Hunted 2

AuthorsNote(#1): Alright. Hello site-goers. This is what I've done so far on the Hunted series. Hunted 2 is the sequal to my "hit" series Hunted. Check that out first or none of this will make any sense to you. This page will be periodically updated with further parts. I will update here a day before its posted on starcraft.org. Enjoy.

-DFIK

Part 5

Situation

Brett held the shotgun to his chest, and breathed in and out. His chest pumped up and down, and his stomach growled in hunger. A small ache, but hunger nonetheless. Brett looked over to the doorway, where the women laid.. He couldn’t remember her name. Her organs were on the ground, her blood was spilt and coagulated. The area in which the Zerglings claw had ripped his body was turning a light brown and green. It was starting to smell.

The red corn syrup like blood of the Zergling, was still wet on his shotgun. Why it wasn’t coagulated yet was something he did not know, and did not care about. Brett knew only that sooner or later, someone was bound to find him.. possibly find out what he did, and how he was responsible...

One day ago, Brett had searched the rest of the ship. He found the bodies of everyone else. Dead. Mary, Kris, Charlie, some old scientist, Clair, John, and of course Ace, the man he had intentionally shot. The question of why Brett did any of that was still high in his mind, but frankly Brett cared nothing about it anymore. The cafeteria was littered with hundreds of bodies, which had distracted Brett for a moment. One quick moment, but he had decided to forget it.

He left the bodies where they were.. What was he going to do? What was he supposed to do? Brett didn’t feel bad about it anymore. He didn’t care he caused it all, and he didn’t care he took another man’s life with the pull of his trigger. He could give a shit that John died because of his cowardice. Brett didn’t care about anything.. At all. He just wanted to go home. But home was so far away.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Jack Francis sat in his big puffy chair, and rubbed his eyes. Bloodshot, and heavy, his eyes watered. The computer radar system sat in front of him, beeping away, scanning the space above this planet, Kukurai-Dos. Nothing above in that space at all. Nothing. There never was. Never would be. But, hey, Jack got paid, right?

Jack guessed that was probably all that mattered. His father had certainly thought so. Work, eat, sleep, get married, for tomorrow you die. Simple enough. An old saying, but his father used it. Jack obeyed that saying, in a sense. He worked, he ate, he slept, he got married, and he would surely die sometime. Of course the marriage didn’t count anymore, Jack thought. She was dead after all.

The memory of her death seemed near him every time he did something besides what the saying told him to do. Work, eat sleep. Work, eat sleep. Work, eat sleep. Just skip that marriage part for now. Her death was so horrible.. Jack tried to just forget it.. It had been four years now, it was time for him to forget.

Just then, something blinked on the radar screen. Just in time to stop the painful memories. It came form nowhere, it seemed. It just suddenly appeared on the center of the radar screen, nearly covered up by the small green dot in the center, that lead the line on its patrols around the circular screen. At first it was faint, a light green, smaller that Jacks pinky fingernail. Then it got larger on the screen.

Jack assumed it was a space craft, it wasn’t going fast enough to be a comet or a meteor. Plus, the image on the radar screen wasn’t that of a comet. What was it really? Jack, just recruited onto this board of work after being fired form his previous job for worker incompetence, pulled out a book with the list of images he needed to know exactly what the hell it was.

Jack flipped through a large red book and searched for the image he saw on the screen. The small metallic room he sat in gave off more chirping noises than a chicken hut, and smelled worse than a pig-sty. It was small and cramped, and just plain disgusting. Never cleaned, never looked at, never cared for. Who was expecting anything interesting to go by over this planet anyway?

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Captain Kurlove received the phone call only minutes after he awoke. 07:30 hours. He slept on his bed, the only one that wasn’t a bunk bed, in his room, which was the only one that didn’t have more than one person. His alarm went off, and he clicked the off button, and immediately afterward, the phone rang.

The white speckled room had almost no furniture in it, aside from his bed, and a small cupboard to its side, holding a phone, his alarm clock, a small lamp, and a picture of his family waiting on

the other side of Kukurai-Dos. The room wasn’t to big either so it probably couldn’t fit much else. It’s triangular shape made it odd to put furniture in anyway.

"Hello?" The captain mumbled hoarsely, barely awake. The lamp wasnt on yet, so the captain felt no need to wake yet. It would flicker on at the time when he was needed, it was computer programmed to do so.

"Kurlove?" asked a voice from the phone.

"Yes?"

The lamp flickered on. Light spread across the room, first as a gleam, then as a whole. The room became visible, and Captain Kurlove knew it was time to wake up. But, still half asleep, it was rather hard to do.

"You uh.. you, might wanna see this.."

