The Starfire Project.
An original story written Captain Destructo. Characters and situations
are the sole property of the author.
Inspired by many a sci-fi anime series, including Voltron,
Macross, Tenchi Muyo, Venus wars, Big wars, Dirty Pair, ect. ect. You get
the idea.
It was also heavily inspired by the video game �Blasto�. But that
doesn�t come into play just yet...
The Starfire Project.
Chapter 1: Stratus space station in Earth orbit 3098.
A large half moon shaped frigate starship slowly approaches the
cone shaped station.
"Space port Stratus this is Lady luck. We are making our final
approach." said a static broken voice over the communications unit. A
young lieutenant sat wearing a head set and reads a large computer screen
in a crowded and darkened room with many other personnel moving and
working at various terminals. He wore a pair of thick glasses and had on
a neatly pressed gray uniform with a small 'GP' logo on the right breast.
The tight collar sat undone around his neck and he frowned as he adjusted
the volume of the transmission.
"Yes, Lady luck we read you, You are go for docking at shuttle
bay forty, over." he said into the small microphone that protruded from
his head set.
An attractive red headed woman sitting near him smirked as he
smacked the receiver sitting on the console in frustration. "Dammit, two
thousand years of technology and we can't even get a clear transmission
from a few hundred yards away in open space." he muttered as he played
with the switch that activated the console.
"Poor boy, you must have such a hard time with our basic and
crude technology." she said sweetly to him.
"Shut up Vicky. I don't need this now." muttered the man as he
ignored her.
"Humph. and here I was ready to give myself to you after all this
time..." she sighed playfully.
"Damn Venusian bitch." muttered the man under his breath as the
screen showed the ship 'Lady Luck' docking.
The woman's screen lit up with an emergency frequency message.
She jumped in surprise as her head phones burst into noise suddenly as
the message came on. The two of them stared at the screen in surprise.
"Sir, I think you'd better come over here." said the boy
motioning to the broad shouldered man standing in the center of the room.
He had a tight dark blue uniform on with five stars on his right breast.
His right leg clanked on the ground as he walked, due to the fact that it
was a metal bionic replacement. He clenched his left arm, which was also
a cybernetic replacement from some war fought long ago.
"What is it son?" said the man as he approached in a gruff voice.
"General sir, we are picking up an emergency priority signal from
deep space." said the woman as she adjusted the various dials on the
screen quickly.
A man clad in a white lab coat stood in front of a large console
chair in the middle of what appeared to be a bridge.
"This is Captain Morris of the United planetary government
starship 'Starlight-3'. In what will probably be our final transmission."
said the man calmly. His face however was an ashen white and he looked
terribly disheveled. He had a sullen and tired look on his face that said
he had given up hope.
"Starlight? The Starlight program? This message is over a hundred
years old." muttered the young lieutenant as he watched in awe.
"The project codenamed 'jump-start' has failed. We cannot escape
the gravitational pull of this star in time to escape, we hope that this
message can still. The sun has grown several times it's normal size in a
matter of hours and it's mass has tripled. Our fate is sealed and we hope
that this experiment will prevent a grave mistake on our home world in
the future, we have discovered that the immense Ion field created by the
experimental probe will cause a star to go nova in a matter of day's. The
project is a failure, we cannot hope to revive a dying star with this
method."
A strange orange glow began to form from the right side of the
screen and the bridge crew began to move by the captain pushing and
screaming so that his voice could almost not be heard. The man turned
towards the glow and gazed at it with a distinguished and sad face.
"This is the captain of the starship 'Starlight-3', signing
of---" the message ended suddenly.
The whole communications room of the space station stood glaring
at the screen in almost complete disbelief. "Delete that message son."
said the General with an unreadable look on his face. His jaw was
clenched and his right fist hung tightly at his side.
"Sir?" said the Lieutenant as he snapped out of his daze.
"Do it. Man was never meant to have such knowledge in his
possession. That experiment created a weapon no government should hold,
no man should control. Delete the message, I will not have that mark on
my soul for the rest of eternity." said the man coolly as he glared at
the blank screen as hard as he could.
"Yes sir." said the young Lieutenant. He was about to enter the
command when he slumped over face first on the key board.
The general looked down at him and gasped as the hole in the back
of his head smoked heavily and the charred smell finally reached his
nose.
"Belay that order, Lieutenant." said a voice from the doorway.
The red head turned and was about to stand when her brains were
smeared across her computer screen messily.
