Fan Fiction / Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Marines Journey - The SHODAN crisis ❯ Chapter 57: One faction down, what’s the reaction? ( Chapter 58 )

The Marine's Journey

Chap. 57 - One faction down, what's the reaction?

By: Piccard

Cybos: Here we are, last chapter might have been a bit better we admit, but we just wanted to get the Lebanon combat scene out of the way! (Light was in what you'd call a rush!) By the by, chapter 57, here for you all.

(There Cybos, happy now?)

Cybos: Immensely!

---------------------- /\/**

Disclaimer: Go back about 8 chapters!

You bow to my will? Damn right!

---------------------- /\/**

On the bridge, Piccard and the others had pretty much taken down everyone there, however, Carter (Being the bastard he was) wouldn't stop running whilst he shot, and no-one could get a good shot in edgeways until Carter collided with Knuckles's gloved fist and was sent to the floor, but pulled Knuckles down on top of him. "Make a move and the echidna gets it!" He shouted as he tightened his grip, but Knuckles wasn't phased, he simply bit Carter's arm, and jumped up as the captain (remember his promotion?) writhed in pain on the floor. "What shall we do with him?" He heard sonic say; "Peraps use eem as a puncheeng bag?" Antoine suggested, but they both stopped when they heard Piccard snigger, "I have a better idea," He said as he pointed his shotgun, "Let's use him as a target!" He said as he obliterated Carter's right foot in a single shot, causing him to shriek in pain. "Now Knuckles," Piccard began, "Administer the coup de grace." Knuckles made no attempt at a facial expression as he aimed the phaser and fired straight at Carter, not killing him, but leaving him on the brink of death. "Now the final blow!" Piccard shouted, but suddenly, they were all engulfed in a blue light again, and as they vanished, another figure appeared, and Carter raised his eyes in shock as the figure aimed a phaser at him. "Governor?" "This is for throwing me in the brig!" He said with a deathly tone as he fired, and Carter screeched as he was vaporised in an orange wave. Taylon smiled at his work as he looked around the now empty bridge, which was now devoid of any form of life, except him, and he sat down on his chair as he noticed something on the floor next to where Carter had been. "Looks like I'm a governor again for definite!" He said as he picked up the pip and attached it to his collar. "Computer," Taylon began, looking around his bridge one last time. "Activate Auto-destruct sequence!"

The group on the ground looked up and seemed astonished as the Lebanon started moving away, and what shocked them more was the shuttle touching down behind the mansion, and as they all ran back in, they saw Piccard tapping things into the console before the governor appeared on the screen. "Taylon what are you doing?" Piccard screamed, and the governor just smiled as the Lebanon's computer could be heard saying, "Three minutes." "Three minutes to what?" Sonic asked, but noticed Piccard's face had gone white. "He activated the self destruct system." He managed to mutter before regaining his bearings and turning back to the screen. "We still have time to get a lock on you." He started pushing buttons, but the governor's hand shot like lightning to the pad next to him, and Piccard couldn't get a lock due to the shields now activated around the bridge. "Governor, think about this!" "I have thought about it!" He said as he closed his eyes. "I have betrayed the federation, gone against everything it stands for on the grounds of a non important vendetta." The others looked out of the window and saw smoke pouring through the Lebanon's damaged nacelle as it started to disappear through the clouds.

"Two minutes." "Come on governor." He only shook his head. "Not this time Piccard," He started as he smiled, "I've lived a very varied life. Being 53 years of age it sort of helps." Explosions could be heard from around the governor as Piccard opened his mouth, but then stared in shock at something on the floor. When Carter had been vaporised, the parts of the obliterated foot weren't, and they were now disappearing in a greenish light, which the governor seemed shocked at this as well. "What the?" Piccard started, but Taylon just shook his head. "I wish I knew Piccard, I wish I knew!" Those looking outside could see a disappearing smoke trail.

"Forty five seconds!" "Come on governor, we can transport you off!" "I have to put some distance between the Lebanon and the planet." Piccard raised his eyebrows, "Use auto-pilot and transport down!" "THERE ISN'T TIME!" The governor roared as more explosions could be heard and the computers voice could be heard again, "Thirty seconds." "You've got a fine group of friends down there Piccard," The governor shouted above the noise of explosions, "Promise me you'll take care of them!" Piccard just nodded as the governor smiled and turned off the link, and Piccard and co. were treated to a back view of the Lebanon as it careered through space with smoke and anti-matter pouring from the nacelle and various holes in the hull. Suddenly, the governor's voice could be heard one last time, "Last piece of advice Piccard, the Borg are on a station, nether they or SHODAN built it, it was already there!" before the link went dead for definite, and the group couldn't help but stare in a mixture of shock and horror as the Lebanon was suddenly engulfed in a bright orange inferno, and pieces of debris flew everywhere as the explosion settled, and there, left floating in space were the badly charred remains of the Lebanon, left to float aimlessly.

