Adventure into the Unknown

Chapter 3: It’s you?

The two troops were looking concerned at my face. I was trying not to be looking confused and shocked. But it failed horribly.

“Josh? Zach?” I asked. Chris looked surprised. Ry and Robbie were both confused. They were too young to remember our brothers. Dom however, was angry. He was raging. And this wasn’t good.

“Dom, just breathe, there might be a logical explanation for this.” I attempted to re-assure him. This however, didn’t go too well.

“TEN YEARS AGO! YOU JUST ABANDONED US IN THE WOODS! FOR US TO NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN!” He exploded shoving Zach and Josh. Chris and I both went to try and restrain him. Our brothers however, weren’t reacting at all.

“Listen, guys we had no choice.” Zach attempted to explain, but it wasn’t doing any good. He glanced over and recognised the droids.

“XE? AD?” Josh asked and walked over to them. Robbie blocked their way. “Robbie, you’ve grown. Last time we saw you, you were just a baby.” Josh said, walking over to him. Robbie was taking none of it.

“Step away from these droids.” He ordered and Josh and Zach both stood down.

“Miss Bex, if I can explain.” I glanced over to XE and the droid knew it was his cue to start. “Ten years ago, when your older siblings disappeared, your mum sent out a rescue team. This team was with the tri-force. We managed to get them back, but there were plans that the tri-force needed from the base. So we sent them back in. This time, they were Exo-Squadron troops. We thought we lost them. We never heard from them after we sent them away. This had meant that me and AD were sent into the base to recover the plans ourselves. We were then run out by a group of troops, who knew that we had stolen the plans.” XE finished explaining and we were shocked. They were sent undercover.

I took myself back to the cockpit and sat in silence. Maybe they had seen Eliza and Max while they were undercover. I missed those two the most. But that was because they were my older sisters and I looked up to them. The ship had steadied and I had realised why. We needed co-ordinates for our location.

“Hey Zach.” Was all I could say as I could see my brother’s reflection in the windscreen.

“The tri-force base is on a planet called Nagar. It’s in the Alpha system, so there’s some information.” He told me. “Look I know that you’re mad at us for not being there, but please hear me out. We were always looking out for you. When the Exo Squadron tried to kidnap you earlier, we told them that you were already dead. This meant that they couldn’t harm you, as it was impossible in their eyes.” He explained.

“Is mum there? At the base?” I asked. I haven’t seen or heard from her in years.

“Yeah, she should be.” He replied. I then went over to him and gave him the biggest hug ever. I still thought about him every day for the past ten years. I teared up and he just hugged me back, re-assuring me.

Ten minutes later, the alarms started to go off. This had caused us all to go into panic and we all felt something hit us.

“DOM! TAKE CONTROL!” I yelled at my twin. We all knew what to do and went into action stations. Ryan and Robbie both strapped into the seats in the lounge. Dom was on his own with the controls in the cockpit. Chris and I were both in the gun turrets. Our dad had come up with this idea in case we got attacked by Leap Fighters. That was the Exo Squadron’s fighter ships.

I strapped myself into the chair and placed the headphones on. The headphones were so you could hear the other person in the other turret. There was also a microphone to communicate with one another. I looked around in the turret using a joystick as a control. This had allowed me to look around the area by moving it left or right. The button in the middle was used to shoot the gun. It seemed simple enough. But it wasn’t.

I looked around and saw a huge fleet of Leap Fighters coming towards us.

“Bex, Leap Fighter coming your way. On your left.” Chris told me. I pulled down the targeter and locked down on my aim. I pressed the button numerous times and all of the shots hit the fighter.

“One down, lots more to go!” I yelled in delight. As we shot the Fighters down, more and more started to come towards us. However, as we got to the edge of the Bravo System, the Fighters turned around. We found their weak spot. Finally.

I ran up the ladder to celebrate with Chris and Dom. We were all jumping around looking very pleased with ourselves. I headed back to the cockpit with Dom in tow and we both sat down looking relieved with ourselves.

“The computer recons we have another two hours before we reach Nagar. So I can finally sleep.” Dom announced and headed off to one of the bedrooms. That left me on my own again. I looked up out of the cockpit and saw lots of stars as they passed us. I thought it was beautiful, especially that I was on my own looking at them. I turned around as I saw the door open. I expected it to be Dom, but instead it was Josh.

We talked for the remainder of the journey. We only stopped when he said,

“Up there, straight ahead. Nagar. Home.” He said. I stopped smiling and my head dropped. We also now had different places that we called home. As well as more step-siblings and no-one would recognise us. Of course they would recognise our older siblings. Who wouldn’t? Especially if they were considered heroes to their home.

