Chapter 3

Reginald sat up, then bashed the comms button for the third time. He called everyone (including the earth station), and bellowed into the comms radio, ‘WE’RE UNDER ATTACK! OPEN UP YOUR MAP, AND LOOK AT DESTROYER 10! DESTROYER 11 IS ALREADY DOWN! K1-T3 HAS COME TO ATTACK US AGAIN!’

There was a babble of talk from the other end of the radio, but Reginald cut the call short, and then jumped to his feet.
‘We need to come up with a plan of action!’ he shouted. ‘Any ideas?’
‘Blow up Destroyer 10,’ Willis said impulsively. ‘Then we wouldn’t be troubled.’
‘That’s stupid,’ Keren said dismissively. ‘K1-T3 probably have more ships out there, their own ships. You have no idea what they are like. Absolute destroyers, they were. And if we have advanced our technology, K1-T3 has to have advanced two times more.’
‘I could—’ William started.
‘I know!’ Reginald said. ‘If we can find the blasted aliens’ ships, then we can blow them up! If we gather all the remaining Destroyers, find the source, and all shoot our mega cannons at the same time, then that might be enough to destroy the ships!’
‘From what Keren said, they must have a massive fleet,’ Willis argued. ‘Even if we had millions of Destroyers, we wouldn’t be able to stop them.’
‘I think I could—’ William started.
‘Well, we aren’t going to get anywhere if everyone’s being so negative!’ Reginald said angrily. ‘Come on, let’s think!’
‘Oh, so we have to think while you twiddle your thumbs?’ Willis shot back.
‘No, I just meant start making good ideas!’ Reginald retorted, his face growing red as a tomato. Sometimes, Willis thought he looked more like a tomato than a human.
‘Guys, guys, calm down,’ Keren said, raising his hands in a peace gesture. Both Willis and Reginald shot glares at him.
‘Easy for you to say, mister chill,’ Reginald snarled. Keren started forward, his face turning red too, his mouth opening for a cutting reply, when William interrupted.
‘IcouldhackintotheDestroyer10’scomputerandstopit,’ he gabbled out. Everyone stopped, and turned to stare at him.

‘I could hack into the Destroyer 10’s computer and stop it from blowing everything up,’ William said, more calmly, his face turning a bit red. ‘Then, I could see if K1-T3’s ships are anywhere nearby. The information might be stored on the Destroyer 10.’
‘Terrible idea,’ Keren said immediately. But Reginald stroked his moustache thoughtfully.
‘That could work,’ Reginald said slowly. ‘How long would it take?’
‘Maybe…10 minutes or so?’ William said, equally slowly.
‘Well, that settles it,’ Reginald said, clapping William on the back. ‘Go hack. We’ve got a plan!’

It was amazing, Reginald thought, not for the first time in the last 2 minutes, how William had this kind of ability, and yet couldn’t shoot a whale from 1 meter. He watched as William jabbed a couple buttons on his hacker’s kit. A box popped up on the screen, with a bunch of 1s and 0s on it, and William groaned in frustration. He typed furiously, and the code disappeared. In replacement, was a series of buttons on the screen. Reginald had no idea what they were supposed to do, but William let out a cheer.

‘Ok,’ he said. ‘We’ve got into the—’ BBBOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!! There was a shattering boom, as the laser fired again. Reginald’s eyes flicked to the computer. Destroyer 12 was moving away, when its symbol blipped out.
‘Again?’ he yelled. ‘Already?’ William clicked rapidly at a series of buttons, and frowned.
‘I’ve gathered the info,’ he said, ‘and it seems that they have a stronger power source than ours. Their laser load faster than ours.’
‘What?’ Keren gasped. ‘More powerful than the sun?’ the Mega cannon loaded on the energy from the sun (also something that Willis said compared it to the death star). It did drain the sun’s energy, but scientists had done the math, and figured that there would be a few more million years before the sun died, so it should be fine.
‘What are they run on?’ Willis asked curiously.
‘Liquid rubidium,’ William answered, typing quickly, rushing through codes like a swarm of locusts eating their way through leaves. ‘It’s an alkali element, and highly reactive to pretty much anything. K1-T3 has figured a way to convert that energy into usable fuel for our laser. It’s ingenious, really.’
‘Don’t compliment the enemy!’ Reginald ordered. ‘It’s bad for moral!’
‘Shut up for just a second,’ William muttered. ‘I’m trying to stop it from blowing up the next shi—’ BBBOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!
‘It’s a bit too late for that,’ Keren said grimly. ‘You’d better work faster.’
‘Why aren’t the idiots shooting back?’ Reginald growled. He bashed the comms button for at least the 5th time.

