By David C. Daoust
The clumsiness of the new form melted away; in fact Ivan started to have fun a while ago. His long cordlike arms could stretch a bit farther than he originally thought, and he was swinging from limb to limb throughout the corridors of the Consortium cruiser, which he had cleverly invaded, in the small, almost gossamer-like, form of a spy-bot, with none the wiser. He had, moments ago, managed to sabotage the Cloaking Device that hid the consortium cruiser’s location, and was now pleased with the sounds of blaster-fire shaking the hull of the ship, outside.
This occurrence had also caused the once empty hallways, to fill with people, running every which way, all in answer to the sudden attack on their ship. Ivan was able to silently dart overhead, completely unnoticed, and could have continued on this way, though could not help but harass a few passersby when he could. He’d tapped one on the shoulder as he passed, flicked another’s ear, and even managed to drop low enough to trip a couple more as they rounded a corner. The bewildered victims’ protests were lost in the distance as he rapidly darted to his next objective; the ship’s Shield Generator.
Ivan knew the general location of the generator, deep in the belly of the Cruiser, though had to jump back out of the Spy-bot more than once to find it.
At last he swung through the entrance. Peering down from the catwalks, he found a room full of high-tech machinery below, the center of which stood the generator. It was a massive device, filled the majority of the room, two massive disks on either side, a massive bolt of energy running through the middle. He leapt clear off the ceiling, above the catwalks that surrounded the upper portion of the room, to drop to the nearest terminal.
As the Commissar began clicking through its systems, he knew, he was going to have to ‘jump’ back again. Ivan was tech savvy for the most part, this tech was protected though, and he simply was not trained for the operations he chose to undergo. His consciousness suddenly left the spy-bot where it stood, arched over the terminal’s keyboard.
The Commissar found himself back in his red robed bot, standing in front of a massive holo-table, with a complete blueprint of the Consortium Cruiser projecting from its surface. The Holo-table was the centerpiece of their War-Room. Other vacant bots stood around the table, each one’s owner, busy in another bot body. Many of whom were flying the very fighters he had listened to, moments before, bombard the Consortium shield. Ivan had hoped he would be able to finish his objectives fast enough to take part in the raid, his hopes threatened to be dashed if he could not figure out how to drop the shield.
Ivan closed the blueprints, and called up information on how to shut down a shield generator. He found himself lost in meaningless jargon that only threatened to frustrate him, when the computer, that was currently monitoring his spy-bot form, started to flash warning lights.
Ivan jumped back just in time to find Consortium Troopers flooding the room. The small spy-bot shot around the back of the terminal, unsure whether or not he had been seen. Doubly unsure what they were doing in there. Had he tripped some sort of alarm? Or were they just here to guard against the very thing he was attempting?
Ivan decided they hadn’t seen him, as they seemed to station themselves around the room. Though suddenly wished they had seen him as his new plan formulated in his mind. He leapt back up into the catwalks and then dropped back down on the nearest Troopers head.His thin, cordlike, arms gripped the helmet, as he smacked the small rectangular body against its surface, making a loud knocking sound.
The trooper reacted as though he had a bug on him, and smacked the small device, that was Ivan, onto the ground. Ivan quickly darted back up the same trooper’s leg as many others reacted to the strange behavior of the first. Ivan wrapped one of his thin arms around the trooper’s neck and began to choke him. The trooper ripped the helmet off his head, the look on the man’s face as he was being choked, seemingly by nothing, caused them all to charge their weapons.
Ivan’s plan was not to kill the trooper, only alarm them enough to attack. He quickly released the current victim and jumped to the nearest trooper, spinning about the small slit that allowed the trooper to see his surroundings. Once he was sure they all got a good look at him, Ivan darted about the room.
Once he was clear of the group, they all began shooting their weapons at him. Ivan was very quick, the faster he went, the harder they had finding him. It became a game of hide-and-seek. Whenever they seemed to have lost him, Ivan would suddenly drop back down to harass another. The longer the game went on, the more frustrated the troopers became. The more frustrated they became, the more reckless.
Finally, Ivan got the un-helmeted trooper, which he had started the game with, to chase him directly into the generator with enough live rounds to shatter one of the disks that made up the device. The spy-bot was hit, completely destroyed…
Ivan found himself back within the War Room. He imagined the trooper’s victory was short lived, as the Commissar called up the information that revealed the Cruiser’s shields were down.
The Red Starfighter assault was in truth a ruse, all to keep the Consortium Starfighters busy, while a ‘cloaked’ transport ship was ready to sneak a squad onto the ship once the shields dropped. A squad of serpentine Assault-Bots, one of which was awaiting the Commissar’s next body jump.
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