Startech Exowar- Chapter 2 (standard:science fiction, 3039 words) [2/4] show all parts
Author: SpencerSE2004	Added: Sep 15 2002	Views/Reads: 2527/1925	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
What is the X-factor? Chavez and Jeff set out to learn the answer as trouble brews outside Hendrix station.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

wake up. His eyes had bags under them, as were they red. Karen wanted 
him to goto sleep, but he wouldn't. 

"Chavez, just take some time and goto bed. I'll watch him. Besdies, I
think I might need a little alone time with him." she said, watching 
Chavez sip some more of his coffee. He looked into her eyes and nodded. 
He understud that Karen and Jeff had some sort of bond. They were very 
close to eachother, and Chavez accepted this. 

Chavez stood up and started for the door. He looked over his shoulder at
Karen, the look in her eyes like never he'd seen before. He walked out 
into the hallway and shut the door, leaving Karen and Jeff alone 
together. She sat down on his bed and stroked his hair. 

"Jeff, I never ment for something like thing to happen. I had no clue
that the X-factor would affect you. I'm so sorry." she said, knowing he 
probly couldn't hear her. She ran her hand through his brown hair and 
sighed. She was blaiming all of that days problems on herself. What 
happened to Jeff wasn't her fault, but she still took the blaim for it 
because he was in her group. 

She stood up and left the room, closeing the door lightly behind her.
Chavez and Jay were standing outside the door waiting for her. As they 
walked down the hall she sighed, thinking of Jeff. Jay looked at her  
knowing the sort of pain she was going through. Jay had seen his father 
affected by this "virus". He placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked 
over at him to catch his smile. 

"Karen, he'll be fine. Don't worry so much, it's not your fault. None of
us knew that somethin' like this would happen. That's just one of those 
many dangers of being a piolt." he said in a attempt to calm her 
nerves. Karen looked over at him and sighed once again. Jay looked 
beyond her at Chavez. He just shrugged his shoulders, and went back to 
sipping his coffee. 

Karen stepped foward and turned at the two of them. The cold harsh look
in her eyes was enough to drive any normal person insane. Jay and 
Chavez stood their ground, staring back at her. She put her head down 
and sighed. 

"You two don't get it do you?" she asked them, queitly. 

"Get what?" the two men replied in unison. 

"Everything! I'm in charge of this unit and that makes him my
responsibilty. I was the one who called everyone over to the attack 
area, not even thinking that something might happen to an inexperienced 
pilot like him." 

Chavez took the chance to step in, "But he went against direct orders
from you Karen. So if anything it's his own fault. But you should be 
blaiming me." 

"What makes you say that Chavez?" she asked him, still with a harsh
tone. 

"Becasue I was the one who was supposed to watch over him. I slipped up
and he went after me. Because of my mistake him and Royce coulda' been 
killed, so quit blaiming yourself and accept the facts of life." 

Karen looked at him and turned away. She walked back down the hall,
leaving the two men behind. 

Jay looked next to him at Chavez with a puzzled look. Chavez shrugged
his shoulders and sipped his coffee again. Jay ran a thin fingered hand 
through his spiked blonde hair, rolling his eyes and walking down to 
the lobby. 

“Jay!” yelled Chavez. 

Jay spun around and looked at him. 

“Get the jeep and go back to the ship.” 

“What?” Jay asked, more confused than ever. “Why do you want me to go to
the ship? Why not the hanger where the mechs are? We still need to fix 
up yours and Royce's.” 

“Screw fixing those damn things right now. We gotta' find Armand, maybe
he'll know what's going on here.” 

******************** 

Blake sat in his room aboard the massive battleship that was now
orbiting the Hendrix station, his former home. He could see the station 
from outside is room, the sun behind it causing an eerie light show for 
him. Blake was the only member of Armands political board from Hendrix 
to join him in his duties as a battleship captain. It wasn't his choice 
job, but nobody else would go and he wasn't just going to leave Armand 
on his own in the army. It was a whole new world for them both, but 
somethings were just like politics. Blake was Armand's personal 
assistant aboard the crusier, and he took pride in his job. 

