Carakh was sitting quietly in the control room of his shuttle when he got the call. He quickly answered it, and to his surprise it was Dolash.
"Yes, my lord?" Carakh said.
"We have recently discovered an Enemy outpost on the moon of the gas planet Zrakken." Dolash said, "You are familiar with its whereabouts, are you not?"
"I am, sir."
"Excellent. I need you to go there and exterminate them from the moon, so that we can cut off their Tibanna gas production while at the same time we can boost ours. Undrerstood?"
"When would you like me to go, sir?" Carakh asked.
"As soon as you're ready."
"understood."
-----
Several minutes later Carakh had completed the gathering of the supplies needed for the mission. Intelligence had provided him with the layout of The Enemy's base, as well as the two large cities on the moon. His goal was to destroy the base, neutralize any threats in the cities, but not to harm the gas mining facitlity.
He had decided not to take his team of Commandos for this mission, for he felt he would be able to perform it better alone. Not to be too careless, he packed plenty of explosives, blasters, and other useful weapons.
The planet was on the outer edge of the Azguard System, so he was told to expect minimal resistance, but one could never be too careful.
He proceded to the cockpit of his shuttle and prepared for takeoff. He began the powerup sequence, and setlled back in his chair and waited. When the lights flicked to green, he started up the engines and balsted away from Azguard. Once clear from the gravity of the planet, he plotted the coordinates of Zrakken in the navicomputer, and jumped into hyperspace.
Several seconds later he reverted into realspace to the sight of a barren, bleak gas planet with only one moon. Zrakken.
He flew towards the moon, and, surprisingly enough, was not hailed by The Enemy. He flew down and landed in a large forest just outside of the larger town that contained the base.
He disembarked from the shuttle, and was surprised to find that the gravity on the moon was only a little lighter than he was accustomed to on Azguard.
He began to walk through the forest, and anticipated that it would take several hours before he could reach the outskirts of the city.
Several minutes later, he heard a rustle in the bushes behind him. He spun around, but saw or heard nothing else. He shook his head and continued on his way, however he could not shake the feeling that someone, something was watching him.
As he continued on his walk, there were several other instances when he heard noises from around him. However, he just assumed them to be local animal life. What else would it be, right?
Carakh was also surprised by the quality of the air. It had a surprisingly high oxygen concentration for a moon planet, as well as strong gravity. He began to wonder if The Enemy was somehow generating more atmosphere, but he wondered why they would encompass the entire world with it, not just the cities, so he went back to assumeing that it was just an odd moon. He ahd been in the forest for some time now, and had seen a few animals he assumed were native to the moon, as well as some common ones, but there was not really an abundance compared to what he was used to, in fact it seemed to be kind of sparse.
The trees, however, were not. The farther he went the thicker they got. It was almost as if he was going deeper into the forest, instead of leaving it. Which, he reflected, could be a very likely possibility.
This continued on for some time, and every so often when he paused he could have sworn that he heard something, but chose to dismiss it as animal life, or possiblly the wind. After about an hour and a half he began to doubt this. It sounded increasingly more and more like something was following him, and pausing every so often. Getting fed up with it, he spun around and began searching the bushes.
His search, however turned up nothing, so he continued on his way. He now truned his thoughts to his mission, and how he might go about performing it.
He had decided to attempt to assinate the on base commander. It seemed like the best way to throw the moon into confusion, and it would buy him some time to plant his bombs. He had broguht plenty of high powered explosives which he would plant at the bases of any major structures and cause them to collapse, as well as on any vehicles. Yes, he reflected, his victroy here would sow confusion and hesitation into The Enemy forces. How he loved his job.
He would, however, need some way to disguise his purpose at the base. He could not simply say he was just visiting, because how many visitors would visit a moon in the middle of nowhere. He could pretend to defect like last time either, because he would not have access to any high security areas. No, he would just need to sneak around and hope no one noticed him, an uncanny abitlity he seemed to have. He had done it many times in his childhood, and had perfected it to an art. Almost no one could see him now, much less hear him. Yes, he thought, sneaking would work quite well.
There was still the difficulty of getting into the high security areas of the base. He was no hacker, and he had not brought his expert with him. He would have to find some other way to get in. He had brought several tiny recording cameras that would not show up on most surveillance scans, so he supposed he could just monitor the door and see what the access codes were, but it seemed like too much of an old fashioned way to do it. No, he would need something more sophisticated.
