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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 14:27:34 GMT
by ddswanson (October 5 2001)
"I'm sure I felt the room shake just now!" the young soldier complained nervously to his older partner. He'd never been in actual combat before, and ever since the pair had received word a few minutes ago that the citadel was under attack, he'd been having second thoughts about whether he really wanted to be a soldier in the rebel army. The two soldiers were virtual twins in light body armor, armed with heavy assault rifles and totally anonymous behind the mirror-surfaced full face masks on their helmets. It was the third time in the last 5 minutes the rookie had thought he'd felt something. The youngster's companion, a grizzled veteran who'd been a mercenary longer than his partner had been alive, had been mildly amused by these complaints and had dismissed the younger man's observations as mere nerves. "The whole mountain would have to shake for you to feel it in here, kid. Don't worry, I've seen the defenses we've got set up around the Citadel, and nothing the Protectorate could send at us has a chance of getting this far," he'd replied confidently. "The Reptiles," his own mercenary unit, "are the best there is, and the other two merc units DarkFactor hired are nearly as good. Plus, he's supplied those battle robots and weapons like I never saw before. And," he added as an afterthought "you undercit guys is OK, too. Too bad I'm stuck way down here, though," he continued regretfully. "I won't be gettin' no combat bonuses today." The two soldiers were part of the last line of defense inside the Citadel of Change, the once-secret fortress of DarkFactor, the leader of the rebel underground on the planet of Thrann. Not a secret any more, the rookie mused. Wonder how they found the place? The Citadel was under attack by the forces of the Protectorate of Free Planets, the legitimate government of Thrann and a handful of nearby star systems. Until recently the underground, composed almost entirely of Protectorate undercits (the serving class), had been nothing more than a minor annoyance, but the rise of DarkFactor had changed that. DarkFactor had seemingly appeared from nowhere, and his advanced technology and charismatic leadership had transformed the ragged rebel forces into a competent, dangerous threat. The Protectorate had finally decided to eliminate the rebel leader, and after months of investigation and preparation, had launched an all-out attack on the Citadel. Of course, the rebels had been preparing during that time as well. "THOOM!" This time, even the mercenary couldn't ignore the sound; it was like lightning had struck in the next room. The unbelieving soldiers watched something come out of the wall. Even the veteran was unnerved at this, and both fighters opened up with their weapons. The rookie's laser cut through the translucent gray man who had just walked through the wall, and the surface of the wall behind him was blasted to the bare metal, but the gray man was unaffected. A stream of bullets from the veteran's gun traced a pattern of explosions across the wall, after passing through the gray a with no effect. The intangible man took a careful look around, totally ignoring both the soldiers and their weapon fire, then walked back into the wall. "THOOM!" even louder this time. The room shook as something struck the other side of the wall where the gray man had vanished, and the incredibly tough metal bulged as it stretched inward. "I think we're gonna need reinforcements," the merc said calmly. He punched a button on the wall. "Fall back, kid. Anything rips through a hull-metal bulkhead, we ain't gonna stop it by ourselves." The back wall of the room slid aside, and the two fighters merged anonymously into the waiting phalanx of soldiers and battle robots. At the same time, the far wall ripped as if it were paper, almost deafening the waiting fighters with a painful screech, and 6 colorfully clad figures burst into the guardroom. "What's that?" one of the mercenaries shouted fearfully. "It's the Justice Mandate!" one of the undercits replied in an awestruck whisper, almost overcome with abject terror. "We're all gonna die!' The figure in the lead, apparently the one who had smashed the wall, was clad in a skin-tight yellow and purple costume with a purple cape. He was closely followed by the gray phantom and something that looked like a green tree trunk with arms and legs, wearing purple pants! Right behind them strode a tall, confident-looking woman with yellow skin, her very short hair graying at the temples, wearing a red tunic and baggy red pants, and a bald man with very pink skin and a bulging forehead in a blue one-piece jumpsuit. Their rear guard was a girl with short dark brown hair and skin just a few shades lighter, dressed in a green jumpsuit with a wide red sash wrapped around her waist. She gestured, and twin lightning bolts blasted from her hands back through the tear in the wall. As the Justice Mandate stormed into the guardroom, the yellow-skinned woman spoke in a loud, commanding voice. "I advise you all to surrender immediately. Those who do will be treated well and given a fair trial. Those who continue to resist will be subdued, and may be injured or killed in the process." Many of the rebels were tempted by the offer. The undercits, especially, as all the media throughout the Protectorate continually promoted the legend of the Justice Mandate - the invincible super team which never failed against enemies of the government, either internal or external. And many of the mercs were willing to stake their lives on a promise made by this woman. Solvent, the leader of the Justice Mandate, was well known, even to mercs from outside the Protectorate, to be honorable, and even Othar, the Minister of Truth and Justice and Solvent's commanding officer, would honor the terms Solvent offered. It was important to maintain the Justice Mandate' high public approval ratings. Besides, Othar would simple offer the mercenaries 'alternate' employment, and he could deal with the captured undercit rebels in his own way after their trials. But one of the mercs fired at the legendary super group, trumping the offer to surrender. Explosive bullets splashed off the chest of the yellow-and-purple clad Companion. The first explosion knocked him backwards half a step, but then he firmly planted his feet. "Pretty high-powered stuff, boss," he reported calmly, "Stings a little." "Mandate, I don't want to spend a lot of time on these guys." Solvent ordered in a voice that her team could hear above the sounds of the explosions. "Mighty Man, Stormgirl, wrap 'em up!" "You got it, boss!" the blond in yellow and purple acknowledged, and he and the girl in the green jumpsuit flew towards the enemy soldiers. Mighty Man tore up a section of the metal floor and started rolling it up, and it drove a crowd of rebel fighters backwards like an advancing wave. When he reached the far wall, Stormgirl welded the curved section of flooring to the wall with blasts of lightning, trapping many rebels behind it. The rest of the Justice Mandate engaged the rebels and battle robots that had escaped being pinned. Solvent slumped to the floor as her body changed to a puddle of fluid, which flowed towards a half dozen rebels. They never noticed the trickle of liquid under their feet until it changed to a mist, rising around them and they fell to the floor, unconscious. Tree bent forward and... grew?, its body lengthening with stunning speed. At the same time, two new limbs grew from its chest, shooting forward to wrap around several surprised soldiers. Tree tightened the new arms like a noose, pulling the rebels into a chaotic pile. Other limbs sprouted from its chest and plucked away their weapons. Mirage, the gray phantom, moved among the battle robots. As he passed through the body of a robot, his own intangible presence disrupted the functioning of their complex battle computers and their precise, coordinated movements degenerated into chaos. The last member of the Justice Mandate didn't seem to be doing anything, and yet he walked through the battle unscathed. Guns pointed at him didn't fire, and combatants rushing him usually ended up stumbling and falling. Angstrom had the mental power to rearrange inanimate atoms in the environment around him; when he saw a soldier target him, he would make changes to the insides of the rebel's gun, which then wouldn't fire - and might even explode. Or he might change a small piece of the floor beneath an approaching rebel's foot to gas, so the soldier would stumble and fall. Angstrom couldn't make large scale changes quickly, so he couldn't affect the entire enemy force at once, but he could effectively neutralize his opponents one at a time. A few minutes later, Minister Othar arrived with a mop-up team to take custody of the captured rebels. Othar was a tall, thin man, blue-skinned with the large, bald, bulging cranium and pointed ears characteristic of the overcits of Thrann. He wore a darkened monocle like a patch over his right eye, and his uniform was a red body with short sleeves with a purple cape with a high half-moon collar that enclosed the back half of his head, almost like a half-hood. As soon as he and his squad entered the devastated guard room, Solvent had her team in motion. "Move out, Mandate. This assault's not over until we've busted DarkFactor." ***~~~*** Not far away, in the innermost chamber of the Citadel, two unusual beings watching the battle on a large view screen quickly realized that the rebel forces didn't have a chance against the government super-team. A short, twisted man with blue skin, long, ragged, mahogany-colored hair and large pointed ears, a narrow, pointed goatee and extraordinarily wide yellow eyes, eyes without pupils, sitting at a table that was covered with small, flat stones set in a careful pattern, each stone inscribed with a symbol. "Yes, grim master, it is as the War Stones predicted." He spoke quietly and somewhat hesitantly. As he continued, he gently touched several of the War Stones in their pattern as he named them. "Secrecy is lost, the Wall is breached, the Fortress compromised, and the Invading Army dominant. The path to Victory is not yet closed to us, if an Alliance can yet be forged." The voice was high and screechy. A being in human-shaped armor, more than 7 feet tall, the armor a shiny black mirror devoid of features except for a flat black ridge on each shoulder and a flat black fin that extended another 6 inches above the top of the faceless helmet. "I didn't need you and your Stones to tell me that, Augur," the giant's low voice rumbled impatiently, and the room shook with the power of that voice. "You will enter the Dimensional Displacer immediately - you must not be here when they arrive. You will be returned in a month, when you will carry out my plan precisely." Augur struggled to stand, then climbed into a box that resembled a small coffin. His movements were slow and each movement summoned a small gasp of agonizing pain from the withered figure, but DarkFactor made no effort to assist his companion. The lid closed, and the box slid into a cavity in a complex machine. The armored being pressed a button and the box vanished with a small 'pouf' of inrushing air. Then the black giant pointed and a beam of yellow energy blasted from his fist, vaporizing the machine. The giant closely examined the floor and used beams of yellow energy to erase any remaining traces of the Dimensional Displacer. Then DarkFactor, for this grim giant black figure was indeed the arch-rebel, stepped onto a circular raised platform that was part of another complex machine. A beam of yellow energy snapped from his hand to the control console. Flickering lights indicated that the dormant machine was coming to life. A very low bass throbbing began, growing louder, and the lights throughout the chamber began to waver in time with the hum. DarkFactor stood tall and majestic, and his black statue-like figure began to fade, its features becoming blurred as it diminished into transparency. All that remained was a cloud of dimly gray mist with the outline of a man, and then that too vanished. Its final function completed, the machine redirected the vast power it was now controlling and almost instantly melted into a puddle of glowing white slag. ***~~~*** "Commander!" Mirage's voice was loud. "Something is... arriving!" Solvent was annoyed that he wasn't more specific; she had trained her team better than that. "Mandate, be alert. What the hell do you mean, Lungor?" she barked. Mirage didn't know how to explain, but it didn't really matter. He turned, then waved his hand helplessly at the space in front of him. "It's here..." The air in the area he had indicated seemed to ripple and then filled with a cloud of almost invisible mist, which quickly coalesced and started to darken into a roughly human shaped, larger-than-life figure. It continued to strengthen and became more distinct, until they were facing a gleaming black statue. Then the statue moved. Although none of the Justice Mandate had ever actually seen DarkFactor before, they all immediately recognized the rebel leader. "DarkFactor! By the authority vested in me by the Directorate of Justice of the Protectorate of Free Planets, as Commander of the Justice Mandate, I order you to surrender to arrest on charges of high treason!" Solvent stated in a loud, confident voice. "I don't recognize your authority." DarkFactor replied. "The Justice Mandate is nothing more than a bunch of thugs, enforcing the oppressive policies of a corrupt and illegitimate government. I, DarkFactor, stand forever in opposition to you and all you represent!" the rebel leader boomed back. "You had your chance, villain. Justice Mandate, attack!" Solvent ordered her team. She leaped forward, changing to her liquid form, and DarkFactor was splattered with powerful acid which slid off the slick surface of his armor with no effect. At the same instant, Mirage flashed forward, attempting to penetrate the villain's armor and disrupt its electronics and stunningly, bounced off! Before the villain could react, Stormgirl unleashed twin bursts of lightning, which knocked him backwards half a step, and then Mighty Man and Tree both slammed into him, one high and one low, driving him backwards into and partway through the wall. A blast of yellow energy knocked the heroes away and shattered the wall, and DarkFactor staggered forward. As his strides became more firm, he raised his hands in front of him. A glowing nimbus of yellow plasma exuded from his gauntlets, growing into a dangerous-looking ball of shimmering, crackling energy. "Mandate! Defensive Formation..." a re-formed Solvent started to yell, but she never finished. The floor shifted under the armored boots of the rebel leader and he stumbled, throwing his hands upward to keep his balance. The force bomb he'd been creating flew towards the ceiling, where it exploded. Tons of rock rained down, burying DarkFactor under a pile of stone. Tree managed to stretch away, carrying Stormgirl with him, but Solvent, Mighty Man and Mirage were caught by the deadly hailstorm as well. Angstrom stood well away from danger, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. The rock pile shivered and then Mighty Man exploded outwards, while Solvent's liquid form trickled through the shattered stone and Mirage simply walked through the rock pile, unaffected. "Well, that's the end of THAT!" Angstrom gloated smugly. "As usual, after all you big shots with your flashy powers take your best shots and fail, it's Angstrom who saves the day."