"What is it? Who is this?" The captain said, as an automatic response. He was wakjing up now, however, and was realizing the urgent tone in the persons voice. Realising this, he quickly shuffled his blanket off, and sat up on the bed, legs over the side, dangling. The Captain rubbed in forehead wrinkles and then listened to what the man had to say.

"This is Jack Francis, I work down at the east-radar station, owned by-"

"I don’t care, get on with it.." The captain said aggravated. There was no room to waste his time.

"Yes sir; I have found an object on the radar that looks like.. well.. A storage ship. It seems to be unmanned. I didn’t get any response when I tried to communicate. I tried to talking to my supervisors first, but they just said to-"

"Get to the point." Captain Kurlove said, putting on some pants. He was out of the bed now, and was getting ready to get out.

"I already have sir."

"Oh, yes.. yes you did." The captain said, feeling a bit stupid. "Yes, well; I’ll be there soon."

"I really think we should conduct an investigation, sir."

"As do I."

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Ken was informed quickly and hastily by the captain. Ken had been fixing the new science vessel from yesterdays crash for hours, and then he got a call from the Captain. Just great, more work.

Ken hated work. Hated work. The captain might as well throw him in the looney house now.

"We’ve got a situation on our hands, its probably nothing but we cant be to sure." The Captain had said, when Ken had cleaned up a little, and went to the city’s central headquarters.

"And what is the situation sir?" Ken asked, caring as much as he loved work.

"There seems to be some sort of a storage ship floating above us, and we can’t get in contact with the crew. Something may have happened.

"Or they’re all asleep."

"Either way, its our duty to investigate, so get ready, your going on the ship as the repairman incase anything is wrong." Kurlove said loading his "Captain’s" pistol and putting it silently in his boot.

"For fucks sake sir-"

"Your going, end of story. And please, do not swear in my presence."

Ken sighed, and followed orders. The Captain and he both got into a transportation vehicle that would bring them to the site where they would then load the dropship, and go off to investigate. The car was roomy, and had plenty of room. It floated slightly in air, hovering actually, and went quite fast. Looking out the window, everything was a blur of yellow and green.

Ken closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He would love for this to end right now. The captain getting a call telling him they got in contact with the crew, their was nothing to worry about. Or maybe they found out the ship was filled with a poisonous substance and they couldn’t investigate

yet until it was all cleared out.. or.. anything. Anything at all to stop this. An easier way would be to just take the Captain’s pistol and - No. Just.. No.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Kara opened her eyes, and at first saw white. White; the ceiling. Then wider and brown came into view. Brown walls and white roof. Where was she?

She looked to her left, then to her right, now feeling the cold concrete ground beneath her. She saw brown roughly painted walls, chipped away over the years. A small blanket covered her, and when she looked below, saw nothing but her naked body. Where the hell was she?

Looking to her left again, sat a large science vessel. It looked sort of ripped up, and being repaired on. But no one else was here. Had Kara been drunk? No.. no. There it was.

Her mind was racing so fast at first, she had forgotten what she was doing last night. Ken.. but where was he? Why didn’t he wake her up? And what the hell was she doing on the floor and not the bed? Did she fall off? Must’ve, she thought, now noticing a slight ache on her head and back. Where the hell was he?  Where the hell was he?

Little bastard, she thought. Run off. Fuck-and-run. But no, that wasn’t like Ken. She knew him. Something must’ve come up. But what? And why didn’t he wake her up first? Unless.. her father had been here. He would have been so pissed, realizing his daughter was with Ken. He hated Ken. But its possible.. Kara Kurlove sat up now, and used the blanket as a sort of dress, just incase anyone happened to look past the truck to her. She grabbed her clothes from the bed, and slipped them on.

An old concrete room, the work room a door away from the bedroom, was what Ken called home. Damned if she was going to live here. Right behind the science vessel sat a door, a red door, and behind that was Ken’s bedroom, which didn’t contain much, aside from the carrying clothes lying on the ground, and the mass of dirt huddled in the corners from years of just sweeping it to the side instead of actually cleaning it. But, it was a concrete floor, and hell, Kara probably wouldn’t clean it either. A rug would be nice, but a rug would just mean a mess of grease and dirt and.. ugh.

Ken’s tool kit was gone to. He was definitely with her father. On some bullshit mission for some bullshit reason as usual. Ken was like her fathers little work-dog. Torture it with work, and it will eventually bite you in the ass. If he figured out about him and Kara... That would probably be one painful bite.

Not that her father ever paid attention to that type of shit anyway. He would never find out unless he got a paper that said: "Ken+Kara=lovers." But like that was going to happen. Kara knew her dad wouldn’t find out, unless it was made obvious, so it wasn’t hard to keep their love secret. Well... not much love. Yet.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Brett heard his stomach growl hungrier than ever before. Two weeks with no food was getting the better of him. It was hurting now. A lot. He was falling apart. Brett knew he wouldn’t live to much longer. All the food was gone by this point. Almost a month trapped, and Brett was out of luck. They would be home by now.. why wasn’t the auto-pilot working.. Maybe that fuck Charlie never turned it on. That would explain it.

