NOOOOOOOO!

Now why does this sound familiar?

*whistles*

Well, that was unbelievably easy. Fixed my Palm, got Documents to Go up and running again, and have fiinished the twelfth chapter of E:JF.

Here ya go. Enjoy.

Chapter 12: Ducky Hunt

Splitter led the Jackrabbits on a wild chase through the congested streets of Aevias, and the passers-by looked simply bewildered as the green rabbit, then the three others, sped by. Some of the said passers-by were literally swept off their feet.
Splitter was still watching his small device’s screen as it constantly changed. There was a small blip on the corner of the screen, and the blip was slowly approaching the center of the display. He was making hazardous stop-on-a-dime ninety-degree turns, and the Jackrabbits, especially Spaz, were having an extremely difficult time skidding to a stop and taking off again. Spaz was often not as successful as his brother and sister at slowing down, and many bystanders had gotten injuries, fortunately minor, to prove it.
Splitter finally seemed to find the place he was looking for, and bolted inside. Jazz and Lori stopped in front of the building, but Spaz, as usual, tripped over his socks, and flew headfirst into a nearby spectator.
Lori recognized the unintentional obstacle as soon as he got up. “Indigo? How’d you get here so fast?”
Rubbing his torso, Indigo mumbled, “It’s called a shortcut. I figured Splitter would end up here.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Let’s just say he well-knows someone here, and he hasn’t seen her in a long time. Maybe a bit too long.”
“Her? A girl?”
“Would you happen to know any guys referred to as ‘her’?”
“Very funny.” Lori looked up to the building Splitter had rushed into. “ARMOR?”
“Aevian Reconaissance/Military Objectives Recovery. Basically, Aevias’ Secret Service.”
“Sounds like fun,” Jazz remarked, as they went inside.
Once inside, they found Splitter nearby, looking frantically at the building’s floor plan, then to his input/output device, then back to the floor plan. He was mumbling something that sounded vaguely like “She’s here, so where is she?”
An elevator opened a short distance down the hall to their right, and Splitter turned hopefully towards the sound. A lone rabbit, with dark gray fur, stepped out of the elevator. She was greeted with the sound of Splitter screaming, “DUCKY!”
Splitter came at her like a small train, complete with the sound effects: “duckyduckyduckyduckyduckyduckyGWAR!” He launched himself at the gray-furred rabbit. As the flying rabbit approached, she neatly sidestepped, and chuckled as Splitter did a headlong swan-dive into the floor. She then seemed to notice Indigo and the Jackrabbits standing in close proximity for the first time, and greeted them whole-heartedly. “Indigo, right? Sergeant Indigo?”
Indigo beamed widely. “Actually, Lieutenant Indigo by now. Somehow, I managed to get myself promoted.”
His smile then turned to a look of mock disappointment. “And then I got myself stuck with these crazy characters.”
“Aw, too bad,” Ducky replied, with a coy smile on her face. She then turned her attention to the other three rabbits. “And what good inhabitant of Carrotus with half a brain wouldn’t be able to recognize the Jackrabbit family?”
“Are you implying that you have half a brain?” Jazz inquired.
“Still more than certain people,” she replied with a grin, nodding behind her to the half-upright Splitter. As the small rabbit got up, he noticed Ducky still standing close by, with her back to him. He launched himself at her again from his half-standing position, and almost bowled her over as he landed on her back. He clung onto her back like a parasite, and there were both laughing giddily and rotating around crazily until Ducky skillfully crouched down, somersaulting Splitter over her head, and tickled him around the ribs for a second or two. That left him convulsing on the floor in laughter for a few minutes.
As Splitter laid on the floor, recovering from his mirth, Jazz said to Ducky, “So, I take it you two already know each other. And well, by the looks of it,” he added.
“You’re right there. I’ve known the little goony since he was naught but a fuzzy little fuzzball.” Ducky chuckled. “He used to be so cute…”
“Hey!” Splitter was now on his feet again, and was glaring at Ducky. “I’m not cute! What are you talking about?”
Ducky rolled her eyes, and put her face into her hand, shaking her head bemusedly. “Some people are just too much to understand.”
“You got that right,” Indigo replied. “Imagine having to be his partner for a full… no , make that a year and a half by now. I think I’ve gone mildly insane.”
Now Splitter wheeled on Indigo. He raised his finger as if he were about to say something critical, but then lowered it again as he realized that he had forgotten what the critical something was.
Then, Jazz remembered what they had come to Aevias for in the first place. “Ducky, do you know of any place where we can refuel?”
“Refuel what?”
“Er, our airboards.”
“What airboards?”
Something resurfaced from the back of Jazz’s mind. “Oh, poo gas! We left our airboards back at the teleportal!”
Ducky, however, was unfazed. “Don’t worry about it. We can supply you with new ones.”
“We?”
“ARMOR. We’ve got enough to spare.”
“‘Roight then,” Jazz said, suddenly acquiring an outlandish accent. He quickly dropped it again when he received puzzled glances from the others. He continued. “Lead on to the airboards, esteemed Ducky.”
“Oooyay, I’m esteemed,” Ducky giggled, as she led them down the hall.
While ARMOR didn’t have as extensive a stockade of airboards as Outpost 12, the supply was impressive enough for all five of them, excluding Ducky, to find a satisfactory board. After they had all found a suitable board, Spaz once again began to fly uncontrollably around the room, gripping for dear life on to the nose of his airboard as it propelled him about wildly. Splitter made the unwise, and unexpected, mistake of floating in the path of the rampant airboard, and he unwillingly stopped both board and rider with his forehead. As Spaz and his airboard crashed into the wall, Splitter fell backwards off his own board, sending it careening into a high shelf, which dislodged an open, empty crate resting on the shelf. The crate landed, open side down, on top of Lori, trapping her inside. The loud WHUMP of the box landing startled Indigo slightly, but enough to make him lose his balance atop his airboard. His board zipped out from under his feet, directly at Jazz, who was practicing his expertise at performing airboard flip-tricks. As he was halfway through a varial kickflip, Indigo’s board collided with his own, sending it spiraling away from him. As Jazz hit hard on the floor, having no board to cushion his landing, Ducky was still laughing at the amazing chain of events as both airboards caught her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her.
As Lori peeped out from the box that had landed on her, she couldn’t help but chuckle at the state of everyone else. Spaz was upside-down and almost buried in the wall; Splitter was ruefully rubbing his neck, having landed on the back of his head, cracking two of his neck vertebrae; Indigo had whacked his head on another shelf, and was completely unconscious; Jazz was massaging a sore knee after landing on it, instead of landing on his airboard, as planned; and Ducky was still trying to regain her breath after being railed by two airboards, right in the stomach.
Lori pushed the box off herself, then went to help Jazz up. After Jazz had recovered, they set to work on prying Spaz out of the wall. After a few seconds of strain on Lori and Jazz’s part, Spaz popped out of the wall, flying across the room and right into the open box that Lori had left. As Lori peered into the crate, Spaz grinned sheepishly back at her. Lori rolled her eyes, chuckled, then tipped the box backwards with her foot, so that Spaz fell out onto the floor.
Spaz got up and scratched his head for a second. He then seemed to notice, for the first time, the hole he had put in the wall. As he went to retrieve his airboard from beneath the rabbit-shaped crater, Jazz laid his foot on top of it. “Best stay off your airboard for the time being, Spaz. You wouldn’t want to–”
At that point, the airboard’s AI assumed it had a rider on it, and rose into the air accordingly. Unfortunately for Jazz, he only had one foot, and roughly half his weight, on the airboard, which meant it rose twice as fast. Jazz fell backwards, twisting he uninjured knee, and landed hard on his back. Meanwhile, the board flipped once through the air, before clattering to the ground again. Ducky, who had quickly taken a crouching position with Splitter behind the open crate, sighed in relief that it had not set off another chain reaction.
Lori looked down at her fallen brother, laughing. “Maybe it’s you who should stay off your airboard for a while, eh, Jazz?”
The indignant Jazz narrowed his eyes at his sister, but remained silent.

Eet works! EET WORKS! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ^_^

W00tness! I haven't been repyling here have I....but very cool.
Glad you got everything working. Carry on

W00p, lucky thirteen. Yes, I realize it's been more than a month since I've last updated, but since no one's really been paying attention anyway, I doubt that affects anything.

Anyway. Enjoy. Comments and details are in the next post.

