Young Writers Society

The Gryphon II shuddered as the Hypervelocity cannon fired the heavy slug. In miliseconds, the slug had been shot at an incredible speed straight towards the enemy Cruiser. There was a large flash as the slug impacted against the cruiser.

"I need info on that Cruiser!" Grif said.

"Give me a second," Adelaide said.

"I need it now Addie!" Not many people called her Addie and very few could get away with it.

"The target's shields are gone. They must have absorbed a lot of the shell's kinetic energy. The target has massive structural damage forward, her reactor is still online."

"Recharge the Hypervelocity Cannon. Direct the DOG to engage the Cruiser. What's going on with the Banhammer?"

A flash from the enemy carrier answered his question.

"Another shockwave incoming," Colin declared, "We should be able to take it. Second cruiser's shields are down."

"Alright," Adam typed in a few commands on his console, "Everyone, provide cover fire for the Gryphon and DOG. Bella and Heather get back in the air and clean up these fighters.'

'Make up your mind already," Bella grumbled.

"Maybe if you hadn't left the battlefield I wouldn't have to order you back out." Adam snapped.

"Come on, Bella," Heather took hold of her arm and the two hurried back towards the hangar.

"I thought the mission was to take out the cruiser," Bella grumbled as she signalled for Chris to move away from her fighter and climbed in. Kitty shrugged and got in her own fighter.

"Ready," Kitty declared. This time there was no countdown and Heather was startled by the sudden drop. She steered the fighter out and targeted the nearest fighter before banking right to avoid the counter attack. She turned her fighter again and blew up the enemy fighter before turning to the next and selecting the controls for the rockets which immediately eliminated another two fighters.

"Heather..." Bella's voice echoed around the fighter. Heather was about to ask what was wrong when she spotted Bella's fighter through her screen. It was burning. "I think they hit the modifications I made to the engine," Bella finished. Hurriedly Heather took in the battle scene. There were three remaining fighters within range and all currently closing in on Bella.

***I'm back!!! I was grounded, or I would've posted sooner!***

"Heather, Help me!!!" Bella cried, trying to find a way to stop the burning on her fighter. She noticed all the fighters aiming at her, and began flying in circles, tyring to waste time. She began concentrating on the fire behind her, trying to put it out before it his the gas pump.

"Bella, what's going on?" Adam asked through teh intercom.

"My flipping ship is on fire!" Bella shouted back. "I'm trying to put it out!"

"Any success?"

"What's it look like!" Bella was going into hysterics.

"Bella, calm down and concentrate.You of all people know you need to concentrate to use magic," Adam said. Bella nodded, closing her eyes. "Good job!" Adam called. Bella realized her fire was out. "Bella, take out what you can and get back to the ship before you cause more damage to your own fighter." Bella noted the hint of anger in Adam's voice. She was sure she would get chewed out about somethihng like "unsafe modifications", but didn't care.

She shot at the other fighters, taking them otu one by one with her cannon. Once her pathway was cleared, and all the enemy fighters were gone, Bella landed back at the ship.

"Situation Report?" Grif asked.

"The DOG just destroyed the damaged cruiser. The Banhammer just destroyed the Carrier, all enemy ships destroyed. The DFA is taking care of the rest of their fighters. The Hangman just boarded with the outpost, they're securing the station."

"Any word on the Highwind?"

"They took some damage from the blast, but they have experience repairing things. I've all ready sent them so repair drones."

"How long will it take for the enemy to mount a counter-attack?"

"It depends on how far away they are. An hour at the very least."

"We'll need to be gone by then. Dock us with the outpost; maybe we can get some information about who we're fighting."

"We?" Suzanne squeaked.

"You're coming too."

"Repair bots just attached to the hull from the Gryphon," Colin informed Adam.

"Good," Adam typed in on his console, stopping Bella's flaming fighter and taking control of both her and Heather's. "Colin, direct the fighters back to the bays and lock them down."

"Got it."