But, Brett was in no mood to get up and search for that auto-pilot now. He was to weak. To tired.. to hungry. He just wanted to go home. Brett wished he never used that gun, and never shot those cans. He wished he was smarter. If he was smarter he probably wouldn’t have shot at the cage. God damn cage. God damn Zergling. God Damn hunger.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Five men. Five tired, sleepy, but strong men. Captain Kurlove had stopped the car, and stepped out. The ground, rocky and filled with bumps, shuffled underneath the captains foot. Ken came out behind him, yawning, and shut his door with a loud thump. The large red sun was beginning to rise off in the distance, and light was glowing in.

Shawn Stanford, Henry Lissen, Tom Geralds, Stan Buck, and Jay Vittans were the five tried men. All dressed in their Kukurai-suits. A light green with faded brown splotches on the jeans, and the same on their t-shirts. Brown boots, hard and tough, made to walk through hell itself. Finger-less gloves meant just for the sake of looking tough.

All five could probably bench press 500+ pounds if they really wanted to. Strong, buff, kick ass. Best of the best. They, no matter how simple the situation was, were the only ones the Captain would ever rely on. No one worse. He needs the best. And nothing less. Ken was an exception, the only trained SCV on the planet.

"Sir," Stan said, at attention, slapping a salute to his head quick as a whip. "What is our mission, sir?"

"I’ll brief you in the drop ship, lets go." The Captain said, paying no attention to any of the men. There was no time to waste.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Brett chewed on his hair, his stomach growling. He was thin as paper now, and had puked blood earlier that morning. The last bottled water had been drunken that day as well, so death was imminent. Brett moaned at the pain in his stomach, knowing his hair was only making it hurt more. The pain was immense. His body felt weak.

That dead Zergling looked mighty tasty. But fuck-no. He wouldn’t ever touch one of those little shits again.

Brett’s weak body began shaking. Random spasms around his body engulfed into the air. He began mumbling and moaning, more blood erupting from his mouth, and dripping to the floor, as he shook. Brett screamed now, with all of his energy. The pain was immense. It hurt so bad... Brett couldn’t help himself from screaming again. All breath left his body. The world around him vibrated up and down as his body shook. Brett, leaning on a corner in the room where Ace’s dead body lay, began to shake more. And more. His head began bashing the wall, creating loud

thumping noises. His arms twitched in all directions, slamming his head, his body, and his legs. His feet kicked the air and then fell, only followed by more spasms.

Then it stopped. As quickly as it had begun. Brett panted, catching air as it sped by. The tiny molecules seemed to be trying to run from his lungs, as Brett tried taking in more air. Air seemed to run away, and his lungs were left empty. Brett tried again. This time grabbing some air, and pulling it down. Finally the air went with him normally.

Small jumping noises bounced off the metal floor. Brett used what was left of his energy to look up. Something... bullet filled and bleeding, but not limping... looked back.

 Part 6

Setting Off

The dropship hummed, a small vibration of noise echoing form inside it. Captain Kurlove sat in the back, a metal guard lowering over him, to protect him from falling out of his seat. It puffed a bit, and then fell over his shoulders, the bottom of the metal loop buckling into the seat Captain Kurlove sat on. The seats were implanted into the walls, 20 seats in all.

The Dropship began to raise its ramp and close, so that it could take off. Jay, the pilot, was getting ready for lift off. The cargo ship above them was now visible from the ground, it was probably a few thousand kilometers in the air, but looking closely, you could see a small speckle of it was moving by, probably not much faster than 70 kph.

The ramp closed with a slam, as all of Captain Kurlove’s crew were buckled in. The dropship began to rise up, slowly tilting forward, so they could begin traveling to the cargo ship at once. The dropship rose up a few meters, and then an extremely loud clang erupted through the ship. Kurlove looked toward the cockpit, and saw the Jay was looking around frantically, trying to figure out what was wrong. Then, from what seemed out of nothingness, the ship seemed to smash down onto the ground, as if pushed by God’s hands. The dropship’s engines tried pushing up, but to no avail. The ship’s pilot, Jay, looked frantically at all the controls. Then he turned to look back at the captain, his face nervous.

"Sir.. uh.. something fucked up "

"Well fix it " The captain said, outraged. The timing for this was horrible.

"I’m not a mechanic sir, I can only fly the thing " Jay said, a nervous sweat, squeezing through one of his pours.

"What?"

"I wasn’t trained in fixing things. Isn’t that Kens job?"

