textfiles/stories/sre-dark.txt

                          SRE's Darker Half
                          
Written by: Chris Trendle                      Edited and 
            Paul Gerth                         Compiled by
            Robert Chapman                     Robert Chapman


There was an empire once deemed to be run by a fool, but alas the fool was no
more than a mastermind scheme. The war torn, half cybernetic ruler was so
named Mentor, as he had proven his worth as an emperor of trust. He was not,
however, naive to the war and the stakes taking place around him. After having
torn down all he had built, he swore vengence on all who had dishonored him.
His rebuild was slow and deliberate, as not to attract any attention to his
vastly growing armies. He was at one time a peaceful ruler, yet the great war
had changed him. He knew whom he could trust and stuck with them. His empire
left in shambles, he sought revenge. Building on ore mining, his wealth and
power grew. No more would dishonorable spies palgue his empire with thoughts
of undermining his work. As so begins the story.....

                                  * * * * *
  
Akaii-Prime, Akaii Castle:

    "Radio transmissin from the Ching Dynasty sir."
    "Patch them through to my office," muttered Mentor.
    *zbbzckkkkzxzzxxxx* is all that came over the airwaves.
    "Damn Japanese junk, I shoulda got an RCA. Damn!" Mentor yelled as he
pulled out his MKF-1267 blaster.
    *zzzzzzzzzzkkkkkkkkkk*
    The set was left in shambles, scattered all along the great mapped wall.
    "SCRENCA.... Send a message to the Ching Dynasty that the last radio
transmission was not recieved. I will try to get them after the Zexell Moon
has cleared."
    "Very well sir," Screnca replied in an almost robotic tone.
    "Now... Where is that catalog, I need a new screen........."

                                  * * * * *

"Transmit to Ching Dynasty, private channel. What we are to discuss is of
great importance," Mentor told the operator.
    "Akaii calling the Ching Dynasty. Shang Ti, this is Mentor. I have a
matter of importance to discuss."
    "Your enemy Ming will be eliminated by my forces. It appears he did not
know of our alliances and he gave himself away, but it is of no concern
anymore. He will be eliminated shortly!" Mentor called out over the airwaves
with a bit of relief.
    "One problem though, I sense the return of the one once called Ensata. I
feel his return in what is left of my organic body over...."
    The radio falls quiet for a second.

                                  * * * * *

Ching-Prime, A Grey Highway:

    "Damn Japanese crap!" Shang Ti said as he leaned against his land speeder.
An empty beer can slammed into the side of his speeder, smashing the window,
as someone shouted obscenities at him.
    "Did you see that, Wu-sang?!" he yelled into his communicater. "I want you
to blast them!"
    "Yes sir!" Wu-sang replied. At his ComPanel Wu-sang switched his sat view
from the emperor to the offending speeder and, with it in his cross-hairs,
pushed a button.
    As the speeder banked off in the distance a large blue line shot out of 
the heavens striking it. There was a huge explosion and the speeder crashed to
the ground. Shang Ti leapt into the air laughing.
    "That will teach you to throw beer cans at your emperor!" Shang Ti said as
he turned to find his replacement speeder coming to a rest near the broken
one. Wu-sang stepped outt and walked over to Shang Ti. He bowed once and
waited for his emperor to speak. 
    "Well, what the hell took so long?"
    "Sorry, sir! But we just caught another of Ming's spies a few miles from
here." Wu-sang pointed off to the distance behind Shang Ti.
    "Good work. That snake MING! No wonder my sujects are throwing crap at 
me!"

