Around the one story structure paced a handful of heavily
armed guards. To the right of the building rose from the ground a massive generator station, and to the left was a
shuttle-craft landing pad. Roughly ten meters ahead of Malarek and Conelly shimmered the presence of a shield, which
covered the entire complex. Even the Manojarran ship was covered.
“ Now how are we going to get in there?” questioned Malarek, after scanning the shield’s presence with his pocket
sensor-pad.
“ Why? We want to get in there, sir?”
“ Sure we do, Hobart. See what’s happening here! Could prove to be interesting, don’t you think?”
Conelly grumbled beneath his breath, quite certain that he did not share his Captain’s enthusiasm.
“ Well, sir. I - I- well, I’m just an Engineer, hardly a -”
“ Of course you are, Hobart my friend. Won’t you come along?”
“ Actually, I -”
Malarek jumped up, then began to yell at the top of his lungs.
“ Are you out of your blasted mind, Captain?” yelled Conelly, still on the ground, attempting to bring Malarek back
down to the ground, and back to his senses.
“ Get up, Hobart! I’m going to need back-up, you know!”
“ Back-up for what?” he exclaimed in return, but still rising from the ground to accompany his Captain, albeit very
reluctantly. Once in view, and after Conelly’s eyes had re-settled on the complex, he blurted out again.
“ LOOK, they’ve seen us! They’re coming after us with their guns!”
“ Calm yourself, Commander. Why don’t you get out your laser pistol, and follow me.”
Malarek turned away from the mob which was closing in on their position, and began to run back to the shuttle. Conelly
chased behind, quite certain that the devil was at his heels.
“ Get inside, quickly Commander. Arm the forward laser cannon, and fire at that mob!” yelled Malarek, as he opened the
back hatch for Conelly to get in.
With the engagement of the main engine generator, Conelly set aside all energy towards the laser banks and immediately
fired at the group of guards that were nearing rapidly. With a massive blast of sand which shot up into the air several
meters, the advancement of the group ended abruptly, tossing all members into the air with great thrust, ending that first
assault.
“ Good, Hobart. Now, fire up those thrusters and let’s get a closer look on that base!” ordered Malarek, closing the
rear hatch, and grabbing hold of the closest seat. A sudden jerk ensued, hurling the shuttle high up into the sky, followed
by a soothing down-swing back to a normal altitude.
“ She’s a bit rough now, Captain. The wind’s been filling the thrusters up a little too much I think!”
Cruising at full speed, they approached the complex, and saw an assembly of hundreds of heavily armed personnel gathering
in front of the main entrance.
“ Now that, I did not expect.” stated Malarek, after glaring down at the sight of so many guards. “ I thought it was a
simple fortification, not a full outpost!”
Closing in to less than a hundred meters from the complex, and gradually passing overhead, Malarek and Conelly
witnessed the releasal of a fleet of starfighters from a hangar door, situated at the rear of the structure.
“ Dammit, Hobart! Get us out of here!”
Conelly instantaneously responded, and reversed all thrusters on to the stern, and backed off, before quickly
swinging about to head back towards their base, wherever it was.
“ There’s no way we can outrun them, sir! Forget about outgunning them!”
“ Well, we’ll sure need more than thrusters to escape that barrage of starfighters. Engage the auxiliary systems.”
“ What? From life support?”
“ Yes, Commander. Now engage, or else we’ll be acquainting ourselves with the interior of a holding cell!”
Conelly caught on fast, and soon had all reserve energy on the thrusters.
“ Sir, we’ll need back-up.”
“ Right! We might even need more - send out a distress call! Maybe Lodestar might get it, if not the base.” said
Malarek, holding firm on to the armrest of the seat. The starfighters were closing.
“ Sir! We can’t keep up much longer!”
“ How much?”
“ Ten minutes! If that much!” replied Conelly, well worked up by the starfighters close on their heels.
Malarek assumed the comm. station while Conelly continued to navigate the shuttle as best he could, periodically sending
out distress calls.
“ Maybe we could get ourselves into one of those sand storms, sir! Sure would mess us up, but would do the same for them!”
“ Good thinking, Conelly. Set course for the nearest sand storm. We might lose them in there.”
The shuttle, with several highly armed starfighters in pursuit, sped by the landscape below, barely keeping its distance
ahead of the enemy. Soon they would be in firing range, feared by both Malarek and Conelly, who together were unable to
evade the impending result of the chase.
