Into the Horizon: Power Contested Part 2
#27 of Into the Horizon
Hello all, you must ask yourself....does this contain the answer to the question of Dasher living? I suppose we'll find out together as you read. A bit of a note from last chapter. Capitan Devin Lopez doesn't belong to me, he's actually a character of a good friend of mine. Well, I won't keep you anymore...go seek your answers *smiles innocently* Also a big thanks to the ever wonderful Dasher Cheetah. He helped me with this story and is generally an awesome dude. *cough* I dedicate this part to him *cough*
Into the Horizon: Power Contested Part 2
Dasher teleported up onto Bill's command ship just in time. Any later and he would have had to find transport to get into range for a teleport, and ships of all types were in short supply. An officer met him in the teleport room and looked aghast at the sight of the blood-covered cheetah. Dasher instructed him that Bill was not to know of his presence but he needed to be taken to quarters so that he could clean himself. As much as Dasher wanted to jump right into things, he also wanted to get the blood off him. The sight was bad enough, however the smell was starting to overwhelm him. The aroma of blood filled his nose with every breath, but how could it not as he was covered in it. Knowing what he did was bad enough, but having the evidence soaked into his fur and reminding him with each breath and glance, was almost more than the poor gentle cheetah could bear. Therefore, after a swift yet thorough shower, he redressed himself and walked towards the battle bridge. When he walked onto the battle bridge, Bill turned and looked at his gentle kitty as a look of annoyance spread across his face. "Dasher . . . No! You're not coming with me." The wolf did not have to ask why he was there, as it was just understood. The two friends had stood by each other through thick and thin, from the moment Dasher had been captured and presented to him. Dasher opened his muzzle and replied, "Bill, damn it! I have stood by you ever since we met. I even went to rescue you when you were captured by Ulra. I'm going with you regardless of your liking it or not." While saying this, Dasher crossed his arms with a look of determination. Bill smiled softly at the kitty; he knew there was no use in arguing with him. In fact, he was a little touched at Dasher being so willing to go and risk his life to help him. However, this tender moment was ended as the ship was rocked as the wolf fleet pounded at the shields. The ship was being damaged, and everybody knew it wouldn't be long before they were forced to retreat. Once they were forced to withdraw from battle, nothing would stand between the Wolf fleet and the base. Bill looked into Dasher's eyes and nodded his recognition that short of locking him up, he was not going to be able to keep his friend out of this fight either. He motioned for Dasher to follow him and the two went to the ships armory, where they collected weapons for the battle to come. On the way and as they equipped themselves, Bill explained grimly what his plan was. Bill collected two blasters, a blaster rifle, grenades, and some demolition charges. Dasher picked up some extra ammo for the blasters he had as well as some demo charges and some grenades. They were preparing for war, and they knew it would be a running firefight. The plan was for Bill to use codes he knew to get onto the ship and sabotage the main reactor. The resulting blast would take out the rest of the fleet as they were all in close proximity to the command ship. With any luck, they would take out Admiral Black in the blast too. Bill and Dasher then walked to the teleport room and stood on the pad. They looked at each other and Bill put out his paw to shake with Dasher as he wished him the best of luck. That wouldn't do for Dasher tho. He pulled Bill into an embrace, knowing they might not get another chance to do so once they transported over. Dasher didn't care what the transporter tech thought of them or what he did next. He kissed Bill deeply and let his feelings for his dearest friend show. If this was good bye, he wanted it to count and Bill to know how he felt. Bill stiffened a moment, then relaxed into it and kissed back. He too knew that this was likely to be the final time he would be able to show Dasher that he too felt what Dasher was expressing. When they unlocked their muzzles and arms, Bill looked at the wide eyed waiting technician. With a slight snarl as if daring him to say anything, Bill ordered him to energize and they were teleported into the jaws of their doom.