Chapter 13: The Eschaton

The enormous pull on Buster’s center of gravity faded, as he rested on hands and knees where he landed on the metal floor. He was breathing heavily, and was gasping and coughing, as if he had gotten the wind knocked out of him. Buster’s metal, spiked shell reflected the white lights above him as he eventually stood up, his previously laboured breaths slowly returning to normal. Looking around the small room for signs of life or anything of interest, he stepped off the small dais on which he stood. As soon as his foot touched the lower floor, his brother, flanked by a single yellow lizard, entered the room.
Slicer opened his arms in a greeting gesture. “Ah, welcome, brother! You made it!”
Buster scratched his head. “Where am I?”
“Why, you don’t recognize it already? This is your brainchild, your ambition! Your greatest masterpiece to date!”
“Slicer, stop talking in circles or I’ll cave in your skull.”
Slicer gulped visibly, and fell silent, staring at the floor. Which was another bad idea, as Buster was still waiting for an answer to his previous question. “Well? Where am I?”
Slicer looked back up to Buster’s toneless eyes. “This is your super-weapon, the satellite Eschaton. Ready to begin charging, as you requested.”
Buster smiled maliciously. “Good. Those rabbits have interfered with my plans long enough. They’ve foiled my capture of their little friend, destroyed my airship, and generally gotten on my nerves. Slicer, have the weapon ready to fire as soon after it finishes charging as possible. I will not tolerate the rabbits’ meddling any longer.”
Slicer nodded, then turned to the lizard beside him. The lizard quickly saluted to the turtles, then left.
Slicer turned back to his brother. “I suppose I’ll give you the grand tour. Follow me.”
“One question, first. Why did you refer to this satellite as ‘my ambition’ earlier?”
Slicer hesitated. “Remember when we were soldiers under Devan Shell’s rule?”
Buster winced, and rubbed the back of his neck. There were several ridge-like welts there, a direct result of a clash between Buster’s and Devan’s unyielding dispositions, just after Buster’s older brother Ripper’s defeat at the Jackrabbits’ hands, with Devan’s superiority emerging the victor. Buster was punished brutally for insubordination, and Devan stood by, advising Buster that he was lucky to still have his life, let alone his original rank in Devan’s army.
Slicer lowered his eyes to the ground again when he saw his brother examining the welts Devan had administered to him, more than a year ago. “I… I’m sorry…”
Buster dropped his hand from the back of his neck calmly. “Never mind. It’s long past, and Devan’s dead, so I don’t have to worry about it ever happening again. Now, if you would continue…?”
Slicer’s head rose level again. “I recall you telling me that if and when Devan died, you’d take over his army and wipe the rabbits out forever. Where he had failed, you would succeed. I simply took your ambitions and turned them into a physical reality: this satellite.”
“And you did all this because…?”
“Because I’m a better brother, and a better soldier, than that blunt idiot Ripper was. I’m smarter than him, more quick-thinking than him, and most importantly, I’m far more loyal to my superiors. Who is, at the moment, you.”
“So you did this all for me?”
“I wanted to get rid of Devan as bad as you did. Your viewpoint only fueled my will to do something about his overconfidence. When you took command of his army, I set to work on the Eschaton. So, yes, in a way I did do this for you. In another, I did it for myself.”
“In any case, you did it. And it’s readying to destroy Carrotus, I presume.”
“If Tokivi has gotten to the control panel to activate the charging, yes, it’s readying to destroy Carrotus.”
“Tokivi?”
“The lizard I sent on his way.”
“Excellent. Now you can show me around if you wish.”
There seemed to be strips of patterns of lights lining the walls of the long corridors within the Eschaton; here was blue, green, red, and somewhere else was yellow, yellow, green, and somewhere else again would be blue, green, blue, yellow, red, green… Buster lost track of the patterns after the fourth glowing light. He shook his head bemusedly, amazed at what he still didn’t know about what was, apparently, the embodiment of his own ambitions.
After a few turns left and right, Buster began to notice the constant appearance of a blue-blue-red pattern. He was about to finally ask Slicer where they were going, when Slicer spoke first.
“I take it you’ve noticed those patterns of lights along the walls?”
Buster nodded, then realizing Slicer could not hear him nodding, nor see him nodding from behind, replied, “Yes. And they are…?”
“Designed to aid our crew in getting from one place in the satellite to another. Each pattern corresponds to a particular location in the Eschaton. This blue-red-blue one that we’re following leads to the command center on the bridge deck.”
“Ah. Okay then.”
About one half kilometer of walking and a short elevator ride later, Buster and Slicer arrived at the command center. Monitors, keyboards, and all matter of technological paraphernalia occupied the periphery of the room that was the command center, and at each terminal was a turtle or reptile soldier, who suddenly started doing whatever they had been doing before just a bit faster on the Tanks’ arrival. At the center of the room, there was a metallic pillar, and a holographic image floated inside a gap in the pillar. The image appeared to be a multi-hued object, resembling a long, edged staff, with a navy blue ball, with what appeared to be short pipes sticking out in all directions, at one end, and a brightly glowing, neon yellow nub at the other. Five arrowhead-shaped protrusions, each about two thirds as long as the object itself, extended in a star shape from the main part of the object, a short distance downward from the ball top. Buster examined the image for a short while, enthralled with the hologram. Trying to identify the various parts of the mystery object, he walked slowly around the pillar.
Suddenly, the ball at the top of the image turned from navy-blue to grayish-white. Several numbers and values appeared, hovering in front of the image, detailing hull interity, surrounding shield strength, approximate energy usage, and other things so complex Buster knew to ignore them. While the numbers appeared, a computerized voice spoke from somewhere above Buster’s head. “Launch bay.”
Buster saw his brother’s grinning face on the other side of the pillar, and circled around towards him. Slicer stepped away, indicating with a gesture the pad of buttons attached to the pillar with which he had highlighted the launch bay.
Buster began studying the layout and aspects of the satellite at the holographic pillar, while Slicer went about to some of the turtles and lizards at the consoles, checking up on the progress of several issues regarding the satellite.
To one turtle, he asked, “Has your crew finished building the Megalith reactor?”
“Yes, sir. We completed construction just after your brother arrived. It will be up and running full power in about three and a half hours.”
“Good.”
He progressed to a lizard who had just sat down in his chair. “How much has the MEW charged yet, Tokivi?”
“Surprisingly little, sir; only about three percent. I don’t understand why.”
Slicer watched over Tokivi’s shoulder as the lizard tapped away at the keypad in front of him. A screen came up, detailing the amount the MEW had charged, along with an approximation of the time left until it was fully charged. The large red progress bar displayed 4%, and the smaller text below it said, “Time Remaining: 15:59:24”
Tokivi turned around to face Slicer. “Okay, four percent. Nevertheless, sixteen hours is a long time to spend waiting.”
“Well, don’t tell me this! Can you fix the problem?”
“It depends on what the problem is. Let me check something.”
After a moment of searching, the solution came up on the screen, in the form of a reactor diagnostic.
“There’s the problem! Only two of the reactors are actually running!”
“What?!”
“Well, the Caduceus reactor is still undergoing repairs from that burnout, and whoever was assigned to power up the other four only activated the Titan and Moebius reactors. The Colossus and Apollo reactors are still inactive.”
“Holy drat!” Slicer exclaimed quietly. “Is it exceedingly difficult to get those two reactors running again?”
Tokivi picked up a handheld intercom and spoke into it. “Rodar.”
A harsh voice spoke back. “Sir?”
“Are you anywhere near either the Colossus or Apollo reactors’ control units?”
“Me’n Garnas are on the war down to the branch hub anyway, sir. D’you want we should turn ‘em on?”
“Please.”
“Will do, sir.”
A minute or so later, the status for the two reactors switched from Inactive to Active, and several numbers began showing approximate values for efficiency and total output, among others.
Tokivi switched back to the MEW’s charge meter. The progress bar had increased to 5%, and the text below displayed “Time Remaining: 3:57:18”
Slicer nodded. “Much better.”
Tokivi smiled slightly. “Indeed. Twelve hours worth of charging, accomplished in about half as many minutes.”
Buster, after deciding he had learned enough from the holograms, was now standing behind Slicer and Tokivi. He rubbed his hands with malicious glee. “Good. At this rate, the weapon should be fully charged just after this Megalith reactor is running at full, correct?”
“Correct, sir.”
Buster grinned evilly. “Excellent. Today is a dark day for Carrotus and its inhabitants… for today is the day of the Eschaton!”

