ALERT:
The first five chapters have been removed due to body limit.
Chapter 6: First Impressions
“Recruit, we have managed to cross-connect to an enemy base located in the Bellerophon system. We require you to travel to the sector and find any leads related to the current assignment.”
We were finally back on track. I equipped a Plasma Rifle whereas Jaiden stuck with an Absolver Beam. “Trust me, that’ll teach 'em!” she said making me trust her even less. We booted up our interfaces, fired up the thrusters and prepared to face whatever would be next.
“Jaiden, I hope you’re ready for this. This might turn out be more than we anticipated.”
“There ya go, worryin’ your face off. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine! After all, we totally didn’t face 3 Yolk-Stars in a row!”
#Incoming: Bellerophon#
#Prepare for arrival#
#…#
#…#
#Welcome to Bellerophon#
We had finally arrived at our destination. Jaiden was really excited about this place. “This place has an Aftermarket? That’s insane! Damn, do ya even know how expensive jets are? It’s enough to blow a hole in your pocket! Wait, a Space Burger?! There’s literally everythin’ here!” “Hold it Jaiden, don’t try to get too excited. I sense trouble.” I said. “Says the rookie.” she said. “H-hey! Atleast I don’t puke on counters!” “Well, if you’re so worried, I’ll just buy a couple jets from the Aftermarket, but only on the condition that you’ll let me go to Space Burger!” I had to agree with her, otherwise we would be getting nowhere.
While she was out purchasing, I decided to search for a bit. This place sure is busy. Eventually, I ventured out of the star system for a bit. I went a bit further and had my comms go blurry for a moment. “Eh, must be an error.” I thought. But what I stumbled upon was far from ordinary. Jaiden, you might like this.
Chapter 7: Locked, Stocked and Barreled
A wormhole. This may turn out to be a major lead! Too bad my comms wasn’t working, this thing seems to have an unstable forcefield around it. I prepared to get back to base to contact HQ, but the sound of weapons charging told me otherwise. I tried to steer but before I could, BANG! My cabin was rattled, and my ship slightly tilted towards the left.
Something had blown off my rear-left pod! I panicked, and managed to steer just in time to avoid being torn in half and see the enemy. A massive horde of chickens was coming out of the wormhole, and they were mad. I pushed the trigger and kept firing amidst all this chaos. I tried to use the comms but it wouldn’t work. “Work, you damn piece of junk!” This was too much. These chickens were constantly changing formations! From ‘Square Dancing’ to 'Pulsating Grid, they really were getting desperate until finally, they used the ‘Wormhole’ formation. I used this opportunity and hightailed it outta there.
I somehow managed to get back to the Heroware they had and submitted my ship for repairs. It would be ready in one hour, since their fabricator was working fine. Way to end a day. I contacted Jaiden and told her to try to contact HQ and tell them everything on my behalf. Things are getting real dicey from here…
Chapter 8: Mystery Inbound
“Greetings, recruit. We have heard about your incident from Ms. Skye. We congratulate you on managing to hold off the threat and provide invaluable data on your current mission. We have wired the funds into your account to pay for the repairs plus along with a reward of 1000 keys for your services. We recommend you to stay down and rest for a while. Stay safe.”
“Just look at this mess! I dunno how you manage to get into trouble so quickly! If it weren’t for the UHF bein’ so kind, I don’t think you’d even manage to exist! And now what, you’re ignorin’ me? Wake up! Dan. Dan! Da-”
“SHUT UP!”
“Wha-?”
“Just, please…”
My head was aching because I had slammed into the dashboard right after the pod exploded. I was surprised at how I didn’t have a concussion. But even after all this, only one thought remained in my mind. The wormhole. How did the chickens know about it? Where did it lead to? How is it related to that explosion?
“Jaiden?”
“Um, yeah?”
“We need to go through the wormhole.”
Chapter 9: Backup
“Wait, you off your rocker or something?! How are we gonna get in there so easily with all those chickens around? Also, your ship. At least you can wait.”
“There’s no time to wait. We need to get there ASAP! I have another ship. That was just loaned to me by the UHF. I’ll pick it up from Canthus, and then we’ll go.”
“But how? There’s no teleporters 'round here!”
“You do own a ship right?”
“Yea- Oh wait! Now I get it!”