                                  * * * * *

Along the horizion came a silver streak, followed by a cloud of dust raised by
the obvoiusly oversized thrusters.
    "Theoden, my son, the man we are about to meet is a very dear friend of
mine. We fought side by side during the downfall of the Valar, and have
rebuilt together a team of empires which, along with other alliances, have
once again straightened the ways of the universe." Mentor said to his son
Theoden.
    "WHAT?!!?" Theoden replied, pulling the sonic headphones out of his still
human ears.
    "Nevermind, just be polite to Shang Ti. Otherwise, there will be no pizza
tonight!!" Mentor replied to Theoden, cracking a half hearted smile.
    "Who's Shang Ti?" Theoden said, his interest aroused suddenly by the
thought of meeting someone other than his father's war friends.
    "An old friend of mine, back before the time of the Valar we....."
    Mentor was cut off by a beer can almost hitting him square in the jaw.
    "JEEZSUS, Shang Ti must have been hit with spies, infiltrating his empire
again..... Theoden, DUCK!!!!" Another beer can barely missed his son's head.
    "I've gotta talk to Shang Ti about all these people drinking and driving"
Mentor exclaimed to his driver. Theoden was doing the typical teenage foot
banging that was so popular with his type of music.
    "Dad, are we there yet?" Theoden whined to his father.
    "No we are not there yet" Mentor said in the same drawn out whiney voice.
    "And if you ask again, I'll...."
    BONK!!!! a beer can hit Mentor right on the head.
    "Damn these people! I realize they own the majority of the beer
manufacturing plants for the galaxy, but I think they support their trade just
a leettle too much," Mentor muttered under his breath.
    "Approaching Shang Ti's speeder sir," Mentor's driver said in a monotonous
tone.
    "AAAH at last, reunited with my old friend," Mentor said, a sort of pride
entering his voice.
    "Hand me the field scope," Mentor muttered to his son.
    "WHAT?!!?" his son replied. Once again, the music (That's what they claim
it is anyway) was too loud.
    "Nevermind!" Mentor said in disgust. "Damn kids!"
    Reaching for the field glasses, Mentor spied something on the horizion. It
looked like a small burning vessle.. Grasping the glasses, he set the
magnification to 5X and peered through them.
    "I don't believe it! Somebody vandalized Shang Ti's new Mercedes... He
shoulda got a Multipersonal Vette, like mine. Oh well, he'll learn one of
these days!"
    "Looks like whoever did it got more than what they bargained for!" added
Theoden.
    As the speeder sped closer to the Burning vessel, Mentor prepared himself
for the confrontation with Shang Ti.
    "At last, we meet again Shang Ti." Mentor muttered to himself.
    The speeder came screeching to a halt next to Shang-Ti's own speeder.
    "We have a problem" Mentor exclaimed.
    "I know, the chemical weapons used agenst my empire were devestating. The
nukes didn't help much either," Ching said dropping his head.
    "That is a problem, and my forces have already retaliated," Mentor calmly
said, trying to calm Shang Ti's nerves.
    "He cannot last much longer now, if we band together, we can once again
run him from this galaxy." Mentor held his head high, though it was a false
show of confidence.
    "He will perish" Shang Ti muttered under his breath, barely audible to
anyone else.
    "Ready my cruiser!" Mentor exclamed to his driver.
    "It is time to rick some rass!!!!!!!!" Mentor said playfully.
    "What are the casualties of the last five attacks on Ming?" Mentor asked
of his driver.
    Frantically, the driver pushed buttons on the panel.
    "Zero casualties, zero equipment loss sir," the driver replied.
    "What!?!?!?!" Shang-Ti and Mentor exclaimed in stereo.
    "Let the onslought begin!" Mentor shouted, giddy with the destruction of
the traitor Ming.

                                  * * * * *

Theoden smelled the faint whiff of chemicals on the wind. SHIT, that stuff
stank! Why'd he have to be in this hellpit anyway? He didn't want to end up
like his father. How could he pick up chicks with a stainless steel- um...
face?
    "Dad, can I borrow the car while you trash Ensata? I got a hot date
tonight."
    "What's the matter with your car?"
    "That piece of trash? That thing has less power than an icecream truck!
Besides, after I downloaded all that pirated software into my onboard NavComp,
it got completely zotched by that Michaelangelo thing."
    "Son, I don't have time for this!" cried Mentor, his electronically 
filtered voice rising to a garbled digital screech. "Damn cheap Jap voicebox
modulator!"
    "Oh fuck this! This chick's incredible! I'll never get back to Akaii-Prime
in time unless I can borrow YOUR car." His father turned his back on him,
signifying that there would be no discussion. Theoden took this chance to
reach into his father's pocket and snag the keys to the Porchevette Romero.
His father didn't notice since the nerve sensors below Mentor's waist were
completely dead... What a way to live! While Mentor blabbed with Shang,
Theoden crept into the ruby red sports car and started the engine.
    "Later, pops!"
    "What the--? Get back here!!!"
    The car raced off, picking up from 0 to 80 in 5.6 nanoseconds.
    "That's it! You're grounded!"

