Chapter 5 - THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND

[<Baseship-41829><Captain`s Log: Justin H. Cole><Month 5, Day 17, Year 0><10:20>]
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[It has been 4 weeks since we officially entered the Cyborg`s territory and we have been lucky so far. There were a few
close calls when we narrowly escaped their patrols. We know very little about their weapons and level of technology but
if our brief encounter on the trade post a month ago was any indication then were is deep trouble. But the good news is
that we still have plenty of supplies and fuel, enough to last us 6 months if we ration it right, although I think were
going to lose some supplies as we go through these Cyborg`s territory. But, we may have found a way to get an edge over
them without firing a shot. We have detected a faint distress call coming from a object a few light weeks away. We
compared the signal wave form to the Cyborg`s broadcasts and found a match. Although the distress signal is weak and no
other ships have probably heard it we will be cautious in approaching it. If the crew is dead and the ship have any useful
technology or supplies then I will investigate it further, I don`t want to lose any more men than I have too. The risk is
great, but me and my first officer understand it is a necessary risk in order to learn more about our new enemy.
<End Log> ]


"Sir, we have just exited out of hyperspace." The helm officer said.
"Excellent!" Justin said then turned to the tactical officer. "Begin scan and find me that signal."
"Working sir." The tactical officer said and began to work at his controls.
It took only a minute to get a bearing on the signal.
"It is 500 thousand kilometers away bearing 270 mark 1.27 degrees."
"Good... Helm set course and engage an in system jump. Try to keep us at least 3000 kilometers away so we can get a good
look and see what we have." Justin said with caution in his voice.
The ship jumped to hyperspace for only a second then exited about 3000 kilometers away.
"Good job. Tactical analysis?"
"Sir, it is defiantly a Cyborg ship... it is roughly 75 kilotons total mass. At least it was a 75 kiloton class ship."
Justin looked at the tactical officer. "What do you mean it was a 75 kiloton class ship?"
"It looks like it was hit with some sort of plasma burst on the port side and has lost a huge chunk of mass. The computer
has extrapolated its original dimensions."
The view screen displayed the schimatic of the ship as it was now, then an overlay image appeared over the ship and
flashed red. A full quarter of the ship was missing.
"Did some sort of weapon damage the ship?" Justin asked.
"I don`t believe so sir. I am detecting a plasma storm in system. The readings from the storm and the residual traces of
the plasma on the ship match. I`d say it has been in and drifted away from the storm within the fast few weeks."
"Interesting... why would they be in a storm?" Commander Hotchkiss asked.
"My I offer an opinion sir?" The tactical officer asked.
"You may." Justin said, eager to here what the officer has to say.
"Sir, I think that maybe they were hiding in the storm from something. At least that`s my opinion sir."
"I think you might be right." Justin said supporting the young officer. "It`s the only thing that I can think of right
now. But we need to see if we can salvage anything from it. We`ll confirm it when we board it. Chief Yamamoto, get
Lieutenant Johnson over there with a couple of squads."
The Chief of Security gave a crisp salute and left the bridge to go down to the marine barracks. Justin looked at the ship
on the view screen, he had a feeling in his gut that something was going to happen... he just didn`t know what.

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Johnson and his men checked their combat EVA suits and new weapons. They were small, hyper-velocity rocket launchers with
four tubes each, mounted in a square. Each tube contained 2 rockets, so that means that each launcher could hold 8 rockets
at a time. They also carried a two backup sets of tubes to reload, which would be necessary if they were to encounter a
number of the giant, armor plated Cyborg`s.
"Alright men." He started to say to the other squads in his ship and the other ships. "These new weapons have 3 times the
armor piercing and explosive power than the single shot units, but be on your toes. These Cyborg fellas are heavily
armored and we may need several shots for each one even with the new power of the rockets. Everyone understand?"
The other marines gave a hurrah and a grunt of understanding.
"Good, get ready." Johnson said and cocked his weapons safety.
