EndWorld

Chapter 1: "Annoying Pests Like You"

The Warden stood on the overlook platform of the entrance to the mines watching the humans bustle in and out like a colony of Chuntas (think ants, but scary). She breathed in a long breath of the cool night air then she looked over to the guard station and walked back into her office. Pressing a button she caused a holographic display of the Captain of the Guards to burst to life.

"Give me a status report." Barked the Warden, barely giving the Captain time to stand at attention.

"All patrols reported in on time, guard shift change will start in approximately 10 Quads (equivalent to 2 minutes per 1 Quad named after a famous Galactic Council scientist, it's a Galactic standard minute.) Nothing else of interest to report Ma'am!" The Captain announced.

The Warden bared her teeth in a menacing grin, "Good, maintain such order and when I move up the ladder I'll make sure you get a good letter of recommendation for my position." With that, she ended the transmission.

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Not long after this call, Derek was putting a plan into action. He snuck away during the normal commotion that occurred when the lunch siren went off and made his way to the alcove he hid the electro-pick.

Now the reason why he had to hide this particular item at all times was due to there being a defect in this particular model so it was not used on Drakkna and if spotted will be immediately confiscated and used to reprimand the individual stupid enough to have it. Not because the defect is particularly dangerous on its own merely because even the slightest deviation from the regulations is punishable under Drakkna's Warden.

The defect causes it to short out the part that makes it useful, the electric arcing that helps find and soften a particular metal ore used in ship manufacturing, Gertinium. It has special properties that make it especially suitable for the harsh radiation of space and is still malleable enough to work with easily but, incredibly tough requiring the use of specialized mining tools.

The reason why the shorted-out pick is so useful to Derek is that he found, with another pick that he had hidden, if you reroute to a singular arc point instead of the ten it is intended to arc out of. Instead of just shorting, it explodes, in just a few seconds. Derek doesn't have a way to time accurately but, that's what it felt like. In essence, Derek has an explosive distraction that he intends to use just before the end of lunch.

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Jort, the Captain of the Guards, truthfully did not want to be the Warden. He didn't even want to be on this planet. He did a weapons check while he tried to figure out how to deny such an offer.

Just as he was finishing his check and realizing he would have to get used to calling Drakkna his home, the mine's emergency siren went off.

ERRR! ERRR! ERRR! ERRR!

He rushed outside and gave a precursory glance up to the Warden's tower, she was up there, watching.

He focused back on the mines and saw smoke billowing out and humans running coughing and screaming.

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That was admittedly a much larger explosion than Derek had anticipated. He had activated the pick and placed it just at the door of the underground mining explosives storage shed. It was set in the mine because the Drekk thought it was more efficient to never have the humans come out unless necessary.

He chose that particular explosive shed not just for its ease of access but also because the particular Drekk who guarded it liked to take lunch at the same time the humans did and come back just before the shift change.

If he had to guess some explosives were set closer to the door than he thought would have been, he was lucky he had been running away already otherwise the cave-in would have gotten him. The larger explosion did serve a purpose, much more smoke was coming out than he could have ever hoped for. He made it to the surface just in time to see the Captain of the Guards arrive on the scene and start barking orders.

He slipped in behind a few other humans running away from the explosion and slipped by unnoticed when the Drekk began their corralling. He was free of the cave and thankfully it was night time so he didn't have to wait for his eyes to adjust to the brightness.

He took a quick mental sitrep and hurried to the guard's station, the night was still young.

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The Warden looked on the scene feeling a mixture of amusement and irritation. On the one hand, she loved to watch the humans scurry, and on the other, she was going to have to find out what happened, why, how, and who did it. That was going to take a long time and be incredibly exhausting.

That was going to have to wait though, for in her periphery she saw a small dot, the size of a human, bee-lining to the guard's station. If that is who she thinks it is, many of her questions were just answered.

She turns around and grabs her favorite shock-lance from her weapons locker, she then grabs a battery and jams it into the shaft, and powers it on. She then sets the dial from prod to incapacitate.

She was going to take care of this personally.

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Jort had just finished corralling up all the humans and had sent a few guards to find the source of the smoke and activate the fire suppressors in that sector when he had looked back up to the overlook tower and saw the Warden was no longer there. He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking she had seen nothing to reprimand and was going to leave him to do his job. Then he saw the elevator going down and tried to hold his composure in front of his men. Watched the elevator go down and saw the Warden walk out with her shock-lance, lighting up the area around her with an eerie glow, and... start walking to the Guard's station.

He became rather confused at that point and looked closer at the building and saw a human step out.

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Derek stepped out of the Guard's station holding his prize, a Drekk heavy blaster, a weapon that resembled a boiler more than a gun. He had to hold it very close to his body due to its weight having been intended for a strong Drekk, not a human as strong as a below-average Drekk.

The Warden stopped short of 6 meters away from Derek, "Drop the blaster, filth!" She was not happy.

"I can't do that," he shouted back, shifting the blaster's weight slightly.

"If you don't drop that blaster I will show you and all the others once and for all what the Drekk does with annoying pests like you!" She started walking forward a menacing scowly etched across her face.

Derek then shifted his weight around and leveled the blaster at the Warden. Unfortunately, he couldn't see her face because he was bracing himself and closed his eyes as a result but she was now furious.

Derek pulled the trigger.

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The Warden had only just enough time to roll herself forward and face her shell to the shot, she still registered the sound of loud cracking and minor pain in her leg. It Seemed Derek did not aim true to center mass. Her shell was damaged and she had to hope her leg wasn't too injured if she was going to put a stop to this. She continued the momentum of her roll and managed to right herself and stand, finding some difficulty with standing on her right leg, and noticed a bit of blood dripping onto the sand underneath her.

She then leveled her gaze at Derek or, at least where Derek had been standing. There was now a human-sized hole in the Guard's station.

She slowly walks over to it, being careful as to favor her left leg, she reaches the hole and peers into it, she sees a massive mess and an indent of a body and the heavy blaster but, no Derek. She then hears the door slam shut and hears something clank at her feet, she looks down barely registers the grenade as it explodes and launches her into the air.

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Derek was in a lot of pain but knew if he stopped now he would surely be killed. He had crossed every line and had to continue the fight. He was lucky those grenade boxes were there to soften his impact with the other wall of the building. Otherwise, he would have flown through it and hit the rock wall on the other side.

Now he was outside again, still holding a few grenades and watching the Warden arc through the air. He predicted where she'd land and rolled another grenade over and then glanced behind him and saw the Captain of the Guards closing the distance.

The grenade went off and he was sprayed with quite a bit of blood.

It was done. The Warden was dead.

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Jort watched in horror as the Warden landed headfirst into the grenade Derek had rolled and as a result had her head and most of her upper body blown to pieces.

He shook the thoughts away and continued for Derek who had rushed to the remains of the Warden and grabbed something. He then started running to the tower.

Jort realized now that he had to hurry to catch up. Humans easily outpaced Drekk when uninjured. Jort noticed a limp in Derek's run but he was still managing to keep good speed allowing Jort to slowly catch up but, he knew he would be too late.

He ordered the rest of the guard over his mobile transceiver to man the AA guns.

No one has ever escaped Drakkna and that was not changing today.

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Derek hurriedly unlocked the elevator and hit the button to the top floor just as the Captain of the Guards crashed into the now-closed doors.

He sat there huffing and puffing struggling to catch his breath. Then it started at first just a slight giggle but then it boiled over into all-out laughter. He was going to make it.