After a considerable amount of time spent howling away their grief and sorrows, Bane looked at Ron, and kissed the gentle fox and then stood up. "Ron, as much as I just want to keep crying, making sure the alliance survives is more important. If it falls then everything our friends sacrificed their lives for was for nothing." Ron thought for a little bit and then agreed with the assessment. The two cleaned themselves up and walked into the control room. The sadness melted away as both were focused on one singular goal. They would see to it that their friend's deaths were not in vain, that it counted and that their deaths mattered. As if flipping a switch Bane went from the sad howling wolf to one who was in charge and confidant in himself. It was something that Ron actually envied, as it was much more difficult for the gentle fox to act as though he was unaffected and all was well with the world. Bane immediately went to work with his objectives. "Bridge officers, give me a status report." The executive officer approached Bane and began reading off the status of the base and the battle. "Sir, the base is sustaining moderate damage. Several of the upper levels have collapsed from the pounding. The shield is holding at fifty percent, but the emitters are beginning to overheat. The crystal core is functioning at one hundred percent, and engineering assures me that it will hold up for a good while longer." Bane stood listening to the officer's every word. They wouldn't get out of this without some damage, but it appeared that they would indeed survive, granted that was if the shield held. From what he understood, it could fall at any time. "Good, and what is the status of the fleet in orbit?" The officer walked over to the sensor console and picked up a tablet and read off its contents to Bane. "Our ships are holding their own, but are still taking moderate damage. Their side is mostly undamaged. We are keeping them busy, but unless we receive reinforcements, then its only a matter of time until we are overpowered." Bane once again listened to the report with a mixture of hope and fear. He was confidant that Bill would indeed succeed with his mission, but he wasn't sure if it would be in time or not. "What about our reinforcements?" "We have a large fleet on the way to reinforce the base, however they are twelve hours away at top speed. We have also received word that several fleets from both fox and human factions are on their way. However its unclear what their intentions are and long range communications is being blocked by the attacking ships as well as the radiation from the weapons fire." Bane listened to the last of this report for a bit and then expressed his understanding of the situation. Help would not come in time; if they were to survive, it would be by their efforts alone. "Right, what's the status of our efforts to seal off the base?" "There are several breaches in the base, mainly from the collapse of the top floor. The blast from the cannon destabilized the top floor as it was closest to the top and not deep enough to be as well protected by the ground as the rest of the base was. Several spots have fallen in, leaving holes. We have crews putting up force-fields to seal them off as best as we can, however its unclear if it will be enough." Bane once again expressed his understanding and dismissed the officer. Things would be interesting, but he had faith in his staff. Scott and now Bill and Dasher will not have given their lives in vein. Bane set out to organize defense stations throughout the base. If they were invaded, he would make damn sure it would be a fight the enemy would never forget!
Dasher and Bill materialized on the enemy ship. Ordinarily the shields would have prevented this, however Bill knew the shield frequency therefore was able to beam though it. They picked a cargo bay to beam into. It was the logical choice as it wouldn't be guarded as heavily as other area's. As soon as they materialized, alarms blared. It was an intruder alert alarm, and it was because of them. There was a hissing sound as the blast door to the room opened and the two quickly picked cover to get behind as blasters rang out in their general direction. Dasher looked at Bill and shook his head, "Well . . . there goes the element of surprise." As he said this a blaster round shot by the top of his head, singeing his headfur, as well as burning a hole thru his leather jackaroo hat. With a look of annoyance he shouted, "You know, its rude to shoot at guests." Pulling out his metal claws, he donned them, touched his earring, and stood up. With a burst of speed that even surprised him, he raced forward and made quick work of the guards. There were only four of them. He ran into the center of the group and began slicing. Crimson blood spewed everywhere as he sliced the first wolf's head off. With a quick slash of his steel claws, he cut the second and third wolf guards in half, finishing by burying both sets of claws in the fourth. The guard gasped as he looked down at the claws buried in him, then looked up at Dasher. He let out a sickening gurgle as blood spilled from him, then he moaned as he took a grasp on Dasher's paws and looked deep into his eyes before he gave up his lifes force and fell to the deck. This shook Dasher slightly, but he couldn't allow himself to become unnerved. Crimson blood spread over the deck plaiting as he finished and stood in the center of the carnage. Bill stood up and looked at the scene with a mixture of shock and awe. Dasher looked at Bill and saw a look similar to what Ron had given him. This one cut much deeper, but he couldn't allow himself to become emotional. "Well? He singed my headfur and NO one fucks with my 'do!" Bill just shook his head and chuckled a bit. "In that case remind me to never mess with your hair." The two chucked for a second and then continued in their quest. "First things first, we need to get to the computer room and disable the internal sensors. That will make moving about much more simple, because at the moment they can track where we are." Dasher nodded in agreement and the two began their trek though the ship. As predicted, it was a running firefight. Fortunately the ship was older and wasn't equipped with internal force-fields so their movement wouldn't be hindered by the defending wolves. After fighting and slicing their way through the ship, they arrived at the computer room and walked in. Bill quickly used his still valid access codes to seal the room off so that they could work without being shot at. Bill looked at Dasher as he sealed off the room, "I don't know about you but I don't work well while being shot at." The non tech knowledgeable Dasher watched with admiration as Bill's fingers danced across the control pad, accessing the ships main systems. He had intended to set the self-destruct from here but there was a problem. "Shit!," exclaimed Bill. "They have locked out the self destruct system from here. We have to set it from engineering, this complicates things." "Well," began Dasher, "we will just have to fight out way to the engineering deck. Let us set a demolition pack in here as a diversion, and to possibly inconvenience them a little" Bill nodded in agreement, and the two set one at the ships primary processing node. Anywhere would do in the room, but this would ensure secondary explosions. As they walked out of the room, they triggered the explosives and the ships power went dark momentarily. As soon as it went down though, it came back up.
