“If the Maelstrom blows us up it might be shorter.” Steven offered helpfully.
“That’s comforting.”
“Are you sure we’re going to be on time?” the voice of the mysterious Nexus agent Macmaniac issued from behind his trademark welding visor.
“Don’t worry Sunshine, we’ll be there in plenty of time.” At the controls of the Goldfish was a galactic traveler who went by the name Treasure-Seeker.
“If you say so.” Mac seemed unconvinced, but clomped off to sit down behind her.
A few minutes of silence passed in Treasure-Seeker’s tiny starship.
“So your name –” began Mac, finally feeling the need to break the long silence.
“Nickname.” corrected Treasure-Seeker.
“…Is a bit of a mouthful” he finished, as if he hadn’t been interrupted.
“Most people just call me Seeker.”
“I don’t like that.” Mac replied bluntly.
A few moments of silence followed.
“How about TS?” he offered finally.
“Whatever floats your boat.”
“Cool.”
Another silence.
“But I’m calling you Sunshine from now on.”
Mac groaned.
“If you must.”
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
Groggily, I sat up, yawning in the early light. Morning sun was streaming through the windows of the simple but airy room, and I reluctantly got up off the couch to wander off and find some breakfast.
Ordinarily, I’d stay in the Dawn during the layovers between missions, but the Dawn was still in storage at the military outpost where she had been damaged. So, for the few days I’d be spending in Avant Gardens waiting for the launch date, I had to mooch off my friends.
I’d met Rev Redson a few months ago while I was fighting here in Avant Gardens. Like a lot of the other locals, he was fighting not just for the Nexus Force, but for his home.
“You’re up early.” Rev greeted me over his morning cup of coffee as I shambled into the small, brightly-painted kitchen.
“Force of habit.” I grunted, rubbing my eyes.
A considerate host despite his war-hardened gruffness, Rev started gathering his battle gear now that the noise wouldn’t wake me.
“Thanks for letting me stay here.” I thanked him again, sitting down heavily at the table.
“Yeah, no problem.” he replied, preoccupied with cleaning the gigantic gun he was never without.
I’d known a lot of people like Rev during my experience with the Maelstrom war. Nothing takes the friendliness out of a personality like war. And war had come right to his doorstep.
Avant Gardens was a hotly contested world chunk in the Maelstrom war. Its warm temperatures and lush vegetation made it a great spot for tourists — and unfortunately also a great spot for breeding Maelstrom. So far the Nexus Force had been able to successfully contain the infection to a few dangerous areas, but they needed all the help they could get — which was why Rev and I were both going down to fight that morning.
I didn’t like fighting — I never have — but I guessed it was the best use of my time there. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but I knew I would feel worse for hiding from it. Finishing up the Buttery Croissant Rev had lent me, I gathered up my courage, my javelin, and my double blaster.
The atmosphere of Avant Gardens is strangely cheery and bright for a world so full of war. Wordlessly, we marched through the morning mist to battle.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
“Three!…” the yell of the Nexus Force sergeant cut through the morning air. We were crouched behind the makeshift barricade that separated the safe zone from the infected zone, ready to sprint through when it was opened.
“Two!..” I clicked off the safety on my imagination blaster and compulsively checked the charge one last time.
“One!” With a shudder, heavy hydraulics lifted the bus barricade, revealing the ongoing battle. We sprinted into the fray, leaving what was left of our doubts and self-preservation instincts behind.
Rev ducked behind a barricade, and I dived in behind him, energy bolts from corrupted Nexus sentry bots zipping overhead. I raised my blaster and started taking pot shots at some of the Stromlings while Rev set up his weapon.
A crack of energy and light erupted beside me, and one of the sentry mechs exploded into bricks. I realized that Rev must’ve fired that gun of his.
I was taking aim at another one of the purple monsters when I heard shouting from behind us. It looked like a minifigure clad in nothing more than light armor was running directly into the fray.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
I flicked on the autopilot and leaned back in my rocket’s seat. I pulled out a notebook, which had been keeping Darkflame’s mission assignment safe in my pocket. I started to thumb through the creased pages, still numb from the shock of my newest mission assignment.