“Well then, let’s go. Time is of the essence.”
I went into her ship. She came a little later as what she wanted along with the jets was coincidentally Warp 9. I convinced her to give me the controls, since I was the only one who had an Off-road license and she had spent all her keys on upgrades. I entered the pass code after getting it from Jaiden who had a look which had ‘I’m gonna change the pass code right after you get out of here’ written all over it.
#Booting systems…#
#…#
#Welcome Jade#
#Canthus_#
#Powering thrusters#
#…#
#…#
#Prepare for arrival#
#Destination reached#
Jaiden looked a bit shaken from that ride. “That was fast…” she said. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get used to it.” I said, trying to calm her a bit. “Y-yeah, right.”
We entered the Heroes’ Academy nearby and picked up my ship, preparing to leave. This time, straight for the wormhole. I was really worried about whether it wasn’t closed by the chickens. This is a race against time…
Chapter 10: Payback
Soon, we reached the wormhole. I’d picked up some equipment to orbit and enter wormholes, and were ready to see what was on the other side. There was some company as well, building what seemed like a Gravity Nullifier but a whole lot bigger. It looks like they were aware of what happened, and wanted to shut the wormhole down fast.
“Jaiden, do you have the phaseouts?”
“Sure do!”
“Good. Activate it and enter without alerting anyone. If they see us then it isn’t going to- Jaiden? JAIDEN WHAT THE HELL?!”
I don’t know what she was thinking, but she thought that attacking literally everyone and everything was a much better idea than not attacking everyone and everything. She destroyed everything, except for the device.
“Whew, that was good! What? Speak up.”
“I have two words for you. Turn around.”
“What do you- oh.”
SQUAAAAAWK!!!*
*(CHAAAAARGE!!!)
#Powering up weapons#
#Ready to engage#
“Okay, what the hell were you thinking Jade?”
“Revenge, isn’t it obvious?”
“It’s become clear to me now that your skull has still been growing instead of your brain.”
We somehow managed to finish off the last of the chickens unscathed. We still couldn’t back off after this, so we launched our Phaseouts and got in the wormhole. This was our first time entering a wormhole so we were pretty excited, save for the fact that I wasn’t after this whole ordeal. It was all blurry inside and after a while, there was a flash of light, and…
“Oh god…”
Chapter 11: Signals
“Greetings recruit. We have noticed a suddeen change between your past and present locations. It seems to us that you along with recruit Skye have both intercepted a large horde of enemies and have gone through the wormhole despite everything. The UHF is proud of both of your achievements, but sadly we can’t help with anything. Also, we have cross-linked your comms to an unknown base’s nearby comms. Try picking up any signals you find, and then transmit them back to us. Stay safe.”
“Soooo what did they say, eh? Not another mission I hope.”
“It is another mission.”
“Dammit. Well, what do we have to do?”
“They said that there would be some signals incoming towards my comms, so you’re lucky.”
“Whew! That’s a relief! Uh I mean- LET’S GO!”
“Yeah, I totally didn’t hear that. But anyways, let’s.”
“Right-o!”
We powered up our thrusters, ready to scout the area. I would be going to the the left, whereas she would be going to the right. I was a bit skeptical of us parting ways, but we had to in order to make this easier. We put up our comms, in order to speak with each other about anything unusual.
“Did you find something?”
“Nope, not yet.”
We’d been scouring the area for ages until…
#Link detected#
#Transmit?#
#Yes_# #No_#
This must be the signal they were talking about! I pressed ‘Yes’ as soon as I could and recorded the signal, which was for some reason in morse.
… -.- -.-- .-. …- -. … . .-… … – … -. .- - . … .----. .---- --. .- .-… -… .- - — .-. … -…- .---- .----. … …- … …-. … .- .-- .- .-. . … -.-. — -. …-. -.-. — -… . … .- - .-. -… ----- ----- … .-. . … . -. -… … .- …-. - . .-. … .-. . -.-. . … …- … -. --.
I was still a bit suspicious about why they would use morse out of every latest code. Oh well, who cares. I was just going to send the recording, until I realized something. This is gonna be fun.
Chapter 12: The Lodestone
“Greetings recruit. We have found another assassination attempt, this time for one of our top engineers in the Military Armament Division, callsign ‘1Galbatorix1’. At your request, we have sent co-ordinates of the transmitter. Stay safe.”
