*Chapter Note: This chapter will be from Terri's point of view from just before the crash landing of her fighter.
Terri slammed the ground thrusters to full as the fighter lost altitude. Blinking red lights flashed for most of the fighter's systems. The holographic control panel blinked as power was interrupted and Terri swore.
"Sandpiper to control, I'm going down," Terri said.
The com display flashed red showing it was offline.
"Great," Terri said.
She reached over and bypassed the damaged engine and diverted what power was left to the other engine. The fighter started to gain altitude just as the sound of an impact filled the fighter with more alarms.
The fighter spun from the impact hard enough to slam Terri against the canopy. The impact caused her helmet to shift enough to cut her lip. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.
"Bastards!" Terri said.
The last engine started to fail as the fighter resumed its decent toward the ground.
"I have something for you," Terri said.
She rerouted all power to the last engine and ground thrusters as she stabilized the fighter. She swung it back at the pursuing fighter and let loose with everything she had as she put one in her sights.
Two beams hit one of the Eutharan fighters and instantly turned the hull into scrap metal. The explosion took the last two fighters off guard and tossed them aside like ragdolls.
'Warning weapons capacitors empty, ' the ship's computer said.
"I know, I know," Terri said as she hit a few buttons in the faltering display. "I need all the power to the engines." Two circles appeared on the display and started tracking the remaining fighters.
'Multiple locks established, ' the ship's computer said.
"Die bastards," Terri said.
Two missiles dropped from under her fighter and shot towards the remaining Eutharan fighters. They didn't have time to react and turned into dual fire balls.
Terri grinned as she watched them fall towards the ground. She knew she needed to get away from the area before the fighter failed completely. She rotated the nose of the fighter around away from the wreckage and engaged the last engine to full throttle.
The fighter shook slightly as it sped away from the downed enemy fighters. It was unable to maintain its current altitude and slowly dipped towards the ground.
Terri slowed the fighter when she thought she was far enough away. She rotated the fighter over a small clearing and let it drop to the ground. It was a bit faster than she would have liked as the ground thrusters began to falter. The landing gear absorbed most of the impact but there was enough left to rattle her teeth.
Everything went dark in the cockpit as the power finally failed. Terri shook her head to clear it the landing had momentarily disoriented her. She reached over and slapped the manual release for the canopy and pushed it open. Terri unbuckled herself and pulled her helmet off setting it down in the seat as she crawled out of the fighter.
She was greeted on the ground by a small spider bot that clicked and chirped at her.
"See what you can do," Terri said.
It made on last warble and began inspecting the downed fighter. A light blue scanning beam sweeping over the fighter as it moved around it. The small bot stopped and plugged into the fighter through an external access point and ran a diagnostics on the ship's systems as it made some low chirps and whistles.
"That bad?" Terri said.
The small bot turned slightly and gave a series of whistles.
"Ok," Terri said as she laughed. "I'll let you get back to work and leave you alone."
Terri crouched down and opened a panel under the cockpit and pulled out her equipment. The last thing she pulled from the compartment was a long sword fashioned like a katana. It had markings on its scabbard, a history of those from the Ga'sahde that had once held the sword. The sword marked Terri's position of authority among the Ga'sahde and was made from the strongest metal know to any race. When it was time her legacy would be etched into the sword for all time.
After she donned her armor Terri pushed the scabbard into place on her back. It clicked and hummed for a second as she placed her helmet on. Terri reached up and pushed the clear visor into place. Instantly diagnostics were run on the suit and the readings were displayed on either side on the visor.
'Jon, ' Terri thought. 'Jon are your there.'
A small headache flared to life as she attempted to use the nanites to communicate. Something was wrong she realized when she got no response back.
"Medical diagnostics," Terri said.
Readings began to scroll across her visor as she picked up her rifle and cycled the power cell. Terri slung it over her shoulder and grabbed her pack off the ground. She held it over the back of her head.
"Lock pack into place," Terri said. "Then display finding on nanites."
Four small arms unfolded from her suit and grabbed the pack gilding it into two slides on the back of the suit. Terri let go of the pack as it slid into place on her back and a soft click announced the pack was locked into place.
Nothing in any of the scans showed a reason for the nanites to not be working correctly, they were even repairing soft tissue damage. Her lip was almost completely healed and a bruise on her hip was in the process of being repaired. They even showed they had transmitted her calls.
"List probable reasons for nanites failure to establish a communication connection," Terri said.