‘Why aren’t you idiots shooting back?’ he barked. ‘You do have brains, don’t you?’
‘We can’t!’ came the panicked voice of Victor, head of Destroyer 13. ‘It’s not working!’
‘What?’ Reginald yelled.
‘Something’s blocked our systems!’ Victor said. ‘We can’t load the mega cannon, and the guns have stopped working!’ Reginald gaped for a second, then rushed over to the large blue button (Reginald was very against big red buttons) that said, in clear black letters, load mega cannon. He bashed the button. Absolutely nothing happened. Reginald stood there for a moment, staring. His face slowly turned from red, to purple, to white.
‘Watch out,’ Keren murmured to Willis and William. ‘He’s going to explode.’

Chapter 4

‘This,’ Reginald whispered, his face expressionless, ‘has gone too far. William, activate Destroyer 10’s self-destruct.’
‘But there might be—’ William said.
‘SHUT UP AND DO IT!’ Reginald bellowed.
‘I think what William is trying to say,’ Keren said hurriedly, ‘is that there might be information or people on there.’
‘The crew is dead,’ Reginald said grimly, ‘and any info is useless now that William has taken his scan over of the ship, and has gathered the info from the hard drive. So, BLOW UP THE BLASTED SHI—’ BBBOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!
‘Destroyer 13 down,’ Willis said. ‘William, just do what Reg says!’
‘Alright, alright!’ William yelled. ‘I’m trying!’ he typed so fast, his fingers were a blur. The radio screeched with static.

‘This is the earth station,’ came a voice. ‘Commander Patrick speaking. What are you fools doing? K1-T3 is attacking, and you’re just floating around in space!’
‘My hacker is working on it,’ Reginald said. ‘But we don’t know how many ships they have out there. Remember last time, they cloaked their ships, and they were able to sneak so close to the earth that we hardly had any time to prepare before they attacked. There are probably thousands of ships out there. We need reinforceme—’ BBBOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!
‘Destroyer 14 down,’ William’s panicked voice said. ‘We’re doomed!’
‘Well, we’ll be more doomed if you don’t get on with that self-destruct!’ Reginald screamed.
‘We’ll send reinforcements,’ Commander Patrick said. The radio screeched with static once more, and then went silent.

‘They have some sort of firewall guarding their self-destruct mechanism,’ William said. ‘I’m downloading a software that should break up the firewall into nothing. Then, I can insert the virus, and destroy the rest of the protective software. I think.’ He pressed the enter button on his keyboard, and after a few seconds, a large button popped up on the screen. William hovered his mouse over the button, and then hesitated.
‘What if—’ he stammered.
‘This is no time for what ifs!’ Reginald yelled. ‘Press the blasted button!’ William clicked. A calm voice started talking.

‘Self-destruct initiated. Activate in 10, 9, 8,’
‘I can see Destroyer 10!’ Willis said worriedly. ‘And it’s loading the cannon!’
‘7, 6,’ Reginald looked out the window, and with a jolt to his stomach, he saw the space station slide into sight around the earth. It was indeed loading its cannon.
‘5, 4,’
‘Can’t you hurry the process up or something?’ Reginald screamed. ‘It’s getting close to full load!’ he bashed franticly at the buttons that would activate the cannons to fire. It wasn’t working. Reginald could see the dark matter forming in front of the cannon, a darker patch in this endless vortex of black.
‘3, 2,’
‘We’re going to die!’ William screamed.
‘No we’re not!’ Willis screamed back.
‘1,’ Reginald closed his eyes, and waited for the end to come.

BBBOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!! His eyes flashed open, and he leaped to his feet. He watched incredulously as the space station exploded into a ball of crimson fire. The laser fired, but it was off target, and it flew by the Destroyer 15 by millimetres. The rest of the crew jumped to their feet and started cheering.
‘We did it!’ Keren cheered.
‘K1-T3 has been abolished!’ Willis whooped.
‘We’re alive!’ William hooted.

‘And soon, you will be dead,’ came an eerie voice out of nowhere. ‘You will all be dead. We have come to invade, and you cannot stop us.’ The crew stood there, stunned. Then, there was a loud, ziiiing! Keren rushed to the window, and stared out at space.
‘Millions,’ he whispered. ‘Millions.’ Reginald dashed to join him, followed closely by William and Willis. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of sleek, black ships were showing themselves, coming out of nowhere (or from cloakers).
‘So many,’ William whimpered.
‘Surrender,’ came that eerie voice out of their radio. ‘Or die.’