“Wait, anything else about something wrong? I had a gut feeling, that’s why ma’am.”
“No reports as of yet, but we’ll see. The signal is really choppy over here, try to get back ASAP.”
“Roger that.”
#Message received#
Topic: Co-ordinates
cypher.datm
Click on file above to load co-ordinates.
ConfCode: N1T32K7
This was the perfect place to have a base built in. A thick cluster of asteroids blocked the path, leading to me using narrow chokepoints to get in. I kept on moving forwards, until I saw what seemed like a tiny grey dot. Maybe this was the end of this long chase towards the great unknown. I travelled further, and found the base. This was something even the Authentic Hero would be worried about…
Chapter 13: The Face of Mystery
It was a sight to behold. As large as the Henterprise, as dangerous as the Egg Cannon and as deadly as the Yolk-Star. It was capable of completely disabling stars, let alone mere planets.
Everything made sense now. These assassinations. It was an attempt to get rid of the main threats towards the Henpire. This wasn’t your average chicken invasion, this was a full blown covert operation in order to unleash this giant beast. I couldn’t use my comms to get help, lest it would alert the chickens. But just then, something began to whirr. Uh oh, this didn’t seem good.
The machine’s turrets were moving towards me! I frantically began pressing buttons here and there, trying to avoid being atomised. Nothing seemed to work until I remembered my Phase-outs. I activated one just before 10 Railgun shots crashed together where I was moments ago. Seizing this opportunity, I tried to contact Jaiden before something happened. Unfortunately for me, her comms was shut down.
In a split second, the abomination fired a bunch of missiles towards me, paired with lasers to further limit my movement. Among all this insanity I grabbed the handles, pulled on the trigger, and went against the giant abomination.
#Powering up weapons#
#Ready to engage#
I fired my weapons at it, firing continuosly while dodging constant barrages of missiles, lasers, chickens, and what not. My tiny ship was breaking up under all these quick reflex movements from one spot to another. Suddenly, a missile hit one of my rear pods, detonating a big portion of my wing as well. But at the last moment, somehow, I activated a damage amplifier. We both were pretty beaten up by each other but the amp gave me the upper hand allowed my remaining pod to damage the behemoth enough to drive it away.
This wasn’t good. If that thing got away, countless lives would be lost. Things are getting worse moment by moment.
Chapter 14: On the Run
“Recruit Calast! What is the meaning of this!? What do you mean by “a huge warship!””
“What I’m saying is true! There is a giant warship built by the chickens which has ran away somewhere and I don’t know where!”
“You do know the consequences of spreading large scale rumours like these? Please tell us the truth! We demand proof to back your wild claims!”
“Oh if it’s proof you want then it’s proof you’ll get. Take a look at these photos.”
“What do you- Oh. Oh no. I- is this real? Please tell me this is a joke. You photoshopped it right? Right?”
“If it were photoshopped, then it would look more like I cut tubes of paint in the middle. This is a major threat. If we don’t stop it now, then the whole UHF would be upturned in the blink of an eye. Please, for the sake of everything, believe this.”
“Got it. We’ll try everything. Stay safe.”
“Wait, can you please try contacting Jaiden telling her to come back to the wormhole? My comms can’t detect hers for some reason.”
“Sure. We’ll try.”
After this conversation, I went on back towards the wormhole. I was thinking back to the fight I had with that thing. Something about that still seemed to worry me a lot, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I covered exactly the same path I had come from, but…
“The wormhole! It’s gone!”
Chapter 15: The Secret Key
“Where in the heck even are you Dan? I’ve been waiting.”
“The wormhole’s closed!”
“Wait what?”
“I’m stuck in here! The wormhole we came through? It’s gone!”
“Huh. Figures.”
“Seriously? Wait, was that thing open when you came out?”
“I lost my path and found another one. Why d’ya even wanna know?”
“Send me the co-ordinates.”
“Hmm, lesse here… Yep. Sent.”
“Thanks!”
These chickens were smart. They closed up the wormhole so that I couldn’t get away. But what they weren’t counting on was the fact that there would be another gateway to get out. I travelled past the asteroids again and went through the wormhole. There was another bright flash and…
“Whew! Made it.”
