jack could do for him now, he could hear the sound of phoenix coming up the ladder behind him. Jack jumped up and dived behind some crates doing his best to hide. He could see the ladder of the Mercury not too far down the corridor, but Phoenix was between him and the Mercury. Phoenix was look was heading this way, but didn't seem to know where he was hiding. Jack could smell Phoenix now that he was so close. There was little Jack could do now, it was fight or die. Jack gathered his strength and threw himself at Phoenix. Phoenix had quick reflexes, but not quick enough, Phoenix had pulled the trigger just as Jack drove his shoulder into Phoenix's stomach, the bullet just missing Jacks tail taking some fur with it.
Jack yelped out loud as him and Phoenix went crashing down onto the deck, the paw gun of Phoenix went sliding across the deck. Jack came rolling out on top of Phoenix, and gave Phoenix a few good punches to his muzzle making him bleed. Phoenix kneed Jack in the crotch causing Jack to lose his grip on Phoenix. Using this chance Phoenix bit down on Jacks muzzle leaving wounds, causing Jack to yelp out loud. Jack extended his claws and dug them into the sides of Phoenix drawing blood, making Phoenix stop biting and growl at Jack.
"i'll kill you with my own paws you bastard" howled Phoenix. Phoenix gave Jack an uppercut to the muzzle, sending Jack rolling over onto his back. Jack knew that he wasn't going to win this fight, Phoenix was too good of a fighter, Jack would have to run for his ship. Phoenix got up and stood looking down ready to attack Jack again, which gave Jack a chance. Jack kicked Phoenix in the knee, and with a pop Phoenix went collapsing to the deck. Rolling over Jack got to the ground running, he stopped just for a second to get his paw gun from the body of the dead Jaguar. When he looked back Phoenix had already made his way back to the paw gun he had lost in the fight. Jack fired two rounds making Pheonix take cover giving Jack enough time to get to the Mercurys ladder.
Jack climbed up the ladder as Phoenix fired back at Jack, all his shots just missing. Once Jack was back up in the mercury he raised the ladder and shut the hatch. "lucy we got to get out of here now!" Shouted Jack. If it wasn't for the fact that Lucy was just the Mercury's AI she might of sounded scared, but instead she responded a bit more calmly. "now what have you done Jack?"
"Nothing!" said Jack as he started the Mercury's engines and deactivated the docking magnets. "just a run in with Cyrus and Phoenix" Jack Pulled the Mercury away from out post one, and fired the engines up to full. The Mercury took off as fast as it could, but after a minute there was another ship not too far behind.
"Jack why do i detect a small fighter following use?" asked lucy. Jack took a look at the sensors and saw that she was right.
"oh that? that's just Phoenix, i think he wants me dead for some reason" replied Jack. Jack checked the sensors one more time and noticed an asteroid field not far, if he could get to it he might be able to hide long enough. "Lucy i got an idea, how about we hide in the asteroid field?
"Thats stupid! Just wait 15 more minutes and the Space Drive will be ready again" Suggested Lucy.
Jack smiles and said "Oh come on Lucy, what's the worst thing that can happen?"
CHAPTER 5
The Mercury flew head on through the asteroid field, with the sounds of smaller rocks bouncing off the hull. Jack knew he was one of the best pilots there was, even back when he was a test pilot he knew it. He also knew he had the fastest ship ever built, which was why he was just out running Phoenix. Every once in awhile Lucy would chime in to let him know he was about to hit something, and that he needed to stop showing off.
Jack was moving all around to adjust the levers and dials that ran along the front of the cockpit. The only problem flying the Mercury alone was the fact she had been built to be flown with two people, not just one. On top of that she wasn't built with weapons, every one Jack had installed himself over the 5 years he had had the Mercury. Switches had to be add to the controls so he could fire them. The whole cockpit was a mess from all the new wires and switches that had been added. She no longer looked like the brand new ship she had been, now she looked like an old run down ship, due to the fact most of the parts were just proto technology from when she was built. Lots of it had shorted, or started fires, and had to be replaced with parts scavenged from all kinds of ships Jack had found adrift.
