Chapter 11: The Aftermath 5

Jim had been pacing for an hour now, after destroying their invasion fleet, they’d set out after the only remaining ship of the Krang fleet. Mary and Amber had watched him almost the whole time “Jim if you don’t sit I am going to knock the shit out of you, I can’t take much more of your pacing,” Mary almost snarled.

Jim quickly sat in the command chair trying not to look at Mary, “Sorry Mary I hate this waiting, I have nothing on tap to do nothing to work on, you know I hate being idle.”

“I realize that Jim, but driving me crazy isn’t going to help you either,” Mary said not feeling any remorse for Jim.

A low steady beeping caused Jim to glance at the control panel, ah good they were finally starting to make head way after almost a week. Even as he went over the readings he could see that they were gaining on the Krang ship. Adjusting their speed Jim was only following the ship, he had to see where it had originated. A day later they were approaching an odd grey colored planet, odd in the fact that there appeared to be no clouds in the atmosphere. Staying well back Jim started to scan the planet looking for signs of prisoners or anything that might aid him in his new quest. He was only a few hours into his search when every proximity alert on board went off.

Looking out behind the planet he saw another swarm of small ships not too unlike the Krong ships. They weren’t really a worry but the 4 world ships that slipped out with them put him more on edge.

“Mary charge the planet killers, activate all rail plasma guns. Amber I need you here to monitor all their reactions to our tactics, what they do at first will determine which strategy they are using.” Jim said issuing orders. Both women were rushing to get what he’d said done; Jim was adjusting every piece of hardware on the station with almost blinding speed. After an hour the swarm was still between them and the planet, hmmm this was a most unusual development, as a matter of fact it was the first time he’d ever seen them hesitate.

The space link began to crackle, a bug like creature with hug eyes appeared on the screen.

“Human, we Krang, no death, wish us,” it said as it stumbled over its imperial speech.

In the back ground Jim heard others issuing orders to surround and destroy the intruder.

Smirking Jim grabbed the mike and snarled out in the Krang language, “You piss ants! You claim to not want to be destroyed or to destroy us? Yet I hear others saying to surround and destroy,” the look of shock on the bugs (he guessed it was) face was almost comical.

“You! We heard that a human had rediscovered the Creca’s mind touch talk, when we take you, your essence will be added to ours then no one will be able to resist us!” With that the bug leader started to laugh till Jim pressed a few buttons and half the fleet and two of the world ships exploded in a brilliant light.

“Now then before I destroy the rest of you and I will, tell me exactly where the brain hold is!” Jim was shouting, Mary and Amber had backed away from Jim his clicking and hissing starting to worry them.

Starting to laugh again the bug leader stared straight at Jim, “As your people say good luck finding it!”

Jim, though seething, snarled at the Krang, “You obviously don’t realize just how much more powerful this station is. I have increased the power and weapons many times; you are nothing to me compared to the long ass kicking I gave the Krong!” With that the other 2 world ships and the rest of the fleet disappeared in another brilliant flash of light.

Entering orbit Jim began to scan the planet for signs of the brain hold, though he got promising readings there was nothing like he’d seen in the records they’d taken from the defeated Krong fleet. Sighing Jim activated one of the first 2 planet killers he’d used, almost fully charged he readied it then struck watching the planet shudder, then slowly crack, explosions appearing all over the planet. With a smile he watched as the atmosphere went from gray to nothing, already having pulled the station to a safe distance, watched as finally the planet literally ripped it’s self apart then exploded leaving a huge field of debris. Feeling no remorse Jim powered up and headed deeper into the Krang space. From all reports he’d gotten they were still a few weeks away from the old Krong main home world, though he could probably be there in a day he wanted to clear all of these warmongering bastards before they reached it.

They had only gone 2 days deeper when they encountered another Krang fleet this one with 6 world ships, Jim knew they were too stupid to realize that they were already dead when they approached his station.

“Human conquerors,” came a raspy voice from the screen, “We Krang not be killed, strong! Not asleep like Krong, you soon die!”

The Krang immediately began to dive bomb the station, almost all of the small ships eliminated within a mile of the stations shields. Jim’s hands were flying across the control panel Amber was almost dizzy watching him, the bad thing was Mary’s hands were almost as fast. “Activate the planet killers those world ships are going to try and ram us!” Jim yelled from across the room, huh? Amber hadn’t even seen him move.

“We’ve only got the 4!” Mary yelled back.

“It’s ok they won’t risk all of them at the same time,” Jim said now next to Amber, causing her to jump slightly.

“What the hell is going on?” Amber asked, “How are you moving so damn fast?”

Jim stopped a moment looking at Amber, it was then she saw that he was a little out of phase! “What the fuck?!”