"Alice, Send a message o Griff. Tell him to get the database out of the outpost and wipe it clean. Whatever those people are after it is most likely in the database."

"Sure thing," Alice typed quickly, a little shaken by the near death experience. Adam made his way to the hanger bay, forced to deal with Bella and Heather's insubordination.

Heather climbed out of her fighter as soon as she arrived in the hangar and nervously awaited the inevitable arrival of the captain. Her heart thudded softly in her chest, drumming out the background sounds of the engine and faint voices from around the ship.

"How mad do you think he's going to be?" Bella wondered, coming to stand beside the other girl.

"Very," Heather sighed. "But we deserve it." Bella frowned and then nodded reluctantly. They stood in silence until Adam entered the hangar.

"Hello Adam, we're very sorry," Bella greeted him with a guilty smile.

"Shut up Bella. You two showed a dangerous disregard for my command and I have no choice but to punish you," he paused as if wondering if he was being too harsh or perhaps not harsh enough.

"We understand, Adam," Heather said, casting her eyes to the floor.

The Gryphon finished docking. Grif had put on his battle armor and moved to the air lock, gun raised. Behind him, Suzanne followed. Grif had given her a pistol and had briefly shown her how to use it, but he wasn't confident that she'd be much use in a fire fight. She was wearing standard issue armor, which hopefully would protect her from a major hit.

The air lock opened and he was greeted by an assault trooper.

"Easy, I'm on your side," the trooper said.

"Identify yourself," Grif said.

"Corporal Mattster at your service."

"The voice pattern checks out," Adelaide said inside Grif's helmet.

"Lead on Corporal."

"It didn't take very long to secure the station. They didn't have much of a guard contingent."

"Did you take any prisoners?" Suzanne asked.

"No. They wouldn't let us take them alive."

"Have they taken anything from the computer?"

"We haven't been able to tell."

"There is a computer terminal there," Adelaide said, highlighting it. Grif moved there and placed his hand onto the terminal. Adelaide appeared in the terminal.

"This will take a few moments," Adelaide said, before disappearing.

"Can I see their bodies?" Suzanne asked.

"This way," Mattster replied.

"There's something you should know about these bodies," Ster said as they walked down the corridor.
"And what's that?"
"They're dead."
Suzanne blinked.
"Well... that's what I thought."
"Oh," Ster replied. "Yeah, I just thought I'd warn you, but that's no problem then... They're really weird looking, too."
"Oh yes?"
"It's totally gross, there's all these things..."
Ster demonstrated using a complex system of hand signals that he had clearly invented seconds beforehand.
"... and that other stuff, whoooa, you want to be careful of that."
"Right..."

Just as they reached the door, Ster's phone beeped. Suzanne stared as he pulled it out.
"That thing must be at least twenty years old!"
"Thirty. It's a hand-me-down," Ster replied as he flipped it open.

"Matt," Adam's voice crackled. "I need you back at the bridge. We need to think of a suitable punishment for Bella and Heather, and you need to supervise and make sure they do it."
"Aww... I think they've learned their lesson," Ster muttered. "Anyway, Grif's medic is about to chop up some aliens and I wanna watch."
"Matt, you are going to get down here, now."
"Come on! I might be able to sneak some good cuts! We can have a barbecue!"
"Don't make me shock you again."

Ster sighed. "Ok, I'm coming."
He turned back to the room to see Suzanne lifting a scalpel over one of the aliens, an almost sinister glint in her eye.
"Man, she has issues... hey, I wonder if I can explode anything on the way back..."

Adelaide went through the database again just to be sure. She then went to Grif.

He was waiting for her.

"Well?"

"They downloaded the main core of the computer, but they didn't get the classified materials."

"So?"

"So! They didn't even try for it."

"I don't understand."

"Anytime someone tries to access a file, it is automatically recorded. They didn't even try to get our classified material. They just focused on the member list and the profiles."

"What does it mean?"

"I don't know; that's what scares me."

