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CHAPTER 31


At that moment, Ty294 and an Imperial Officer rush into the room.

"Stop this madness! It will do no good to kill Kane! Everyone stop and listen!"

"You aren't in control here Kane, you never were. You're a puppet to distract us from the bigger picture! Tell them your discovery Major."

"I'm Major Jammerson, Admiral Grage's chief physicist. After the battle I began to analyze the mix of interdimensional energy in the sector. Long story short, the Gatekeeper and Darkon's battle earlier released an untold energy that is changing the entire fabric of the universe! If my calculations are correct, all the dimensions of the universe are consolidating into one!"

Ty steps forward again.

"When we were trying to escape here the first time I received a message in my mind from some strange source. I can't describe it. But this much I know."

Points at Kane.

"You're aren't in command here! IT is! IT is trying to remake or destroy the universe and it has us fighting shadows while it's plans are being carried out!!!"

The Assailant nods at the Mercenary. He turns back to the duelists.

"This planet is a trap!" he yelled. "They knew you'd come back here, and you have! Now they are here to finish the job!" He looks back up at the Gatekeeper. "Not even you can control your own power now. These things are not of this universe."


~~


As Rattler flies overhead, a rift forms above the enemy base. The Black Knights break off to avoid contact. Switching his radio to an open channel, he alerts allied forces.

"Knight 1 to allied forces, Some sort of rift has formed above the enemy base. I repeat, a rift has formed above the enemy base. Black Knight Squadron will maintain position outside its range."

On another channel, various transmissions are picked up, with sources calling themselves GDI, Colonial, Star League, and even Federation and Terran Empire. Rattler glares at the rift, thinking that the final battle is about to begin.


~~


Ty294 turn toward Patten and his men.

"If you value your life and your men's lives you'll get out of here now!"

Turns toward Deathstrike, Darkon, Gatekeeper and Kane.

"You're greed and arrogance has blinded you all! If you would acknowledge there are other intelligent beings in this universe besides yourself we may not be in this mess!"


The Assailant watches, as no one in the room seems to be making a move. "Screw this." The Assailant turned and ran out of the room. "Come on Ty, we've got a Universe to save."

Ty294 gives one last glance at the four pairs of angry but confused eyes in the room then turns and, along with Major Jammerson, dashes after the assailant.


~~


Deathstrike turns back to Lord Darkon, a commlink in her hand.

"My lord, I don't understand... listen to this..."

The commlink crackles with transmissions from many previous battles, all intermingled, chaotic, unfathomable... the voices of Lord Darkon, The Gatekeeper, Admiral Grage, Grand Admiral Patten, Fleet Admiral Rajko, and even Deathstrike herself, all overlapping... along with sounds of battle and mayhem.

Lord Darkon's face is carved from stone, as he realizes the horrible truth.

"The universe is beginning to collapse in on itself! THAT is what the Assailant meant... No time, my apprentice" Lord Darkon says as he smashes the commlink. "We must go!"


Together, with the Gatekeeper and Kane, they run to catch up with the Assailant.

The six climb into the Assailant's ship as the Assailant begins to prep his ship for flight, Darkon asks "How exactly can this disaster be reversed?! How can the universe be saved? Answer me!"

The Assailant through his hands up in the air, "Hell, I don't know!"

Deathstrike sneers, "Oh... he does not know! What a brilliant example of leadership ability, Master..." she adds, turning to Lord Darkon.

Lord Darkon nods - "Correct. We won't get far listening to him. We'll get some answers here ourselves." - he said as he turned away from the landing ramp of the Assailant's vessel, and, noticing another ship in the hangar with the look of an armed courier ship, takes off running towards it. Deathstrike follows him, ignoring the Assailant's shout for them to stop. "Forget them." Said the Assailant as he stepped back into his ship. "We've got better things to deal with."


CHAPTER 32


The Gatekeeper looks after the departing duo, wondering briefly himself whether or not listening to this 'Assailant' is really the best thing to do, before making up his mind and responding. "Typical Gatekeeper answer, but I suggest we find the guy in charge and take 'em out. That usually works, doesn't it? If not... I hate to say this, but we could fly to my dimension, which is permanently sealed, by the way, so it is not being altered, and I could go to my lab and destroy the galaxies, rebuild them, and pray that this 'Thing' was destroyed with them..."

The Assailant's ship takes off, screaming out of the hangar. The Assailant looks at the Gatekeeper.

"You still don't get it, do you? YOU HAVE NO POWER! You are mortal, just like the rest of us! If you die, your dead. We can't go to your dimension, even if it does exist, because YOU HAVE NO POWER!"

