EV/EVO Chronicles: Three: chapters seven & eight

Chapter Seven

However, there was not one dreadnought, but three. Amazingly, there didn't appear to be any support ships, save the thirty fighters they carried in their fighter bays. All ships started firing on the three dreadnoughts.

The first person to die was Luke Regald, a human pilot of one of the Zacha's Miranu gunships. The flimsy green warships didn't seem to be holding up well against the massed neutron fire. Four more were destroyed before half of our warships were warmed up. Our fleet was not really up to the task of destroying all three of the dreadnoughts.

As always, when the odds appeared to be stacked up against my brothers and I, the U.E.S. Incontrovertible always jumped into the system and saved us. Of course, this situation was no different. The ghost ship was a mighty combatant. But even the assistance of the first flagship of the United Earth government was not helping.

We were clearly losing the fight. Every minute more and more pilots were pointlessly murdered. The Boat was not doing well either. My shields were down to forty percent. All the while, a nameless thought kept nagging at the back of my head. Even though we were no match for the dreadnoughts, we should have been able to cause them a significant amount of damage. All three ships appeared to still have 98% shields.

My train of thought suddenly stopped as I watched the Incontrovertible slowly spin out of control. I watched helplessly as my parent's ship slowly exploded shortly behind the dreadnoughts. No, not exploded, but impacted! Understanding hit me as quickly as the three dreadnoughts flickered and then returned to normal.

"Get a comm channel open to the fleet, NOW!" I shouted at my communications officer. The frightened man quickly complied with my orders. "All vessels this is Igor Rigadaz, captain of the Banana Boat, this is all a deception. I order all ships to Concentrate all fire shortly behind the dreadnoughts. I repeat, fire at the space beyond the dreadnoughts, don't waste your fire power on them.

At first only a few ships complied with my orders. But as the battle raged on, understanding slowly started to come to the other captains. Before long the whole fleet was focusing all weapons on the invisible projector just behind the decoy Dreadnoughts. The Dreadnoughts slowly began to flicker before vanishing altogether. After several more long minutes, the Enemy projector, the V.E.S. Deception uncloaked. It was huge. Completely flat, It also appeared to be circular in shape. It was decked out in the traditional Voinian colors of gray and red. A few tense seconds later the vessel was disabled. UE scientists would undoubtedly be using it to learn the secrets the Voinians used to create such a complex warship.

We had defeated the Voinian warship, but at what a price. Nearly half of the warships were destroyed fighting against the clever projections. My parents were now certainly dead, for the second time. The pain I felt inside was tremendous. When my parents had died the first time, the feelings were almost unbearable. The reappearance of their ship instilled some hope in me. But now they were gone again. It seemed like something reminiscent of someone puncturing my heart, then letting it heal before finally ripping it out of my chest once and for all.

Zach came up and apologized after we had landed back on Earth. "I'm sorry for calling you a raving lunatic and telling your wife that a combination of Prozac and counseling once every three days would make you normal." I stared at Zach

"You told my wife what?!!" I started shouting.

"Only joking Igor, will you calm down," Zach was chuckling.

"In case you haven't noticed, hundreds of people just died fighting against an illusion created by the Voinians! Don't you have any type of respect for their lives?" I started on probably one of my more memorable tirades.

"Don't you see the symbolism in that. That illusion was created by the Voinians, but not the illusion that they intended. The Illusion was the belief that they could defeat the galaxy that had turned against them. That is what those people fought and lost their lives for, it wasn't murder or slaughter, it was our spirit of defiance against their oppressive empire. I respect and mourn the sacrifice of their lives, but I would not take back their gift to our future. That would truly be sacrilege to their memories." Zach explained to me.

"Wise words indeed, Zach," said Commander Eniret, "However, this still leaves the question of the Council. In hindsight it is obvious they were not involved with the Voinians. What are they really up to?"

"Only time can answer your question Commander," Said Admiral McPherson, "But now it is time to celebrate this great victory."

Everyone followed McPherson to a large war room that had been converted to accommodate the survivors of our battle for the celebration. While the Voinian empire was not gone yet, each victory made by the galaxy would help contribute to their inevitable defeat, and this victory was just another step along that road. Perhaps, soon such deaths would no longer be necessary for the freedom of the residents of the known galaxy. But until then, more lives would vanish. However, As the party continued on, Commander Eniret's questions began to eat at my brain.

