(delurking mode off)



        Greetings all,

                    These are Alpha Versions. Still works in progress. 
Comments and Crits are welcome. I don't care if it's a one line comment or 
not, just send me something. This means you Andy! ;) <- I'm kiddin'. It's 
a joke folks. :) ;) Anyway, Da Poker Game Ends.......(cue errie music here 
;))

                    Two parts in this the poker game end (well the first 5 
pages of it anyway) and another thing I'm working on. Both parts have 
Rider stuff in it, the Poker part more then the other. The second is a 
variation of the Rider stuff ie Huntsman and stuff. C+C is welcome. 

                   Thanks for your time,

                                        Bentley
                                        bentley4@ix.netcom.com


        P.S. A Cross over between the poker and Spamalot sounds cool. I 
haven't written any Rider stuff as of late (ie not the Ops stuff, the 
Beginning stuff.) Bentley and Co originally did get sucked back into 
medival (sp...errrs) england...



    Now for a taste of things to come��
    A Poker Game Three Preview�
    Bensile Inc. Productions
    Written by R. Bentley






	Kara slid down the stairs and landed on her feet. Her brand new 
hi-tops made a screeching noise as they skidded across the polished 
metal deck of Tanya O�Hare�s ship known as the Essex. She had wiped the 
sweat from her brow and ran her hands over the white cotton towel 
around her shoulders. She walked down one of the many hall ways and 
listened to the Aiwa headphones attached to her walkman around her ears 
begin to hiss as she got farther and father away from the main doors 
that led to the outside world. The outside world meaning Eden as Tanya 
had coined when she had arrived on Earth years before. An Eden which 
much resembled her home, Gamma Ten. Something Kara still didn�t 
understand, why this old Secoian Battle Cruiser, the one whose main 
core she was making her way towards was here waiting for Tanya when she 
arrived here. She ran her hands up and down her long legs as she walked 
deeper and deeper into the ships bowels. Her eyes emitted a soft blue 
light as the lighting in the corridor began to get dimmer and dimmer.
	She stopped when a door appeared in front of her. The door just 
sat there, the eye level window set into the door was opaque. The 
surface appeared to have been a scratching post for something. The 
gashes in the metal were noticeable even in the dim light. She frowned 
and pressed her palm against the wall and waited. She looked over her 
shoulder and squinted. She hadn�t seen Tanya in days, the last time she 
saw her she was in the middle of performing a weapons check on one of 
her pet Firebirds. She seemed to be in a little bit of a hurry she had 
two duffel bags over both shoulders and told her she�d be back in a few 
days.
	A few days passed and she couldn�t reach her.
	At all.
	She made a face when she realized the door wasn�t going to open. 
The power from the ship�s main batteries seemed like it didn�t want to 
come down here. The last four way junctions seemed to have gotten 
darker and darker until she was completely in the dark and like a fool 
pressing her hand on the wall to gain access. She tugged on the towel 
for a moment and glared at the door. "Open Sesame," she muttered. The 
door stared back at her. Her eyes narrowed and she sighed. Her frown 
became a sneer, a sneer that showed her white teeth and for one moment 
her soul shifted to the right. The air around her became hot, the 
noises around her were silenced and for one brief moment she vanished.
	She reappeared on the other side of the door. The area around 
her was already steaming, a set of burn marks where she had walked. She 
had walked right through the door. She blinked as the armor that was 
forever cast onto her body shifted back into place. The metal visor 
swiveled up and back, the gauntlets that fit her hands the ones with 
blades made of diamonds were taken off, the torso attachment and her 
backpack filled with her toys still meshed with her skin. Her leggings 
made of metal and bone stayed as well. Her extra senses clouded her 
mind for a moment, then one by one she slowly put them back to sleep. 
She left the part of her mind, the part so well tutored with the Black 
Arts awake and let her senses take in the air that filled this room. 
Kara Masters, the Tendorian Huntsman/Secoian hybrid turned and surveyed 
the room.
	The room served as the core of the ship. The energy sphere that 
powered the ship resided in the middle of the room, it was the reason 
why there was a depression in the room. There was sharp dip down and 
finally a level plain where the core computer lay perfect untouched by 
tech hands since the ship had been commissioned. Since the ship had 
been destroyed one of the many attacks leading up to the Secoian/Tendor 
War. That information lay in one of the many computer console at the 
end of the room. The only people allowed at those stations would be the 
techs, no one else. Not even the Captain. The Techs were the chosen few 
who over saw the use of Secoian Technology. The Essex was the Secoian�s 