Besides, they would probably have access cards of some type, as well as voice confirmation for the highest settings of security. It would probably be better just to bomb the whole thing. but, then again, they might have bomb scanners. There were so many different cicumstances that could effect his job that it was no use trying to find a way around them all. He would just have to see when he got there.
Which he hoped would be sometime soon. He had been walking through the most repetitive forest in existence for over 2 hours now. It seemed as if the had manufactured it in a factory and plopped it down on the moon. But he knew he was just being ridiculous. And that was usually a sign of needed rest. He found an open area and pulled his tent out of his pack. He set it up quickly, then had a quick bite to eat before crawling in.
It did not take him long to fall asleep, which was unusual for him, especially in an unfamiliar forest on an unfamiliar moon. He did not sleep well, however.
[i]Carakhj struggled to lift himself up to the top of the next cliff. That was all he had been doing for the sixteen hours of the day, for the last 23 days. He was in the huge mountain ranges of his homeworld, Azguard.
He reached his hand down and pulled up his best friend, Bob Shorty. They had decided to participate in the annual Great Search. It took place once every year on Azguard, and was a test of your every physical ability.
You formed a team of up to three people and set out to find some on the rarest things onn Azguard. It was a race between your group and the others, and winning it was considered to be the greatest reward.
He and Bob had already gotten 4 of the eight objects, and were now looking for the Pinnacle Rock, which could only be found on the highest mountains on all of Azguard. You would have to climb to the top, then search in thew snow for the rare rock.
They were almsot at the top now, and Carakh felt that they should begin looking for the rock soon. You could only find it on the highest peaks, and even there it was quite difficult to find.
About a half an hour later, Bob, who was about forty feet below him shouted out.
"What was that?" Carakh yelled back.
Although faint, thorugh the wind he could make out "I've found one!!" Carakh turned around and started edging his way slowly down the mountainside, which was near vertical at that point. As he approached he could see his friend struggling to pull it free from some ice. Bob tugged several times, then, suddenyl, it came free. It slipped free so easily that it sent Bob off balance, and in that split second when he did not have a hold on anything, he fell.
Bob fell 300 feet before the moutain leveled off, and he hit the ground with a loud thud and snap.
"No!!" shouted Carakh, but to no avail. His friend continued to roll down the slope, gaining momentum as he went. Soon he was out of sight.
Fighting back tears, Carakh began the long descent of the mountain. He would not be able to continue the Great Search without Bob.[i]
Carakh woke gasping. He had had that dream many times before, and it was the most horrible thing he had ever experienced. Losing his friend like that, he would never forget it. It was one of the most vivid and most horrible moments of his life.
Soon he drifted off into another uneasy slumber...
[i]Carakh laughed. He was waling down a mountain path, having recently visited the plateau with his frind, Alyssa. She was younger than he, at 20. They had been best friends since shortly after Bob had died, back when Carakh was 12. She had just told a funny joke, one he had heard thousands of times, and he had laughed on every occasion. He liked being with his friends, for they made them feel complete. He still felt like he had a part missing from him though, ever since the death of Bob Shorty. He felt as if he would never be complete again, as if his heart was cut in two.
Being with his friends helped relieve the pain, but he knew that he would never be whole again. Nothing, nobody could replace Bob. Not even Alyssa.
As they walked down the dark trail, Carakh thought that he heard a noise behind him. Alyssa showed no sign of noticing it, however, so he dismissed it. They continued along, discussing what they thought would become of Azguard now that they knew of the galaxy, and starships, and hyperspace, and so many other things.
Suddenly, out of the dark came a vicious battle scream. 12 Azguards painted in evil warpaint swarmed around them.
"Run!!" Carakh shouted, and he truned and ran down the trail. Alyssa was not as fast as he was and was caught as the evil Azguards circled around her.
Carakh wanted to go back to help her, be he was unarmed, and he knew that there was nothing he could do. Cursing and weeping he ran down the trail back home. Now 2 of his friends had died and there was nothing he could have done to save them.[i]
Carakh screamed as he woke, recalling yet another vivid moment of his life. That had been a year ago, back when he was 22, 10 years after the first dream he had had of Bob Shorty. He had had this line of dreams like that before, in that order, and he knew what was coming next. It was the worst of all, but he knew that he would have to fall asleep sooner or later.