“Dang. The UHF told me about what happened. I must say, that was pretty great, eh?”
“Yeah, but that thing got away. We need to find it pronto!”
“Yep. By the way, I want you to follow me. There’s something for ya.”
“Something for me…?”
“Just follow me, will ya?”
“Okay, I guess…”
“We’re here!”
“Woah…”
Chapter 16: Fresh New Start
It was a Müller 408, brand new with a fresh coat of paint and everything. There was a card stuck to its side, which said “OPEN AND READ” in red letters. I plucked it off of the spaceship, opened it, took out the letter inside it and began to read it.
UNITED HEROES FOUNDATION
Dear Recruit Calast,
The UHF commends you for your services towards facing off against the Henpire. You and recruit Skye have provided invaluable information along with finding out about another Henpire superweapon and buying us enough time to prepare our defenses. We have promoted both of you to the elite rank and providing a special craft for you to use in this mission. Stay safe.
Regards,
Jesse Fyrane,
Head of UHF.
Conf. Code: N1T35K7
“WHAT?!”
“See? I didn’t believe it myself, until I saw that code thingy.”
I still couldn’t believe it, but I had to. Time was short, but I still was extremely pumped up about having a Müller of my own, and that too a ‘Cuisiner’! I entered the ship and took it out of the docking bay. It felt great! This was the first time in my life I was this happy. I almost forgot about the threat over all this, but I held myself and got back to the Heroware from where I picked it up. Time for payback, Henpire.
Chapter 17: Trailblazing
“Remind me how we got into this again?”
“Sir, if there’s something you want to talk about it better be about your overspending.”
“Eheheh… Sorry…”
“Here’s a speeding ticket. The fine is written on it. Pay it, and we’ll let you go.”
“H-here…”
“Done. This is your first and last warning. Take care next time.”
I guess I got a bit too overexcited in all this. Another ticket to add to my collection. Okay, time to get back on track.
“Jaiden, can you tell me the name of the wormhole?”
“Simple, it’s Ina’ Hitelan.”
“Why does the Wormhole Naming Department still think that we’re using runic alphabet…”
“Sigh. That we’ll never know, eh? Anyways, I’ve sent the co-ordinates along with a map covering the area around it.”
“Okay, now if my guess is correct, those chickens should be going towards the nearest black hole leading towards their galaxy. Let’s see…”
“Wait, black hole? Do you mean the one which is right in the centre of the galaxy?”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s a supermassive black hole in the middle of this here galaxy. I found it a bit funny that most of the chickens came from around it.”
“Hold on… Wait, is that? EUREKA!”
“Hey! Don’t scare me like that!”
“It was heading towards the wormhole after all. I want you to inform the UHF. Meanwhile, I’ll go catch that thing.”
“Roger that!”
Now we’re talking! My scanners were picking up signals near that thing. I pumped up the boosters (this thing was a beauty!) and headed off towards the black hole.
#Destination reached#
Chapter 18: A Time with No Time
“Woah.”
This thing was huge! I wonder what the Authentic Hero had to say about this when he had to face this. I went inside it but in the process my ship kept spinning faster than a salad spinner, so much that I lost count of how many times I puked straight at my windshield while screaming my lungs out.
#ERROR: HIGH LEVELS OF UNSTABILITY DETECTED. ENTERING EMERGENCY MODE#
#SUCCESSFUL#
#…#
#…#
#…#
#Stability sensed#
#Exiting Emergency Mode#
My mind was happy to see that, but my body was still in it’s emergency phase for 10 minutes after leaving the black hole. I gathered myself and travelled a bit further. This was a bit strange, Why were all the stars green? Where were the chickens? And most importantly, why was there a giant Sputnik floating around?
“Hey!”
“Wha…?”
“Who are you mister? What are you doing here? How did you even get in here?”
“Can I please shift the same questions to my side?”
“Alright, I guess… I’ll answer them in reverse. Black hole, don’t know, and I’m the Authentic Hero.”
Chapter 19: Rush Hour
#No Contact achieved#
#Please try later#
Now this was a fine pickle we were in. I dunno why Dan won’t pick his comms up, and why wouldn’t the signals even reach. Far as I know, that thing came equipped with a special comms system. Now how am I going to tell him that the UHF refused to send help? Well, if there’s one thing I ever learnt from dad, then that would be to “Never give up!” I entered the co-ordinates to the black hole but for some reason, it wouldn’t even take it. Great, now I’m gonna have to go there manually. I was just 'bout to leave until I got a message from the UHF.