first and last sleeper ship designed with mecha factories. Now the core 
of the ship, it�s very being sat before the reason why it had been 
made, a Huntsman.
	The deck plates were an off gray, various Secoian text and 
arrows pointed to various wall panels and other removable deck plates. 
One half circle of computer banks lay in front of the core another in 
the back. Wall mounted scanners and computer banks hummed away as Kara 
walked towards the core�s computer bank. Her armor�s visor vanished and 
her hair fell back onto her shoulders, her eyes darted back and forth. 
They recorded every single inch of the room while her armor�s built in 
sensors mapped the room slowly. She made her way past the first half 
circle of computers and walked down the steps, her boots scraped across 
the metal. She stopped when she caught movement, she whirled around, 
her gauntlets appear from no where and with a swish the blades 
extended. The thing that had caught her eye padded across the computer 
panel and sat down, it�s blue fur shined in the light. It�s red eyes 
smiled back at her as it yawned. It finally stopped moving and just 
looked at her.
	Kara let out her breath and glared at the kitten. "Z�ena, I told 
you not to do that!" She hissed, she tried to calm herself while Z�ena 
purred quietly. She was one of quintuplets that was part of Tanya�s 
litter. C�Dac and C�Kai, two black male twins looked up from the tech 
console. Both of them seemed surprised at the fact Kara was even here. 
H�ecur the loner in the litter sat on the core�s computer screen, 
looked up at Kara with big kitten eyes and smiled at her. Kara decided 
to sit down on the steps and calm down. The way these Kasarian Kittens 
moved in real space, somehow folding from one location to another 
nearly gave her a heart attack when they would appear from no where. 
"O.k. Sleepa, where are you," Kara decided to stay right where she was 
and not move, she played with one of the deck plate�s latches and 
waited. The four kitten meowed back and forth to each other until they 
all stopped. Kara knew what Sleepa sounded like. She looked at the four 
kittens who were now sitting at her feet. She looked from one to other 
and cocked an eye brow. "Where is he?" She asked them. They all looked 
up at her and sorta shrugged. "I�ll take that as beats the hell out of 
me."
	Her armor beeped for a moment as the comm systems warmed up. A 
small antennae poked up from the her backpack and the little bulb on 
top started to glow. There soft hissing sound in the air for a moment 
and then seven distinct sounds rang out. Then the hissing became a 
ringing. Kara scritched Z�ena behind the ears as her comm systems 
patched into the local telephone lines. She eyed the tech console for a 
moment and broke her gaze when som
eone picked up the phone.
	"Hello?"
	"Hi, is Pam there," Kara spoke straight into the air while tiny 
speaker in her right ear gave her clearer sound.
	"Speaking," the female voice sounded like she was in the middle 
of something, the sound of papers rustling and other voices in the 
background echoed in Kara�s ear.
	"Hi, it�s Kara. How�s it going?"
	"Oh hi," Pam sounded like she closed the door to what ever was 
going on and walked into the hallway where it was quiet. "I�m doing 
good, what�s up?"
	"Nothing much, I was wondering if you knew where Tanya is?"
	"Hrmmms, I dunno I haven�t talked to her in a while. You can�t 
reach her?"
	"No. I think I�m a tad paranoid. We�re usually in constant 
contact."
	"Maybe she went to the poker game."
	One of the kittens looked up at the mention of that. Kara looked 
down at the kitten and frowned. "Poker game?"
	"Bentley went to a poker game."
	Kara sat back. "Where is it?"
	"Hang on I wrote it down somewhere," Pam opened the door back 
covered the phone speaker with the palm of her hand. Kara�s eye brows 
raised when she heard what was going on in that room. She waited until 
Pam found the piece of paper and walked back out into the hallway. 
"Beijing Zoo-"
	Kara nearly swallowed her tongue. "He went where?!?"
	"China." Pam frowned this time, though Kara couldn�t see it. 
"What�s going on?"
	"He went to a poker game at the Beijing Zoo? When is he due 
back?"
	"I dunno, he left a few days ago."
	"That�s where Tanya and Sleeper are," Kara muttered and looked 
down at the alien kittens. "That�s why you guys are here, trying to 
contact Tanya from here?"
	The kittens started to act like normal Terran kittens now, 
either sniffing everything in sight or just sitting there their tails 
swishing back and forth. They still needed to learn how to act natural 
when asked about a question and lie convincingly. Kara made a face and 
sighed angrily, there was a perfectly good reason why Tanya hadn�t let 
her in on this little trip. And she just found out why. "You said you 
wouldn�t go there," she muttered and stood. "Thanks Pam." Her Huntsman 
armor shifted and once again she looked human.
	"No problem. Before I let you go, you don�t know anyone by the 
name of Brett do you-"
	Z�ena�s ears perked up and her eyes locked with Kara�s.
	"-he called yesterday. My mom took the message."
Kara�s heart skipped a beat.