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 14:30:04 GMT
Dinner on the Tiak Avenger...
The former Galactic Patrol Starship now known as the Tiak Avenger wasn't large by the standards of the ancient Galaxy Patrol: about the size of a large Earth World War II era zeppelin Still, even though life support was still shut down throughout most of the ship while her ancient systems were gradually brought back online, the area that was currently maintained in a 'shirt sleeve' environment was more than adequate for her current crew of four. Their shipboard schedules kept them apart during most of a day, so they deliberately met for dinner every 'night'.
The Patrol drawn recruits from worlds across almost a quarter of the Milky Way Galaxy (though it had been called something different back then), and the gathering of such diverse individuals as comprised the current crew would have been hardly out of the ordinary in the Patrol's heyday: Vic Valor, Jim (Strobe) Chisholm, Jessiat Gazil, and Juna Dondwar. While all 4 looked like humans from Earth, in fact their origins were widely spread across time and space.
Vic Valor wasn't even organic: a being of living energy controlling a super-powered electro-mechanical body, a sort of living android. The energy being was a virtually independent avatar created by Marnu, one of the ancient, vastly powerful and almost immortal Lords of Order, as an interface with the more ephemeral beings that made up the majority of the population of the Galaxy. Valor claimed a history as a high-ranking officer in a military police force on the world of Xadam. Perhaps Marnu had duplicated a 'real' Vic Valor; his character, actions and knowledge were consistent with someone who had lived that story since birth.
Valor was apparently a giant human, with height, bulk and strength similar to Solomon Grundy of Earth, with brown hair and a square-jawed face. His outfit was a discordant jumble of light brown, dark brown, and yellow, with a red cape and dark brown hood. He claimed his costume's color scheme was harmonious to Xadamites, whose eyes had evolved under a brown-dwarf sun.
Jim Chisholm was from Earth. He had recently come into possession of a powerful ancient weapon of the Galactic Patrol, a Glove which could store, release, manipulate and control a white-gleaming form of energy in a manner similar to the Power Rings of Green Lantern and Corona, also of Earth. Jim had attempted to use the Glove as a superhero called Strobe (because, in Johnny Thunder's words "When you're around, it's lights out for the bad guys!").
Strobe and Valor shared a common enemy, a young Lord of Chaos named Wotan. Millennia ago, Wotan's mentor, Burr, had been part of a cabal of Chaos Lords who had used a powerful artifact, the Lens of Allouche, to strip Marnu of his powers, and Wotan now owned the Lens. When Wotan had been unable to keep the Glove from Jim's possession, he had placed a powerful curse on the weapon, which afflicted Jim with bad luck each time he used it. Dr. Fate had discovered and removed the curse. Strobe and Valor joined forces, recovered the Tiak Avenger with the help of Dr. Fate, and began a quest to find and defeat their common enemy.
Wotan knew they were coming, and he'd attempted to discourage them by inducing a series of chaotic coincidences into their lives. The most obvious of these incidents was the failure of the Tiak Avenger's engines, which had caused the ancient ship to crash land on the planet Juneo, where they had helped the Juneons temporarily stem the advance of a millennia-long war with the voracious jungle that had swallowed up virtually the entire planet.
Jim had recalled that White Kryptonite killed all vegetation; a supply of White K would insure the future of Juneon humanity. Unfortunately, White K was not natural to this universe Power Girl had brought the only known sample from the Earth 1 universe. Valor reasoned that the Rao star system, home of the source of Kryptonite, the exploded planet Krypton, was the logical place to look for White K in this universe. Strobe and Valor put their personal quest on hold in order to look for a source of White Kryptonite to aid the Juneons. When they left Juneo, they were accompanied by Jessiat Gazil.
Jessiat had been selected to be the captain of Juneo's first spaceship, when it finally got built. She'd jumped at the opportunity to join the Avenger's crew. Beside the invaluable real-space experience she would gain, she wanted to learn to deal with beings from places further away than across town in the only city on Juneo.
Jess spent a lot of time studying the Avenger's schematics on the ship's computer, and she had recently completed a project in the completely automated maintenance machine shop a suit of powered armor built to Galactic Patrol specifications, which also incorporated the most advanced Juneon weapons developed in the millennia-long war with the jungle.
Wotan's curse struck again, wiping out much of the Avenger's navigation database, so they were forced to search for Krypton's star system. Their search first brought them to giant planet Xenon, where they had been joined by Juna Dondwar, a famous Xenonian scientist.
Years ago, Superman had damped a runaway uranium reaction in Xenon's core with millions of tons of Green Kryptonite. Juna had been part of a research team that studied the decay reaction between the two elements, and she had discovered a new exotic particle called the k-dondron. She had also noted that one of the byproducts of the mutual-decay process was a white glowing isotope, almost identical to Jim's description of White Kryptonite, but with a half-life of only a few seconds. Juna was intrigued with the challenge of stabilizing this isotope.
In the Earth-normal artificial gravity on the Avenger, Juna found that she was much stronger than either Jim or Jess. She knew that Xenonians gained other abilities under a yellow sun, but she was pleased that the spectrum of the Avenger's lights didn't produce the same effect; she had no desire to be anything other than a scientist. Like Jessiat, she spent a lot of time with Avenger's computer, searching the ancient ship's extensive scientific database for information about exotic matter.
Today had been a typical day in hyperspace nothing to see outside the ship, and no changes to the routine inside the ship. The Avenger was scheduled to drop back into normal space in another 2 days when they had reached what the crew now believed to be the Rao star system, the former home of Krypton. By now, the exchange of news at dinner was an established routine.
Juna was excited. "I think I've discovered a way to stabilize the white isotope. If we can bombard the sample with the right flavor of exotic particle, it should transform into a stable state."
Jess was excited with the news. "That's fantastic! My people have been slowly losing our planet to the jungle for thousands of years. If your theory is right, we'll be able to take our planet back!"
"I still have to build the exotic particle gun," Juna cautioned. "And we won't be certain the stable white isotope we produce has the same properties as the White Kryptonite from the other universe until we can test it."
Juna's caution failed to dim Jess's enthusiasm. "You'll find the right isotope, I'm sure of it." She changed the subject, turned to Valor. "I've just finished building you a spare body to the specifications you provided, in case your current body gets damaged too badly to repair. The automated machinery in the maintenance center is incredible!"
"I hope the new body works better than everything else on this ship!" Valor complained. "It seems that every time I fix something, it breaks again. Somehow, Wotan's curse is still with us!"
In Jim's opinion, most of these failures were the result of the big guy's sloppiness. As an architect, he'd found that 'bad luck' was often the result of overlooking details, and Ultimate Victorious Valor, ex-Commander of the Invincibles of Xadam, didn't have the patience for details. So he blamed 'The Curse of Wotan" instead.
Before Jim could ask what had failed this time, there was yet another system failure. The Avenger's hyperdrive failed, and without warning, the ship crashed abruptly back into normal space.
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 14:31:46 GMT
Without warning, the Avenger's hyperspace engine simply shut off, dropping the ship back into normal space-time. A tandard dimensional transition was usually made over a period of several seconds while the computer implemented a series of protocols designed to lessen the transitionl side-effects, but this instant transition smashed the entire crew, including Valor, into senselessness.
The raucous, somewhat-too-late blaring of the 'Hyperspace Exit' alarms greeted the crew as they returned to consciousness some time later, feeling severely hung over but not permanently damaged. The Avenger's artificial gravity was offline and the silent ventilation system indicated that life support was down, but cabin air pressure was stable and the independent emergency lighting was operational. Their environment probably wouldn't kill them in the next few minutes. Shortly after they awakened, ship's gravity became operational, drawing them gently to the floor before it strengthened to the 'emergency' level of about half the ship's normal gravity.
"Avenger!" Juna snapped" The ship didn't reply, so she tried again. "Avenger, Priority 1: Respond," Juna ordered. "What in Rao's name was that?"
"Working. Please define 'that' in this context, crew member," the computer responded, in a voice that was flat and stilted, clearly computer-generated, not at all like the rich human sounding tones they now expected from the Avenger's powerful main computer.
"She means, 'What just happened?'" Jim replied angrily, trying to make things more clear. "And shut down that damned alarm!"
The alarm was silenced, and the computer replied to the question. "The hyperdrive engine failed, dropping us back into sidereal space."
"Crap! Tell me something I don't know!"
"What is the priority of this request? It will be necessary to determine what information is in the database that you don't already know, before beginning
"
"Cancel my last request!" Jim interrupted with an angry bark. "Status report!" This command, much less open-ended, the computer was able to handle.
"The independent engineering computer is currently executing hyperdrive diagnostics. Local self-diagnostics indicate that the main processor core is offline. This computer is currently operating on auxiliary processors. Emergency restart routines have been instigated. Main computer core coming online... now."
"Much better!" the computer sounded fully human again, and its own relief was evident in the tone. It also began exhibiting the kind of independent initiative the crew now expected. "Hyperdrive diagnostics indicate present functionality is at 100%. Diagnostic logs indicate that an instantaneous power fluctuation created a false signal on the command bus which the engineering computer interpreted as an emergency shutdown instruction. The fluctuation was caused by a high impedance contaminant in a sealed nanocircuit module. Accessing stored internal monitoring records. Crap!" That last was loud and angry.
Jim had been checking on the condition of his crewmates. His head jerked around in shock, and his mouth dropped open. "Hey, you're a computer! You don't say things like that! what's the matter?"
The wall-mounted view screen in the common room glowed into life.
"Here's a replay of the anomalous event," the computer said in a more even tone. "This is a view inside one of the high-density nanocircuit modules."
The monitor showed an interesting 'landscape' - a wide plain covered by network of raised ridges, with 'towers' at some of the intersections of the ridges.
"The ridges are analogous to the traces on a circuit board, and the towers are analogs of electronic components such as resistors, inductors, capacitors and transistors - on an atomic scale. If you split a human hair into half a million fibers, each fiber would be about the size of one of those ridges. The environment in and around these modules is tightly controlled; a helium nitrogen atmosphere, electrostatic particle filtering, constantly bathed in high intensity ultraviolet light to prevent even microscopic life from surviving to contaminate these circuits. And yet, there was something growing inside this module." The Avenger was sufficiently recovered that they could hear the anger and disgust in its voice.
Floating over the grid was a small filament of thistle. It twisted and writhed and grew as they watched, sprouting other filaments in all directions. When it was large enough to cover a dozen ridges in the web, it dropped, and when it landed there was an bright flash and then the screen went dark. A few seconds later, it brightened again, and the landscape where the thistle had landed was devastated.
"This particular module has been destroyed. Avenger's systems are multiply redundant. A million such cells could be destroyed and ship's functionality would remain at 100% by routing through alternate cells, But there was no way to route around a functioning component, just before it fails." The Avenger was silent for several seconds as the humans examined the damaged circuit module. Then it continued. "Spectroscopic elemental analysis of the flash shows that this 'contaminant' was a spore that originated on Juneo."
Again the Avenger paused, and then asked ironically "I've noticed that you use the expression 'Crap' to indicate anger and disgust, Jim. I trust I used your idiom correctly?" Jim snorted in assent.
Valor was sure about the cause of this disaster. "Wotan again!" Even Jim couldn't blame his partner's sloppy tendencies this time; who would expect that a submicroscopic spore had somehow infiltrated a sealed, sterile circuitry module? "Avenger, can you defend against further such attacks?"