“ Sir, we’re closing in on that sand cloud up there. We ought to be in there within a minute, given that those fella’s
back there don’t overtake us!”
“ That close are they?” asked Malarek.
“ Aye. Give them another half minute, and they’ll be firing on us!”
Malarek cursed aloud. They had no hope for escape. At least so they thought.

A shuttle of larger classification than the one Malarek and Conelly had been using blasted out of the storm cloud, firing
all forward laser cannons at an alarming rate, aimed directly at the starfighters. Unprepared for this, the fleet of
starfighters was quickly reduced from twelve to seven, ripped apart from the laser energy crashing through the modest hulls,
and throwing their attack formation immediately off. Conelly and Malarek, relieved by this rescue, backed off
from entering the cloud. Setting themselves along side the other shuttle, re-routing all power back to the laser cannons,
they were ready to fire at their fellow Spacecom shuttle’s side.
But it was no use.
A brilliant bombardment of five torpedoes launched from the remaining starfighters, blasted their way through the hull of
the rescue shuttle, destroying any hope Malarek and Conelly had, as it burst into oblivion in a colossal explosion.
Followed by this first assault, another torpedo shot out from the nearest starfighter, dragging down Malarek’s shuttle to
the sand dunes below, half the shuttle engulfed in flames.
“ Let’s get out of here!” exclaimed Malarek to Conelly, as he popped the top hatch and began to crawl out of the small
ship, closely followed by Conelly.
The two officers made their way quickly from the burning shuttle, in anticipation of its complete destruction due to the
burning of the Impulse drives. Arriving at the crest of a sand dune, they were met by three starfighters that landed
nearby. A group of pilots and their security guards disembarked and went for Malarek’s position. Both men knew there
was no hope for escape. They could not run, or fight their way out. Weaponless and without means of transport, they were a
sitting duck. Surely if they would not be killed on sight, then they would indeed become acquainted with the interior of a
holding cell.
“ Buch quo nutz? Ruv na kuu, befelnog!” declared a guard who had assumed the lead of the group.
“ I’m afraid we haven’t got the Lingui-Code module. You’ll have to try in universal English, if you want us to
understand.” stated Malarek in reply. Conelly made a step closer to his Captain.
“ Uch, novak! Grugnot von sephel-piid! You Spacecom?”
“ Who wants to know?” asked Conelly.
“ The Emperor of the Akotarsan Empire, Spacecom scum!” he fired back, throwing his arms out at Conelly, and shoving him
back a meter, nearly putting him off balance.
“ Hey, easy there, big guy! We were just on a pleasure cruise, that’s all!” noted Malarek.
“ Pleasure cruise! Humph, me see no pleasure cruise, me see big fight, Spacecom shuttles, enemy vessels. Me see your blood on my knife!” returned the well-built, taller than normal
guard. He spoke poor English, but one could make out what he was trying to say if one tried hard enough.
“ I see. So, what’s next?”
“ You will come with us. You will be put in detention cell. You will be interrogated. You will tell us all you know. If not, you will die.”
“ To the point, isn’t he?” remarked Conelly, attempting to regain his composure after being pushed around by the
aggressive guard.
The guards grabbed hold of Malarek and Conelly, and forced them into the escort shuttle which had just arrived,
sending them off back towards the Tars base. Neither man saw any reasonable way out of this predicament, and so chose to
follow the orders of the Tars guards before they decided to do anything else.
On entering the Tars facility, which needless to say was
an unexpected outpost, Malarek along with Conelly both began to realize what they were up against. This was no ordinary
outpost, with a few officers and a small ship, this was very much a well-established base, with hundreds of personnel running
about, and an entire fleet of starfighters ready for battle.
The complex itself was simplistic in design, as it was merely a rectangular structure. No unnecessary architectural
niceties adorned the walls. Indeed, this was the A.U.I.F. at work, the Akotarsan United Imperialist Forces. No extras, just
the bare minimum, enough to operate as a functional military base, but nothing more.
A group of well-armed officers escorted Malarek and Conelly to a turbolift which led to a lower level, underground.
Below, they found themselves surrounded by a mob of strange creatures, a gathering of interstellar scum, definitely a
detention cell. Malarek labeled it as more of a gulag, though, while Conelly stared at all the odd looking life-forms.
“ Where did they all come from?” asked Conelly, as he was released from the firm grip of a security guard, and nearly
thrown to the floor.
“ Seems like we’re not the first to encounter this base.” returned Malarek.