I hoped this pure Maelstrom source was important as they said it was. I would be risking myself and a lot of brave crewmembers to obtain this slimy purple goo. But if the research I was flipping through had even a grain of truth in it, the risk would be more than worth it.
The engine whined and growled as I sailed through the blackness of space, the world chunk Avant Gardens slowly growing larger in front of me.
I’d be meeting my crew there, all strangers by the look of the list Darkflame had given me.
I decided to give the autopilot a break and grabbed the stick again. Watching the colorful chunk in front of me, I wondered what my new crewmembers were up to.
“So did Vanda tell you anything about this new captain of ours?” Steven Spectre, a middle aged minifigure clad in heavy battle armor, stood in the shade of the Avant Gardens monument. Next to him was a female minifigure clad in an excessive amount of red known — naturally — as Scarlet Phantom.
“She sent me a profile if you wanna read it.” Scarlet offered, producing and unlocking an ibrick, all somehow without taking eyes off her novel.
The silence of diligent reading was suddenly cut by a high-pitched voice trilling “Having a Wonderful Time” as a grinning minifigure approached.
“I see you’ve made a purchase.” Steven observed, catching the man’s smile.
“Indeed.” Mack McCracken replied, tipping his singing frog hat. The frog bowed, having come to the end of his song.
“The vendors here are great. So far I like this much better than that assignment I had on Crux Prime.”
“Well don’t get too comfortable. According to the mission notes, we’re only here to meet up with some Paradox scientists.”
Suddenly, the singing frog burst into song again, interrupting the conversation.
“This is gonna be a long mission isn’t it?” Scarlet smirked, as Mack replaced his frog hat.
Scarlet must have a good novel : D A singing frog... XD
“If the Maelstrom blows us up it might be shorter.” Steven offered helpfully.
“That’s comforting.”
“Are you sure we’re going to be on time?” the voice of the mysterious Nexus agent Macmaniac issued from behind his trademark welding visor.
“Don’t worry Sunshine, we’ll be there in plenty of time.” At the controls of the Goldfish was a galactic traveler who went by the name Treasure-Seeker.
“If you say so.” Mac seemed unconvinced, but clomped off to sit down behind her.
A few minutes of silence passed in Treasure-Seeker’s tiny starship.
“So your name –” began Mac, finally feeling the need to break the long silence.
“Nickname.” corrected Treasure-Seeker.
“…Is a bit of a mouthful” he finished, as if he hadn’t been interrupted.
There was no time for thought, just instinct. As lethal energy flooded the air around me, I ducked and dodged, sprinting towards the reckless young minifigure. Whether I was hoping to tackle him, help him fight, or something else, I don’t know.
Before I could get to him, something clamped onto my vest from behind, stopping me with a jerk before I could run into a wave of oncoming fire.
“That was close.” The robot who had grabbed me shouted over the sounds of battle.
“You should be more careful when risking your life.”
“But the minifigure!” I protested, trying to extract my vest from the robot’s unmoving grip.
“I wouldn’t worry. You should have been here a few minutes ago.”
My eyes widened as I watched the reckless young minifigure grab a mech by the foot. He lifted it off the ground, and hurled it into another mech with a grunt.
The robot and I watched as the strangely strong young minifigure made short work of an entire battalion.
“How’s he do that?” I addressed my metal companion, both of us still watching from behind a barricade.
“I didn’t ask him.”
“It’s that armor” Clarified a white-clad soldier who was crouching nearby.
“How I don’t know, but it gives him his incredible strength.”
Suddenly, our conversation was interrupted by an air raid siren that blasted through the canyon. Thankful that the maelstrom didn’t know what the sound meant, I waited for an opening and hurriedly ducked under more fire from the stromling mechs, making my way towards the barricade through the confusion.
A Nexus force recruit scratched my name off his list as I sprinted through the gate. I could already hear the whine of engines overhead.
“Okay everyone accounted for. All clear for the bombing run.” he radioed the bomber squadron overhead as a few last stragglers sprinted through the gates.
“Gamma!” I heard a voice exclaim as a minifigure about my age trotted up.