"Damn it.. Yes, I guess it is," The captain mumbled, rubbing his forehead as the seat belt things unbuckled and rose up. "Ken, figure out what’s wrong."

"Yes, sir." Ken said half heartedly, getting from his seat, and grabbing his toolkit.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Kara pushed the accelerator harder. Her father’s secretary, Rosa, would surely know where he was. She always knew. Kara was figuring out what sort of lie to tell her father when she got to where ever he was. Kara wanted to just be with Ken.. No real reason.. just a sort of.. nudge.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Jack yawned, rubbed his tired eyes, and leaned back in his chair. It was tiring and hard on the eyes to just stare at the damned radar all day. Of course, other things were needed to; little things. Small things like keeping his superiors informed of his current status (especially due to the new wave of information) and maybe keeping the place clean a little bit. ‘A little cleaning never hurt anyone! His wife used to tell him.

Janette.

Fire. Alarms. Crash..

Shutting this from his memory was quick and easy. As soon as thoughts of his wife entered, he immediately shot them out. Only pain ever followed, and pain was hardly a thing one enjoyed. Jack took a deep breath, and a puff of dust from on top of the radar blew upwards, through the air, only to settle down moments later. Jack looked at the dust as it did this, for some reason fascinating to him.. it seemed almost as if an invisible force had pushed it down.

Of course, Jack knew this was nothing to worry about. The planet’s gravitational force pushed in one certain direction during under planet quakes, due to the bobbling of the planet’s center of gravitation. It was pushing down faster than ever before though.. Jack could feel it now. He felt heavier than he had earlier. The center of gravity had been momentarily pushed upwards, the planet become light on the other side.

Until just recently, scientists had believed the center of gravity could not be moved.. that was unthinkable. The center of gravity was at the exact center, the exact difference between the two opposing sides of the weight of the object. But now.. unexplainable as it was, Scientists realized that somehow, the center of gravity, due to certain quakes of large masses of land, could be moved for a certain amount of time. No one could discover why, or even how it was plausible.. it just didn’t make sense. How does the center of gravity of an object move?

Jack himself had tried before, and had not been able to find an answer. Science interested him for a short while in college, but he gave it up for a more reasonable career for Janette..

Janette.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Ken slammed the hood down with a thud, and turned to the Captain standing behind him, who had been looking over Kens shoulder for quite some time. The tension between the two men was visible to them, but almost invisible to anyone else watching. They looked, from someone else’s point of view, as two good friends, trying to figure out what’s wrong. To them, it looked as if an asshole boss, was staring agitated at an incompetent SCV.

"Theres nothing wrong with the dropship." Ken proclaimed, turning his body all the way around, to face the Captain.

"What do you mean there’s nothing wrong?" The Captain asked, furious. Tension becoming more visible to the naked eye.

"Just what I said. Everything’s in order... It doesn’t make sense..."

"Unless.." The Captain trailed off. "Is there anyway to put more power in this baby’s lift off?"

"I could do a bit of refueling with a better liquid, but it would just burn out faster." Ken said, thoughtfully.

"You mean KSIN?" KSIN was a type of gas that burned up extremely fast, but gave off enormous strength and power.

"I could just fill up the front batch of gas with some KSIN, and follow it up with some regular old gas afterwards, manually shifting it in through the cockpit."

The Captain leaned in close to Ken. "Your good," he whispered, "But that doesn’t give you any right with my daughter."

Ken, shocked, darted his eyes into Kurlove’s. "How did-"

"I’m not as gullible as you think Ken. Keep that in mind. I won’t stop my daughter’s decisions. I know she’ll see the error of her ways soon enough. But I swear to god Ken, if you ever hurt her-"

"Daddy!" Kara yelled from a few meters away. She was stepping out from her brand spankin’ new red car, full with all the new features; voice commands, Global Satellite Positioning, All terrain (even he inevitable lava) wheels, and speeds up to 600 kph within ten seconds from the first press of the gas pedal.

Ken and The Captain both looked up, surprised, to see Kara appearing at the dropship.

"Honey," Kurlove said, regaining himself. "What-what are you doing here?"

"Well," She said smiling at her father, in a rather format. "I wanted to go with you-to-well see what it is exactly you do!"

The Captain looked at his daughter, a bit dismayed, but hiding it rather well, and smiled. How could she lie to him like that? Right to his face! "Well, alright." The Captain said. "Er.. okay.."

Kara stared at her father. "What?"

"Nothing.. How did you know where I was?"

"Rosa helped me on that one." Kara smiled.

"Remind me to fire her," The Captain smirked playfully, and Kara giggled. "Well lets set o-"

"Captain Kurlove?" Came a voice Kurlove recognized. The Captain looked over Kara’s shoulder, as she to, turned around, to see a tired looking man. Black short hair, and a short figure. About five foot nine. He wore a black t-shirt and black pants to go with that. A short red-ish tie was slapped on over his black shirt.

