Power Core Series 4: Space

The Zoombians arrived on Earth prepared for the resistance that the Protectors would produce. Within hours of their arrival they had begun manipulating the Earth’s atmosphere and begun the systematic destruction of any town where protector power signatures had been detected.

            “Kyle’s getting tired,” Jack warned Emily as she watched the Zoombian battle group continue towards Newton Abbot. “If he doesn’t have a rest soon then we’ll never get out of here.”

            “We stand and fight,” Emily stated simply. “If this town is destroyed then we know that our future will never come to be. And we need that compromise. If we lose we need to ensure we are brought into existence. Tom’s laid the scientific framework, now all that remains is protecting this town.”

Kyle suddenly appeared out of nowhere with Dean, having rescued him from Bristol shortly before the city was torched. “I can’t keep going Emily,” he panted. “They are attacking too quickly for me to keep up.”

            “Then we pick,” Emily decided. “I hate it as much as you do. But we’ve gotten to the point that you can’t keep up with the rescuing and the Zoombians aren’t letting up.”

            “These are our friends,” Jack snapped. “How are we supposed to choose?”

            “Who is most useful,” Emily sighed. “We go by power and who will be most useful in the coming fight. Its horrible, but it is the only choice we have.”

            “I’ll pick them out,” Kyle volunteered. “I can pick them and then get them.”

            “Okay,” Emily nodded as she pulled the satellite feed up of the table and into a 3D hologram. Selecting a series of missile turrets buried beneath the surface of the Earth, she targeted them upon the Zoombian battle group. This caused the night’s sky outside to light up in a bright orange hue a few minutes later. “Leanne, you’re a go. Take out those ships in orbit. Remove their advantage.”

            “With pleasure,” Leanne snarled as she initiated the hangar bay doors, allowing her hover craft to escape into space.

            “Will someone explain to me why the hell I am here?” Dean snapped as the Zoombian battlegroup began a barrage of laser fire upon the missiles.

            “You’re here so that you would not burn with your city,” Emily explained, bringing up a video of Bristol on the holotable.

            “What about my family?” he questioned.

            “Gone. All of them, even John,” Jack sighed.

            “You have someone who can teleport,” Dean exclaimed. “What makes me so special? Why not save my little sister? Or my girlfriend? Why me?”

            “Because you have special abilities that no human has,” Emily explained calmly. “If we could have saved them then we would have. But we save our own first.”

*****

As her ship exited the Earth’s atmosphere, Leanne began to realise the full extent of the humans’ betrayal as a series of anti-air missiles approached them.

            “Hold on tight!” Leanne yelled to Ralph and Oscar at the back of the ship. “This could get rocky!”

            “What are they playing at?” Ralph questioned, moving up next to her.

            “They clearly don’t want our help,” Oscar chuckled as he pulled the roller-coaster-like restraint over his head.

            “Sit down Ralph,” Leanne ordered as she gripped the control tightly. “If we’re going to make it to our destination then we are going to have to perform some disorientating manoeuvres.”

            “Sitting,” he stated simply in reply as he sat down in the co-pilot’s seat. Leanne meanwhile caused the ship to barrel roll to the left in order to avoid the first of the missiles.

            “Take control Ralph,” she suggested. “I should be able to take the missiles out and quite a few of the surrounding Zoombian ships.”

            “Just don’t take us out in the process,” Ralph warned as Leanne climbed out of her seat and to two small pedestal in the middle of the seating area.

She placed her hands on the two pedestals and began to funnel the electricity inside of her into the ship itself, which in turn charged up the giant magnets beneath her feet. Once she’d built up enough energy, she forced the magnet to pulse, causing the electrical energy to escape from the ship in a wave that collided with the remaining missiles and many of the Zoombian ships causing them to suddenly overload with electrical energy, which in turn caused the engines to detonate, destroying the ships.

Following the overload attack, Leanne stumbled back to her seat and slumped down next to Ralph while pointing towards the one ship that had survived the overload.

            “That is our target,” she stated quietly.

            “Understood,” Ralph acknowledged, although he kept their speed constant to give Leanne as much time as she needed to regain her energy.