What would seem like a black swarm descended downwards towards the base that surrounded the large tower, hundreds of fully automatic weapons fire streaked down at the targets on the ground, there red beams hitting everything and anything in there path. Bunkers and turrets that were not ready for the attack fell first, blowing apart from the force of the hit. The base didn’t take long to return fire, Large AA flaker guns were pulled from their respective hiding places and return fire.
" Shit, ATF Guns, pull up, Blue four, six and three, see what you can do, Red squad, find that air strip" cried out a voice of the com.
" Roger Yellow leader, proceeding with attack on flak guns." Replied the leader of the blue squad.
The Screamers fell into formation and aimed at the target, letting lose with plasma fire of their own. Explosion after explosion filled the dusk sky. Large black smoke now replaced two flaker guns.
"Blue leader, this is yellow one, you have a clear L.O.S. to the power plant, take the shot."
" Copy that yellow one, we are on target, ETA, one minute" replied the female leader as she pulled away from the escorts.
Jeff was growing very unsettled, they had been in the air for ten minutes now, why hadn’t the enemy brought its fighters into the battle.
" Gold leader this is blue leader, Plant is lock on, permission to fire, repeat permission to fire". Said the voice inside Jeff’s helmet.
" You are clear to go blue leader, fire when ready".
The Screamer buzzed the ground low, to make sure it was on target, Blue two and three teamed up behind her as there tri-winged fighters flew towards the plant and full thrust. The beep came from their control panels telling them they had a lock.
" Blue leader, boxes one and two"
" Blue two, boxes one and two"
" Blue three, boxes one and two"
Firing from there ships where fully hot MHM’s, they watched closely as there Multi Hit Missile’s flew at there target. At fifteen feet the split apart and no longer where the six missiles, but twelve. The hit there target, but it was time to celebrate. Not known to the hybrids was the plant was shielded and thus, the weapons hit the energy shields, not the plant.
" Shit! They got shields, Repeat they are shielded!" Cried the force over the Com.
As the Fighters pulled away, Many a gun appeared out of Thermoptic hiding and fired at the fighters, Blue leader, along with two and three, where now a memory.
" Shit, major, gun emplacements, shield programs are springing up like hot cakes," Cried another voice.
" Jeff, this is sensor’s, we got a major blip on the screen, we got Id’s on them, eight squads of Black Viper fighters come up on the Liberty’s six. We are still five clicks from target." Said yet another voice in his headset.
" Gold squad, split off and engage fighters, Liberty, switch all fighters over to the liberty’s engines." He began, switching over his controls to make sure he still had his engine power. Jeff banked away from the Liberty and made his way towards the large building.
" Jenny and Ki’ace, get you asses in gear and cover my six, if anyone’s out there that’s still got engine power of there own, follow me, give me cover from those flaker guns."
The large tri-wing bomber pulled up in front of Jeff, as two smaller Avengers game from his side.
" Missing man formation people, I want to be hidden from their view till I’m in range, Gold four, and green three, if you seen any of those serpents get them away from Jenny and me, Ki’ace, I need you to get a lock on the door of that building." Commanded Jeff as the fighters flew over the dying system.
A loud boom told the Hybrid pilots that the vipers had come up quicker then expected.
" Damn it, sorry sir didn’t see them, my shields are holding, green three, assist me, Good luck sir.." Said gold four as he pulled away from the formation, along with green three. But only one of the vipers took the bait, the other one was desperately trying to get a clear shot at Jeff. Jeff pulled back hard on the stick and lowered his speed. Sailing over the enemy and within a perfect shot. Jeff’s three guns let loose shots of red plasma, blowing apart the faster, but yet unshielded fighter into a explosion of yellow and red, and black smoke.
" Come on…target…. Target!" Ki’ace yelled at the computer in her gunners cabin.
