Flying Burger (11 page)

At the security outpost on top of the Morogon mountain, one officer was desperately trying to contact the Inter-galactic Council.

"Transmission failed, seems to be some kind of magnetic storm in quadrant LX985," reported the Goronite officer.

"Quick, switch to low-frequency radio waves, these monsters will tear us apart if we don't get help soon," urged the chief-officer.

"Begin low-frequency radio wave transmission," said the junior officer.

"Mayday. Mayday. We are under attack on planet Goron! Please save us!" messages were transmitted at regular intervals into outer space.

"Hope somebody pick up the message," the chief-officer said gravely.

A Vokon battleship convoy was travelling in deep space at sub-light speed. On a patrol mission sent by the Inter-galactic Council, it was heading for an outlying region in the Pollux star system, where a roaring slave trade was going on. This region was notorious for black-market trading in aliens.

This Vokon battleship convoy consisted of a main battleship, two auxiliary battleships and approximately one hundred escort fighter-crafts. The main battleship took the form of a long cylinder with a nicely proportioned sphere at the anterior. At its posterior were afixed with three small cylinders for fuel exhaust expulsion. A large, round wheel was attached by three spokes to the middle of the cylindrical body of the main battleship. This wheel added an awesome dimension to an otherwise sleek and slim battleship. The whole convoy’s exterior was built with a yellow material which had an unusual sheen.

About half the size of the main battleship, the auxiliary battleship took the form of a sting ray with a rather long pointed tail behind. It had two triangular flaps elevated to about thirty degrees from the horizontal. It's anterior was slightly humped where the command deck was situated. A laser gun was attached to the underside of the auxiliary battleship, making it looked like a ferocious predator.

Each escort fighter-craft was about one-quarter the size of an auxiliary battleship. It had a U-shape base with a transparent cockpit at the front and a weapon gun supported by an inverted V-shape rod behind. It had two fuel chambers at the tips of the U-shape base. Although much smaller in size than the main battleship, it made up for it in numbers. There were close to one hundred of these escort fighter-crafts.

Inside the command deck of the main battleship, Vokon commander Kohn was looking at the navigation console. This creature had an elongated face with a pointed chin. A pair of narrow eyes were slanted upwards and it had no eyebrows. It had a large fish fin on either side of its head. The skin on its body was dry and reptilian-like. It was bald, had a short neck and stood at two metres tall.

Vokon communication officer, Lieutenant Sorog, signalled an alert.

"Commander, we receive a distress signal."

"Where's it coming from?"

"From sector P540, planet Goron."

"Set course for sector P540. Full speed ahead."

"Yes commander."

This Vokon battle fleet headed for planet Goron, not knowing what lay in store for them. Long before they reached Goron, Lieutenant Sorog again signalled an alert.

Inside the Vokon main battleship.

"Commander, three metallic objects detected in sector P540, heading towards us."

On the Big Screen, three tiny metallic robots slowly grew, and grew until they turned into three enormous robots!

"Open communication channel."

"Channel opened."

"This is Commander Kohn. Identify yourself. Who or what are you?"

"Commander, we are being scanned by sensor beams and I’m getting an audio signal," Sorog reported.

"Life-forms detected. Search and destroy!" Omegaton-1 declared.

"How dare you deny our existence!" Vokon commander Kohn was fuming. He took a deep breath and let out a big gust of air. Both of his fish fins by the side of his head were flapping back and forth.

"Search and destroy!" Omegaton-1 repeated. These words were echoed by Omegaton-2 and Omegaton-3.

"You are the three stupidest robots in the universe to make me angry!" Kohn was furious. His fish fins were flapping more rapidly now. His subordinate, Sorog, looked around the command deck and saw all Vokons breathing heavily and their fish fins flapping rapidly by the side of their heads.

Omegaton-1 carried an array of ten arrow detonators on its back. Laid out nicely in an arc, these arrows were stuck onto a special magnetic carrier with grooves made specially for them. Upon activation of this weapon, the magnetic carrier separated into two and lifted itself slightly above Omegaton-1’s shoulders. These two weapon carriers then switched into a horizontal position and took aim at the Vokon main battleship! Two arrow detonators flew towards the main battleship at ultrasonic speed. A series of violent jolts rocked the main battleship as it was being hit by the arrow detonators shot by Omegaton-1.