	"Did he file a flight plan at least?"
	"I dunno I can�t find anything in there," Shannon Barske closed 
the door to the APC and grabbed a hold of one of the many plastic 
straps attached to the cargo bay�s ceiling as the Dutchman flew through 
some choppy air. The gray and blue C-5 Transport Plane skimmed the 
clouds that hung over the horizon, the plane glided around twenty 
thousand feet all the while trying to out run the sun. The Pratt and 
Whitney turbines under the wings churned the air faster than specs 
would allow, the noise they created much louder then normal. Shannon 
watched from one of circular windows on the port side while two dots 
flew below them. Her eyes hazed over for moment, they narrowed and her 
right hand brought down her head set mic to her lips. "Looks like we 
got company. Looks like we got surfers."
	"Already got them," Becky Brewster craned her neck to the left 
from the pilot�s seat and saw the two specs. She pulled on her shoulder 
straps that kept her in place and leaned forward in the seat to check 
the radar, both the standard version and the Secoian upgraded version. 
The standard version didn�t pick up anything, but the Secoian�s radar 
screen washed over in blue wave and two blips appeared. Secoian was 
translated into English and the planes elevation/velocity appeared. 
"Their skirting the waves, someone�s in a hurry."
	Bryan Ameral leaned back in the copilot�s seat and started to 
calculate their speed. "We�re half way there. We�ll need to refuel in 
an hour or so and then we head straight there."
	"Any ID�s on our friends?" Kara leaned into the cockpit and 
looked out the port side.
	"G-2 maybe. Can�t tell from here." Shannon felt like powering up 
one of the main computers in the bay to ID the ships but the whole idea 
of this little OP was stealth. Quick and Easy. A term she had come to 
learn didn�t mean what it sounded like. She turned and surveyed the 
retrofitted APC whose large wheels had been clamped by the chalks built 
into the deck. The vehicle�s batteries were charging, wires dangled 
from the open hood to the C-5�s ceiling. The over head racks were 
filled to the brim with weapons and armor. She frowned while she 
settled into one of the built in bunks. Why are we making a big deal 
out of this? She wondered. "Computer ETA to LZ?"
	"Seven hours current speed." The C-5�s main AI replied briskly.
	"Wake me in six hours."
	She settled into one of the bunks and pulled her hat over her 
eyes and slowly drifted out off to sleep�.