"Since I've become aware of the danger, I've instituted ultra-high resolution scanning of all nanocircuit modules. 371 similar spores have been discovered and eliminated without further damage by temporarily reconfiguring the ultraviolet sterilizer as a pinpoint laser. 59 additional modules have already been destroyed by these spores. I estimate that all modules will be verified in a little over 2 hours, and current results indicated that about 2% of available modules will be damaged. Functions are being successively routed through undamaged inspected modules as adequate safe capacity becomes available. I don't anticipate any further problems due to similar spores. When the current scan of circuit modules is completed, I will institute a similar scan throughout the entire volume of the Avenger. All remaining spores will be eradicated!" The humans thought they could detect savage satisfaction in the Avenger's voice.
Now that they were reasonably sure the computer was OK, Jess voiced her concern about exernal dangers to the Avenger and her crew "Where are we?" Jess asked. "Is there any danger outside the ship?"
"External scans show that we are about 15 light hours distant from a main sequence red dwarf star." The view on the screen was now split, the left half showing a live view of the nearby star system and the right showing a schematic of the system. crosshair targets on the screens indicated the system's features as Avenger discussed them. "2 small rocky planets have been logged, and more may be discovered as the scan continues. The innermost planet exhibits an anomaly; something on its surface is broadcasting a frequency-modulated radio signal with a pattern that repeats every few minutes. Signals such as this are usually an indication of intelligence. There is nothing else within scan range that appears to constitute a danger to the ship."
"Intelligence? I think we should check it out!" Juna insisted.
"I think we should wait until tomorrow, after we give Avenger a full inspection for damage and then get some rest." Jess suggested, thinking like a ship's captain. "That reentry was pretty rough, and most of us are running on adrenaline right now."
"It could be a distress call, and if we wait until tomorrow, whoever is sending it might be dead by then," Juna began to argue.
Valor was the nominal captain of the Avenger, though he didn't mind Jess beginning to assume authority. Now he spoke up with a compromise designed to head off the brewing argument. "I don't need rest. I'll begin moving the Avenger in-system once our inspection is completed."
***~~~***
During the sleeping period, Valor and the Avenger learned quite a bit about the source of the mysterious repeating signal. Much of the information it contained was 'video', which the Avenger was able to interpret and display on the ship's own video screens. The Avenger converted the remaining information into sounds, which matched the movement of the being's mouth, but they had no idea whether those sounds were accurate, and the message was too short to be successfully translated. The spoken language was not one of the millions recorded in the Avenger's data banks; Jim mentioned later that this wasn't surprising, as the language records were about 1000 centuries out of date.
The being on the other ship was a small humanoid, perhaps the size of a chimpanzee. He had blue skin, red hair, long pointed ears and a goatee, but his strangest feature was his solid yellow eyes, which appeared to be too big for his face and which actually glowed. His limbs were gnarled and he moved slowly and stiffly, occasionally groaning in pain at even a slight movement. He was sitting in a small control room, and appeared calm and in no immediate danger, though it was possible that to another member of his own race, his demeanor might have suggested frantic and panicked.
The planet from which he was transmitting was small, barely the size of a Mars, with only a thin atmosphere, made up mostly of carbon dioxide. As the Avenger approached, her sensors and cameras were able to locate the being's small spaceship, perhaps the size of an interstate bus. It seemed to be in perfect condition, and there was no sign that it had crashed.
Now that they were awake, the crew decided it was time to try to make contact with this alien. Jessiat volunteered to be their initial representative. She was both fascinated and repelled by this grotesquely twisted being. On Juneo, to insure healthy births in such a small population, generations ago Juneo had forbidden anyone with a genetic defect from having children. She was starting to realize that alien beings might vary more widely than anyone on Juneo had ever realized, and she knew she had to overcome her almost-instinctive xenophobia, and now was as good a time as any. She sat in front of a monitor and Avenger began broadcasting her message, converting Patrol audio and video encoding into the stranger's format. "Hello. I'm Jessiat Gazil, a crewmember on the starship Tiat Avenger. "We are not hostile. We wish to be friends. Let's talk!"
Their new acquaintance was very interested in talking, as well.
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 14:33:04 GMT
Avenger quickly learned the basics of the small being's language. His name translated to something like "reader of possibilities"; Jim suggested that they call him Augur. After several hours of video language lessons, the ship programmed the translator hearing aids that the crew already wore to include Augur's language, which the Avenger named 'Tonish'. When they landed on the small planet, which Augur called 'Hideout', the ship provided him with a translator as well. Afterward, whenever one of the crew, or Avenger, would learn a new meaning, Avenger would add it to the translators so they all could use it. Juna had discovered a talent for languages, having easily become fluent in both Juneon and English, and she used her translator as infrequently as possible, whenever she had a chance to practice Tonish or her other new languages.
"Why do you call this planet "Hideout?" Juna asked Augur, shortly after the five space travelers (by now, the crew counted Avenger as a fellow being, rather than a computer) had introduced themselves. "What are you hiding from?"
"It's a long story," the small blue man replied sadly. "I come from Thrann, which is the capital planet of the Protectorate of Free Planets. Except that there's nothing free about the Protectorate! I'm a revolutionary, part of the undercit army commanded by DarkFactor, fighting for true freedom for all, and for that they've branded me a traitor. There's a death sentence on my head, anywhere in the Protectorate."
Valor and Jessiat both took tiny steps back from Augur, preparing to restrain him if he did anything hostile. Both had been members of their planet's military and tended to trust government first and revolutionaries a distant last. But Augur certainly didn't appear to be dangerous, so they just remained wary while trying to be open-minded.
"What's an undercit?" Jim wanted to know. The word reminded him of 'second class citizen', a term he had encountered too often on Earth.
"An undercit is a slave; an overcit is one of the rulers," Augur replied. "You can tell them apart by their heads. All Thrannians are similar in looks to the four of you, except our skin is blue and our ears are pointed. Unders have normal heads, while the heads of overs are much larger and they are totally bald."
"Are undercits and overcits of different species?" Avenger wanted to know; she was trying to update a database a thousand centuries out of date.
"Supposedly we are a single species. The overs claim that they have a scientific process that can turn anyone into an overcit, and that they use this process as a reward for the most loyal, productive unders. The unders who are thus rewarded usually make one or two public appearances to their old acquaintances, and then they are reassigned to distant posts, usually on other planets."
"And never heard from again, I'm sure. What a diabolical system - the unders believe that if only they're good enough slaves, they'll be promoted to master." Jim was infuriated. "That's as evil as anything I've ever heard of, on the level of Hitler and Stalin - on a much grander scale. They practiced on countries; the Protectorate practices on entire planets!"
"Exactly why DarkFactor was leading a rebellion!" Augur agreed. "Until he was captured by the Justice Mandate, the government's super powered death squad. The media always plays them up as valiant heroes, protecting the Free Planets from any menaces to deadly for the military, but the stories of their evil deeds are never reported. They have no qualms about using their powers against innocent, unpowered civilians; they revel in the slaughter of rebels. Several thousand rebels were tortured and killed after DarkForce was captured, even after they surrendered, even after Solvent, the treacherous leader of the Mandate, promised them good treatment."
Valor looked disturbed. He had been the commander of a special government force of superpowered agents, and he had heard similar accusations leveled against his Invincibles by their enemies. The others were silent as well, envisioning the havoc, destruction and terror super powered soldiers could wreak against unarmed, unpowered civilians. Augur waited for a short time, then continued his tale of horrors.
"The last, best hope for the people of the Protectorate was my leader, DarkFactor. He put together the first effective resistance movement in many years. Millions of unders flocked to his cause, and his weapons technology is superior to anything the government has. But he didn't have the time; the Protectorate has the resources of a dozen planets to call on, and even DarkFactor's great personal power wasn't enough to defeat the Justice Mandate. I was the only one who escaped. And now, DarkFactor is the captive of Othar, who is ludicrously called the 'Minister of Truth and Justice'. He is being held in the Citadel of Freedom, Othar's command center if he even remains alive. No one has ever breached the Citadel, and none have ever escaped."
Valor was still skeptical. "So you escaped. If you're hiding from your enemies, why were you broadcasting a distress signal?"
"I am named for my ability to commune with the War Stones. The Stones told me that I must take a deadly risk, in this place, at this time, to meet potential allies. And... you are here."
"That's absurd no one can predict the future!" Juna snorted.
"You're a scientist don't you use science to predict the future?" Jim asked. "You use equations to predict a reaction or a trajectory the results of actions that haven't occurred yet." His voice was still rough with anger at the society of the Protectorate. "We _know_ that there are beings who can influence random events to produce desired future outcomes." He was tired of dealing with Wotan, who could do just that. He turned to Augur. "Tell us more about the War Stones."
"I read stories in the War Stones," the small man replied. He pulled a pouch from his belt, and upended it over the table. A quantity of coaster-sized flat disks, slate gray, each with 8 sides, blank on one side and with a symbol drawn in glowing red lines on the other, spilled into a pile on the table top. "They are laid out in a pattern, and the stories they tell often describe the future to those who can read such a pattern. I am one such."
"Sounds like tarot cards," Jim observed. He reached towards the pile, but stopped short of touching the disks. He knew that those who read tarot cards were sometimes sensitive about others touching their cards uninvited. "May I look at some of them?"
"You may," Augur replied. "They are not fragile, and our tradition says that the stones learn from all who touch them."
Jim picked up several, examined them closely, and the others each picked up a couple as well. "This looks like a Sword, a Castle, a Boat..."
Jess named hers, as well. "A Spaceship, a Tree... I don't recognize this one."
"That is Victory or, reversed as you are holding it, Defeat." Jess put it down, quickly. "No, don't worry. They have no power on their own; they must be placed in a pattern."
"Can you show us how they work?" Valor wanted to know. Or perhaps it was Marnu who was interested, Jim thought.
"I'd like to but the results would be meaningless, I'm afraid. I've tried to read the Stones several times since your ship first appeared, and something is interfering with my power. Something more powerful than I warps probability around you."
"Not something, but someone a Lord of Chaos named Wotan!" Jim replied darkly.
"So will you help me free DarkFactor?" Augur asked dolefully. "If not, you must leave, quickly, so I can consult the Stones once more."
***~~~***
They talked it over.
"This Justice Mandate sounds much like the Invincibles I once commanded," Valor said. He sounded troubled. "The enemies of Xadam's society almost always claimed to be revolutionaries, committing their crimes in the name of Justice. Perhaps some of them actually believed it. How do we know that Augur's story is not similarly biased?"
"My sensors indicated that Augur believes what he told you, that DarkFactor is his society's best hope of liberation from the evil Protectorate," Avenger contributed.
"The Glove indicates the same thing," Jim agreed reluctantly. "Augur is telling the truth as he knows it. Yet, even though the society sounds totally corrupt, the name DarkFactor worries me a little. It sounds ominous, more like the name of a villain than a freedom fighter."
"You shouldn't make a decision based on the Earth prejudice that links darkness with evil," Jess scolded him. "On Juneo, we associate darkness with good, as it inhibits the growth of the jungle."
"There is no oppression on Xenon," Juna joined the discussion. "All sophants deserve the freedom that we enjoy."
"I agree," Jess affirmed. "Juneons spend most of our lives battling the oppression of the invading jungle, but the 'undercits' of the Protectorate don't even have the option of fighting back."
"It sounds like we're going to help?" Jim asked, looking for consensus, particularly from Valor. Nobody objected. "OK, let's do it!"
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 14:33:56 GMT
Well after midnight in Destiny City, the Capitol of Thrann and the Protectorate of Free Planets, Valor flew across the sky towards the Citadel of Freedom inside a force field globe that also contained Juna and Jessiat. The force field was generated by a device on Juna's belt, and it shielded its occupants from radar. The heavy snowstorm they were flying through shielded them from visual observation. They could see a glowing grid pattern beneath them but no details of the city.