Lucky Jack had stolen a prototype AI program 3 years ago and installed it to the Mercury. She helped Jack with running minor programs so he could focus on flying the ship, and she was the only company he really had for the last 3 year. Sure she was only a computer program but Jack loved her. "Lucy! I need you to activate the two aft rockets now" Jack said as he weaved the Mercury in and out of the asteroids, trying to stay out of Phoenix's line of fire.
"What are you going to do kill him?" Lucy replied.
"No, i was just going to let him kill us....Of course i'm going to fight back!" Jack responded hastily.
Without warning there was the sound of bullets tearing through the aft section of the Mercury, followed by a loud bang and shudder as the starboard engine took several hits causing the fuel line in the engine to catch fire. The force fields within the framing of the Mercury's hull activated preventing air from leaking out. The force field would hold as long as the actual frame of the hull wasn't damaged.
Lucy responded right away "Starboard engine has been hit, the fuel line is on fire, if we don't shut off the engine the fuel tank can explode taking the whole ship with it."
"Then shutdown the engine, we just need to outrun him a little longer" Jack said, as he fired the aft rockets.
"I never finished programing those, now they will probably miss" replied Lucy.
"Now you tell me!" Jack said as he tried to turn the Mercury, but nothing happend. "Lucy!, the Mercury is turning!
"Scanning......The flight control computer was hit and is off line, it will take 2 minutes to switch over to the secondary." Said Lucy.
Jack glanced up for a second and the fur on his tail stood on end, the Mercury was on a head on collision course with an asteroid. "Lucy we don't have 2 minutes!"
"Jack i'm detecting an asteroid dead ahead, Estimated time to impact, less than a minute." replied Lucy as calm as ever.
"You don't say! Damn it, not good!........the infinity drive? is it ready?" asked Jack.
"No its not. The Infinity drive won't be ready for another five minutes" said Lucy.
"Well i guess things can't get any worse.." The blaring of an alarm cut Jack off.
"Theres a guided missile looked onto us, time till impact of both the asteroid and guided missile...20 seconds" Said Lucy.
"No choice Lucy prepare the infinity drive" Ordered Jack.
"If we jump the ship early there is a high chance that the ship will be destroyed from a system overload, and if we do make it, theres not enough time to program a location, it would have to be random" said Lucy.
“Any where as better than being dead!” shouted Jack. “just prepare the infinity drive.”
“.......The infinity drive is programed, but still hasn't finished its cool down and reset time” said Lucy.
Jack looked up with his paw posed over the switch to activate the infinity drive. The asteroid was seconds away, with the missile right on top of the Mercury, time had run out it was now or never. With out of waiting for Lucy to say the system was ready Jack hit the button.
The Mercury vanished from where it was at the very moment the missile had caught up. The less that a second the missile had gone through where the Mercury had been, and crashed into the asteroid blowing up. With in a second the explosion was no more being suffocated by space. The asteroid field was once again quiet.
CHAPTER 6
The Mercury existed in two different places in the universe at the same time, but only for what could be called a fraction of a fraction of a second. The Mercury had bent and folded space in a way so it was in two places at once, where it had been, and where it was going. When space snapped back to normal it left the Mercury in its new location, adrift in a dyeing solar system.
Jack was forced to cover his face as part of the copilot control panel blew apart into pieces, debri hitting Jack and the bulkheads. Coughing as the smoke cleared, Jack took a look around and after a few seconds was happy that the Mercury seemed to still be in one piece. “lucy i need a status report.” said Jack.
Lucy took a few seconds to respond, “ The structural integrity is unchanged, the secondary flight controls are all most switched over....the port side energy converter for the infinity drive has been destroyed, until we can find an acceptable replacement for it, the Mercury will be unable to jump again.....also sensors indicate that the star in this solar system is going nova” said Lucy.
“When?” Asked Jack.
“Its is going nova right now Jack, about a few hrs before we got here. There is a shock wave heading right for us, time to impact is about 2 hr 20 minutes.” Said Lucy.
“Why is it that everything wants me dead today? Ok so we need a new energy converter for the infinity drive or else we are dead. Start scanning for any ships or stations nearby that might of been left abandoned.” Ordered Jack.
“scanning....i’m detecting a large vessel adrift, loading the coordinates to the flight computer...oh by the way the flight computer is now switched over.” Said Lucy.