Omegaton-2 carried a large, crescent metallic cutter on its back. This cutter had a cutting edge of one kilometre with jagged, razor-sharp teeth and looked deadly even to the most well-equipped battleship. Omegaton-3 was fashioned like a scorpion, except that it stretched for twenty kilometres from its head to the tip of its tail. It had two powerful pincers, one on either side of its body and some kind of weapon-like protrusions inside its pincers.

"All stations, take up Torrent Battle Formation! Shoot the enemies!" Kohn issued battle orders with vehemence.

"Yes commander!" Major Thor and Major Sonia obeyed.

"Lieutenant Sorog, maximum power to deflector shield," Kohn ordered.

"Yes commander!"

Major Thor and Major Sonia were the commanding officers of auxiliary battleship-1 and auxiliary battleship-2 respectively. After the battle order was given, the two auxiliary battleships took a portion of the escort fighter-crafts and went for a direct confrontation with the Omegatons.

“All Cryonic fighter-crafts, take up positions at Sector L246,” Major Thor ordered.

“All Xenon fighter-crafts, take up positions at Sector R986,” Major Sonia ordered.

Omegaton-1 and Omegaton-2 were huge metallic robots standing at eight kilometres tall, almost as tall as Mount Everest. In a very short time, Major Thor and Major Sonia saw the Omegatons from their command deck cockpit windows. They were shocked to see such gigantic robots! They began to fear they might not be able to defeat these war-machines. All the Cryonic fighter-crafts were positioned in a straight line on one side of the Omegatons while the Xenon fighter-crafts took up position on the other side.

Just at this moment, the Scorpion shot a beam of death-ray at one of the fighter-crafts, exploding it in a blinding light. Once this act of aggression was committed, all the fighter-crafts went on the offensive. They flew towards the Omegatons in an intimidating fashion, diving down in a spiral path and firing their laser guns at the same time. Omegaton-1 was hit by multiple laser shots. Once these fighter-crafts flew close enough to the robots, they made a U-turn and the next fighter-craft came along. It was like flying a compressed elliptical path. The Omegatons were shot from both sides by the combined Cryonic and Xenon fighter-crafts.

Once these huge Omegatons went on the rampage, it was no laughing matter. Omegaton-1 transformed its right arm into a conical drill, while its left arm was attached with a laser gun. The Scorpion began firing death-ray in spurts from its pincers at the fighter-crafts. Its tail also wrecked massive damages. Omegaton-2 activated its weapon remote control on its right wrist. The weapon carrier behind its back dislodged the big cutter which came to life instantly. This crescent cutter had three red lights shining brightly at its centre. It spinned slowly, drawing a red circle of light. It floated threateningly about in space. This weapon of destruction then started to spin furiously with a high-frequency sound. Its internal circuitry was programmed to seek out heat-generating objects and cut it into two equal pieces. This deadly crescent cutter began to fly towards the fighter-crafts. Soon, the Torrent Battle Formation was thrown into disarray! More fighter-crafts from the main battleship went on to engage these three Omegatons, but they were clearly no match for the big monsters.

“Commander Biron, look out! The scorpion tail!” One Vokon fighter pilot alerted his comrade, but alas it was too late. Commander Biron was unable to avoid the scorpion’s lashing tail. His fighter-craft was hit by its powerful tail and exploded in fire.

“Take that! You metal tin-can,” one fighter pilot took the chance to shoot a laser beam at the scorpion tail. The gigantic tail was not affected in any way and continued to lash out at those fighter-crafts which happened to fly too close to it.

In another part of space, a Xenon fighter-craft made a sharp U-turn and took a shot at the deadly crescent cutter which was following it too closely. The crescent cutter swerved a little, flew off-course and this fighter-craft managed to escape to safety. However, another fighter-craft which happened to lay in the path of this deadly cutter was cut into two and exploded with a big bang.

Onboard auxiliary battleship-1, Vokons were thrown into a flurry of activities.

"Fire gamma-ray!" Major Thor ordered.

Onboard auxiliary battleship-2, the scenario mirrored battleship-1.

"Fire infra-red beam!" Major Sonia ordered.

