Get your own Free Home PageThe tank-like machine was opening. A sarcastic, apparently male voice came from inside. "Who the hell are you?"
"My name's Bowen Kyret."
"A Basicar, eh? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't get out of this 'Naut and kill you right now." A head popped out of the hatch. It was about human-sized, but the skin was a dark grey, with black and white hair and pointed ears. The creature obviously saw the bodies of the Bowen's dead assailants. "Oh. If you killed a Sarr Deathpack, then you don't work for Crenhk. But all of the Basicars work for Crenhk, except for Durn and Raya. So this makes no sense."
Bowen spoke up. "What's a Basicar, anyway? Those weirdoes who I killed called me one, and now you're calling me one. And besides, what are you anyway?" The creature hopped out of the machine and landed on his feet. He was about five feet tall and was wearing what appeared to be a once-blue uniform covered in grease, not unlike what a mechanic would wear.
"I'm Makks, short for Makksimillyunwel. You're obviously not from around here, 'cause if you were, you'd know I'm a Dark Elf. You'd also know that Basicars are the bipedal, purple-haired inhabitants of the Upperlands. You look just like one of them."
It was then that Bowen realized he had forgotten to wash the purple dye out of his hair. "Oh. That. I just hadn't gotten the chance to take a shower when I ended up here. Where is here, anyway?"
"You're in Elron, a province of Mangak-," Makks suddenly stopped. "Shhh," he whispered. Bowen could hear a distant rumbling. "When you killed the Sarr, what did you do with their weapons?" Makks asked.
"I took them. I've got them right here. Why?"
"Oh shock!" Makks cried. "Get rid of them! Now!"
"Why?"
"They've got homing devices in them. Get in the Juggernaut!" Makks gestured towards his vehicle. Bowen pulled the shrunken weapons out of his pocket and threw them aside as he leaped toward the Juggernaut, climed up a ladder on the side, and dropped into the hatch with Makks right behind him.
The inside of the vehicle wasn't very luxurious. It was pretty stark, with the cockpit set off from the rest of the vehicle by a door. Bowen sat down in one of the cockpit's three chairs while Makks dashed through the door and into the back of the vehicle. He came back a few seconds later with what appeared to be a chaingun, but without an ammo belt. He sat down in one of the other chairs, dropping the weapon on the floor. He punched a few keys on the control panel and a number came up on the viewport. "Good,"he said triumphantly. "We have enough fuel to make it to headquarters. The cockpit fires off of the rest of the 'Naut and becomes a vehicle called a Shot. It works off the fuel for the main vehicle, but burns it up twice as fast. Keep your seatbelt off."
"Why?" inquired Bowen. "
"In case I've miscalculated our angle by anything more than an inch."
"What'll happen then?"
"We'll have to jump."
"Or else...?"
"We'll die a horrible, flaming death trapped in the Shot."
"What's jumping going to do?"
"Same thing, but without the flame and outside of the Shot. Ready?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"No."
Makks tapped out a combination of keys, making two displays appear on the screen at once. On the left was a grid, with several differently colored blocks moving around. On the right was a counter, which Bowen assumed was how long they had until the launch. "The grid is a map. The stationary blue square is the 'Naut, and the big moving red one is another Sarr Deathpack, like the one you fought earlier." The counter was at five now. "Here we go! Three...Two...One...Blast off!"
The Shot fired. The speed was unmatched by anything that Bowen had ever felt before, with the possible exception of the roller coaster at ShadowPark called The Killer. They were racing through the forest at a breakneck pace, somehow not crashing into any trees. There was a large wall of solid rock ahead. "Shock!" screamed Makks. "We're on the wrong side of headquarters. We're gonna crash into the rock!"
Bowen grabbed Makks by the collar, getting grease all over his hands. "You said that we weren't going to die, you idiot!"
"Hey, everyone makes mistakes, and so can I!" The rock came up in a blinding flash as everything went black.
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