“How’s your new armor holding up?” He asked, coming up to the robot.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
“Very well. I also saved this one from certain death.” Gamma beamed.
“Oh, I see you’ve met Gamma! He’s my robot. My name’s Jimi.” the robot’s creator introduced himself enthusiastically. I introduced myself too and thanked both of them. But I had to excuse myself when I saw the reckless young minifigure from earlier.
He looked up from tinkering with his armor when he saw me approaching.
“What’s your secret, Samson?” I called to him over the footworn field.
He laughed.
“It’s in my armor, not my hair. Super speed and super strength. Sorry if I alarmed anyone by rushing into the middle of everything. I hate to be that guy but it’s kind of who I am. I’m Gai — Gai Kiryu.”
“Hey, I recognize your name — I think I may be your team leader. I’m John Brickman but I usually go by Brick.”
“So you are! Good to meet you, Brick.” he replied, offering me a handshake.
I noticed the minifigure who had been behind the barricade with me and Gamma was now approaching.
“Mason Spacer” he introduced himself, with a crushing handshake. “I’m on your team too, Captain.”
Gai explained that they’d been fighting together, but hadn’t met before today.
Suddenly, a series of explosions like thunder echoed through the canyon as the Nexus Force squadron did their run. It was now safe for us to get back on the battlefield.
“There’s our cue.” Gai grinned.
Mason slapped him on the back and started jogging towards the gate.
“Let’s go!”
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
“This looks right..” Gai peered up from his tattered tourist map at an imposing metal door set into one of the rolling hills.
It’d been about a week of fighting Maelstrom and biding our time since I’d arrived here, but the Nexus Force had finally sent us the message that the Paradox research facility here was ready for us.
The Paradox guard standing outside showed no sign he even noticed us, but I was sure that under his dark visor he was watching our every move. I was just glad we were expected.
“We could be doing more damage out on the battlefield” grumbled Mason, in an attempt to fill the silence as we rode an elevator down to the bunker below.
“We’ll be back out there soon enough.” Gai assured him.
We stepped off the elevator into a large, dimly-lit subterranean shop floor. We peered into the darkness, our eyes still used to the bright light of the Avant Gardens day.
“Captain Brickman?” A voice issued out of the darkness, making us jump.
I looked around, and my eyes picked out a point of white light where the voice had come from.
The minifigure carrying the flashlight stepped into the pool of light just in front of us. His red hair looked dead in the unnatural glow of the lamps overhead, and his scrawny figure was covered in oil from head to foot. But the self-confidence he carried himself with made us respect him immediately.
“I’m Takashi Kazugane” he introduced himself. “Sorry about my appearance, I’ve been helping with the Omen and the Wolf.”
“That’s kind of a mouthful.” Gai observed. “Can I call you Kazu?”
“Might as well.” he sighed, with a wry smile. ”I’ve never been able to shake that nickname.”
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
“Did we miss anything?” Our conversation was interrupted by the cheery voice of Agent Treasure-Seeker, who was followed in by Mackanic.
We introduced ourselves, and while we were waiting for the others Takeshi offered to show us what he and the Paradox scientists here had been working on.
“We keep it dark down here to save power. Energy attracts Maelstrom and you can’t be too careful.” he explained, lighting the way across the dark floor with his flashlight.
Some lights clicked on overhead, dimly illuminating the starship in front of us.
“This is the Omen.” Takashi introduced us, a smile on his face. “She’ll be carrying half of us to the Maelstrom hot zone. The other half of our crew is taking the Wolf. Both of them have experimental anti-Maelstrom tech.”
“You figure the Maelstrom is gonna be too busy laughing to attack?” asked Mason, staring up at the ship.
He had a point. The starship seemed to be one of the new Greyhound battleships, from the company that made my Dawn. But it had some interesting modifications — notably two huge hula-hoop-like rings circling the hull.
“At least it’s red.” We turned at the sound of a new voice. Scarlet, Mack, and Steven had come up behind us unnoticed, completing our crew.
By the time we finished introductions, I was impatient to be off, and I knew the others were too.
We’d be testing the new ships, then it was off to one of the most dangerous places in the galaxy.