The ships were long, and lean looking. They were all black, and had so many weapons bristling from their hulls (and most likely hidden inside the hulls), that they looked a bit like a bunch of lean, mean porcupines. Each one had a giant cannon right on the top of the hull. Each one had four giant, mechanical hands, each holding something deadly. Each one was about as big as the Destroyer 15. Except one.

The ship loomed, bigger than anything Reginald had ever seen before (except maybe in Star Wars). It was a gargantuan, hulking creation, boxy, but sleek. Huge, but elegant. More cannons than Reginald had ever seen before in a single place lined the ship’s outer shell. There was a command deck placed right at the top of the hull, kind of like a star destroyer’s, and Reginald could see movement in it.

‘For too long, have you humans started invading the world around you,’ came the eerie voice again. ‘For too long have you thought that you had any intelligence. The Arliad must have the power. You, must be…dealt with.’
‘Who are you?’ Reginald bellowed. ‘And who is the Arliad?’
‘We are the Arliad,’ came the voice. ‘We are the civilization that started the very existence of life on this universe. We were the first populators, of a void of wrongness. And we brought the light. We started the seed, and brought life into this world. We keep the peace. All the different civilizations are kept separate, for if they came together, there would most surely be war. And you have begun invading the world. You must be destroyed, for the safety of all the worlds. Let the invasion begin!’ and all the ships, opened fire on the Destroyer 15.

Chapter 5

‘This is bad!’ William yelled. ‘This is really bad!’ Reginald bashed a bunch of random buttons with his meaty fist, and a shield popped up.
‘WILLIAM!’ he shrieked. ‘GET OUR WEAPONS BACK ON!’
‘On it,’ William said. He sat down in front of his computer again, and started typing furiously.
‘WILLIS!’ Reginald screamed. ‘GET THE MEGA BAZOOKA!’
‘Yessir, cap,’ Willis said, rushing off.
‘KEREN!’ Reginald howled. ‘CALL FOR REINFORCEMENTS!’
‘Already doing it, Reg,’ Keren said. He was sitting in front of the comms radio, and Reginald could hear a buzz of voices coming from it.
‘WE’RE THE ONLY LINE OF DEFENCE AGANST K1-T3!’ Reginald bellowed. ‘LET’S MAKE THEM PAY!’

Willis came rushing in with a bazooka about the same size as two of him laid out on the ground. He also had a giant sling of ammo laid on his back. It was a miracle how Willis was able to carry it all. He hefted the bazooka, and promptly nearly fell backwards.
‘Take it to the shooting platform!’ Reginald yelled. ‘Go into the pod, and make the alien’s lives miserable!’
‘Got it cap,’ Willis saluted. He rushed (or as much as a person could rush while carrying a bazooka twice his size and a sack of ammo bigger than both your legs stuck together) over to a small elevator in one corner of the pod, and descended. Soon, Reginald heard a loud, BANG! and he saw the shot whistle away, to hit one of the ships.

Either by complete fluke, or on purpose, Willis shot the ship’s engine. It exploded, and a red substance exploded out with it. It quickly solidified, until there was as red blobby mass floating around. The said ship went up in a plume of fire.
‘It looks like a giant ruby chunk!’ Willis’s voice came from a small radio that sat beside the comms radio. ‘Is that what rubidium looks like?’ No one answered him.
‘Guns are back online!’ William yelled. A giant whirr came from the guns. Reginald rushed out of the command room, and jumped at a window. He stared out of it. Reginald could see the guns starting to move again. There was a very belated alarm, as the cannons, guns, and everything else locked on the fleet of ships that were advancing. A loud boom came, as K1-T3 started shooting. Reginald saw the bullets and lasers and everything else boom against the shield that was protecting them.

‘SOMEONE LOAD THE BLASTED MEGA CANNON!’ he ordered. Keren jumped for the button, and pressed it. It started loading, but not very fast.
‘Reinforcements coming!’ Willis yelled from the radio. ‘I can see Destroyers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 coming our way!’
‘What about earth reinforcements?’ Reginald asked. ‘Can you see anything from there?’
‘Nope,’ Came Willis’s answer. Another ship blew up in a plume of fire and smoke, but there were still too many to count. ‘I think we’re on our own for now!’
‘Shield durability at 60% and dying!’ Keren said. ‘We can’t hold them for much longer!’

The command ship’s front yawned open, and hundreds of mechs, each one half the size of Reginald came whizzing out. The headed directly for the shield.
‘What are those things?’ Willis asked. ‘And what are they doing?’
‘Whatever they’re doing, it can’t be good!’ William answered. ‘Shoot them!’
‘What do you think I’m doing?’ came Willis’s incredulous voice. Another BANG! shook through, and a bunch of the mechs spiralled, before exploding into red. Then, the others landed on the shield. Reginald could see them all crawling along the surface.
‘The shield’s durability is at 45%!’ Keren panicked. ‘I think the mechs are draining the power of the shield!’