A tall dark skinned man stood in the doorway he was dressed in a
long black overcoat and had a dark pair of shades sitting on his face.
His hair was slicked back and he had a small thin mustache. He smiled
broadly and waved his arms out. In one hand he held a smoking cigar, in
the other was a high tech lazer pistol that was silver crome plated. It
shone brightly in the emergency lights that flashed around the room.
Through the shades he wore his right eye could be seen glowing bright
red.
Two leather clad and tough looking men stood with much larger
lazer rifles at their hips. They quickly swept the room blasting
computers and technicians left and right. The room was completely cleared
except for the general who stood calmly.
"You must be General Wright? Right?" said the tall man with a
large and flashy grin. "I am Captain Esteves. Leader of the holy order of
Tash and Skipper to the great ship 'Lady luck'. I really must say that
your security is indeed very slack on this military installation." he
said as he swaggered up to the general with his maniacal grin ever
widening.
"What do you want, Captain Esteves?" growled the General calmly.
His hand slowly crawled up to the holster hanging at his side.
"Ah ah!" said the man waving his finger playfully as he pulled
the angry man's gun from his side quickly and smoothly.
General Wright's jaw clenched tight and he stood unmoving. "What
do you want?" he repeated.
"Oh you know, the usual. Sneak in, Blow up your space station in
the name of Tash, leave before anyone notices...collect a few million
credits from our employers... Basic terrorist stuff. Then, you know what
happened?" the man hung off the general's shoulder and smiled at him
while he stared him straight in the eyes. He removed his sunglasses to
reveal a robotic eye that glowed bright red. "While I was sneaking around
your bright shiny space station, I just happened to overhear something
much more interesting! I just had to say hello and tell you what I
thought."
"You'll hang for this, if you think your getting out of here
alive..." started Wright as he smiled broadly.
"Tell me sir, do you know what this is?" said Esteves as he held
up a small metal box.
Wright's smile vanished at once. "A matter transporter?! That's
classified material! How did...?" he stammered helplessly.
"Oh, I have my way's my friend. I bet you do to since you seem to
know what it is. I recall it was still in development on one of Saturn�s
moons when I stole it and you obviously don't have any knowledge of their
military secrets do you now?" said the man as he patted the general on
the cheek playfully.
The general flushed in anger as he realized that he had been
trapped. "It was just a security leak on their side that's all." he
stammered unconvincingly.
"I bet you have access to those files don't you? And the ones
concerning a certain project that has just become the most destructive
force in the galaxy." the pirate held the gun against the man's head and
bit at his chin lightly.
"You'll never get to those records scum. There locked away deep
in military archives that are more guarded than Fort Knocks." sneered the
broad shouldered man as he returned the stare with renewed calm.
"Well, we'll just have to find out about that won't we?" replied
the man. He turned and waved at the men who had entered with him. He
wrapped his arms around their necks and hung between them pulling their
heads close to his own.
"Set up the charges," he said cheerfully to them. "and bring
along the good General, we have some important research to do. Boys, were
goin to the library!" he said as he slapped them both on the back and
sent them to their tasks.
They went off in different directions to set small explosive
devices around the room.
"Now my dear General if you please. We do have a schedule to
keep." said the man as he placed the gun in the man's back. "Let's be
off, we don't want to miss the show, and it starts in only five minutes."
said the enigmatic man as he moved them towards the door.
Lieutenant Suzan Wright stepped off the boarding ramp and into
the space dock that was orbiting Phobos, one of Mar's moons. She sighed
and straightened up her uniform with a tight military precision. Her
light brown hair was done up on a tight military bun and her face was
stern and completely professional. She was about twenty two years old and
had just been reassigned to this post from the earth station where her
father had commanded.
A young dark haired man of about twenty years old stood at the
bottom of the ramp smiling like a Cheshire cat as she made her way
towards him. He stood in a very relaxed manner while waiting and
tightened up as she approached.
"Sir, Lieutenant Wright reporting as ordered sir!" she barked
mechanically as she stepped into a tight and perfect salute. A woman
walked by behind the man with her hair flowing freely down her back, she
was dressed in a sergeant�s uniform and was talking to one of the
soldiers in a relaxed manner. Suzan raised her eyebrow slightly and
quickly returned the professional face she had worn most of her life.
"At ease Lieutenant." said the man to her with a small smile. "I
think you'll find that most of our installations are like this one. Not
the well organized and strict environment your father holds so dear to
his heart."
