The planet Earth was playing a key role in the plans of the Emperor and Governor Hirsh was in charge of it all. To think that the future of technology was taking place here, on this dead world. Hirsh glanced at the Earth and sighed with contempt. It was early morning, Day 148 of the operation, and the red clouds full of acid screwed with their scanners. Also, frequent storms called 'Rages' swarmed the planet's surface. There was three right now, mainly in North America.
When winter took place, the snow was terrible. Most of the survivors had died from the bitter now. It never stuck to the ground, the planet too warmed for that, but the blizzards kicked in non the less.
The oceans were now nothing but molten lava. And the hottest detected. Probably released from the underwater volcanos. As for the living people of the planet, those still sane formed resistance groups. Those less fortunate, driven by hunger, fed on each other like cannibals and had earned themselves the nickname 'Zombies'.
And this was the planet Earth for the past six months.
Hirsh sighed. The Wraith Hunters, giving the Tsivrixsh Empire so much trouble, had just launched an attack here. His ships had shot them down, of course, but he didn't know if they were alive or if more was coming. He was afraid. He had tried contacting the Emperor, but he only said that he had twenty battle ships and to deal with it. Or it was his head.
Hirsh knew he had all the latest weapons at his disposal, but a rag tag group led by 'Dominator' had already given him much hell. Destroying one of his ships, killing the human he was controlling, countless mechs gone, and now the Models were having trouble.
At least Model One was still hunting the team. It was his strongest one out of the three.
As for the Hunters, he had a team waiting at the ship incase they returned. But at this point, they were gone. As for the second ship, it had crashed somewhere else and at this point he couldn't find it.
Hirsh breathed and realized there was nothing whatsoever to worry about. He had the home team advantage, so to speak, and the upper hand. He looked around the station. This was a very worthy weapon that could fire upon the earth if he had to. He just hadn't tested the weapon systems on it yet.
Plus he had several key bases on the planet that was for the project. Hirsh remembered the project then. With the Hunters here, he'd have to step up the time table for the project. It was coming close time to activate it. Yes, tomorrow, tomorrow was the day.
Once tomorrow came, the war would be his. The Hunters would be dead. And that Resistance group would be crushed. And he would be a very wealthy Tsivrixsh if the project was successful.
Hirsh smiled.
The Hunters, however, had a real good sense of the situation. When they were trying to get to Earth, the battleships had hit their main engines. And they were going down. And fast.
Being thrown around, Ripple got a brief glance at the monitors through the hell caused that Death Star's team had also been shot down. He gave them a silent prayer as he went back to trying to maintain order.
Team B consisted of Ripple, Blackjack, Diamondback, Spirit, Sabre, and two other rookies who's names he didn't know.
The ship bounced again and finally the mavericks on board managed to maintain order. They had cleared the orbit and was save from burning up. But the engines were still out and they were still going down.
The battleship spun and kept going down. Ripple's vision blackened and the next thing he knew, there was a roar and they had finally stopped moving. Opening his eyes, Ripple saw the ship was wedged into a rivine and literally filled it up. And it was stuck, with no way to get it out. However, this kept them from being found as easily.
Spirit tried to talk to him through their special connection, but both felt a painful throb go through their heads. "Gah!" Ripple cried out and held his head.
Diamondback looked concerned. "{What is---]}" he began but grabbed his head in pain too.
Sabre looked at them all, concerned. "What's wrong?"
Ripple shook his head. He tried to lift something over to him but it exploded before him, much to his horror. "What the hell..." he said, then they realized their physic abilties were totally useless.
Diamondback sighed and forced himself to talk. "This is just great...and here I was on a team where that's the main force. We're screwed."
The Mavericks ran around, trying to bring order to the chaos there. Ripple grabbed one Maverick and jerked him aside. "Do we have shuttles here?"
It nodded. "Yeah, it's the only one with them. The other ship moved their shuttles here." Ripple's eyes narrowed. That meant the other team had to walk...but why did Sigma do that?
"Can we use them?" he asked.
"After we repair the launching bay. It's jammed in. Gives us a couple of hours. Alright?"
Ripple sighed, wanting to be out there to help Team A. He turned back to the others and saw that Spirit had collapsed. "Andrea!!!" he shouted and ran over to her. Diamondback pulled her up and checked for a pulse.
"She's alive, Andrew. It must have something to do with the psionic block..." Diamondback suggest.
Ripple seemed beyond hearing as he cradled Andrea in his arms and screamed loudly. Someone was going to pay...
Sigma sneered. "Lets just say I felt something was returning here that I wanted to see."
Excaliber smiled. "No doubt your rule over the planet as supreme."
Sigma looked at him but didn't say anything. "There's something going on this planet. The aliens wouldn't have put this much defense around a worthless piece of rock. I wonder what they are doing here..."
Excaliber looked confident. "Whatever it is, sir, you'll find out and use it to your advantage."
"Of course...it's what I've done for decades."
The rest of the team continued to walk, debating over various topics. He was glad that they were about to arrive at their destination so it would stop. Some of the topics were disturbing.
Cipher stopped and turned to the others. "I've gotten a call from Vipher. She requests me there because of some interesting Maverick activity."
Death Star nodded. "Okay. Its you and Viper's duty to keep an eye on those Mavericks."
Cipher nodded and a few minutes later, they could see the sand being blown about as Viper landed. It shimmered into view and Cipher climbed into it. Snipe waved at Cipher. "Good luck."
Viper rose into the air, cloaked again, and flew off back towards the Mavaericks. Gravedigger crossed his arms. "Well, the bug's finally gone!"
They continued on...
However, behind them, a robot landed and studied the ruins of his fellow robots. Model One cocked his head. "Targets...twenty miles ahead. Estimated time for cut off - thirty minutes."
He rose back into the air and once again looked over his dead comrads. Model One felt no pity or sadness.
He went on with the chase.