Dawnbreaker Episode II: Shattered Worlds/Part 7

CHAPTER 19

Rattler runs over to the viewport, and, instead of the TCS Excalibur, sees a massive, organic vessel.

"Um... guys? I think we got bigger problems."

The Assailant looks at Rattler, then out the window, then back at Rattler. "No one else can see that ship, can they?" He asked the room. "Which means..." The Assailant pulls a gun and points at Rattler's head, "They're seeing through him." He fires the gun, Rattler's body falls to the floor and disappears.

Captain O'Neill draws a laser pistol and aims it at the assailant. "You got five seconds to explain yourself or I swear to god you will have more holes in you than a piece of Swiss Cheese."

The Assailant continues, ignoring the threat. "Sorry, I really do ow you all an explanation..." He turned around. "But I'm afraid it will have to wait." The Assailant runs out of the room.

Ty294 turns toward the Gatekeeper and points in the direction the assailant just went.

"Dang, I should have caught that guy earlier. Maybe we wouldn't have gone through so much trouble."

"I can destroy the ship." Says the Gatekeeper as he presses a button. "SELF DESTRUCT ACTIVATED: 10 MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION."

"Darkon, I never said I created the Universe. I created the Force, and the galaxies. Those are my specialties. I stopped following the Jedi and Sith when they turned on each other, although I do know exactly what has happened to them up until the now. In fact, all that lore you hear about on the planet you call Earth, never happened. The real story would shock you. But that is beside the point. The point is we need to leave this ship before it explodes in 10 minutes. I'll be the last one to go."

"Oh well," Darkon said to the Gatekeeper, "I suppose you are entitled to your continued delusions, Gatekeeper. That doesn't change the facts, which I know full well are nothing like you believe them to be. Some day, you will accept the truth as well. But, I can tell that day is far from today. In any case, I have better things to accomplish at the moment."

Deathstrike quakes in rage, rage that her opponent would simply disappear in the middle of a fight, but she remains silent. Suddenly, her gaze falls to the forward viewport, and she gapes.

"My lord... the Blood Sanctum... it disappeared! I don't understand this"

Even as Lord Darkon spins around to look, he notices that the Uberweapon's bulkheads begin to lose their cohesion, becoming more insubstantial with each passing moment.

"All right..." He says. "Now I am intrigued... that Assailant is beginning to gain credibility."

CHAPTER 20

Rattler wakes up in some sort of lab. Prying off the instruments attached to him, he quickly takes cover behind the table he was on and takes stock of what he has available. Finding that he has been disarmed, Rattler grabs the nearest object, which appears to be some sort of short blade.

"I guess Mr. Assailant was right. I'd better try to find the others, and a decent weapon."

As he is about to leave, a massive Insectoid being enters the room in front of the surprised Human. Reacting quickly, Rattler stabs the alien, and finishes it off with a quick slash through the head. After checking for some sort of weapon, Rattler set out to try and find the others.

"Bugs... great. What's next? A singing, dancing Mouse with his own amusement park?"

Ty294 fades from view. Just before he leaves to the room to follow the Assailant and the Gatekeeper he wispers into Deathstrike's ear: "Next time tell your master not to interfere."

About five minutes later, the Assailant ran back into the bridge "Ok, everything's re..." He looks around, but only the Gatekeeper was there. "What... where is everyone else?" He notices the self-destruct sequence. "NO! That won't work! We'll all die!" The Assailant runs to the console and starts typing. "Get everyone back here."

The Gatekeeper turns off the self destruct sequence and pulls his comlink out:* "Darkon, O'Neill, get back to the bridge now! Deathstrike is already here." "Hey, where's Patten and Rattler?!"

Everyone looks around the room, at their new surroundings. "What the..." "We are awake." Explained the Assailant as he jumped off the medical bed he was laying on. "That's not good." The Assailant looked throughout the room, but didn't see Rattler. "Where's Rattler? He probably thinks he has woken up, but I doubt he has. And if I'm correct, he doesn't have long."

The Gatekeeper rises to his feet and draws his lightsaber, but does not activate it. "Assailant, what exactly did we let out? Was it a Skinwalker? Bloodwrath? My wife?"