Topic: Another assassination attempt
Recruit,
We have got information about another assassination, this time of a Stellarium Corp. pilot. Being our ally, we have to help in their investigation of the attempt. We want you to head on over to a portal in this galaxy. The co-ordinates can be found in this message and make sure to reveal this to anyone not even UHF officials. Stay safe.
cypher.datm
Conf. code: S74R80UND
Dammit, now this happens. Those damn chickens aren’t gonna let me rest now, are they? I entered in the co-ordinates for the portal and prepped up my weapons just in case I had an encounter with them. And an encounter I did.
Chapter 20: Authenticity
“Waitwaitwait, so what you’re telling me is that you’re the Authentic Hero?”
“Yep.”
“Honestly, at this point I’m not gonna be surprised if I see a herd of dancing rainbow broccollis…”
“What the heck did you have today?”
“Sigh… Anyways, what are you even doing here?”
“I just saw a weird signal on my scanner so that guy made me come here.”
“‘That guy?’”
“The person behind the screen. Say hi to them.”
“Oh. Hi.”
“Wait, did you see a signal as well?”
“Yep. It’s a giant portable space base. Not very hard to miss.”
“How’d you know about that?! You a spy or something?”
“Let’s just say that we’ve met.”
“Riiiight. Met.”
“Just go on, will you?”
“Alright. Wait, not again!”
“Wha-”
“CHAAAAAAARGE!!!”
There were these weird green 2-D things coming at us and before I knew, we were firing our weapons while trying to dodge those Tetris blocks fired at us. It was a mess, as we almost rammed into each other while fighting them and my gyroscope malfunctioned again. I don’t know how he managed to keep his cool despite an insane person screeching and cursing into the comms and almost firing at him. He’s amazing despite our argument a while back. After a while of random spinning and shooting, we finally managed to clear off the invaders and it was at that precise moment that my gyroscope stopped malfunctioning.
“How did you not die of asphyxiation, that’s amazing! How’d you do that?”
“Uh, lots of jumpscares I guess?”
“Well, this is the part where a giant invader mothership comes.”
“How.”
“I think we should stop trying to make sense of a game where no one cares about the fourth wall.”
“Yeah. Wait is that…?”
“Par up for the course. We’ve got a mothership to defea-”
BOOM
“Ack!”
“Jaiden!?”
“Gasp… Ship… portal… through… went…”
“Who is she?!”
“Later! Where did it go!? What happened!”
“I… fought it. Damn thing went through the portal…”
“Out of everything that has happened yet, this part is the most confusing.”
“We need to go through. Quick, follow me.”
Chapter 21: A Link between Everything
“Who in the dang world even is he though?”
“He’s the Authentic Hero.”
“THE WHAT?!”
“Wow, people sure do like me.”
“Can I have your autograph!?”
“It took me twenty years to be asked for an autograph this changes everything… Well, leaving that aside who are you?”
“I-I’m Jaiden! A UHF recruit!”
“Guys please stop…”
The portal was nearing, so I decided to turn my comms off for the sake of everyone’s ears. We entered it and surprisingly, it went well! It took us a while but we reached the other side.
“This is pretty nostalgic. The chickens’ home base.”
“Wait, really?”
“Well duh. The base is near and I know where. Come on.”
“Yes sir!”
“You sure are pretty excited, Jaiden.”
“Heh…”
#Engaging Thrusters#
#…#
#…#
#Destination reached.#
“We’re here, but there’s no base?”
“There never is. All I know is that it will come to refuel and repair here.”
“How…?”
“I don’t know. I hate to say it, but these guys are pretty advanced.”
“I know, but what are we gonna do until it appears? Just wait for it and hope nobody sees us?”
“We could probably see to the welcoming committee.”
“What.”
There were the chickens again! How do these things even know?! We powered up our weapons and began firing at them. It was hard, as they used multiple difficult formations such as ‘Chicken Geometry’, ‘Wheel of Fortune’, ‘Palpitating Grid’, etc. It took us long, and we were tired from all the chickens constantly charging at us in ‘Battle Formations’! But it finally ended.