I honestly didn't think I'd get this chapter done 'til god knows when. I accidentally corrupted my own registry on my computer, so I couldn't simply synchronize my Palm to my comp and copy from there, as my comp was over at my dad's friend's house, being fixed. Bleh.

• For those of you who don't know, the Eschaton is a term for the end of the world. An apt name for a planet-destroying satellite.
• I have a K'NEX model of the satellite Eschaton in my room. I feel special. ^_^
• If anyone can tell me where the names Titan, Apollo, Moebius, Colossus, and Caduceus come from, I'll give them a cookie!

I have no idea what I'm going to do for Chapter 14, but I'll try to not let it slide for a month. Hopefully, this thread won't fall off the thirty-day page. >_>

BTW, I devoted all of my time to E:JF after finishing Chapter 4 of SoT, so the next chapter of SoT may not be up for a while.

Moygl.

Well, I certainly hope someone actually gets around to reading this chapter. Unlike the warm acceptance Chapter 13 found amongst you. *glares*

Anyway. For those of you who still care, enjoy.

Chapter 14: Contact

When Ducky, Indigo, Splitter, and the Jackrabbits had finally quit ARMOR’s airboard room without being injured further, Ducky inquired, “So where are you all flying off to next, anyway?”
“We have to go re-rescue a friend of ours, who is currently stranded on a giant flying fortress,” Jazz replied.
“Re-rescue?”
“Well, the reason he’s stranded on a giant flying fortress is because someone–” here Jazz shot a biting glance at Spaz, who grinned meekly “–used his airboard to exit said giant flying fortress after being imprisoned there for a relatively short period of time.”
“Ah.” Ducky thought for a few moments, then added, “Can I come? The tedium of ARMOR’s everyday schedule is just that, tedious. It would be a nice change for me to bust some machine.”
“Yeah please can she come please please can she please?” Splitter was babbling so fast his words were almost indistinguishable from one another. Indigo rolled his eyes, then swatted Splitter across the back of his head. Not hard enough to cause much pain, but enough to shut him up.
The Lieutenant hesitated in giving a straight answer. “I don’t know... it’s just a quick S&R, anyway...”
“PLEEEEEEEEZ?” Splitter begged. This time it was Ducky who swatted Splitter across the head, with a terse “Enough!”
The gray rabbit looked back up to the others. “If I’m not coming, at least let me help you find this flying fortress. Being a floating city, Aevias keeps a watch over airspace for this side of the planet. I’m sure I can find something as obtuse as a fortress in the air.”
As the posse headed for one of ARMOR’s numerous radar satellite console stations, Ducky asked, “Is there anything you can tell me, measurement-wise, about what I’m looking for?”
“Does ‘really flippin’ huge’ help at all?” Indigo replied.
“Actually, yes, it does. Now I can disregard any medium-sized craft in the search. I assume that by ‘really flippin’ huge’ you mean something that is about the size of an airborne aircraft carrier, right?”
“About that size, yes. Perhaps a bit smaller, but definitely not classifiable as a medium-sized craft,” Lori said. “After all, it is a fortress. Kind of.”
“’Kind of’?” Ducky narrowed her eyes at Lori. “What do you mean, ‘kind of’?”
“Well, it’s more of a gunship – well, not even that, probably a flying battleship.” Lori narrowed her eyes back at Ducky, with a smile on her face, denoting that she meant nothing of it. “Why do you ask?”
Ducky un-narrowed her eyes, and answered, “I was just checking that you weren’t looking for something that resembles, say, a smaller version of Aevias with more weapon on it, which would most likely be one of Aevias’ or Velo City’s airborne battle stations.”
“Well, it definitely did not look like that.”
“Okay then.”
They entered a room, with a sign above blaring “Radar Console Area 7-3” in bright red letters. The room itself was not very large, but it contained at least a dozen, maybe two, control stations. As soon as they walked in the door, Ducky went for the console third from the door. Which itself was somewhat strange; as there was no one else in the room, she could have gone to the one nearest the door, but apparently chose not to.
“Can you tell me approximately where this battleship of yours is?”
“A while north – maybe ten or twelve klicks,” Indigo said, indicating with a pointed finger the direction.
Ducky looked at Indigo’s hand. “That’s west, Lieutenant.”
“No it’s not. It’s north.”
“It’s west.”
Indigo dropped his hand, and looked upwards; he wasn’t quite rolling his eyes, but he appeared to be thinking in depth. He pointed west again, then pointed in a direction perpendicular to west. He seemed to be mouthing something, but no sound came from his mouth. After a few seconds of Indigo’s pointing in random directions and talking silently to himself in his mind, he turned back to Ducky, stating simply, “You’re right. That is west.”
“I know. That’s what I said.”
Indigo pointed west again. “Well, the gunship was in that direction then. Whatever direction that is now.”
“That’s west.”
“Okay then.”
“Alright, so it’s west… how far away did you say it was?”
“Maybe 10 kilometers.”
“Okie-dokie then.” With that, she began tapping away madly at the keyboard connected to the computer in front of which she sat. Screens flashed by, numbers quickly and rapidly appeared and disappeared, and small message boxes only showed themselves for less than a split second as Ducky entered every bit of information she had so fast her hands were a blur. The rabbits behind her struggled to focus on even one thing, failing miserably as words blipped on and off of the screen faster than their eyes could follow them.
Suddenly, Ducky stopped typing. She turned around, so she was facing the others. She had a worried look upon her face.
“You said you have a comrade still in the airship, right?”
“Yes, one Blaze Blackrabbit still upstairs in the airship,” Lori answered, now getting anxious herself when she saw Ducky’s expression. “Why? What’s wrong?”
Ducky blinked once. “Well, I didn’t find a gigantic airship, but I did find lots of… much smaller airships… in generally the same area…”
“What?” Jazz said. “Where did all of those smaller ships come… from…” His eyes widened as he realized what had actually happened. “Oh no…”
“And Blaze?” Splitter asked tentatively.
“No sign of him, I’m afraid. He may have taken a turn for the worse,” Ducky said, with an uneasy tone in her voice. “We may have lost him.”
Jazz seemed to deflate slightly at this statement, then he brightened up again as he remembered something. Hastily taking off his backpack, he drove his hand inside, mumbling to himself slightly. He appeared to have much more inside his backpack than it looked able to carry.
Suddenly, he found what he was looking for. He pulled it out of the pack, with a grandiose “Aha!”
In his hand, he held the small headset Wizard had given him, as he did with all of the others, before they had left the R.O.A.R. Outpost. He flipped it onto his head, pressing the power button on the left earphone as he did so, and adjusted it so it rested snugly atop his furry head. Lowering the mic so it was next to his mouth, Jazz spoke into the headset. “Jack? Firefox? Can anyone hear me?”
Wizard’s voice came back, clear as a bell. “We hear you, Jazz. What’s up?”
“We’re worried about Blaze. We left him up in the Shellnaught when we made our hasty escape, and now the airship has gone and blown up. With Blaze inside it. There’s no sign of anything where the ship used to be, and that includes any lagomorphic entities.”
There was a short pause on the other end, then Wizard’s voice returned. “What are you talking about? Did you just realize that the Shellnaught’s been destroyed just now?”
“Well, yeah… so? Blaze could have been taken out of existence along with the Shellnaught. I don’t understand how you can be so positive about this! A Task Force member’s life is in danger! He could be dead already!”
“Jazz. Calm down.”
“How can I–”
“Blaze is sitting right next to me.”
“…buh?”
“Jack caught Blaze and another rabbit, goes by the name of Acid, in free-fall before the Shellnaught even went down. They had apparently blown themselves out of the ship with a mini-nuke. Jack, Firefox, Blaze, Headcheese, Acid, and myself are still together and in one piece.”
“Well, that’s good to hear. As long as he’s still alive. How are the rest of you doing?”
“Well, Jack’s got a bruise on his waist from Headcheese plowing into him, and Blaze and Acid are a bit burnt from the nuke blast, but overall we’re fine. You?”
“Not too bad. Indigo and Splitter are still with us, as is Spaz. We’ve met one of Splitter’s friends, a female rabbit by the name of Ducky, during our stay at Aevias. God, I almost sound like a travel agent. Anyway, we came here to refuel our airboards, and ended up getting new ones.”
“Sounds like you’ve been keeping yourselves busy.”
“We have.”
“Alright then, we’ll rendezvous with you at Aevias in twenty.”
“Sounds good. We’ll be ready.”
“Righty. Wizard of Odds out.”
Jazz took off the headset, and was immediately greeted with the inquisitive stares of his siblings, the Lieutenant and his partner, and Ducky, who was still sitting at the radar terminal. They were all expectant of an answer, which Jazz provided.
“Blaze is fine; apparently, he and another rabbit, Acid, blew up the airship with a small nuke. Jack found them in free-fall, and they’re all back at ground level, safe and sound. They’ll be here to pick us up in twenty minutes.”
Ducky rested her chin in her hand, smiling slightly. “Well, I’m glad I could be of service.”
“Yes, thank you, Ducky, for your assistance in finding the Shellnaught, or lack thereof. In the meantime, we must be going if we’re going to meet up with the others,” Lori answered.
“Alright then, I’ll see you all later. If you need anything, I’ll be here, just drop by.”
“Will do, Ducky, will do,” Jazz acknowledged, with a nod of approval.
As they were leaving, Ducky couldn’t help but chuckle at Splitter’s several attempts to get the others to allow her to come. “So can she come? Can she? Please please please pleeeeeeease?”
Indigo’s voice always seemed to follow Splitter’s. “No! For the hundred and sixth time, stop asking!”
“Yeah, but can she come?”
“Argh!”