I started to panic. What if no-one wanted us there? What if they didn’t know that we existed even? I tried to turn the ship around, but it was too late. Dom had gone in to land on a new, unknown planet for us. And we didn’t know what was going to happen next.

Adventure into the Unknown

Chapter 2: The Exo-Squadron chase

The sun blared in my face and I tossed over to face the wall. It was early in the morning and I had a churning feeling in my stomach. Like something bad was going to happen. I slowly arose from my bed and got dressed. I had my gun holster strapped around my waist, so it was hidden amongst other things.

You’re probably wondering why a girl like me has a gun? Well, it all began a couple of months ago. That marked the first invasion from the Exo-Squadron. I was walking back from a day of hover racing with Dom and we encountered them. They were looking for what they called ‘Traitors’. They were people that were working with the tri-force. If anyone had found out what they were up to, well you would never see them again. Anyway, the person that the Exo-Squadron had was one of our old teachers, Mr Lisf. We were shocked to find out the truth. And what we witnessed next was gruesome. After the shooting, the squad turned and faced us. They raised their guns and we ran. There was just a blur of buildings and canopies, with blurred droids. We ran straight to the café to tell our dad what just happened. He gave us all guns to protect ourselves and told us to look out for each other.

As the door to the kitchen slid shut behind me, I noticed that something was wrong. My dad or step-mum weren’t in the kitchen as usual. I grabbed some toast and headed towards the café, where XE was behind the counter and my dad and step-mum were in the kitchen.

“Dad, I’m here!” I yelled over the plates to the kitchens.

“Great! We’re out of supplies, can you take Dom, Chris, Ry and Robbie with you to the markets?” He yelled back. That’s how we communicate in our family, by yelling.

“OK!” I signaled to my siblings and we left the café.

The market was bustling for a Saturday and the sun was gleaming, but when wasn’t it? Everything started without a hitch. Until the droids came. XE was trying to catch up with AD, but he wasn’t fast enough.

“Miss Bex! RUN!” He attempted to yell. I sprinted as fast as a Derus Leopard to find out what was wrong.

“XE what happened? I though you and AD were staying with the café.” I stated but I glanced over to where the café was.

There was smoke and people being ordered out by the unthinkable. The Exo-Squadron. Numerous troops were pushing the people onto their ship, with their hands on their heads. They had been captured. I glanced over again and saw my dad and step-mum amongst the people.

The next couple of minutes were a blur. I had lost nearly everyone in my family. Apart from my younger siblings. And it was my duty to look after them and the droids.

“I think that they are after us because of the plans.” XE deducted and I was shaking. My breathing had gotten heavier and heavier. The droids had stolen something from the Exo-Squadron. And we were the next victims. We were seen with them.

The squadron turned and looked at us. They were advancing towards us in a pack. Row by row, they were marching right at us. I yanked my sister’s arm and started to run. My brothers and the droids followed us as the squadron were getting quicker and closer. I closed my eyes and thought of my older siblings.

As we were running, I felt something in my pocket. I shoved my hand in there and pulled out a set of keys. The keys to our family ship. I was known to be a good pickpocket. Not in public, only at home.

“We’re going somewhere else.” I half-yelled, half-whispered. I yanked my sister’s arm and ran down a side alley. The alley was thin and had broken hologram pieces everywhere. However, it was the quickest route to the spaceport. That’s where our ship was stored.

Half an hour later of running, trying to lose the Exo Squadron, we arrived at Dock 89. I saw the ship and started to charge at it. However, I was stopped in my tracks. There was a group of Exo Squadron troops blocking our way. Two of them came closer

“Stop!” The taller one ordered.

“Drop your weapons!” The shorter one ordered. They could see my laser gun in my holster. I slowly picked up my gun and bent down to place it on the ground in front of me.

“Mar- “The two troops were cut off by the other two troops behind them. They had been knocked out.

“If you want to live board the ship with us now. And grab your gun!” One of the troops ordered. That troop had a red stripe on their arm, so I guess that they were in charge. I didn’t argue and we clambered onto the ship, with my gun in hand. The two troops followed us onto the ship. I ran into the cockpit with Dom.

“Ignite the engines!” I ordered him and he pushed a blue button on the dashboard. “Good, now raise the shields.” He nodded again and pressed a series of switches. Our ship began to take off, and soon we were over the spaceport. I thrusted the controls forward to get our ship off the planet.

An hour into the journey, I switched the controls to cruise control and set off into the lounge. The two Exo Squadrons were there, but were being interrogated by Ry.

“RY! Leave them to me!” I shouted. I turned towards the troops. “Right, do as I say and no-one gets shot.” The troops nodded in return. I guess you could say that I was intimidating. “Take off your helmets.” Surprisingly they did as I asked. And I was shocked at who it was.