Red to Fade (19 page)

As Connor runs into the building Dylan sees him and shouts, “Connor! Connor!”

Connor ignores Dylan's shouting. He wants to make sure that nobody is inside the glacitone file hive. Water from sprinklers splashes on Connor as he runs past the security desk area of the concrete file hive building. There are a lot of destroyed RBMs and dead agents in the security desk area. There is water everywhere on the ground. Most of the walls in the security desk area have been turned to rubble.

Connor runs down the hallway and goes out the back entrance of the concrete file hive building. He sees that the doors of the glacitone file hive building have been opened; now he knows that there's somebody in there. Connor pulls his 15-shooter handgun out of his gun holster. Connor holds his gun by the grip with two hands. Connor walks slowly down the glacitone tunnel while aiming the gun. He is at the entrance door of the glacitone file hive when he hears Edmund and Joel talking.

Joel says to Edmund, “Fucking hell, I'm growing a beard here. How long is this going to take?”

Edmund responds, “We're nearly there; it's almost downloaded.”

A few seconds later, Edmund says with excitement, “That's it! It's downloaded.”

Johnson sees Connor. Johnson tries to draw his assault rifle on Connor, but Connor opens fire with his handgun before Johnson gets a shot off.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Weapon rounds fired from Connor's gun hit Johnson and Edmund. They fall to the ground. Johnson is dead and Edmund is alive but in critical condition. Johnson's assault rifle is destroyed by Connor's gunshots.

Joel jumps and then rolls along the ground to hide behind an electronic control panel. Connor opens fire on Joel, but every shot misses and instead destroys the electronic control panel equipment. Joel is now leaning up against an electronic control panel. Connor pulls the trigger on his gun once more. His gun makes a clicking sound. Connor is out of ammo, and he doesn't have any more gun clips. Joel hears the clicking sound of Connor's gun and he knows that Connor's gun is out of ammunition.

Joel slowly walks away from the electronic control panel he's been using for cover and aims his assault rifle at Connor.

Joel says, “End of the line, Connor.”

As Joel pulls the trigger on his assault rifle, the rifle makes a clicking sound. Joel's assault rifle is out of gun shells as well. Joel drops his rifle. Connor drops his handgun and takes off his jacket and throws it to the ground. He wants to be prepared for a street fight.

Joel says, “Connor, if the two of us walk out of here with the DC file and go back to Earth, we'll be millionaires. What do you say?”

Connor replies, “Fuck you.”

Joel says, “I knew you'd say that; you were always a fucking mama's boy.”

Joel runs towards to Edmund. Connor runs towards to Joel. Joel picks up Edmund's assault rifle that's lying on top of his prone body. Connor also grabs the assault rifle that Joel picked up. Joel opens fire with the assault rifle. Connor and Joel are struggling with each other to get control of the assault rifle. The rifle stops firing and is out of rounds. Joel hits Connor with an elbow to the face; Connor falls back onto an electronic control panel.

Joel drops the assault rifle and charges at Connor. Connor and Joel are battling it out by head-butting, uppercutting, punching and kicking each other. Connor and Joel are both trained killers; they're attacking each other by the use of different types of mixed martial arts moves. Minutes later, Joel and Connor are exhausted after beating the crap out of each other.

Both of them have loads of cuts and bruises. Joel is near the hand railings that are used to protect beings from dropping into the pit of giant electrical fans. Connor does a WWF wrestling-style clothesline manoeuvre on Joel, causing him to fall over the hand railing and into the pit of giant electrical fans. Joel gets sliced and diced by the giant electrical fans.

The fans continue to operate while covered with Joel's blood and body parts. It would be fair to say that Joel is dead. As Joel fell into the pit, his planet communicator fell out of his pocket and landed near a hand railing. Connor puts the planet communicator into his pocket.

Edmund is using his computer hacker software and is typing on the laptop that was used to download the DC file. Connor doesn't notice Edmund typing. Dylan, Gragon and Gabrielle come into the glacitone file hive.

Dylan says, “Connor, are you good?”

Connor's body is bloody and bruised.

Connor replies, “I'm not going to lie, I've been better.”

Edmund is lying on the ground bleeding to death. He says, “You're all going to die.”

Edmund presses a key on the keyboard before he dies. A DD-12 rocket is launched from a Balaxian spaceship.

*

On the flight deck of the ship that launched the DD-12 rocket a morphian officer speaks to his superior and says, “Sir, a DD-12 rocket has just been launched and is heading for Mars.”