The other marines did the same and also checked their body armor and other gear. The boarding craft locked onto the hull
where their was no armor and began to burn thru. It only took a minute and they were thru. The marines leapt thru the hole
and scanned the interior, nothing but bodies. But the bodies were strange. Johnson looked at the bodies and reported back
to the Captain.
"Sir, we have bodies... but they are not what we expected."
"Explain." Justin asked.
"These are the same aliens we encountered and yet their not, sir."
Justin was confused and asked, "What do you mean Lieutenant?"
"They have the same bodies of the Cyborg`s, but they don`t have any augmentations, they are purely organic."
Justin almost leapt out of his chair, but then calmed down.
"Johnson, search the entire ship, we need to know what we`re dealing with."
"Aye sir!" Johnson said and began to bark out orders to his men.
Him and his team swept thru the outer part of the ship first and then crept slowly toward the center. The corridors were
charred black and there were burnt bodies everywhere, hundreds maybe even thousands of bodies were limp on the floor. He
noticed that as he got closer to the center the more bodies there were. He then came across a massive door near the core
of the ship.
"All squad converge on my signal! We got a door to get thru."
It took only 3 minutes for the other squads to reach Johnson`s location and began to prep some thermite plasma charges on
the door.
"Get back." He ordered then gave a command. "Look sharp, everyone lock and load!"
The marines double checked their weapons and pointed them at the door.
"Ok, blow it!" He shouted.
The door began to melt and turned to slag in just a few seconds. They waited for the smoke to clear and the hot, melted
metal to cool before going in. It was anti-climatic... they found nothing at first glance except for a few decaying
un-charred bodies and used food and water packets everywhere. But they soon found stations that looked like the ships
control panel. On one of the displays they found a circle with an x thru it pulsating red. They dare not touch it as it
could mean anything from the distress signal to a self-destruct device.
"Corporal, see if you can get this thing working."
"Aye sir!" The corperal said as he rushed to remove the panel from the bottom of the station.
Just then they heard a groan from behind a jumble of pipes. Johnson and several of his men raised their weapons and
approached the source of the sound. They were tense and had their fingers on the triggers of their weapons. They then
looked... a lone alien was prone on the floor, apparently malnurished but alive. It looked up at the Lieutenant and said
two words that the Lieutenant could understand.
"Water... Amnesty..."
Johnson was stunned but understood what the alien would mean for intelligence on the Cyborg`s and ordered his men to stand
down. He took out a canteen of water from his belt and gave it to the alien. The alien weakly grabbed it and began to
unsteadily drink it`s contents. As it finished it dropped the canteen to the floor and passed out.
"Captain, we have a live one down here, and it`s in bad shape."
"Is it hostile?"
"No, at least I don`t think it is. It asked for water then amnesty."
"Amnesty?" Justin said flabbergasted.
"Yes sir, it went out cold after we gave it water, it must be dehydrated and hungry. Should we bring it onboard?"
"If it`s out cold and un-augmented then I don`t see the danger. But when you get it back on board put it in a security
cell. We will give it whatever help we can, but if it turns out to be less than friendly then we space it, Understand
Lieutenant?"
"Yes sir!" He acknowledged then barked out orders to his men. They each took turns carrying the bulky alien until they
got it in the boarding craft. The alien stirred and woke up but was in no mood to fight. It asked for water again and
several of Johnson`s men gave in turn from their canteens. They saw the alien was much more friendly than they thought
it would be but kept their distance and their weapons drawn. They also noticed that it was sniffing the air... it pointed
its snout at one of the soldiers. At first they thought he wanted to eat the soldier, but then the soldier thought of
something.
The soldier pulled out a emergency ration from his pocket. The alien sniffed the air again then pointed at the ration.
The soldier then slowly approached the alien and extended the ration towards it. The alien quickly moved and grabbed the
ration then retreated. This nearly scared the soldiers into firing, but when they saw the alien ripping open and stuffing
the ration into it`s mouth they relaxed a little.
