Chapter 9 Race Against Time

Flooding towards the drill site, the pirates arrive to see the drill in a ball of flames. "What the hell!?" "We need to find source of the fire!" The pirates shout while panicking. watching from distance Xavier and the others armed begin shooting, taking them by surprise. "Ambush!!! Take cover!!" one of the pirate's shouts. unable to tell the direction the blast is coming from Xavier and the other have very little time to take the advantage. "Alright let's go!" leaving the pirates in a panic they begin moving towards the ship. as they get closer, they rush the pirates shooting. "!? what the.... It's the Novis people kill them." Caden tells his men. "Sorry Mr. Arkridge, the people of Atlas must have still been hiding in the nearby by area, I will handle this a report back." "...I'll be waiting but I won't leaving this up to pirates' luck, finish the task and leave the dead planet." Mr. Arkridge replies ending the transmission. Caden lets out a frustrated sigh, then stares at Xavier and the other fighting there way closer.

"Make sure that they do not get close to the ship the material is on the hanger, we could lose our whole shipment." Caden tells his men. At the same time across Epsilon 1b Mr. Arkridge is walking through a hallway in the laboratory on Vara-590. "Damned pirates, they are always bad luck." Entering a room Mr. Arkridge observes Tristan in a tank. "How's the progression of the CPI [Controlling personality Implant]." " It's going well we have rest set about 48% of his memories and personality, the process will be done in the next few days I'll inform you before it's complete Mr. Arkridge." A scientist says to him standing in front of module. "Speed this up our plans may be arriving sooner than expected." Mr. Arkridge says leaving the room. he heads to the transport hanger, stepping through a corridor an armed squad of solider wait for him. "To the settlement, send word that I want a meeting with the Carnage Mobilization Department." "Yes sir, I'll send word." the solider replies as the enter the ship.

Back on the settlement Mr. Arkridge heads to the CMD in a room with six others. "Thank you for arriving on short notice, there is a planet in a sector called Dorix-M5. I hired pirates to recover a resource on the planet and I need insurance that the resource will be recovered." Mr. Arkridge tells the CMD members. "Mmhm, I understand your concern sir. As leader of the CMD I'll take care of the issue." Nicolas Hofer replies saying. "Here is the location of the planet I need this handle rather quickly, let's just say the planet is on time limit." Giving Nicolas a document with information on Novis and the resource they're after. "It will take a few hours to gather our equipment, 3 days at the latest." Nicolas tells Mr. Arkridge showing the other the documents. "Alright deploy immediately this mission is important."

Back to Xavier on Novis, he is still engaged with the pirates. "We don't have much time left before the rest of the pirates get back!" Logan shouts while returning blaster fire. "I'M THINKING…..." suddenly a loud screech cuts through the air. "It's the Nightcrawler's they're being drawn here by the commotion." Serenata says informing Xavier. Glancing over Xavier sees Caden distracted, "Everyone it's now or never we need to get Caden now while everyone is distracted and take him as Hostage." Taking the chance Xavier shoots hitting Caden in the leg. "Run!!" Racing towards him the shot down pirates, as they get to him Logan kicks the blaster away and Xavier grabs Caden holding the blaster at his head. "Order them to stop!" Caden tries to struggle but his injured leg prevents him. "Cease-Fire!!!!" Caden yells getting his crew attention, they see that he has been taking hostage.

"Drop your weapons or your captain is dead!!!" Xavier shouts seizing the situation. The pirates begin dropping their blasters but the unexpected happens as the do. the ground starts quack as it grows louder suddenly Nightcrawler's appear ripping through pirates. "Nightcrawler's!!! Xavier, we need to get on the ship now!" Serenata tells him moving towards the ship. "Wait!! you can't leave my crew hear to die alone." Caden says trying to plead with Xavier. Staring menacingly Xavier looks Caden in the eyes as they step onto the ship. ".... Are you asking me to help them...like you help the people of Novis, you killed more than half of the planet's inhabitants." as they begin to start the engine, hovering over the ground Xavier tosses Caden off the ship onto the ground unable to run the nightcrawler's rush him killing him. Xavier watches as the hatch closes and they fly off towards Mirfield.

sometime later in the ship, Xavier and the other discus the remaining time left after leaving. "How much time do we have left, that took way more time than I was expecting." after checking the time in the ship, Xavier tells everyone that 8 hours has pass and they only have 74 hours. "Everyone we may have 74 hours left but the more important thing is who will we let onto the ship; we don't have enough room for all the people in this ship. I won't make this difficult I'll run the numbers to see exactly how many people we can support while sustaining resources." 30 minutes later Xavier comes back with the estimated number. "So, I have finished the calculations, we only have enough resources to sustain 150 people. this is a small fleet ship so it can't hold that many people."

dropping the heavy news Serenata now has to choose who she can let on the ship to lead the Novis people on the new world. "Only 150!?" she replies shocked. "I know there is more than that in the bunker in the city." 1 hour later Xavier and the other arrive at Mirfield Logan lands the ship in front of the west gate. "I'm not getting any ready of any nightcrawler's." Exiting the ship Serenata orders the worker to guard the ship while they head by into Mirfield. Walking through the west gate they make their way down to the Bunker. Seeing damage all over the bunker door. "Those Nightcrawler's were really trying to get in there." She states. walking over to the module she put in a code and the door begins to unlock opening.

As the door opens up Serenata leads then, "Hello everyone, it is now temporarily safe out here just be sure not to travel near the west gate." She tells the people in the bunker as they approach them. Xavier and Logan look at her but understand her situation, Looking around Logan search for his friends Jessica and Rex. eventually he sees they and rushes over to them. "Logan!! I thought you were dead." Rex shouts hugging him. "No, I was able to find cover then I found Serenata, but we done have time for that...what I'm about to tell you two cannot be told to the civilians. This planet is going to die, Xavier was able to find a ship able to get us off, but it had a limit on its capacity." Logan whispers telling Rex and Jessica. "What really? who is going to choose the people?" Jessica asks. "Serenata will it's her people here, we went to atlas and found out what the pirates have been doing all this time. they have been harvesting our planet for resources they attacked our city because it sat on top of the rich resources, they wanted.

leaving the bunker, all the people gather around serenata begins to tell them the news having Xavier, Logan, Jessica and Rex guarding the way to the west gate. "Everyone I have some terrible news; The pirates have been a thorn in the Novis people's side for decades but finally they have done something truly sinister. they have been taking the materiel from our planet since their first arrival. and today I found they the planet is going to be destroy by in a couple of hours. but there is one more problem and it's that the ship we have to get us off this planet isn't big enough to carry everyone here right now." they people begin to worry and get scared. " I know how you all are feeling but we need to handle this now, first we need all children to step over to the side they will automatically be selected for the future of our people of Novis." calculating the numbers 45 kids has been moved including Xavier and the others, there is only 100 more people can be selected." the tension begins to rise as it starts to set in that not everyone will leave this planet. "WHY ARE THOSE POELPE BACK THERE AUTOMACTICALLY GETTING GET ON!" someone shouts out at Serenata. "That is because Logan help in the recovery of the ship we are using same as Xavier, so Logan and his two friends have a spot, you have to understand."