"Yes, my lord?" Carakh said.
"We have recently discovered an Enemy outpost on the moon of the gas planet Zrakken." Dolash said, "You are familiar with its whereabouts, are you not?"
"I am, sir."
"Excellent. I need you to go there and exterminate them from the moon, so that we can cut off their Tibanna gas production while at the same time we can boost ours. Undrerstood?"
"When would you like me to go, sir?" Carakh asked.
"As soon as you're ready."
"understood."
-----
Several minutes later Carakh had completed the gathering of the supplies needed for the mission. Intelligence had provided him with the layout of The Enemy's base, as well as the two large cities on the moon. His goal was to destroy the base, neutralize any threats in the cities, but not to harm the gas mining facitlity.
He had decided not to take his team of Commandos for this mission, for he felt he would be able to perform it better alone. Not to be too careless, he packed plenty of explosives, blasters, and other useful weapons.
The planet was on the outer edge of the Azguard System, so he was told to expect minimal resistance, but one could never be too careful.
He proceded to the cockpit of his shuttle and prepared for takeoff. He began the powerup sequence, and setlled back in his chair and waited. When the lights flicked to green, he started up the engines and balsted away from Azguard. Once clear from the gravity of the planet, he plotted the coordinates of Zrakken in the navicomputer, and jumped into hyperspace.
Several seconds later he reverted into realspace to the sight of a barren, bleak gas planet with only one moon. Zrakken.
He flew towards the moon, and, surprisingly enough, was not hailed by The Enemy. He flew down and landed in a large forest just outside of the larger town that contained the base.
He disembarked from the shuttle, and was surprised to find that the gravity on the moon was only a little lighter than he was accustomed to on Azguard.
He began to walk through the forest, and anticipated that it would take several hours before he could reach the outskirts of the city.
Several minutes later, he heard a rustle in the bushes behind him. He spun around, but saw or heard nothing else. He shook his head and continued on his way, however he could not shake the feeling that someone, something was watching him.
As he continued on his walk, there were several other instances when he heard noises from around him. However, he just assumed them to be local animal life. What else would it be, right?
Carakh was also surprised by the quality of the air. It had a surprisingly high oxygen concentration for a moon planet, as well as strong gravity. He began to wonder if The Enemy was somehow generating more atmosphere, but he wondered why they would encompass the entire world with it, not just the cities, so he went back to assumeing that it was just an odd moon. He ahd been in the forest for some time now, and had seen a few animals he assumed were native to the moon, as well as some common ones, but there was not really an abundance compared to what he was used to, in fact it seemed to be kind of sparse.
The trees, however, were not. The farther he went the thicker they got. It was almost as if he was going deeper into the forest, instead of leaving it. Which, he reflected, could be a very likely possibility.
This continued on for some time, and every so often when he paused he could have sworn that he heard something, but chose to dismiss it as animal life, or possiblly the wind. After about an hour and a half he began to doubt this. It sounded increasingly more and more like something was following him, and pausing every so often. Getting fed up with it, he spun around and began searching the bushes.
His search, however turned up nothing, so he continued on his way. He now truned his thoughts to his mission, and how he might go about performing it.
He had decided to attempt to assinate the on base commander. It seemed like the best way to throw the moon into confusion, and it would buy him some time to plant his bombs. He had broguht plenty of high powered explosives which he would plant at the bases of any major structures and cause them to collapse, as well as on any vehicles. Yes, he reflected, his victroy here would sow confusion and hesitation into The Enemy forces. How he loved his job.
He would, however, need some way to disguise his purpose at the base. He could not simply say he was just visiting, because how many visitors would visit a moon in the middle of nowhere. He could pretend to defect like last time either, because he would not have access to any high security areas. No, he would just need to sneak around and hope no one noticed him, an uncanny abitlity he seemed to have. He had done it many times in his childhood, and had perfected it to an art. Almost no one could see him now, much less hear him. Yes, he thought, sneaking would work quite well.
There was still the difficulty of getting into the high security areas of the base. He was no hacker, and he had not brought his expert with him. He would have to find some other way to get in. He had brought several tiny recording cameras that would not show up on most surveillance scans, so he supposed he could just monitor the door and see what the access codes were, but it seemed like too much of an old fashioned way to do it. No, he would need something more sophisticated.
