Seeker Units were humanoid androids of mass destruction. They could kill an entire planet by releasing the deadly dabsalam that they breathed from their massive space suits. They killed indiscriminately. They never spoke. At least not that I'd heard. Their sole purpose was to kill Space Seekers. As far as I could tell, I was the last Space Seeker around.
Tough as they were to beat, I'd killed more than one, and chased away more than that. I hadn't any idea where they came from, or why they hated Space Seekers. At that, I had no idea why the current Sector One government had incorporated them into a XAM unit. It seemed suicidal.
The one facing me (make that "chasing me") had attributes of all three, but
emphasized was the XAM's toughness, the Dog Day Droid's bad additude, and the
Seeker Unit's desire to kill. Did I mention the Dog Day Droid? They were refered
to as Zat units on steroids with the demenor of a marine with a hangover. On
top of all of these traits, it had access to all of the automatics in Bizzerk.
Where I had to bash through doors and hatches, doors opened for it to allow
quicker access to me. The cards were stacked so high in its favor, that it cast
a long shadow on me. Every time I turned a corner, it was coming at me. I could
see the words "FIERCE:26" written clearly on its chestplate.
Virus managed to contact me via my transmittor inside the Space Seeker helmet I wore, "18?"
That's me: Space Seeker 18, otherwise known as Blackout. Virus was my special one man spacecraft slash artificially intelligent companion. My response was broken by gasps for breath, "I'm going topside. Break into the computer and see if you can help me. We've already got it mad at us, no sense holding back now!"
"Already inside level Eight security. The level you have asked for is level forty nine." Virus's voice paused for a moment and a door opened for me revealing the exterior hull of Bizzerk and strange curving tunnel of blackness that gave off brilliant white light. "Be careful outside. We are traveling at enigma speed."
I was gawking at the black tunnel racing past, emitting a fog-like light. "How fast is that?" I asked as the FIERCE:26 punched me hard in the back, jettisoning me out into space. It leaned out and launched a swarm of micro-missles at me.
Virus's voice came to me, "Unknown." Terrific.
I fired my jetrope at the hull. The clasp caught on to one of the outer main gun barrels of the ship. I fired my rocketboots so that I swung underneath the swarm of needles coming at me. The centripital force hooked me over the top of the ship to almost the very tip of the front. I positracked my boots to the ship while bringing the jetrope's clasp back in to the hilt. The missles were homing back in to me. I could see the FIERCE:26 coming at me from the other side. A laser sword blazed from one force-arm, and a blaster in another. The rear arm was balled into a fist.
I extended the jetrope again, this time at the missles. I turned to the FIERCE:26 and fired a nonstop stream of boga-blasts into the hull in front of it. Then, I whipped the jetrope into a whirling motion, destroying the oncoming missles with the indestructable jetrope cord. From the cloud of boga-blasts and hull bits, FIERCE:26 charged through, unscrached. I backpedaled.
My attention was on the FIERCE:26, not where I was going, so I tripped over the tip of the ship and had to whip the jetrope cord around an antenna-like structure to keep from being lost forever in enigma-space. I called out, "Virus?! What level are you at now?"
In his typical, unhurried voice, Virus responded,"Level thirty eight. Mechanical and automations fully under my control."
FIERCE:26's shape was appearing over the horizon of the lip of the ship. I was still hanging thirty yards by the jetrope. I hollered at Virus, "You probably couldn't fire the forward guns RIGHT NOW, could you?"
Seeker Units never gloated, so it must've been the Dog Day Droid part that caused it to pause a moment before whipping out a portable heavy cannon and pointing it at me. I was ready to let go of the jetrope and be lost forever in enigma-space when Virus said, "Negative on the front guns, but I believe I can assist."
Suddenly the FIERCE:26 was gone.
I had the jetrope pull me back to the ship, all the time expecting the FIERCE:26 to appear around the corner and end my life for good. When I poked my head over the edge of the lip of the ship and looked at the topside, I saw nothing. I stood at the very tip of Bizzerk's hull, looking like a cross between a horizontal hood ornament and a battering ram - with the top of my head pointing to where Bizzerk was speeding towards at enigma speed.
I spent over four minutes looking around, scanning for a cloaked form to appear on the hull. Nothing appeared. Suddenly, we dropped out of enigma-space, and into normal space. I took a step to go back inside when I realized where the FIERCE:26 was. It had been at the very place I had been standing when Virus gained control of the mechanical defenses. The FIERCE:26 was catapulted into enigma-space at warp speed from a device that had shattered many hulls in the past. I had been standing on one of the few parts of Bizzerk that had been salvaged from the origional: the Bizzerk ramming lip.
I sighed from exhaustion and went inside. It was time to find the New Master.
Part 4