20 THE RIPPERS
Troy’s heart froze for a moment, before he returned to normality.
“We know nothing of the Rippers,” stated Troy, his fear vaporizing all of a sudden.
“We do now,” said Max and flashed an image of the Rippers outside around the Orion Swift, on Troy’s eye lenses. A big gasp escaped Troy and he cried, “Dingy Mermaids!”
“There are about hundreds of them surrounding the Orion Swift right now,” reported Max.
“I want specifics now, Max!” said Troy, as he continued to stare at the black monsters that lay before his eyes.
“On it!” replied Max.
“No wonder they are called the Rippers!” said Troy, as he looked bewitched by the image.
“They are about two meters tall and five meters wide, with their tail alone making three meters of their width.”
“There are massive pack hunters,” breathed Troy. “Call the rest of the guys right now.”
“Yea!”
“We’ve got a situation! We’re surrounded by Rippers right now! Report to the Bridge right away!”
said Troy onto his transmitter.
“Tsokay!” chorused Kru, Holloway and Emilie together.
“What about Eva?” asked Emilie, just before Troy was about to end the call.
“I don’t think the people are ready for her yet. Make her comfortable in your room. Meet you on the Bridge,” answered Troy.
Troy caught an elevator and made it to the Command Bridge, where Rutgers was as usual barking orders at everyone.
“Captain!” said Troy, as he neared very close to Rutgers.
He didn’t respond.
“CAPTAIN!” yelled Troy, at the top of his lungs, to which Rutgers looked at him as if Troy had committed the worst crime in the galaxy.
“Rippers!” cried Rutgers, “Nasty creatures! They are trying to sink their stinkin’ teeth on my Orion Swift!”
“Our energy shields?” asked Troy.
“All of our energy shield generators are gone!” said Gingerpotts, who emerged apparently out of nowhere upon seeing Troy. “And so are our proximity sensors, giving us no idea about the Ripper attack till just a few moments ago, when the Security patrols had alerted us.”
“Given some more time, they’ll enter the ship from the badly damaged parts!” said Rutgers.
“That’s too bad!” commented Troy.
“That’s the worst!” exclaimed Rutgers, “Enemies everywhere! Oh Boy! This is the Dream!”
“We need to lead them away from the ship!” said Troy.
“Our security forces are already on that with no success!” said Gingerpotts. “We have absolutely no idea as how to deal with these creatures!”
“Let me try, with my team!” volunteered Troy.
“What’re you gonna do?” asked Rutgers.
“I have no idea!” admitted Troy.
“There are hundreds surrounding the length and breadth of this ship!” said Gingerpotts.
“We have to do something!” said Troy and at that point, Kru, Holloway and Emilie and Sniffles had made it to the Bridge.
“So what’s up?” asked Holloway, in her usual carefree way.
Gingerpotts brought up the live hologram video feed in front of the captain’s seat, showing the Rippers trying to tear open their way into the Orion Swift and the Albein security forces shooting at them from the Cruisers hovering above them.
“They move very fast, avoiding our shots and we can’t bomb the area without compromising our already damaged ship,” said Gingerpotts.
Everyone looked as if hypnotized at the live feed, showing large black creatures that had dog like heads with slightly elongated snouts that came with very powerful jaws, studded with strong yellow incisors. The creatures also had strong muscular forearms that were akin to that of a human, but only more stronger and devilish to look at and complete with claws. The creatures had very large muscular legs lined with claws. The creatures were bipedal, using only their disproportionately larger hind limbs to move around. The creatures also possessed large muscular tails were longer than their own bodies. In all, they were truly fearsome terrifying creatures.
“They’re gruesome!” exclaimed Kru, swallowing his spit.
“Emergency message!” announced Gingerpotts, as he received a message on his Holotab. “Damn!”
“What is it?” asked Rutgers, looking desperately at Gingerpotts.
“Security is reporting hundreds of more Rippers, headed towards us, sir!” said Gingerpotts, his voice shivering, as if he were in a frigid climate.
“Let’s get on a Cruiser and get out!” suggested Holloway.
“And do what exactly?” argued Kru. “Let’s first have a look at the weak areas where the Rippers might break in.”
Saying that, Kru motioned Gingerpotts to show them the data. Gingerpotts immediately dived onto his Holotab and brought up the data on the hologram in front of them. The hologram now showed the Orion Swift in green and the damaged areas in shades of red, which were at a higher risk for breakins. The darker the shade became, higher went the probability that the Rippers were going to break in.”
“We need to station our Security forces everywhere along the red areas inside our ship, in case, there is a breakin,” said Kru.
“All our security personnel are stationed to the Cruisers fighting the Rippers,” said Rutgers gruffly.
