Knights of Daybreak Chapter 12 By: W.Bob Yankovic Well it seems that the Knights have a master plan to follow. But what is Shane going to do with his wife fixing to have kids? How is he going to be able to lead the attack and simultaneously do that weird breathing thing with Katrina? This promises to bring some major laughs and possibly some major problems. Enjoy. "Breathe honey," I said as I stood beside my lovely wife who had suddenly become a very angry person. I didn't have any idea what to do. I had never been in a delivery room before. One thing was sure. I was gonna be careful that I didn't end back up in one for a while. Katrina was squeezing my hand so hard that my fingers began to go numb. The doctor asked if some seditive would be needed and I requested a few mills of lortab. I had to be semi-awake during the birth of my children so I didn't want to take too much. "THE MEDICINE IS FOR ME YOU BUMBLING IDIOT!" Katrina yelled at me as another contraction began. I just smiled and nodded as the pain from her squeezing began to move up my arm. The doctor said that this was probably the big one so we had to get ready for the fun stuff. Thirty minutes later I held my son in my arms as Katrina held my daughter. I felt strangely serious for one of the few times in my life. I guess that it finally caught up to me that I was a father. I looked down to my wife and kissed her on the forehead. She looked up to me with her beautiful eyes and smiled. "Hey daddy," she said with a little giggle. "Hey mommy," I said back to her. Our children were fine and in perfect health. The doctor said that they had my strength and my wife's beauty. I didn't know how to take that so I just shook his hand heartily. This was like the second best day of my life. I brought everyone down to the nursery to look at my kids. "Man I bet that Ray would freak if he saw you now," Mac said. I kinda wished that he was with me to celebrate, but I almost understood why he chose to distance himself from everyone else. "Could you see Frag's face if he was here right now?" Hogo said. I laughed at the thought of that. "He would probably say something like 'Not two more of them!' and pass out," I said. Everyone expressed their happiness to me and I walked back to the Katrina's room. I found her asleep in the bed when I got there. I leaned over and moved her hair from out of her face and pulled a chair up next to the bed. I picked her hand up and placed it in mine and just sat there lost in thought. I thought of all that had went on in the past years of my life. It never really registered in my mind that the fight ahead of me was going to be the hardest that I had ever been in. No one knew Vyraxon's full power. And no one knew what lay before us. I awoke later to find that I had dozed off while sitting with Katrina, who was now awake. She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "I love you," she said. I looked back at her. Her eyes seemed to trap me in their gaze, her beauty astounded me, her hair fell in long strands around her neck, and I swore that I was looking at an angel. " I love you too. And I will always love you. Nothing on this world can seperate you from my love. Even if I am not with you, remember that," I said as a single tear fell from my right eye. She looked over my shoulder and I turned to see Mac and Draco standing behind me. "It's time to go," Draco said. I looked to my wife and then to my friends. I was torn. Stay with the woman I loved and take a chance that we could just go somewhere and live without ever worrying about evil, or protect the lives of googleplexes of people. I looked to Katrina again. "Go be a hero, just make sure you come back," she said. I kissed her again and stood up. "Ok boys, lets kick some demon @ss," I said as I opened a portal to the War room. There I met with the leaders of the attack and support groups for the planetary/space assault. I gave them their attack coordinates and times, as well as their fake ID's and call signs. After finishing with them I spoke to the Supreme Gaurdians. "Game time people. We are going in, and we are going in hard. We figure that Vyraxon has taken over the Supreme Gaurdian hall and made it his "throne room" or something like that. We will portal in directly there fully powered and with guns blazing. If he isn't there we will proceed along a set line of places that he could be. Along the way I will shut down all of the defense systems and armor plating of NCC to allow some of our jury rigged cargo ships to get in untouched . There isn't much that I can predict. Be aware of everything that is around you. Shoot at anything ugly. If you take out some of their supporters