“ You’re not, Captain.” remarked a figure which moved away from the shadows, and revealed himself.
“ Big Lumgrud? What the hell are you doing here?” demanded Malarek, thoroughly surprised.
“ Me? Hey, they just picked me up as I was looking around for you guys. Duvaria told me I couldn’t do my job properly with
the construction effort, so he put me on this blasted mission!”
“ Well, you of all people. I don’t really understand Duvaria. He’s got to have something -” started Conelly.
“ Alex? Is that you?” came another voice from the shadows.
“ Jim? What are you doing here?” sputtered Malarek, quite shocked by the appearance of his First Officer.
“ Oh! Hey, you guys know each other?” put in Big Lumgrud, confused as ever.
“ I came down looking for you guys!” stated MacKenzie. “ Lodestar got hold of your distress call before it got jammed, so
we came to rescue you!”
“ Well, thanks for trying, anyway.” replied Malarek. “ So, you say our distress call was being jammed? By who?”
“ Well, now that we’re all here together, I would guess it was the Tars. Seems they have established a presence much
earlier than expected here.”
“ So it would seem.”
“ Hey, you guys all Spacecom then?” asked Big Lumgrud.
“ That’s right. Who the hell are you?” returned MacKenzie.
“ Me? Hey, I’m Big Lumgrud. I used to work as head of the construction of that base of ours. Then what’s-his-name told me
to fly a kite!”
“ Yes, Duvaria is quite the, uh... well, you know.” replied MacKenzie.
“ You bet he is! I say, next time I run into that fellow, I’ll be charging like some kind of bull!”
“ If you’re all quite finished, gentlemen. I think it’s time we find a way out of this place. Don’t you?” said Malarek.
“ Ready to go already, Captain? Thought you might want to stay for a while. It’s an awfully nice place to spend a few days,
just wandering about.”
“ Enough with it, Jim!” blasted Malarek. “ Now, let’s find a way out. There must be a weakness in their security
somewhere!”
“ Sure!” returned Big Lumgrud. “ Those guards over there. They’re the only weakness we can count on. They change guard
every half hour, and the monitoring station above us keeps tabs on us all the time. Whatever we do, we do it fast!”
Three guards descended a flight of stairs down to where Malarek and his company were located. Pulling out their laser
rifles, they jabbed the but of the rifle into the sides of the men, sending them tumbling to the ground.
“ No more talk! You go der, an you go over der. Enuf wit de talk. Talk agin an you die, OK?” ordered a guard, shoving the
separate members of Malarek’s team off into opposing directions, back into the darkness of the room.
“ You think SO? Well, you ‘aint ever dealt with BIG LUMGRUD BEFORE!” exclaimed Big Lumgrud, making his way with giant
strides to the nearest guard, lifting him two meters off the ground, and shoving his fist into his mouth. “ TAKE THAT YOU TARS
SCUM!”
Alerted by the sudden offensive, Malarek, Conelly, and MacKenzie all jumped for the nearest guard, pulling them all to
the ground, and disarming them of their weapons. The other prisoners gathered around, amused by the brawl, but in no way
prepared to include themselves in any defiance of the might their overlord possessed.
“ Good stuff, Big Lumgrud!” declared Malarek, grabbing a hand full of weapons and identification slips, and running for
the main door to the cell. “ You guys, let’s go!”
Sliding the first ID card through the access control module next to the door which came to his hand, Malarek was able
to open it, and enter the corridor beyond. Conelly, MacKenzie, and Big Lumgrud followed behind, ready for whatever
came their way. Except, that is, for the current prisoner revolt which was now taking place.
“ Great. The last thing we need is more attention drawn to us by those lunatics in there!” yelled Big Lumgrud, uncertain
of what exactly he should do.
“ Forget it, Big Lumgrud! We’ve got to keep going! They’ll make a good diversion!” returned Malarek, appeasing Big
Lumgrud’s concerns.
Dashing at full speed down the hall, they came upon another door, and managed to successfully open it as well. Beyond
were a row of diverging halls, none identified, and all tediously long.
“ Where do we go now?” demanded Conelly, stopping before entering a particular corridor, gasping for breath.
“ Well, I don’t know there, Mr. Hobart.” began Big Lumgrud.
“ That’s Mr. Conelly. Hobart Conelly.”
“ Righto, Mr. Hobart! Hey, we just each take one corridor, and we’re bound to find the right way out!”