Kru seemed disappointed at the decision that his uncle had made, sending out the personnel instead of the droids, to fight the Rippers.
“We’ll get the droids then, to line them up in these areas,” said Kru, looking at everyone.
Gingerpotts looked at Rutgers for his approval, who promptly nodded his agreement with the plan.
“My head just feels like it’s going to blast in situations like these,” complained Rutgers.
“No time to lose!” stated Troy and turned to get off the Bridge.
Rutgers looked at the rest and said, “Well, GO!”
Troy stopped just outside the Bridge and stopped the four as they came out.
“Get Eva!” Troy told Holloway. “She must be having some knowledge about these creatures.”
“What’s exactly your plan?” asked Kru.
“Get on a Cruiser,” said Troy coolly.
“Are you out of your mind?” asked Kru, completely pissed off.
“I’m not!” said Troy strongly. “If you want in, come with me or else feel free to stay behind.”
Kru looked dumbstruck for a moment.
“We aren’t going to be of any help being aboard the ship, Kru,” said Emilie.
Kru looked unrelenting at first but then started walking towards the elevators as soon as he realized that was indeed the truth.
“Where are you going?” asked Holloway.
“To the Cruiser bay,” replied Kru.
Troy then turned to Holloway and said, “Eva! Quick!”
Holloway took long steps immediately to join Kru at the elevators.
“I’ll meet you guys in the Bay,” said Holloway as the other four boarded elevator number eight.
“Sure!” answered Troy, as the elevator doors closed.
Soon, the doors opened onto the Cruiser Bay.
“I’ll go get the Cruisers ready,” said Kru, jogging away from the elevator.
“I believe in you, Troy.” said Emilie abruptly without any correlation.
Why would she say that? Troy thought and glanced at her thoroughly confused.
“You’ll need it,” said Emilie, nodding her head as usual.
Troy felt he needed to ask her why so, immediately but when he had turned she was busy attending to Sniffles, who was actively sniffling and digging his nose with his pinkie finger.
Meanwhile, Kru was done talking with one of the officials in the Bay.
“We’ve got the last of the Cruisers, 123 and 124 are ready for launch,” reported Kru.
“Wonderful, we’ll take them,” said Troy
“WAIT UP!” cried Holloway, from near the entrance to the Cruiser Bay.
Soon, Holloway and Eva caught up with the four, near the Cruisers 123 and 124.
“Tsokay!” said Troy. “So Kru and Holloway take the 123, Eva, Emilie and myself, we’ll take the 124.”
“That’s completely foul and unfair!” accused Holloway, staring at Troy angrily.
“Then I guess, you could have Sniffles too,” said Troy seriously.
Holloway’s angry stare just grew more terrible with that statement.
“I think Sniffles should go with you, Holloway,” Emilie said, hinting at Holloway with her eyes.
Holloway got it and accepted without any further complaints.
“Bua?” said Sniffles, looking sadly at Emilie. Emilie immediately got down on her knees and looked into his big beautiful eyes. Sniffles then smiled cutely at her, kissed her on the cheek and went towards Holloway and took her hand.
“You know the mission,” said Troy. “Take down as many as Rippers as you can. Let’s go!”
“Why do you want me?” asked Eva, as they were to board their Cruiser.
“You need to talk,” said Troy.
“About what?” asked Eva.
“The truth, you’re hiding from me,” said Troy.
“I’m not hiding anything,” insisted Eva.
“Well, then that’s fine!” said Troy and went into the armory to arm himself.
He soon emerged out wearing the Albein soldier nanobot suit in black, with a couple each of Cuties, Trojans, Blasters and a nanobot cube for Emilie.
“Take ‘em!” said Troy, motioning the two to take the weapons from his hands.
Eva took one of each without raising any question, even though she had a lot to question about the weapons, but she kept quiet instead of sparking of another conversation with Troy, who seemed really mad at her.
Up in the Command Centre, after Emilie and Eva reached, Troy activated the Cruiser’s engines. The two girls looked on curiously at what he was about to do.
“Max!” said Troy on to his transmitter, tapping it. “Take over this Cruiser!”
“Will do, Troy!” said Max.
“You know what to do, Max.”
“Kill the Rippers.”
“Ram them and hit them, Max,” said Troy and turned to face Eva, behind him. “Now we can talk.”
Eva cocked her eyebrow.
“I think we have a greater situation at hand to worry about,” said Eva.
“I need to know, Eva,” said Troy, showing unusual patience that was usually beneath him.
Eva remained silent to Troy’s queries. Troy let out a heavy breath and asked her again.
“At least tell me, why would you not talk?”
“It’s to protect you,” said Eva strongly, looking at Troy.
“Protect me?” said Troy, as their Cruiser swept along the ground and rammed onto the Rippers throwing them in all directions. “Why would you want to protect me?”