that is ok. Try not to waste life unless it is a Fallen life. They are all expendable. Vyraxon is strong. I don't know how strong but I am sure that together we can kill him. Portals are no good if you are trying to run away from him because he has some wierd power that lets him control them. Once we find him it is pretty much all or nothing. There will be no second chance. If we fail this time we will be out of time, lives, and luck. So let's make it count." "Here is how it breaks down. Me and Mac in the front, Sarhedrin and Cratin for flank defense, and Shandra, Irvine, and Draco as reargaurd. Stick together. That will be what determines if we win or lose. If we fight as a team there is no way that we can be defeated," I said as one last pick-me-up. I looked at my watch and opened a portal. I powered up and crossed my fingers as we all jumped through. ------------------ On the second front Raven and Qui organized the fleets into groups and designated each of them to one of the people I had talked to earlier. I had decided to place those two in charge of the operation mainly because I was going to have my hands quite full with taking NCC back. They were to stay onboard Hogo, who generously offered his servises to the Anti-Dark Flame effort. If any contact was made with them they were to go in and blow everything up. But we hoped that we could cut off the source and that without a leader the Dark Flame fleet would just give up. They stood ready as the first group of cargo ships took off from the hangar. ------------------ The portal closed behind us and everything was in darkness. It was clear that we were alone in this room, but I felt a strong presence of darkness near. "Shandra you feel that?" I asked. She looked around and closed her eyes to focus, "Yeah, feels cold, like death." I walked slowly over to the computer terminal of the familiar room where I had spent so much time. I placed my hand on it and the computer system opened itself up to me. In mear seconds I had all defensive and offensive systems offline as well as all of the alarms and motion sensors disabled. We were given almost exclusive access to NCC within a minute. "Ok people, form up and keep your eyes open," I said. Mac and I walked to the door and nodded to each other. We began to power up and opened the door. Huge waves of power shot off in both directions down the halls as Mac and I blasted any would be attackers that were laying in wait for us. When we were both satisfied that nothing could have survied we began our march. The sheer size of NCC promised that if Vyraxon wanted to hide he had a fair chance. It might take days to even find him. We walked to an elevator that would take us to the top level. I had Irvine keep a bead on the doors as they opened. No one stood inside so we walked in. Our plan was simple. Search every level until we found Vyraxon. We would disable the levels as we decended to assure that no one could sneak back up past us. It was a fairly simple plan. But the time promised to be long. When the doors opened to the top level Mac and I again blasted away even if there was no one to be seen. The first fifty levels were taken up by the Academy. Along the way we came across cadets who shreiked and ran when they saw us coming. Some of them screamed 'Renegades!' or 'Murderers!' as they fled. We had no idea of what wasgoing on. We didn't want to kill them, we just wanted to get rid of theFallen. A strange urge came to me. We made our way down to the sixteenth level which was much like a city, with malls and bars and clubs and such for the cadets to entertain themselves with. Many here were too drunken to flee from us so we decided to talk to them. The place looked run down and like it hadn't been cleaned since we left. We walked into one bar and cadets went flying out of the doors screaming. A couple of them just looked up and went back to drinking. "Hey, you," I said to a cadet that I remembered from when I was teaching a few classes on martial arts. "What is going on here?" He looked up and waved his hands in a strange gesture to the bar. "You got beer, liquor and anything that will get you drunk here, dope and meth and assorted drugs over there, and high class top of the line ho's upstairs. That is where I'm fixing to go after this drink. There is this really hot Bothan chick with my name on her," he said as he downed a shot of some strange red liquid. "You mind answering a few questions first?" Mac said waving a handfull of credit chips at the guy. His eyes strained to focus on the moving objects but when he noticed the amount of money Mac was holding he agreed. "Where is Vyraxon?" Draco shot off quickly. I could