At the very top of the list was the thing she feared was the cause of the failure, jamming of some kind.
Terri brought her gloved hand up and slapped the brow of her helmet. "Well duh Terri," Terri said. "Open communications with the Atlantis priority one."
After a second large red letters were displayed in the top middle of her visor, Communications Failure.
"Power up mode," Terri said. The suit hummed briefly as it was activated. "Time to rock and roll."
Terri turned to the spider bot working on the engines of the fighter. "Last orders, repair fighter and set auto pilot back to base if possible. If repairs aren't possible set fighter self destruct if enemy arrives."
The bot looked up and let out a few chirps and whistles.
"Where am I going?" Terri said. "I have to move or I might get captured and we can't have that can we?"
The bot beeped and whistled again as it made a small 'no' motion.
"No, I don't want you to follow me. Do as instructed, return yourself to base on your own if you have to destroy the fighter," Terri said. "Understand?"
The bot made a nodding motion and turned back to its work. It made a humming noise as it tended to the fighter. The small bot had been with her for a while and she had always taken the time to talk with it while she did any work on the fighter. Because of that the bot had started to develop a personality. It was something that made the crew chiefs nervous and they continually told her she need to retire the bot and have it wiped. She had threatened them on pain of death to leave the small bot alone. She told them she had it just about trained to her liking and it was true her fighter was always well taken care of, the best in the fleet.
Pilots began to take notice and started doing the same with their bots much to the distress of the crew chiefs. However, the crew chiefs also noted a performance increase in the fighters over those who had bots that were wiped at the first sign of intelligence. It was something Terri wanted to bring to Jon's attention. She decided when, if, she got out of this mess she would.
With the augments from her armor Terri covered a little over fifty miles. The suit allowed her to do what they called jump flight. The suit would allow the occupant to jump twenty feet into the air and as the operator reached the apex they would engage the jump pack. The hang time from the pack was over a minute and the arc from the initial jump would carry them about a half mile depending on the wind and current weather. The operator could do one large jump or several small jump before the pack needed time to recharge.
This was something Terri had mastered early on when she was training on Ghost Station. She would jump from limb to limb in the trees until she was as high as she thought she would get and then do her power jump. The result was she managed to travel about one and a half miles per use. The landing stressed the suit and could cause micro fractures but, it was something she would deal with. She wanted to be as far away from the fighter as she could get.
Terri had just finished her fourth power jump as the suit flashed a warning and an alarm went off when she landed. Micro fractures were starting to form on the suit and it advised her to limit any more jumps. She muttered to herself as she started running at full speed through the forest. She was moving at almost forty miles per hour and making a lot of noise as she dodged trees and low branches.
Another alarm went off as the suit reached half power after two hours of running without stopping. "Deploy regenerative skin," Terri said without breaking her stride. The shell of the suit shimmered as it deployed a reflective skin that absorbed sunlight. Now she just had to find some of the much needed sunlight.
Ten minutes later Terri broke through the forest line and into a small clearing. She skidded to a sudden half the gouged the ground and tossed dirt and rock through the air and almost half way across the clearing.
"Run continual scans for any movement," Terri said. She spread her arms out and formed a 'T' with her body. "Deploy panels," she said. Small panels slid out from her sides and arms and rotated to track the sun for maximum exposure.
'Recharging will be complete in thirty minutes, ' the suit's computer said.
Terri like the older suits but the power cores could explode like a small nuclear device if they took a direct hit. These newer suits were something Brad and his people worked on and they were very efficient. The new suits were lighter, faster and had shields to protect the user, something the older suits lacked. They also had state of the art hardware and tracking systems.
Terri watch the power gauge climb past the half way mark. It would be safe to deploy the repair mites for the suit. This was something that Mike had managed to do with Brad's help. They were very small repair bots that worked on the same principle as their larger cousins. They used resources in the surrounding environment to do minor repairs to the suits. You had to watch where you deployed them as they could weaken floors or cause breeches in a ship's hull if too many were used or the damage to the suit was massive.
Brad had deployed special repair stations on all the ships and Mike had built in special software to help reduce breeches and such. But, they could still be over rode by the user if they wished. It was something Terri wanted added as there might be times you wanted to go through a floor or cause a breech. It would still trigger an alert on the bridge and as a failsafe the captain could stop a user from overriding the fail safes in the suit.
"Deploy mites," Terri said.
The skin of the suit rippled as thousands of mites began working on the fractures. Terri shivered as though they were crawling over her skin. Watching them work always creped her out. The way they moved over the skin of the suit and preformed their work made her have visions of any crawling all over her body.