The Citadel was a very large building built in the shape of an 8 sided ring, covered by a semi-spherical force field; even this early in the morning, it was fully lighted, so from near the field it looked like a giant snow globe. Except, the snow was on the outside! Deep in the bowels of the Citadel, buried well into the bedrock below the giant building, were cells where the most dangerous prisoners of the Protectorate, including DarkFactor, were held. The crew of the Avenger quietly discussed their plan as they flew, but no one came up with any last-minute suggestions; every detail had been argued over during the flight from 'Hideout'.
"The first objective is power," Valor reminded them. "Once the external power connections is severed, before the emergency internal back-up comes online, we have to be inside the radius of the force field."
"Assuming Strobe succeeds!" Jessiat was a little skeptical; she still had doubts about whether Wotan's Curse had really been lifted from Strobe's Glove. "We've talked it to death already, Vic. Nothing to do now but wait!" Jess was wearing the customized Galactic Patrol battle armor she had built, modified with a number of the fire-based weapons she had learned to use while fighting the jungle on Juneo.
"Only a few seconds - get ready!" Juna warned, keeping a close eye on her watch. Jess had offered to build her a battle suit as well, but she preferred to depend on her native abilities. In Thrann's light gravity, she had superior strength and speed. She'd been studying her own physiology and discovered that 30+ years of studying Green Kryptonite and uranium had altered her body's innate Kryptonian ability to transform radiation from certain stars into super powers. She'd discovered that yellow suns would no longer affect her - but the radiation from Thrann's turquoise-colored star would give her an 'interesting' new power; control over water, which should be especially helpful if she had to confront Solvent.
Strobe wasn't with them; it was his job to knock out power to the Citadel, which should knock out the force field momentarily, until the big fortress's emergency generators kicked in.
About five miles away, Strobe was digging a tunnel into the ground, as his white energy forced open a passage through the earth and rock in front of him. His route was carefully plotted, and about 80 feet down he encountered a pipeline - a 10' diameter pipe made of an ultra-hard ceramic. The pipe was a wave-guide, its interior lined with an almost perfect reflector of radio waves and pumped down to a 'high vacuum' that approximated that of empty space between galaxies. Through that pipe flowed microwaves carrying enough power to light Manhattan, all destined for use in the Citadel.
Strobe strengthened his personal shield and enlarged the open pocket around him to have room to work on the pipe. A giant garlic press materialized around the pipe, and a giant hand began to squeeze the grips and force it closed. Strobe concentrated, putting all his will power into crushing the pipe. The ceramic resisted, and he focused his ki, releasing its power with a shout, and the pipe shattered. Strobe let the pocket collapse and began retreating through his tunnel. Ceramic debris, rock and earth fell into the microwave beam. The first debris to fall was vaporized almost instantly, introducing fumes, gas and smoke into the (formerly) ultra-high quality vacuum of the tunnel. The temperature in that area rose instantly as the vapors absorbed the massive flow of microwave energy, and more debris was vaporized and virtually instantly, there was a terrific explosion. Emergency shutdown procedures were activated, and power stopped flowing through the conduit.
Strobe was launched through his tunnel like a bullet by the power of the explosion. He had deliberately made it in a micrommetrically precise straight line, with the sides smooth and almost frictionless, and it pointed toward the Citadel - might as well take advantage of the free ride, after all. He blacked out momentarily from the high acceleration, but the Glove protected him from the worst effects.
"GO!" Jess yelled as the Citadel fell dark, but Valor was already going. They were on the roof of the building in less than half a second, and Juna dropped her force field long enough to release her friends. The two women moved well away from Valor.
"Follow me!" the big guy ordered. He used his gravity control powers to focus and momentarily magnify the gravity under him to the level found on a neutron star, and the roof shattered under his weight. He accelerated as he fell, smashing through floor after floor until finally he was too battered to concentrate. Gravity returned to normal, but his speed was so great that he smashed through 2 more floors and blasted a crater in the next before the framework of the building slammed him to a halt.
Jess and Juna followed more sedately, floating down on partial gravity nullifiers the Avenger had supplied. Jess focused her weapons beneath her and burned away any obstructions Valor's fall had left behind. They were coming down midway between the building's inner and outer walls, and the interior offices were all dark and deserted at this time of night. But the military guards walking the corridors could't possibly miss the noise of Valor's precipitous passage. By now, the braver guards were bursting into the rooms the Avenger's crew was falling through, and Juna drove them back with high-pressure bursts of water.
"Hey! Pretty neat! How's that work?" Jess wanted to know when she saw her teammate use her new power.
"I'm not sure," Juna admitted. "I think I'm somehow drawing water from the air around us. But I don't want to think about it now; I'm afraid if I try to analyze it, I'll realize it's impossible and it'll stop working." A blast of water knocked down a guard who was about to shoot at them. "We better get down soon - they're starting to get organized."
"We never expected Vic to get us down this far," Jess agreed. "But it beats fighting for every foot!" Suddenly all the lights in all the rooms went on, and they could see Valor only two floors below them, lying in a crater in the concrete floor. There were about 20 soldiers around him, most of whom had their weapons aimed at the two women floating down through the hole in the ceiling.
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 15:03:12 GMT
Stobe was shaken out of his daze by a loud 'BLAMM' and a flash of heat like a blast furnace as a missile exploded against his force field, followed almost instantly by another. The battering was threatening to knock him back into unconscious, but he managed a desperate thought.
"Up!" When wearing the Glove of the Galactic Patrol, 'to think is to act'. Strobe shot straight up at high velocity and bashed into the underside of one of the armed flying vessels, kocking it whirling. He streaked through the snow clouds above into a dark, clear sky. Looking down, he could see balls of flame beneath him, following him up missiles still tracking him! A hand formed in the air below, wrapped around the missiles and squeezed and there was another explosion, shielded by the giant fist, and then he was alone, for a few seconds. Then three flying vessels in a V-formation rocketed out of the clouds!
"Frickin' X-wings!" Jim snarled at the resemblance between the famous fighters from the late 70's "Revolt of the Galaxy" movie a needle-shaped fuselage with a small cockpit at one end, a massive engine at the other, and biplane-like wings, laden with missiles, set well towards the rear of the hull.
The fighters launched more missiles; Strobe created a giant tennis racket to swat them from the sky. The explosion this time was much more powerful, and the racket was ripped into shards of energy; the feedback jolted him like a sidekick to the head. The shield was momentarily opaque and the Glove warned him of hard radiation.
"Expletive maniacs, using nukes above your own city!" Jim swore out loud, as the force field became transparent again. He planned to be sure no one got hurt in this fight, but these guys were making it hard to care.
He instantly changed directions, and rocketed down through the fast-climbing formation before they could change react. But they were prepared for this; when he was behind them and beginning to follow, rearward mounted missiles launched from all three fliers. Suddenly the air around him was filled with a dozen duplicate flying heroes, each of which zoomed off in a different direction. The fast-moving missiles instantly changed directions to chase the slower duplicates. More explosions lit the sky as each missile impacted and destroyed its chosen target. Meanwhile Strobe created 3 giant metal shears, each of which snipped through the fuselage of one of the fighters between the wings and the cockpit. The 3 tail sections were captured inside a globe of force, which lifted toward orbit, and 3 giant glowing hands wrapped around the tumbling cockpit sections.
Racing quickly to get out of the sky before more fighters could find him, Strobe dropped down below the clouds and landed near the force field which once again surrounded the Citadel of Freedom. He dropped the cockpits. One of the hands morphed into a giant glowing dagger, which stabbed into the force field. The other two hands reached into the jagged rip and pulled it open. Jim instantly flew threw the tear; the dagger and hands dissipated, and the rip closed up instantly. Knowing that his partners had planned to go in through the roof, Strobe flew high until he found the hole Valor had blasted, then dropped inside the building, on the lookout for his partners.
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 15:03:34 GMT
"Hey, Vic, you OK?" Jess sent a worried query via radio. He didn't respond and he didn't move. He had been confident that he would survive smashing into the building, but perhaps it had been overconfidence... So, what next?
"Invaders! You will land immediately and surrender!" shouted one of the guards. They were all dressed similarly, in black outfits like full-body outfits, with black mirrored plates that concealed their faces, and this one had a pair of light blue stripes circling his upper arms.
'Must be a rank insignia,' Jess thought, as she replied. "No, _you_ had better surrender. We're here to remove one of your prisoners. DarkFactor. We don't want to hurt anyone, but DarkFactor WILL leave with us - and no one is going to stop us." She didn't shout, but her armor's external speakers made sure she was heard.
The other didn't hesitate for debate, but instantly commanded "FIRE!"
The hand-held weapon carried by a single military security guard wasn't enough to penetrate Jess's armor or Juna's force field, but 20 such weapons were more than just an annoyance. Jess was bounced around violently by explosive shells bursting against her armor. She didn't want to shoot back because she wasn't sure if Valor would survive a blast of flame from her weapons. Juna's force shield protected her, but the surface of the field instantly turned into a perfect mirror to reflect laser beams and plasma bolts. She couldn't see to use her new water-based power to attack, even if she'd been able to concentrate enough to activate and control it.
The very fury of the guards' attack rebounded against them, however. The destructive energies they unleashed destroyed the floors of the rooms the shaft passed through for several stories above them, and burning or melted debris rained down, forcing the guards to stop firing and temporarily withdraw from the hole in the ceiling. During the short hiatus, both women managed to land in the room below. The room was very large, and appeared to have been a gymnasium before it was turned into a battleground.
Some of the falling debris crashed down on Valor, and the new jolting and battering jarred him into awareness. As the rain of debris lessened, he pulled himself into a sitting position and attempted to use his gravity-control powers against the guards in a tactic he'd learned from Ted Knight increasing gravity under them until they couldn't stand any longer. But nothing happened, and he felt an unusual internal sensation. A quick diagnostic of his body revealed that his electro/magnetic/gravitic controller wasn't working! He must have burned it out during his last feat. He wondered if the body had taken any other damage and realized he would certainly find out in the next few seconds!
His teammates had seen Valor move. "Vic!" Jessiat tried the radio again. "You OK?"
"I'm not sure," he responded as he got to his feet. "No time to worry about it now. We have to get moving before reinforcements arrive."
The slight pause had given Juna time to orient herself. "Let's see what I can do!" She concentrated, and the room started filling with water. In a couple seconds, it was full. "Follow me!" she commanded via her radio. She floated through the water toward one of the doors. Neither Valor or Jess was buoyant enough to swim; they walked across the debris on the floor after their teammate. The soldiers were OK; the internal air supply built into each suit of their own body armor allowed them to breath, but their weapons wouldn't work under water; there was nothing they could do to stop the invaders.
When Juna opened one of the doors, her companions expected water to rush through it and carry them into whatever was outside this room, but instead, it was as if there was an invisible barrier in the door that held the water in. Juna passed through it easily. "Come on, let's keep moving!" she radioed impatiently. "Just walk out!" They did, and before Juna could close the door behind them, Strobe popped through as well!
"Not hard to follow you guys - you sure ain't subtle," he quipped. "Neat trick with the water!" They were in a long corridor, easily large enough for a couple of semis to drive through, side-by-side. "I'm pretty sure we go that way," he turned and pointed. And didn't like what he saw. "Uh, guys we got troubles!" His teammates turned as well, as a stentorian voice issued a dire proclamation:
"Halt, Intruders! You're under arrest, by order of the Justice Mandate!"
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 15:03:59 GMT
This sequence begins shortly before Strobe cuts off power to the Citadel of Freedom...
DarkFactor was being moved on an anti-grav platform from the armored, insulated vault where he was normally held into the investigation center reserved for the most dangerous prisoners of the Protectorate, a large chamber filled with modern computer-controlled equipment and well-worn traditional instruments of interrogation, 5 levels below the Citadel of Freedom. Othar sat in a blast-proof observation chamber overlooking the large room. Robots and undercits scurried around on the floor beneath, setting up tools and instruments. It had been weeks since DarkFactor had been captured; during that time, no one had been able to open his armor or even look beneath its surface with x-rays or other methods. The revolutionary had not said a word since he had been captured, or even moved on his own, and there was no way of knowing if he was even still alive.