Chapter Eight

The next seven years passed slowly. My brothers and I were now praised not only for our achievements in the Voinian War, but also for our defeat of the V.E.S. Deception. It was shortly after the Second Battle of Sol that I left United Earth space and headed for the crescent. I guess I was still a little upset about the death of most of the people I ever let myself get attached to. At least Sarah, her sisters and my brothers were still among the living. This pleasure voyage I was taking to forget my troubles ended ahead of schedule however.

The A.S.S. Destruction jumped my Igazra just outside of Zidagar space, in the Vilian system. It's six Azdara fighters swarming quickly around the Boat. I had my crew fire my Plasma Siphon, the only secondary weapon on my ship, at the fighters. At about the time I had moped up all the fighters, a Zidara showed up and felt like opening it's aggressions on my mighty warship. It's attempts were highly pathetic but angered me nevertheless.

After so many attacks within a single day on me, a civilian and War Hero, I joined the Igadzra as a special forces operator. My brothers were outraged at this new complication in my life. They claimed I was favoring the Igadzra strand. Shortly after their hostile messages, Adam and Zach joined the Azdgari and Zidagar respectively. This action really annoyed me. My brothers and I could never perform a single action without the other two following suit. It was really like one individual sharing three separate bodies. That was the most irritating fact. We were known around the galaxy as the Rigadaz Triplets, but no one had ever heard of the names Adam, Zach or Igor. Now my brothers where just trying to keep everything the same.

As you can expect, we stopped speaking with each other. Even our wives stopped communicating between each other. It was almost as if My brothers and their spouses had died. I knew all the while over that seven year period that I had secretly wished they would. That made what happened next all the more horrible.

Two weeks before our forty-second birthday, I received a comm message from Zach. As I slowly read over it I couldn't stop myself from crying. I called Sarah in and gave her the bad news.

"Sarah, I'm sorry to tell you that your sister, Clorice, along with her husband, Adam, are dead. Zach was notified of this by the Council. They claim full responsibility and are now hunting him. The details are a little sketchy, but it was supposedly some kind of ultra warship that destroyed their Azdara." I explained to her.

Sarah was a little distressed at this news. I told her how Zach and Jessica were going to have to go into hiding and about Zach's request to meet with me before he went underground.

I met Zach in the Elder system the next week. "It's been a long time Igor,"he told me, "And until the Council calls off their death warrants on me, it will be a much longer period of time until we see each other again." We talked about many things over the next few hours. Finally, Zach had to leave. I never learned where he had decided to hole himself up at.

The next morning I was greeted with terrible news. The Council apparently had found Zach before he had gone underground and used their powerful warship to destroy his Zidara. At the end of the message was a clip of the destruction of the Magneato. There was also a note explaining I was next. This angered me. While we had not spoken for over seven years, I still felt closest to Zach. His death was a major distraction to me.

Now the Council intended to target me, but I would instead go after their "mighty" warship. I would have vengeance for my brother's destruction.

I decided to broadcast my hunt for the Council's vessel over the Holo news network. Revenge would be sweet. I could watch from a recording day after day after day.

A likely place to start would be the Gadzair system, the location of Council station. The system turned out to be deserted.

I checked each of the surrounding systems, until I came to the Lekka system. This is where I found the Council's warship.

"Sir!, I have a message coming from an unknown location" said my communications officer

"Play it," I stated calmly.

"This is the Council warship Vengeance you have disrupted the political balance of the galaxy, and now you must be destroyed." the mechanical voice said.

"Where is the Vengeance at? We should see it from here." I asked.

"Sir, the Vengeance registers as less than one ton. But it appears to be right behind us."

"Uh-oh!" I exclaimed

The tiny vessel was so small that it evaded all of our return fire. The Vengeance on the other hand was firing at us with a lot more firepower than possible.

"Initiate self destruct and then evacuate ship!" The Council would not capture my ship.

As I was running for my escape pod Sarah called "Were not going to make i............"

As Billions around the galaxy watched, the last of three brothers died.

(This message has been edited by moderator (edited 11-05-2001).)

That was- err.. depressing..

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When you get to the end of your rope, tie a not and swing!