The mites had just finished their work as the suit hit full power and retracted the absorbsion skin. Terri rotated her head and did some mini stretches as she took a step forward. That's when something hit her left shoulder and exploded slamming her face first into the ground as she slid across the ground. Alarms filled her ears as she shook her head and slammed both her fists into the ground in anger.
"What the hell?" Terri said as she rolled over and jumped up into a crouch.
Standing behind her was four Eutharan marines in battle armor; one of them was lowering what looked like a bazooka. The suit wasn't recognizing the figures almost as if they were illusions. It was then that Terri realized they were special ops and has masking harnesses on.
"Terri Hunter, surrender now," one of the marines said. "We have you out numbered and more are on the way."
Terri reached back and pulled her sword from its scabbard as she spoke, "That's Princess Hunter and you had better have a lot more in the forest ready to step out."
"Don't make this harder than it has to be," the marine said. "We don't wish to harm you. Our orders are to bring you in alive for your trial."
"Trial?" Terri said. "What a joke. You shot me down over our space and now you invade our land to try to take me prisoner? You jam my communications and hunt me like an outlaw and you want me to surrender to four of you?"
"Pretty much," the marine said.
"You must have some big balls," Terri said. "Where to you keep them? Balls that big wouldn't fit in that suit."
"Like I said we can do this the easy way or the hard," the marine said. "The choice is yours to make."
"Like I said," Terri said as she began to run at the four marines. "You had better have an army ready to step out of the forest if you want to take me down."
Before the four marines could act Terri was in their midst her sword flashing as she struck at the closest marine. The other three dodged back as Terri's sword found a soft spot in the armor of the one she had engaged. He groaned as the sword ripped through the armor and into his flesh beneath.
Terri left go of the sword and dropped her upper body down level with the ground as one of the marines swung at her from behind. As his arm passed over where her head had been second ago she reached up and grabbed it. Terri gave it a slight twist and hard pull as she flipped him over and into the wounded marines. Even through the armor the muffled pop of bone breaking could be heard. The marines muffled scream filled his suit and drifted into Terri's ears.
Terri grabbed the sword and pulled it from the downed marine, who gave a grunt as he passed out. Terri turned to see the last two marines circling her as they tried to gauge her and decide how best to delay her or take her down.
"What is it with you guys?" Terri said. She snapped the sword and flung the blood on the blade off on to the ground and then in a fluid motion sheathed it. "Always attacking people from behind?"
"All is fair in war," the marine who had spoken before said.
"Oh, are we at war now?" Terri said. "I didn't know that. I guess that changes things a little."
"War might be a bit much," the marine said. "How about battle or in a fight?"
"So, which is it war, battle or fight?" Terri said. "I need to know because I don't leave people alive in war. This means these two I have disabled need to die and then both of you. If were in a battle same rule applies as battles usually lead up to a war and your attack on me will probably piss my brother off and it will be war. If we're just fighting then no need to kill as there will be no hard feelings when I pound you both into the ground."
"Fight," the other marine said.
"Yeah, fight," the marine said that had the broken arm. He had stood back up and joined the small circle.
The marine who had been speaking to Terri nodded as he spoke, "Yeah fight."
"Second guessing if you can take me?" Terri said.
"No, stalling," the marine said.
Six more marines stepped from the forest as he finished. Terri grinned as she gave them a quick glance over. "So, what you're saying is I'm going to get a work out?" Terri said.
"More like worked over," the marine said.
"Excellent!" Terri said. "I haven't broken a sweat in a while. So, why don't you boys just bring it."
The six new marines had joined the three circling Terri. One of them had the embalm of the Eutharan medical service on his right shoulder. Terri pointed at him as she spoke, "You assist the downed marine he is losing blood and will die soon if not tended." Terri pointed at the marine with the broken arm. "He needs his arm set it's broken and possibly dislocated."
The Medic looked at one of the new marines who nodded at him. "That's pretty good of you," the new marine said.
"No need for loss of life. One medic won't make a difference in the outcome of this fight," Terri said. She reached up and tapped the side of her helmet and it folded back as if consumed by the suit.
"Pretty cocky when outnumbered," the new marine said.
"True I'm out numbered," Terri said. "But, I think you're out of your league. You need another ten marines at the very least. I promise to leave the medic alone so he can tend to all of you."
"Don you helmet and let's get this over with," the new marine said.