“well lets take a look, see if we can find something that will work the infinity drive.” Jack said as he brought the Mercury about. As the Mercury finished her turn heading off in the direction of the large ship, Jack could see the fiery red sun way off in the distance, with the shock wave moving away from it in all directions. “My God!” exclaimed Jack as he watch the one of the planets get torn apart by the shock wave. Jack grabbed the throttle controls and pushed them all the way forward sending the mercury as fast as it could go, sending her flying straight for the large ship, and the shock wave.
It took about 20 minutes for the Mercury to get to the large ship, once Jack was close enough he could see that not only was it a large ship, it was also a passenger liner. She was adrift with no signs of life, her engines were out cold. Jack brought the Mercury close to the other ships hull so he could see into the ships windows, but he couldn't see anyone. He slowly took the Mercury up and around the ships bridge, taking a look into the ships bridge he could see no command crew.
“well it looks like this ship really is abandoned and adrift.” Jack told Lucy. “ i’m going to dock on top of the ships bridge and cut a hole since i don't see any hatches to dock at.” Slowly Jack sat the Mercury down on top of the passenger liner. The magnetic seals activated holding the Mercury in one spot. Jack activated the auto torch which ran around the inside part of the seal, when the torch activated it slowly moved along the Mercury's lower hatch cutting through the hull of the passenger liner. With a clunk the piece of hull that had been cut fell to the deck of the bridge.
“Jack you do know that the energy converter for the passenger liners engines will be too much for the Mercury to handle.” Said Lucy.
“Yes i know that, i’m thinking that a smaller one from the ships galley, or one from a deck that uses a lot of energy.” said Jack. Jack started to make his way back to the AFT section of the Mercury where his sleeping and living quarters were. He walked up to the ladder in the middle of the room and opened the hatch, and lowered the ladder down into the passenger liners bridge. Jack climbed down the ladder and dropped down into the bridge, taking a look around it was like he expected, the ship had no one around.
Jack walked across the bridge to the statues screens, the first one showed showed that there hadn't been any activity on board by any crew members since 2 weeks ago. The screen also indicated the ship was at high alert, but not what the alert was for. No escape pods had been launched. This was starting to seem a little strange, but not for Jack to worry about. The next screen showed the layout of the ship, this one Jack studied closely looking for where he might find a energy converter that wouldn't be to much for the Mercury, yet powerful enough to run the infinity drive. Then he found it, three decks down there was a large casino that took up nearly half of one deck. The energy that ran through the converter for that casino was just about the same as the infinity drive used.
The lights on the bridge flickered for a few seconds before going back to steady. Jack looked at more readouts and noticed that some decks had no power, while most the decks had partial power, and the crew areas still had full power. Looking through the rest Jack noticed that the passenger liners power generators had failed two days ago, and that the backup batteries were losing power. After getting all the information he needed Jack walked up to the bridge hatch that lead to a corridor, that would take him to a ladder he could use to get to the casino deck.
As Jack approached the hatch, the sensor detected him and slid the hatch open for him. Just as the hatch opened up the bloodied body of a raccoon fell to Jacks feet. Jack jumped back with a loud yelp. Once he had calmed down he got down on his knees to check the body. Looking at the uniform on the raccoon he could tell it was one of the ships officers, and the rank told him it was the ship's first officer. He had been shot 4 times in the chest and had a small paw gun clutched in his paw. Jack looked down the corridor and was horrified to see half a dozen more bodies laying against bulkheads and sprawled out across the deck. All of them officers, and had been shot to dead.
“Pirates!” Jack muttered to himself. He got back to his feet and checked to make sure his paw gun was still in his shoulder holster under his long coat. Finding it he felt a bit more relieved but knew he really didn't need it since pirates had been here 2 weeks ago, and would not of been here for a few hours afterwards. Jack continued down the corridor stepping over bodies until he got to the end where the ladder was. He descended down the ladder deck by deck untill he got to the casino deck. Opening the hatch by paw took some strength since the hatch had lost power, but he got it to open and when he stepped through he found himself on the second level of the casino deck.
It was an amazing site, he was on the balcony that ran around the deck, with little shops along the bulkheads of the balcony, and looking down he could see more shops and casinos, with fountains, and decorations everywhere. This would've been nice to hang around for a while if it weren't for the bodies of officers, passengers, staff members that were all over the place. There had to be hundreds of bodies on the decks here.