                                  * * * * *

The threat was completely unheard by young Theoden, partly because he was at
that moment trying to break the sound barrier. He felt that if he went fast
enough, he wouldn't be able to see the hulk of this planet. As he picked up
speed, all the wastelands turned into a grey blur flying past the windows. All
the wastelands that reminded him of the fate of Akaii-Prime, the planet he had
grown up on.
    Theoden had realized something long ago. He knew he hated his father. Even
before the chemical weapons had withered his planet completely, it had been
wasted by the mining operations tapping every planet for any valuable ore. As
he grew into adolescense, he had seen the green planet which held so many
memories changed to a wasteland. All this just because of his father's petty
need for revenge. As his planet died, Theoden thought, his childhood had died.
He wouldn't lose all humanity, he couldn't allow himself to become like his
robot of a father, but he hid his emotions deep within.
    Theoden slowed the car and realized he was crying. He quickly checked this
display of emotion and popped "Liquidizer" into the DMM (Digital Music
Machine).

  "Mary Hangs from the rearview mirror!
   On the dash her son's got words!
   We got a carload of faith here,
   And we're saved from the world by some verse, yeah!"

                                  * * * * *               

"For a cast iron dictator, you sure don't have very good control over your
kid!" said Shang Ti.
    "Oh, just leave me alone. The kid's a juvenile delinquent, he's been
thrown out of 15 boarding schools and all he does is listen to that gadawful
stuff he calls music."
    "OK! Forget about it! There's something bothering me. Have you kept up
with this Asmodeus guy?"
    "He's just some petty dictator who took over a small backwater empire."
    "Maybe, maybe not. However, we have evidence that he is in contact with
Ming."
    Mentor seemed unimpressed by this news.
    "Have you seen the SpySat coverage of his battles?" asked Shang Ti.
    "No," retorted Mentor, obviously tiring of the conversation.
    "He's a master tactician. I'm not sure just how good, but if he's in
contact with Ming...."
    "What...?" demanded Mentor, his impatience fading.
    "Well, our job just got a LOT harder. The only way we can punish Ming is
if we coordinate together with Rohan. Rohan is next to Asmodeus' growing
empire, and Eomer will be willing to help us. We will have to organize so
our attacks are simultaneous, that way in the confusion we will be able to
divide and conquer and we just might win this ill-advised war."
    "Simultaneous? Over all the parsecs of space we have to cover? That's all
but impossible. We need more people than we have to coordinate this whole
thing!"
    Shang-Ti grinned, "That kid of yours, no matter what you might think of 
him, isn't such a bad kid. I've seen the reports from his schools -- I know!
but CX1 was getting bored and I had to give him something to do. Anyway, his
tests have him well above genius level. He's a master at tactics and
trans-spatial mathematics. If anyone could pull it off, I think Theoden 
could."
    "I can't imagine that kid in charge of a friggin' Seven-11, forget a
combined military force," Mentor raved, "Besides, we don't even know where the
kid is......."

                                  * * * * *

Akaii-Prime, A Deserted Road:

    Exactly where Theoden was was becoming a mystery even to him. The
afterburners of the 'Vette were cooling down from an interplanetary jump. It 
was one of the nicer features of the more expensive sports cars, a small 
plasma drive for limited space travel. The grey skies of Akaii-Prime no longer
said home to him, and he found himself in an area of the planet he didn't 
know. Or maybe he did know it at one time, the mining had reshaped the 
planet's surface, and the haze of poisonous chemicals made everything look
different.
    He knew that he was lost.
    He tried the onboard NavComp, but couldn't figure out the security. This
thing was state of the art, unlike the computers he was used to breaking into,
like the box office computer he had cracked to get tickets to the Kamikaze
Lemmings concert that night. He had the tickets with him. Now, if he could 
only figure out where he was.
    If he could figure out where he was he could pick up Kyrana. At the 
thought of Kyrana his anger settled. No matter what else happened, he would
always have her. He could picture her face, those depthless brown eyes, a 
voice a clear and pure as dawn after a thunderstorm....
    The SpaCellular phone chirped.
    "Uh oh, it's dad, better not answer!" he thought.
    The phone wouldn't stop ringing, however. Finally, the speakerphone 
clicked on and started speaking in a familiar voice. Theoden started. Only two
people knew how to do that, Theoden himself, and...
    "Farstal, you old knave! How'd you get this number?"