tell that he was itching for a fight. "Oh, leathery winged dude with horns? He is down in the Core Control room trying to figure out how to shoot the Dimentional Cannon. I was on gaurd duty just a few hours ago. It seems that murderer McInnis left it in a few thousand pieces and under some serious encryptions when he left," the man said. "Why do you refer to McInnis as a murderer?" I asked. Appearantly the man was to drunk to even recognize me. "You don't know? Where have you been? He killed all of the diplomats to the other dimentions a few months ago on Tatooine. They were just out there to meet up and he comes in and wipes all of them out," he stuttered right before unleashing a huge belch that almost made me puke. "So that is why they didn't fight back," Sarhedrin interjected, "they weren't trained to. They were just regular old Fallen, if there is a regular old Fallen." I was pissed. Somehow I knew that Vyraxon had a way to turn that on us. Mac dropped some credits on the bar to easily cover the tab and we made our way to the elevators. "Well at least we know that Vyraxon thinks of us as a threat. Why else would he want to use the Dimentional Cannon? He already has a fleet that could easily wipe out any resistance," I said. I guess that when you are driven by greed nothing will satisfy your hunger. "What are we going to do? Are we gonna keep going by levels or just pop in and start blasting?" Draco asked making it sound like the latter option was the more favorable one. That would be a bad idea though. The Core is not something to be tampered with. One stray blast and NCC could go up in a huge fireball. "I am sure that by now he knows that we are here. We just have to make him an offer that he can't refuse," I said as I opened a portal. I beckoned everyone to follow me as I stepped through. When we arrived at our destination everyone immediatly noticed what I was thinking. We stood in front of the Vault, note that it was empty but Vyraxon didn't know that. I easily hacked through all of my old encryptions and opened the door. When he knew the Vault was open he was sure to come and check out what was going on. I mean for all he knew there might be another dimentional cannon in there. I ushered everyone inside and began to set up a perimeter. I gave orders to blast at anything that walked through the door that even slightly resembled a Fallen. I could feel everyone begin to power up and transoform into Gaurdian forms. Mac went to superhuman as well as Draco and I. In a few moments we were going to be in for a fight that we would not soon forget, if we survived. The next thing I remember was a huge solid black ball of energy fill the doorway of the vault. I didn't have a chance to block it, much less to dodge it. I was flung through some shelves and made a nice sized dent in the back wall. I looked around to see everyone else holding body parts and trying to sort themselves out of the rubble. "Welcome Gaurdians, or should I call you Knights?" I head the voice of Vyraxon hiss out as he stepped into the light. "I am so glad that you could join me here today for your deaths. I promise that I won't let you suffer for too long. When you think about it eternity in hell might seem nice. You're never cold or wet, you don't have to worry about a job or even a suntan," he finished with a laugh. "Hey tall, black and ugly, eat this!" Cratin screamed as he chucked a huge ball of electricly charged ki at him. The blast caught Vyraxon by surprise as it hit him. He moved a foot to resteady himself and brushed off his leathery skin. "I do hope that you have something better than that. I thought that I might get challenged today," Vyraxon said as he began to flex his muscles. Soon he easily reached eight feet tall and his once wiry frame was now rippling with new found and appearantly super powered muscles. "GET HIM!" I screamed. At that moment all seven of us lit into him throwing punches, kicks, ki, teeth, and whatever else we could at him. We seemed to be getting the best of him for a while. I flew back, called for everyone to move out of the way and chucked all of my energy into Shamrock Shine. He was buff, but my sword was sharp. I hit him hard, sending him through the outer wall of the Vault, which is mega-thick, and through a few more walls after that. Just as soon as I moved out of the way Mac blasted Breath of the Heavens after me. This battle didn't seem to be as hard as I thought. We all flew at top speed to where he was and resumed the pounding. We were sending him through just about everything leaving a path of destruction behind us. We left a wake of broken walls behind us almost long enough to park a Star Destroyer