	�."Commander Barske this is your wake up call." The AI�s voice 
echoed. She rolled onto her back and sighed. She opened her eyes and 
saw nothing but sandy blonde. She blew some of her hair out of the way 
and reached out for the over head handle. 
	She pulled herself up from bunk and saw all the little crease 
marks on her skin her t-shirt had given her. She rolled her head left 
to right to get all the kinks out and then proceeded to sneeze. She 
combed all her hair back, pulled her scrunchy around the sandy blonde 
mane and found her ball cap on the floor. She deck of the plane lurched 
out from under her and she nearly fell onto the floor. She missed one 
of the hand holds when the deck lurched a second time. She fell onto 
her side and curled up just in time for a rather large box of supplies 
to land almost on cue right where her feet would have been. She looked 
around in the dark, when did it get dark and felt around for her comm 
set. She found it only a few feet away from her near the ACP. She 
pulled that on and gripped the hand holds on the vehicle as the C-5 now 
lurched forward. "Since when was this an E ticket ride?" She hissed 
into the net.
	"Since we�re getting wind shears above fifty miles an hour and 
hail the size of small VW," Bryan retorted back from the cockpit and 
gripped the controls as the C-5 dipped down again then back up again. 
"Make fifty-five miles per hour, time for options: Now!"
	"Actually the hail is the size of Harley," Becky�s arms shivered 
as the plane was pushed back and forth. Her eyes stayed glued to the 
instruments while Bryan watched the stream of medium sized hail bounce 
off the plane�s shields. "No wait he was right, that one was the size 
of  small VW," she took one hand off the yoke to push the throttles 
forward almost into the console itself. She moved her hand back just in 
time for the transport plane to buckle and lurch to the right. "Damn!"
	"I�m staying in the bay, sounds like you have your hands full." 
Shannon�s voice statically met their ears. "Where�s Kara and the 
others?"
	"In the back, Bentley was right you can sleep through anything," 
Becky looked at Bryan and keyed her comm set to their own private 
channel. "We gotta land this thing, now. No offense, but my arms are 
about to fall off."
	Bryan nodded wildly. "None taken. So what�s you�re choice: Land 
or Water?"

	Shannon made her way to the back of the tumbling plane, the APC 
stood where she was, the recharging of the batteries already complete 
the hood was down and locked. The port side door was closed and inner 
shields were already up and running. She made her way past the APC and 
finally into the rear, half of which had cargo which was locked down 
the other half cordoned off as private for changing or what have you. 
She finally got to the door and was about to key in her command code 
when she though she heard something. Her fingers hesitated on the touch 
tone keys and she listened. Voices drifted over the sound of hail 
bouncing off the shields, the roar of the engines and just the general 
noises in a C-5 Transport Plane retrofitted with alien technology 
powerful enough to make it the most dangerous thing in the air. Voices. 
She leaned forward and put her ear to the metal door and listened. 
Chanting? She looked at the keypad then the door.
	The door hissed open. The ID scanner activated for a moment and 
looked her over then shut itself down. She took two steps inside and 
squinted as light hit her square in the face. She heard all of the 
outside sounds float away, they were replaced by voices and sounds. 
Some she recognized others rang bells but she couldn�t see. Something 
moved inside the light which caught her attention. She opened her mouth 
to speak when the wind picked up. The wind met her and closed the door 
for her�..

	<"He is here.">
	>"As is she."<
	}"They as well."{
	"Something else is here too, is it not?" A familiar voice rang 
out from the beautiful sounding voices. Sounded like, Kara? Shannon 
felt the trac system that resided inside her bracelet give her an 
option, that option being of activation. She decided to listen instead, 
she told it wait. The light was too bright, needed to get used to it�.
	/"It was here, he was here. But he banished��.sentenced it."/
	Shannon reached out with her arms to feel around, where are 
they?
	"Where are they now? Who is with him?"
	There was brief almost deafening silence until one of the voices 
spoke. <"Too many with him, a few of them were left behind but were 
picked up and brought along. They do not understand�.">
	>"Some of them do though,"< a voice interrupted. >"They were 
hiding. She brought them out. Forbidden."<
	Shannon stopped in her tracks. She had heard that phrase once or 
twice before. Before the time slip, on Gamma Ten, where Captain and the 
others were hiding out. Or were they waiting for someone? She stopped 
her thoughts where the light started to diminish. She blinked a few 
times. She eased her trac systems on-line and watched as her line of 
sight became much more clearer. She caught the flicker of something in 
the middle of the section, looked like a fire? She cocked an eye brow 
as figures moved, not really moved but came into her line of sight. She 
had just begun to stare at the fire and they appeared. She kept staring 
at the fire as the four people became clear. Three males, one female 
all of them sitting cross legged around the fire. One figure had her 
back to Shannon thus she blocked the fire, the fire whose flame was 
black as soot? Shannon blinked and the figures stayed, cool she 
thought. She noticed the room was completely bathed in white light, was 
that why the fire was black? Something seemed to move around the room, 
a ghost image of something. It was dark too, something dark, foreboding 
and evil. Someone�s soul? She thought.
	"Where are they now?" Kara asked again. "Can you find them?"
	One of the figures moved slightly. <"There are people who will 
answer your questions at the site.">
	>"They know more then we do. Far more then we do."< Tad bit 
jealous?
	One of the figures moved, turned around and looked straight in 
her eyes. {"We have a visitor."}
	Shannon swallowed as everyone turned around and looked straight 
at her.
	"You�re not supposed to be here," Kara glared at her. "Are we 
there yet?"
	Shannon looked from one person to the next and to Kara. "We�re 
going to try and set down somewhere. There�s a storm-"
	"We know about that," one of the four replied. "It should end 
soon."
	"Like how soon is soon?" Shannon frowned at one of them, blue 
hair? "We either ditch in the lake or make like a lawn dart."
	"It ends now."