“ Brilliant, Big Brains!” fired back MacKenzie. “ We split up, we’ll never live through this, not to mention ever
getting out!”
“ Jim’s right. We have to remain united and strong against the Tars. We separate, we’ll be weakened, and alone.
Besides, we’ll be scattered around the complex, what good’ll that do us?” said Malarek.
“ So, which one do we take?” asked Big Lumgrud, unshaken by everyone’s annoyance with him. Of course, he was not aware of
it either.
“ Follow me!” exclaimed Malarek, taking first lead of the group by sprinting down the nearest hall. The others acted
similarly, running at full speed down the hall. For at least five minutes they ran, passing nothing other than
plain wall, and light fixtures. There were no doors, no access hatches, no signs of an end either.
“ Blasted!” cried out Malarek, in mid air, quickly coming back from his leaping stride, and crashing down on to the floor.
Big Lumgrud, slow to acknowledge the event, plowed into Conelly and MacKenzie, throwing all of them on top of Malarek on
the floor.
“ Get the hell off of me!” Malarek yelled, as best he could beneath the weight of two of his officers, and one big
Lumgrud.
“ Yes, y-y-yes sir!” replied Big Lumgrud, regaining his stand, helping the others to rise from the heap as well.
“ Now, go and see if we’ve been blocked off from behind too. I’d rather not run into another force field, at least not
today!” ordered Malarek, pulling himself back up on to his feet, and straightening his uniform.
“ HEY! Captain, we’ve got company!” declared Big Lumgrud, returning to Malarek at full speed from the hall which they had
previously put behind them.
“ I say, Captain! I’ll put those damn Tars in for good!” blasted Conelly, readying his laser rifle, and aiming it directly
at the oncoming corridor, which was still visibly empty.
The group of four waited for several long moments, awaiting the arrival of the approaching security detachment.
“ What was that?” asked Big Lumgrud.
“ What was what?” whispered MacKenzie in return.
“ That noise! Sounds like some kind of-”
“ You guys! Keep it down, and get ready for some action!” added Malarek.
Then they waited. And waited. But the attacking forces refused to show up.
“ You sure they were coming, Big Lumgrud?” questioned MacKenzie.
“ Hey, sure! You heard them running down the hall. Maybe they double-backed, and headed for another corridor.”
“ Unlikely. They do have sensors you know. I’m sure they know exactly where we are.” said Malarek.
Then Big Lumgrud heard it again.
“ There it is again! That sound! Don’t you guys hear it?”
“ Now that you mention it, I think I did hear something.” replied Conelly, standing from his crouched defense position near
the floor. “ Sounded like some kind of crushing sound. Something’s going on out there!”
“ Out where? That’s the problem. We don’t know where we are, or how to get out. We can’t bypass this force-field, and we
sure can’t back-track. They may be waiting for us instead.” stated Malarek, also rising from his kneeling position.
The lights went out. The floor shook. Big Lumgrud backed off in fear.
“ I-I-I thought there was no subterranean activity out in these parts!”
“ That’s no earthquake, Big Brainman! That’s something else entirely!” added MacKenzie. “ Can’t say exactly what,
though. Could be anything, really.”
“ No it couldn’t.” remarked Malarek, looking on down the hall, as a large, very large figure closed in on them. The
individual, beneath the dim of the unlit hall, wore an entire wardrobe’s worth of amazingly colourful clothing. Nothing
noticeably regular, all very original and highly decorative. All this, plus his enormous volume, which nearly filled the
cross-width of the hall. He smiled.
“ Captain Malarek! What a pleasant surprise! I was looking for you!”
“ Zar-Crombi! Who would have thought you’d come to rescue us! By God, it is you!” proclaimed Malarek, in relief and
momentary happiness. That is, before Zar-Crombi grabbed his hand and shook it. Violently.
“ Indeed! I thought I might drop in for a visit, just to say hello!”
“ How kind of you, Crombi.” replied MacKenzie. “ Perfect timing too. Say, why don’t you tell us why you’re really here?”
“ No time for that, my friend. Grundi has the ship under control now, but if they send out anymore re-enforcement’s, we
may not have a way back.”
“ Back to where?” asked Big Lumgrud.
“ Well, off this planet at least!”
“ You can explain later, Zar-Crombi. Now we’d better get a move on, and find ourselves a way out.” said Malarek.
