[Prologue]    [Chapter 1]   [Chapter 2]    [Chapter 3]    [Chapter 4]    [Chapter 5]    [Chapter 7]    [Chapter 8]    [Chapter 9]    [Chapter 10]    [Chapter 11]    [Chapter 12]    [Chapter 13]    [Chapter 14]    [Chapter 15]    [Chapter 16]    [Chapter 17]    [Chapter 18]    [Chapter 19]    [Chapter 20]    [Chapter 21]    [Chapter 22]    [Chapter 23]    [Chapter 24]    [Chapter 25]    [Chapter 26]    [Chapter 27]    [Chapter 28]    [Chapter 29]    [Chapter 30]    [Epilogue]
   

Chapter 6

    "HOW COULD WE LET THIS HAPPEN!" The Palace Guard leader shouted over the chaos. He stared at the 7 extra Tyrons who appeared out of nowhere. They were shooting all the Catlans and had blown up half the laser cannons. One of the laser shots firing had just blown up a censor tower. "CAN'T ANY OF YOU DO IT RIGHT!?"
    He aimed his laser rifle at the nearest Tyron, then felt it being yanked and found it had disappeared. He quickly looked towards the streets and saw his rifle attached to a blackish tongue that went inside a hovercraft. Everyone-Tyrons and Catlans-were moving out of the hovercraft's way as it sped towards him.
He stamped his foot and yelled "AAAHH!!". Then he ran to the nearest functioning laser cannon.

Kuni looked at the laser rifle that the Bannon girl next to her was staring at.
    "Set to kill," said Kuni angrily. She pressed a button twice and the scale that was showing went down a bit. The Bannon girl turned to her.
    "I take it's now set to stun," she said. Kuni nodded.
    "It should keep them asleep for up to 7 hours," Kuni told the Bannon.
    "Er...Kuni?" Kuni turned to a Bannon man. "Is that a laser cannon aiming at us?" She looked where the Bannon was pointing.
    "Everybody JUMP!" the Wayan man at the back shouted.
    They all jumped out, the laser cannon fired and the hovercraft exploded.

Zana punched a Catlan off the roof. Jaron stunned 2 Catlans with his phaser. Zana saw another Tyron helping to fight off the Catlan attackers. He also noticed a tunnel leading inside the palace.
    "I'd forgotten about that," he thought and then saw Catlan soldiers coming out from the tunnel. Zana shook his head and prepared to fight.
    Jaron kicked a Catlan and pushed her against the flagpole while grabbing a chain and wrapping it round her and the other Catlans against the flagpole. When he put a lock on the chain, he went to where Zana was...leaving the awake Catlan to struggle.
    Zana threw a Catlan off the roof and another was slammed against the floor, but Zana didn't see a Catlan creeping behind him, so as he stood up, the Catlan was striking. A phaser shot was heard and the Catlan fell to the ground. Zana saw Jaron with his arm held high, phaser in hand-now pointing at him, the Tyron prince was standing very still. Zana laughed with relief.
    "You're a life saver Jaron," he said while shaking his head.
    Jaron jerked his head to the tunnel, then walked over to Zana, holsting his phaser. "That would be our way in?"
    Zana nodded and they ran inside.

Kane and his squad were surrounding the outside entrance to the main lab. He saw a shuttle with an ice ray flowing from it. He grinned to himself. "Nice work Loria." He armed his laser rifle.
    "Kane! The door's open!" Someone called out and a cheer went up.
    Kane looked at the wide-open doorway. "Okay guys! This is what we're gonna do. We'll  all go in at the same time, make sure there's a space between you! Shoot any Catlan who aims to fire! We'll take down all the scientists and switch off the experimenting gismos. Let's go!"
    They ran in. The tunnel was obviously built during the Catlan occupation: the walls were navy and dimly lit-not a Tyron style at all. A herd of soldiers then appeared and ran towards them. Shooting was heard everywhere, Catlans were falling on every hit, squad members got  shot  in the arms and legs-leaving burns.
    Then the shooting stopped, all the Catlans but one were on the ground. The one still  standing looked around him carefully, then dropped his weapon and sprinted towards the squad. Kane put his laser rifle in his left hand and gave a HUGE punch. The Catlan was slammed against and bounced off the wall with that punch. He then landed with a thud on the ground-knocked out.
    The soldiers at the back of the squad started to laugh as they moved forward and everyone was careful not to step on him.

The shuttle-leader grinned as she saw a big, iced street up ahead.
    "Well princess, you've done a pretty good job." "See that street up ahead?" Everyone behind her put their heads to the side to see. "When I say so, everyone shoot with everything you've got." 
    The woman with short, black hair concentrated. The shuttle flew nearer, then it was over the street. She steered it up, then swerved it down. She hit a switch and the windows went down. "NOW!"
    Everyone leaned over one side of the shuttle and fired. They hit each Catlan with a few shots. The Tyrons saw this and slumped  down on the street and panted:feeling relief at last. Little did anyone realise, a few Catlans were hiding.
    So out of nowhere, extra Catlans came out and fired. One of them was hitting the bottom of the shuttle so it got a hole burnt into the 'hull' (outside of the shuttle).
    There was fire in the hole and the shuttle was going down. They all jumped. Each one landed and looked around for Catlans as the shuttle crash landed and blew up. There were 3 Catlans standing, firing started, lasers were heard everywhere. 2 of them went down but one of them was still standing, no matter how icy and slippery the road was, he could manoeuvre himself easily.
    "What the...?" the squad leader was shocked.
    A Tyron slid a damaged brick to the Catlan's feet-banging them and tripping him up. The squad members took him down without any problem.

    The squad attacking the main lab were now running along the tunnels with impatience.
    "Aren't we anywhere near there yet?"
    "I can't wait to bust up some heads!"
    "I just want to shoot the stupid cats!"
    Kane stopped running, everyone else stopped running too.
    "Hey! What's the hold up?" someone asked.
    "Quiet!" Kane ordered harshly. He looked to the floor, but his mind was somewhere else. He sensed voices and focused on them. There was plenty of chatter. He also sensed other Tellens probing his mind and 'gazing' in his 'direction'.
    "You sense them too?" Kane asked.
    "Yeah, they seem to be going about their every day business," a voice said. Then a women's voice was heard.
    "A Tyron's being experimented on, but no harm's been done...yet." Now there were different voices talking at different times.
    "Apart from the Tyron, there're only Catlans in the lab."
    "There're 10 entrances, with 1 guard on each of them."
    "One of them's on our side."
    "What? Where?" Kane asked. He didn't know where they were focusing, then he found the minds. "Oh yeah, the one with us is at the north door."
    "Where's north?"
    "Forget it! Let's just keep our eyes open!" Kane had almost shouted those 2 sentences to the minds. He snapped out, keeping focus on the good Catlan. He looked up. "Okay, we run for another 10 or 20 meters, then we break up to attack different entrances. Be on the lookout, a Catlan on our side is one of the guards."
    Kane touched the Catlan's mind. He sensed boredom and could see daydreaming images of the Catlan being friends with a Tyron and a Yazaki fish. "Listen Catlan. My squad's coming and when you see them, you drop the rifle. Gotit?" He sensed confusion that changed into certainty. But Kane didn't know that the Catlan was grinning.

©Ruth Amy Louise Hüneke 2008