Ty294 turns and grabs a stunned Gatekeeper by the throat. "Have you not been listening at all my friend? The ENTIRE universe is collapsing! Your dimension is no safer then any other!"

The Assailant looked up, surprised. "What the... The Uberweapon is moving..." He realizes what is happening. "Oh Shi...!" The Assailant swerves the ship and narrowly evades a shot from the Uberweapon. "They have taken over the Uberweapon!"

The Gatekeeper, ignoring the fact that someone else is controlling his ship, argues, "My other powers are gone, but I still have the Force! No matter how many times it leaves me, my body regenerates it! GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD!"

The Assailant is about to respond, but the Gatekeeper cuts him off: "Want an example? Fine!" Just as the Gatekeeper is about to Crush the Uberweapon, he feels his powers leave him.

"What?! This is insane! That's impossible! How am I supposed to torture people to death without my powers?! ARGH! Aaargh!" The Gatekeeper suddenly collapses to the floor, holding his head.

"Sithspit!" The Assailant cried, "They're invading his mind!" He fires several shots at the huge ship emerging from the rift. The Gatekeeper gets up. "What a minute... that's just a normal ship... it's huge, but there is nothing supernatural about it..."

He thought for a moment, dodging a couple shots from the Uberweapon "They control the Uberweapon; an unimaginably powerful and indestructible ship which we can't control, and...." He looked at the others with an insane expression on his face "I've got an idea."

The Mercenary looks at him with a worried expression as the Assailant continues. "Ty, you and me are going to the Uberweapon, I believe that the creatures will come to the Uberweapon to destroy us."

He turns and looks at the Gatekeeper. "You are going to... I can't believe I'm saying this... You are going to take control of my ship, and land on the 'Mothership' AFTER the creatures are on the Uberweapon. Me and Ty will stall them as long as possible. You must commandeer the 'mothership', and fly it into the Uberweapon, destroying both ships, and, hopefully, these 'aliens'."


~~


The courier ship with Lord Darkon and his apprentice exits the hangar minutes after the Assailant's, skimming close to the surface, while the Assailant's ship plots a course directly for the Uberweapon. They see the Uberweapon open fire on it, narrowly missing the ship.

Darkon asserts, "You were right, my apprentice. The Assailant's best decision is to fly recklessly ahead, without pausing to consider the whole situation. Just as I anticipated, those... things... we fought down on the planet have taken over the Uberweapon. I suspect they are controlling it remotely somewhere from the surface. Scan the entire subspace band... let's see if we can detect any type of signal being received by the Uberweapon from the surface."

"Yes, my Lord." Deathstrike responds, already reconfiguring the sensor array. She pauses to take a second look at something, before exclaiming to her Master: "Master... we are no longer in the alternate dimension! When we lifted out of the hangar, we must have exited the dimensional barrier of the planet. I'm detecting multiple blips on the scope! The Uberweapon, the Confederation ships, Grage's surviving vessels, and... yes! The Blood Sanctum at the very edge of the sensor range... wait! It just entered hyperspace! Wha-" She trails off.

Lord Darkon continues, "Admiral Rajko must have sent a team to take it back to RTSE space when he couldn't get any response from either of us. Tighten the scan focus. Is the Zatornik still there?"

"Hold on, Master" Deathstrike responds, adjusting the scan focus. "Yes! I have received a message from the admiral before. The Zatornik's hyperdrive motivators have been damaged in the battle. Looks like they still haven't repaired them."

"Excellent! Contact Admiral Rajko and tell him to get over here as fast as possible! Looks like the Uberweapon will have to be neutralized one way or another, and it couldn't hurt to have something here with a bit more firepower and defences than these Remnant and Confederation ships."


~~


"Rattler, this is Admiral Alexander Grage, we have not been formally introduced but that doesn't matter now! All your forces are in grave danger! Fall back to my command ship. I'll send you the coordinates! Move quick!"

"Copy that Admiral. Knights, form up on me!"

The Black Knight Squadron heads back out from the planet's atmosphere, and sees the Expeditionary Fleet already near Admiral Grage's task force. Rattler watches in horror as the Uberweapon turns on them, and fires on the closest forces, A TEC battle group. Rattler starts swearing profusely over the open channel.


CHAPTER 33


"Understood, my Lord" Fleet Admiral Rajko responds. "We have been keeping the sensor lock on the Uberweapon, as it began moving to the outermost planet of the Akates system where you are currently, and are detecting all the ships around it as well. We are on our way. ETA - 12 minutes. Wait! We have just detected another vessel, my lord! It's massive, emerging from some sort of... rift! What is happening there?!"

"What's happening is that we require more firepower, Admiral. Now stop questioning me and get over here!" Lord Darkon snaps.

