Carlos grinned and pulled out the rest of the credits, showed them to Dominator, and placed them in bag. Throwing it to Dominator, he said, "Well, Claw, you have proven yourself worthy to me. We'll get my technicians on repairing your ship so you can deliver some more cargo tomorrow. Until then, you have freedom to go ANYwhere on my ship."
"Ah, thank you Mr. Titus. I'm sure my crew and I would enjoy that. Pleasure doing business with you," Dominator told him and turned to step onto the Claw's Revenge.
"Ah, the pleasure's all mine, Claw," Carlos told him, glancing at Seraphna on his shoulder. She shifted uncomfortably on Dominator's shoulder and was glad when he finally stepped back inside the ship, rising the ramp to the ship. Walking to the bridge, he nodded at everyone as Seraphna flew off and landed on his chair.
"Well, he fell for it. We have access to the ship. I'll want you to start setting up equipment when possible, but don't rush things guys. We need to take this slowly and by the book if we're going to take this station over soon. I do not want to miss out catching Carlos and his gang. However, if he does escape, I have some more ideas...which I sent Slash to take care of for me. With his teleporting abilities it'll be easy for him to do it. He'll be back any minute now," Dominator told them. They glanced at him puzzled, but he would say no more.
"Alright then...but if we find no information on the computers about Infinity Inc.?" asked Dakota.
"Then Plan B, which has to do with what Slash is doing, comes into play," Dominator told him.
"Ah, that's good. Hey, wasn't Seraphna on your shoulder a moment ago?" asked Crystal, looking concerned. Dominator glanced at his shoulder and then around.
"Yeah, she was! She must have wandered off to explore the base...I just hope she doesn't get into any trouble..." moaned Dominator.
"Hey, we're the Hunters. Trouble isn't far behind us..." Slasher said.
"But sir, I wanted to look into our guests some..." Code told him, preparing to check into Jared Carter. Carlos gave him a look.
"You can do that down on the planet, Code. We have computers down there. But only on your spare time. You have work to do first..." Carlos ordered.
"Yes, sir..." muttered Code and walked off, clicking his comm. to order a shuttle prepared for him when he reached the hanger bay. In the airvent, watching Code walk off, Seraphna watched, her eyes glowing slightly. So it seems our only suspicious is leaving the station. A plus for the Hunters. However, the creepy leader remains... she thought to herself as she watched Carlos bring up weather maps on the planets below. She caught a glimpse of a heavy storm about to hit the casino area. Carlos cursed.
"There goes some potential business. A storm like this and everyone's going to stay inside and watch TV...maybe I should have the TV station go down so we can try to lure them out," he mused to himself. "And it's going to hurt mining in the northern regions. Fade's not going to like this..." he sighed. Walking out of sight, Carlos left the room.
Seraphna shifted in the airvents and continued to peek down below into the bridge. Strangely, the robot who met them when they first arrived came scampering into the corner, where no one was, and opened a secure link to someone. Helloooo, what's this my little eye spies? she thought to herself as she watched the contact's face appear on the screen, someone she didn't recognize. "Fade...I have my daily report ready for you..." the robot told the man. So that's Fade, the guy who runs Infinity Inc. and who Dominator is so intent on putting an end too...
"Good, good..." Fade said.
"It seems Code, his right hand man, is a little interested in their newest pirate group. I've been checking on them, but so far I can't pick up on much, but they are definitely lying. I know that. And production in the mine's will be going down thanks to another storm. That will hurt business slightly," the robot told Fade.
Fade was quiet for a few moments before speaking. "Anything else?"
"No sir." Fade nodded and ended the transmission before anyone could trace it within the station. The robot walked off again. Seraphna grinned, knowing she just spied something special. Scampering up the vents, she went back through the way she came to tell Dominator what she saw when she slipped on her tail and it sent her down another vent shaft, hitting a vent cover hard and landing in someone's room, right on the bed, which silenced most of the noise. Glancing around, she saw she was in Carlos' room, since his pictures were everywhere.
"What was that?" a voice mumbled and Carlos stepped out, gazing at Seraphna. "Oh, it's you..." he said with a grin.
"I will. You know me and gambling," Jared told her.
"I do." She finished, blew him a kiss, and walked out the door and headed for the casino plaza. Jared continued to finish his reports for the next thirty minutes and finally finished when the first bit of the storm hit. Glancing out the window, he cursed. No way in hell I could make it to the casino in time...I'll have to wait it out now... he thought angrily.