Jack continued along the balcony, trying to avoid bodies and blood that was everywhere he looked. It was slow going but he made his way closer to the bulkhead that had the energy converter hidden behind it. From behind him he heard the sound of something small hitting the deck not to far behind him. Jack looked back to where he thought he had heard the sound, but saw nothing there, Jack thought of what the sound could have been. He had just walked by there, so it could have been something he disturbed by a table, that had then just rolled of, or it could be his imagination getting to him, because it was a bit spooky with half the lights out casting shadows everywhere, or maybe there was something really there, but no there couldn't be.
Jack finished walking and stopped in front of the bulkhead, he grabbed the handles on it and pulled it away revealing a bunch of wires and conduits underneath. He tossed the heavy piece of metal to the deck with a loud thud. Then he saw it the energy converter, Jack flipped a few switches by the converter to shut off the power going to it. For a few seconds all the light on the casino deck went out leaving Jack in the dark, then slowly emergency lights turned on. They were very dim leaving lots of the area in the dark, and shadows.
With the little bit of lighting he had he went back to work on pulling out the energy converter. Slowly it slide out and with a pop it was free, and with satisfaction Jack smiled to himself. Then one of the shadow by him moved and disappeared into more shadow, Jack got stood still as he looked into the shadows, this time he was positive he had seen something, he knew his imagination normally didn't play tricks on him like this, but again there was nothing there. With a small sigh of relief Jack decided to just get back to the Mercury, he didn't have time to worry about things that didn't exist, something more deadly was ripping its way through space and was going to destroy this passenger liner with him on it or not.
Just as Jack took a step forward, he let out a loud yelp as the back of his head was in instant pain. He collapsed to his knees as everything around him grew darker, and as he thinking slowed and his vision blurred, he fell over and blacked out.
CHAPTER 7
Slowly the world around Jack came back to him, his vision still blurry, but he could make out the outline of a figure standing over him in the dim light. After a few seconds he could see the figure, a female cat that looked like she was in her mid 20's, with white fur. Her clothes were torn, and dirty, with some blood on them. Here jeans were pretty tight, and so was here red tank top. In her paw was a statue made of bronze that must of come from one of the decorations of the casino. “Did you hit me with that?” Jack asked as he held the back of his head.
“yes and if you make any sudden moves i'll hit you again.” She said as she got the statue ready again.
“Why the hell would you hit me? Questioned Jack.
“cuz you pirates killed everyone else and took everything of value.” she said.
“I'm not a pirate lady, I'm just Jack, i'm just here to get a part for my ship so i can leave, before this ship is destroyed” Jack told her.
“What do you mean by tha...” She was cut of from finishing as the whole ship suddenly lurched to the side sending her falling back and over the railing. She grabbed onto the railing to save herself from falling to the deck below. Jack jumped up and ran to the railing giving her his paw. “Take my paw now lady!” yelled Jack. She reached out to him and just before she could reach her other paw slipped and she fell. Jack tossed himself half way over the railing as he grabbed her paw catching her, not daring to let go. The ship rocked again as there was another explosion deeper in the ship.
“DON'T DROP ME!” She yelled back to Jack.
“I'm trying not to!” Jack said back as he pulled himself back over the railing, then with all his energy he pulled her up and over the railing. Jack fell backwards with her landing on top of him. “Thank you Jack!” She said as she looked down at him.
“Any time...” This time Jack was cut of as there was an explosion from down below the balcony. A large fire ball tore its way through the casino and tore the front entrance off of the casino. The fireball was so hot Jack could feel it from up on the balcony. There was then the sound of rushing air as light papers and debris were pulled into the air and pulled thru the entrance of the casino.
Jack grabbed onto her and pulled her up with him. Then he grabbed the energy converter off the ground. “we need to go now before all the oxygen vents out into space.” said Jack as he grabbed her paw and made her run with him the way he had come. As they ran papers and light objects kept hitting them, and as the oxygen started to run out, it started to get harder to breath. The ship continued to rock as there was more explosions all over the ship, and the constant sound of the ships hull being hit.