"Governor." Piccard muttered as he hung his head low, and noticed everyone else doing the same, even Tuvok, which surprised him greatly. He wasn't sure if they'd all feel that way, but he guessed that it'd have something to do with the last part of the speech. "Well at least one good thing came of helping the governor," Piccard span, and noticed that the voice belonged to Knuckles. "What's that then?" "Carter's dead too." Carter?" Piccard did a double take, "I couldn't give two shits about that bastard at this point, I'm just thinking about the governor at the moment." It was about five minutes before anyone spoke, and after that, it was Tom who broke the silence. "I'll never forget when I first met the governor." Piccard looked up. He'd heard about this, talking about the recently deceased seemed to alleviate some of the gloom that hung over people. "It was actually on the Antigua while it was docked at the Poledes. He'd come to review my application and see what I did. He was a lot nicer than I thought, but then I guess age took over." He heard some sniggers and turned to Jon. "What about you?" "I'll never forget the first time I was called to his office, I was enjoying myself on a sugar high, and I swapped the cables for the toilet flush and torpedo launchers, so when he was sat on the toilet and tried to flush it, we accidentally fired a torpedo at one of our own probes, and somehow he caught me!" "I heard about that." Piccard said, "Taylon told me that some stupid bugger altered the cables. And I wasn't surprised that, when thinking of the words `stupid' and `bugger', the name `Andrews' sprang to mind." They all laughed as Piccard recounted. "I already told you about when I first met him, but I'll never forget our first team holomatch against Jon and Carter. He wasn't a very good shot, and I actually managed to show him that the blue bit on top of a compression rifle wasn't just used for storing photons, it also helped accuracy, and with this in mind we actually went on to win, with Taylon dealing the crippling blow to Carter." `Obviously history repeats itself' he thought as he suddenly noticed that Carter had been vaporised after the four were beamed off.

After around half an hour of recounting various memories, Piccard excused himself and went back up to his room, and saw a box had appeared on his bed. "That's odd," He started as he walked over and saw that there was a pad on top, "That wasn't there before!" `That sounded as stupid as Jon!' He thought as he picked up and started reading.

Station Log I.D. - 29743

Author: Gvnr. Wolfgang Amadeus Taylon

To: Piccard Arrowsmith

Subject: One last thing.

----------------------

By the time you get this, I will be dead, as will Carter and the Lebanon will have been destroyed! Fact is, I wanted to apologise for all the hell I put you through. I was just jealous that you had special powers and we didn't! But there is a reason, if you hadn't of just pulled them off like that, and just told me, then things might have gone differently.

Do you remember the first raid we conducted to your quarters? Well, I had my men save some of the stuff from being destroyed. I know it's not much, but I know you're a retro fan, and here's some things from history.

End Log /\**/\

----------------------

Piccard put the pad down and opened the box, and couldn't believe what he saw. Weapons that he used to own that he thought had been destroyed were in front of him fully intact. "My old grenade launcher," He said in remembrance as he pulled out a yellow and grey weapon, and then spied the same large grey weapon that the governor tried to hit Amy with before, but missed doe to Piccard absorbing the charge. "The Photon Burst?" He said as he put down the launcher and pulled the heavy weapon out, examining it for around a minute before laying it next to the grenade launcher.

Then, Piccard spied a small wallet at the side, and opened it to find several folded photo's. "How could I forget about these?" He said out loud as he removed the elastic band and before he could look over them, heard a voice at the door. "What's that?" He turned and smiled as he saw Amy walking over, "Something the governor beamed down to me that he's been saving, lots of my old stuff," he waved the bundle, "Including some photo's." Neither of them said a word as Piccard unrolled them and looked them over. The first was of him, age 13, and the Doctor in the Lebanon's sickbay. "Thing's sure were different back then." Piccard said as he moved it back and looked at the next. This one featured him and Captain Williams of the Voyager R. "My first starship," Piccard said as he looked in reminiscence and moved that one too. The third was even older, and had many crease marks, and showed a young boy, possibly about five, with a man in blue armour and various implants across his face behind him, and a man in green armour with a helmet and a shotgun on the floor next to him as he had an arm around the boy's shoulder. "Who's that boy?" Amy asked, but didn't seem to get a response as Piccard just kept staring. "How could I forget I had this? I used to carry it everywhere." He muttered, before noticing Amy trying to get his attention and turned to her. "The young boy is me age 6, the guy in blue is my grandfather Reginald and the one in green is my dad Dave. This is the only picture I have of the three of us together, due to the fact that dad was normally off fighting." He moved that one back and came to the last one, and as soon as he saw it, he burst into tears. Amy wondered what at, but grabbed the photo before it could fall to the floor and held it up to the light. It was a picture taken on the Poledes with the governor in the centre and Tom and Piccard on either side with Jon and the Doctor behind them, and underneath was the caption `Friends forever!' with all their signatures. "We each got a copy of that," Piccard said as he wiped away the excess tears, "That was taken one week before they discovered my magic." He grabbed a tissue from the side and blew his nose, hard. "Sorry, I tend to get emotional at times."