In the back, the three Hunters laid in flat capsule like cages in which they were all being held. The pilot sat next to the guard and they began to chat while Death Star's eyes flickered open slowly, a grin forming on his face. He wasn't really hurt by his clone's kick earlier, he just allowed them all to think he was in worse condention that he really was. Grabbing his saber, he jammed it through the glass and cut a hole in it, which was muffled by the sound of a docking procedure. He guessed they arrived at their intended destination.
Slicing the tube opened, he flipped out and slashed the two guards in half, who both died startled. Grinning, Death Star opened up his friend's capsules, listening to them begin to wake, as he ran to the cockpit in time to see his clone already off and walking down the hall of the complex, motioning behind him to the rows of Mavericks onboard. Cursing, Death Star knew he arrived where Iceheart was, but he was in the worse position. He was on a strange station of a size he didn't know what and a location unknown to him, plus he was surrounded by hostile Mavericks.
"S-Sharlena?" came Garland's worried voice. Death Star rushed back to him.
"Sorry, kid, but we haven't found her yet...but lets get a move on and we'll find her..." Death Star told, patting him on the arm as Garland sat up, holding his head. X1 popped up next, singing a tune that the two really didn't need to hear right now. "Okay, here's the game plan. X1, I need you to lay low. Encase we run into trouble, you can bail us out. Garland and I will begin to move out through the base and try to find any sign of Sharlena or Iceheart. If we do, we'll try to nab either. If we need your help, we'll click three times on the comm. Okay?" he asked X1.
"Sure thing, chief." X1 morphed into a lizard looking creature and quickly ran from the shuttle into the station. Death Star looked up and heard that the Mavericks were beginning to open the door, so he locked it.
"Hey, Bob, this thing is locked..."
"Well, Ed, unlock it..."
"Uh, yeah...*pause* How do I unlock it?"
"For God's sake! Use the keys from the pad over there."
"Okay, got it!" There was the sound of key being put in and nothing happening. "This key won't unlock it, Bob."
"Then use the OTHER ones, Ed!!!!"
"I knew that..."
"No you did not, you stupid moron."
"Hey, I am NOT a moron, Bob..."
"Oh, yes, the hell you are. You are the damnest moron I ever met..."
"Take that back!!"
"Hell no, shit head."
"You're momma's a toaster!"
"Man, go back to preschool, you scrapepile...maybe you could actually kick some butt there."
"Man, Bob, you're so mean..."
"Yeah, yeah, life's a bitch..." Sobs began to come from the other side of the shuttle door and Death Star stood there, paralyzed.
"Am I REALLY hearing that? I say we just go out there and shoot the whole," he began, looking out the window, "lot of them, which is about 30. If they're all like that..."
"I'm sure we could do it in 4 seconds, but we'll blow our cover...no, just keep sawing through the shuttle floor with your saber..." Garland corrected him.
"And listen to that soap opera for another minute? God help us..."
"Unlock the damn door already Ed!"
"I *Sob* can't..."
"Do it or I'll rip your head off!"
"A-Apologise first."
"What?! Hell no!"
"Man, Bob, apologize already so we can get the prisoners out..." came a new voice.
"Oh my---. I'm sorry Ed."
"T-Thank you..."
"Now unlock that door."
"Sure thing, Bob!" The shuttle door clicked as it unlocked. "See? I'm not a moron."
"Nah, but your mother's a bitch."
"WAAAAAHHH." Death Star grimaced as he finished and motioned Garland down the hole. When he slid down, he glanced back up and saw that the door was opening, thanks to Bob. Jumping down himself, he replaced the floor back up perfectly. Garland raised his hand and fired a kiama blast, very dully, and used it wield the floor back on as the Mavericks poured into the shuttle.
"Uh, B-Bob, *sob*, there's no prisoners..."
"I see that you dimwit!"
"What's a dimwit?"
"It's someone who sleeps with trees."
"B-But I don't sleep with trees..." came the voice and began to cry harder.
"Oh, then I take it back then."
"R-Really?" The crying stopped.
"Hell no. What do you think!? God must hate the Mavericks by sending idiots like YOU here."
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAH."
"OH SHUT UP OR WE WON'T BE ABLE TO HEAR THE PRISONERS ESCAPING!"
"E-Escaping?"
"....What do you call a bunch of EMPTY tubes?"
"A bunch of a empty tubes."
A loud wham was heard above Death Star's and Garland's heads.
"W-What was THAT for?" whimpered the voice.
"It was for being made. Now sound the alarm!"
"Y-Yes Bob..." A few minutes later the alarm was sounded and the Mavericks scattered off.
"Man, with enemies like that, who needs allies?" muttered Death Star.