	Becky was about to lower the flaps when the clouds started to 
part slowly. A small white ray of light appeared in the middle of the 
horizon. Becky squinted as the light hit her straight in the eyes and 
proceeded to fill the cockpit. She watched as the dark clouds parted 
like the Red Sea and were replaced by the night sky. She blinked for a 
moment and watched the bright rays of the moon dance over the land 
under them. She looked over at Bryan for a moment then back at the sky 
in front of them. "What the hell?" She muttered.
	"Now what�s wrong?" Shannon�s voice in her ear phones sounded 
far away.
	"We�ve got clear skies to China," Brian reported and rapped on 
the radar screen with his knuckles. "Radar is still a little fubared."
	"What�s our ETA?" Kara asked.
	Becky was about to tell her to look at her watch but instead 
looked down at the chrono attached to the pilot�s bank of controls. 
"About fifteen minutes." She blanched. "That can�t be right," she 
tapped the chrono with her index finger and waited. "Fifteen minutes it 
is, I guess." She frowned and sat back in her seat. "Something ain�t 
right."
	Bryan gave her a side glance and switched over to the private 
line. "What you think that storm screwed us over?"
	"You mean that hurricane," Becky brought the flaps down to 
fifteen and started to push forward on the controls. Her mind started 
to churn while the moon light started to glint off the Yellow Sea. 
"Soul storm," she muttered and keyed in the coordinates for Beijing�s 
airspace. "He sentenced a goddamn Huntsman."
	"Oh this is a good sign," Bryan nudged her gently and made her 
smile. "Told you to check up on your blue cross before we left Green."
	Becky leaned forward and squinted. "Shannon, you picking up any 
anonymous heat sigs?"
	There a brief moment of silence as Shannon made her way from the 
rear of the plane to her station next to the APC. The altimeter started 
to roll slowly down from five digits to four, Becky slid the flaps down 
to thirty and felt the plane slow down even more as three digit numbers 
rolled onto the display and Bryan clicked over to the civilian airline 
channel. "Did he?" He didn�t finish his sentence.
	"Not picking up anything anonymous on anything," Shannon leaned 
her head over into the stair well that led up into the cockpit. "Why?"
	Becky tightened her seat belt and fumbled to the left of her 
seat for her camera. She pulled out the Pentax 35mm with expensive 
night sight attachment she had gotten for her birthday and slid the 
zoom lens on. She took her hands off the controls, Bryan took over 
while she focused the camera. "I think you better get up here."
	Shannon started up the ladder while Kara made her way from the 
back to the front. "Bentley�s been giving you lessons Beck?" She looked 
out one of windows to see buildings fly by underneath them. "Where you 
going?" She asked as Shannon�s feet disappeared up the metal ladder. 
Kara followed her up and poked her head through the door. She looked 
over the hunched people in the cockpit and was finally able to get a 
good clear view out of the windows. She felt Z�ena�s claws dig into her 
shoulder as the kitten hissed at what was in front of them.
	"My god."

	Police cars and fire engines blocked off traffic in both 
directions as people gawked. The sound of the C-5 incoming made people 
turn from the most talked about attraction to hit the Zoo. The red and 
blue lights atop the vehicles flashed against the night. They flashed 
against something that drifted in the air. Something that blocked the 
rays of the moon.
       A large black mushroom rolled up over the Beijing Zoo���

        To Be continued......



            Yes that's it, I do have a few more pages done, but I want to 
look those over more before I send them out.... Aynway, here's one more 
thing for you guys to check over...


       Cross the Streams�..
       Written by R. Bentley

       Prologue
       To steal the prize.


