Krakot's Capture

Kennan felt the grav-seat shift as the Valkyrie adjusted attitude to land at a high-security Stalker base. Krakot continued to remain silent in the cargo bay of the gunship.

The base, SSI-247, was located in a dense jungle far away from most of Meridia's settlements, around the equator at a location that the pilot and Kennan were not even told. It looked like a small white tower-shaped structure, but Kennan's intuition told him otherwise. Massive orbital defense cannons were likely tucked away in the cliffs and rock formations around the base, with hundreds of troops patrolling the forests themselves. AA defenses, armored turrets, and multiple missile systems were concealed amongst the trees and concentrated around the base.

The spire itself was only the tip of the iceberg, with hundreds of floors reaching a couple thousand feet into the planet. A concealed landing bay entrance opened in the floor of the jungle, hologram trees disappearing in the jet wash of their transport. They descended into the maw and were greeted by a large detachment of awaiting troops.

"Krakot, we're moving."

Luna allowed Krakot to speak again, figuring nothing he said would change anything.
"Do not presume to tell ME what to.... fine.... I will go. Keep you men wary, but do not hold or drag me. A general, regardless of age, race, background, or who he serves under is still a general, and demands some proper amount of dignity, even in capture." He wobbled to his feet and prepared to followe the Stalkers, waiting to see if they would heed his request to go without behing held, after all, his warp drive wasn't funtioning, and trying to fight all of these soldiers would be suicide.

"I will agree to your request. I doubt you're that dumb, but don't try anything and we'll get along just fine." Kennan motioned for another soldier to get behind him and waited for security to scan them all down before stepping forward, down a hallway towards an elevator marked "For Highly Dangerous Persons". Another security officer checked all of them and swiped his key card, unlocking the elevator.

They stepped in and the elevator went to the destination that the guard had pre-programmed, to avoid revealing the information to the squad or Krakot himself. Despite the long distance height differences in the base, each of the elevators moved smoothly and efficiently, covering the entire two hundred and fifty feet with ease in about thirty seconds. Approximately a hundred and fifty feet below their initial location, the armored doors opened with a pneumatic hiss.

Kennan looked around. The lights were dimmed, allowing him to only guess that it was an interrogation lab. He was surprised to find one of the lab scientists sitting behind a desk in the same room; usually they would only observe through an armored glass window.

"Enter. All of you."

The group stepped forward and the doors slid shut behind them, the elevator going back to the entrance floor. Even Krakot seemed to show a glimmer of interest in the surroundings. Everything was dimmed or cast in shadow, giving the room a tense atmosphere. Normally the labs were kept like this for emotional effect, but Kennan sensed that it was unnecessary here. The room was unusually bare.

"By now, you're all wondering what is going on. My name is unimportant, but know this. Something big is happening in the first dimension. Krakot." The scientist turned to the general. "Your friends will be here shortly, and despite our defenses I fear we cannot hold here for long. You, and your AI, Luna, I presume, could be of great use, but we must hurry."

His knowledge came as a surprise to everyone. "We're more informed than you'd think. Back to the subject. The first dimension is currently captive to an Aurora Somnis. All of the powerful dimensional leaders are preparing their rescue, but we cannot stand the might of the Voyager without help. Krakot, will you aid us, or do your loyalties lie elsewhere?"

Krakot hung his head. "It is futile. If you are as informed as you say, you'd know that even if I were to help you, it'd all be for naught. I owe nothing to anyone, save of Verax, for saving me. I was collecting rust and dust in the Voyager before he brought me back, I owe him my life."

"You all have taken everything from me. But.... you have a point. I could be of great help. I could possibly be of better use to the Stalkers than to Verax, who forbids me from using the strateges I believe would work best in combat. But before I start going any further, you said my 'friends' would be here shortly. Who are you speaking of?"

"Verax or Vabin would be my best bet. One has the brute force while the other has the advantage of stealth. The others could be sent, but it would be ill-advised, and I know that Lurinia is smarter than to send Verax's less-capable generals to save you. Of course, I very well could be wrong, although it would be to our benefit, as the other generals would be easier to slow down."

The scientist paused to take a breath and collect his thoughts.

"But yes, intelligence confirms a powerful being exiting the first dimension with intentions of reaching the tenth, here. Our time is short and I doubt I will live through this upcoming attack. I will leave you with Kennan when the time comes, but for now, we will continue to talk. And, before you go on, what does Luna have to say about this?"

