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** CHAPTER 62** The Third Offense Part VIII

"Hold on to something!" The pilot yelled through the com systems; his voice echoing inside their helmets. The small transport vessel had ventured itself deep in the battlefield. This ship was strong, but never designed for such purpose. But with young prodigy pilot Storm controlling it, the odds to come out alive of that situation were on their side.

"We need to hurry, Storm! We don't know how much time before those things fire at our ships again!" Titan yelled to the pilot.

"I understand, Commander. I'm giving all I got! Now hang on!"

The ship wasn't nearly as agile or resistant as an S Series or a Wolf500, but Storm was no ordinary pilot. Not only he had a natural skill flying any ship, but as Mechanical Engineer in chief and ship designer, he knew them inside out. No other pilot would have been able to take this model to the limits that Storm took it that day.

The inertia created by the sharp maneuvers produced strong G Forces inside the ship despite it lacked any gravitational systems. Its occupants: Titan, Silver, other two Retcan warriors plus Storm were within the limits of their resistance. The ship got hit a couple of times, but thanks to Storm's skills, the shields never went below 70%.

"Are you sure that's the ship?" Silver yelled to her brother.

"It's got to be, Silver!" Titan responded. "I trust Doko, and I've examined the signal. That's the machine's mother ship."

Soon the chaos was over. Silver instantly knew they were out of the battlefield and close to their target. She immediately unbuckled herself from the security harness and rushed to the cockpit. Titan was close to her all the time.

"Status..." she demanded.

"We made it out, Captain. Our shields are looking good. Target is 20 kilometers ahead." Storm replied.

"Get us there; fast!" Silver ordered.

"Aye, Captain!"

Next to them, two fighter pilots guarded their safety. They had now regained their position after having to fight their way through the battlefield.

At max speed, it didn't take long for them to have a visual of three massive ships. One of these was their target.

Warning: Lock on detected. Engage evasive maneuvers."Darn it! Get to your seats. We are being fired at!" Storm yelled at his occupants. The warning just issued by the ship's computer informed of possible enemy fire. Not seconds after, a visual confirmed this warning.

A powerful canon mounted on one of these three ships shot at them. Storm saw it in time and did his best to avoid enemy fire. Round after round of huge plasma balls were evaded by Storm. Having three tiny and agile targets made it difficult for the mother ship's defenses to make a hit. Soon there were within the blind spots; they had mad it.

"They are closing the entrance. Hang on!" Storm yelled. He saw a hangar gate being closed as they approached. Going against what would be a normal pilot's instinct, the black furred Retcan pushed on the trust lever, heading directly to the deadly metallic gate. He and the other two pilots cleared the gate; they were in.

"Engaging emergency air brakes. Reverse thrusters at full power. Hang on everyone; this is going to be rough!" Glistening blue flames came from various front ports that bypassed the main exhausts exits. Flaps all over the ship were deployed to produce a massive aerodynamic drag. Hopefully the machine's ship would have some atmosphere to make the small transport vessel's air brakes effective.

The transport ship gave all its power towards the opposite direction of their travel. With a few spins and briefly loosing control, Storm managed to land the ship into the machine's hangar. The two S Series managed to stop faster and safely due to their smaller mass.

"Sorry for the rough landing. Is everyone okay?" Storm asked. He didn't get an immediate response and just saw the Captain and the Commander getting ready to exit through the decompression chamber.

"Good job, Storm. Stand by." Silver said briefly as she raised her thumb in approval.

Facing the rear hatch of the ship, Silver, Titan and two other warriors awaited the depressurization process to be completed.

"Captain, I detect a safe level of oxygen in this ship!" Storm's voice echoed through the com systems inside their helmets.

Titan and Silver looked at each other in disbelief. This could mean that the ship might have organic life forms inside it.

"Storm; run a quick bio scan of the ship!" Silver ordered.

"Right away, Captain. It might take some time; this ship is very large."

"I don't care. Just do it!"

"Roger that."

The rear hatch finally opened. The four Retcans jumped out and quickly scanned the area with their automatic plasma rifles readied for an ambush.

The sight revealed a moderately large ship. The hangar didn't look like much. It didn't seem like a battle cruiser and more like a rustic cargo ship. The strong bluish light was awfully similar to R105's hangar lights, but they knew it's a common light color in hangars since it makes it easier to see. All around them there were crates with strange symbols and remains of ships or other machines and vehicles. It didn't seem they had been used in a long time.

"Okay team!" Silver yelled through the Com Systems. "You two stay here and guard the ship. And you two will cover Titan and me. We are out of here in thirteen minutes. Let's go!"

The two Retcan warriors that came in the S Series were ordered to stay with Storm and protect their ship. Silver and Titan didn't loose time and proceeded inside the ship along with their other two Retcan brothers.