“ No problem there, Captain. I have a twenty meter high hole in the wall of that detention cell that ought to serve well
as a door. Rammed the ship into it before coming down here to find you guys. Thought you might be here, after all that with the
Lodestar...”
“ Say what?” interrupted Malarek, before heading off down the hall. “ What’s with my ship?”
“ We haven’t got the time now, Malarek! Now get going! I’ll take the rear.”
Malarek ran down the hall and was soon back at the detention cell, where he and the rest of his team crawled over
piles of rubble to reach the exterior. Above, in the sky, awaited a small freighter, which periodically dashed back and
forth, smashing itself into other approaching starfighters. The maneuver was physically treacherous, but effective, so long
as the opponents hull was weaker than the one that rammed. Along the side of the whale-like freighter stood the proud label
of Zar-Crombi’s ship, as part of his galactic trading empire. Crombi Enterprises Incorporated.
Zar-Crombi pulled out a comm-badge and contacted Grundi, his assistant pilot and vice-president, who quickly replied by
lowering the freighter, and releasing the loading plate. Malarek and the others jumped on, and were soon pulled up into
the cargo bay of Crombi’s ship, which strangely resembled the belly of some heavily-weighted creature.
Having had Zar-Crombi’s assistance in other situations, Malarek was well-prepared for Crombi himself, and for his
sub-standard ship. Sub-standard, except for the hull.
“ Grundi, let’s get these boys out of here!” declared Crombi, on entering the bridge of his freighter. He slowly made
his way to his command chair, consequently blocking out any view of the display screen.
The small ship rose from the ground with full thrusters, then shot upwards towards the atmosphere, blasting its way
through a chaotic mess of starfighter debris and other junk which had erupted from explosions during the attack.
“ Zar-Crombi, see if you can bring us back to the Spacecom base. We have to talk with Admiral Duvaria about this,
and definitely contact Spacecom.”
“ No can do, Captain.” returned Grundi. “ Place has been taken up by Manojarrans. What men you have there, well, they
won’t be coming back any time soon. Held hostage, you know.”
“ By the Manojarrans? We have an alliance with them!”
“ Sure you do. But hey, who said it would last?”
“ This is ridiculous! I mean, there was a Manojarran ship that was supposed to arrive at the Spacecom construction site,
and they arrived at the Tars base instead.”
“ Right, but then they left for the Spacecom base afterwards, I guess when you folks were being held in that
detention cell. Sounds to me those Manojarrans have been up to something fishy, regardless of that alliance of yours. Looks
as though someone’s been had, if you catch my drift.”
“ We catch your drift, Grundi.” said MacKenzie.
“ Grundi has it figured out pretty nicely, here, Captain. Except it isn’t quite as simple. Thankfully.” put in Zar-Crombi.
“ Thankfully? Why?”
“ Well, you see Malarek. It was a Manojarran ship, but who’s to say they were here as representatives of their
government? Perhaps they were not even sent by the Manojarran Central Command, but by-”
“ Yes, that’s it! It could have been the Trohojarr!” finalized Malarek.
“ Exactly. Maybe under assignment from the Tars. Who knows?”
“ Indeed. They aren’t too loyal to the Central Command. A secret service, that operates independently and against its own
government. Quite something.” said Malarek.
“ Typically Manojarran, I’d say.” added Conelly. “ Not to say those who stick to the alliance are as messed up as their
secret service, but by God -”
“ Agreed. So, what we need now is something to get the Spacecom personnel out of that base, and away from those radical
Manojarrans.” stated MacKenzie.
“ No. We will not abandon our own base because someone else decided to invade it. We remove the intruder, and that means
whoever’s there who shouldn’t be. Be they Tars, Manojarrans, or whatever else - we’re coming to get them!”
“ Aye, Captain. But with what?”
“ First, we have to get back to the Lodestar. Then we’ll be able to assemble a powerful away-team, consisting of security
personnel and strategic operations personnel, as well as MacKenzie, Hassick, and myself.”
“ I believe you may be missing something, Captain.” started Zar-Crombi.
“ What’s that? Seems perfectly feasible in my mind.”
“ Certainly. However, your plan lacks one fundamental key, which may determine its success or failure.”
“ Well, go on, Crombi. Spit it out!” exclaimed MacKenzie, impatiently.
Zar-Crombi fumbled with a button on his clothing, which popped in and out of its designated hole on the opposing side of
the shirt. He played with it momentarily, as the others waited for his reply, then ripped it off.
“ Captain. There is no Lodestar.”