" Ki’ace, I cant dodge all this fire forever, where is the lock we need!?" cried Jenny as she desperately tried to keep them from being shot out of the sky. Ki’ace’s computer was slowly locking on to the huge front door of the building, as the crosshairs slowly moved to the center, they were just about to touch when the ship rocked, and fire was clearly seen coming from the back engine.
" Damn, we are hit, major fire in engine one, bailing out." Jenny told Jeff as the ship took a sharp bank, making Ki’ace accidentally taps the trigger and launches the blind warhead at the building.
The missal hit hard, blowing apart the door, and most of the surrounding wall, and the few troops station at the door. Jeff knew it was now or never, and set a course with the power plant, but he wasn’t about to kill himself over this and pulled his ejection lever and was blown out of his fully operation craft. He was only a few hundred feet from the ground when he pulled his ripcord, and out from his back, shot two airfoil wings. Never having really jumped from a fighter before, or using an airfoil wing set, Jeff hit the ground hard. At about the same time, his fighter hit the shielded power plant, it, along with all it’s warheads, exploded. Then sight was impressive, and the shield program flickered and faded away. Jeff watched as three Screamers buzzed overhead and fired a volley of shots at the plant, followed by MHM’s and it to fell with an impressive sight. But Jeff noticed, well how couldn’t he since it flew directly over his head and crashed behind the building, Jenny fighter. Since it didn’t exploded, he wanted to run and help her, but the sound of gun fire very close to him, told him it was time to move out.
Holding his shotgun close to him as he ran, he had to find out about everything, he had to see the Unknown with his own eyes, he had to be the one to pull the trigger, he had to be the one to end this. He didn’t know why, but as he entered the torn apart entrance he soon realized the forces had not yet entered the building and decided he had only a short amount of time till he would be surrounded with hundreds of troops.
Jenny opened her eyes, her blurred vision forced on not a cockpit, but a room, Jeff personal quarters in the Liberty. " How in the hell did I get here?" she asked herself and sat up, only to let the thin bed sheet and blanket fall slightly off her noticeable naked body. Now she was more then confused, and it was giving her a pounding headache. An annoying light was in the Conner of her eye. She looked towards it to notice it was Jeff’s holographic calendar, the one she had got him for his birthday, Well the day he had always made his birthday anyway. It was flashing the date ‘ May 18th 2491’. A month before the battle she could have sworn she was in. She knew the date, it was the day after the night she and Jeff had really told each other about how they felt.
Quickly searching for her clothes she got dressed and was about to exit from the room when the door slide open and Jeff entered, carrying a tray of rations.
" Morn’s love " he said simply.
" Yeah, morn’s Jeff "
Now she didn’t know what to do, had she not only gone back in time, but also had timed taken a different road? When this had happen the first time, she had left before Jeff had woken up, now she was in her room and he had brought breakfast.
" Jeff…err… what’s the date? " she asked very shyly.
" May 18th…" he said simply " why? " he asked.
" Um, Never mind… its nothing.. What’s for breakfast?" she asked in a happy tone, although she failed to make it sound legit.
Jeff looked at her, his eyes glowed, and their normal demonic green was brighter then ever. " The seeds of the future are barred in the past…" he voice seem distant, and also seem to be mixed with many other’s. It echoed inside her head. She instinctively covered her ears, the sound kept pouring in. She began to shake, although it felt like someone was shaking her, there was no one, but the demonic looking Jeff.
" Jenny! Jenny! Wake up girl!" Came a voice of power, but not from Jeff.
Jenny’s eyes flew open, but quickly shut from the explosion that rocked the ground next to them. She was soon pulled from the cockpit and pulled behind the remains bomber. Just in time to, because no sooner then she hit the busted up pavement, then a volley of shots hit the side of the craft. She heard the sound of a less powerful weapon return fire, then the feeling of warm fur against her side.
She slowly open her eyes to see Ki’ace laying against her, her side bleeding from where a round his nicked her.