                                  * * * * *

Ching-Prime, CX Headquarters:

    "Hrrrrrissssxxxxxxx--- Damn Jap piece of shhhhhxxxxxxxxx------*"

                                  * * * * *

Akaii-Prime, A Secret Bunker:
 
    "Oh no, not again!" Shang Ti slammed the top of the set. BEEeeep--* "Work,
damn you!" he hit the set repeatedly. A few seconds later, the set winked to
life again. "Hello? Charlie X-ray One, come in. CX1, do you read me?"
   "Who the Hell is this? This is a closed channel dammit!"
   "This is your emperor."
   "Uhhh, sorry boss. What's this about? You want me to plant a bomb?"
   "No--"
   "Take a hostage?"
   "No I--"
   "Set up Asmodeus and Ming?"
   "NO! Liste--"
   "Oh boy! Do you want me to assasinate someone?"
   "NO!!! SHADDUP! I want you to find someone, CX1."
   "Someone's been kidnapped?"
   "No-"
   "Ohmygod! Was it Mentor? You were meeting him weren't you?"
   "For a spy, you sure got a big mouth, CX1. I need you to find a kid."

                                  * * * * *

Akaii-Prime, Akaii Castle:

    Mentor opened his eyes. 
    "OOOOAAHHHHAAA!" He slamed them shut again! Ohhh! he thought, that hurt!
When will I learn not to mix Tiegillian gin with that Earth beer! Jeeze! Just
then the room exploded (or at least he thought so) as Shang Ti pounded on the
door.
    "Open up!" exclaimed Shang Ti, "Yo, Akaii! Mentor Akaii! Get your ass
outta bed! We found your kid! Let me in!"
    Mentor pressed the door realese button. The door opened with a click and
Shang Ti pushed through the door. 
    "Goddamn it!" he said as the women scurried into the bathroom. "Couldn't
this wait til morning?"    
    "We also have a small problem.... Again." Shang Ti siad halfheartedly.
    "NOW what?" Mentor muttered, trying to hide the tee pee made from the
sheets of the oversized bed.
    "Well, there were some nukes headed your way, they hit in the kilarian
sector. My instruments picked them up, we tried to intercept them, but were
not quick enough," Shang Ti explained.
    "Dammit! It must be that Ming yo-yo again." Mentor exclaimed.
    "They were launched by Asmodeus."
    "What?!?! How did that second class dictator get nukes? And why'd the
bastard attack me? We had a ceasefire agreement! That's it, let us go prepare
for war," Mentor said vehemently as he put on his lazer armored trousers.
"Can't hurt the jewels in these," Mentor quipped, cracking a smile.
    "I have heard Theoden's plan for the invasion, it sounds like it should
work, but I need time to rebuild my forces." Shang Ti claimed.
    "OK" Mentor said.
    Just after Mentor let out the words a lazer blast burst through the far
window, glancing off a mirror and hitting him square in the head.
    "MENTOR!!!!" Shang Ti cried...

                                  * * * * *
    
"What!!!!!" Theoden's voice became sketchy. "My father was killed... By 
whom?" His native red eyes glowed ever so fiercely.
    "We don't know. A laser blast came through the window. Your security
forces are searching for the asassin, and my soldiers are joining them," said
Shang Ti.
    "What are the chances of finding him?"
    "If we haven't found him by now, I doubt we will," replied Shang Ti in
a soft tone.
    Theoden sank back into the chair. I know nothing about running a peaceful
empire, he thought. All I know is music and hacking and mathematical tactics. 
I have no practical experience ruling. My father was too busy seeking revenge
to teach me diplomacy or leadership. He just shipped me off to boarding 
schools to get me out of his way.
    Theoden could only assume it was one of Asmodeus' agents who had killed 
his father, who had left him to rule an empire he knew nothing about. He now
understood his father's pain, and he now felt his father's rage.
    "Revenge WILL be mine!" he muttered.

                                  * * * * *

Theoden pored over the spreadsheets. Damn! He had no idea how this stuff
worked. His field was spatial geometry and tactics. The mathematics were
completely different from those involved in accounting. Matters of money were
more closely related to the mathematics Farstal had studied. Farstal would
have been able to help him... would have. He tried not to think back to the
events of that night, but it was inevitable.
   He felt a flashback coming on... 
   