Bill and Dasher moved though the ship and as predicted, it was a running firefight. With Bill's knowledge of the ship and Dasher's speed, it was nothing they couldn't deal with. Bill explained along the way that the primary self-destruct had been locked out. Therefore, they would disable the cooling circuit and force the main reactor to overheat as this ship didn't have a crystal core. The first stop was the brig, where security was headquartered. There would be a relay in it that needed to be destroyed. Bill typed in his password and walked into the room. Only one cell was occupied and the guard had been called away to defeat the "invaders". Dasher found this ironic as the invaders were in the room he was ordinarily stationed in. Bill looked around and said," We need to get into that cell. It is where the relay is, behind a wall panel. They walked to the control panel and looked up the inhabitant of the cell. His name was Seamus Volp, he was an ex-military pirate that operated within the fox empire. Apparently, the wolves had caught him in their space and had taken him and his crew. Dasher looked around and then looked at Bill. "If his crew was taken with him, then where are they?" Bill gave a sad sigh, "They probably killed his crew in front of him to help break him for interrogation and find out what he knew." Dasher shivered at the thought and then walked to the cell as Bill deactivated the force-field.
Inside the cell, curled in a corner was the fox known as Seamus Volp. Though he had a reputation as a formidable fox, you wouldn't know it looking at him now. His fur was green, which shocked Dasher, but it was covered in filth and blood. Most of which was his own, but Dasher had a good idea some of it was that of his fallen crew as well. His tail showed signs of being broken, patches of fur were ripped out, his eyes were heavily bruised and his muzzle was cut badly. The fox had on the remains of a pair of uniform pants, however not much was left of them. Dasher could tell that his legs were badly beaten as well and it was doubtful the fox could walk, let alone run. Overall he reminded Dasher a lot of Bill when he was rescued, and the gasp from behind him signaled Dasher that the sight also reminded Bill of the same. Dasher turned to Bill, who nodded in agreement, not having to hear the question. Dasher intended to rescue the poor fox from this, if he could, and bring him to Bane. Too many lives had been lost this day. No more friendlies would be lost that Dasher could prevent and he indeed could prevent this loss of life. Dasher walked over to the semi conscious fox and bent down to speak with him. The fox opened his eyes gently and let out a whimper that displayed a mixture of fear and pain. Dasher put his paw on the foxs' head and smiled as he said, "Fear not my friend, you are safe with me. My name is Dasher Cheetah and I am with the Alliance forces," said the gentle kitty in as soothing voice as he could manage. He continued, "We will carry you to safety and off of this ship." The fox, understanding what was being told to him, nodded in agreement as the strange being scooped him up in his arms, and held him close to his chest. The fox feebly wrapped his arms around the cat's neck and gently nuzzled his maw into Dasher's shoulder. The kitty smiled slightly at this and thought to himself, 'If only he knew what acts had been committed this day by him, he was sure the fox would try and struggle free in terror.' However he did not know, nor did he need to at this point. The important thing was to get him to safety. Bill knelt down and placed a demo charge on the relay. He then looked at Dasher. "We have three more of these to eliminate. After that we'll set the charges to wreck the cooling system and get off the ship." Dasher nodded in understanding and the two set to work. It was fortunate that with the power he could draw from his earring, the fox didn't slow Dasher down at all.