He looked out his one, giant, window. There was nothing but space and
his home. 

********************** 

"Why are we doing this?" Armand asked himself as he sat alone in his
office. His Captain's hat resting on the desk infront of him. He held 
in his hand the letter which Karen had sent him, and he read it again. 
He had read it over twenty times now, but still insisted that he read 
it again. 

"I really wish I knew why we kept this up." he spun around to look out
the window, admiring the veiw. 

He became so cought up in it that he never noticed to doors open, and
the two men standing behind him. He kept looking out the window, he 
smiled as he read a part of the letter alound to himself. 

"I don't know why we keep fighting this war, but I hope it ends soon. I
don't want to see anyone else end up getting hurt, not even you." he 
said, thinking he was alone. 

"She's always been good with words." said Chavez from behind him. 

Armand spun aorund to see Chavez and jay standing in his office,
shoudler-to-shoulder with arms behind their backs. 

"How did you two get in here without me being notified?" he asked them. 

"Your door man is very.....understanding." Jay laughed. "Besides, we
coulda' gotten in here without anyone's permission anyway, we're that 
good." he said, they still didn't break their formation. 

"Well, what is it I can do for you two gentlemen?" Armand asked,
pointing to some chairs. 

Chavez and Jay sat down next to eachother, Jay looking about the
expansive office they sat in. Chavez never took his attention away from 
Armand, he was fixed on getting answers. 

"So, what brings you two to my ship?" 

"We want answers Captain," Chavez said "we want them now." 

Armand looked at him coldly, then leanded back and smiled. He laughed a
little and then shook his head, the smile still resting on his face. 

"What kind of answers could I give to you? I don't even know what the
hell's goin' on here!" he shouted, slightly upset by Chavez's rudeness. 


"We wanna' know, who's the doctor that you know who told you about the
X-factor?" 

"What?! Why do you need to know that?" Armand asked, jaw dropped. 

"Because," Jay said "Jeff was affected by that damn thing and we wanna'
know what it might do to him. So what's the doctor's name?" 

Armand looked at them both, they weren't playing. 

"His name," he said calmly, lowering his head "is Doctor Victor
Struchev. If you wanna' find him you'll have to go to the Reblos 
station, that's where he resides at.......if he's still alive." 

"Thanks Armand, you're always such a good chap" Chavez said, with a
smirk. 

The two rouges walked out the door, leaving Armand alone again. He sat,
just now relizing how big the office really was, staring blankly at the 
door way. The door didn't close, it was broken. Armand clenched his 
hand into a fist, "Someone fix that stupid thing!" 

****************************** 

Karen sat by Jeff's bed once more, a tear running down her cheek. She
placed her hand over his, as lifeless as it seemed, and smiled a bit. 
He was alive, that's what mattered to her. 

"Jeff," she said, knowing he couldn't hear her "please....wake up soon.
We need you." 

She got up and walked out the door, Pedro stood waiting. The look on his
face was of total fear and concern. 

"What is it?" she asked him as the door shut behind her. 

"We got trouble brewing out by Hendrix station again, we've been called
to duty." he said, they begain to walk. 

Karen looked down at the floor and sighed. She placed her hand on her
forehead, "Alright, let's do this." 

******************************* 

Struchev stood, looking at a wall covered in awards and degrees,
sighing. He had done so much research on the X-factor that he had used 
up all of his money, and to no avail. He still knew nothing of it. It 
remained burned into his mind. Is it a virus, a mental state, a 
physical contidion? What could it be? He pondered endlessly, hoping for 
an answer. 

"If only I knew what it is." he said to himself. He kept repeating
himself, over and over. 

"Ya know doc," said a voice he didn't reconize "we were hopin' you could
tell us what it is." 

Struchev looked behind him to see two young men. They were both a good
hight, thin and muscular. One of them had long jet black hair, tied in 
the back, one arm in a sling, and bangs hanging in his eyes. The other 
had scraggly looking blonde hair that looked like it could have used 
serious treatment. 