I didn’t know what would happen, or if we’d even come back in one piece, but I knew one thing:
It was going to be an adventure.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
“So is that a force field generator amplifier?” Mackanic asked the Paradox scientist poking around the ship with a pre-launch checklist.
“Based on it” he answered shortly.
“What does it do?” Mason asked, peering up suspiciously at the strange-looking hoops.
“I don’t have clearance to tell you.” the scientist replied unhelpfully.
I exchanged glances with Mason. He shrugged.
Presently, the Omen was given a clean bill of health and we were ready to board for our first test mission over Avant Gardens.
Deciding who wanted to be on which ship was pretty easy. I’d already been fighting with Gai and Mason, so they were quick to join my crew. Scarlet and Steven joined as well, because the Omen’s test flight was first and they didn’t want to wait around for the Wolf’s departure.
I pulled down the boarding ladder, and led the way inside. I stepped inside the dark hull and was greeted by the smell of oil and metal. Scarlet entered behind me, flicking the lights on.
“Not bad.” she commented.
It was a similar layout to the Dawn, and I even recognized a few shared parts. But the living space was much narrower, with two stacked decks taking the place of one larger one. Mack whistled, looking around the gleaming black and red interior.
“Copilot?” He asked me.
“Decide among yourselves.” I replied, heading up to the second story.
“I call gunner” I heard Mason announce as I stepped onto the upper deck.
I slumped into the comfortable pilot’s seat, and looked up out the huge window. The controls fell readily to hand, and visibility was decent. It was no Dawn, but it would do.
I looked over, hearing someone sit down next to me.
“Did you get copilot?” I asked Mack.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
“In the end, I went for mechanic. Scarlet was gonna make me give up my desserts for a week to be copilot and it just wasn’t worth it.”
I laughed.
“So what did everyone end up with?” I asked, tapping through the touch-sensitive computer screen next to me.
“Well Scarlet got copilot, Gai took navigator, and none of us were brave enough to argue with Mason over gunner.”
Just then, a rumble overhead interrupted our conversation. We were blinded by a shaft of daylight as two huge doors overhead parted.
“E.S.S. Omen, please start your engines and prepare for test flight.” a voice issued over the ship’s radio, as the doors overhead continued to slowly grind open.
“Roger” I radioed back, flicking on the fuel pumps and clicking the ignition button. The whine of starter motors gave way to a satisfying roar as the ship came to life.
Scarlet took Mack’s seat as the engines warmed up, and there was a general commotion as everyone rushed to their posts.
The doors overhead were open now, letting sunlight stream into the dark hangar. I got the go-ahead signal on the radio.
I pushed the throttle open, slamming everyone back in their seats with a sudden lurch of acceleration.
“That’s responsive” I observed, cutting the throttle.
“Sheesh, Brick, I thought you were supposed to be good at this.” Scarlet teased me.
“Now who told you that?” I grinned.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
Soon, we were streaking through the atmosphere of Avant Gardens. The ship was fast and maneuverable, but I could feel that the hula hoops threw it off balance a bit. I felt the controls lighten suddenly, the drag of air resistance fading as we left the atmosphere of Avant Gardens.
“Okay, we’ve broken atmosphere” Scarlet radioed the research center as we left the world chunk.
“Good. Activating cloak.”
“Cloak?” I repeated incredulously. “I thought that wasn’t supposed to be possible for anything bigger than a fighter.”
“Just take out some Maelstrom so we can verify it works.” the voice ordered tersely.
I felt the ship shudder as the cloaking device powered on.
“Whoa, that’s quite an energy drain.” Noticed Scarlet.
“We are aware. You won’t be able to charge the hyperdrive when you’re cloaked.” the radio replied. “In other words, you can hide but you can’t run.”
“Very clever.” I replied. “I see a Maelstrom fighter squadron just ahead. Going to engage.”
I turned towards the squadron of five fighters, and pushed the throttle open for a high-speed run.
The fighters kept flying in formation as we raced towards them, not seeming to notice us.
“Okay, get ready to fire as soon as we’re in range” I informed Mason through the intercom. The distance indicator on the screen in front of me clicked down as we sped towards our target. Suddenly, the range indicator lit up green and Mason fired a burst of energy. I could feel the ship rock as we shot by the explosion from the ship he’d hit.