                                  * * * * *
                                  
Flashback: 
 
    Farstal and Theoden had been friends since earliest youth. They met in
elementary computer literacy. Both of them were bored to tears and spent their
time writing viruses and setting them free on the school's mainframe. Most of
the viruses were harmless and did little more than garble text files and slow
the computers down. They had one, the "computer cold," that would make the
computers "cough" every once in a while. The computers would reboot, much to
the dismay of students in the middle of writing their term papers.
    Later on, they started breaking into "secure" systems, and became very
familiar with the phone system. Together they had discovered how to remotely
access phones. Certain high tech phones had a voice controlled answer feature.
If no one answered, they could send a pulse signal and the phone would connect
through a speaker. It only worked on phones with the answer feature, higher
tech phones.
    The phone in Mentor's car was, of course, state of the art...

                                  * * * * *

Akaii Prime, A Decimated City: 

    "Theoden! Ya snagged the old man's car!"
    "How'd you kno-- oh never mind. I shouldn't be surprised by anything you
do."
    "Where are you, man?"
    "I honestly don't know. The security on this NavComp is the best 
available!"
    "Heh, no security's unbreakable! There's always a hole."
    "Oh yeah? You try," said Theoden, patching the phone over to the NavComp.
He watched in amazement as Farstal broke through the security in nothing flat.
    "Hah! I think that's a new record."
    "You are simply incredible!"
    "I know. Hey! You're not too far from where you need to be. The landscape
just isn't familiar because it's been rearranged by an attack force."
    "Ming?"
    "No, there's some new fascist dictator who took over a small empire.
Nobody knows who he is, he's known only as 'Asmodeus'. I've been 'rummaging'
through Asmodeus' data files. I can't quite figure out who he is, but I think
I have a pretty good idea. He started out attacking smaller empires, gethering
strength, but lately he's been attacking the larger empires and having
unbelievably phenomenal success. He's a brilliant tactician in the classic
Powellian Stratagems. He must be patched into the fleet by some sort of
cyberlink, their performance is absolutely flawless... like clockwork!
Whaddaya think?"
    "Huh?" Theoden had been lost in thought. Powellian strategy had been an
interest of his for as long as he could remember. It was almost impossible to
execute as it required exact precision, but it was believed that there was no
counter to it. Always interested in a challenge, Theoden had spent all his
free time trying to figure out a way not only to defend against Powellian 
offensives, but to turn them back. It was such a daring ploy that it made
Blitzkrieg look like throwing pinecones at passing cars. "Listen, I think I
can handle this guy. I'm pretty sure I've figured out a counter to-"
    "Hold it!" Farstal's voice was so severe that Theoden's blood ran
momentarily cold.
    "What?" asked Theoden, trying to keep the fear from entering his voice.
    "I just heard something, it was probably nothing," Theoden could tell from
Farstal's tone that it definately was something. His suspicions were confirmed
by Farstal's next remark. "Oh, did you know my cat, Anthrax, had six kittens?"
    Anthrax! Six! Those were the code words meaning that the line was being
tapped! But why? By whom? Theoden probed for more information.
    "OK, hey do you think I can get one of the kittens?"
    "No, I was thinking of sending them to Asmodeus."
    What?!?! Shit, this was serious. He had scanned the tap and it wasn't by a
friend. Rather, they were being listened to by an agent of Asmodeus! What
else?
    "The cats are right here with me."
    That could only mean that Farstal had managed to infiltrate Asmodeus'
coordinating computer.
    "Well, I hope your dog doesn't see them."
    "He already has, and he's been watching them."
    Now THIS was serious. There had been an agent dispatched by Asmodeus to 
find him!
    "Now, what kind of dog do you have again?" Theoden asked, his voice
trembling.
    "A pit bull. I think the kittens are in trouble."
    Pit bull! An asassin!
    "I may also send some to Shang Ti."
    An agent from Ching was also after him!
    "Shang Ti has a very good watchdog, I don't think they'd be in danger with
him."
    An agent to spy on him, maybe to protect him.
    "Any female kittens?"
    "Yeah. The pit bull seems to be leaving her alone for the moment, but she
might be in danger, there are more than one-- What the? HEY! Who the Hell are
you? Whoah! Put that down, man... *Zzzzzt* Aaaaagh!---*"
    "Farstal? Farstal!!!"
    Theoden's mind raced. It was all too much for him to take in at once. 
While trying to keep his head from spinning, he was confused by another 