"Yes, who is this?"

"Jack Francis, sir. The guy who called you?" Jack said, rubbing his forehead gently, exhausted, and straining his neck to the side a bit.

"Yes, yes. I remember."

"I figured I’d try and tell you before you realized it yourself..." Jack panted a bit. "But you didn’t bring along anything to contact you with..."

"Oh damn.." Kurlove said. "Damn it. I’ll need a COM unit before we can head into this mission-"

"Well, anyway, sir," Jack panted again. "You might want to spice up your gas a bit, I believe that the center of-"

"Yes, I already know. We’ve already failed an attempt to get off into the air. We’re getting some KSIN now." The Captain said, giving Jack a thoughtful look. For some reason, over his greasy hair, short composure, and tired gaze, he looked.. intelligent.

"Fuck.." Jack said, giving a final pant. "So I guess I came all this way for nothing.. I guess I’ll uh.. just go back to the-"

"Wait, wait.." Kurlove said, giving another look-over. "You seem to know what you’re doing around here. How about you come along to, incase of anything, well... scientific."

"I’m not that-"

"That wasn’t a question, Jack?" He said, asking Jack’s name name. (Cliche’ing himself) Jack nodded. "It was an order."

"Oh, alright then..."

"Sir, I’m heading out for the KSIN now." Ken said, interupting further conversation on the matter of Jack.

"Alright," The Captain said, barely turning his head over his shoulder. "How much longer should I expect to be waiting?"

"Ten minutes tops." Ken said, making a rough estimate in his head.

"See you in ten minutes, Ken."

<b> <I> <u> Part 7 </b> </I> </u>

Something’s Wrong

Jack rubbed his eyes a bit, trying the best he could to seem like he wasn’t half asleep. His eyes were heavy, and he was tired. Why did Kurlove order him to go.. Well, it meant a possible promotion; sort of.

Jack walked over to the side of the dropship. He looked at it, inspecting it. Large and red; its exterior looked tough, capable of taking plenty of damage. Sand and dust covered it, making it look very old, but looking under the sand, it seemed decently new, maybe a few months old. Jack sat down on the ground, ignoring any gravel and sand that bumped his back end. The ship looked bigger as he sat.

Jack’s eyes felt heavy. He figured for two reasons: one, he was in fact tired, and two, the gravity was still pulling down extra hard. Jack looked at his wrist watch, a wedding present from his fath-

Janette.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Shawn Stanford, Henry Lissen, Tom Geralds, Stan Buck, and Jay Vittans. Five men stood together outside the dropship. Their were some other people, all of whom they didn’t know, aside from the Captain.

Jay sat down on a rock, and the others did so to, aside from Henry, who without a rock, instead just leaned back on the dark red dropship.

"Anyone know who that guys is?" Henry asked, looking toward where Jack sat, sort of dozing off.

"Nope." Stan mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. He was tired, and the sun was on its way up, which would only mean humidity. "What the fuck is taking that Ken-guy so long?"

Tom, not even moving his head, replied: "The nearest gas location is at least 6 minutes away at a normal speed.. Going above normal he should be back within eight to ten minutes."

"Math Wiz." Stated Shawn, catching into the conversation.

"No," Tom said, agitated. "I was thinking it over in my head a minute before Stan asked."

"<I> Math </I> <b> Wiz. </b>" Shawn stated again.

"Fuck, I’m gonna go see if anyone has something to drink." Jay said, getting up.

"Same," Tom mumbled to himself. The two got up and walked down toward the hustle and bustle of rear side of the dropship, where the Captain and his daughter, along with some crewmen of the ship, (who would normally be deemed useless, but since the dropship had broken down, they had taken it upon themselves to come anyway) and went looking for drinks.

Henry got up next. "I’m gonna take a walk."

"Need company?" Stan asked rhetorically, getting up to follow. The two began walking around the dropship. Shawn stayed where he sat, and lost himself in his own world of thought.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

About twelve minutes later, Ken returned with over thirty liters of KSIN, being carried by a hovercraft which was strapped to Ken’s back. He took the liters of KSIN off, and then folded the portable machine, and slipped it back into his toolkit. Kurlove met up with him. The female Kurlove.

"Hey honey." She said, looking behind her. Captain Kurlove was talking to a crew member. She took the moment to kiss Ken quickly, then retreating back to her position in front of Ken.

"That was pointless," Ken said, touching the subject lightly, to bring her to the question.

"What was?"

"Looking behind you."

"Why? If he knew he’d kill you!" Kara said, catching up to Ken, who was now walking back to the dropship.

"He knows," Ken mumbled.

"What?" Kara asked, not hearing him correctly.

"He knows."