'Or even if what we captured ever was alive,' Othar thought. 'What if that armor is just another robot?' Even in a civilization where technology was advanced and robots were ubiquitous, DarkFactor had proved to be a genius in cybernetics, developing robots that were superior to the best the Protectorate had, and somehow managing to mass-produce them. Almost a thousand of these advanced robots had self-destructed when DarkFactor had been captured. Othar could only hope that they had all been destroyed.
He dreaded the thought that his captive might be only a robot duplicate, and the real one was still out there, plotting against him. 'No!' he sternly suppressed that thought. 'He is plotting against the Great Protector, not me!' Othar had his secret ambitions, but he was still only a servant of 'the Great Protector', ruler and absolute dictator of the Free Planets. And it was safest never to think otherwise.
The undercit scientists of the Directorate of Justice had been working furiously on new methods of penetrating DarkFactor's armor. 'It's really a shame overs aren't scientists,' Othar thought wearily; it was a complaint he'd made to himself many times over the years.
The enlarged craniums of the overs didn't grant them increased intellect; in fact, in some ways the change from under to over dulled their minds. But the increase in ruthlessness and the insatiable drive to dominate more than made up for any small losses in intellect. Still, constant monitoring and frequent punishment were required to insure that unders reliably carried out the orders of their betters. If his own undercit scientists had a little more initiative, he could spend more time advancing his private plans and less managing their activities.
'Or, like DarkFactor, they might revolt!' Othar came to the same conclusion that he always did when he followed this line of thought. The lack of initiative in unders was a good tradeoff for increased security. His attention was drawn back to the interrogation room when the lead undercit scientist signaled that the latest investigation was about to begin.
Not far below Othar, the armor lay on its back and a bizarre chandelier, festooned with dozens of sensors and tools of different types, was lowering from the ceiling toward its exposed chest.
The arms and legs of DarkFactor's inert form were encased in massive clamps of titanium alloy that had been welded in place, and the rest of his armor was wrapped in a titanium mesh net. The wires in the mesh were force-field conductors once the field generator was turned on, the net became absolutely rigid. Even Mighty Man couldn't tear free from a field-reinforced prisoner restraint net.
Othar actually smiled as his monitors started displaying results; this was the first time his scientists had actually managed to get information about the armor's construction. On the screen before him, a 3-dimensional false color cutaway view of the armor started to develop, growing more detailed as the results of more sensors were integrated. Inside the armor were conduits that must contain circuitry and mechanisms that must work like muscles to move the massive body. The shadowy conduits clustered thickly in the helmet, with another dense cluster under a small, smooth lump on DarkFactor's chest. Under the 'nerves' and 'muscles' there was a dim, cloudy figure that resembled a man. That had better fill in soon too!
"That cluster must be an external control interface of some sort, High One," the lead undercit scientists informed him. "Likely used to test the armor while it was being constructed."
"Concentrate all sensors on the chest. Prepare the force-field neutralizer and the extraction tools!" Othar ordered, carefully keeping his emotions from his voice. It would never do to let unders know that he was either excited or pleased with their work.
The first investigation of DarkFactor's armor had revealed that it was completely covered by an unknown type of virtually impenetrable force field spread thinly across the surface of the armor like some type of oil. This is what gave it the seamless appearance and shiny look. Othar's scientists claimed that their newly-invented neutralizer would shut off that field. Until he had seen the inside scans, Othar hadn't believed it, but maybe, if they knew enough to see through it, they knew enough to shut it off...
Indeed, at the first touch of the neutralizer, the armor changed instantly from shiny to dull, and it was now possible to see seams where the various sections joined. On the chest was a small plate. A second tool, similar to the neutralizer, cleared this plate from the restraining net, and another tool began probing the plate. At the first touch of the probe, it slid open, revealing a complex socket.
The head scientist examined the socket. "It is a Standard high speed Cybernetic Control Interface, High One. No need for adapters several of our tools use the same interface." He unplugged a cable from one of the sensors.
"Stop!" Othar commanded loudly, and all unders in the room instantly stopped whatever they were doing. "What safety precautions have you taken?"
"As you ordered, High One, all physical connections between all the devices in this room and the rest of the Citadel have been severed, and all instruments and computers on this level will be melted to slag as soon as our investigation here is completed. And the level has been encased in a special force field that prevents any signals from coming in or leaving. This room is more secure than any other place on the planet."
"Your life depends on you being correct," Othar warned. The under looked intimidated, but didn't withdraw his statement. "Very well, proceed!"
The cable was plugged in, and the investigators carefully began sending signals. There was no response on any of their instruments. "The armor remains inert, High One."
"I can see that myself, fool! What's the next phase?" Othar snapped back.
"High One, we have been using..." He never finished; at that instant the power went out and the room was plunged into darkness. Only the self-powered emergency lights above the doors remained lighted.
'Crap! This has something to do with DarkFactor, I know it!' Othar swore. "What happened?" he shouted the question; with the power out, the unders on the floor below could barely hear him through the blastproof glass.
Othar pulled his sidearm and pressed the control button that would sound an alarm if there was power. He could hear thunks as the spring-loaded emergency locks, normally held open by powerful electromagnets, thudded into place as the power failed.
"It has to be an external problem!" the frantic head scientist shouted back. "Our instruments indicated nothing!" He had just finished yelling when several things happened, very quickly.
The lights came back on, more weakly than before. With an abrupt 'snikt', the panel on the armor snapped shut, cutting the cable, and the armor instantly flashed back to being shiny black with every feature hidden by the force field. At the same time, every computer and computer-controlled device in the room failed violently. Some actually exploded, while others simply burst into flame or started spitting sparks. The scientists were plunged into chaos, the head scientist managed to scream "A power surge from the backup generator, nothing to do with DarkFactor..." and then he scrambled for cover, as he and Othar realized at the same instant that without the computers, all the devices that kept DarkFactor inert were offline.
The titanium restraints exploded, sending deadly shrapnel and debris throughout the room, killing or maiming a dozen undercits. The blastproof safety window on the observation chamber disintegrated into dust. Othar was thrown against the rear wall, and crumpled into a heap on the floor. Unheeding of the death and destruction he'd caused, DarkFactor rose easily to his feet. He calmly raised his arms and twin yellow beams of energy blasted through the reinforced armor doors of the elevator. The massive armor lifted from the floor and he flew into the elevator, and then rocketed towards the surface, both arms extended overhead, the twin yellow beams blasting effortlessly through the elevator car, and then the top of the shaft, and finally all the ceilings above that, until DarkFactor reached the open air.
***~~~***
DarkFactor's yellow energy beams punched through the weakened force field surrounding the Citadel of Freedom like it was facial tissue. The armor's communication system picked up a homing beacon on a secret frequency. Within minutes, he passed through the airlock on a flying vessel about this size of a terrestrial semi. Augur set the autopilot to hover and hastily relinquished control to his commanding officer, who otherwise would have thrown him from the command chair.
"Did you suceed, Commander?" Augur asked as he slipped into the co-pilot's seat. He would pay dearly if anything had gone wrong, but DarkFactor's armor made it impossible to read his body language.
" The buffoons actually believed that isolating the interrogation computers from the Directorate of Justice mainframe would protect them from ME!" DarkFactor snorted. "They failed to secure the memories of the isolated computers from which I was able to glean all the access codes I will need for the next phase of my plan!"
"After your escape, won't they change the codes?" Augur wondered. He knew the answer; it was part of the plan, but he knew his commander liked to boast.
"There was a power surge that burned out all the isolated computers on the interrogation level, when the backup power came on. The cretins believe it was caused by the switchover to the internal generators, and that there wasn't enough time for me to raid their computers."
He set the controls to manual, and the flier silently sped away from Destiny City, the Citadel of Freedom, and the crew of the Tiak Avenger.
"Our allies expect rendezvous and extraction in 11 minutes and 37 seconds," Augur pointed out.
"They are no longer relevant," DarkFactor responded.
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 15:04:34 GMT
"Halt, Intruders! You're under arrest, by order of the Justice Mandate!" Solvent barked at the intruders.
"We just heard that, from the guys behind us. So, I'll tell you what we told them. We are leaving with DarkFactor, and you would be better off getting out of our way," Jess replied.
"DarkFactor's the most dangerous criminal in the Protectorate, besides being a terrorist and mass murder. If you're trying to free him, you're as much a public enemy as he is." Solvent's voice was as audible as Jess's, even though she didn't have the advantage of a built-in PA system.
Mighty Man shouted "I've got the big guy!" as he rocketed toward Valor with blinding speed. Behind him, his commander shouted in frustration. "Wait for..." but it was too late. "Damn you, Mighty! You're on report! Mandate, Attack B-Scatter." B-Scatter meant independent attacks, choose your own opponent.
Two glowing white spheres instantly appeared around Mirage and Angstrom. Surprisingly, Augur had labeled these as the two most dangerous opponents: "All of you depend on devices in one way or another; either of them can shut down those devices." The field around Angstrom held, but Mirage slipped inexorably through the surface of his sphere. Strobe tried again, varying the composition of his force field following a formula worked out by Valor, Avenger and Juna. The second sphere around Mirage seemed to work, but Strobe encased it with yet another variant as a precaution, then turned to look for other opponents.
Valor and Mighty Man were pounding on each other like a couple of madmen. They seemed to have forgotten anything they ever knew about strategy, tactics, and scientific fighting and were swinging wildly, totally missing as often as they connected, and neither one seemed to be doing much damage to the other.
"By Xadam's brown star, you hit almost as hard as Superman!" Valor exclaimed after a lucky punch landed on his chin and knocked him backwards.
Mighty Man paused for a second, startled. "You've FOUGHT Superman? He's the greatest hero of my home planet!" He raced forward, and hit Valor in the chest with a wild roundhouse. "Maybe he couldn't stop you on Earth, villain, but I'll make sure you never bother him again!" Valor staggered to his feet, and rushed forward, and the two superbeings slammed together like battling rams, with an impact that shook this area of the building.
Juna was blasting Tree with a high-pressure stream of water. He had quickly grown a couple new legs to brace himself, and a flexible arm extended from his side. The end quickly grew into a large wooden mallet that slammed against Juna's force field, knocking her tumbling toward the battle of the behemoths. At the same instant, Stormgirl released a barrage of lightning at Strobe. The bolts deflected of a quickly formed shield and smashed into the floor near Juna. At just that second, Vic Valor and Mighty Man threw matching right uppercuts, which simultaneously smashed into the bottom of invulnerable jaws, and both fighters were lifted a foot or so in the air, then they fell backwards, both semi-conscious.
Jessiat aimed her flame bolts at Tree. He quickly grew a thicket of vines and branches that flared into flame, but protected his body. Solvent turned into water and doused the flames, which turned her into steam. Tree fell to the ground, screaming in pain, then sat up and started pinching off the burned vines.
When Solvent's steam form reached the ceiling, she turned into paint, and then waited patiently. When Strobe flew under her, she changed to mercury and dropped on his back, driving him into the floor. Before he could recover, Solvent changed into a very viscous paste, complete covering Strobe and gluing him to the floor. He tried to move and couldn't. Without warning, hysteria surged through him, and he frantically screamed "Out" and the paste around him exploded and he was free! Strobe was left temporarily exhausted by the blast of adrenaline, and he struggled into a sitting position. His concentration faltered, and the globes holding Mirage and Angstrom disappeared. Angstrom tumbled to the floor, stunned by his experience, while Mirage sank through the floor.
With Mighty Man, Tree, Angstrom and Mirage out of the fight, Solvent decided it was time for a strategic withdrawal. She changed her body into a black mist and wreathed the heads of Jess and Juna, blocking their vision. The black mist was a symbol to the rest of Justice Mandate to break off the battle; other colors would signal other actions. Tree grew a new thicket of vines which he wrapped around Mighty Man, then dragged him away, while Stormgirl scooped up Angstrom with a 'fireman's carry' (though it wasn't called that on Thrann). They hurried off down the corridor toward a pre-designated rendezvous point. Solvent followed behind, a dark cloud totally covering her team's retreat.
"Well, that was sure a mess!" Jessiat snapped with disapproval. It was her first battle against other people; battles against the jungle were much more predictable.
"I'd say we did pretty well," Juna replied. "Our first battle, and we forced a famous super team to retreat."
