Chapter 2 The Collapse

Sometime later, approaching stealthily, Xavier crouches, arriving at the edge of the forestry turning into flat metal flooring. Soldiers patrol the area near the ships while others take loads of recourses off the fleet ships, taking them inside the headquarters. " I need to find a moment to get closer and find a ship I can pilot." Seeing an opening Xavier makes a break for it dashing to a ship hiding underneath the wing of one. "Hurry up!! we need to get this stuff off the landing pad and fast. We need to get in the air." A group of pilots says to the workers unloading the ships.

Watching from afar, Xavier looks around for their inquisitor ships, spotting them not far. "Can I make that.... I have to!" Xavier gets up making a run for the ship with all the strength he can muster. "!? Who is that! Hey, stop!!" one of the pilots says seeing Xavier. "That's the target,get him!!" climbing into the inquisitor ship, Xavier shut the hatch as the pilots begin firing at him. "Come on, come on, hurry up and start!!" he shouts as the ship powers up.

Starting to hover over the ground, Xavier turns towards the ship they are unloading from, fires a blast blowing it up, then flies into the sky.

"Mr. Arkridge, sir, the target has stolen an inquisitor ship and is attempting to break out of the atmosphere!" announced a pilot. "What!! Activate the AAA [Anti-Aircraft-artillery] now and shoot him down!" Large cannons on the side of the headquarters begin tracking Xavier's movement. Xavier, piloting the ship, gets a warning telling him that he has been locked onto. The cannons discharge releasing blast at Xavier, "Warning...Warning, blast incoming, evade now!" The ship system alerts him.

"C...c'mon!!!" Xavier pulls straight up but barely evades the blast making it through the atmosphere escaping Vara-590. "Close" he thought. Taking a moment to survey the scene and wonder if he should brace for another blast, he gripped the wheel with the strength of 10 men and got ready for his next move. Once he saw that the air was clear a thick feeling of relief coated him. Sighing, Xavier sets a course for Dorix-M5, a sector not heavily governed by the Union. "I can lay low here for a while." He goes into hyperspace. "Agghh, now I can finally rest." Xavier turns on the autopilot and goes to sleep.

Back at on Vara-590 Mr. Arkridge sees Xavier shoot off into space. Angrily he storms his way to Tristan in the holding area. "TRISTAN!!!" Mr. Arkridge grabs Tristan by the collar, raising him up. "Do you know what you have done!!" he says, staring into Tristan eye menacingly. " I... saved my brother." Tristan replies sarcastically.

Mr. Arkridge yells in anger, throwing Tristan back onto the ground. "You think this is the end, but you will suffer the consequences." Leaving the room, he heads to the landing pad to check the damages. "Sir, we lost 30% of our resources, and 6 ships have been damaged." One of the soldiers reports to Mr. Arkridge saying: "Gather all the junk off the landing pad and recover what can be recovered." Walking away, Mr. Arkridge goes to the research lab. Moments later, entering the laboratory, the scientists stop working as Mr. Arkridge walks in. "Mr. Arkridge, welcome, what was all that rumbling." Scientist Owen says to Mr. Arkridge. "I have a favor to ask you. Has the CPI's [Controlling personally Implant] been completed?" "Um, the CPIs are still underdeveloped. Doing any testing can cause death to the subject. but a successful transfer will change their memories and personality."

Nodding his head, Mr. Arkridge steps forwards whispering. "I will bring Tristan down to the laboratory, implant a CPI into him." taken back by Mr. Arkridge's proposal Scientist Owen replies, saying, "Sir, are you sure that's your son?" "No it's fine, Tristan has become a traitor. we will proceed with the implant." Mr. Arkridge walks away before even hearing Owen's reply. Scientist Owen thinks to himself before going back to work. "What in world's going on, Tristan an traitor. if we do this, he would be the same as a droid. Can I really do this?"