"<I> What? </I>" Kara asked again, this time hearing him perfectly.

"He’s known all along." Ken said, nearing the dropship. The KSIN sat behind them, where the crew would grab it soon.

"Your messing with me." Kara said, disbelievingly.

"Uh, no. I’m not. I wish I was."

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

A few thousand kilometers, floating above Kukurai-Dos, the cargo hip’s engine thrust forward, sending the ship forward, still. Crossing the sky, and beginning its decent across the planet below, two living things fought.

Both were weak, both were hungry, and both were near dead.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

The dropship took off without much haste. Jay and the dropships normal pilot began to take off, using the KSIN. Carefully strapped, everyone else were preparing for the take off. Using KSIN, the planet would soon seem like a colorful marble, as the dropship would be sent speeding upwards, using the high velocity gas.

"Everyone ready?" Jay yelled, to the rest of the ship. Eight crew members, along with the Captain, his daughter, Jack, and the five operatives (aside from Jay) all gave a thumbs up.

"Ready for go, Billy." Jay nodded to Billy, the normal dropship pilot, who nodded back.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

The take off was enough to make Kara’s skin rip off. For a few moments later, the dropship raised just a few meters, and then ripped off like a bullet. Kara (and everybody else for that matter) were sent almost backwards, if not for the seat-guards they surely would have went flying.

Their altitude was ripping upwards at a crazily fast speed. Kara held tight, her fists clenching, her fingers shaking, and her blood spiraling downward to her feet, giving her a light headed feeling. She twisted her head to the left with what little strength she had, and saw Ken. His face was white, and he looked a bit dizzy. Everyone seemed to be sinking into their seats. A loud roar was erupting from the engine, and just barely visible, the pilots seemed to be holding on for dear life.

More roaring, more shaking. Until finally, with a sudden jerk, they stopped. The ship floated wearily in space, seemingly ignoring everything around it. Buttons and gadgets began blinking, and a small buzzing alarm was audible. Kara’s head was shaking and she felt sick.

Ken was very dizzy, but sat up from his seat, taking off the seat guard. He began walking over to the cockpit, stumbling all the way.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Ken tripped into the cockpit, slamming his face onto the floor. "That was..." Ken kept his lunch from popping out, and then continued, "A lot different than I had anticipated... how far did we get?"

"Well..." Jay said, catching his lunch in his throat, then swallowing it back with a disgruntled face. "Our altitude and radar say we’re at least twelve kilometer’s above it..."

"Above it?" Ken asked, in disbelief. "I didn’t even expect to make it to twelve kilometers below it!"

"I think we should re-fuel this thing, and set off." Billy, the normal pilot, said holding his head with his pointer finger and thumb, gently massaging his skull.

"Alright. Jay, go get Shawn and get the regular fuel from the drop ship’s storage center." Ken said, loud enough so that Shawn amy have been able to hear him.

"Alright..." Jay mumbled, taking off his seat guard, holding in some more chunks.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Captain Kurlove watched as a crew member of the ship blew chunks from his mouth, extracting bits of food, which escaped into the air, plummeting onto the floor. Luckily the dropship was a gravity-dispenser, or his last lunch may have floated across the dropship, slapping everyone in it’s way.

"Kara, you okay?" The Captain asked his daughter, not looking at her, but towards the cockpit, where a sick looking Jay was exiting. He was immediately answered as he heard his daughter wretch. A small splash of something chunky hit his legs.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Somewhere below the dropship, a hungry creature killed another. A shotgun rested on its leg, the winning creature celebrated, but quickly fell to the floor, weakened. The shotgun sprung across the floor as it fell, hitting a wall, and then bouncing, just a bit, bumping into the dead creature, who’s blood was slowly coagulating now.

Atop the shotgun, the un-coagulated blood of a Zergling still rest.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

The new gasoline was in, and the dropship began lowering toward the cargo ship below. Inside, Captain Kurlove and a few others were recovering from the KSIN experience.

"Are you feeling better, honey?" Kurlove asked gently, looking into his daughters eyes, still a bit wet from tears.

"Yeah," She choked out, "A little bit..."

"Damn, had I known it would be that extreme..." The Captain mumbled to himself. Jack walked form his seat, and sat down near the Captain, his eyelids still heavy, sleep wearing on him, his body relentlessly tried to put him to sleep, but his brain kept himself awake. His facial expression didn’t hide anything either; his eyes were dark, his jaw relaxed, almost falling from the rest of his skull, his forehead was mushed together, and his mouth was in a strange position, covering the left of his face, his top lip slightly lifted, showing some of his teeth. It seemed almost like a look of pain.

"Hell, Jack," The Captain said. "You look like shit."