"We haven't beaten them, though," Valor said, shakily, as Jessiat helped him struggle to his feet. "But if the everything's going according to plan, DarkFactor's made his escape by now. Time to head for the retrieval zone, before the Justice Mandate can regroup."
Juna sprayed Strobe with a fine mist of cold water. He was doing some deep breathing exercises, struggling to retain his composure after his bout with panic. "Sorry, team," he apologized. "Last time I got wrapped up like that, my power failed and I almost suffocated. Won't happen again!" he promised. He concentrated for a second, and a glowing arrow formed in the air, pointing at one of the walls. "Extraction point is that way." They had to reach the central plaza inside the ring of the Citadel.
"Let's get going, then! Vic, do you feel up to knocking down a few walls?" Jess asked.
Valor didn't answer; he covered his embarrassment by slamming into the wall. Even Superman hadn't knocked him down like that! Strobe protected them from falling debris, and the others followed, in a hurry they had less than 12 minutes to smash through a almost a quarter mile of building!
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 15:04:58 GMT
"Geez, Boss, they sure kicked our butts!" Tree commended dejectedly. "Yeah, nobody every did that to us before!" Stormgirl added. "Just proves how much you need me!" Angstrom crowed.
"Shut up, Angstrom!" they all replied in unison. They'd heard from him before.
"Mighty, what the <freep> were you doing, attacking without orders? They DID kick our butts, and it's because we had no strategy, no tactics, no teamwork." Solvent was livid.
At that second, Mirage popped out of the wall. "Sorry to interrupt, team, but those invaders aren't headed for DarkFactor after all; they're headed for the courtyard."
Solvent's communicator buzzed. She listened for a second, and her face darkened even further. She threw the communicator savagely against the wall, and then turned back to her teammates.
"Well, we screwed it up even more than I thought. Those guys were just a distraction. While we were busy fighting them, DarkFactor got away." She scowled at the hangdog looks on the faces of her team. "So are we just going to give up now? Let those other traitors get away?"
"Boss, they're more powerful than us. We'll just get our butts kicked again," Angstrom sighed. "I know, I know," he said to the rest of the team, "Shut up, Angstrom!"
"They are more powerful than we are," Solvent agreed, thoughtfully, surprising her team, especially Angstrom. "But we've never let that stop us before. We need to get to the courtyard before they do and on the way, I'll tell you how we're going to wipe up the floor with those guys!"
***~~~***
"OK, team, this is the last wall," Strobe warned his crewmates. "Send the signal!"
Jess activated a device that produced nothing more than virtually instantaneous, barely detectible bursts of static on several different radio frequencies. There was no information coded into the bursts, and Juna, who had designed the device, hoped that they wouldn't even be recognized as a signal by their opponents. On the roof, far from where they had originally landed, another device detected simultaneous bursts of static on precisely the correct frequencies, and it immediately started transmitting a very powerful radio homing signal.
"Go!" Jessiat ordered. Valor and Juna slammed powerful punches into the wall, and a glowing white battering ram blasted a large hole through the weakened wall. Strobe flew through the hole, and pulled behind him a glowing white platform carrying his 3 companions. The battering ram smashed into a phlanx of Protectorate soldiers on the ground, and the rest of the security forces began shooting at the Avenger's crew.
Strobe changed direction towards the far off beacon on the roof. Fliers dove from the sky and started firing beam weapons and missiles at the fleeing aliens. The invaders were moving so quickly that most of the barrage missed, and Strobe's force field protected them from the few shots that hit.
Far across the courtyard, on the roof, a shimmering glow appeared out of nowhere, revealing the outline of a flier, virtually identical to those which were now attacking the intruders. A few of the attacking fliers changed their targets from the aliens to the flier, and explosions and reflected beam weapons proved that it, too, was surrounded by a powerful force field.
A hatch slid open in its side. Strobe slowed slightly while he changed directions again, then accelerated towards the open hatch. An instant before he would have crashed, the ship's force field snapped off, to allow him through. Unfortunately, before he could drag his teammates inside the field, lasers, plasma beams and energy bolts, travelling at or near the speed of light, crashed around him and into the exposed interior of the rebel flier.
The small ship exploded violently, destroying itself, the alien invaders, and parts of the top 4 floors of the Citadel of Freedom. Missiles which had been launched just a little too late flew into the fireball and they exploded as well, enhancing the damage and lighting the sky, a beacon of destruction which could be seen for many miles!
The Protectorate forces finally realized that they'd won, and stopped firing. Except for the roaring fire, 20 stories above ground, the emergency sirens and alarms blaring from the building itself and the surrounding city, and the congratulatory shouting of the security forces, peace returned to the night.
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 15:05:13 GMT
As the crew of the Avengers flew across the courtyard and approached the now-visible retrieval ship, a trap door in the ceiling of the room they had fled from slid open silently. Crouched around the door were the members of the Justice Mandate. Solvent was silently indicating a count-down on her fingers; after she reached 1, she ordered loudly "Go, go go!"
Mighty Man threw something large at Strobe, who looked up to see Mighty Man flying at him at high speed. He instinctively strengthened his force field, and the flying statue shattered against his shield - but Mirage, who had been hiding inside the statue, passed through the force field and then passed through Strobe's body. This caused the Glove to malfunction. Outside, the illusion Strobe had been maintaining failed and the beams and missiles launched by the Protectorate forces blew gaping holes into the roof of the Citadel of Freedom. Tree dove through the trapdoor and attacked Stobe, who was momentarily disoriented at the totally unexpected failure of his weapon.
Angstrom had been using his mental powers to probe Jessiat's armor while the Justice Mandate had observed their foes setting up their futile illusion, Now he changed some of the condutive leads in the armor's power supply to non-conductive asbestos - and without power, the artificial muscles that powered the armor stopped working. With all the suit's limbs locked into place, Jess was trapped, held motionless.
Stormgirl unleashed a barrage of lightning at Valor. He was blasted back against the wall, and slid awkwardly to the floor, also unmoving. The energy creature inhabiting the android body was unharmed, but the gravito/electro/magentic controller which normally protected Vic from electricity had been damaged in the earlier power dive through so many floors of the Citadel. The mechanisms in the body overloaded and failed.
Mighty Man (the real one!) flashed towards Juna, and as he approached her, his powers began to fail and he felt something he hadn't felt in years - extreme pain, growing exponentially as he got closer to the Xenonian. Juna blasted him with a stream of water and he was knocked backward. His powers began to return as he was washed farther away, and he managed to struggle into a sitting position. He focused his heat vision on the stream of water, which flashed into steam. Juna had observed that Mighty Man's powers failed as he approached her, so she stalked forward, into the steam, using her own powers to collect the vapor and condense it, so she could use it over to maintain her fire-hose effect and keep Mighty Man pinned in place. Suddenly she simply passed out. Her force field snapped off as Solvent's body coalesced from the air inside it.
Strobe had recovered and was still battling Tree. All Jim's skills in the human martial arts seemed useless. Tree was immune to blows, and his abilities of stretching his body, growing new limbs at will, and sprouting a seemingly limitless supply of strong, flexible tentacle-like vines were too great for an unarmed combattant to overcome. In only a few seconds, Strobe was wrapped from neck to ankle in a leafy cocoon.
As quick as that, it was over.
***~~~***
As they waited for Security to pick up their prisoners, Solvent explained the attackes she had carefully planned. "During our earlier fight, I noticed that the big guy in brown (Valor) was weakened by Stormgirl's reflected lightning blasts, so I had Stormgirl attack him directly. I also noticed that Mighty Man is weakened by proximity to the female. The blasts of water from her hands pass through her field, so I theorized that in the form of water vapor, I might be able to as well. So I took advantage of your weakness, Mighty, and when you blasted her water stream into vapor, I turned my body into water vapor as well. She drew me through her field and when I was inside, I turned to knockout gas." She turned to Mirage and Angstrom.
"And the other two were easy, with you two in the fight to take out their weapons."
"Of course!" Angstrom crowed. "Finally, a little well-deserved recognition."
"Shut up, Angsrom!" Tree interrupted angrily. "I wrapped him up!"
"Yes," their leader replied. "We all played our parts to perfection. Thanks to teamwork, the Justice Mandate defeats yet another enemy of the Protectorate."
At that moment, Othar stalked into the room following a squad of soldiers, and stopped in front of the Justice Mandate,totally ignoring their prisoners. "Commander Solvent," he spoke haughtily, "I want a detailed analysis of your team's failures in this exercise, as well as a detailed re-training plan for yourself and the entire Justice Mandate, on my desk by mid-day today. The most rigorous training available, beginning no later than 33 hours from now and lasting no less than 150 hours."
"Hey! We beat the bad guys!" Tree complained loudly.
"Shut up, Tree!" Solvent ordered. Contradicting Othar could be very dangerous - even for members of the Justice Mandate. Othar would instantly execute any soldier who dared utter something like that.
"I saw them in the security video - watched them kick your sorry asses," Othar snarled sarcastically. "If they had been interested in killing you, you'd all be dead now. And," he paused dramatically, then continued with scorn dripping from his voice "While they were wiping the floor with you, DarkFactor escaped!"
Inside her armor-shaped prison, Jessiat heard this and she smiled grimly to herself. At least they had accomplished one of their objectives!
"Why, you lrglump" Tree started to say, as Solvent quickly put a hand in his mouth, turning it into a sticky, viscous, foul-tasting paste at the same time.
"You will remain silent!" Othar ordered the green hero, then turned to Solvent. "This is your last warning - control him, or I will have him eliminated."
He turned to his troops. "Make sure the prisoners are secured. Deliver them to the ultra security wing, and tell the interrogation team to prepare. See that they do not escape. Your lives depend on it." They scurried to their task. To see armed, armored soldiers scurrying amused Solvent, but she kept her face blank.
Othar turned back to the Justice Mandate and snarled again. "Get to work on those reports, Commander. Dismissed!"
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 15:05:29 GMT
"Sir! Our agent team in Inception Point has located and surrounded DarkFactor's headquarters, and is commencing their attack!" one of the undercit technicians in the control room yelled excitedly. Othar briefly considered punishing her for this breach of Command Center protocol, but the decided against it. Having one tech show enthusiasm for the cause of capturing DarkFactor was a good example for the other undercits, some of whom he suspected of harboring rebel tendencies.
"Put the attacking unit's main vid on main screen," Othar ordered. The giant wall screen directly in front of Othat's command chair had been showing almost 2 dozen smaller displays which were repeats from screens spread throughout the room; now it brightened as the full screen was used to display an outdoor image. 10' tall soldiers, wearing battle aror that made them look like giant robots, were rushing a building, ignoring the small arms fire that bounced off them like raindrops. The plasma beams from their weapons tore through the side of the building to reveal what had once been a pristine laboratory, though the equipment was now melted partially to slag and the glassware was shattered. Everyone in the control room instantly recognized the building.
'Ironic,' Othar mused, 'that DarkFactor's last stand, the destruction of the last hope of the undercit rebellion, will take place in the very laboratory that gave birth to the first overcitizen.' For this building in the city of Inception Point, now a museum, had once housed the biochemical research project that had first mutated an inferior undercit into the glorious Prime Overcit! 'What a brilliant plan; what over would think of searching for the last, greatest enemy of the overcit in the very location that gave us birth?' He roared with braying, mocking laughter. "Bwha HA HA HA! And the rewards of his 'so called' brilliance? Nothing more than well-deserved death!"
The heavily arrmored main vidcaster in the attacking squad knew his job - lead the troops in the assault, so that the watching strategists who commanded the troops would have the best possible picture of the engagement. On his giant screen, Othar saw the massive black form of DarkFactor almost before the attacking soldiers. He pressed a button that immediately entered the global coordinates of the vidcaster into his own command computer. He now had a range of options, including alerting the local authorities, ordering an immediate evacuation of all nearby civilians, calling in more troops, or assuming personal command of the assault.