occurrence.
    A pair of lights lanced through the air. Headlights! His stomach dipped
down into his crotch, it was one of the spies. He knew that there was one spy
from Shang Ti, sent either to keep an eye on him, protect him, or perhaps to
kidnap him. Then there was an asassin sent by Asmodeus after him. Perhaps more
than one. And maybe one of them was after Kyrana. He had found that much out
from Farstal before... before...
    His heart raced and his adrenal gland went into overdrive. It was nearly
impossible to think, but he realized that he was too easily recognizable in 
his father's million dollar sportscar. He fumbled for the door handle, his 
ears buzzing.
    Then he was out in the cold, foul smelling night air. The headlights were 
no longer illuminating the scene and clouds of smog covered the fingernail 
moon. He ran, completely disoriented, hoping only to get away from whomever 
was in that car. A light briefly flashed behind him, illuminating the scene
slightly. Then a needle of red light lanced by his left ear, so close he could
feel the heat against the skin of his cheek.
    He jumped aside, throwing himself to the ground, and the ruins of the city
were shown bright as day by the exploding Porchevette Romero. Then he ran, ran
past walls of ruined brick buildings, down a cracked asphalt road, seeing his
way by the light of the flaming automobile. His lungs burned, his legs ached,
but he didn't slow. The pain in his chest was overpowered by the exhiliration
of his fear.
    The landscape brightened. He looked over his shoulder and was blinded by 
the headlights of the car. He dashed to the side of the road, ducking behind 
the facade that was all that remained of a bank. He felt his breathing stopped
by a hand clamping over his mouth. He tried to scream and kicked out, but the
arms grasped tighter. NO! It couldn't end this way! He had to warn Kyrana!
    "Shut up, kid! We don't want him to hear us. Shang Ti wants you alive." 
The leather gloved hand eased its grip on his mouth and he gasped for air.
    "What does Shang Ti want with me?" Theoden asked between gasps with slight
dismay in his voice.
    "He needs the details of your counterstrike," the dark figure said.
    The car passed by, its infrared scanner working overtime trying to lock in
on the heat source it had found.
    "We must move quickly," the spy said hasitly.
    Moving with unheard of stealth the spy and Theoden traveled through the
back alleyways, until they came to an open manhole.
    "I'm not going down there!" Theoden said with a glare in his eye.
    Just then the all too familar face of Shang Ti appeared. "Quit your 
bitchin and get your little ass down here NOW!" he excalimed, looking around
hastily.
    Shang Ti insisted on bringing Theoden back so the attack could begin ASAP.
When he objected on the matter of Kyrana's safety, Shang Ti sent CX1 to 
protect her. Sent his best agent!
    This had to be serious.
    The dank sewer system led to a small room filled with nothing but computer
terminals. "I'm pretty sure your dad doesn't know about this place . This is 
our base for covert operations on this planet. There's an armored vehicle 
directly above us. It will take you home to your father's castle. First, 
though, I need to know your plan."
    "Plan?"
    "Asmodeus wasn't the only one monitoring that call. Sorry about your 
friend, he sounded like someone I could use. Someone we all could use.
Asmodeus has tipped his hand. He wants complete control. Everything. He must
be stopped."
    Theoden explained his plan to Shang Ti and was sent on his way. He was
secretly dreading having to tell his father about the car. Suddenly, an alarm
klaxon sounded in the armored vehicle.
    "There's someone behind us!" the driver shouted. The monitor showed a 
darkly colored car closing on the slower armored groundcar. Theoden recognized
it as the vehicle that had chased him at the ruined city.
    "We can't outrun it! Arm weapons systems."
    How had the spy followed them? The only possible explanation was that it
had gotten an IR lock on them before they had entered the sewers.
    "Driver calling Shang Ti! We have some company here. He probably knows
where the base of operations is. Advise you abandon. Repeat: advise you
abandon!"
    Static. Then: "Read you! This is Shang Ti, a squad of Ching troops just
arrived here. I don't think it will be necessary to abandon. However, I'll be
taking an armored speeder to Akaii Castle. Meet me there."
    "Roger!"
    Just then the vehicle was rocked by an explosion.
    "Shit... Take that, you bastard!" The groundcar's weapon systems unleashed
a volley of fire. The car was reduced to a pile of scrap metal. "Even if he 
got out in time, he can't follow us now!" said the driver grimly.
    The groundcar arrived at Mentor's castle, but Theoden soon found out that
he wouldn't have to explain the 'Vette to his father...
    His father had been asassinated.