The alien finished the ration as quickly as it snatched it.
"Thank... You." It croaked weakly.
The soldier that gave the ration then replied. "Your welcome."

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‘How`s it doing?" Justin asked chief medical officer Jamal Watkins.
"Rather well, we got some food into him, he wasn`t picky and ate anything we gave him, he also drank enough water for
three people." Watkins said enthusiastically. "If we had been any later than he would have probably died."
"Is it safe to talk to it." Justin asked COS Yamamoto who was standing next to him.
"I would think so, it doesn`t appear to be hostile in the least and it wants to talk to someone in charge." Yamamoto said
just as enthusiastically as CMO Watkins.
"I think I`ll talk to it, but I want some men in their with me just in case." Justin said, caught up in the enthusiasm of
his fellow officers.
"I think that I`ll suffice, I got this baby with me." Yamamoto said tapping the casing of a rocket launcher.
"Alright, lets get on with it." Justin said.
Justin and Yamamoto entered the room and Justin sat down next to the alien. The alien turned to Justin.
"Hello... You are the captain of this vessel?" It asked.
"Yes. I am Justin H. Cole."
"Thank you for rescuing me... I thought I was about to join the gods."
"The gods? Are you talking about the sky gods?" Justin asked remembering the report Johnson gave after his mission on the
trade post a month ago.
"No, those are false gods!" He yelled, causing Yamamoto to pull up his weapon.
Justin gestured for Yamamoto to put down his weapon.
"Then what gods are you talking about?"
"The true gods, the ancient ones that have watch over our race but most of my kind forgot when the sky ships came. We
sacrificed ourselves to them to gain their favor because we thought they were vengeful."
"Your people were sacrificed to your gods?"
"No, the old volunteered to end their lives before they became too weak and burdened their families, they wished to
appease the gods by giving their now worthless lives to their god in hopes that the god wouldn`t smite their families."
"So, you are not like the Cyborg`s but they start out as one of you kind?"
"Yes... the beings in the sky ships came to our world centuries ago and were... pleased about how we sacrificed ourselves.
The masqueraded themselves as our gods and took advantage of all the desperate people of our world. I am from a secret
sect that doesn`t believe that they are our gods. But the beings gave us powerful technology and taught us how to use it.
Eventually, they gave us the ability to encase ourselves in armor and modify us with cybernetic implants. The result is
that we live twice as long as we did before."

"So, the armor is not only for protection, but it is a life support system as well?"
The alien nodded. "We didn`t have elderly people anymore but we wanted to appease our new gods so we set out in our own
sky ships and began to sacrifice other races to the false gods. Eventually, we decided that if these other races accepted
the sky gods as their lords than we should extend our hands to them. So, we have worshipers who practice our faith, but
I`m sure they only do it so they won`t be sacrificed themselves."
"We saw that, at a trade post we were at a month ago, we killed a Cyborg priest before it could... sacrifice 50 of my
crew."
The alien then looked down at his hands. "I`m sorry captain. My race was once friendly, long ago, and only thought about
inconveniencing themselves to get what they want. But now, we are intolerant and evil, I`m ashamed at my race for all
the suffering they have caused."
Justin put his small hand on the massive shoulder of the alien. "What`s your name?"
The alien looked at Justin. "Dakur`Morak."
"Dakur`Morak... what were you doing on that ship?"
"We were running." Morak said. "Running from our oppressors on our home world. We managed to steal a number of shuttles
and highjack this sky ship. This ship was one of three that escaped, but now I guess that there are only two ships now."
"How were you damaged? Were you hiding in the plasma storm?"