He chose none of these. Another touch of a finger uploaded the coordinates to the Orbital Defense Network, and the two closest orbital forts instantly fired. Less than a second after Othar had first identified DarkFactor, the giant screen blared intolerably bright for a millisecond before the ultra-powerful laser blasts from above vaporized the museum, and everyone in it. 3 minutes later, 2 nuclear tipped missiles from each of the forts impacted, and the inner city area of Inception Point was instantly vaporized, replaced by a crater a hundred feet deep in the center and over a mile in diameter. Everything within 5 miles was flattened or ripped away by the force of the blast, structures and people up to 10 miles away flashed into smoke, and there were no survivors within about 20 miles of the ancient museum. Inception Point was no more
Othar was already mentally composing the official report which would blame DarkFactor for the destruction.
One of the undercit technos, who had been born and raised in Inception Point went wild when he realized that his family and childhood friends had just been murdered. He screamed insanely and charged at Othar. Before he'd taken 2 steps, he was vaporized by shots from the plasma rifles carried by the bodyguards. Another tech, his fiancé, moved so fast that she actually crashed into one of the guards and knocked him to the floor before the others slaughtered her.
"Call Maintenance and send someone to clearn up the mess," Othar ordered to the air, in a bored tone. This wasn't the first time his bodyguards had disciplined technicians in the Command Room. "Have Personnel send us new techicians - and they had better be properly trained this time!"
The communications tech, struggling not to be sick, managed to place the two calls. Meanhile, Othar was making a call of his own, on his high priority line that was tied directly to the office of the Pillar of Freedom, Othar's direct superior and the ultimate leader of the Protectorate. "Sir, DarkFactor has been eliminated!" he announced triumphantly.
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 15:06:54 GMT
Every video monitor in the room and around the world, including the monitor on Othar's phone, flickered once and then displayed a dark, blurred oval, which instantly resolved into DarkFactor's helmet. Every speaker roared out the same message:
"Citizens of Thrann, I am DarkFactor, the Supreme Commander of the Underground movement. The moment of the rebellion is at hand. Shortly you will be free of the iron rule of the corrupt, evil Protectorate. My forces are currently engaging the forces controlled by the so called 'Pillar of Freedom', the police and the military, and once these forces have been destroyed, I will assume leadership and lead the Protectorate to an enlightened age of peace, freedom and prosperity for all. However, until the evil forces of the Protectorate are vanquished, undercits are advised to remain inside; the streets are dangerous. Overcits, please go about your normal business."
After DarkFactor's sixth word, Othar screamed to his technicians "BLOCK THAT SIGNAL!" and the technicians bent frantically to their tasks, with no effect. No matter what they tried, on every screen, DarkFactor finished his dramatic announcement, and then it began to repeat, incessantly, on every audio and video channel available. One of the bodyguards fired at the big screen, which exploded, spraying everyone in the room with shards and splinters of disintegrated electronics, but DarkFactor's visage mocked them from the all the smaller screens on every control panel, and his voice droned on from every speaker in the room. Othar pressed a button and screamed in disgust when nothing happened he had expected the armor of the guard who had done the shooting to kill him violently and spectacularly, but DarkFactor's signal must be overwhelming the lower power signal sent out by Othar's control panel.
After the 4th repetition of the message, the pattern changed. There was about a one second interval in which the speakers roared with white noise and the displays were filled with static, then the spoken message began again.
And then, throughout the world, the power went out.
***~~~***
"I'm getting out of here!" Valor announced to his comrades. The detention area where they were being held was a large room, deep beneath the Citadel of Justice. The room had been carved from bedrock and except for the recessed lighting fixtures and the armored door that led eventually to the elevator, it was completely unadorned. Currently, the 4 captives of the Avenger's crew were the only occupants. The lighting was dim, purple, unnatural to human eyes and it flickered randomly, the air temperature was barely above freezing, the room stank of things the prisoners didn't even want to think of, and there was a low level of background noise which must have been recorded in the torture chambers throughout the Protectorate.
"I am Victorious Valor, Ultimate of the Invincibles of Xadam, and no bond can hold me!" he yelled defiantly. His companions could see his body tense as he struggled against the massive titanium alloy manacles that held his arms and legs. They had all tested their bonds earlier, and they knew what would happen next.
"Vic! Stop!' Juna screamed at her new friend, but it was too late. Valor's struggles triggered a punishment device, and he was blasted with massive electric currents, similar in power to Stormgirl's lightning. His entire body stiffened, and he howled in agony for an instant, and then went limp. Knowing that any violent struggles on their parts would activate similar punitive devices in their own restraints, the J team could only watch in horror as their friend screamed in agony and collapsed. Though Jim was suspicious of the screams of agony - the internal signals that alerted Valor that his body was being damaged were just that - signals. He couldn't alert the rest of his teammates, but he prepared himself to act quickly, if the chance came.
A few seconds later, the light in the room changed to a constant, bright white. The armored door slid open and an over, wearing a jaunty insulated uniform and filters on his nose, strode into the cold, noisome room like a conqueror. A sneer twisted his long blue face as he spit on the collapsed body of the Xadamite. Though only Juna could easily understand him as he spoke, his arrogant posture, the contempt in his voice, and the disgust in his voice were clearly evident to Jim and Jess as well.
"That fool is even more of an idiot than the rest of you," he sniffed. "Still, it's too bad you've learned your lessons - it was so enjoyable watching you wriggle and scream earlier. Especially you!" He stepped over to Jessiat, reached out to take her chin in his hand. "I've asked Othar to le me oversee your future... a future at least one of us will enjoy!" She struggled to turn her head away; he sighed, dropped his hand to his belt. "I see you need further instruction." She screamed as her own restraints hit her with an electric charge, but this time it was only a short burst which didn't knock her out.
"You sadistic slimeball!' Jim snarled in a low, deadly voice. "If any one of us was free, you wouldn't dare treat her that way. "You're nothing but a coward."
As the over turned to him and started to reply, the lights went out and the room was plunged into total darkness., In the short silence that followed, it was impossible to miss the multiple 'snikt' sounds as the manacle clamps restraining the prisoners, normally held shut by powerful electromagnets, snapped open, followed by a number of thuds as the heavy shackles hit the floor.
In the next few seconds, Juna learned several new Thrannian phrases, though the over was quickly silenced. She wasn't exactly sure of their meanings, but from the context, they were clearly expletives.
"Can anyone see at all?" Jim asked.
"A moment," Valor replied. A moment later, the others could see a glow; he extended his right arm, palm out, and a beam of light swept across the room. "I've been using our 'free time' to monitor and direct my internal auto-repair processes. Most of the more complex circuits of my disintegration beam are unsalvageable, but enough remains to function as a flashlight. And I've managed to reconfigure some of my energy converters to work with electricity rather than infra-energy photons. The efficiency is low, and I am currently weaker than normal, but our enemies believe I am vulnerable to electricity; instead, each time they use electricity to attack me, it will make me stronger."
"That's great news for you, big fella," Jim replied with just a twinge of sarcasm. "We're in the dungeon of the stronghold of the most powerful man in the Thrannian government, and Jess and I are pretty much powerless. Even if you and Juna can fight your way free, I'm not going anywhere until I recover my Glove."
"The last time Othar interrogated us," Juna started with a shudder - that questioning had been painful - "one of his toadys mentioned that they haven't had any luck making use of our gear, and Othar told him to lock it up. My impression is that the lab where they were experimenting on it isn't far from here." Jess's armor and Juna's force-field incorporated Patrol genetic-matching technology, and wouldn't work for anyone else. Jim had activated a similar safeguard built into the Glove. At least, no one was going to turn their own weapons against them. Nobody argued with Jim's insistence that they recover their gear.
"I disagree that you and Jessiat are powerless, Jim," Valor responded calmly to his friend's earlier statement. "You are a highly-skilled martial, and Jess, while not yet as skilled as you has another advantage - she can see much further into the infra-red than even my artificial eyes." In his best command voice, Ultimate Valor then arranged the group's marching order. "Jess, you watch behind. Juna, be ready to fire your most powerful water blasts in any direction. Jim, be ready to leave the group and sneak up on any attackers while their attention is on the rest of us."
They knew Othar always came down from a higher level when he 'dropped in' on them. They cautiously left the dungeon, in almost total darkness, looking for a way up. Jim wryly thought that 'Reminds me of a party in D&D, except - no mules, no torches. And no dice!'
***~~~***
In the training center, several floors above the detention area, the Justice Mandate was practicing unarmed combat against robot combatants. Solvent had forbidden them from using their powers, making this the most unpopular exercise she had assigned. Almost everyone was complaining.
An ultra-powerful robot, programmed with all the fighting skills from every planet in the Protectorate, barely knocked Mighty Man's savage punch aside and fired back with a jab to his jaw, which knocked him tumbling backward. "Damn, I've had enough of this!" he muttered.
He had been in a terrible mood ever since he'd been weakened by being near the Xenonian, Juna. When Solvent's back was turned, he reached down and crushed a device that was attached to his belt. The robot launched a spinning leg kick, so quickly that a normal human wouldn't have been able to avoid or block it, but with the suppressor destroyed, to Mighty Man it was moving in slow motion. He ducked, seized the ankle of the leg which was planted on the ground, and then straightened up, grabbing the other ankle as he did so, the ripped the robot apart like a wishbone.
An alarm started beeping, letting Solvent know that one of her team had cheated. She pressed a button on her own belt which ended the training exercise, then turned to Mighty Man.
"Kazzan, you're paying for that robot!" she barked. Then, to the whole team: "What's the matter with you guys? If Othar finds out that even one of you is slacking off in training, all of us will end up paying for it!"
"Listen, Melindar, you know as well as we do that we don't need any retraining. We wiped the floor with those guys - and we aren't responsible for DarkFactor escaping, either," Mirage, Lompo Lungor, had once been married to Solvent. When she'd been promoted to Commander of the Justice Mandate, the pressures that went with the job had destroyed their marriage. But he could still say things to her that none of her other subordinates dared to say. "If we'd been assigned to guard DarkFactor, he'd still be a captive. But we weren't - Othar himself gave you the order to subdue the invaders."
Solvent was extremely annoyed when Mirage revealed this information. "Othar ordered me to keep that secret. How the hell did you know? And now the whole team knows - we're gonna be in deep $#!* when he finds out."
Mirage smirked. "Hard to keep secrets from a guy who can lurk inside a wall..."
Solvent's mouth actually dropped open in astonishment She was well aware of the uses of Mirage's powers for espionage; she had frequently ordered him to scout enemy activities this way. But she'd never expected him to spy on her. She was too dismayed to respond immediately.
Encouraged by Solvent's silence, and Mirage' boldness, Mighty Man spoke up. "You know, Boss - those aliens weren't lying when they said they'd been tricked by DarkFactor. They really are 'the good guys' on their home planets. Heck, Valor was a hero on my own planet - I had a Vic Valor action figure when I was growing up!" Mighty Man could use his super hearing and super vision to monitor the physiological reactions of prisoners being questioned - he was more accurate than any lie detector known to Protectorate science.
"Augur fed 'em a pack of lies. And we know that little weasel has some kind of psychic ability to influence minds," Angstrom added. He closely studied the physic abilities of others, hoping that he might learn to expand his own powers.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it - the aliens are Othar's prisoners. Now get back to work - we're going out after DarkFactor again tomorrow. Zarl, check out another suppressor, and if you wreck this one, any punishment you get from Othar will look like heaven compared to what you'll get from me!" She tried to bark off this command gruffly, but her team could tell that her heart wasn't really in it.
The lights went out. Before Solvent had figured out what orders to give, her communicator buzzed with a call from Othar. "Commander Salor, you and the Justice Mandate will proceed immediately to the lower level detention area and insure that the aliens remain in custody!" Without waiting for her reply, he cut off.
"OK, Team, we have our orders. Looks like we're off to detention!"
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 15:07:16 GMT
"Of course, there's no backup power for the freepin' elevator, and Vic can't fly up and carry us with him," Jim groused as he followed Jessiat up the dark elevator shaft on the emergency ladder. "And naturally, no stairs, either!" Climbing was treacherous, the rungs were greasy and the dark seemed almost immune to Valor's light beam. Though he knew Valor was leading the way, as the least vulnerable, Jim couldn't see anything more than Jess's dim outline above. He was glad that the darkness also hid the fall below them.