in. Then I noticed something through the sound of fist and foot on skull and ribs. He was laughing. There was no way that he could be laughing now. We could have put a serious hurt on Seraphim with all the beating we were doing. "ha ha ha Ha Ha Ha HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAA!" he laughed as he slowly began to ward us off. Our attacks were being blocked. There was no way one person could block fourteen punches at once! "GET OFF OF ME!" Vyraxon screamed as he threw his arms out to his sides. The very force of this sent all seven of us sprawling. He stepped out of the rubble around him unscathed. I mean NO scratches, blood, bruises, or anything. "You disgust me. Your puny power has absolutely nothing on what I am. You must not know who I am. I am Vyraxon. I come from the Omega dimention, you might affectionatly call it Hell. I have the power of a thousand angels. You fought ONE and almost died. If you think that you even stand a chance at beating me you better think again," he said as he launched into us. He beat us back through the whole way we had beat him and then through some more. "Guys! We have to attack as one!" Mac screamed as he tried to dodge a punch, instead he ducked into another that sent him sprawling. Irvine jumped infront of him and tried to blast Vyraxon back while Mac recovered. Vyraxon's tail shot out and grabbed Irvine and held him upside down as he began to close in on Mac. "DOUBLE BOMB!" I heard Cratin and Sarhedrin cry as they tossed their blast into the fray. Irvine began to charge up a blast in his gun and took careful aim at the base of Vyraxon's neck. Right as Cratin and Sarhedrin's bomb hit Vyraxon in the side, Irvine sent a concussion bullet into the back of his head. The demon stumbled and lost hold of Irvine. He reached up to his forehead and stuck his finger in the gaping hole in it. When he brought it back down to look at he noticed thick black blood spread out all over it. He didn't have time to respond due to Draco and his Reignfire attack hitting him flush in the face. From behind Vyraxon I heard Irvine cry out "VORTEX MACHINE GUN!" With the literall thousands of bullets a second hitting his body Vyraxon was flung out through a door and into the next room. On my count everyone began to pour supped up high powered ki blasts into the now prostrate body of Vyraxon. To our surprise the body staggered back up to its feet and began to come at us. "Step it up! Give it all you have!" I screamed. The blasts all doubled in size and intensity, but the haggard figure kept coming. When he reached about a ten yard range he stopped and screamed "BRIMSTONE!" The blast filled the room and threw us out in seven differant directions. He had succeeded in splitting us up. That is when I saw them. Four human bodies were covered in rubble that we had caused. We had wiped out an entire level of NCC. I scanned around and saw more of them, people innocently slain. "YOU!" I cried out. "We will not fight you here. Follow us!" I said. He just looked at me and gave a little sneering laugh. "It makes no differance to me where I kill you," he said. By that time everyone had regrouped. We looked bad. Everyone was bleeding and almost everyone something broken on thier body. I opened a portal and we all flew through it. When we landed I instructed everyone to eat a sinzu bean and quick like. I had taken us to an uninhabited planet in a prediminatly uninhabited Delta dimention. It was the first place I could think of. Through a dark red portal Vyraxon floated in. He looked none the worse for wear minus the gaping head wound that would have rendered anything else quite dead. ------------------------ On the bridge of Hogo, Raven and Qui began monitoring the procession of ships already making thier attacks on the first few planets. Three planets so far had overthrown the rule of the Fallen on their planets. There was no sign of the Dark Flame fleet, and so far no one had even been seriously injured. The plan was going rather smoothly. "I see that one of the next planets up for liberation is Draco's home planet," Raven said. The Suir Lux had fought valiantly against the rule of the Fallen, in fact even after they were forced to join the farce of a government that Brin set up they sent us as much as they could. "That one is going to be gaurded quite heavily due to the nature of the people there," Raven continued, "I don't expect this one to be a walk in the park." "Let's hope for the best, look they just freed New Namek and Kessel. That makes the total five, no wait there is another, six worlds freed. I really have to commend Mac on his excellent planning," Qui said as she changed her