"Luna is-"

"Right here." As she materialized. "It'd be Vabin, as in the upcoming battle, nothing would stop the Dreadlord from partaking in it. Which means you have no hope. Vabin, unlike Verax, cannot be killed or harmed." She looked around the empty room.

"I for one have had enough of Verax. I would gladly help you hunt him down or fight him. But..... well, my one question is... why? Why go to the trouble of asking us for help? What could we contribute? Verax kept Krakot and I as much in the dark about his plans as possible. Also, where DID you find all this intellegence. If we had that much access, we could possibly find out what Verax is up to and find and exploit a hole in his plans."

"To answer your first question, Commander Valderis Robless, in conjunction with several other dimensional rulers and influential people, is plotting to rescue Aurora Somnis. In one of our surveillance tapes we caught Robless in the act of committing suicide and would not have been able to save him without Aurora's help. They owe each other quite a bit.

"As for the intelligence, we tap into most forms of communication and energy transfer in much of the known universe. I also rely on many intelligence agents, a very risky job that kills almost as much as we can train, from several races that are infiltrated into nearly every known organization in the world. I'm afraid I do not know much more than that, high command does not want me to know more than I need to.

"And thank you for your information about Vabin. It is worse than I thought, but the outcome is the same: I die, you and the group escapes, and the facility will be self-destructed." A message appeared on the holo-screen mounted against one of the corner's in the room and the elevator light glowed red.


"It is time. Go, a stealth fighter transport is waiting for you at the level programmed into the next elevator ride. Good luck and godspeed." The scientist turned around at his desk and started preparing for the attack.

Kennan nodded at him and motioned Krakot, Luna, and his squad into the elevator. It slid open and they walked inside.

>>>WARNING: SSI-247 IS UNDER ATTACK. EVACUATE NON-COMBAT PERSONNEL. SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATING IN FIVE MINUTES.<<<

He could only pray the elevator went faster.

Krakot called back Luna into him. "Kennan, Luna has a good point. Why did you go to the trouble of bringing us here? Why go to the trouble of keeping us alive?" The elevator groaned. "Where are we going?"

"Hoooome, foolish traitor." The voice was heard everywhere in the facillity.

"I wish I could answer just one of those questions for you. Right now, I'm simply going to be thankful for the fact that we have an android general at our side while being hunted down by an agreeably less pleasant one."

The elevator lurched to a halt to let them out. The last guy in Kennan's squad had to jump for it before it went screeching down further, an explosion resounding through the elevator shaft.

They arrived at a mostly abandoned hangar. Opposite from their side, there was a fighter docked on a scaffold, facing the exit. The hangar doors were already open, but instead of the open air, it was a metal, rectangular tunnel. They had gone further down, not up. Kennan did not have time to question the directions of the scientist as screams and gunshots could be heard above.

"Go, go, go!" Kennan's squad sprinted across the hangar floor with Krakot, racing to get to the remotely-started fighter. It was a large stealth fighter-bomber, with eight seats for the six squad members and Krakot himself. A dozen feet remained between them and the fighter scaffold. They clambered up the metal steps as quickly as possible and were in the midst of shutting the hatch as another explosion came from the elevator chamber.

Vabin was here, but it seemed it was too late. The moment the hatch shut, the fighter's auto-pilot immediately engaged, shooting them down the tunnel at incomprehensible speeds.

Shortly after the abrupt take-off, Kennan's squad pulled themselves together after smashing into the rear wall of the fighter's cockpit and managed to climb into their seats. The tunnel must have been extremely long, as their ship's powerful thrusters hadn't propelled them through the final exit.

"Where could this tunnel--" One of the troops aboard the fighter was interrupted by a cascade of dark blue water covering the cockpit glass. They were in the middle of the ocean. "I think I've had enough of this top-secret crap already."

The ship's compressed compartment that would keep them safe from space functioned the same way under the ocean. Its combustion engine switched to the plasma pulse drives to minimize the intake of water and then sped towards the surface, breaking through the water in a fantastic splash before leveling out and making their ascent through the atmosphere. "We're out."

In moments, they were already drifting slowly in orbit.

"Warp drive engaging. Destination: 4th Dimension, Mars Orbit." The automated navigation sequence created a warp bubble, and within moments they were en route to Mars.