"That's right..." Iceheart snarled.
"It doesn't matter...we have over five hundred Mavericks or so on this station. There is no way in hell those three will go far. And besides, we have that extra insurance in those aliens. But, thinking like myself, I will be heading out to the nearest control room. But first I want to make a stop in the hanger bay and talk to the idiots who LOST them..." the clone growled, turned, and left.
"Oh damn, here comes the dimwit boss..."
"Really, Bob? Where? Where's DS?"
"Oh shut up Ed..."
Death Star raised his eyebrow when he saw that his clone walked out into the hanger bay and stopped before the two. "Which one of you two is responsible for getting the prisoners out?"
"Oh, that would be Bob, Mr. Dimwit sir..."
"Oh God.."
"Dimwit? Are you calling me a dimwit?" snarled the clone.
"Me? No, heck no, I'm not that mean...."
"No no no no..."
"....That would be Bob, sir. He called you a dimwit. You know what a dimwit is?"
"No, what IS a dimwit, Ed?" asked the clone.
"It's a person who sleeps with trees, sir. Bob told me that."
"Uh..uh...DS sir..."
"Is this TRUE Bob?"
"S-Sir, c'mon, are you going to believe Ed over there?"
"Hey, look at that, sir, he's shaking all over. I think Bob's sick..."
"He'll be a lot sicker in a moment..." the clone hissed and there was a sound of a blast. Death Star almost flinched when he saw Bob's body being destroyed. Garland's eyes widen some at the clone's power level.
"S-Sir, you killed Bob..."
"I know that Ed!"
"...His blood is pouring on my feet..."
"Then step out of it Ed...."
"O-Oh, y-yeah..." The sound of feet moving could be heard. "That's better..."
The clone shook his head and pointed at one of the other guards there. "You're in charge now..." he said and walked off. Death Star rolled his eyes.
"Man o' man, this is getting screwier and screwier. Alright, what's your next idea, Garland? I can't be making any decisions here or my clone will out think me..." he told Garland.
Garland glanced at him, a little distracted with thoughts of Sharlena on his mind. "Oh, yeah..." he muttered and glanced around, spotting an air vent. "That looks good..." he told him, pointing. "I say we crawl over there, unseen by the guards, and head through the airvents until we find some type of computer room that we can find information on Sharlena and Iceheart..."
"Sounds like a plan, you lead the way."
"Nope," said Darien.
"Damnit..." Dominator hissed. He flipped the comm. unit in his hand and hit the button to activate it. "Everything set?" he asked into it. There came a series of clicks over it, all signaling yes, that they were in position. He pocketed the comm. and turned to Darien. "Alright, give me fifteen minutes to find Seraphna and then you initiated the signal to the others to begin the takeover."
"Right!"
Dominator nodded and walked through the halls of the Claw's Revenge, stepping down the plank into the halls of the mother station. Moving through the hallways, he activated a little tracer to attempt to find Seraphna's biosignatures. He located it two decks down.
Stepping into a turbolift, Dominator rode the lift down a couple of decks and stepped off, glancing at the tracer. According to it, Seraphna was a hundred meters down in one direction. Racing down the hallway, Dominator glanced at his chronometer and knew he had only five more minutes to locate her before Darien sent out the signal to begin the take over of the station.
Arriving in front of a door, Dominator raised his tracer and saw that Seraphna was inside the room. Sighing a sigh of relief, Dominator blasted the door wide open and stepped into the room, gazing around until he spotted Seraphna in a cage. "How'd you get in there?!
"How does it LOOK like? Carlos put me in here..."
"I knew he liked you, but to make you his own pet..." Dominator muttered as he freed Seraphna, the little dragon flying onto his shoulder.
"Well, I have some good news for you..." Seraphna told him and began to tell him everything that she spied as Dominator raced to the turbolift, heading back up to the hanger bay deck.
"...Interesting. Well, lets hope we can learn more from that robot when the takeover begins..." Dominator told her as they stepped into the Claw's Revenge as Darien sent off the signal to the others. Seconds later, as Dominator and Seraphna arrived at the bridge, a series of explosions went off all around the station, blowing up the majority of the major functions in the station, crippling it serverly. The other hanger bays, not counting the one they were in, were immediately blown up bits and the Hunters began to pour into the bridge. Dominator smiled as he watched the monitors of this. "Okay, now that the station is about to be ours...the question is...where's Carlos?"
"Find anything?" asked Slash as he finished wiping his hands.
All the Hunters reported in negative, there was absolutely no information on Infinity Inc.
