Subject: [Fanfic] Danibus 7 Date: Sat, 09 Sep 2000 23:33:42 -0400 From: Captain Fanfic Newsgroups: alt.startrek.vs.starwars This was probably written sometime in 1997, maybe earlier. I transcribed it directly off of my old Brother WP-2200 word processor just tonight. Witness my first serious Sci-Fi story! And don't poke fun at it. It really is my first. And just to let you know, I added the new header just now too so there :P Danibus 7 An original story by Rob Dalton (daltonator@hotmail.com) Chapter 1 Out in the distant fringes of the galaxy was the obscure planet of Danibus 7. The _Hellcat_ of the United Alliance had been scouting for sites to colonize for several months and this planet was one of the designated survey points. UA scientists had so far known the planet to be uninhabited. As the probed this particular planet, however, several heavy turbolaser blasts had ruptured the main drive and destroyed the repulsorlift generators. Officers and crewmen desperately tried to land the suddenly incapacitated ship without killing everyone on board. The ship breached the atmosphere and slammed into the rocky ground, sliding for close to two hundred kilometers. Barely half the five-hundred-man crew made it out before the ship exploded spectacularly in multiple fireballs, instantly flash- vaporizing the rest of the men. Among the survivors was the captain of the ship, Dedrick Arnold, and his top officers Chimm, Stanley, Thurmann and Greene. Unfortunately, their chief engineer had been valiantly trying to repair the main drive and was killed by a sudden plasma surge that coursed through his chest and tore him limb from limb. Arnold ordered the rest of the crew to set up emergency shelters, but only three tents were grabbed before the explosion destroyed the rest. They were all big enough to house sixty people each. The seventy that were left were ordered to guard the tents and what little remained of the ship. Fortunately, their communications array was still intact. Chimm fiddled with the external control board and saw that it worked well enough on an emergency generator to send at least a weak signal. He programmed it to transmit a repeated distress signal aimed at grid Theta-2 and hoped that it was received. The planet they were stuck on also had a science station, which lay four hundred and ten kilometers away to the southwest. "Might as well hold out to morning and head out to the station then," Captain Arnold said. "Danibusian nights are said to be vicious." As the crew slept, an ominous bulge in the horizon moved slowly to the camp. The guards took no notice, as they were asleep at the post. Suddenly, a blood curdling howl emanated from the bulge, and thirty-five men disappeared into its mass. The rest could barely yell out a warning before they were gone too. All at once, a barrage of firepower erupted from a tent. The monster simply absorbed the attack and only got angrier. A blue burst then suddenly emerged from a figure standing near the tents. A blue burst never seen before, and it disintegrated the monster in seconds. "My name is Arfik," he said. "I will help you." ***** Arfik was a large humanoid creature, around two and a half meters tall. He had three eyes and six arms, each carrying some sort of weapon and had a large baldric strapped around his shoulders, full of ammo. His clothes were tattered and torn, revealing blistered armor plates covering his body. Arfik had the look of a seasoned mercenary, hardened in the course of battle and always ready for action. He was a Danibusian. He explained his situation. "A long time ago," he said, "A young Danibusian named Dlak was named Emperor of Danibus. The moment he took office, life changed for the worse. Innocent civilians who didn't believe in the new government were hunted down and destroyed. His greed was legendary. Thousands of Danibusians were enslaved and made to mine clatrium, a very precious metal, in Dlak's dirty mines. Everyday a few workers were tortured and summarily killed for not meeting mining quotas, which was raised every week. I was one of those workers. One day I got whipped in the back for resting after a particularly heavy lift. The guard went to whip me again when I grabbed the end of the whip, ripped it from his grasp, and used it to snap his eyes out. I broke his neck, stole his weapons, and blasted my way out of the mine. They never expected that our enslavement would have an adverse affect on them. They were lazy and far from constant eating and sleeping, while we were hardened and muscular from lifting heavy loads. They had the advantage because of their guns and knives, now I had the advantage! I constantly raided warehouses and built up on supplies and ammunition for years, also arming fellow rebels. That giant monster was genetically engineered to keep away trespassers, but for their own safety, they had to create a weapon to destroy it if it ever threatened the Emperor. Weapons such as this were closely guarded; even getting in sight of it was tricky. To steal it, I needed a palm-held teleporter and a small-mass cloaking shield. The moment I teleported inside the warehouse where it was, I was fired upon. Luckily, they missed me, for I was cloaked. They continued firing, some shots close enough to singe me. The cloak wouldn't be of much use if they could feel or smell me, so I had no choice but to kill them. I stole the weapon and teleported out of there as quickly as the device could teleport me. As I was in the matter stream, I saw twenty guards with heavy weapons storm into the room, and I had to laugh. They had absolutely no idea that I was even there. Pompous self-important bastards; they think their security is foolproof! Come, I will lead you to more suitable shelter than this shabby