"Well, i'm sorry." Struchev said, "I know nothing about it. It's a
mystery to even me." 

"That's odd." said the long haired man. 

"What is?" Victor asked, looking at them both in fear. 

The blonde smiled, "Because you knew exactly what it was about, oh say,
twelve years ago. What is it?" 

"Let me answer that for you," a voice said from the doorway "i'm Doctor
Avlare" 

"Chavev, and that's Jay. We're from the Cyrus Crows, a mobile unit squad
stationed outside Hendrix right now." Chavez said, politly. 

Struchev looked at them both, "You must've been in that battle a few
days back." 

Jay nodded his head. 

Avlare took out a paper with test results written all over it. They were
sloppy and obviously written quickly, but Chavez could read them. They 
didn't really explain too much to him, and he looked Avlare in the 
eyes. 

"What the hell does all this mean?" he asked the doctor, coldly. 

"Well," Avlare began "it means that not every piolt is affected by the
X-factor. It's something in certain people's blood that somehow makes 
them so in-tune with their mechs that's it's like the mech is them. It 
activates when the piolt's mind feels it's the only way to do a job, 
surging the piolt's body with an adrenaline rush so powerful that a 
normal person would die from it." 

"A normal person?! Are you saying that our friends, and so many other
people, are freaks of nature?!" Chavez yelled in confusion. 

"Not at all, sir. If anything, they are the most gifted creatures in the
universe. They have the power to, in a sense, become their mobile unit. 
If the piolt can manage to contorl this power they could, possibly, 
harness it and call upon it when they need to." Avlare replied, a smirk 
on his face. 

"Sort of like a secondary attack system? Almost as if they have a secret
weapon," Chavez cut Jay off. 

"A trump card." he said, angry at Avlare. 

"Well," Jay started "what exactly is it?" 

"Huh?" Avlare was lost. 

Jay shook his head, his blonde hair swaying back and forth. He looked
back up at Avlare and shook his head again. 

"Is it a virus, a psychological condition? What?" he asked, calmy. 

"Neither, it's a blood type." Avlare said "It's knowen as type X, as if
you didn't guess that much already. But there is no way to get rid of 
it, it's forever. I just pray your friends can overcome it before it 
kills them." 

"Kills them?! What d' you mean?" Chavez asked. 

"If the piolt can't sustain the power," Avlare paused and took a deep
breath "it will cause their body to overload and shut down. Everything 
will just, turn off. Their heart will stop beating, their brain will 
shut down, their body will stop everything and they will die." 

Chavez stood, blanky faced. Jeff and Karen could be killed by this, and
he couldn't do anything about it. His two best friends were gifted with 
the ability to become super fighters, but were cursed with the fact 
that they could simply shut down and die. He welcomed himself back to 
reality as his communications device went off. It was Karen. 

"We've got a problem here, Chavez! The Union's attacking again, but this
time they're only using their ships! Not a single mech has come out 
yet, but those battleships have some strong ass guns! Get out here 
ASAP!" she yelled, explosions in the backround sounds. 

"Got it cheif. Alright, thanks gentlemen. Jay, let's get going." he
said. 

Jay nodded and they both ran out the door, the two doctors helpless to
stop the fate they would meet and the things they would see. 

****************************************** 

Karen's mech dodged another shot as it ripped through the armor of the
helpless space station behind her. The city inside was devistated 
enough from Jeff's little one-on-one fight four days ago, let alone 
having cannon shots form a ship ripping it open. Who knew how many 
inocent people were killed everytime a shot ripped through the fair 
city? Who would have guessed that something like this would happen. 

"This is too much," Karen said to herself, anger all throughout her body
"no more!" 

She pushed her accelarator foward and her mech took off at a Union 
ship. Her targeter was fixed on the main bridge. She flew up next to 
it, firing shots at smaller turrets. The men aboard the ship saw the 
head of the giant knight, then the left hand pulled back. They couldn't 
escape their dooms. She slammed foward on the joystick for the left 
arm, sending punching into the control room and killing eveyone inside. 


"Chavez, please hurry."


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