I suppose I should start working on SoT again... it appears to have slipped off of the 30-day page... ah well, I have a general idea for what I'm doing in Chapter 5, so this shouldn't be too difficult.

I'm going to sleep now. G'night all.

~_~ .zzZ

i like it iand i am stil reading this so dont quit writing on!

have you got a digital camera?
if yes can you post a picture of the sattelite you made from k'nex

yes and maybe. i could take a pic of the satellite, but i'd need a host site to send it to, then to put it up here.

besides, it's not quite perfect. the model has eight of what there is only five of in the story.

note how i'm being very vague. i'm trying not to let anything slip.

THANK YOU, SCATMAN, FOR READING THIS! I honestly thought no one cared about my story anymore... ;_;

OY!!! THIS IS A GREAT STORY!!!

I didn't reply to the last chapter because i'm too lazy. Feel free to bludgeon me with the steel pipe of dishonor.

ok
but when it is perfect (may be never, you choise) i can host it for you
if you want

...W00t?
*has to go through and reply to all the topics*

Am v. busy. Sorry. But I think they're great continuations.

Chapter 15: Innovations and Strategies

True to their word, Wizard and the others were at Aevias’ Ground Point in a few seconds shy of twenty minutes. Jazz, Spaz, and Lori were waiting at the Ground Point for them, and they watched as the sleek superbike slowed to a halt in front of the small building. Jack, with Blaze still on his back, was not too far behind the bike, and he was closing fast. He stopped as an ice-skater would, turning sideways and firing his BIAS’ jets once, causing him to stop abruptly beside the bike.
Blaze hopped off of Jack’s back. Jack bent backwards, and a painful series of cracks sounded from his spine as he forced his vertebrae back into place.
“Holy toast, that’s the last time I carry a passenger on my back.” Standing straight up again, a few more cracks were audible from Jack’s back. “Ow. I think I’m getting too old for this kind of stuff.”
The top of the bike slid open, and Firefox hopped out. “What’s this? The greatest marksrabbit on this side of Carrotus is getting too old for his trade?”
Jack laughed. “You shut up. You’re still older than I am.”
“And I’m going to hold that against you for the rest of your life, I am,” Firefox shot back, grinning.
While Jack and Firefox bantered back and forth, Jazz couldn’t help but admire the blue bike. Wizard noticed him ogling the set of wheels, and smiled to himself. After Acid and Headcheese had exited the bike, Jazz asked Wizard, “Is this yours?”
Wizard shook his head. “I only wish. This is one of R.O.A.R.’s prized speed vehicles, the XG Neon. Personally, my weapon of choice.”
“Not a bad choice, if I do say so myself.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
“Do I dare to ask if this Neon packs any armament?”
Wizard glanced at Jazz as if the answer was obvious. He smiled knowingly. “I would never go anywhere in a vehicle without any armament.”
With that, he pushed a small, yellow button on the front panel in the cockpit. Jazz jumped backwards, as a pair of wing-like protrusions extended themselves from the sides of the bike. A small pod-like object appeared on each wingtip, with the same sleek blue appearance as the rest of the bike. Finally, two small sections of each pod, one on the front and another on the further side, opened to reveal a six-barreled minigun.
With another push of a button, Wizard opened the cockpit of the pod nearer to Jazz. “Hop in.”
Jazz did so, and the top closed again. He immediately faced a single control stick with a button atop it. He hesitantly wrapped his hand around the stick; then, assured that nothing had exploded, he slowly moved the stick left to right. The minigun responded by moving right to left in front of the pod.
“As you probably may have guessed, the button fires the minigun,” Wizard said over the intercom. “Don’t press it unless you have something to aim at.”
“I figured that much,” Jazz replied drolly. “Are the rear guns automated, or what?”
“No, someone else would be sitting behind you to pilot the rear guns.”
“Ah. And to pop the top so I can get out...?”
“There’s a small handle on your right. Pull it.”
The top of the pod opened again, and Jazz got out. He examined the miniguns from the outside, nodding in awe. “Can you use the miniguns from inside the main bike?”
“I could, but I rarely need to. I don’t often venture into battle with the Neon, so I’ve gotten used to piloting it without the side pods. Besides, with the pods I can’t do that stylin’ sideways skid I just did a few minutes ago.”
“Of course,” Jazz replied with a grin.
Lori and Spaz were discussing plans with Acid, Indigo, Splitter, and Blaze. Acid had just told them of a spacecraft he had constructed a while ago, but had never required, which was stored in an underground hangar not far from where he had been abducted in the middle of his field-testing. His ship, the Hybrid Corsair, was specially built for a perfect intermediation of speed, armour, and weaponry; in addition, the Corsair sported a ventrally mounted ‘bot hangar with three ‘bots inside. Considering Blaze, Jack, and the others had rescued him from the rank cells of the airship Shellnaught, Acid said he would be more than happy to lend his services to them. The underground hangar in which the Corsair rested was relatively close to Aevias’ Ground Point; it was maybe a fifteen-minute run to the south.
Just as they were about to say their thank-yous to Acid for his generosity, a high-powered energy blast ripped into the Ground Point, struck Indigo in the torso, and sent him flying across the small building, where he smashed painfully into the back wall. Every rabbit inside the Ground Point building turned around to face the entrance, weapons ready.
Outside, and closing fast, was a horde of yellow lizards, just like the one Jack, Jazz, and the others had defeated before splitting up earlier. However, there were two differences between this mob and the last: there were some Tuf Turtles interspersed with the throngs of lizards, and each and every one of them was armed with some kind of weapon. Every weapon was poised to fire. Some, generally the ones at the forefront of the advancing pack of lizards and turtles, already were.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jack muttered, as another blast narrowly missed Firefox’s ear. “Haven’t we already gone through this?”
“Probably, but whatever, blowing stuff up is great fun!” Firefox exclaimed, cocking his blastgun. He let a few shots loose into the crowd of lizards and turtles, then ducked as yet another energy blast narrowly missed his head and took out the wall behind him.
Wizard opened both pods on either side of the Neon, and yelled out, “Get in!” before closing the sliding panel on the main bike. Four bullets pinged off of the panel just after it closed. Spaz and Lori jumped into the pod on the left wing; Headcheese and Blaze were already in the pod on the right side. Acid, Jazz, Jack, and Firefox quickly ducked behind the bike as both pods closed, and all four miniguns blazed away at the advancing lizards and turtles.
Splitter was tending to Indigo at the far side of the Ground Point. After being hit by a burning energy blast on the left side of his chest and stomach, Indigo’s normally well-groomed tan fur was not surprisingly charred to black and brown, and there were severe burn marks on the skin underneath. Blood issued from one side of Indigo’s mouth, creating a red line in his tawny fur, and he was only half-conscious. Splitter frantically tried his best to remember what he had learned in the medical aid course he had taken before he came to R.O.A.R.; then, finally giving up, he helped Indigo up by his right arm, and, using himself as a crutch, supported Indigo back to the portal to Aevias. Before they entered the iridescent portal, Splitter made sure to pound a large red button near the portal’s rim, setting off an emergency alarm at the floating city. Jack watched them go into the shimmering portal, then turned around and kept firing at the slowly thinning horde.
Jazz had switched his main weapon to RF rockets, and now was taking out three lizards at a time as the rockets exploded in the reptilian ranks; Jack was blasting away at everything that moved with this twin BIAS blasters, roasting several lizards every second; Firefox took short, quick shots with his blastgun, and managed to weaken the lizards’ forces well enough; and Acid, after loading a nuke into his rocket launcher, popped up, fired the nuke, and ducked back down again, guiding the nuke from a small screen on the side of the launcher. When a nuke exploded, it left a considerably large hole in the offensive ranks of the turtles and lizards.
After the crowd had been dispelled, which took a good ten to twelve minutes of non-stop, rapid-fire blasting (and three or four nukes from Acid’s launcher), Jazz was the only one who had taken any sort of injury; a bullet had grazed his shoulder, but it had not drawn blood, nor fazed him at all. Jack sniped off one hastily retreating lizard as Firefox looked around the room for the other two rabbits. “Hey, where did Indigo and Splitter go?”
Considering Jack was the only one who had witnessed Splitter aiding Indigo to the portal, he was the only one of them who knew where they were. After quickly scanning the horizon, he answered Firefox’s question. “Splitter took care of Indigo. He hit the panic button, and then they went back up to Aevias to get to a hospital. I can only hope the Lieutenant will be okay.”
Firefox nodded approvingly, the lowered his head. “It’s a shame, a real shame. Those two were some good fighters… I did underestimate them before, back at HQ, didn’t I?”
Without warning, Firefox stamped once, venting his spleen on no one in particular. “Random expletive! We can’t let Tank and his goons make casualties out of any more rabbits! We have to act now!”
Acid piped up first. “Well then, what are we waiting for? Like I said, it will probably only take about fifteen minutes to get to the Corsair’s hangar. We could be off the planet within half an hour, if we go now.”
“Thank you!” Firefox was breathing heavily, as if he had just finished doing something very stressful. “At least someone around here knows the value of time!”
Jack was going to follow with a stinging comeback, but kept it to himself.
“Well then, let’s be off.” Wizard slid back the main panel of the Neon. “Firefox, Acid, and Jazz, get in. Jack, do you still have enough fuel in that BIAS of yours to get to the Corsair?”
Quickly checking a gauge on one of the shoulder straps, Jack grinned. “I’ve hardly used any yet, Wizard. I could get there and back a hundred times if I wanted.”
“Well, we only need you to make the trip once,” Wizard replied, as Jazz, Firefox, and Acid hopped into the three seats behind him. “We need to get up to that satellite ASAP, and, like Firefox said, kill Tank before he kills us. And the planet.”
“Alright. Lead the way.”