Willis, overhearing (apparently) concentrated all his fire at the small robots that were crawling over the shield. K1-T3 had stopped firing. They were waiting. After a bunch of the little critters spiralled into magnificent explosions, they got smart. Each one of the remaining mechs split up, one to each section. Willis could still shoot them, but each time, only one or two blew off.
‘Shield durability is at 20%!’ Keren yelled.
‘Destroyers in firing range!’ Reginald howled. ‘We have a chan—’ BOOOOM! Hundreds of mechs went spiralling through the air, as K1-T3’s command ship blasted the Destroyer 15 with a laser so powerful, it punched right through the shield. It smashed right into the Mega Cannon, just as it was about to fire, and the Mega Cannon exploded.

Chapter 6

‘No!’ Reginald yelled over the sirens that started bleeping. ‘No, no, no, no, no!’ K1-T3’s ships opened fire once more, and the sirens beeped ever louder.
‘Main thrusters are damaged!’ Keren yelled.
‘We can’t hold much longer!’ William yelled. Reginald could hear the continuous sound of bullets, lasers, cannonballs, and the like flying through the air, as his ship’s automatic cannons fired, but it was not enough. He could tell that K1-T3 wasn’t using its full power. That was what sent chills through his heart. The alien force was toying with him.
‘We’re going to kill them!’ Willis howled stubbornly.
‘We’re going to die!’ William cried. ‘It was good knowing you lot.’
‘Shut up and kill them!’ Reginald bellowed. Willis shot again and again, and more ships exploded as he hit the direct spots. William collapsed on the ground, crying like a baby.
‘Get up!’ Reginald. ‘Aren’t you a hacker? Can’t you hack them or something?’ William looked up.
‘Yeah,’ he said slowly. ‘Right. I can do that.’ He rushed out of the command deck.

Suddenly, bullets flew past them towards the fleet of K1-T3 ships! Reginald whirled, and looked out the back window, to see the Destroyers coming to the rescue! They came through, and gathered with the Destroyer 15, guns already blazing. But Reginald could tell it wasn’t enough. The K1-T3 fleet was still gathering. There were still more out there, still more coming.

Suddenly, William rushed back into the room, with something in his hand. It looked like a small metallic bug. He ran to the elevator leading to the shooting platform, and went down it. Curious, Reginald went after him. He stepped out of the elevator to a scene of Willis, shooting his gun wildly, and screaming abuse at K1-T3. William was trying to get his attention.
‘—CRAZY SQUID-HEADED TOE-BRAINED—’
‘Listen to me!’
‘—JELLY-ARMED, YELLOW-BELLIED—’
‘Shut up and hear me out!’
‘—MY GRANDMOTHER COULD BEAT YOU IN A FIST FIGHT, AND SHE HAS NO FISTS—’
‘Just listen me for two seconds!’
‘SHUT UP, WILLIS!’ Reginald finally ordered, after recovering from his laughing fit. ‘LISTEN TO WILLIAM!’ Willis stopped shouting.
‘Aye?’ he asked.
‘Shoot this at the control ship,’ William said.
‘It won’t work,’ Willis said doubtfully. ‘I’ve already shot at least 5 shots at the ship. It seems to be the only one with a shield.’
‘Don’t worry,’ William said. ‘Just shoot it at the shield.’
‘Alright,’ Willis shot a sloppy salute, then loaded the micro chip into the gun. He aimed, and fired. The bug flew through the air, but Reginald lost sight of it in a couple of seconds.

‘What do we do now?’ Reginald asked.
‘We wait,’ William said.
‘What did I just fire?’ Willis asked.
‘A special hacking bug,’ William said. ‘It was manufactured by the hacker William Toradol, before he got sent to prison, that is. It can go through any cyber shield, or shield made of pure energy, like K1-T3’s is. I programmed it to jam the command ship’s systems. It will be down for a few minutes, which was all I could get from it. But the command ship controls everything. If it goes down, everything goes down, and we can sneak on, and destroy it!’
‘I am simultaneously impressed, and freaked by your abilities,’ Willis said. ‘Should it worry me that you’re in the makings of a supervillain?’
‘It shouldn’t,’ William said seriously. ‘If it does, I will have to eliminate you.’ He couldn’t keep a straight face for much longer, and it dissolved into helpless giggles. Reginald glowered.
‘You two monkeys can monkey around, but I’ve got a planet to save, and some people to inform,’ he said. ‘Goodbye.’ And he marched to the elevator, the comms radio already in his mind.