They were uncertain of their objective's location. All Titan knew is that they needed to find the ship's main computer. The ship, as they had confirmed before, wasn't big. But it was large enough to make their search quite a laborious task.

"Titan; where are we headed?" Silver asked, as they stealthily advanced through the corridors of the ship.

"I just finished running a full scan. I've got the ship blueprinted in my scanner and I think this is where we will find the main computer." Titan showed Silver the image of the ship and pointed the location they should be heading to.

"Are you sure!?" Silver questioned his brother.

"That's were I'm getting the strongest energy readings." Titan replied assured.

"Okay. We have to find a way to gain access to the higher levels of the ship then." Silver said as she pressed on.

"Captain; wait!" One of the Retcans stopped her.

"There isn't any time to loose! What is it?"

"We're getting movement." The Retcan confirmed. She sounded worried. "It's heading our way, Captain. Both sides."

Behind them was a gate that leaded to the hangar. The corridor in front of them headed both ways, and one of these ways was the path they needed to take. But the movement scanner detected activity coming their way through both sides of the corridor. They had no choice but to continue and confront whatever was coming their way.

"We have no time to loose with these hostiles. We bring them down hard and fast. Understood?" Silver yelled as she disengaged the safety lock on her Plasma Auto Rifle and loaded the first round in the chamber.

"Yes, Captain!" Both the male and female Retcan warriors that accompanied them replied.

The Eco Scanner showed a lot of movement. At least twenty dots could be seen on the screen approaching directly towards them. The machines didn't wait to show themselves. From both sides of the corridor, through two gates, ten machine assassins rampaged towards the small Retcan crew from each of their flanks.

The characteristic metallic clanging was everywhere as this mass of needles threw itself against the Retcans. The four Retcans opened fired, drowning the metallic clanging with the sharp detonations that their plasma rifles produced. Ten rounds per second came out of the special operations plasma auto rifle each time the trigger was pulled, creating a stroboscopic light effect in the tight corridor. There were metallic shards flying everywhere, scorched by the intense heat of the plasma round; green vital fluid being spewed and a mass of blades all over the place.

Retcans hated deadly force firearms, but they were intelligent enough not to let their warrior pride blind their judgment. They made these weapons for critical situations like these. There was no time to spare with R105 and Canis Major's survival at stake.

The ten machines at each of their flanks were shredded into pieces before they could approach the four Retcans. The deadly mechanical beings were now just a hunk of scorching red metallic scraps.

"Ballistic droids!" The male Retcan warrior that came with them yelled.

From one of the gates, one of those strange four-legged ballistic droids appeared. Up close they were bigger than they had noticed back in R105's hangar. The four Retcans took cover behind the corridor wall that went to the hangar; just in time as two powerful ballistic rounds hit violently not inches from them.

The female Retcan warrior peeked around the wall and took a quick corner shot. She hit her target, but it didn't seem to have taken effect on the droid.

"No good. That thing deployed a shield!" The female Retcan warrior informed as she was again flat on the wall that gave them cover.

"We don't have time for this!" Silver growled. The Captain handed her rifle to her brother, unsheathed one of her Lanthracit short blades and her E.M.P gun.

"Are you out of your mind? What do you plan on doing?!" Titan confronted her as he noticed his sister's intentions.

"Wait here. That's an order Commander!" She yelled.

Before Titan could do anything, Silver gracefully came out of cover, surprisingly avoiding the shots as she jumped and dodged the droid's deadly aim. Before the Droid could aim one last shot at Silver, the agile Retcan jumped in the air, firing her E.M.P at the bulky four-legged droid. The hit staggered the machine and nullified its shield.

"I'm not falling for it again, droid!" Silver growled. Still in mid air, with a graceful spin, Silver landed on the machine, impaling it with her blade. With a swift and brutal slash, she withdrew her blade, leaving a huge gash that almost dissected the droid. After a couple of sparks and detonations that came from the machine, it went immobile and didn't show any sign of functionality anymore.

"Let's move it team!" Silver signaled her friends. They quickly regrouped.

"That was a risky maneuver, Silver!" Titan scolded her little sister as he threw the rifle back at her hands. She caught it and immediately released the empty magazine, quickly reloading the weapon. "You could've gotten shot again!"

"I've learned their attack patterns. Now let's move!" Silver replied.

There wasn't more time to loose. The four Retcans ran through the ship's decks, slowly getting close to their objective. Eventually they founded the access to the upper deck; the supposed location of the ship's main computer and what they thought was the brain that controlled the Machine army.

Heavy looking gate doors covered the entrance of the elevator that according to Titan's scanner was the only access to the upper deck.