To Xavier still in hyperspace, he wakes up still in hyperspace. "How much long till we arrive at the destination?" "3 days until arrival at the set destination." The ship system replies back, saying to Xavier. Xavier begins to look for a tracker inside the ship, disabling the location receiver set up with the Union. "Now this ship is officially rouge." Two days pass, and at the A.E.U headquarters in the Laboratory, Tristan is getting the CPI surgery in a lit room. Mr. Arkridge watches from another room through a glass. having part of his spine replaced and reconnecting it to Tristan brain controling the responses from his brain. before finishing the surgery, they place a chip into the spinal device.

Moments later, they finish, and Tristan is lying in a bed cover in bandages from his waist up. Mr. Arkridge enters the room. "How was it?" Walking over to Mr. Arkridge with a holographic screen, Scientist Owen has the results and data. "It was a successful operation. It will take some time for Tristan to wake up from this. You will have to come up with an explanation for the event that transpired today." Scientist Owen tells Mr. Arkridge. "I know I got things covered." Back to Xavier, he is close to arriving at the Dorix sector. but unexpectedly is starting to get sick from his injuries getting infected. breathing heavily, Xavier has trouble staying awake.

Time passes, and Xavier exits hyperspace, arriving at Dorix-M5 with a blue sun. Dorix-M5 has 5 large planet with moons orbiting them. "....Take me to the nearest planet with human inhabitants." Xavier tells the ship system. "order received." The ship begins to take Xavier to one of the planet out of the 5, a planet partially destroyed with three moons. as they approach the planet, Xaveir quickly notices how unstable the atmosphere is, making it tough for them to make entry. Xavier sighs then says. "I thought you said humans are on this planet!" "... Humans Detected on planet unstable atmosphere doesn't affect life." making a rough landing Xavier crashes in an unknown rocky area at night.

"Test the air toxicity. Do I need a breather." The ship scans the outside air for a few minutes. "...Air is breathable, no breather needed." Opening the hatch, Xavier limps out of the ship. looking around, Xavier checks out the scenery. stepping a few yards away from the ship, Xavier starts to hear a hissing sounds followed by rocks falling. "!? that doesn't sound like a human." Xavier raising his metal arm guarding himself. appearing 3 humanoid like creatures stand on the rocky plateau. "%&^&#%&*" One of the creatures says something in a different language to Xavier. "What?" The creatures circle closer, suddenly one lunges at Xavier trying to claw at him. Xavier steps back, dodging using his metal arm to guard, but the creature claws out a piece of his arm, leaving a mark in his arm.

"Argh Dammit, these things are strong." Stumbling back and a tail stretches out of its back with a stinger on it. it goes for another attack, then it is shot down. surprised blaster fire sound off, killing the creatures, then humans with marking on them appear. "....Thank you." Xavier says, holding his partially destroyed arm. "Who are you, and what are you doing here on Novis? I can see from how you look that you're not from this sector." An old man says in a worn looking outfit. "I am Xaiv...." Xavier passes out, falling over onto the ground. Sometimes, later waking up, Xavier finds himself inside a metal tent on a bed. as he looks around, Xavier sees that a fire is lit. weapons along with other stuff.

opening the door the old man from earlier enters. "Good, you're awake, I had thought you were dead. but it seemed you got a nasty infection. Now, who are you? you're not a space pirate." "Space pirate? no, my name is Xavier, I come from the depix system. you can say I got into an altercation, having to flee." Xavier tells the man. "Mmm, well, you have landed on Novis. The area you landed in was the Nightcrawlers territory." The old man tells Xavier. "Nightcrawlers, what is that? Is that the things from before?" Xavier replies. "Those Nightcrawlers were once humans like us. not even 100 years ago, this planet was more alive than it is today. an event we couldn't prepare for wasted this planet. It was just another day like any other. but then one day, our 4th moon, which is now space dust that clouds the outer atmosphere. was destroyed, affecting life here on Novis, the Debris fell slaming into our planet for 30 years. during those years, many things happened. War amongst the survivors caused more of us to divide, and that wasn't the worst of it. after the war passed, the Nightcrawlers started appearing."