Eva became silent again. In desperation, Troy turned to Emilie, “Emilie, I have a right to know! Tell her so!”
Emilie looked at him, unsure of what to answer.
“Fine!” exclaimed Troy, in white hot temper, “Let’s at least kick some Rippers’ nuts!”
Troy then disengaged Max and took manual control of the Cruiser and crashed onto the oncoming Rippers, grinding them against the hard ground, beneath the green grass.
He opened fire wildly at the Rippers who were jumping as high as thirty meters into the air.
“Be careful, Troy!” warned Max.
Troy paid no attention to Max and pulled the Cruiser up on itself to turn behind and proceeded towards the Orion Swift.
“Troy!” called Emilie, to which Troy didn’t reply.
“Listen to me, Troy!” called Emilie again, to no avail.
Troy was overcome by his anger and seemed lost inside his wrath. He was angry at his father. He was angry at Olscuro. He was angry at Eva. Nothing in the world seemed to make any sense to him. All that mattered to him was to take out his anger on something and right now, the Rippers seemed the right choice. He drained all of the Cruiser’s beam shots on the Rippers surrounding the Orion Swift.
Looking at what Troy was doing, getting out of control, Eva looked at Emilie and motioned her to read her mind. Emilie refused to do so but Eva persisted asking her to do so. Reluctantly, Emilie looked into Eva’s golden brown eyes and read everything she wanted to let her know. Emilie couldn’t take in what she saw. It took her more than a few moments to recover from the shock of her new found knowledge regarding Troy.
“Troy!” interrupted Max, on his transmitter.
“Yes,” replied Troy dryly.
“You’re moving too dangerously close to the targets of the other Cruisers.”
“Never mind,” said Troy, continuing his crazy maneuvers and his even crazier shooting.
“Troy!” called Eva. “I’ll tell you everything! Don’t do this yourself!”
Troy accelerated the Cruiser even to a greater speed on hearing her speak.
“Please Troy!” pleaded Emilie. “Whatever is that you possess will kill you if you don’t control yourself now!”
Troy seemed totally undistracted by the cries of the two girls but it didn’t last for long. Out of the blue, a stray beam shot from one of the other Cruisers hit their Cruiser’s engines.
“Pull over for a landing, Troy!” said Max calmly.
Troy panicked as the Cruiser went out of his control. The Cruiser went in hoops through the sky, before it plummeted down to its destruction.
Troy tried to pull the Cruiser as up as possible, as Eva and Emilie held on to their dear lives. Their Cruiser pulled up from certain death, at the last moment but before Troy could sigh in relief, the Cruiser’s underside scraped against a sharp boulder that Troy hadn’t noticed in his anxiety. Troy lost control for a couple of moments at which the Cruiser crashed onto the ground, right in the middle of all the Rippers.
“Exit the Cruiser right now!” warned Max. “It can blow up any minute!”
Troy looked at Eva and Emilie. They were both on the floor but they looked fine. He immediately pulled out his Cutie Twins and shot at the Voidshield.
“Warn me when it is set to blow, Max!”
“It’s too dangerous in here!” said Max.
“It’s much more dangerous out there! Do the math!” replied Troy.
“Alright!” agreed Max.
“COME ON!” cried Troy, helping both of them to get up, but no sooner than the Voidshield had been broken, several Rippers jumped onto the Cruiser trying to get inside it. One such Ripper jumped right inside the Command Centre, a couple of meters away from Troy. The dark horrible monster growled sinisterly at him and the two girls. The dark creature bared its mouth to reveal its dirty yellowed stone-like teeth.
Two more Rippers joined it, by its side. Troy without any hesitation, pulled his Blaster and started shooting, spraying those arsenic bullets like showering a garden. One of the Rippers jumped onto the three, while Troy was still shooting the other two however, Troy took Emilie’s Blaster with lightning speed and shot him. The big ugly Ripper was dead but it came falling on the trio. Troy immediately extended his two legs and kicked the Ripper with all his might and the dead Ripper landed at the feet of the other two Rippers. Troy continued shooting at the remaining two Rippers who were momentarily distracted by the dead Ripper in front of them.
Shot after shot sunk into those thick skins and those ugly creatures moaned for a few moments before they died from the effect of the exploding bullets inside their fearsome bodies. Realizing that this was the only chance to get out, before the other Rippers could barge in, Troy took out his Cutie and shot it at the hood of the Cruiser.
The hood disappeared into nothingness and hot radiation surrounded the area. Troy didn’t mind the danger, associated with the radiation and stood on the broken Voidshield, holding both Eva and Emilie.
“Can you fly us to safety?” asked Troy, looking desperately at her.
“These beasts can jump really high! They’ll take us down, if I try to fly!”