This chapter was actually sitting in wait for about a week, as I was contemplating whether or not to add something to it. It used to be a lot shorter than it is now, as I added some stuff to bring it closer to the 10000 character limit. Hey, what good is a chapter if it's not long enough?

The only cameo in here is the name Neon, which, along with the bike to which it belongs, I took from the game Extreme-G. The pods and the miniguns were my own idea.

Chapter 16 has kinda-sorta been started, as I took off the end of Chapter 15 and turned it into the start of Chapter 16. That means that number sixteen will take maybe a few days less than usual to get up here.



BLEE

Very good! Can't wait for next chapter!



I can't help but pointing out that Acid's weapon is a little stronger than I originally intended, but a mini nuke launcher is okay!

Glad you like it. I enjoy seeing things explode.

JSYK, I was on a chemistry binge when I made up the name RaCO. "Radium hypocarbonite" sounds like a good combination of highly sophisticated and extremely volatile.

I've got the first half-page of Chapter 16 done! Whee!

I was just wondering, is it too late or could you spare at least a small cameo for Foo/Electrik/Phish?

I'm not quite sure where I'd be able to put them, Acid. The spots seem to have pretty well filled up. If I do find an opening, I'll be sure to put Electrik there. I'm not sure how in the name of cheese I'd be able to use Foo, and I don't know enough about Phish to be able to use him properly.

In any case, here's Chapter 16 for you. Enjoy.

Chapter 16: Countdown

Considering the Neon moved at least twice as fast as any rabbit could run, they reached the hidden hangar in about seven minutes, roughly half of Acid’s predicted time. Wizard actually passed the entrance to the hangar before Acid told him to stop, whereupon Wizard slowed the Neon to a standstill, quickly forestalling himself from attempting a sideways slide. Acid reached up to his left ear, where he pressed down on one of his two ear studs.
Suddenly, a large portion of the ground shifted, near to the Neon. As the grassy area where the ground used to be moved to one side, a large, square tunnel replaced it, which appeared to channel deep into the ground. The tunnel immediately lit up as Wizard dove into it, and Jack, closely following the Neon, didn’t need to look back to know that the secret entrance had closed behind him.
The tunnel seemed to continue underground for at least a mile before they reached a larger, open area. Wizard slowed the Neon to a stop again, and took a look around. They were in a relatively small, dome-shaped cavern, with metal walls curving upwards towards the apex of the dome. A few vehicles lined the far wall, opposite the entrance from the tunnel, which included a few ATVs, a heavily armed truck, a superbike (or a combination of three bikes, which is what it appeared to be), and even a medium-sized, armed flying machine. Apparently, Acid had constructed considerably more than just the Hybrid Corsair, as the contents of the main room showed.
Wizard slid the top panel back, and opened the pods on either side of the Neon’s main body, allowing the other rabbits to get out. As soon as he had vaulted out of the slightly confined space in the Neon, Acid walked over to the far right of the room, and pressed in a few buttons on a keypad on the wall, as Wizard deftly moved the Neon into a parked position alongside the other vehicles in the hangar.
As Acid hit one last button, with an air of finality, a section of the curved wall receded sideways, disappearing from view. Where it had opened, the rabbits could see a passageway extending for a short distance, then making a sharp turn to the left. Acid stepped one pace backwards, and gestured that they should enter. As they did, the mouth of the entrance tunnel slid shut, and quickly became just another part of the curved dome wall.
Acid quickly consulted a map of the base on the left wall of the passageway, seemingly assuring himself that he knew where he was going. He traced a path on the map, nodded once to himself, and then pointed in the direction they were going.
A short distance and a few twists and turns later, they came to what appeared to be a control room. It was small and rectangular, only allowing just enough room for all nine rabbits to crowd in, and a panel of controls lined the side of the room opposite to the doorway. After scanning the long panel, Acid came to what he was looking for, and pressed two buttons rapidly in sequence.
A large part of the wall in front of the control panel seemed to open, revealing a window into the room behind the wall. Two doors on either side of the panel opened as well, permitting access to yet another two passageways, which obviously led to the opposite room.
The space on the other side of the wall was obviously not just another room. It was a huge hangar, in which a large black ship rested, with its starboard side facing them. Along the side of the nose of the ship were the words “Hybrid Corsair” written in silvery, stencil-esque typeface. It was enormous, almost fifty metres long, and half again as wide. Two tubular pipes led from the lower half of the ship to the upper half. The entire ship sported at least ten proportionally massive cannons interspersed around the ship’s body, from small pairs of minicannons on each long wingtip, to four wider pulse cannons along the middle of the ship: two near the nose, and another two between the wings. There were four, possibly more, engines on the back of the ship, accompanied by a strange, snub claw-like object protruding from the high center of the back of the ship.
Jack’s jaw dropped in awe at the enormity of the ship. Firefox was simply lost for words. Neither of them could believe that this one rabbit had created so much. Wizard stared at the ship, then to Acid, and back to the ship. “You... you made this? All of it?”
“With a little help, yes,” Acid replied. Before any of the others had time to ask him what he meant by this statement, he ushered them through the two tunnels. “Come on, let’s go! I want to try this thing!”
Jack stopped in his tracks. He slowly turned around to face Acid. “You mean you’ve… never flown this ship before?”
“Bah, how hard can it be? I built it, remember? It shouldn’t be all that hard to recall where I put what… um, anyway, get on in!”
Jack, although not appeased by Acid’s oblique lack of knowledge as to his own ship, made his way through one of the tunnels connecting the control room to the Hybrid Corsair.
Once inside, Jack looked around, noticing the others in a similar state of awe. The inside of the Corsair looked even larger than its outside, and everything seemed to be made of metal: the floors, the walls, the ceilings, the doors, and the various controls dotting the walls. A small light, next to the door Jack had just entered, switched from red to green as the door closed behind him.
The hallway that Jack, Firefox, Lori, and Spaz had entered, after they had all taken the same tunnel, only went two ways: left and right. Jack looked both ways, trying to decide which direction to take down the hall, when Firefox tapped him on the shoulder. Jack turned around, and Firefox pointed down the hall to his right, indicating Lori and Spaz’s retreating backs. They both immediately took to a jog after the two Jackrabbits, hailing them to wait up.
When the four had regrouped a short way down the hall, Firefox couldn’t help but wonder how Lori knew where she was going. “So how do you know we’re going the right way?”
“Well, Acid never told us where to go upon entering the ship. I’m guessing we go to the cockpit, because that’s most likely where we can find him. Like he said, he built this ship, so he knows his way around better than all of us put together.”
Jack mumbled something under his breath, but none of the others caught it. He grinned.
They continued at a relatively rapid pace toward the nose of the ship. Jack was almost sure they were slowly going in circles, but they soon ended up in an area that befit the designation of cockpit. Acid had already taken the pilot’s seat at the front side of the cockpit, and Jazz, Headcheese, Blaze, and Wizard occupied four other seats around the periphery of the room.
Acid spun around in his pilot’s chair, nearly falling out in the process, and glanced at them. “Ah, good, you’re here. Now then, if you would, please find a chair for each of yourselves...”
Jack plunked himself down in a chair near the back of the room; Spaz immediately pulled up a chair next to Headcheese; Firefox sat down near the front, not far from Acid; Lori chose a seat in the middle of the room, facing what appeared to be a holographic projection table.
Acid spun around again, so he was facing forward, and manipulated controls all over the panel in front of him. Various sounds emitted from the ship as its numerous parts moved to prepare for takeoff. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard the Hybrid Corsair. I’ll be your pilot for this evening, and it’ll be a nonstop flight from this hangar to that big satellite thingy in space that wants to kill us. We ask that you now take note of your nearest emergency exit, and observe that the No Smoking sign has been turned on. Now then, please buckle your seatbelt, keep your arms and legs inside the craft at all times, and enjoy your flight.”
There was one more click as Acid pushed a final button in front of him, and then a quiet roar sounded from below them. The seats vibrated slightly as the engine ignited beneath and behind them. Acid smiled as his ship’s engine burst to life. “OK, we will have liftoff in T-minus thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven...”
He looked down at a screen in front of him, squinting, as if he had found something there that he was not expecting. “Hm. My watch is wrong.”
Everyone in the cockpit felt a sense of vertigo as the Corsair began to float upward, toward the slowly opening roof of the hangar. Light flooded into the cockpit as the ship rose above the Carrotan surface. The feeling of slightly increased gravity on the occupants of the ship disappeared as the Corsair stopped rising, and hovered still, about ten feet above the ground.
Acid glanced over his shoulder, at the eight rabbits behind him. Turning back again, he looked out at the sky above, all ready to put his great ship into orbit. He smiled devilishly.
“Hold on to your arses, arse-holders, ‘cause it’s go-time! Hoo-ha!”
The rabbits inside scarcely had time to blink before the Corsair blasted its engines, sending it flying with at least twice the speed of sound behind their backs, and sending it on its way to begin the final stage of assault against Buster Tank and the Eschaton.