"Oh, well look at that," The Gatekeeper continued, "Darkon just left. I'm not going after him. His time is rapidly approaching. I can sense it..." The Assailant wasn't sure what to make of the Gatekeeper's strange remark, so he chose to ignore it. He then realized what was going on. "Sith spit. We are all in separate realities." He picks up a gun that was sitting on a table and peers out the doorway, to see a patrolling alien. "Hey you!" The bug turned as the lazer blew his head off. The Assailant walked over, and looked at the body. "Great. I'm still sleeping"

Captain O'Neill blinks at the sudden change in scenery. She sees the assailant cursing in another language, and tried to speak. "What the hell just happened?" He doesn't seem to hear her. "Hello?" She sees him pick up a gun and step out of the room. She waves her hand in front of his face, with no result. "Hmf." She says, annoyed, that the Assailant wasn't really there.

CHAPTER 21

Rattler avoids yet another patrol as he makes his way around the facility. Just as he was about to make a move, another patrol rounds the corner. Rattler jumps into a nearby room, and discovers Deathstrike wired up just like he was. Putting his pilfered blade down, he pries off the leads and tries to wake the Sith woman.

"Come on lady, I don't have all day here..." he mutters as he looks over his shoulder.

Rattler is still trying to wake Deathstrike when a bug enters the room. Just as the Human reaches for the blade, the bug speaks quietly, in English.

"Stay your hand young one. I don't have much time. What you see is still an illusion, but I may be able to reconnect you with the others. I'm already close with this female. I will try to guide you, but it..." the bug fizzles out of existence.

"You have got to be..." Rattler starts to say as he feels Deathstrike start to stir.

Deathstrike spins Rattler to the floor, an arm lock across his throat.

"NEVER without my permission! Oh.. I thought you were trying to...nevermind"

As Rattler turns around, she is already gone from the room.

"Helluva way to thank someone... HEY! WAIT UP!" Rattler chases after Deathstrike, and manages to catch up.

"You do know that we'd have a better chance of figuring out what the hell is going on if we stick together, right?"

Captain O'Neill looks around in surprise, to see she is in a forest. "Okay..." she says as she grabs a fallen branch, and starts looking for the others.

"Hmm...Strange. I can not sense the Force, though I still have my Force powers. Probably because my body generates the Force. I'm still at full strength. Anyway, I'm sensing this is a large, multilevel complex, we are in the dungeon. I'll keep scanning around for hostiles..."

He surveys his surroundings.

"Wait a minute, I regonize this place! This is where I sent all of the original Force users when they grew too powerful to control! I wonder if they're still here..." The Gatekeeper starts walking down a corridor...

Darkon wakes up. "I haven't left... I am here... here in some sort of... glass cage. I can't break out... Deathstrike, my apprentice, where are you? Help me out of here!

Silence.

Oh, well. I'll have to do it myself..." Darkon bashes his head against the glass 24 times. The glass breaks.

"Excellent. I always knew I have a hard head. Now, to find my apprentice..."

The Gatekeeper pulls out a commlink. "Guys, I know where we are! We are in an alternate dimention! Meet me at the main door at the third floor! I can coordinate our escape from there! In the meantime get down to the... He stops, as he realizes that it wasn't broadcasting anything. "Great..." Everything around everyone goes black for an instant, and the Gatekeeper suddenly find himself in a massive dark forest with fog everywhere...

The Assailant see's Rattler run around the corner. "Hey!" Yelled the Assailant "I dunno about the rest, but us two are still sleeping." Rattler runs right through the Assailant. The Assailant curses as a realizes that Rattler wasn't really there. He picks up the alien's weapon and starts blasting everything in frustration.

Ty294 fades into view next the assailant.

"I must still be asleep as well since I see the bugs. Tell me then, what the devil does it all mean?"

The Assailant jumps in surprise as he sees Ty. "Whoa! Finally, another person! Look, we need to destroy... What the... we're in a forest..."

The mercenary looks around for a moment, then remarks: "A foggy forest... Feels like home."

He cocks ACP Tactical Shotgun.

"Since you know what's happening... or I hope you do. Lead the way

"Where the hell did you get... Nevermind." The Assailant kicks a stick into the air and catches it. "Let's go."