" Oh crap.. Ki’ace!" exclaimed Jenny at the wound, although nothing had to be said. Jenny slowly peeked her head over the remains of the craft and looked inside for what she needed but as she reached for the med kit, a shot hit the small amount of glass remaining from the window, and shards landed in her arm. But Jenny still took the kit and fell back behind the over of the ship. As she open the kit up she could only prey that Jeff was not in his ship when it hit the plant.
Jeff was busy himself, as he pressed himself against the wall. He was inside the building, and going up the stairs was not an option, since that would kill him before the battle would. His eyes were fixed on the elevator, since he was not able to get to it before the doors closed, he would have to wait for the next group of troops to come down and leave the elevator But thanks to the battle outside that didn’t take long, and two troopers, wearing black uniforms soon found out that a shotgun at close range does pretty hefty damage. There smoldering bodes hit the floor with a thud, blood slowly seeped out from the burnt tissue and onto the concert floor.
Jeff quickly picked up the weapon of the dead body closest to the doors of the elevator and side step in as the door closed. He pulled the hammer back and the weapon charged. The unknown sure didn’t stoke there guards well, Jeff held in his hand an 2488 B.A.R., with collapsible stock and small energy clip. Not a very powerful weapon as his model weapon, but sufficient never the less. Jeff took a moment to ponder this for a second. Since he had a way to the top, he thought quietly, aside from the music inside the elevator, that this weapon was much like him. It was old, but still deadly. It was effective, yet not completely just a machine, it had it’s own charm, it’s own personality, and it’s own being.
Much like him in fact. He was old, even if he did look young. He was still deadly in the field, as the dead guards in the lobby proved. He had his own personality, his own charm, and his own being, even if he was born a war-machine. Jeff never really had to contemplate his being, since he never had his own life till recently. But in the tide of this hidden war. Similar to the one he was fighting as a hacker, Was he fighting a war? He didn’t remember. All he remembered was finding more hackers. Max, the eldest, who first teamed up with Jeff. Eric, the rouge, that no one knew how he got in. Ki’ace, who joined and with that became a life long friend. Ki’eva, who joined with her sister and soon became a great hacker, and last but not least, Shanka. These were the only true friends he had.
Jeff listen to the slight dinging of the elevator, it dinged every floor, but never stopped. He thoughts slowly drifted to his "other lives". He had been married four times, was a Command com, a guardian, a cargo runner, a lawyer, and even a multi-millionaire as vice president of a cargo running company. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. The CEO of that company was the same person, well somewhat, that was present at his "Birth". The woman that haunted his dreams was part of "The Unknown". This was going to be more fun then he thought. The elevator stopped and the door dinged open. And Jeff looked at three guards aiming their weapons at him.
With quick hybrid thinking, Jeff began to laugh. Which made the guards look at one another.
" Oh come on.. you think that I wouldn’t send the hologram first to take all the shots? You think this is the real me?" asked the person in the Elevator.
The guards looked at one another in confusion.
"It is!" Said Jeff with a smile as his gun fired off in a non-controlled bust. Thus sending the guards to the floor with a few new holes in their body.
Jeff stepped over the body and attached a small explosive to the door. Flipping the switch he ran to the bodies and hit the ground, pulling one over him for protection. The large oak door blew apart, well some of it, the explosive did its job and gave him a way in.
Two laser sight beams were aiming dead on the two cloaked figures as the smoke began to clear. Jeff aiming two fresh clipped weapon that he "borrowed" from the now decomposing guards.
" Honey… Guess who’s home?" He said with a evil chuckle and fired, and soon four of the six figures laid dead on the floor.
The other two tried to run, but the sights were aimed at their heads. " Pay back is such a bitch ain’t it?" He grinned as he said that, and soon, blood splattered against the wall and floor, showing where two figures where once standing.
" One would think that the unknown would provide more of a challenge… Guess not.."
" The unknown? Is that what you call those infected sprites? Hmm… well guess we could call them that…" Came a exotic voice from next to Jeff.