                                  * * * * *

Akaii Prime, Akaii Castle:

    Theoden was sick with trying to balance the books so he went over again in
his head the plan of attack. Since Asmodeus was most likely hooked up to his
forces by cyberlink, the same would be necessary for him if he were to achieve
victory. He smiled grimly. All those thousands of ships, and it all boiled
down to little more than a contest between two minds. Like some bizarre game
of high stakes, high speed chess!
    He rubbed the back of his head, which was still sore from the operation to
install the interface chip into his brain. The one drawback to his strategy 
was that it had to be defensive. Any attack on a Powellian Spearhead would be 
routed immediately no matter how carefully or cleverly done. He had to wait 
for another attack, which he knew would be a big one. A huge strike by 
Asmodeus' newly acquired empire against the forces of all the major galactic 
empires. The waiting was driving him insane. Besides, he couldn't handle all 
this number crunching. He was a tactitian not a mathematician, dammit!
    He plugged into the simulator and ran a classic Powellian attack. His
reactions were perfect, but he failed because his mind was elsewhere, 
pondering the fact that the next time could be the real thing. He couldn't 
retain his sanity much longer this way. Theoden could wait no longer.
    Suddenly, he was hit by inspiration. There was ONE way he could launch a 
successful attack against a Powellian Spearhead. It was even riskier than his 
previous strategy, but it could work if...
    "Patch me through to Cyberlink mianframe!" Theoden called through the com.
    "Patching sire... Plugged in and waiting your command," the system 
operator called back.
    "Are the troops in position?" Theoden called again through the com.
    "Set and online," the voice returned.
    "OK, here's what we're gonna do. When we begin the invasion, I want all 
channels scanned, known and unknown. when we find out what frequency he is 
using, I want you to broadcast some "Beastie Boys" over the channel. That 
oughta confuse the hell out of his outdated cyberlink. It'll allow us an 
advantage for approximately 15-20 seconds. I want all waves to be ON TIME now,
so be sure everyone is set. Has the food been destroyed yet?" Theoden cleared
his mind of everything but the attack.
    "Yes sire, there is great unrest among Asmodeus' troops and civilians." 
the voice replied.
    "Good, now position the fighters to the alpha detron 4 position, as soon 
as they are picked up on his radar, begin to scan. He WILL immediately 
mobilize, and when he does, blast the music." A smile spread across Theoden's 
face before he checked this display of emotion.

                                  * * * * *

Deep Space, Rohan/Asmodeus Border:

"The fighters have been picked up... Scanning... Locked... Jamming...."

  "You gotta fight!      "NO...                "So what'cha
   For your right!        SLEEP...              What'cha
   To paaaarty!"          TIL BROOKLYN!"        What'cha want?"
   
    Theoden watched the monitor and quickly positioned his fighters in behind
Asmodeus' troops and Heavy crusers. The 15 seconds was over and the onslaught
began. some fighters were lost due to careless crossfire, but the battle was
won. 
    Asmodeus was captured and brought to Castle Akaii. There he would face
Theoden and Shang Ti to recieve his sentence. He knew deep within his heart
that neither would have any mercy on him. He knew that there he would die,
cold and alone. The next day came and rejoicing echoed throughout the empires.
Holding Asmodeus' head high for all to see were Shang Ti and the new, young 
emperor Theoden. Asmodeus was dead, but the war agenst evil was not ended, for
there was one missing among the dead, and somewhere out there lied an ancient
advesary... MING!

                                  * * * * *
                                  
Deep Space, A Cloaked Ship:

    "Hmmmm... Fools! All Fools!" The dark figure moved in his chair as he
hissed at the VidCon screen that showed Shang Ti holding the head of his best
agent. Asmodeus laughed aloud. "I will soon have my revenge!" 
    As he turned off the VidCon the door opened and Ming walked in.
    "So Asmodeus, you DID make it out alive!" Ming hissed.
    "Yesss. But those fools will PAY! Pay for my PAIN!" roared Asmodeus as he
turned exposing his charred face and cybereye.
    Ming withdrew a step in horror and added, "Yes. They WILL pay!"