Crud, I thought you backed all that thar

up? Oh well...



vacumm, yes...



Chapter Nine: A Test of Will



The crew of the Penultimate ran through the now reborn, sandless streets of Arean Daroth. It was easy to hear the whir of the approaching fighters engines next to the near silence of the after-storm. They took a few swords, a few blasters, some paragoggles and a paracompass, the rest they prayed Kaz had the foresight to load into the cargo hold.



They had barely gotten a hundred meters from the hotel, when the veritable squadron strafed over the tops of the building and dove down to street level.

"There...gonna try and squash us!" Tymen screamed, looking back behind them at the fighters that were descending rapidly upon them.

"Everyone...JUMP!" Seraph ordered just as the fighters dove in, and now they all stoof atop the various fighters. Then, like the madmen Knn are, they, banked sharply to the right and left, trying to ram the rabbits atop them into the sides of buildings, while still powering down the street. The one Tyio was atop was near about to crush him into the side of a building, but he lept up atop the buildings roof and then jumped back to the street as the fighter smashed into the glass sided building, exploding brilliantly. Using all his energy, Tyio was just barely able to keep up on foot, but then a black fighter with strange, purple engines and purple cockpit, a heavy assault type, began raining blaster and missiles down on him!

Explosions shattered aginst the metal street through the city, as Tyio jumped and ducked and spun out of the way, leaving a trail of blast holes down the street.

"He can't keep that up much longer, we have to do something!" Ducky shouted to BlackSheep from a adjuctant fighter that was doing all sorts of arobatic manuevers to shake her off.

"I know, I know! I've got a plan!" BlackSheep shouted aginst the roar of the engines. As she stood atop the

black fighter, she pressed a number of things into her wrist watch, and a green glow began to eminate from it.

"Augh!" A blast seared across Tyio's right arm and he staggered for a moment, then tripped into the sand.

Still trying to blow him into nothing but a ugly red mass, the black fighter bucked and headed around to kill him.

When the assault fighter bucked and turned direction, BlackSheep lost her footing, and began sliding down and down, until in order to stay atop the fighter she grabbed the last protruding bar.

The assault fighter rained blaster fire upon Tyio, who just barely rolled away each time, and getting hit just a little bit each time.

"Die you Knn!" He hissed, his body covered in gashes, as he pulled out a sizeable blaster and fired it straight at the black glass of the viewscreen. Though no actual harm was done, it shocked the pilot, who turned his attention from Tyio, heading up.

As BlackSheep despratley hung to the bar, the fighter changed direction, swinging her straight into the thrust blast.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" She wailed in pain, as the flame destroyed her body, and then she fell to the sands in a smoking heap. Her body was completely covered in a massive burn, but with the last energy she had, she pressed her watch again.

The instant BlackSheep did this, a explosion blew out the entire lower level of the hotel, and out flew BlackSheeps coveted fighter, and began firing all it's weapons at the fighters.

The fighter Ducky was atop became pierced and fell in two shards to a nearby building, exploding on surface. She lept from the sinking fighter and began running along the side of the building, as the glass warped and distorted, preparing to explode. Just as the exploding wave of glass neared her, she lept from the side of the building, and continued running torward the hangar.

Tymen wasn't having much sucess either, as he clutched some apparatus atop one of the many remaining fighters that bobbed through the sea of weapons fire radiating from BlackSheep's ship. Daring to look back for just a second, he saw a streak of red energy speeding torward the fighter he was atop.

"It's gonna hit me!" Tymen noted, looking at the trajectory of the blast. Then, using all his strength be hit the fighter so that it was like a shield, and the blast hit the underside, propelling Tymen through the air.

Looking back, he saw three more squadrons of fighters converging torward the city, and a single large ship.



The clean, brand new enterior of the Beagle was a wonder to Asari, next to the barely spaceworthy ship she used last week (from her prospective) to assault the Valkireye. It was black on the top, which was basically a fat cylindar with long, triangle wings, and in the back was a long, spiked beam that held all the engine and hover equipment. The underside was spotted white, with six exhaust ports, and the front had a line like cockpit, and a hole just below it that housed the Beagle's massive collection of weaponry.

A pleasant flourescent green lit the interior of the cockpit, from there Asari commanded the whole of massive ship. With a flick of a switch, the afterburners churned into life, and the ship went barreling down through the streets, locking her cannons onto Tymen.

"Fire."