"Darn it!" Silver yelled and punched the control panel besides the gate. The ship looked neat and functional despite it was a bit dirty and showing signs of being abandoned. Energy was flowing well, and the panel was lit. But there was no response from the elevator.

"Allow me!" Titan quickly took out a hacking tool and connected it to the elevator." This lock mustn't be complicated to bypass."

But before Titan could even connect his device, Silver stuck a small beeping capsule in the elevator gate. "We don't have time for computer games, so allow ME." She mumbled as she yanked Titan away from the access. A small but lively explosion deafened the corridor, later revealing a small hole between the elevator doors.

"Come on, everyone!" Silver yelled at her team.

The four Retcans didn't loose time and ran to the elevator access gate. The doors were heavy, but not impossible to force open.

"You could've cut through them with the Lanthracit blade." Titan said as he along with Silver and the other two Retcans forced the elevator doors open.

"They are too thick. It would've taken me at least the same amount of time that it would've taken you to hack the controls."

With one last yank, the four Retcans were strong enough to open a gap big enough for them to get in the elevator shaft. Pulling out two flares, the female Retcan threw them down the shaft. The well-known blue gel illuminated the bottom of the shaft s it made contact and broke.

"It's a long fall. We better be careful." The female Retcan advised.

"It's only two levels before they upper deck. We need a line; fast!" Titan said as he shined his integrated flashlight up the elevator shaft.

The male Retcan quickly took out a grapple gun. As the female Retcan held on to him, he leaned out the shaft, pointing to the higher levels and shooting the line.

"We're secured!" He confirmed.

Not waiting a second, one by one, the Retcans hooked the line to a small detachable pulley on their belts and started climbing up the shaft. The separation between levels was considerable, but pulleys were as fast as the elevator, so it wouldn't take them much time.

"Well, this is familiar..." Titan mumbled, while he remembered their adventure back at the blue comet.

"We are almost there. Everyone on your guard!" Silver said as she had taken the lead.

"Brothers! Something's happening!" The female Retcan said worried. She was the last one and had her sight fixed at the dark pit below them.

The others didn't have to see it to know something was wrong. A nerve wrecking roar approached them from below at an outstanding speed. They didn't know what it was until Silver noticed how the elevator cable right next to them started smoking and glowing red.

From the gloom below them a huge ghastly figure suddenly appeared, approaching them at an outstanding speed. The elevator was heading from the lower levels at an abnormal speed. It was frightening to see this huge metallic structure suddenly was visible a few meters below the Retcans. This elevator rampaged towards them making a horrible sound as its engine was forced beyond its limits. Because of where they were, not only the elevator would hit them with an immense force, but it threatened to smash them against the shaft's roof.

The elevator rushed towards them almost at free fall speed, with the only difference it was going upwards. The adrenaline and fear invaded the Retcans as this huge structure got closer. Out of the nothing, a blue glare illuminated them. A slash, followed by a white flash and a couple of sparks made itself visible. Something next to them had just snapped.

Looking above her, the frightened Retcan saw how Captain Silver had taken one of her Lantracit blades and cut the elevator's cables.

"It's getting close!" The female Retcan yelled. She was terrified.

"Hang on! Whatever you do don't let go!" The male Retcan yelled at his frightened friend.

The elevator had so much momentum that it kept going up even after the cable was ruptured. But as it got close, the immense weight of the structure soon made it decrease speed. The elevator hit the four Retcans hard, but not enough to cause damage. For a good second and a half, the Retcans lied weightless on top of the elevator. Then gravity took place...

"Don't let go of the line brothers!" Titan yelled. They all obeyed and got hold of the line as they felt how the elevator went its way back from where it came.

"Cover your heads!" Silver now yelled. She had realized that the thick steel elevator cable was now whipping dangerously not inches from them as the elevator pulled it down.

Throwing sparks and making thunderous sounds as it hit the walls of the shaft, the cable passed at lightning speed next to them, miraculously missing them by mere millimeters.

"Keep holding on!" Titan yelled.

A disturbing guttural echo invaded the shaft as the elevator rushed down its destruction. Air was being sucked by it from upper levels as it gained speed. A powerful impact that shook the shaft itself and threatened to dislodge the Retcan's line was an indication that the elevator hat hit the lower level. A gust of dust and wind came back up the shaft as the Retcans held for their lives.

"Your fast thinking just saved us, Silver... I appreciate it." Titan still gasped after the shock of the moment. But despite the intensity of the moment they went through, there was no time to loose. They had to continue.

The first one to reach the upper level was Silver. She had no need to place another charge as this elevator door was slightly opened. There was no way that the other Retcans could help her force it open, but somehow, Silver managed to open it enough so everyone could pass through it.

One by one, they got out of the elevator shaft. This place seemed to have more activity, indicating that they were close to their objective.