“Got it!” said Troy, taking out the Cutie in one hand and the Blaster in the other. “We stay here, so that we are safe on our back. Start shooting!”
“Max!” cried Troy, amidst all the shooting. “Send a distress signal to Kru or any other Cruiser nearby!”
“I already did! There has been no reply of yet!” spoke Max, from the speakers in the Command Centre. “But now all the Cruiser’s comms are out and your transmitters are damaged from the Cutie’s radiation blasts.”
“Great!” replied Troy, in frustration while emptying his weapons at a faster rate than before.
“I’ll tell Kru and Holloway,” said Emilie, when she had heard their conversation.
“Okay,” said Troy, feeling a bit relieved.
The trio kept shooting, double guns at the same time. Row after row of Rippers tasted the earth, as Troy and the girls blasted them with deadly shots and some of the many other Rippers exploded into nullity as they were struck by the Cutie bullets.
“LOOK OUT!” cried Emilie, suddenly as four Rippers jumped from somewhere in the crowd towards them.
“COVER ME!” cried Troy, as he took careful aim and shot at them. Two of them exploded in mid-air and while the other two crashed onto the Rippers.
“I’M OUT OF AMMO!” shouted Eva.
“Use mine!” Troy said, handing his Cutie to her. “I’ll be back with more guns!”
With that, Troy rushed back into the Cruiser and went to the elevators and tapped his transmitter.
“Max! I need the elevator!” said Troy.
“I have lost control of almost everything, aboard the Cruiser!” said Max.
“The elevators are still under your control, right?” asked Troy, losing his patience.
“Yes,” replied Max in a dull voice.
“Take me to the armory! Quick!” said Troy.
Max activated the elevator system and it opened right before him.
“Good!” said Troy, as he exited out of the elevator into the armory. He couldn’t find anything like a trolley or anything, so he took one of those black nanobot cubes and placed it on the ground.
“Max, turn it into a sack.”
“Alright!” said Max, amused by Troy’s instruction.
The nanobot cube spread it like a square sheet, spread three by three feet. In the meantime, Troy went around gathering weapons and loaded them onto the black sack. He tied it and dragged it onto the elevator.
“How far are we from the others?”
“According to my data, just before the crash, we’re twenty-seven miles from the nearest Cruiser and a good sixty-two miles from the Orion Swift.” answered Max, her voice booming throughout the Cruiser.
“That’s bad,” Troy said heavily.
“These Rippers are behaving like a plague,” commented Max.
Troy dragged the heavy sack out of the elevator and ran towards the Command Centre.
“Faster! Troy! We’re almost out!” cried Emilie, on hearing him.
Troy immediately opened the sack and threw the new Blasters and Cuties towards Eva and Emilie, before arming himself. Then he reached deeper into the sack and pulled about a dozen black spheres.
He ran next to join Eva and Emilie at the broken Voidshield and threw all the black spheres all around him after activating them.
Those dozen grenades took out more than a hundred Rippers, maiming most of them.
“NOW SHOOT!” cried Troy, pumping his twin Blasters at the endless legion of the Rippers.
“They seem to be innumerable!” said Emilie.
“We’ve got no chance but to fight!” said Troy, while still endlessly shooting at the Rippers.
The trio continued battling the Rippers for a further quarter of an hour of the earth’s time.
Then, as Emilie’s guns were about to run out of ammo, she turned back to see a group of Rippers drooling at the trio, inside the Command centre, very close to where the weapons were.
“Troy!” Emilie breathed, nudging Troy to look at them.
“What is it?” asked Troy, as he turned behind to see more than a dozen Rippers slowing walking towards them.
“EVA!” cried Troy as he positioned his guns at them. “Take Emilie and jump NOW!”’
The Rippers let out a low growl and were about to jump on him.
With that, Troy pulled the triggers, punishing every Ripper inside the Cruiser, with a rain of bullets and at last, shot at the last of the spherical grenades in the weapons sack, before he jumped himself.
The Command Centre blasted, throwing Troy hard onto the ground outside, beside Eva and Emilie, who were busy firing at the Rippers.
“ARE YOU ALRIGHT?” cried Emilie.
“I’M!” shouted Troy back his answer.
“I think something’s strange,” said Emilie.
“Why?” asked Troy, aiming at the Rippers around them, who suddenly seemed disinterested in them.
“The beasts are running away from us,” stated Eva.
“Why would they suddenly behave like this?” asked Troy, lowering both his Blasters.
“I know,” said Emilie.
“What?” asked Troy, as both Eva and Emilie looked shell shocked at the seemingly plain sky.
Then, within a couple of moments, Troy came to know why, as the Volskian ship lowered its dark matter shield.
“Homicidal Mermaids!” gasped Troy.