"I know." He paused for a moment, then continued. "Sir, maybe we should do a bio-scan of the dropship first – I mean, don’t worry, I’m sure nothing wrong is going on – but just as a precaution." Jack stated, his voice drifting from serious to sleepy then back again.

"That’s a good idea Jack! See, that’s why I brought you along." The captain marveled. Jack nodded sleepily, and then leaned back on his seat, resting for a moment.

"Ken!" The Captain yelled out, leaving any feeling he had in his voice behind.

"Yeah?" Ken yelled from across the dropship.

"Get the bio-scan ready, I want that placed scanned before we go in."

"Uh..." Ken itched the back of his neck for a moment. "We uh, didn’t bring one..."

"Figures..." The Captain said more to himself than Ken. "Well, lets just get on with this. Are we almost there?"

"Two minutes, sir." Ken said.

"Very well." The Captain, closing his eyes and resting his head, said. Kara, sitting beside him, was doing the same. Ken stared at her, not in a mean or serious way, but more of a gaze. Something came over him then, something he had thought was normal liking before. But now... he realized... He loved her.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

The dropship lowered to the side of the cargo ship, its engines going to the same speed as the cargo ship itself, about 68 kph. At the slow-ish speed, it was easy for Jay and his co-pilot to aim the insertion mechanism onto the cargo ship’s outside doorway. A metallic tube from the side of the dropship reached out, slowly, making bumps and creeks, and eventually made its way through space into the cargo ship’s door. It closed around the cargo ship’s door, and began blowing air through the tube, allowing anyone inside the tube to breath, rather than suffocate.

The tube’s side that was enclosed onto the dropship, opened its door, allowing the crew to walk through it, and enter the cargo ship itself. Ken walking first, holding his tool-box, incase the cargo ship door’s wouldn’t be opened easily. Henry, Shawn, Stan and Tom walked next, followed by a few of the drop ship’s crew members, 5 out of the eight that had come with the rest of the group. Then Kurlove followed, gently pushing his daughter back inside, who protested at first but gave up, knowing quite well she wasn’t going to win this time. Her father thought it was just to dangerous.

The metal tube was small, and some of the men had to bend slightly to avoid smashing their head on the roof of the structure. Jack was walking in now, following kurlove. His sleepy daze didn’t give off to much of a look of worry, the exact opposite of what he was really feeling inside. Who knows what’s inside their. A poisonous gas, some strange killer-alien, a psychopath... countless things. Anything could happen. Maybe everything would explode, if they opened the door. Maybe it was a proximity bomb... Maybe there was a time bomb set in the ship. Maybe this whole thing was a big trap set up by Kukurai Dos’s enemy planet (whoever that may be didn’t matter, Jack was just thinking of any and all possibilities.) Or maybe it was nothing. Maybe everyone was asleep. Maybe they were just resting for today.

But even as he thought it, Jack knew that wasn’t the truth. They were dead. They had to be.

Finally Ken reached the other end of the tube. Taking a deep breath, he took hold of the cargo ship’s door, and pulled. To his surprise it flipped open, sending Ken backwards a few feet, almost stumbling, but he was caught by a crew member. His toolkit smashed heavily into the wall. Tossing him back to his feet, the crew member made a small laugh. Ken chose to ignore it, and began picking up his spilt tools. But what he, and everyone else had failed to notice, was that when Ken flew back, and his toolkit hit the wall, was that a tiny unstable screw, that fate’s twisted insanity had put at just the right spot, had popped out.

Jack, on the other hand, was much more surprised than Ken, about the door swinging open. <I> Much </I> more. Why wasn’t it locked? Why was it so easy to open? The only plausible reason for it being unlocked like that would be that the alarm unlocked it, an automated feature made to help anyone escape incase of an emergency. So they <I> were </I> dead.

Henry, Shawn, Tom, and Stan walked in first. The four incredibly strong men looked around a small green fabric corridor. Well, it looked like fabric, but it might’ve been a series of different things. Ken walked in next, and looked around. All he could see was a green rug-thing, with metallic walls, with doors that lead to various rooms. Kurlove and Jack walked in next, followed by the five crew members.

"Hello?" Ken called out, not expecting an answer. When none came, he was not surprised.

"What do you think happened here?" Tom asked, turning to face both Kurlove and Jack.

"I have no idea." The Captain responded, then looked toward Jack. When Jack said nothing, the Captain looked back at Tom, and shrugged. Tom uttered something under his breath and turned around.

"Blake," The Captain ordered to one of the crew members. "Go tell Jay to come on, the co-pilot can handle everything else. I want Jay down here, pronto."

"Yes sir," Blake mumbled, walking back down the tube. As he walked by the door, he felt a small puff of something, like almost being pulled toward the wall. But this was so small, he had barely noticed it. As he passed it, however, it grew into a larger pull.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Deep within the ship, the surviving creature pulled itself up on its legs. It sensed something big was about to happen.