“It works! They didn’t notice us until we were right on top of them!” Scarlet realized.
“Told you.” I could hear a smirk in the voice on the radio.
I wasn’t paying attention, instead focusing on turning the ship around. It seemed reluctant to turn now, I guessed because of the cloak.
I got one of the fighters in my sights, and this time decided to use the nose guns, which I had control over.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
I hit the ship, but It also ripped through the cloak with a horrible crack sound, shorting out our power generator and leaving us dead in the water. The lights went out, and we sailed by the other ships, now dead in the water.
“Mack, where’s our power?!? I shouted over my shoulder urgently, the intercom offline. The fighters were closing in, with more of their friends on the way.
“Reserve power coming!” I heard him yell.
Maelstrom energy blasts started ripping into the unshielded hull, with thundering clangs echoing through the ship. I pushed on the throttle uselessly, looking around at the fighters that were now closing in.
Suddenly, the engines came to life, and the instruments lit up around me — Mack had got our power back.
Not interested in anything other than our escape, I slammed the throttle all the way open and sent us rocketing towards and past the Maelstrom horde with a roar. I dove towards the safety of Avant Gardens, the Maelstrom ships still in pursuit.
With a crack, we slammed into the atmosphere of Avant. The Maelstrom ships peeled off, scared of the Nexus Force fighters that patrolled this area.
I eased off the throttle and laid back in my seat, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Looks like we have some bugs to work out.” The voice on the radio observed.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
“Well, she’s a good ship.” Takeshi pointed out. The Omen, having returned safely to the underground hangar, was now being repaired with expedited replacement parts.
“She was, before I went and stuck all that junk on it.” the ship’s designer replied, looking over the Omen with the skeptical eye of an artist critiquing his own work.
“We had to get it through the Maelstrom hot zone somehow.”
“Speaking of, what did you do to my ship?” the designer asked, as the engineers lowered the singed power generator from the hull.
“The nose guns interfered with the cloak somehow.”
The young but seasoned designer peered at Takeshi.
“What’s your rank, again?”
“Level 22. Going on 23.”
“Well technically you don’t have security clearance but I was never much for rules anyway. Let me explain what I think went wrong so you can fi x it.”
“Go on,” Steven encouraged the designer, noticing the conversation had stopped when he walked up. “I love highly classified information.”
The designer laughed.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
“I’m Steele Hammer,” he introduced himself, “the question is, who are you?”
After Steven had introduced himself, Steele carried on with his explanation.
“Long story short, the Maelstrom sees by detecting imagination. They can practically smell it. And because the sparks that make us tick are filled with it, and our engines and blasters run on it, starships are a particularly obvious source of imagination.” he began, pointing to the large sublight engines on the Omen.
“So, the simplest way to keep the Maelstrom from being able to see us is to block emissions from imagination. Those two big rings are actually part of a massive shield projector setup. Except instead of projecting a shield, it projects an anti-imagination veil that cancels out the imagination signals. The Maelstrom can’t see it until it’s within about 400 bricks.”
Takeshi peered up at the ship with newfound respect.
“So why don’t all ships have this then?” he asked.
“It turns out anti-imagination has its own unique signature. Once the Maelstrom learns to look for it, this will be about as effective as painting a giant bulls-eye on the side.”
“Well that makes me feel safe.” Steven interjected.
“Relax, it’ll probably take them a generation or two for them to fully adapt to it.” Steele assured him.
“So what went wrong out there, then?” Takeshi asked, turning back to look at Steele.
“Well, the nose guns are the only imagination weapons, the rest being Paradox-spec Maelstrom powered weapons. Firing them probably caused a reaction with the anti-imagination in the cloak.”
“That’s easy enough to fix.” Takeshi concluded.
“Yes, but Maelstrom weapons have some drawbacks.. They have limited ammunition and range, and they don’t work on certain types of Maelstrom.” Steven reminded him. “That’s probably why the imagination blasters were on there in the first place.
“We’ll have to make every shot count, then.” Takeshi mused grimly.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
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