A slender woman slowly walked towards him, her chest bouncing in time with the sound of her heels hitting the marble floor. Her red of reddest hair seems to be alive as it flowed around her body. But her form quickly shifted as she walked closer to him, changing to that of the woman at his birth.
" My, my Jeff.. Good to see you again… now.. quit this silly fighting and join my side again.. And I assure you that the others will not be killed…. Become my dark knights…" she said with an evil smile
" Um…. No…" he raised the guns and pulled the triggers. Now was not the time to be out of ammo. " Damn low ammo clips…" he mummers as he was knocked to the ground by an unknown force. In pain he holds his stomach, he crunched his teeth to keep from yelling.
"Damn it Jeff! Why did you have to be so stubborn! It would be so easy for you to be my servant! But no… you gotta be the hero don’t you!" she boomed as her formed shifted again. This time to a pale blue skinned woman. Who’s pure white hair flowed all the way down to the back of her knees. She pulled the robe over her tighter, and thought for a moment.
" You know.. For such a stubborn person… you did do a great job of getting all my babes back here.." She said as she started to walk to the large window, which gave a view of the battle outside. But mid-way she stopped and raised her hand, which lifted Jeff off the ground. " See?", which a wave of her hand, Jeff slammed into the frame of the Window, and fell hitting the ground with a thud.
He keep his arms close to his body, desperately trying to reach his shotgun before the woman discovered it.
" You… a virus…created us?" he asked, stalling for time.
" Yes.. Quiet good isn’t it?" she chuckled to herself.
The tap of her heels told Jeff she was coming closer. He slowly stood, bracing himself with his left arm, keeping his right on the gun.
" Should tell you who I am.. Since you will be my servant one way or another.. Names Bios.. Welcome to the fold." Walking closer, and closer, Jeff heard the tap of her heels, as he watched the enemy fighters take shots at the Liberty, it wouldn’t hold out much longer, and it was still not within range.
" You’re not longer in charge Jeff, I am you master now!"
" Wrong… you are my Hell!" He spun around, firing his weapon at close range, knocking the virus back. It sledded across the floor, crashing in the wall, kicking up dust. Jeff took a few deep breaths and slowly walked across the marble floor. He checked his weapon, not sure if the virus survived. He had his weapon aimed at her head, from what he could see under the dust.
As he was ready to pull the trigger, a explosion range out, the force of which shattered the glass, of the room he was in. This took the attention away from Bios, and to the falling ship outside. It a bust of flames and black smoke, it came crashing to the ground, a few feet from it’s target range. Jeff almost felt like crying out in rage, But the sharp painful feeling going through his stomach, made his eyes see a flash of white light. Lowering his head, he saw a long, blue/Grey blade slide back through his stomach and felt it leave his lower back.
He collapsed and placed his hand against the hole, feeling the warm life energy flow onto his dirty hand. And he laid on the floor, not moving as he followed the blade up and to it source. It was attached to the upper arm of Bios, along with it’s sibling.
" Class fifteen, we are energy absorbing also.." she said with a grin on her face.
Through the slowing breath, the blurry eyes, and the pounding pain in his stomach, Jeff said what he would think would be his final words. " I’ll see… You. In… Hell…" Not grand by any standards, but he really didn’t have time to think of anything.
Bios thought a moment. " Find with me…" and slashed at Jeff, Letting his let out a blood chilling scream.
The battlefield was just that, a battle field. Scraps of metal, and body part lay across this once grand system. The Viral forces began hauling away there wounded, and made sure to delete the rest that would die. The pride of the hybrid forces now was having it’s fire’s put out, it would soon be like the rest of the fighters and machines, Melted down and re-used in new weapons of killing. But not all the hybrids were dead. One was dragging a Zed away from the field of death. To a spot where they could open a portal. All the while, holding a hand close to her stomach, all the time saying the same thing all over and over.
" The seed’s of the future lay in the past…. I now know what you mean.".