******NOTE*******

The following in unreleased material, only viewable by members of this site. Enjoy:

<b> <I> <u> Part 8 </I> </u> </b>

Big Crunch

"Jay!" Blake, inside the dropship, yelled toward the cockpit. The emtal door was shut, but opened a moment later.

"Yeah?"

"Kurlove wants you ‘pronto’."

"Alright. Billy you can handle keeping the current speed, right?" Jay asked, looking back to Billy, who nodded and smirked.

"Of course I can." Billy said. Switching to the pilot’s seat, Billy made the proper adjustments, and Jay and Blake took off toward the tube that went to the Cargo ship.

As soon as Jay took one step inside the tube, he sensed something wrong. "Wait!" Jay grabbed Blake before he could walk into the tube. "Doesn’t it feel... light?"

"Light?" Blake asked, looking toward jay curiously.

"Yeah. Light..."

Something screeched loudly, and the two men looked into the tube in despair. The metal began crunching itself, in a sort of implosion. It was doing so slowly however, but a large crack erupted from the top of the tube.

"Run! Billy fuck the drop ship! We gotta get out of here!" Jay screamed, pushing Blake ahead of himself, running down the tube as it began crushing itself faster. The air was thin, and it was getting thinner by the second. The force of space outside was getting stronger, and Jay could feel himself getting squeezed, but at the same time, feel as if he weighed less. Every breath was beginning to feel like fire in his throat.

Behind them, Billy tried to run. But the air from the dropship itself began fading, and he couldn’t breath. He kept at a run though, using every muscle in his body. The tube was collapsing faster now, the entrance to the cargo ship was beginning to become so small fitting in would be a difficult job.

The back side of the tube, near the dropship entrance completely collapsed, sending the layers in front of it to collapse even more. The dropship, its side being ripped open, began to crush itself as well, the pressure causing it’s implosion.

Jay, almost near the entrance to the cargo ship, realized his bulky figure was to small to fit through the hole that was left. Grabbing the small figure of Blake in his hands, he thrust Blake threw the small hole that was left. Blake’s body tumbled through the hole, as the men inside the cargo ship finally saw what was happening.

The remainder of the crew members from inside the dropship died simultaneously as the implosion took place. Crushed so small they weren’t even visible. Jay watched as the hole to the cargo ship finally crushed completely. His lungs filled with fire, as he watched Billy kneel on the floor seconds before being swept into space, his flesh crunching, his body stiffening. Jay stood his ground as space swept him in it’s fury.

The entire tube had collapsed in a matter of twenty seconds.

As the tube finally crunched off of the cargo ship, Three crew members were sucked out of the cargo ship, joining Blake and the rest, their body’s flailing in despair, moments before instantaneous death. Kara stood frozen at the front of the doorway, as Blake held on to the wall for dear life. Air began fluttering out of the cargo ship, taking with it papers and lamps and light bulbs and doors and desks... As Kara fell on her back, she felt herself being pulled outside. To scared to even scream she simply stared out into space, her eyes wider than an owls.

Jack watched not Kara begin to get sucked out, but his own wife. The image of her, standing there screaming. The walls had flung off in that space craft... alarms were blaring, red lights coursed in every direction, thousands of people’s bodies sprung out into the depths of space, as the huge Love Cruiser, their choice for their fifth anniversary, began its own destruction. Air was leaving the Cruiser, and escape pods were blasting off.

He had simply ran leaving his wife, too scared to think properly, his vital instincts to stay alive had swept his body.

Not again.

With a leap of faith, using all energy his body had left, the tired young depressed man ran forward, as Ken tried shutting the door with every bit of his strength. Jack’s wife was just ahead of him. Kara reached out for Jack, as he ran forward. Jumping as he got closer, he grabbed Kara’s arms, and then pulled with all his strength, his muscles screaming, his feet slipping, his hair covering his eyes. With a final pull, Jack shoved Kara to a safer place, with a lesser pull.

Ken was close to shutting the door, and Blake managing to reach him, began to help. Jack, seeing his wife and not Kara smiled brightly, and kissed her. Kara confused for a moment simply let him do so, but a moment later she became aware of what he was doing. Pushing Jack off of her, she began rubbing tears from her eyes. Jack was bewildered. What had he just done?

"Kara – I – There’s no excuse for what I – I’m so sorry!" Jack stumbled his words out, his cheeks flushing red.

"Forget it." Kara said, standing up, as the Cargo ship door finally shut. The air was still for a moment. After all the excitement, and the adrenaline, everything was quiet. No one spoke.

Captain Kurlove was dazed, and his head hurt. He had seen absolutely nothing the entire time, his vision had blurred, and his chest had pounded. He wasn’t sure what had just happened.

~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~