Two deadly radiation beams shot out from the weapon guns on the undersides of the auxiliary battleships. They were targeted at the Scorpion and Omegaton-1. The two monsters activated their radiation shields rapidly and put on a full defence. Omegaton-2 managed to fly past the battle front-line and began closing in on the main battleship!

"Sorog, activate Weapon Wheel!" Commander Kohn ordered.

Sorog got up quickly from his weapon console and walked to the centre of the command deck where a thin glass column was joined to the ceiling. On the ceiling was a huge circular glass pane with shining yellow light. The glass column also shone with yellow light. Sorog activated his wrist device and pulled up a column of red light on the glass column, which in turn caused the ceiling light to turn red partially.

"Activated!" Sorog replied and walked back to his weapon console.

The gigantic wheel attached to the middle of the main battleship sprang into action. All the weapon guns located around the wheel at regular intervals began to protrude from its openings in the wheel. There were two sets of weapon guns altogether, on both sides of the wheel. These guns were attached in such a way that their firing range could cover the entire hemisphere from where they were located. Most deadly of all, these guns could shoot beams covering the entire radiation spectrum, ranging from gamma-ray, X-ray, neutron beam, infra-red beam to ultraviolet radiation.

Staring at Omegaton-2, the Vokon Commander Kohn whispered to himself, "come on baby, I want to tear you apart, grrrr…." He gritted his teeth, shook his head vigorously and was all set for a deadly encounter! Very soon, the big monster, Omegaton-2, loomed into sight, almost covering the cockpit window of the Vokon main battleship!

"All fighter-crafts, engage enemy!" Kohn ordered.

Immediately, all the fighter-crafts protecting the main battleship went on the offensive and shot their laser weapons at Omegaton-2. All the laser beams struck its target. However, this big monster seemed unaffected by the multiple laser shots. Omegaton-2 recalled its crescent cutter from the battle frontline using its remote control. Soon, the deadly cutter arrived on the scene with a sound that sent shivers down every Vokon spine in the main battleship. Circular flashes of bright red light could be seen following the trail of the cutter. The cutter spinned and hovered in space for a moment. It tilted its angle of spin several times. It made a few tiny revolutions before it zeroed in on one of the fighter-crafts. This fighter-craft was unfortunate to be targeted for attack by the cutter. It tried desperately to flee but was unable to do so. It was cut into two equal parts, right through its U-shape body. Upon completion of the cutting, this fighter-craft exploded into myriad of brilliant lights. The deadly cutter flew in search of the next target!

Omegaton-2 transformed both its mechanical hands into chain-saws and waved them around. Two fighter-crafts flew too close to these chain-saws and were hit directly, which then exploded into brilliant lights. Before long, only a few fighter-crafts were left protecting the main battleship. Just when everything seemed so gloomy, four powerful neutron beams were shot from the front of the Death Wheel and struck the cutter, which was flying towards the main battleship. A small explosion occurred. The crescent cutter, a deadly weapon of destruction, was blown into atoms. Omegaton-2 was also hit by a mixture of deadly beams. It put up its radiation shield rapidly and went on full defence.

The battle raged on fiercely at the front-line. Only a quarter of the fighter-crafts were left. Many of them were destroyed either by the laser beams from the Scorpion or by the conical drill of Omegaton-1. This big monster had transformed one of its arms into a gigantic drill and contacts with them had proven disastrous for the fighter-crafts. The Scorpion also shot out death-rays from both its pincers at the fighter-crafts with deadly accuracy.

Onboard auxiliary battleship-1.

"Borg, maximum death-ray intensity!" Major Thor ordered.

Captain Borg pushed a series of cylindrical prisms of various heights on his weapon console.

"Done!"

Onboard auxiliary battleship-2.

"Rita, maximum gamma-ray intensity!" Major Sonia ordered.

Captain Rita pushed a series of cylindrical prisms of various heights on her weapon console.

"Done!"

Omegaton-1 stole a chance to fling two arrow detonators at the auxiliary battleships. Both battleships were hit as they could not avoid the arrows in time. Omegaton-1 then flew past the auxiliary battleships and began heading towards the main battleship! At this juncture, Omegaton-2 was facing the onslaught of deadly beams from the front of the Death Wheel. Omegaton-1 flew to the rear of the main battleship.

"Here comes another tin-can. Sorog, Death Wheel in full power!" Commander Kohn ordered.