"Yes. A Cyborg ship followed us to this system. We tried to hide in the storm but... we underestimated how dangerous it
would be. A plasma burst hit our ship, we couldn`t raise shields because of the interference from the plasma. The ship
was heavily damaged and most of the crew died on the blast, only me and 3 others who were in the shielded control room
survived." Morak looked at Justin. "The other three died from starvation, they gave me the rest of the food and water
because I was the strongest. They sacrificed themselves to save me." He planted his hands on his face. "I`m ashamed, I
would have rather died quickly with my companions than suffer a slow death alone in space with no one to talk too. But,
I guess their sacrifice wasn`t in vain... I`m alive, but I might be the last of my kind."
"I`m sorry. Did your other ships have a destination? Maybe we can take you their and see if the others who escaped
survived."
"Yes they did." Morak said with a little more hope in his voice. " A system outside the Cyborg`s territory. The ship
should have a detailed star map of the Cyborg`s territory and the coordinates should still be in the ships navigation
computer. Captain, if you could take me there, just to see if the others made it, I would be eternally grateful."
"I`ll see if we can. With your permission, I would like to search your ship for any components of value that may help us
get to your destination."
"Yes, of course captain. I believe the starboard ammo magazine has a full stock of missiles. They are called zeon missiles,
they should be far superior to your missiles. They should be invaluable in fighting the Cyborg`s on the way to our
destination."
"Thank you. Our crew quarters are not set up for someone as big as you, so for now rest in here and we will try to turn
find some way to accommodate you."
"Thank you captain. You are very kind, I hope that some day I can return the favor."
Justin and Yamamoto left the room and began to walk back to the bridge.
"Do you think he`s telling us the truth?" Yamamoto asked.
"We will see when we search his ship for the nav data and those missiles. Also, try to get a profile on that ships other
weapons, beams and fighter, maybe we can find out more about how they fight and what style they prefer. After you find
out I`ll confer with Morak again and confirm the data, then we`ll see if he is telling the truth."
They reached the bridge.
"You can count on me sir." Yamamoto said while giving a crisp salute.
Commander Hotchkiss gave her report as the captain sat down.
"Sir we found what appears to be a missile rack on the starboard side, it`s loaded with some kind of missile we haven`t
seen before. It looks like it could really hurt a ship."
"What about the ships computer?" Justin asked with interest.
"We found a detailed star map of the Cyborg`s entire territory, including the destination of the ship."
"Where is the destination?" He asked, wanting to confirm if the alien was telling the truth.
"It`s about 150 light years outside the Cyborg`s territory, In a massive nebula. The science officer determined that
there is a high probability of a planetary system in this nebula, It would be damn hard to find though."
Justin grinned, the alien batted a thousand.
"Commander, after we salvage what we can from the ship set a course to that nebula.
"Sir?" She asked rather stunned by the captain`s decision.
"The alien told us we would find the missiles and all the information we just found and the fact that he didn`t try to
destroy the weapons and the ship before hand confirms that he is trustworthy. He also said that there were two more ships
out there heading for that nebula, full of his friends trying to escape the Cyborgs."
The commander looked at Justin in shock.
"You want to risk our lives by trusting this alien? How do we know this isn`t a trap... there could be a dozen, hell a
hundred ships there and we would be a sitting duck!" She said in a concerned voice.
Justin looked back at her with eyes that showed he understood.
"I know how you feel commander. However, this alien has shown itself to be friendly and has told us a lot about the
Cyborg`s and how they came to be. Also, we may have a new enemy out there."
"A new enemy?" She thought out loud. "What kind of enemy?"
"The Cyborg`s call them the sky gods. And they are a hundred times worse than the Cyborg`s."
She swallowed hard and looked at the view screen that still displayed the Cyborg ship.
"Do you think we even have a chance to get thru the Cyborg`s territory?"
"We got this far, if we can hold out a few months and avoid all the major systems then we might have a chance. We also
might be able to negotiate for some technology from our friends, friends at the nebula... if they are there."
The commander was more relaxed at the confident words of the captain. She conceded the argument and went about overseeing
the salvage. He could see she was concerned but he knew that they had done the right thing. Even if it meant getting his
hand a little dirty along the way.