For some reason I didn't like how I put this chapter together as much as the other chapters.

Chapter 17 will be updated sometime. And by "updated sometime" I don't mean "ignored indefinitely", so you can expect an update probably within the next two months.

Kaboo.

I suddenly realised nobody had replied to this thread in a LONG TIME. Don't worry, I'm still here.

And eagerly anticipating the next chappie. *COUGH COUGH*

EDIT: in reply to the last chapter, I just wanted to ask, have you ever read "The Physics of Star Trek" for two reasons:
1. It's a funny book that explains how messed up Star Trek really is!
2. If you had read it, you would know that accelerating from almost still to mach 2 would most likely be lethal.

1. Star Trek is screwed up, and I'm proud of it.

2. The Corsair has lateral gravitational restabilizers to make up for the mammoth G-force exerted on our lagomorphic protagonists. And to think I just made that up.

I'll have to read that book sometime, Acid. Sounds like fun.

BTW, thank you for proving that this story is not slowly getting dead. I was losing hope...

The Corsair has lateral gravitational restabilizers to make up for the mammoth G-force exerted on our lagomorphic protagonists. And to think I just made that up.

Well, I guess if Star Trek has inertial dampers, you can have lateral gravitational restabilizers.

Originally posted by acid
Well, I guess if Star Trek has inertial dampers, you can have lateral gravitational restabilizers.

I don't watch Star Trek enough to know what inertial dampers are, but I'm willing to bet that they do roughly the same thing as LGRs. (Acronyms rule.)

Oh, and by the way... Electrik's in.

Edit: So are Foo and Phish.

