Chapter 9-Chase



The two war ships drew even, then one pulled ahead. Panicked, the Shellian vessel

attempted to flee even as it was struck by the persuers torpedoes. "Get 'er into hyper

space! Now! Hurry!" The turtles hastened to do the pilot's bidding, and the ship

shuddered violently as it was hit again. Then the hyper-drive failed, and the only escape

was to out-distance the black terror that was shadowing them. The big cargo vessel

pulled smoothly ahead, and for a moment the pilots had the wild hope that the black

ship was withdrawing. Then it nosed down and came up fast and silent, and the pilots

frantically attempted to get out of the way. It was too late though; gunfire flashed and

the pilots' last hope was to get into the small escape pods. A grating noise proved that

to be fruitless; the bottom of the ship had been torn out. The pilots sealed the door,

and then a different shudder showed that they were being boarded. Or, at least, they

thought they were. A loud rending noise echoed through the ship again, and then a small

explosion shook them. The last thing the turts saw before firey debris billowed in behind

them and the vessel went up in flames was a sleek black warship sliding by. Then a

tremendous roar filled the command room, and it was filled with destruction.



"Hah! They didn't stand a chance," Kaz crowed. "Dumb turts!" Copper glanced at him.

"Good shot, Copper," he added hastily. She winked. "Oh, it wasn't me. Thank Claw; he's

the master gunner." Claw did not look amused. "Belive me, one day we won't be so

lucky," he growled. Copper rolled her eyes. "Sure, Claw. Where do you think Kroys went

to anyway?" Claw pondered that. Finally he spoke. "Well, I'd want to throw my enemies

off, so I'd go to the last place they'd expect me to go. In this case Kroys knows we'll

figure it out eventually, so he's counting on us to think like this: he'll expect us to go to

a populated place to look for him, so we won't do it. We'll expect him to go to a

backwoods planet, then to go to a populated place to throw us off track. But he. . .Oh,

that crafty wizard, I'll bet he'll stay on that backwoods planet! And the furthest one I

know of is Lohar." Copper nodded. Grath looked puzzled. "Lohar?" Copper explained.

"Lohar is a rainforest and water planet. Large inland seas surrounded by long stretches

of white sand and caves, huge forests, the whole thing. Lohar is known for it's cave

network, they all connect. There're big deposites of diamond and gems, that're known

for their magical potential. I bet Angel's diamond is from Lohar, and I know that my

crystal key and Shale's gem are. He'll probably go there, there's alot of magic potential

on Lohar." Grath blinked. "Oh." Copper turned to Shinyso, who was at the navigator's

controls. "Set course for Lohar, Sector 549. We arrive at dawn."