They finally made it back to the room with the ladder, and as Jack pulled her through the open hatch, he forced it shut again to prevent the air in this section from escaping. “we got to climb up 3 decks to the bridge, i got a ship waiting there.” said Jack.
“what the hell is happening?” she questioned.
“well if i had to guess, the fragments from planets and moons, that have been destroyed by the shock wave from the sun going nova, are now hitting this ship, which means the shock wave isn't to far behind. Replied Jack.
“NOVA, SHOCK WAVE!, what the hell is going on?” she questioned.
“No time we got to go!” Jack said as he hopped onto the ladder and started to climb up. She hesitated for a second before following Jack up the ladder. When she got to the top Jack helped her step back onto the deck. “this way.” Jack said as he lead her down the corridor and onto the ships bridge. From the bridge's front windows Jack could see fragments from planets hurling by all over the place, he could see holes all over the ships bow all along the the starboard side of the ship. When he looked out the starboard windows he could see the shockwave coming and it was getting closer by the second.
“oh my god we're going to die!” she shouted.
“No we aren't!” Jack said as he dragged her towards the ladder that lead up to the Mercury.
“Nothing can outrun that!” She stated.
“No, but the Mercury doesn't have to outrun it, just stay ahead of it long enough” Jack said as he climbed up the ladder. When he got up into the Mercury he looked down and helped her up into the Mercury.
“what do you mean you don't need to outrun it?” she asked.
“No time to explain just follow me.” Jack said as he hit the switch that slid the ladder back into the Mercury, and closing the hatch of the Mercury. Jack lead her to the cockpit and pointed her to the co-pilot's seat as he took his seat on the left side. Once she sat down Jack looked at her and said “hang on to something.” Jack said as he deactivated the magnets that held the Mercury in place. They were pushed back into their seats as the air in the bridge of the passenger liner caused explosive decompression, through the hole the Mercury had cut in it, sending the Mercury spinning away.
It took Jack a few seconds to get the Mercury back under control, once she was level again Jack turned her away from the shock wave and threw the throttle all the way forward sending the Mercury full speed ahead. Jack weaved the Mercury in and out of fragments of planets that were flying past him. “Lucy take over the helm controls while i install this energy converter.” Jack said.
“Of course Jack, but you know i have always preferred my flying over yours.” Lucy said, in a slightly teasing way.
“who the hell is that?” asked the female wolf.
“I'm Lucy, and who might you be?” said Lucy.
“i'm Winter, and where are you?” Asked Winter.
“I'm everywhere, I'm the ships AI.” Said Lucy
Jack took the energy converter and climbed under the control panel in front of Winter., his tail hitting here in the knees, and her legs. “sorry lady, not use to working around company.” Jack said as his tail sat between her legs.
“Sure, perv!” she said as she grabbed his tail and tossed it to her side.
“Like i said, don't flatter yourself lady.” Jack said as he tore out the old energy converter.
“your not my type Jack, so don't bother trying.” Winter said.
“What! Im not trying, i'm just trying to instal this part before we die!” Jack tried to get the new part in just it took a bit of work since it wasn't meant to fit. Then with a pop it connected, and he shoved it into it home under the control panel. As he climbed out he hit Winter with his tail.
“Ok that time i meant to hit you.” He said as he took a seat in his pilots chair. He smiled at her like there was no danger as he took the controls from Lucy. There was a few clunks as small pieces of debris hit the Mercury. Winter's tail got puffy as she almost jumped out of her seat.
“Why are you so calm! Were about to die!” Winter said almost close to panic.
“Cuz, before you know it we will be nice and safe.” Jack said as calm as ever. He reached over and hit the button for the infinity drive. After a second of nothing happening, he hit it again, then again, and again, still nothing. Now Jack looked worried “Thats not good!” Jack said.
“What do you mean thats not good!” Questioned Winter.
Before Jack could answer a larger piece of debris hit the already damaged starboard engine tearing it off the side of the Mercury putting the small ship into a clockwise spin. The alarm inside of the Mercury's cockpit started to sound as Jack watched through the cockpit window the stars spinning by. Every time the Mercury would spin around and face the shock wave it was closer and closer. Jack had just one thing to say. “oh shit!”
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 58px
File Size 1.48 MB
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