🚀 go-pugleaf

     Garth stood, rigidly at attention, in front of Ultima, ruler of the
Invid. The right side of his head was replaced by Invid cybernetics --
he had chosen that method of repair instead of straight-out healing
after he was injured fighting Force Ten. Of the original six Stage 5
Invid of the Detroit Hive, he was the only survivor. Verne had been
killed in a raid by one of the Invid Empire's many enemies, along with
Bubbles. Wayne had died in the battle with Force Ten. The other, his
Simulagent, had died in Springfield, before Ultima's "birth". Garth
allowed himself some small pleasure in the fact that his killers were
currently frozen in space-time in the region known as Nullspace. All
honorable deaths, deaths in battle. Deaths like he hoped to die,
fighting to the last against the enemies of the Empire.
     Except for Marie, who died like the traitor she was. Garth
shuddered at the thought -- she had tried to destroy all they had worked
for... Garth was generally not one to dwell on the past, but he...
wished he had been able to convince Marie not to aid her human lover in
his desperate suicide attack at the heart of the Empire. It scared him,
when he thought about it, just how close they had come to succeeding. A
matter of seconds. The bitch.
     Garth swept all such thoughts from his head as Ultima swiveled in
her cybernetic encasement to regard him.
     "Well.." her mechanical voice rasped, "We have a problem, Garth."

                    FORCE TEN EPISODE FOURTY
                    Future Shock, part Three
                        by Jesse Taylor

     "When the dragons grow to mighty,
          to slay with pen or sword,
      I grow weary of the battle,
          and the storm I walk towards.
      When all around is madness,
          and there's no safe port in view,
      I long to turn my path homeward,
          and stop a while with you..."
     <<Rush, Madrigal>>

<----->

     "Y'know... I've figured it out." Burnout said quietly, as the Red
Bandit pressed controls on the medical sleeve that encased her.
     "What do you mean?"
     "Why we could never seem to injure Admiral Morgan.." Burnout winced
as something dug into her chest, searching out her broken ribs. It was a
tingle, nothing more -- Invid anethesia was powerful.
     "I hope this doesn't hurt too much.." the Bandit said. "But we
can't afford to wait for you to heal normally -- we might have to fight
again any minute."
     "S'ok." Burnout nodded, feeling the cool of the medical
microwaldoes as they moved over her skin. "Anyway, while _I_ got hurt in
battle, neither you nor Morgan got a scratch. You guys must have some
kind of instinctive protection or natural invulnerability or something."
     "What about this?" the Bandit said, indicating a newly-healed scar
on her cheek. "I got this back in our time, when I was fighting Morgan."
     "S'different. Since you were fighting each other, it must've
canceled out. Did you hurt her?"
     "No." the Bandit said, sounding embarrassed.
     "Well, then, maybe as a clone, your invulnerability isn't as good
as hers, but I wonder why her... Am I babbling?" Burnout blinked,
stopping.
     "No, no, don't worry about it. There. That should do it." Burnout
winced again as the waldoes retracted. Something fizzed, sealing the
wound. The medical sleeve hissed slightly, falling open. "This thing is
ten times better than the automedics on my ships.." the Bandit said,
distractedly, "Hmm... Hope it was properly calibrated for non-Invid
physiology."
     "We'll find out soon..." Burnout grinned, stretching. Her injured
ribs felt very slightly sore, but just a few minutes ago, they had been
broken, grinding against each other. "Well, I don't think my arm's gonna
fall off or anything..."
     The Bandit nodded, slotting several cartridges into a pneumo-gun.
"Right. Here's some QuickHeal(tm), just in case..." >fssh!< "...and some
WakeyWake(tm)..." >fssh!< "...and the last one, here, is for our Invid
friend in case he starts acting up again. You ok?"
     "Jeezwhatdidyougiveme?" Burnout blinked rapidly.
"Somekindofsuperchargerorsomethingboyifeelweird."
     "Huh... It should wear off soon (hope, hope)."
     "Ihopesotoootherwiseim goingtostartbouncing offthe walls. Ok,
that's better."
     "Must have been a bit too much WakeyWake(tm)." the Bandit shrugged.
"We need to start making plans."