attention over to the front view port. Hogo was holding a steady orbit, with about fifty capital ships, around Irvine's home planet. It was chosen to be a jump point because it was inbetween several of the planets that needed our help. Raven was laughing as he watched the tally of liberated planets go up almost by the second. He noticed that Qui stood up but thought nothing of it until he heard her softly say, "Dear God help us." He looked up to her then followed her line of sight. Out the front view port he saw it. The whole Dark Flame Fleet. The Lucifer had just dropped into normal space and from out of its hangar flew a ship that Qui noticed immediatly, an Interdictor Class Star Destroyer. The huge hemispheres that protruded from its surface were gravity well generators. When they charged up it would be impossible for them to escape. They were for the moment trapped. Before she knew what was going on Raven was barking out orders over the main channel. "Put the dump ships on autopilot and send them out, scramble all fighters, all ships charge weapons and begin to make way to an open lane to make the jump to hyperspace, someone I don't care who take out that Interdictor, and get the decoy Serpent ready just in case that big ol s.o.b. tries to pull anything, and if anyone likes to pray I would suggest kicking it into overdrive," he said as he lept over the railing and ran down to the main weapons panel. "Hogo, Shane said that you had some kinda demi-superlaser on board but I don't see any kinda control for it," he said. "Um, Raven it takes pretty much all my energy to shoot that thing unless Shane pulls another fool trick and hops in my energy core. Even then I don't know if I will be able to hold an orbit," Hogo replied. "Sh*t! How long would the power be out after you shot it?" Raven said as he began to charge up the secondary weapon systems, which were by anyone elses standards more than their own primary weapon systems. "It would take at least five minutes to get propulsion back on line, the weapons would be toast for seven, hyperspace would be back in seven point five," Hogo said. Raven cursed again as the first wave of water-dump ships flew out towards the unsuspecting Sheol's with thier fighter escorts. "Get it ready and get it charged, don't pull the trigger till I say something. Let's just hope that we don't need it," Raven said. From behind him Qui let out another gasp and a little prayer. Raven wheeled around in his chair and gave her a 'what' look. "The invasion force for Suir Lux has been decimated by an unknown planetary defense system, no survivors. This is bad," she said as she pulled her hair back in a loose pony tail and sat down tapping away on a keypad. "Should I send reinforcements?" she asked. "We are the reinforcements, and at the moment we are a little busy," he said. ------------------------ "Well, well, well, I see that you have taken the opportunity to refresh yourselves. I don't mind, you still are nowhere near as powerful as I am," Vyraxon hissed. He put his finger back up to his forehead and brought it back down to examine. "You are going to hurt for this blood cowboy," he said. "Yeah well you are going to hurt when we get through with you, you and your whole psuedo-government," Irvine said. When he heard that Vyraxon broke out into a deep throaty laugh. "I am guessing that you are refering to your petty attempt to liberate the dimentions from my control. Am I right? I do admit that I didn't give you humans enough credit. The plan would have been brilliant if I hadn't known about it since the beginning," he said as he laughed again. "There is no way that you could have known!" Mac screamed, "The seven you see before you now are the only ones that knew about it!" This brought yet more laughter to Vyraxon. "Yes I know, and from one of the seven I see I recieved my information. Even now the Dark Flame fleet is attacking your fleet above Cowboy's home planet. On the planets that I though were worth anything I put very large defenses on. They should have wiped out your invasion fleets by now," he said. "YOU LIE!" I screamed as I drew my sword. I dove at Vyraxon with all my speed and anger and made a swing at him. He caught my blade and snapped it off at the hilt. "You can ask her for yourself. She stands beside you now, the weak one, the one I could use for my own good, the one that betrayed you for a promise of power. There she is! Ask her! Ask Shandra if she betrayed you!" Vyraxon said as he tossed me through the air. I landed with a thud in the dirt not to far away. I looked up in a state of disbelief at Shandra who was now crying. "I'm sorry Shane, I had to save myself," she said.