"We are very close, Silver. Let's keep going!" Titan said as he verified in his scanner device that they were in the right level.

But before the Retcans could advance, they heard something bad; really bad. Down the elevator shaft, that very familiar racket made itself present once again.

"Captain, those things are coming after us!" The female Retcan advised. She watched her Eco Scanner like last time, but this was different. "They are too many!"

"We are at the right place..." Silver mumbled. "Keep on going everyone!"

It was still a long walk to what they had identified as the main control room. A never ending series of corridors separated them from their objective, but the Retcans kept on pushing forward.

"They found us!" The male Retcan warrior yelled as they ran through a corridor. He had just looked back and saw a huge amount of machines running their way. There were dozens of those things that barely fitted the corridor. As usually, these things crawled on the walls and even the ceiling as they rampaged furiously toward them.

"Silver, we can't let those things follow us forever!" Titan yelled as they ran. "I need time to implant the virus and we cannot afford to have these things all over us while I do so!"

"There is no time to fight them!" Silver responded.

"Those things are all over us!" The male Retcan yelled. The firing of his plasma auto rifle was indication that running from them would be no option.

Silver looked back and saw the mass of machine warriors attacking their two partners already. They had to fight once again. Silver and Titan shot at everything that moved. Many machines fell destroyed by their fire, but the whole corridor was full of these things. There had to be at least a hundred of those things, making it obvious that their presence there was not wanted.

00 read on the small display in Silver's rifle. Reaching back in her belt, she realized she had run out of ammo. The situation was critical, and to worsen things, Titan noticed something that would compromise their mission and probably threaten their lives.

"A blast door is closing on us!" He yelled.

Twenty meters from them at the far end of the corridor, a huge blast door was being lowered. Reaching it was uncertain, and with that horde of machines on their back made the situation even more critical.

"Run! Everyone just run! We need to get passed that blast door!" Silver yelled. She threw her plasma auto rifle now that it was useless and made a run for it. Titan and the other Retcans ran behind her with those things not inches from their reach.

The blast door was now about a meter from closing completely. They were still too far... It was uncertain if they would be able to make it. With a fearsome growl, Silver ran as fast as she could, throwing herself to the ground and sliding through the small gap that the gate still left between the floor and it. Next to her, Titan slid and made it through the gap as well, leaving a trail of sparks as the sharp ends of his armor made contact with the metallic floor.

But something went wrong...

"No!" Silver yelled as she had a glance at the other side. The machines had caught on their two partners and they fought fearlessly with the very little ammo they had left. The gap was now just ten inches from the ground, but Silver attempted sliding through to the other side again.

Silver was yanked back on time before the blast door closed completely. If not done this, she would've got caught between the floor and the door, loosing a limb, or in the worst case scenario, getting crushed by the heavy blast door.

"No! They are still there!!" she cried furiously as she punched Titan. It was not his fault. He just pulled his little sister by pure instinct, saving her from a certain death.

Titan didn't say anything. He could be heard sobbing on the com systems as he punched the blast door furiously. They try to cut it with the Lanthracit blade and place charges on it, but this blast door had to be at least twenty inches thick of pure reinforced steel.

"Captain... Commander." Silver and Titan heard someone speaking through the com systems. It was the frightened voice of their female Retcan partner. "You need to continue..." she said, resigning herself to the inevitable outcome.

"No! You have to resist; we will get you out of there!" Silver yelled crying as she punched the gate. Her knuckles bled inside her gauntlets now.

"There is no time, Captain... Just go. Many lives depend on your quick actions. Canis Major and R105 are in your hands now..." The gentle voice of the female Retcan said. The yells of his partner could be heard in the background as he emptied his last magazine.

"No! Nobody dies today! I made it very clear!!" Silver yelled back... she now had lost her strength, falling down on her knees, crying. Titan made a futile attempt to cut through the blast door with his Lanthracit blade.

"Silver... It was a pleasure serving R105 and it was such an honor working by your side... Good luck..." Full of fear and with tears of sadness; sadness that drowned her words, knowing that she wouldn't be able to feel the warmth of her brothers anymore. The female Retcan had spoken her last words...

A heavy commotion was the only thing Titan and Silver heard coming from the com systems after the rifles of their partners had finally ran out of ammo. Inside her helmet, Silver could see two names: Gold and Hatchi. The vitals displayed below eventually flat-lined as Silver and Titan painfully continued their way through the ship. They both felt destroyed; fighting with what just happened, but knowing that thousands could die if they stayed there mournful about their loss.

Those two brave Retcan warriors had sacrificed themselves for the future of not only R105 but their Evocanis friends. It was now up to Silver and Titan to avoid that sacrifice being in vain...