	First came the darkness.
	Secondly came the light.
	Then hell on earth began.

	It all came down to two warring races.
	Down to two ships.
	Up among the stars.
	One night, just after midnight. Sound of thunder rippled across 
the night like bed sheet being blown in every direction at once. Among 
the stars, bright lights flashed from part of the sky to the other. All 
of the universe watched on the edge of their seats as if this battle was 
the Super Bowls to end all Super Bowls. People watched, listened, cried, 
laughed, all of that was in awe. Their eyes scanned the night sky, a 
gentle breeze blew in the from the north. People sat back and wondered for 
one brief moment.
	Was this the end?

	In the end it came down to two.
	Two races.
	Two ships.
	Two Doomsday Devices.
	There was always a balance. If the scales were tipped in one 
direction then something would be given to the opposite party. There 
laws had been put down long ago, before anyone could remember. The 
rules were not on the people�s minds as the two star ships did battle 
against each other. Angry energy cannons lashed out hitting metal hulls as 
screaming missile batteries opened up and spewed forth a reply. The mecha 
danced between the stars.
       A dance of death. The mecha battles had gotten too far away from 
 their mother ships, none of them would hear the cry of victory until 
it was too late. Too late for a ace up the sleeve. And so they boarded 
each other. Energy planks energized from the bellies of the ships and 
smashed their way into the other ship. The hulls were automatically 
pressurized as the doors of the planks are opened, the smell of ozone 
greeted the nose�s of the first eager Marines, the ones green behind the 
ears. The ones who are shivering in their boots while the planks main 
airlock doors begin to cycle. The sound of the green light triggers most 
of them to thumb down their safeties and aim prematurely at the doors as 
they begin to open. This is what they�ve been trained to do, they will be 
remembered by their families and the core as the doors come into their 
locked positions. The Marine�s eyes meet each other from behind the orange 
tinted visor 
as if to say: What that�s it?
       The wind answered them.
       This is the last thing they all can remember as something rushed 
at them from the plank. The point man goes down instantly, his rifle 
melted and his ammo becoming pools of liquid on the deck. His armor is 
burned and kicked in. He lied on his side as he�s knocked unconscious, 
his black helmet rolled across the deck as more things rushed from the 
plank. Shadows danced across the walls as screams of agony began, there 
are only six of these things. They do their work well and watched as 
the last of the green behind the Marines fall onto the ground knocked 
out from running into a wall. The leader of the six surveyed the scene, 
various and sundry scanners sweep the corridor. No fatalities, the 
leader read the read outs and gave his seal of approval. The other six 
glow in their own special way. The leader looked around and found what 
they had been sent to do. He pointed towards the lift door and the six 
begin to move toward it.
       The one and only emergency lift to the bridge.