<----->

     "What do you mean, they're not dead?" Garth gaped, astounded. "We
atomized the city module they were in! They couldn't have survived!"
     Ultima's eyes narrowed. "Marcus's ship left the dock about thirty
seconds before we destroyed the module," she rasped, "I cannot establish
contact with any of the crew, nor can I locate it."
     Garth's eyes narrowed. "And Marcus?"
     "I cannot tell. His half-human physiology makes it difficult to
contact or locate him like the rest of my minions. The crew is most
definitely dead, though."
     Garth chuckled. "I told him to take guards along in the ship, but
he didn't think anyone could actually get in.. The idiot."
     "Garth!" Ultima growled, cutting off her Admiral's reverie. "You
will locate and annihilate that ship, along with all in it! You will
destroy those two heroines, no matter _what_ it takes. However, also
attempt to recover Marcus, if possible. Understand?!"
     "Yes, Ultima." Garth bowed deeply. Hmm.. Finally, to be able to
upstage Marcus totally, he thought. Perfect...

<----->

     "It's pretty obvious from the force we've seen so far that we don't
have a chance in Hell(tm) of taking out Ultima." the Bandit said. She
and Burnout were conversing in the front of the bridge, watching the
controls slowly repair themselves.
     "What about bringing Earth back from Nullspace?" Burnout suggested.
     "Impossible without knowing the co-ordinates _and_ having enough
energy to gate a large counterweight, which we don't also don't happen
to have."
     "Then what _do_ we do?"
     "Surrender..." came a voice from behind them. It was their Invid
prisoner, who they had superglued to the wall.
     "Piss off!" they chorused. "Who asked you, anyway?!"
     "It's all your fault!" he continued, ignoring their glares. "Why
couldn't you just surrender?! Instead, you fight, giving Ultima an
excuse to fucking blow away a _million_ damn people! Now we're all dead
-- Ultima will blow this ship away without a second thought."
     "She's got to find us first." the Bandit snapped.
     "Do the words 'one billion to one odds' mean anything to you? We're
dead, we're all fucking dead, and it's _your fault!_"
     "Do the words 'char-broiled' mean anything to _you_?" Burnout
growled. "You shut up!! What were we _supposed_ to do? We had to fight!"
     "And it's not our fault!" the Red Bandit insisted.
     "You never _have_ to fight..." Marcus grumbled. "I'll admit that
idiot in Blue Squadron fired first, but... Oh, _damn_ it! I would rather
have self-destructed the ship and killed us all... _Millions_ dead,
because I was too overconfident -- too weak to kill you two..."
     "Why do you _care_?!" the Bandit retorted, "You're an Invid, why do
you care if some humans die?"
     The door to the bridge hissed open and Morgan staggered in. "Cosh
hesh naw't alll Invid, shee?" If she had been slightly drunk before they
left, she was royally ripped now -- Burnout wondered, offhand, where she
had turned up alcohol on an Invid warship. "He'sh shtill a shmeg'ed,
tho."
     "C'mon, get it over with..." Marcus growled, "Get it over with! I
can't escape so I'm dead anyway when the Fleet finds us. I don't have to
take this..."
     "Oooh, lemme doodle on 'im!" Morgan giggled, staggering a bit as
she looked for a doodling instrument.
     "You could help us -- if you're 'dead anyway', as you say." Burnout
offered.
     "I would rather die than help you, human.." Marcus growled. "The
sooner you die, the sooner the destruction stops."
     "Hah! It'll never stop, as long as Ultima is still in charge!" the
Bandit retorted. "She's the villain here, not us, so stop trying to pin
it on us!"
     "Yeh, jush lishen to 'im..." Morgan belched loudly, "Yer gettin'
moral les'nsh fra' a guy who killed 'ish own par'ntsh..."
     "H-how do you know that?!" Marcus whispered, his eyes narrowing.
     "Ish not as if it'sh some kinda big secret..." Morgan staggered
slightly, shaking her head to try and clear it. "You fucking aliensh,
all you _do_ is kill! You have no creative minds in your race, they're
all dead -- sho you have to leech off the technology of othersh! You
just _kill_, and _now_, you sit there all smug and talk about how it's
_our_ fault! If you bashtards hadn't taken over everything, none of this
would be happ'ning! You... you..." The ex-Second Most Totally Evil Woman
in the Universe fell backwards into one of the command chairs, burying
her face in her hands as she sobbed painfully. "D-dammit! they... they
weren't supposed to _die_... lauri..."
     "Oh, sure -- blame me!" Marcus shouted at her. "Blame me for all
your problems!! What was I _supposed_ to do?! I kill people because it's
my _job_, it's what an Invid soldier _does_! I can't change what I am --
and you, Morgan, _you_ atomized whole star systems -- whole
_civilizations_, when you still had power. I--hrrrkk!!"
     Burnout and the Bandit glanced from Morgan to Marcus and back again
-- the Admiral was still crying, and Marcus's whole body had suddenly
gone tense. His eyes widened in shock, then he collapsed visibly,
passing out.