“Sorry Amber, something Mary and I worked on since the last attack by the Krong,” Jim said momentarily solidifying, “we can move and react 20 times faster than normal but we can’t stay in it that long, excuse me.”

Phasing again Amber watched as Jim flew to the control panel activating 4 sets of switches. Almost immediately 3 of the world ships exploded in a huge myriad of colors the resulting shock wave rocked the station more violently than it should have. Both Mary and Jim looked at each other.

“It’s a trap!” Mary yelled.

Jim was across the room activating a bank of controls next to the star drive, within seconds they were entering another tunnel the strange hum of the tunnel drive straining to maintain the gravity well.

10 minutes later they were dropping out of the tunnel, “Damn it! I was afraid this might happen!” Jim cursed, “The planet’s gravity disrupted the tunnel! The tunnel drive has over heated! We won’t be able to use it for a few days, son of a bitch I was afraid this was going to happen!” Stomping out Mary and Amber could hear him cursing as he went down the hall way.

Mary checked all the equipment everything looked fine as far as she could see, overheated? What the hell was Jim talking about? Looking at Amber, Mary was as confused as she was, an hour later Jim came back relief apparent on his face.

“Ok, ok, so I overreacted,” Jim said a little red faced, “I have been working on this a long time and when it cut out like that I thought I had burned up the drive. Dickie reminded me about the safety relay we had put in after I had checked the entire system.”

Mary calmly stood, walked to Jim and slugged him in the face, picking himself up off the floor Jim just watched as Mary re-sat at the control panel.

In a somewhat strained voice she stated, “I estimate we are about a day from the planet we left, the readings I am getting indicate that over half the fleet was destroyed along with all 6 of the world planets. Had we not left when we did, the resulting shock wave of the other 3 would have probably crippled our shields, they’d have had a chance.”

Amber grabbed Jim’s face kissing him, then she leaned over and whispered, “Jim you need to get hold of this anger, you’re going to get us killed, you’d never fallen for a trap like that before you found out what you did. Go rest and rethink all this ok?”

Jim looked at her strangely then nodded before he went out door to the bunk room.

“Mary? Are we far enough away to be safe for a while?” Amber asked.

Mary’s features softened, looking over the readouts she turned back to Amber, “I believe we shocked them for the moment. I don’t see any pursuit but knowing those bastards it won’t be long before they are after us. You want me to knock some sense back into Jim? If he keeps up like this we’re all dead, that man has a great strategical mind but a child could beat him right now.”

“I know Mary, I hope what I said gets through this wall he’s erected around his good sense,” Amber replied.

“I hope so too, I don’t want to kill him but I just might if he keeps this up,” Mary spit out.

Jim had been asleep about 2 hours when the dream started. A strange but familiar voice started to talk to him.

<Jimmy, it’s been a long time.> The voice said.

<Who the hell is this? I am far too strong for the aliens to invade my mind. You sound familiar, almost like... > <I’m glad you remember my voice, though in here it’s just what you would ‘hear’ from me. They are using my knowledge Jimmy I can’t keep them from it but I can let you know that you have shocked the hell out of them. The Krong were only 1 of 2 races that had the tunnel travel as they put it, their trying to destroy you, you hurt them more then they think. They have used a massive amount of their resources to build the fake world planet bombs. This is the only time I will be able to ‘talk’ to you; remember almost everything you know I know also.> <Father! NO! DAMN IT!!> Jim searched but couldn’t find the voice or anything else.

The next day Jim emerged from the bunk room feeling completely different. “Dickie are all preparations ready?” Jim asked, Mary and Amber’s heads snapping up at the sound of his voice.

“Everything is proceeding as you requested, everything should be ready within 2 hours,” Dickie responded.

“All what preparations?” Mary asked.

“We’re going back but this time I have a few surprises for them,” Jim replied, Mary saw the cold calculating look in his eyes the same she remembered him having when he first recruited her, good she thought ‘bout time the ass kicker was back.

Departing they were a few hours from the planet when a new fleet met them. Though not nearly as big as the Krong fleet it was still quite sizeable, coming to a complete stop Jim began to scan the whole fleet looking for desperate measures by the enemy ships.

Sighing after he found nothing out of the ordinary he started to issue orders, “Alright Dickie I want a line of vapor drops a mile wide in the path of the enemy advance keep producing and deploying as fast as you can. Mary activate ALL the planet killers, bring all plasma rail guns on line, check all the reactors and shield generators. Amber watch all the readings let me know when they start to move.”

Mary was getting everything ready when Amber yelled that they were on the move. Within minutes the first few thousand were nothing but debris and still they kept coming and dying.