Up in space however, SHODAN and the avatar were both in the biology lab, similar to the one where Bio was created back on the station. "So this is all that's left of him is it?" "Well," the avatar began, "Taylon did vaporise him, and this is all that remained from the point where Piccard blasted his foot off." SHODAN smirked as she looked over the remains of Carter's foot and her mind started working at an incredible rate as she came up with an idea in several seconds flat. "How are the weapons coming along?" "Quicker than we thought," the avatar said as she walked to a monitor, "They'll be ready for production in two instead of six." SHODAN laughed as she walked up to the monitor and double checked it. "Glad to see I have a way at influencing machinery!" the wires above her head started waving wildly and the avatar had a vague idea how SHODAN influenced the replicator system. "But still," SHODAN said as she linked herself to the console next to Carter's foot's remains, "Let's see what we can do with you!" she finished before manical laughter filled the room.

Back down at the mansion, everyone else gave Piccard about half an hour to get back to normal after they were informed of how he reacted to seeing the pictures. As soon as Piccard opened his eyes, he heard a knock at the door. "Can I come in?" "No D'sparil!" He knew the warlock would stall, and he managed to come up with a reason why. While it wasn't the most dignified thing to say, it would get a hell of a red warlock. "Why can't I come in?" "Because I'm masturbating my brains out, again!" Surprisingly he heard laughter. "Can't be, I can't hear the bedsprings! Or have they collapsed after everything you and Amy have put them through." There was a brief pause before Piccard got up and opened the door, revealing a smirking D'sparil. "Thought that'd make me go red did you?" "Leave it D, alright?" Piccard said as he walked over to his dresser and pulled out his com badge. "Anything you wanted?" "Yes there is actually," D'sparil said as he sat on the opposite side of the bed, "There's something we wanted to show you down stairs actually." Piccard groaned as he pulled his sunglasses from his pocket and slipped them over his eyes, "Let's go then." He said before walking straight into a wall. "Piccard, the door's over here!" "I know," He said as he used the wall for support, "I haven't worn these things for so long I forgot about the faded eyesight." As they walked out, D'sparil only said, "If you don't wear them, why have them?" "Make me look more attractive!" `Should've guessed!' the warlock moaned subconsciously.

As they entered the front room, they noticed almost everyone else looking bored out of their brains. "Why the boredom?" Piccard shouted, and Dark answered, "Because Antoine's telling us about his glorious performance on the Lebanon." Sure enough, the coyote was standing up, babbling some drivel about slaying half of the Lebanon's crew single-handedly, and when it got to the point when Antoine said that he was the bravest, Piccard spoke up. "That's a complete lie!" the coyote span, "What?" "You didn't kill anyone, and if you were so brave, why did you scream when I grabbed you before the levitation?" Antoine was a bright red as Sonic suddenly changed his face to one of recognition. "Oh now I understand, you wanted to come along so that you could take some of the glory, is that it?" The coyote was now going into red overload as he started babbling things incoherently, and eventually ended up fainting from exhaustion.

Piccard had to somehow suppress a laugh, and he only just managed it as he noticed Tails calling him from the other side of the room, and he quickly ran over whilst jumping over the coyote barricade. "They sure can create a scene." Piccard managed to say before he reached Tails. "So what did you want to show me?" The fox turned and led Piccard outside. "We figured you needed cheering up, so." He stopped walking as they came to the federation shuttle that the governor used to escape, "We gave this thing a name and an overhaul!" Piccard couldn't help but marvel in wonder at how Tails got the knowledge of federation shuttles, but he guessed that the holodeck had something to do with it. The shuttle had been painted a variety of colours, the most prominent being blue, green and black. Piccard stepped inside it and looked over all the internal systems, they were all exactly the same, but with one difference, systems were now voice activated, and he couls tell by looking at one of the screens that different weapons had been installed. `All this in half an hour? Nice!' Piccard thought to himself as he climbed out. "Now where did you say the name was?" "On the side." Tails said as he pointed, and as Piccard turned, his eyes widened as he saw before him in big black letters:

"USS Lebanon, NCC 29743-B"

There we are, one of the enemy factions is down! If you found this chapter a bit depressing or irrelevant in places, don't panic, this chapter had my first actual death in it where some people might care about who died. (The governor that is, Can't see anyone mourning Carter!) but enough of that, how was it? Good, Bad, as polite as the Doctor's bedside manner? Please review!

Piccard, logging out! /\/**