"It does make it very difficult to escape from the detention cell," Juna's cool, analytical tone drifted up from the darkness below. She'd offered to fill the shaft with water so they could just float upward, but they had no idea how long that would take. The elevator car had been at their level; they had disabled it in case the power came back on. "And it explains why our captors felt no need to post guards. Escape from the manacles is highly improbable, but even if the manacles failed, prisoners only have a single escape route. So they need only guard the exit from the elevator shaft."
"I'm surprised they haven't made themselves known already," Valor joined the conversation. "The shaft should have been flooded with gas, or someone should be threatening us, or even shooting at us right now. I suspect an ambush."
"Or, our captors may have no plans in place to deal with a power failure this big," Jess contributed. "Or, they may be busy elsewhere. Perhaps DarkFactor and Augur have finally come to our rescue?"
"They weren't at the pickup point," Jim snarled. They'd discussed this before, even though they were sure that their prison had been monitored. "Now that he's free, they've got no reason to help us."
"But Augur seemed so sincere," Jess pointed out sadly. Augur's betrayal had hit her the hardest, because she'd made the extra effort to overcome her xenophobia and prejudices against beings different than her. "It's still hard to believe he dumped us here and then just left us
"
"We've reached the next level," Valor informed his friends. "I'm going to force the door. Prepare to be attacked."
"What preparations can we make, strung out on a ladder like this in the dark?" Juna wanted to know. Valor said nothing; the question seemed rhetorical to all of them. But it didn't matter, as the elevator door opened easily on a small room with a single door and heavily-armored walls. A video camera in each corner of the ceiling made sure that everyone in this room was always under surveillance when there was power for the cameras and the monitors. As they all gathered in this room and began searching for some way to open the next door, Mirage popped through the wall.
"Solvent wants me to warn you DarkFactor is devastating Thrann. In his initial attack, he cut off all broadcast power to the entire world. Over a million flying vehicles and more than a billion ground vehicles instantly lost power brakes, steering, the ability to sustain flight. Over a hundred million are already confirmed dead - most of them the undercits DarkFactor claims he wants to free. The Justice Mandate has been ordered to secure you lot immediately, before we go after DarkFactor. We don't have any time to spare if you do not surrender instantly, Solvent has authorized the use of lethal force. Without your gear, you don't have a chance."
Jess abruptly sat down and wrapped her arms around her legs and started to weep "There are fewer than 20 million people on all of Juneo!" she sobbed. "
"Almost half the population of the United States," Jim whispered hoarsly. "What have we done?" He leaned on the wall and buried his head in his arms.
"There are almost 10 billion people on Thrann!" Juna spoke loudly. "That's less than 1% of the population. What's the big deal?" Her friends turned to her, stunned and incredulous that she could even think something like this, much less say it. Before they could protest her callousness, she spoke again. "If you guys give up now, DarkFactor wins. If we can stop DarkFactor, we can help protect the 10 billion who are still living!" As she'd hoped, her seemingly uncaring statement had shocked her crew mates out of a growing stupor caused by their despair.
Valor spoke up, sounding to Jim a lot like a drill sergeant taking command. "Mirage! Tell Solvent that we _will_ surrender, once we've defeated DarkFactor - and if that isn't good enough for her, your Justice Mandate had better get out of our way!"
The armored door slid open, moved easily by Mighty Man's great strength. "I accept your parole!" Solvent said, her commanding tone filling the room. "Come with us; we've been provided with DarkFactor's location. Working together, we'll stop him!"
"Damn! I was looking forward to another fight!" Tree grumped.
"Shut up, Tree!" Solvent snapped. "You'll get your fight, I promise!"
"We need our gear first!" Jim insisted. He didn't look forward to facing a threat like DarkFactor with his bare hands.
"We'll get it on our way to transport!" Solvent promised. "Plus, I have to inform Othar that his prisoners are now temporary recruits of the Justice Mandate," she said maliciously, smiling nastily at the thought. "I'll brief you as we go."
"You'd almost think she _likes_ defying her commanding officer," Jessiat whispered wonderingly to Stormgirl. It was hard to see in the dim light, but Jess was sure that the younger girl had winked at her.
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 13, 2019 15:08:25 GMT
Solvent was constantly listening to status reports, and she briefed the group as they hurried to the Command Center.
"Thrann has depended almost exclusively on broadcast power for the past 200 years. Almost everything that uses electric power, from a watch to an ocean liner, is equipped with broadcast power receptors. Some places, like the Citadel of Freedom, even have armored power conduits direct from the broadcast stations. To protect against broadcast failure, we have thousands of broadcast stations, and important devices all have multiple receptors. It shouldn't matter if 1 power station or even 10 fail simultaneously, there would still be more than sufficient power in the air for any active devices, and it is extremely unlikely that several receptors in a single device would fail at once. Every place that's important is well protected against power failure."
"Until today," Juna responded dryly. "So, did all the broadcast stations go off line at the same time, or did all the redundant receptors fail?"
"Nothing has actually failed, believe it or not," Solvent replied. "All broadcast stations normally transmit on a specific frequency the standard civilian frequency but in emergencies they can be switched to a different frequency which only government receptors are designed to receive. DarkFactor figured out a way to switch all broadcast stations to a third frequency, which neither civilian or government receptors can utilize. Almost the only things that are still working right now are those that actually have backup batteries installed. Mostly government facilities, and equipment that is designed to work on other planets, like military weapons and spaceships."
"What an devilish way to control the civilian population," Jim barked in disgust. "Threaten to take away their power, turn off their lights, communications, appliances, disable all means of transportation, at the flick of a switch, unless they behave. Not a place where I'd like to live."
"We didn't ask you to come here," Tree snarled. "The Protectorate's worked for us for 500 years. We don't need no stinkin' aliens tellin' us how to run our planet." He didn't seem to see the irony of an alien plant creature from a planet outside the Protectorate calling the Avengers' crew 'alien'.
"What will Othar do when you ask him to release us to your command for the duration of the emergency?" Valor hastily changed the subject, "Surely he'll order you to capture or kill us."
"I'm not planning to ASK him anything," she replied with a smile. "We'll present him with a done deal he'll have to accept, based on a precedent he established himself!" She paused, frowned. "What I'm worried about is what He'll do after we take down DarkFactor and the emergency is over." She smiled again. "We'll worry about that when we get there. Who knows, DarkFactor might kill us all."
"Glad to see you still always see the bright side of things, boss," Angstrom said sarcastically. "Always keeping up morale!"
"Shut up, Angstrom!" Solvent barked, but there was no heat in her command. She continued with the situation briefing. "So all civilian and military devices that require broadcast power are useless. And it gets worse. Somehow, every general purpose robot built in the last 5 years has been reprogrammed to not only draw power on the new frequency, but to attack all overcits, government facilities, and all military and police personnel, whether they are overcits or undercits." She stopped to listen, and her face turned white. "Your 'idealistic reformer' has gained control of the planetary defense lasers, and he's routing most of the power to them. 3 of the global forts have already been destroyed," she pausued for a second "make that four. None of the forts has strong enough shields to withstand half a world's power. They're evacuating the others as fast as they can. It won't be fast enough." She snarled, "The results of your meddling. Nothing the Protectorate government has done compares to this!"
The Avenger's crew didn't respond right away; what could they say? Finally, Jess spoke up. "We'll stop DarkFactor from taking over," she promised, softly but grimly determined. "But that doesn't mean we approve of your current government."
"I think we're starting to agree with you," Solvent spoke what the rest of her team dared not. "But when the current emergency is over, that's our problem to deal with, not yours!"
***~~~***
Solvent marched briskly into the Command Center and snapped off a precise, by-the-book salute. Before Othar could respond, she spoke in a brisk, clear voice, easily audible to everyone in the room, as well as the security forces she knew were recording everything through their hidden monitoring devices. She was more than a little nervous - if she screwed this up, she and her team would die slow painful deaths when this crisis was over.
"Minister Othar, General Regulation 9,352, authored by you when you created the Justice Mandate during the Gustovich Invasion twenty years ago, gives the Commanding Office of the Justice Mandate, currently me, extremely broad powers during a planetary emergency. When you declared the current situation to be a planetary emergency several minutes ago, I realized that extraordinary measures will be required to defeat DarkFactor. Accordingly, under GenReg 9,352, Section 4, Paragraph 2.3.1, I enlisted our former alien prisoners into the Justice Mandate, under my command, to help us defeat DarkFactor."
She turned to Othar's guards, who were fingering their weapons. "I don't need to remind you soldiers that GenReg 9,352, Section 3, Paragraph 1.1.1 makes it a treasonable offense to attack an authorized member of the Justice Mandate, so get your fingers off the triggers!" She turned back to Othar. "I commend you on your foresight, Minister. GenReg 9,352 is exceptionally well-written and thoroughly comprehensive, and will help ensure that the Protectorate survives the current planetary emergency."
Othar was livid, but he realized that it was too late to stop Solvent, especially as she was quoting a regulation that he had originally created. As soon as this emergency was over, he would have GenReg 9,352 stricken from the books, and then destroy Solvent and the rest of the Justice Mandate. With a tremendous effort, he managed to conceal his furor and speak calmly.
"Excellent, Commander," he forced an approving nod. "You have the coordinates for DarkFactor's fortress. Government forces under my command will deal with DarkFactor's robot army, and restore the broadcast stations to the proper frequency, while your assault team deals with DarkFactor. I expect prompt resolution of the situation!"
Solvent snapped another sharp salute. "We're on our way, Minister!" She led her team through the Command Center into the Weapons Lab where Othar had been experimenting with her new recruits' gear. Jim donned his Glove, which was by now almost totally discharged, and Juna put on her force field belt. At Solvent's command, Mighty Man picked up Jessiat's armor. "Angstrom will repair it once we get in the air," she told Jess. "We don't have time to waste here." She wanted to get moving before Othar could search through the over 20,000 valid General Regs and find one which would allow him to countermand GenReg 9,352.
***~~~***
Within minutes, the 10 heroes were blasting through the sky in an armed, armored ground-to-orbit troop lander. The lander had a two-person weapon-control team; Tree tossed them out of the cockpit. Not only would his extra limbs enable him to handle the weapons more efficiently, he could also keep an eye on the pilots. In the troop compartment, the rest of the new team made their preparations.
"Lucky General Regulation 9,352 is still in force," Jessiat commented to Solvent. She was a little disturbed at the idea of a subordinate summarily defying her commanding officer - what would she do, when she was in command of her planet's first star ship, if someone were to try something like that with her?
Solvent held up her hand as a signal for Jessiat to stop talking. She waited a second, and Mirage emerged from the hull of the transport. He gave her the Thrannian equivalent of a 'thumbs'up'. "OK, Lompo has disabled all the monitoring devices, so we can talk freely. It wouldn't really matter if 9,352 even existed," she chuckled. "With over 20,000 General Regulations and more being written all the time, I'm sure I could have found another that would give me the authority I need. And given a few minutes to do research, Othar would be able to find one to overrule me this time. So we didn't give him the chance," She chuckled again. "It just adds to the irony that Othar wrote this one himself. Beamed by his own blaster!"
Though Strobe's Glove was almost totally discharged by now, the ancient Galactic Patrol had made arrangements for just this type of situation. An emergency reserve provided just enough power to materialize the Globe from a small pocket of self-maintaining stressed space which was attached tot he Glove and normally undetectable, and he quietly recharged. 'I ought to have some kind of an oath, like Green Lantern,' he thought to himself, not for the first time. He'd watched GL recharge his power ring and had been very impressed by the solemnity and power of that short pledge. But he wasn't sure he'd earned the right to such an oath yet.
Angstrom reversed the atomic changes he'd made previously to the power supply circuits in Jessiat's armor. She donned her combat suit and ran it through various self-test sequences - it appeared to be as good as new. Juna and Stormgirl talked quietly, taking this chance to learn more about the other's powers. Mighty Man stayed as far away from Juna as possible. Solvent, Mirage, and Valor discussed battle plans and contingencies. And then they were close to DarkFactor's fortress, and it was time to go to work.
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