"This isn't good..."
"Mr. Titus...what can I do for you?"
"The Hunters are taking over my station!!!! They have to be here after information on you!!! I know it's the Hunters damnit!!! They must want revenge against you or something and are searching the computers for information on you!" Carlos told him.
"I know...But they'll find all information on our business dealings have been deleted. Infact, your company no longer has any record of us...as of now, this secure line doesn't even exist.
"W-What?!"
"That's right. I'm cutting you off. You're not longer going to receive help from Infinity Inc. Titus. You're on your own," Fade told him.
"B-But I need help!!! Send your fleet, you can help me and crush the Hunters!"
"Forget it. Titus Facilities is no longer a necessary asset to Infinity Inc.'s survival. The Hunters will come to a dead end with YOU," Fade snarled and ended the connection. NO!!! I LOST EVERYTHING DUE TO THAT MONSTER!!!! he thought. Standing up, Carlos knew that not all the information had been deleted. The information in his head remained of Infinity Inc.'s location. And he was going to get his fleet and head there, to CRUSH Fade forever.
Grabbing his items from the computer terminal, Carlos entered a teleporter and teleported to his private hanger, entering a shuttle even as the Hunters took over the station. Turning on his comm. he sent a warning to Code to escape the planet while he still could, telling him the station was under the control of the pirate group. With that, he flew out of the station and to his battle ships nearby, unalerted to the disaster on the mother station. Entering his Flag Ship, Carlos had all 7 battle ships leap into hyperspace to a waypoint that they could resupply and head after Fade....
Searching further into Carter's file, he saw that he was part of the Maverick Hunters from Earth! That's who the pirate group was, Code realized. And, looking down at the data, he saw that he wash here with Mirri Brooks, his fiancé. Smirking, Code looked up and saw Mirri across from him, playing some games while the storm raged around him, without Carter. Carter probably was caught by the storm and couldn't make it. And what better way to get to the Hunters than through Carter's fiancé...
Pulling out a high-powered gun, Code hit the button and closed all the exits.
Dakota nodded.
"In his battleships. Good. The plan I told you about had Slash put some transmitter beacons on the Flag Ship. Now we'll be able to follow Carlos when he heads to Infinity Inc. He'll probably stop at a waypoint first for a few hours, so we have enough time to get some more of the Lost Armada ready."
"Sounds like a plan," Darien told him.
Suddenly an incoming transmission came in on the monitors and Code's face appeared. "I wondered when you would show up..." muttered Dominator.
"Here and now, Commander. But I'm not going down without a fight. I'm down below on the planet - " Code began when he was interrupted.
"And like we care?" Slasher told him.
"Oh, you will Hunter. You see, I've taken hostages down here. Six to be exact. I have them on the next to top floor in the casino building and don't think about trying to assault me. I have full control of the building and would see you coming before you made it half-way up the building. If you want the hostages back, you will hand control of the station BACK to me and that transmitter of yours. Then you will become my prisoners."
"What? Dominator, we can't do that!" shouted Slash.
"I know..." hissed Dominator.
"Oh, but you must. With your sense of duty and all. You see, I have Mirri Brooks," Code informed them.
"And that's suppose to mean something to us?" asked Ridge.
"Ah, you don't know then, that Mirri Brooks is Jared Carter's FIANCE?" Code said triumphantly.
"Say WHAT?!" the majority of the group shouted.
"That's right. And if you don't comply within the hour, she's dead...and you'll have a BIG grudge coming from Jared...." Code said and the transmission winked out.
Dominator felt his shoulders sag. They were so close to victory. "Slash, use the computer and find out where Jared is...we're going to have to contact him and tell him what's happened here...."
Slash looked sad. "On it."
"Well, Blackjack...we have some news for you. We've been here, but couldn't tell you due to some undercover mission of ours. But now that we succeed, some of Titus Facilities rogue employees are taking action..." Dominator began.
"Huh? Why are you guys---?" Jared began, his voice trailing off in confusion.
"We'll explain later. Lets just say that a man named Code has taken hostages in the casino building..." Dominator continued. Jared felt a knot of ice form in his stomach as he knew Mirri was there. "One of them is Mirri Brooks..." Dominator went on with hesitation.
"What?! No---" Jared began but stopped.
"I'm sorry. But there's a chance we can stop him. We can't attack the base head on, but your sniping skills...you can try to shoot Code through the window of where he is. We'll set up you up on the roof across from him..." Dominator began.
"Consider it done," Jared told him, his voice stone cold. Dominator nodded.
"Grab your gear, we have to hurry. Time's against us."