       "Damage report!" The Captain ordered from his seat in the middle 
of the bridge. The bridge rocked to one side as another volley of 
missiles impacted on an unshielded part of the ship. The navigation and 
fire control stations that resided on the second level just behind the 
captain�s chair flicker off line for a moment then came back on. The 
three people manning nav and fire control stations attempted to keep 
the ship from falling apart at the seams. Three males and three females 
consisted of the six people honored enough to be on the bridge. All six 
bearly heard the captain�s bellow.
       The Captain�s first officer grabbed a hold of the back of the 
captain�s chair and looked at the read out to her left. "We have 
partial main batteries back on-line. Main engineering has been 
compromised, weapons bay is on fire and escape pods are beneath echo 
bars, the pod�s lifts are shorted out." She wiped the blue blood from 
her forehead and cursed. 
       "Any good news?" The Captain asked. He watched the GodFyre begin 
to come into view now. The great silver ship of the Federation. He 
sneered at the ship as she began to line herself up for a run at his 
ship the Dallas. The two ships had been equal matched in the beginning 
but the tide had been shifted somehow, something had happened to his 
men. His thoughts were side tracked when another jolt to the Dallas�s 
bridge. He was pushed from his chair and landed on the deck with a 
muffled thud, compartment above his chair exploded and crashed down 
onto his chair. He rolled over and saw where he would have been. He got 
to his knees and saw where his first officer�s remains lay. He looked 
over his shoulder at the approaching GodFyre. "Transfer all power to 
the weapon systems!" He barked.
       "Fifty percent to all the weapon systems. The targeting systems 
are already dead," one of the female weapon tech�s watched the power 
bars rise and rise. "Visual on the target. T-minus two minutes to 
firing."
       "We will have to wait a full five minutes for a recharge sir," 
the female�s second mate hesitated a look towards the Captain. "I 
estimate at least half of our circuit breakers will burn out if we fire 
all the weapons at once."
       "Then we fire the even batteries first then the odd!" The 
Captain spit back at the mate. "I want that white whale of hell 
destroyed!"
       "Yessir."
       "Does anyone have any good news for me?" The Captain looked over 
the last remaining six people on his bridge. The six he had to count 
on, they were all young, second generation. His first officer, his 
daughter had kept them in line. Her tutelage was grafted into them 
since they stepped on board to the Dallas and now their training at the 
Acedemy was kicking in. The Captain is God. The Captain�s word is law. 
They did not look up when spoken too unless so ordered and they feared 
him. His daughter had told them he wasn�t as evil as he looked. The 
weapon�s tech mate had been his daughter�s ward, he had enough balls to 
look at him. He now looked at the remains of his command and his 
daughter, he let out a deep sigh and let his years show in that one 
moment. "Does anyone have any options? Please speak up."
       "We can�t energize a fold gate. We can�t run like this. We 
should at least give them a pounding before they destroy us," one of 
the nav mates spurt out. "At least let them know we�re as good as they 
are."
       "We start off with the lower weapons first then as they get 
closer fire off the big guns. They�re getting too cocky. Look at this 
mecha deployment," the other nav mate pointed to one of the few 
functional screens on the bridge. The one screen up linked to one of 
the mecha�s cameras. The battle on their side was going much better 
then expected. They were making a dent in the other�s legion of metal 
knights. "They don�t even know we�re winning on this front their one 
concern is us and that�s it."
       The Captain eyed the clock. One minute. "And the Huntsmen still 
don�t respond."
       One of the weapon�s tech looked down at her panel and frowned. 
"No sir."
       The Captain leaned against the half circle of computer banks 
that operated the main screen in front of him. "What about our escape 
pods?"
       "Their still beneath echo bars-" One of the weapon tech�s mate 
reminded.
       "I ment ours Jesse."
       Jesse keyed the camera�s for the corridor that led towards their 
escape ship. She frowned when the screen came up blank. "Captain," she 
looked up into his old face. "I think we have a problem."

       The leader moved towards the hatch. The last hatch. The hatch 
the led to the corridor onto the bridge. He keyed in the sequence and 
braced himself as another shock wave pushed him and his group to the 
left then the right. He listened for a moment and touched his fingers 
to the walls. They illuminated for a moment, tiny streams of energy 
bounced from his finger tips to the wall and back to his fingers. For 
that one brief moment he was integrated into the main computer and 
listened to what commands the bridge were sending out to the rest of 
the hulk. He heard the command to drop any of the bombs port side on 
the ship they had come in. He yanked his hand back and looked over his 
shoulder. The six were still behind him, they were eager. They were 
getting to eager. War does that to a person sometimes. He heard the 
explosions, the ones of their escape ship. He pushed forward an
d the six followed.
        The hatched opened, he went first then his second then third 
and so on until they all filled the corridor. The hatched closed and he 
was about to issue instructions when something caught his eye. 
Something gleamed at him from the opposite end of the corridor. The six 
didn�t see it, he did. He turned and took a step forward when two area 
in front of his sparkled with energy and light. The six now saw and 
whirled at the sudden influx of energy, their weapon systems powered up 
and their first act was to open fire. For the knew what was standing in 
front of their leader.
       A Huntsman.
       Their leader made a hand motion and they all hesitated for a 
full second and the war ended. Their weapons powered down while more 
Huntsmen stepped into the corridor from their cloaks. Their armor 
gleamed in the emergency lighting, their staffs and pikes already 
stowed in their weapon packs. Their children safely tucked away inside 
their chest cavities. Their one intent was clear. And in that corridor 
in that crippled ship up in the midnight of space, the two Doomsday 
Devices of the two warring cultures looked each other over and for one 
brief moment it seemed as though they wanted to tell each other 
something. The two leaders that is. But something buzzed. The Huntsman 
leader made a motion and it�s group cloaked once again and proceeded 
down towards the back of the ship. The leader of the six looked over 
his shoulder and made sure his six�s weapons safeties were on. He tu
rned back to look at the Huntsman and it was gone. Well to the 
untrained eye it was, but to his he caught it as it closed the blast 
doors behind it. It nodded to him and he nodded back.
       He turned and unsheathed his weapon from his hip mount. He moved 
towards the door to the bridge and�..