The morphian superior officer is shocked and appalled. He says, “
What?!
”

*

Edmund used the hacker software on his laptop to launch the DD-12 rocket. After Dylan heard Edmund's statement and saw him press a key on the keyboard he now wants to see what Edmund has done on the computer. Dylan turns the laptop around and makes the screen face him. Dylan sees camera footage of the DD-12's point of view on the laptop screen. On the footage there are titles. One says,
TARGET: Red 1
; the other says,
DD-12: LAUNCHED
.

There is another title on the camera footage that says,
MILES TO TARGET
. Beside the title are numbers. The numbers beside the title are decreasing, which means that the DD-12 rocket is getting closer to the Red Planet. The camera footage shows Mars getting bigger and bigger, which means that the DD-12 rocket is getting closer and closer to the Glass Tomb.

Dylan speaks with a nervous and shocked voice and says, “This asshole just launched a DD-12 rocket and it's heading straight for this city.”

Connor says angrily and nervously, “
Fuck!?
Can you detonate the rocket in mid-air?”

Dylan responds, “I'll try.”

Dylan operates the software that was used to launch the DD-12 rocket in an attempt to blow it up. The rocket is getting very close to the Big Rock.

Dylan says in a panic, “Goddamn it, it won't allow me to detonate the rocket in mid-air.”

Gragon says, “Can you control the rocket? Make the rocket move away from this city?”

Dylan operates the software again. He has programmed the rocket and can now move it to the right.
KABOOM!
The DD-12 rocket hits a Mars mountain near the First Dome. The mountain explodes into miniature parts. Some individuals from Earth and Balaxia in the Glass Tomb can see a giant fire glowing from the explosion of the DD-12 rocket. The ground shakes in the glacitone domes.

It's like an earthquake. Gragon, Dylan, Gabrielle and Connor are wobbling all over the place. The shockwaves of the DD-12 explosion cause damage to some buildings in the glacitone domes. The DD-12 rocket is very powerful, like a nuclear warhead. Giant Martian boulders are flying towards to the Big Rock from the mountain that exploded.

Some humans and morphians in the First Dome see the giant boulders coming towards to the Glass Tomb and are shocked and scared watching the boulders that are about to hit the glacitone windows. Some beings are so scared they breathe in, thinking that it's the last time they'll ever do so. The giant boulders are about to hit the glacitone windows of the Big Rock, and when they do, the boulders smash into little pieces.

The giant boulders haven't even left a scratch on the glacitone windows. Everyone in Red 1 is safe. Connor, Dylan, Gabrielle and Gragon are still standing after the shockwaves of the DD-12 explosion. Dylan looks at the laptop screen. The laptop isn't displaying any more camera footage of the DD-12's point of view.

Gabrielle is breathing heavily. She says, “It's over. It's over, thank God, it's over.”

Connor grabs his jacket and ties it around his waist. He also grabs his gun and puts it back into his gun holster.

Connor says, “Come on, let's get out of here.”

Connor, Dylan, Gabrielle and Gragon exit the glacitone file hive and then proceed to exit the concrete file hive building. Connor, Dylan, Gabrielle and Gragon are in front of the concrete file hive building now. There are a lot of Clandarian army medics treating injured soldiers.

Lanken and Tizer meet up with Connor, Dylan, Gabrielle and Gragon in front of the concrete file hive building. Connor is surprised to see Tizer.

Connor says, “Tizer, you're alive! I thought you were dead.”

Tizer replies, “Yes, I'm still here.”

Lanken says to Connor, Dylan, Gabrielle and Gragon, “Thanks for all of your help.”

Connor says, “Lanken, you need to find out where Space Drill is and have it destroyed. I don't think that Joel was working alone; I think he might have been working with some people from the government. I mean, somebody supplied him with those RBMs.”

Lanken says, “You're right. We'll find Space Drill and we'll also find out who else is responsible for this.”

Connor pulls a planet communicator out of his pocket, hands it to Lanken and says, “Here's Joel's planet communicator. I think that it might be encrypted, but try to find out the location and names of all of his contacts, and also go on the internet, radio and TV and tell everyone what happened here.”

Lanken says, “I will. What are you going to do now?”

Connor says, “I tell you what I'm going to do now. I'm going to get absolutely shit-faced.”

Lanken doesn't understand the terminology
shit-faced
, so he says, confused, “Why are you going to put shit on your face? Do you need to go to the toilet?”

Connor responds, “No, man, I'm just going to get drunk. Who's with me?”

Gabrielle says, “I'm in.”

Dylan says, “Me too.”

Connor says, “What do you say, Gragon?”

Gragon says, “Fucking A!”