"I prefer it like it is," Terri said. "Since this is a fight and we're not shooting each other that is."
Terri had been watching one of the marines out of the corner of her eye. She knew he was getting ready to attack, all the signs were there. He broke ranks and charged Terri alone.
"Corporal!" the marines said.
But it was too late, Terri took a step back and lanced a foot out catching the charging marine in the chest. "Oh, that was nasty," Terri said as the marine fell to the ground. "I think he has a few broken ribs." Terri crouched down over the marine and slammed her palm into the back of his helmet. A loud crack filled the clearing as the helmet on the marine split in two. She rolled the unconscious marine over and pointed at one of the marines standing in the circle. "You take him to the medic."
The marine she pointed at took a step back.
"I won't attack you," Terri said. A grin covered her face. "Come get him so the medic can look him over to make sure he isn't seriously hurt."
The lead marine looked at the man and waved him on. He rushed out and grabbed the unconscious marine and drug him over to the medic. Then he rejoined the circle around Terri as the Medic turn his attention to the new marine.
"One on one, you're no match for me," Terri said. "Two on one I don't even think you are. I'll give you a second to decide what you want to do."
Terri sat down on her heels and bowed her head. She had removed her helmet because it was more of a distraction since it couldn't help her. She didn't like it as it left her open to attack and being knocked unconscious.
When none of the marines made a move for over two minutes Terri stood back up. "We can call it quits," Terri said. "You can go on your way and I'll go mine and act like this never happened."
"Sorry I can't do that," the lead marine said. "I have orders."
"Waiting for more people?" Terri said.
"Maybe," the marine said.
"I'll take that as a yes," Terri said. "So, since you're not going to make a move I will."
Terri launched herself at the closest of the marines lancing her hand out and catching him under the front part of his helmet. His hands when up to grab his throat as he started gasping for air. Terri spun around catching him in the chest with her foot. He flew across the field on his ass and came to a rest by the medic.
The marines on either side him jumped into action and attacked Terri. One of them landed a hit on her side, making her gasp, as she dodged the other. Terri did a backwards summersault to gain some distance from her attackers. As she rotated in the air she lanced out her foot and caught one of the attackers with the toe of her boot. The impact picked him up from the ground and he landed on his back. He jumped back to his feet as he shook his head.
By now the rest of the marines had started closing in. One of the marines barreled into Terri from behind as she landed on her feet, tossing her between the two marines she was fighting. Terri jumped back to her feet just in time to dodge another marine's kick towards her chest. Terri grabbed the marine's foot and spun him around in the air. She let him go at just the right time, tossing him into one of his companions. They landed in a tangled heap the guy she tossed the only one getting back up.
That's when the heat of the moment got to one of the marines and Terri heard the scrape of metal across the back of her armor. Terri rolled forward and spun around as she regained her footing. The marine that had been behind her had a very large knife in his hand.
"Ok, wanna play that way?" Terri said. She reached up and tapped her shoulder and her helmet once again covered her head. "Your funeral, I'm not going to be responsible for anyone who dies. I've done everything to avoid it so far." Terri reached back and pulled her sword from its scabbard. The clicking of several blades coming out of scabbards filled the air.
"You're first big boy," Terri said. She charged the marine who had first pulled a blade and swung her sword.
The marine brought his blade up and blocked Terri's slash. Terri kicked one of his legs out from under him dropping him to the ground. She swung the sword down at the prone marine. Suddenly his knife lengthened to sword length as he brought it up to block.
"Neat!" Terri said as she jumped back. "I want one of those."
"You can have mine," a voice said from behind her.
Terri brought both her arms up over her head so her sword would be covering her spine.
"No thanks," Terri said as the as the ring of metal on metal filled the air. "I want one of my own that no one else has used."
Terri released her sword with one of her hands and brought her elbow back to impact the visor of the man behind her. A sickening crunch of filled the air as her elbow smashed the visor of the marine and impacted his face.
The marine on the ground in front of her brought his blade up but Terri was ready and stomped down on his hand. The marine reach for her foot as Terri spun on her foot turning the hand in to mush. He let out a scream a pain flared in his hand. It was quickly silenced as Terri put her knee into his chest and slammed her palm into the bottom of his helmet knocking him unconscious.