"Is there a problem with that sir?" she asked in a straight
forward manner.
The man laughed and motioned for her to follow him. "No, It's
just that it isn't practical for this kind of station. We are not really
a military Lt. Wright. We are a police force, The Galactic Police is not
the grand army your father envisions it to be. We are simply a convenient
way to prevent diplomatic problems with interplanetary criminals. We also
keep the governments in line when they travel through space. Were nothing
more than an galaxy sized interpol."
"A pretty speech, but it is our organization who keeps the
planets in line with our superior weaponry and forces. Only the combined
might of half the solar system's militaries could possibly hope to
overpower us, and they are too busy bothering each other. In short, we
are THE military force of this galaxy." she replied curtly with a smug
smile.
"Hmm, I like you Lieutenant. You'll fit in fine here with a wit
like that, just don't forget that this isn't your father's installation.
We aren't nearly as strict or rule bound. Out here is where the real
criminals live. Those pansies on earth are nothing compared to what your
going to face out here." said the man curtly.
"I don't think I caught your name Major?" asked Suzan.
"I didn't give it, I'm Major Doggson. You can call me Major Dog,
everyone else does. I think you'll find this to be an interesting
experience Lieutenant. We get allot of people like you here and they
always remember us. You might even enjoy yourself a little if you loosen
up a bit, just don't loosen up too much." said the man with a friendly
smile as they finally entered the lift that would take them to the
sleeping quarters.
Susan�s eyes however were riveted to a large blue starfighter
that had just landed on the deck. It was a custom built fixed wing long
range fighter with an unusual color scheme; a blue body with red wings. A
ship that was recognized through out the galaxy.
"The Out-runner." gasped the woman in a mixture of terror, wonder
and surprise.
"Yes, Captain McLure is stationed at this outpost when he isn't
running about the galaxy on some assignment." said the Major with a
disapproving snort.
"I didn't know he was stationed here." said the woman with a
small frown.
"Yes, They call him 'Captain Destructo.' You'll understand why
when you meet him, and believe me, you'll meet him." said Doggson as the
door opened and she was lead down the hall.
"I know the name, my father gave it to him. He took it as a
personal complement and started making everyone call him that. I thought
he actually had his name legally changed." replied the woman.
"No that's just a rumor. Everyone call's him that though, only
myself and a few of the other officers call him by his real name." said
Doggson with a small humorless laugh.
"You wouldn't believe some of the stories I've heard about him."
said Suzan with a smile crossing her lips yet again.
"Actually I would. He absolutely adores the general,
unfortunately that isn't a good thing. The man is psychotic, he should
never have made it past the psychological screenings. Somehow he always
slips by. Thank god for that." said the Major with a proud look.
"What do you mean, 'Thank god?'" said Suzan with a bewildered
look.
"What I mean is he has saved your planet more times than you will
ever know about. He has a perfect case record, even though he's never
once made an arrest. He also is considered an intergalactic hero by
billions and has more security clearance than anyone in the known galaxy.
He is exactly what he acts like, however he also tends to make a mess of
things. Once he was put on traffic duty on the commercial striates near
Jupiter, he hates paperwork."
"So, who doesn't?" said the woman with slight interest.
"SO? He was blasting speeders into space dust, shooting out their
engines. He had almost piled up thirty frigates before someone relieved
him. I tell you, the man who assigned him to that duty really got hung
out to dry I hear." said the man with a deep frown.
"Isn't it a bit unusual for you to be personally taking me to my
room?" she said to him as he lead her down the hall.
"Yes, it's a personal favor to your father. I promised him you'd
get no special treatment so I went out of my way to make sure you got
average." said the man with a smile.
"Why thank you sir." said Suzan with a small smile. She was
feeling more relaxed in this place already.
It�s funny how fast things like that can change.
TBC....
Next time the plot thickens and the villains start rolling. Susan
gets the announcement about her father, and the starlight project is
explored further by Esteves. If you think this is good now, Wait till you
meet me.
�Silly girl, actors don�t die! There created in government labs
and retrieved in hermetically sealed bags. Then they are forced into a
extravagant slave like existence where they are forced to perform and
appear in public like freaks. After they retire they are put out to
pasture in display cases at the national film archives.� -Capitain
Destructo when confronted on his alleged affair with �Carrie Fisher.�
[Princess Leia from Star wars]
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