Besides, they would probably have access cards of some type, as well as voice confirmation for the highest settings of security. It would probably be better just to bomb the whole thing. but, then again, they might have bomb scanners. There were so many different cicumstances that could effect his job that it was no use trying to find a way around them all. He would just have to see when he got there.
Which he hoped would be sometime soon. He had been walking through the most repetitive forest in existence for over 2 hours now. It seemed as if the had manufactured it in a factory and plopped it down on the moon. But he knew he was just being ridiculous. And that was usually a sign of needed rest. He found an open area and pulled his tent out of his pack. He set it up quickly, then had a quick bite to eat before crawling in.
It did not take him long to fall asleep, which was unusual for him, especially in an unfamiliar forest on an unfamiliar moon. He did not sleep well, however.
[i]Carakhj struggled to lift himself up to the top of the next cliff. That was all he had been doing for the sixteen hours of the day, for the last 23 days. He was in the huge mountain ranges of his homeworld, Azguard.
He reached his hand down and pulled up his best friend, Bob Shorty. They had decided to participate in the annual Great Search. It took place once every year on Azguard, and was a test of your every physical ability.
You formed a team of up to three people and set out to find some on the rarest things onn Azguard. It was a race between your group and the others, and winning it was considered to be the greatest reward.
He and Bob had already gotten 4 of the eight objects, and were now looking for the Pinnacle Rock, which could only be found on the highest mountains on all of Azguard. You would have to climb to the top, then search in thew snow for the rare rock.
They were almsot at the top now, and Carakh felt that they should begin looking for the rock soon. You could only find it on the highest peaks, and even there it was quite difficult to find.
About a half an hour later, Bob, who was about forty feet below him shouted out.
"What was that?" Carakh yelled back.
Although faint, thorugh the wind he could make out "I've found one!!" Carakh turned around and started edging his way slowly down the mountainside, which was near vertical at that point. As he approached he could see his friend struggling to pull it free from some ice. Bob tugged several times, then, suddenyl, it came free. It slipped free so easily that it sent Bob off balance, and in that split second when he did not have a hold on anything, he fell.
Bob fell 300 feet before the moutain leveled off, and he hit the ground with a loud thud and snap.
"No!!" shouted Carakh, but to no avail. His friend continued to roll down the slope, gaining momentum as he went. Soon he was out of sight.
Fighting back tears, Carakh began the long descent of the mountain. He would not be able to continue the Great Search without Bob.[i]
Carakh woke gasping. He had had that dream many times before, and it was the most horrible thing he had ever experienced. Losing his friend like that, he would never forget it. It was one of the most vivid and most horrible moments of his life.
Soon he drifted off into another uneasy slumber...
[i]Carakh laughed. He was waling down a mountain path, having recently visited the plateau with his frind, Alyssa. She was younger than he, at 20. They had been best friends since shortly after Bob had died, back when Carakh was 12. She had just told a funny joke, one he had heard thousands of times, and he had laughed on every occasion. He liked being with his friends, for they made them feel complete. He still felt like he had a part missing from him though, ever since the death of Bob Shorty. He felt as if he would never be complete again, as if his heart was cut in two.
Being with his friends helped relieve the pain, but he knew that he would never be whole again. Nothing, nobody could replace Bob. Not even Alyssa.
As they walked down the dark trail, Carakh thought that he heard a noise behind him. Alyssa showed no sign of noticing it, however, so he dismissed it. They continued along, discussing what they thought would become of Azguard now that they knew of the galaxy, and starships, and hyperspace, and so many other things.
Suddenly, out of the dark came a vicious battle scream. 12 Azguards painted in evil warpaint swarmed around them.
"Run!!" Carakh shouted, and he truned and ran down the trail. Alyssa was not as fast as he was and was caught as the evil Azguards circled around her.
Carakh wanted to go back to help her, be he was unarmed, and he knew that there was nothing he could do. Cursing and weeping he ran down the trail back home. Now 2 of his friends had died and there was nothing he could have done to save them.[i]
Carakh screamed as he woke, recalling yet another vivid moment of his life. That had been a year ago, back when he was 22, 10 years after the first dream he had had of Bob Shorty. He had had this line of dreams like that before, in that order, and he knew what was coming next. It was the worst of all, but he knew that he would have to fall asleep sooner or later.