tent; I know of places where even the Danibusian honor guard can't get to! Grab your weaponry and supplies; they may not be useful on monsters, but they will make one big mess out of a Danibusian. You're human, right?" Arnold nodded. "Don't see many of those. Only the highest Danibusian officials have access to space travel. But of course you know of the secret science station on the plains. Come. I bet we can find that science station in a matter of time." Arfik and the rest of the group headed off to the southwest towards the research station and perhaps a familiar face. ***** Arfik and humans later arrived at the location that the base was said to lay. They came to find it effectively gone. Not just abandoned or dismantled. There was no sign of anything, yet alone a station, ever being there. Arfik fingered the ground tentatively. "Ah," he said. "Just as I thought. There seems to be a visual dampener combined with a holographic emitter array buried just under the ground here. All the conduits seem to run back under those rocks. Sounds like the humans inhabiting this station know just what they're doing. Let's try to signal them." Arnold yelled out a hail, and soon a figure appeared seemingly out of thin air. He beckoned them towards a darkened spot on the ground. Suddenly, a door opened up into the station, where the station commander was waiting. "I can not believe that I would ever see another human face again," he said. "And what is this? Arfik, my friend! Long time no see." The commander went and shook his hand warmly. "Arfik saved my base from being discovered by the Danibusians a couple of years back," he continued. "All of us here owe him a great deal for all his assistance. But enough chit-chat. I imagine you all must be very tired and hungry. Come, and help yourself to all we have." Arfik and the humans went off the main corridor to a large hall where many tables were being set up for them. Chapter 2 The remaining one hundred and eighty men hungrily ate at the banquet while Arfik sat by in amused silence. He had never seen such a gluttonous species before in his sheltered life. Danibusian meals were few and far between; the species ate one giant meal every week and stored the resultant energy for that week before they had to eat again. The amount that this small race could ingest in one sitting rivaled that of even the hungriest Danibusian. Arfik shifted his weight to his other leg and considered how he was going to get them off of this planet. Without warning, the back of the hall blew in and dozens of heavily armed and bloodthirsty Honor Guards of Dlak poured through. Spotting Arfik, the commander motioned for two guards to go and tie him up. Quicker than lightning, Arfik stood and pulled out his rapid-fire ion annihilator. He started blowing away Danibusians left and eight, ignoring the shots scathing his body armor. Although his firepower proved no match for their heavy assault weaponry, he took town more than his share of savage guard as Humans grabbed up small but wicked plasma lances and sliced Danibusian after Danibusian in half. Within three minutes, every single Danibusian was dead, along with ten humans. "Move!" ordered Arfik. "The guards will soon be back, and in much larger numbers!" All one hundred and seventy-nine humans and Arfik sped down a small hole that led to a secret cave in the mountains, made by the scientists years ago to escape in case of Danibusian attack. As they got there, they heard a louder explosion than before. "Sounds like they're tearing the base apart looking for us," the commander said. "Lucky we got here when we did. Speaking of which, I'd better get that door sealed and hidden." The commander touched a switch, and a pile of rocks fell down and sealed the entrance, also blowing a charge that destroyed the covering rock of a deep chasm at the end of the tunnel. And not a second too soon. Even as the hidden phaser shut off, they heard heavy footfalls pounding the ground behind the barrier. An order for a halt, and the ensuing chaos as several Danibusians fell down the unseen chasm. The guards thought that the humans must surely be dead, because not even the guards could survive a fall that far. He called an about-face to his company and walked out of the tunnel. Back in the cave, the commander breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's it for the base, he said. "Let's go and find the exit." He fired up a glow rod and headed off to the far end of the cave. Upon inspection of the wall, he pushed a stone back and triggered a chain reaction that crumbled some of the wall away and revealed a dimly lit passage leading to an underground emergency operations base. After everyone hurried through, the commander flipped another switch and the wall seemed solid again. In the room was a small monorail-type vehicle on a small track. "This pod can carry up to forty people at a time to a secret launchpad with five rockets. Each rocket can carry up to fifty people, and are capable of lightspeed velocity and are extremely maneuverable. The Danibusian guards were seen snooping around that area, but I doubt they have even considered its presence. Let's go." ***** A few hours later, everyone was transported to the launchpad and strapped aboard the rockets, ready to take off. As the main drive fired and the bay doors opened, Captain Arnold once again reflected on his good fortune of actually getting off the planet. Suddenly, with a series of loud explosions, all the rockets blew up, spreading the rest of the crew around the Danibusian landscape and turning poor Arfik into a smoldering shell. Seems the Danibusians knew more than Captain Arnold or the other humans thought... -- Rob Dalton http://daltonator.net I am not in compliance.