Grif frowned. He usually went by Adelaide's direction, but now she was confused.

"Could they have modified the records?"

"I don't know. I mean, I could modify it. That wouldn't be too hard. But this is all manner of confusing. There'd be no point in modifying it unless they knew well in advance that we'd take the station. No, it is either a very clever fake, or it is genuine."

"No matter. We'll reset our codes and then wipe the outpost's hard drive," Grif said.

"Grif, this is Hunter. We're getting whispers, it looks like they're going to be coming into the system soon."

"We'll need more time to delete the hard drive," Adelaide said.

"No," Grif said.

"You have an idea?"

"Yes." Grif turned to Mattster. "How would you like to blow something up?"

"Wow! You mean it?"

"Yes, I need you to construct some means of detonating the reactor remotely."

"How soon do you need it?" Matt asked.

"30 seconds ago."

"I'm on it!"

"Adelaide, tell Hunter, Adam, Jig, and Saint to get well away from the outpost. I want everyone off this station except for Suzanne, Mattster, and me. Make it happen."

**Adam needs to post...so he can be outraged, and deal with Heather and I...and then I'll have soemthing to do!***

"Your flight privlages are suspended until further notice..." an alert sounded through the ship, cuttong Adam off.

"We've been ordered to move from the area," Colin said, "Engines are still under reapir, but we should be albe to make it to a safe distance."

"Urg, I'll deal with yout wo later, get to your stations." The two pilots rushed off, not looking back while Adam took a second to think. This is getting bad, I cant afford to lose the Highwind, "Colin, fire up the engines and get us moving."

"Roger, Griff has taken Matt to help him destroy the outpost"

"I wonder if Griff knows what he just gave Matt permission to do."

Colin laughed, "I think i need to recalculate a safe distance." With a faint Smile Adam made his way to the bridge, hoping the ride wouldn't be too rough.

As Heather rushed towards her station, she got a message and hesitated.

"Heather, come on," Bella called.

"I'll catch up to you," she replied.

"But Adam..."

"It's important."

"Important enough for me to come?" Heather shrugged and they both turned and ran to the bridge.

"Adam..." she hesitated again; unsure. He turned and frowned. "Adam, check the radar."

"Heather, Bella what..."

"There's a ship heading our way!" Alice exclaimed.

"It's The Abyssal Claw and I know I don't have any pilot privalages but there's A.I's and you can send Alice or someone. Please Adam, we could really use the extra fire power..."

Bella was right behind Heather (considering the fact that her post was on the bridge, it was all good.) Adam was considering Heather's proposal as Bella took her seat at the navigational controls.

"Well..." Adam said thoughtfully.

"Please!" Heather pleaded.

Ster rushed down the hallway, skidded left and fell down a flight of stairs. Climbing to his feet he found himself in front of a large steel door. The sign on the door read Caution: Reactive Materials; he stopped to briefly admire and salute it. He pushed it open; normally it would be locked, but Grif had ensured it would be open for Ster.

The reactor stood tall in front of him, a green glow emanating from within. It's almost too beautiful to destroy..., he thought. Almost.

Ster emptied his pockets onto the ground. Amongst the junk he found several hundred mint wrappers, a hard-boiled egg, a herring and his retro mobile phone. Nothing that seemed immediately explosive... uh-oh. He'd left his chemicals and whatnot on the Highwind. Ster quickly dialled Adam.

"Matt?"
"Adam! Don't go into my room!"
"I avoid it at all costs. Why?"
"My, uh... stuff is in there..."
"What!? You compromised the safety of my beautiful ship!"
Before Ster could respond, the phone sparked with electricity, roasting and lightly marinading Ster. He brushed soot off his face; his phone did have pretty decent destructive capabilities...

Aha!

Twenty minutes or so later, Ster skidded to a halt in front of Grif.
"How'd it go?" Grif asked.
"Done and done," Ster grinned. "Call Adam. When this thing's ready to blow... tell him to send a long-distance taser to my mobile."