Chapter 17: Family Ties

The Hybrid Corsair flew impossibly fast through the Carrotan air, skimming the tops of trees, and narrowly missing the tops of buildings. The occupants had felt but a split-second of immense pressure on their bodies as the G-forces caused by the ship’s acceleration forced them backwards (or sideways, depending on where they sat) into their seats. Their inertia quickly caught up with them, and they pulled themselves upright again. As they sat up straight again, Acid gradually began to pull the ship into an upward curve, and the Corsair began to slowly, then rapidly, gain altitude, until they felt that indescribable transition from the gravitational forces of the planet below to the impression of zero gravity in the vacuum of space.
Most of the eight passengers had never felt the sensation of zero-G, and thought it quite entertaining. Headcheese and Spaz, for example, floated more than a foot out of their chairs, finding the apparent absence of gravity highly amusing. Acid quickly advised them to stay in their seats, as the artificial gravity was either going to hold them down into their seats again, or smash them into the ground. Deciding to abstain from an ungainly faceplant into the floor, the two hovering rabbits quickly grabbed their respective chairs, pulling themselves back down into them. They heard a beep from Acid’s direction, and then the gravity returned, settling them back into their seats.
Then, from behind the cockpit, there was a loud WHUMP, followed by an “Ow!” Acid looked to each of them, and they returned his glance, puzzledly. The pilot stood up slowly, and exited the cockpit. Not three seconds had passed before they heard an argument brewing in the corridor behind them.
“Elec…?! What in the name of all that’s holy are you doing here?”
“Well, you didn’t think you were just going to leave me behind, did you? Strand me on Carrotus while you go off on some adventure to save the world and whatnot?”
“Um, let me think about this. Yes?”
There was a loud ZAP, and then Acid seemed to have changed his mind. “Okay, okay, fine! You can stay!”
“I thought you’d see it my way. Oh, by the way, there’s someone here to see you.”
“HEWWO ASHID!”
“Dear God. Why is he here?”
“It’s not like I asked him to come. He followed me here. Believe me, I want him here as little as you do.”
“I’m going to take a wild guess, and say that Phish is here too.”
“He’s around, yeah.”
“Remind me to kill you for this someday.”
“‘Kay.”
Acid re-entered the cockpit, followed by a blue-furred rabbit with a headband, surrounded by small arcs of electricity swarming around his body. A few seconds later, a lanky, tan-furred rabbit wearing a lopsided helmet meandered in driftily. The other occupants immediately realized that there was definitely something strange about this tan rabbit, as he seemed to be wandering about aimlessly, entranced in his own little world. The Jackrabbits’ doubts about this rabbit’s intelligence – or rather, sanity – were immediately confirmed as he suddenly cried out in surprise at nothing in particular, backpedalled a few steps, stumbled, then fell sprawling over the table at which Lori sat.
Acid put his face into his hands, embarrassed at the lanky rabbit’s antics. The blue rabbit simply laughed, and as he did, a particularly large spark of electricity was emitted from his left ankle, spiraled around his body, and sent itself back into his opposite shoulder. He didn’t even flinch.
Firefox quietly tapped Acid on the shoulder, causing the latter to look up. “Do you... know these two?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Acid chuckled. “The blue one with the out-of-control static charge is my brother Electrik, and the idiot who just performed a backwards faceplant over the holo-table is my cousin, Foo.”
“Foo?”
“Yes. Foo.”
Upon hearing his name, Foo looked upwards from the floor at Firefox, with a mighty “HEWWO MISHTER GUY!” at the top of his lungs.
Firefox’s eyebrow seemed to climb up his forehead. “Now I understand.”
“Yes.”
Jack watched Electrik as another arc of electricity encircled the tips of his long ears. Without taking his eyes off of the supercharged rabbit, he asked Acid, “So who’s Phish?”
“Phish is my other cousin, and Foo’s brother. They share pretty well no similarities... well, excepting species and gender, of course. I’m willing to bet that Phish probably has what Foo lacks in brains.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t mind, though,” Electrik chuckled.
“Who? Phish or Foo?”
“Either of them,” the blue rabbit replied with a wide grin. Acid laughed a bit at this inside joke, but everyone else felt they had missed whatever it was that was funny.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Acid started. “I don’t think you’ve met Jack Flash or any of these other rabbits.”
“No, I don’t believe I have...” As Electrik’s eyes scanned the room, he saw no one he knew, other than his brother and cousin.
Then his eyes landed on Jazz. His eyebrows raised themselves for a split second; then, with one more look around the room, he noticed Lori, and finally Spaz. He finished his earlier sentence.
“...except, of course, the Jackrabbits. I mean, what good inhabitant of Carrotus with half a brain wouldn’t be able to recognize the Jackrabbit family?”
Jazz was about to say something witty, but stopped himself. That’s weird, he thought to himself. That’s the exact same thing that Ducky said, back at Aevias. Could they be connected somehow? Jazz scratched his head, then banished the thought from his mind for the moment.
At that moment, an orange-furred rabbit stuck his head in the door. Nodding to Electrik, he declared, “Fixed it.”
Electrik returned the nod. “Good job.”
Acid turned around to look at the two. “Wait, wait, wait. What’s fixed? What did you ‘fix’ this time, Phish?!”
“Oh. Your Maxim-Circe burst laser. Wires got pulled, and the sentinel wasn’t working properly, or at least not nearly as fast as it should have been. In any case, I repaired it; now you shouldn’t have any problems with protecting the rear.”
Phish looked around the room, with a puzzled expression on his face. “I thought this ship was a destroyer, not a passenger transport. Would someone mind telling me who we’re hosting here?”
“I was about to, when you dropped in,” Acid replied. “As you’ve probably noticed, the Jackrabbits decided to come with; these others that you probably wouldn’t recognize are known as R.O.A.R.’s Elite Task Force.”
He slowly began to turn in his chair, indicating the five rabbits in question. “The young one, next to Spaz, is Headcheese; that black one behind you is Blaze Blackrabbit; Big Red here, next to me, calls himself Capt. Firefox; the bespectacled one on the other side of the room is Wizard of Odds; and the white one with the artillery is Jack Flash. Everyone else, this is Phish.”
“Hi.”
There was a short silence as Phish found a chair next to Wizard, and then Blaze spoke up. “I meant to ask you something earlier, Acid...”
“Yes?” Acid turned around, wearing an amusingly unassuming expression on his face.
“Would there be any possibility that we could get the details on the ‘bots in the hangar before we delve too far into this mission?”
“Absolutely,” Acid replied. “Electrik, would you mind taking the controls?”
Electrik exchanged places with Acid, and the latter moved to the holo-table, sitting opposite Lori. He entered a few commands, and the table hummed to life, sending a bright green, semi-transparent image into the air.
The image was that of a large robot. The ‘bot itself looked fearsome enough in and of itself, but there was nothing particularly striking about its appearance, excepting what appeared to be a line of blade-like projections running down its back.
“This is the first ‘bot I built for the Corsair, called the Razorback. It’s probably the most heavily armoured of the three, but it comes at a cost of speed and maneuverability. Nevertheless, it’s a good thing to have around if you’re about to fly into a warzone.”
The image began to shift, move, and mutate for a few seconds after Acid had finished his description. When it had completed its shapeshifting, a new robot stood in the place of the Razorback. This one was slightly smaller than the first, but it appeared to have more power behind it. Four vent-looking rockets extended like small wings from its shoulders and ankles, and two tubes, similar to the ones adorning the sides of the Corsair, ran from the ‘bot’s shoulders up to the back of its head.
“The Pegasus is like the exact opposite of the Razorback, being lightly armoured but very fast and agile. It can only carry light weapons, but it can deal death just as quickly and efficiently as any other ‘bot you’ll ever find. An experienced Pegasus pilot would literally be able to fly circles around an enemy.”
The image began to metamorphose again, and in the place of the Pegasus there appeared the third robot. It had almost the same proportions of any Carrotan inhabitant, but instead of long rabbit ears there was what appeared to be a spoiler atop its head, and its extremities were widened by metal armour.
“The Nightmare, in my opinion, is the perfect intermediation between speed and strength. It’s fast enough to get into a battlefield, and has enough armour on it to keep it from being blown away while it’s delivering the punch. This ‘bot is a worthy adversary and a worthwhile ally.”
Almost immediately after Acid had finished, a loud beep sounded from Electrik’s direction, and his voice wasn’t far behind it. “Uh, Acid...?”
“Yeh?”
“Could you come here for a sec?”
Acid turned around, deactivating the holo-table in a smooth movement, and strode over to where Electrik sat. “What is it?”
“What’s this green dot on the screen for?”
There was an awkward silence, and then Acid spoke again. “Well, that’s not good.”
“What’s not good?” Jack asked from the back of the room.
“Someone’s following us.”

See? Progress.

No really important things to say here. Well, excepting that I got Electrik, Foo, and Phish in. I'm sure Acid's pleased.

Now, to actually do something with SoT...

Yay! 4I updated his story!

Heh, bringing the whole family along, huh?

BTW, is it just me, or am I the only one who reads this story anymore?

i am still reading this.
go on this way!

-Scatman WRF

Chapter 18: Approach

“What?!” Jack almost fell out of his chair as he stood up. “What do you mean, someone’s following us?”
“What do you think I mean by someone’s following us? Someone’s following us!”
“Well, who is it then?”
“I don’t know! Some big huge ship!”
“What would a big huge ship want with us? We didn’t even do anything!”
“Guys, shut up! Listen to this!” Wizard’s voice rang out above Acid’s and Jack’s, and the two arguing rabbits fell silent. Wizard turned a dial on the console in front of him, and a voice was loudly and clearly heard, as if the speaker was in the cockpit with them.
“I repeat, this is General Grath, of the CAF Fortuna. Identify yourself and your destination.”
Acid made his way quickly to where Wizard sat, picked up a small microphone, and held down a small white button as he spoke into the mic. “This is Commander Acid of the Hybrid Corsair. What’s up, Fortuna?”
“What’s your destination, Corsair?”
Acid replied coolly. “We’re on our way to disable and/or destroy Buster Tank’s satellite, before it disables and/or destroys Carrotus.”
A short silence ensued, during which Grath was apparently relaying information to his other crewmembers. The silence was broken as the general responded.
“We’re going the same way. Judging by the fact that you’re broadcasting on a secure Carrotan frequency, we’re making the assumption that you’re friendly. Therefore, you have docking clearance if you need it.”
“Thank you, Fortuna, but I think we’re okay for now. Your gracious hospitality has been noted. Acid out.”
As Acid replaced the mic, Firefox glanced at him, with a questioning look on his face. “Commander Acid? Did I miss the promotion ceremony or something?”
“Well, I have to make myself sound like I’m worthy of having a spacecraft, especially towards someone as esteemed as a general,” Acid replied. “Don’t worry, I’m not trying to fake my way to the top of the Carrotan military.”
Acid took the controls back from Electrik, who promptly exited the cockpit. Foo attempted to follow him, but walked into the door on his way out. Blaze watched this with extreme interest, and he smiled. “Well, at least with Foo around, this should be a very interesting flight.”
“I should hope so,” Acid replied. “There’s still two and a half hours left until we reach the satellite.”
“Oh.”