<----->

     "Garth!" Ultima's voice complained over the comm-link.
     "Whaaat?! What?!" Garth grumbled. His Icazuchi-Wannabe class
flagship was cruising along, its' accompanying squadrons searching for
the stolen warship's transponder signal.
     "Have you located Marcus yet?"
     "Err.. no.." Garth shrugged. "We are searching... if you sent me
more troops, perhaps, we might locate the ship faster..."
     "Very well. I am concerned that Marcus's absence from the stability
of the MindNet will cause certain... deviations. It is therefore
imperative that you recover him in the next hour. If you cannot, you are
thereafter to assume that he is a hostile, and deal with him
accordingly."
     Garth blinked. "Err... Understood -- we will double our efforts!"
He surpressed the urge to grin evilly until after the comm-link was
severed. Part of him wondered, slightly, what Ultima had done to Marcus
that she was worried would wear off. He signalled his Communications
Officer to open a channel to the units under his command. "Everyone,
take about an hour-long break, ok?"
     Finally, that upstart Marcus would be gone, and he would be the
sole contender for the position of Supreme Fleet Commander. Perfect...

<----->

     He remembered...

     "Toss me another demolition charge... Hey, *carefully*, Marie!" the
voice was tense, hurried.
     "Sorry. I can sense the guards coming, but they're about a minute
out. We're all clear..." another voice. An image: mother... "Lawrence...
in... in case we don't make it..."
     "We'll make it -- don't worry." Lawrence grinned nervously,
attaching another charge to the power conduit. The three of them floated
in zero gravity in a massive room that thrummed with power. The bodies
of four Royal Enforcers floated around, their energy weapons dangling
from limp fingers, and small globules of green blood occasionally
breaking free and bobbing off through the air. "We're the good guys,
remember?"
     "I..." Marie said, quietly, "I just wanted to tell you tha...that
I.. I l-love you.."
     A feeling: cold fingers, grabbing at his mind. He tried to say
something, but couldn't. His hand crept out and grabbed a drifting
energy pistol.
     Lawrence attached the last demolition charge. "For all the people
who died with the Earth, we're taking Ultima down! Now, let's get the
Hell out of here before these things go off! If what you've said is
true, this will vape that 'Protoculture Matrix' thing..." Spectrum
pondered what Marie had just said. "Marie.. I..." He never got a chance
to finish what he was going to say, as he was thrown forward by a blast
of energy that tore right through him. Marie started to turn, and got
just far enough for the next blast to catch her right in between the
eyes.
     Ultima, through Marcus's body, worked with cold detachment as she
quickly deactivated each of the demolition charges, clamping down with
her telepathic powers on the part of the boy that was howling, in agony.

     He remembered...

"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

CONTINUED IN PART TWO...