Terri slammed her sword back into her scabbard. "I really don't need it," she said as she jumped up and slammed into another marine that was rushing her. He stumbled back as Terri dropped to the ground and rolled towards him. She grabbed one of his legs and jerked it out from under him causing him to crash into the ground on his back. She yanked violently on the leg forcing him to flip over on his stomach. She stepped over the prone man while holding his leg and twisted it. The muffled sounds of bones breaking followed by the man's screams of pain filled the air. Terri dropped back and landed on the ground next to the screaming man slamming her elbow into the back of his helmet knocking him out.
Terri quickly rolled to regain her feet as she faced the last of the marines. They were all at a distance from her and looking a bit nervous. Terri did a mental count and blinked her eyes in confusion. There was one missing the commanding officer.
"Where is your commander?" Terri said. "Did he get cold feet?"
"Right behind you," the commander of the small group said.
Terri reflexively swung with her elbow only to have it blocked.
"Time to end this," the commander said as a snap reached Terri's ears.
Before Terri could do anything an electrical charge shot through her suit as the small device activated. On her visor systems started shutting down as the charge coursed through the systems.
"Emergency lock out Alpha-One-Terri-Three-Zero," Terri said.
Just before the displays failed the suit showed lock out status. The Commander spun her around like a rag doll and looked in her visor. "Your nothing without your suit and soon you will pass out from lack of oxygen. When you do we will remove your helmet as your wanted alive," he said.
Terri started to reach up to pop the emergency release on her helmet but the Commander pinned her arms to her sides. "Care to test the theory that I'm nothing without my armor?" Terri said as the air already was starting to thin.
"No thanks," the Commander said.
"Cowar..." Terri said as she passed out. The suits didn't have much in the way of space inside and air only took a couple minutes to run out if you weren't doing anything but sitting still. Terri had even less time as she was breathing a bit hard from all the fighting.
Terri woke in a small room with nothing but a light gown on with a large number across the chest. She reached up and felt the band around her neck. There was no clasp and it seemed to be a solid loop. She raised a hand palm out and fingers spread and closed her eyes. Her sword wasn't far; she could feel it as it was almost a part of her. She would recover it and then people would pay.
The door to the room opened and a Eutharan male flanked by two marines entered the room. Terri glared at him as he looked her over.
"Take a picture it might be the last thing you see," Terri said. She was coiled ready to spring.
"I wouldn't advise that," the Eutharan said.
Terri gasped, she recognized the voice from the clearing. "You were at the clearing."
He nodded as he spoke, "I'm Captain Bryte."
"We have some unfinished business," Terri said.
"Another time, perhaps," Bryte said. "As I said you don't want to attack anyone. The collar around your neck is there to control you. It's monitored by a jailer and can be activated at his discretion."
Terri took a step towards Bryte and the collar emitted a small shock. Terri reflexively grabbed at it. "Hrm," she said. "Do you really think that will stop me?"
"That was low power it can and will pass enough of a charge through you to knock you out," Bryte said.
Terri twisted the collar around her neck as she listened and thought about her situation.
"I'm here to formally charge you with dissertation, piracy and attempted murder," Bryte said.
"You're kidding right?" Terri said.
"The list is a bit longer than that. Those are the most serious charges though," Bryte said. "The rest will be read at you trial."
"I'm a lot more dangerous than you give me credit for," Terri said. "All these triumphed up charges will do nothing but make things worse for everyone involved."
"You're in no position to threaten anyone," Bryte said. "You will stand trial and you will be sentenced."
"Sounds like a done deal," Terri said.
"Pretty much," Bryte said. "However, I'm not judge."
"Back to the other thing," Terri said. "You really think I'm no threat?"
"In your current state?" Bryte said. "No."
Before anyone could move Terri was across the room. She snapped one of the guards neck with one hand as she pulled his side arm with the other. The second guard hit the ground before he knew what had happened. Terri stood there holding the gun on Bryte."
"Care to restate that?" Terri said.
Bryte crossed his eyes and looked down the barrel of the gun as he paled a bit.
"I'm not going to kill you as I do like you," Terri said.
She tossed Bryte the gun as the collar shocked her into unconsciousness. Everything had happened in the span of about ten seconds. Bryte had never seen anyone move that fast and he was still in awe.
"I like you too," Bryte said as he turned to leave to room as four more marines arrived. "Get this mess cleaned up."
Thirty minutes later Terri woke up in a dark room. It took her a second to realize it wasn't dark and they had blinded her with something. She laughed as she spoke, "As if this will work." Terri decided she would see this thing through and leave when she was ready to do so. On a whim she tried to use her nanites to communicate and all she got was a headache for it. So much for that she though as she settled in and waited for her next visitor.