To pass the time, the rabbits inhabiting the Hybrid Corsair had a lengthy discussion for about an hour and a bit, of which the topic veered unpredictably from piloting to politics, and had almost reached a heated argument regarding genetically altered carrots when another transmission was heard across the intercom.
“Hybrid Corsair, this is the Fortuna,” the voice said. It was not General Grath’s voice; while it was that of a male, it was not as deep as Grath’s tone. “We’re approaching a Carrotan spatial mine field. If you’ll allow us to lead the way, we can repel the mines before we head through. Just stay close enough, and we’ll get you across without any damage.”
Wizard was still sitting at the intercom when the message came through. Forestalling a direct response, he looked to Acid, who nodded back to him. Wizard picked up the mic, and held the white button down as he replied. “Acknowledged, Fortuna. Lead the way.”
The Fortuna drifted along as the Corsair slowed to a halt, and for the first time they got a chance to see what the larger ship looked like as it floated in front of them. It was a kilometer-long behemoth, bristling with turrets of every kind, and defended by glistening armour. It resembled a giant sword as it flew by, of which the crosshilt must have been a hundred meters long, twice the length of the entire Corsair.
As the Fortuna continued forward towards the minefield, Acid piloted the Corsair skilfully to within a few meters of the underside of the great ship. Jazz watched as a mine floated silently past the side of the Corsair.
Suddenly, a bright flash erupted from the starboard side of the Fortuna’s hull. and another from the lower port side. Acid quickly gestured to Phish to take the controls, dashed over to where Wizard sat, and picked up the mic from the console, leaning onto the white button. “Fortuna? Whatever happened to the idea of repelling the mines before plowing through?”
“This isn’t a Carrotan mine field! Our repulsors have no effect on the mines!”
Before Acid could respond, another voice spoke. It was high and drawling, and its tone made it impossible to tell whether it was male or female.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? A command ship and a destroyer, wandered right into our minefield. What a delightful intrusion. Heeheehee, this should be fun...”
The Fortuna’s crewmember was obviously not pleased with this newcomer, who was so bluntly acting as if he (or she, as the voice did not betray the speaker’s gender) was in total control. “Who are you, and what do you want with us?”
“Oh, we’re not about to tell you who we are; that would defeat the purpose. We will, however, tell you what we want. We want your ships.”
“What?!” Whoever was speaking on behalf of the Fortuna was stunned with shock. “You can’t be serious!”
“Oh, we’re serious all right,” the voice continued. “Dead serious. Tell you what, we’ll even make it easy on you. Give up your ships without a fight, and we won’t kill you.”
The speaker on the Fortuna suddenly lowered his voice to a whisper, speaking only to the crew of the Corsair. “Get into the docking bay ASAP. Let us know when you’re safe inside. We won’t have two ships exposed if we only need one.”
“Ten-four,” Acid replied, knowing that only the Fortuna could hear him. “We’re moving now.”
As Phish piloted the Corsair towards the opening door of the Fortuna’s docking bay, Blaze caught a glimpse of their captors’ ship. It was small and sleek, as dark a grey as the mines it controlled. It had four short, curved wings in an X position. He decided that the ship must be an interceptor. Blaze was considering suggesting to Acid that he could just ice the ship and be done with it, when he realized the distinct possibility that there could be more than one of them. A command ship and a destroyer would have no chance trying to dodge mines and interceptors at the same time; they’d be taken apart in no time before they could get away.
As soon as the Corsair was inside the docking bay, the door began to slide closed again. Blaze took the microphone from Acid. “Do you have any super-wave weapons you could use?”
“We’re already one step ahead of you there. We’re charging our EMP, and we’re only going to need a few more seconds before we can use it.”
“Excellent. Fire at will; we’re into the docking bay, snug as a bug in a rug.”
At that moment, the high, drawling voice was heard again. “Well? Are you going to hand your ships over peacefully, or are we going to do this the hard way?”
“No, I think it’s you who’s going to have things the hard way this time,” was the snapped-back reply. Two seconds later, the EMP fired, causing the whole length of the Fortuna to shake as the massive shockwave was released. Everything, including the impudent interceptor, was struck by the expanding blast. There was some static over the intercom, and then there was silence for a disconcerting few seconds. The whole ordeal had lasted four minutes.
Finally, a friendly voice, not the harsh one of their now-incapacitated captors, came through for them. “Everything OK down there?”
Acid was the one to reply. “We’re all good down here. Did the EMP work?”
“Perfectly. We’re now free to go.”
“Good.”
There was a rumbling as the Fortuna’s engines ignited, and a few clunks were heard as the deactivated mines bumped off of the ship’s hull. The clunks eventually began to fade, and a few minutes later they had stopped completely. They had escaped the minefield.

Another hour passed with no great event. The minutes ticked by like hours themselves, and the crew of the Corsair tried to find something that they could busy themselves with to make the time go by faster. Nothing seemed to work, and they ended up in a large card game with a few crewmembers from the Fortuna.
It was General Grath that found them. He narrowed his eyes at his crewmembers setting up their individual hands, then simply stated, “We’ve found the satellite. We need all hands on deck.”
The rabbits immediately departed the table, and rushed up to the Fortuna’s command deck. When they got there, they couldn’t help but notice, through the semicircular viewport, the hundreds of ships poised and locked to fire upon the command ship. Behind the armada was Buster Tank’s devastating satellite, but the swarm of ships barred the Fortuna’s path.
It was then that they heard an overly familiar voice.
“You know, that stunt you pulled back at the minefield wasn’t very nice,” came the sickeningly drawn-out voice. “It looks as if we’ll have to teach you a lesson.”
The flotilla of fighters and interceptors began to close in. The Fortuna had fallen into a trap, and there was no way out but to fight.
Grath glanced at Acid. “Does your ship have enough firepower on it to handle this kind of fleet?”
“Of course,” Acid replied, with a smile on his face.
“Then get yourselves ready to wreak some havoc. Everything we’ve got is needed.”
“Consider it done.”
As the crew of the Corsair was hurrying back towards the docking bay, Acid brought up the topic of his ship’s awesome cargo. “Do you guys remember the three ‘bots I was telling you about earlier?”
“Yeah,” Lori replied.
“Well, this is the time to use them.”
“Wheefun,” Lori grinned, and she, along with Jazz and Spaz, tore off down the hallway to the docking bay.

Well, this chapter was done relatively fast. And look at all the italics! Whee!

Due to lack of readers, I'm going to stop posting chapters of either of my stories up on the JCF. It just doesn't seem worth my time anymore. If five people can prove me wrong, I'll consider otherwise. If not, then this is the last chapter of E:JF that's being uploaded.

It's your choice now. Choose wisely.

[/serious]

Well, I just forgot to reply after the last chappie
Anyway: Awesome chappies!

*wants more chappies*



Eval

go on on both stories, i like them
your one of my story-writing heroes!(i can't write)

-Scatman

This is very good!

*raises up two hands*

okay, one more person needed!

I can fill that post.

I gotta say it again?

Uh...

Well, we've got one from Scatman, one from Eval, and two from Acid and Coppertop. That totals... um, four. Sorry, guys, but multiples don't count.

*growlz*

*Loads his rocket launcher and aims in the vicinity of one who goes by the name of Jack Flash*

That wouldn't be the wisest course of action, Acid. I'm very sure Jack isn't very fond of friendly fire. And by "isn't very fond of" I mean "will take apart - piece by piece - anyone who causes".

As for Coppertop... uh... *growlz back* rar


All seriousness aside, I'm sticking to my word. I'm not posting another chapter of my stories unless I get a fifth poster to reply in favour of my continuing.

O O YEDS PLWEADSZE COINKUTIMBUWR TEHJ DTYOIRYU!!!11!!1!1!1!!!

BY TEGH QWAT, TIHS ISN'TH AFDIC. i JUDSTY HAX0R3D HISA CCOUNT!11!!!1!1 LOL

Well, you can all relax now. Turns out I got the fifth and final vote from Firefox, who is currently in Texas, to continue my stories. Therefore, as soon as I get the next chapter(s) done, I'll post them up here. Unless, of course, it's within the next week, as I will be in Regina, with no access to my computer. But, as soon as I get back, it'll go up if it's finished.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to reply in favour of staying. I won't forget it.

Three cheerz for Firefox!

Sorry I haven't been here recently, and yes this is 'JediGrath' from ages ago. Since you haven't described Grath, can I make a few changes? Ninja's sword on his back, no jedi powers, and a couple ninja jutsus?
Bushin no Jutsu - Body divide technique, other body's an illusion.
Kawarimi no jutsu - Replace body with a log, used to block attacks.
Kunai Shinkuu no Jutsu - Kunai Vaccume Technique (five ninja knives shoot at the person this is used on)
Kuchiyose no Jutsu - Summon an animal
Hiryu no Jutsu - Turns a normal bit of fire into a dragon
Gyoshin Hebi no Jutsu - Striking Snake technique (I strike out quickly with my sword)

Oh, and: I CLAIM THIRD PAGE! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!