“Well that was long!”
“My hands hurt.”
“Practise a bit more, I’m sure they won’t after that.”
“It does work. As they say, ‘Practise makes perfect!’”
“Also, ignorance leads to doom.”
“So that thing’s finally here and charging a laser!”
“Let’s go!”
This was the cherry on top, and that cherry needs to be removed quick! It was bullet hell part 3. First it rained missiles along with lasers to limit our movement, then it let out Gatling chicks out 4 at a time. It then fired it’s autocannons followed by purple neutrons in a complex manner. Fortunately for us, there was a small period of time between each attack which we utilised to unleash hell upon it. Lasers, plasma, rockets, etc. covered the whole area until finally, it began to give up under the pressure.
“Did we do it…?”
“Seems so.”
“Well that’s nice! Yes!”
“I must say, you two are good at your jobs.”
“Thanks! But wait, how did it not explode yet?”
“Wait, is it? It’s escaping again!”
“Dammit, follow it! It’s already heavily damaged we’re so close!”
“Let’s go!”
Chapter 22: The End is Nigh
“Where did it go?!”
“Towards the Solar System! Quick, follow it! Through that blackhole!”
#ERROR: HIGH LEVELS OF UNSTABILITY DETECTED. ENTERING EMERGENCY MODE#
#SUCCESSFUL#
#…#
#…#
#…#
#Stability sensed#
#Exiting Emergency Mode#
“Where are we…”
“Home.”
“Um, Dan was it?”
“After so much time…”
“Uh…”
“I can’t believe this…”
“Wait is that… Earth?!”
“Yes…”
“I dunno what’s happened here too actually, I haven’t returned here for years.”
“Hello? Everyone? Do y’all remember why we were here?”
“Look no further, because there it is!”
“Near a Space Burger?!”
“Nice, I can’t wait to eat now! I haven’t eaten since 5 episodes!”
“First things first, stopping that thing.”
“Ahem…”
“What are you planning to-”
“As a duly-designated representative of Earth, I order you to cease any and all egg related activity and return fortwith to your place of origin or to the next convenient parallel dimension.”
…
…wut.
What was he even thinking…? At least the speech was good. After that didn’t work, we rushed on towards it, but not before meeting a giant horde of chickens once again. This was almost as big as the ones faced every week. At once we began shooting. These formations were nothing like we had seen before! Looks like the chickens had planned this before. Feathers everywhere, squawks, bullets covered the entire area. After a while though that thing finally appeared. We prepped our ships, ready to fight the giant battleship. It started firing its laser cannons, followed by homing rockets along with its neutron autocannons. We soon damaged it enough but…
“Did we do it now…?”
“It is exploding and all, so I think yes?”
“Guys? Tiny spacecraft and it looks hostile.”
Although it was small, it was as strong as the battleship. It began firing a sort of egg shotgun and then small (but quick) lasers. After damaging it a bit, it turned away and began bombing us by lobbing mines from its side and once again reappearing behind us. We quickly turned around just in time before our ships exploded by its missiles. This time, it also began shooting us with a cannon. This only added to the difficulty and made our jobs harder. We damaged it a bit more than last time, as it continued its bombing run again. The indicator showed that the damage was at 66%, meaning that we had to just deal with it for a few minutes more.
Now things were getting frantic! It began repeating its attacks quicker every second. It also kept bombing us again and again until one bomb hit my rear left pod thrice within this fan fic. It was taking some major maneuvering skills to dodge from all 3 of us, but I was a little slower because bombing run. Things were getting near impossible to dodge causing me to take another hit to the wing.
“Dammit, when will this end?!”
“Go on!”
“Does exploding and shaking mean it’s ending or are we still going to keep fighting?”
“I think so…”
BOOM
“ACK! MY EARS!!!”
“Relax, it’s gone.”
“Do you mean to say it’s finally over?”
“Yes.”
“…”
“Wow…”
“Cheer up. I’m sure a certain group will have something to say to you!”
Ending coming soon!
Writer’s notes:
I can’t believe we came this far. To all my readers, thank you. This will finally be ending soon, but I have plans. I might make Menace 2 after this if I can think enough, heh! Well then, once again, thank you.
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