They made quick work of the remaining relays and were down to the last relay, which happened to be under the reactor itself. It was only accessible from the main engineering room, which was somewhat a problem with Dasher having to fight, and protect the fox at the same time. Bill assessed the situation and knew that the chances of pulling this off was slim, he also knew that detonating the charges in place without taking out the remaining relay was foolish as the backup system would be able to take care of the reactor. The last relay was for the backup system, so it was vital it be taken out. Therefore, Bill made a decision to send Dasher to safety and take out the final relay himself with his blaster. He turned to the cheetah, this would be hard but it needed to be done and best of all, it would save Dasher's life. Steeling himself for what he had to do, now that the decision had been made, Bill said, "Dasher, my friend, this is the most important command I have ever given you. But I'm giving it to you now. I order you to go to the transporter room and escape. I'll give you some time to escape and then take out the ship from main engineering." Dasher opened his mouth to argue but remembered the fox in his paws, the fox who was depending on him to live. He also thought of Bill whom he was immensely loyal to. He couldn't and wouldn't abandon him, but he also couldn't disobey a direct order, especially when it would condemn the fox as well. He sobbed slightly and then nodded to Bill. Bill smiled at him and nuzzled the gentle kitty slightly. "Dasher, you have meant more to me as a friend than anybody ever has. You've stood by me and protected me, but now you must leave me. Know that you've never abandoned me, not now or ever." The kitty nodded and headed toward the transporter room. He needed to get there quickly as Bill had a limited time to wait. Just as Dasher departed for the transporter, he felt the entire ship shake as Bill detonated the primary cooling system's power junctions. This meant that the secondary system would be used instead of the primary one. He also knew that this would mean a slight drop in the output of power from the ship. If it was just that ship attacking then it would help, however there were enough ships in orbit that this wouldn't make much of a dent in the combined effort of the fleet. Picking up his speed, Dasher ran for the transporter as fast as he dared.
Bill looked at his watch and then pulled out the detonator. He needed to create a distraction to give Dasher enough time to get away. He needed the kitty to live, and hoped he could give him enough time to escape. Bill knew this was a one way trip from the start, but somebody needed to do it and nobody else would die at his orders. No his number had come up, and he would face it with courage and dignity. Now he could atone for all the innocent blood on his paws and ease the guilt he had felt for so long. He walked around to the service entrance to the engineering room and opened it. He strode into the room blasting away. As predicted, it was full of a combination of security troops and staff. Blaster rounds sang though the room as the staff yelled for the shooting to stop. If anybody hit the reactor, it could cause the contents of it to detonate. Bill examined his plan and realized there was only one choice, but he still needed to buy some time. That's when he saw the coolant line leading to the top of the reactor. He quickly got himself to cover, security troops blasting away at him. He took aim at the line and let out a single blast. The line ruptured and spewed coolant into the room. The staff quickly got to work fixing the leak as the coolant was highly toxic to life forms. Bill hid himself again as the blaster fire doubled in his direction. He once again checked his watch as he asked for forgiveness for what he was about to do. He took aim at the main reactor and fired. As he did he felt a sharp pain in his chest, followed by a second and third round. He looked down to see that he had been shot. He looked up again to see the glow of the nuclear fires increase from the reactor as the core neared critical mass. The crew ran frantically trying in vain to save the doomed ship. He smiled as he fell to the deck. He had won the day, tho he gave his life, he had won the day.
Dasher frantically ran though the ships hallways, as he neared the transporter room the entire ship shook as various relays and power grids running though the hallway sparked and ruptured with power surges. He knew that Bill had triggered the overload but didn't know how long they had to reach safety. He doubled his efforts to get to the cargo bay he entered though; there was a transporter in the room that could be used to escape if they could only reach it. "No," he thought to himself as he ran. It can't end this way, it just cant. To much was left undone and there was too much yet to be answered for. He could not die with an unclean conscious, furthermore he had to save the fox. He had to get this creature to safety, yet he didn't understand his drive to do so. He had killed many today so what was one more life. Yet he couldn't allow the fox to die. The entire ship shook violently and he knew his time was running out, would it be enough? Would they reach safety? He did now know, he only knew he must put one paw in front of the other. Tears ran down the cheetah's face as the ship shook yet again, no doubt from explosions on the engineering deck. As he reached the cargo bay the entire ship shook and the world went black.......
_Is this the end for the gentle cheetah, will he survive? Who is the mysterious Seamus Volp that was found on the ship? We shall have to wait and see...
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