       "Fifteen seconds," Jesse reported and gripped as another blast 
shook the ship. "Their getting better with those shots sir!"
       "I noticed," the Captain hadn�t moved from his spot in front of 
the room. He stared at the rather large energy pixeled screen and 
waited. He waited as the white nosed ship that had haunted ever since 
this war began came breathing down their necks. It�s cocky weapon tech 
taking little pot shots at his crippled ship. He had decided to go with 
the option of firing all the small weapons first then go with the large 
big mutha cannons. He knew what was on board, their escape was sealed. 
Their ship destroyed, it�s crew joined the ranks of the dead. "On my 
mark Jesse, open fire."
       "Aye."
       "Sir, the escape pod lift is on-line again. Some people made it 
down to them, they want us to jettison them," the nav tech eyed the 
clock. "Your orders?"
       "Do it."
       "Aye, pods away."
       "Ten seconds."
       "Weapon�s warming up," Jesse�s mate reported and pulled the 
latches off the mutha cannons.
       The bridge doors opened.
       The Captain looked over his shoulder as the wind passed him by 
and knocked him onto the floor. He heard three screams and three swears 
as the other bridge officers hit the deck too. Jesse did it out of 
reflex so the leader watched from the door. He closed the bridge doors 
and walked onto the bridge. The Captain felt the tip of the energy 
rifle push into the back of his neck, he tensed up and held his breath 
as the other officers held theirs too as the leader surveyed the scene. 
He noted the button on the weapons board, the one that was blinking. He 
also saw the clock as it ticked down to five seconds. There was a snort 
from somewhere, from Jesse.
       "So kill us!" Jesse stared down the leader�s gaze. "Come on kill 
us! That�s what your supposed to do isn�t it!?"
"Jesse!" The Captain felt the tip push deeper. "Child be quiet!"
       The leader eyed the screen for a moment and watched the clock 
tick down to zero. The weapons button was pushed. Jesse stared in 
disbelief as the main batteries fired, the lights in the bridge dimmed 
as circuit breakers and back ups burned out. The Captain watched as the 
bolts hit the GodFyre�s shields and cascaded all around the ship, the 
limited shielding didn�t help. The ship was on a shake down cruise, the 
inexperienced crew was surprised. The GodFyre banked to starboard and 
the nose of the Dallas smashed into the GodFyre's tail end. The white 
whale slowed as the engine room was introduced to the vacumme of space. 
The Dallas's nose or what was left of it started to flake off from the 
main body as the wreck slowed and mearly drifted there in space. The 
swarm of mecha now only realized what happened.
       The Captain heard a noise, sounded like bell of sorts. Jesse 
looked up and saw the Leader turn and listen to the bell. The leader's 
speaker box spurred forth something that only his six could hear and 
with that they let the bridge crew go. The Captain felt the weapon's 
tip move away from his neck and the bulk that pushed him down rose. He 
was helped up by what had attacked him. He turned to see the leader 
pull something from his amror for which he couldn't see, the captain 
frowned, they weren't going to execute them were they? He tensed up for 
a moment and held his breath as the leader tossed something at him. He 
caught it and nearly fumbled it onto the deck.
       "Take it," the leader told him. He turned and the bridge doors 
hissed up. "Hicha-joka." The six moved towards the door with ease. The 
bridge crew is speachless as the doors closed. They all looked at each 
other then at the thing the Captain had in his hand. He looked down at 
it and frowned. He turned it in his hands, looked like a weapon of some 
kind, one made of bone and metal? His confused face was the first thing 
the GodFyre crew saw as the ship signaled them to surrender.


        To Be continued...

        C+C can be posted to the FanFic ML and or send it privately to me: 
bentley4@ix.netcom.com

        Have a great day peoples. :)


        Bentley "Am I the only person who watched and like Kindred last 
night?"