"At once, Lord! But... are you certain the Uberweapon is under the control of those aliens, Lord Darkon?"

"Yes. Expedite your arrival as quickly as possible, Admiral. Out." He turns to his apprentice, "Is the subspace scan complete? Are you detecting any anomalous signal from the surface to the Uberweapon?"

"Indeed... I have just located it, Master! Upper frequency band, not one used by any faction we are acquainted with. If I hadn't been actively scanning the entire spectrum, I wouldn't have detected it at all! Triangulating the origin point... done!"

A new indicator can be seen on the representation of the planet's surface on the courier ship's sensor board. Lord Darkon turns the ship to the origin point, and engages maximum thrust.


~~


Squadrons from both the TCS Excalibur and TCS Kyushu start harassing the Uberweapon, targeting the massive vessel's weapons in hopes of at least disabling them. The TCS Kyushu comes about, and prepares to fire her Phase Transit Cannon if necessary.

"Ok, does ANYONE have an idea how to stop this?" Rattler asked, exasperated. "If whoever is behind this mayhem continues to find ways to make us fight each other, we're not gonna get anywhere!" He exclaims over the open channel as he dodges anti fighter turret fire from the Uberweapon.


~~


The Assailant docks the ship on the Uberweapon, as the battle already begins in earnest in the space around them. He jumps put of his ship, which is hovering slightly above the floor of the Uberweapon's hanger. "You with me Ty?" He asked. "To the ends of the universe, assailant! Such an ironic phrase right now."

"Uh, Assailant?" The Gatekeeper said, poking his head out the door. "I have another idea: What if I go to the Uberweapon? I have stronger armor, I know where everything is AND I created the ship. You and Ty can go to the Mothership. How's that sound?"

"We are not going to control the Uberweapon," The Assailant replied, "We are going to distract the creatures. If there is just one person, they will kill you in no time, with two..." The Assailant thinks for a moment before looking back at the Gatekeeper. "It'll take them a little longer. You need to go the mothership."

The Assailant lays his hand on his ship one last time. "Keep her safe for me." The Assailant and Ty procede into the Uberweapon.


~~


The courier ship with Lord Darkon and his apprentice approaches the point on the planet identified as the origin of the signal controlling the Uberweapon. A small hangar can be seen in front of a simple, unassuming structure. As the courier ship angles in for the landing, two concealed turrets suddenly emerge from the hidden sections on top of the structure, and open fire on the courier ship. The vessel takes a direct hit, its shields down to 37%.

Lord Darkon quickly works the stick to send the craft into a sideways skid, just as two more blasts rocket past the ship. "Arm the forward blaster cannons, Deathstrike! Fire at the rightmost turret!"

A quick barrage of blaster fire leaps from the vessel, striking the turret and destroying it. The second turret fires another series of blasts, most being evaded, but one impacting on the courier ship, breaching its shields and damaging the hull.

"Master, blaster cannons are down! Arming the proton torpedo bank..." Deathstrike exclaims.

"NO!" Lord Darkon stops her before she can fire the torpedo at the other turret, whirling the ship through another series of evasive maneuvers. "A proton explosion at this range will destroy us as well! It seems we will have to do this the hard way... HOLD ON!"

Any response Deathstrike was about to utter was cut off, as the ship entered the hangar at full speed, Lord Darkon swiveling it around as it crossed the hangar's threshold, using the main engine exhaust to slow the ship down. Even so, the vessel impacted hard on the back wall of the hangar, before settling hard on it's half-crumpled landing skids. After running a systems check, and realizing that the ship's engines were still partially functional, enough to enable them to lift off the planet after destroying the signal generator, Lord Darkon and Deathstrike proceed to exit the hangar into the facility itself. To their surprise, the only thing beyond the hangar is a small chamber containing a turbolift, going down.

"So... this topside structure is actually an entrance to an underground bunker, hmm?" Lord Darkon muses to himself. "All right. Let's go."

They enter the turbolift, which descends rapidly underground.


~~


Nobody is on board the Uberweapon.

"Strange..." The Assailant and the Mercenary made their way to the bridge, but no one was there either. The Assailant looked at Ty. "We gotta let those core slimes know we're hear."

They raised there guns and started firing at the walls and controls of the Uberweapon. "I just hope the Gatekeeper gets to the mothership without getting killed..." They both stop shooting.

The room felt strange, it felt oddly... cold. The Mercenary and the Assailant turn around slowly, to see two hulking diabloks standing on the bridge.

The Assailant looked at Ty. "You ready for this?" The Mercenary gave him a look. The Assailant turned back to the aliens. "Me neither." They both raised their weapons.



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