Chapter 2: The Flight of The Pegasus

"Alright, then. You've looked at it plenty, now it's time for you two dolts to scram. We're takin' the old coot and this speedy pile of scraps to the boss. C'mon guys."

The henchman approached the ship, shoving aside Jack and the old man. Now Jack doesn't know why he did this. Neither does ADAM or old man, or even the henchman. Perhaps it was some sort of heroic instinct to help the weak, maybe it was the desperation to ensure that he had a place to reside, it could have possibly been because he was just tired of being pushed around, both verbally and physically, that he had enough of it, or it could have just simply been that he wanted that ship and no faceless grunts could take it from him. Whatever it was, it doesn't really matter why he did it. Because he did it. Jack grabbed onto the shoulder of the henchman and gripped it very tightly. The henchman turned to face Jack and when he did that, Jack's hand balled up into a fist and he cocked his arm back. He then threw with all of his might a punch directly square in the middle of the henchman's covered face. Of course, it probably didn't hurt the guy as much as Jack wanted it to, but with the surprising amount of force he threw into that punch, he was able to knock back the henchman and send him flying down to the ground, making a dull thump sound his back crashed into the sandy ground. 

The punch hurt Jack's hand and he shook it, making a slight pained sound. The other henchmen shouted out and aimed their rifles at the three and fired out a volley of energy. Thinking quicker than normal, ADAM grabbed and pulled Jack and the old man away from the flurry of beams inside the ship, kicking a charging henchman in the chest sending him down flying into the still downed body of the first henchman. ADAM closed the hatch of the ship and locked it from the inside as to avoid any of the henchman from breaking inside. The ship began to slowly flicker on with a light as he then turned to ADAM with a strange, almost cross-eyed, and angry seeming face.

"Jack! What was that for!? This happened to be none of our business, now it's become our business!"

Jack shrugged. "I really can't tell you. Guess I just felt bad for gramps over here."

The old man shouted. "My name is Henry! Get it right-"

Suddenly, the whole ship shook, almost knocking the three off their feet. The henchmen were shooting at the ship itself! They charged up to the hatch of the ship, pulling it, shooting it, hitting it with the butts of their rifles, they did whatever they could to break open that hatch! Jack sprinted to the cockpit and sat on the pilot's seat, searching the control panel to find a way to get the Pegasus away from these goons and into safety. Meanwhile outside, the henchmen were just about to attach explosives onto the hatch of the ship when a Galactic Police Force dropship landed in front of the henchmen, a unit of armored Enforcers hoping out of it and aiming their beam rifles at the henchmen, ordering them to stop.With the sudden arrival of the GPF, the henchmen decided to drop what they were doing and engage the Enforces in combat. An intense laser battle ensued just outside of the ship Henry, Jack and ADAM were in! Finally, Jack founded the ignition button and hit it, causing the ship and he surrounding ground outside to rumble. Then Jack found the launch button and pounded that too, causing the Pegasus to jump up into the atmosphere at a ludicrous speed, knocking down the surrounding henchmen who already lost three of their men to the GPF and made ADAM and Henry, who were not strapped in to actually crash into the roof of the ship, and when the ship finally made it out of Gekdon-1's atmosphere, abruptly stopped, causing them to careen down onto the metallic floor. Jack turned his head to face Henry, and with a very calm but slightly shaky voice, he questioned him;

"Okay, Henry, please tell me just what the hell's going on and how you just happened to get a hold of an incredibly historic ship and just why the mafia is after you, alright?"

"Well." Henry said back, going to sit down on a passenger seat and laying back relaxed like. "It's a long story, really. Care to hear?"

"Of course I do! Why wouldn't I-"

K  A-B  O  O  M!

The ship rattled from an explosion from the outside. All three held on for dear life, not knowing just what was happening. Suddenly, three small, black star-speeders soared overhead of the Pegasus and then making an abrupt turn to face it. Henry shouted out in angst. 

"Oh come on, really!? They're gonna chase us up here, too!?"

A beeping came from the control panel. It was the comm-screen making that noise, someone was calling them! Unsure of who it could be, Jack answered the call and the screen flashed on with the image of a man in what seemed to be flight gear, it must have been one of the star-speeder pilots! The pilot spoke through a slight muffled and buzz voice through his helmet.

"Okay, punk! Listen here and listen good. We gt orders from Leopold himself to fly over here and capture you. So, you gonna follow us to Crylon and drop this ship off! Or else, we'll blast you to bits! And don't think you can just fly away, either. These here star-speeders are about as fast as your Pegasus!"

Jack stared at the screen for a moment, then turning away from he screen and smacked the "end call" button, ignoring everything the pilot said. He sighed then turned to face Henry.

"Any chance this thing has a weapons system? And a working one at that, too?"

Henry nods affirmatively. "It does, see that red button with the sword icon next to it? Hit that, oh, and to ensure our survival, at least for a little while longer, hit the blue button below it with the shield icon." 

Jack listened to Henry's words and looked for the two buttons he described. Finding them, Jack slammed his hand down on the two buttons, a series of honks, beeps and mechanical whirs and clicks showed that everything was working an d turning on. First, the roof of the ship was opening up to reveal a two-gunned one-an turret, and then the Pegasus was engulfed in a bright blue orb of light with as soon as it came it faded away, showing that the shields were activated. As soon as these two things happened, the star-speeders went into full combat-mode, dashing around firing furious volleys of lasers, them bouncing off harmlessly off the shield. Being the only one left standing, ADAM rushed up to the turret and hopped inside. It made a sort of mechanical whirring and clacking as it spun around the swivel of it. Jack then flew around the lasers with ADAM firing back.

"D-Damn... These things ARE fast!" Shouted out Jack as he pulled up, avoiding a blast of energy beams.

Being his first time piloting the Pegasus, or just a ship of such incredible speeds or in a combat situation, he had much trouble maneuvering around the laser volleys, some beams occasionally hitting the ship, luckily enough, the ship had it's shields. Which were, unluckily enough, slowing depleting. Both Jack and ADAM had to act and think very quickly. Fast. Though it could have just simply have been luck, ADAM finally made a hit, a beam of his made a direct hit! It hit the wing of the ship and caused it to spin out of control, crashing into another one of the star-speeders, causing them both to erupt into a massive fireball. Jack, relieved, made a long, deep, pleased sigh, Henry shouted out in victory and ADAM relaxed back on the gun with a pleased smile. Though this celebration could not last for much too long, as hunks of debris from the two wrecked ships was flying towards the Pegasus at high speeds. Just before the collision, Jack made a very sharp pull-up and U-turn, avoiding the debris. While all this was happening, the pilot of the last star-speeder felt it was a good idea to fly out of there and back home. Jack turned around and unbuckled himself from the seat. ADAM hopped down from the turret. Jack leaned back on the seat and crossed his legs. He smiled and asked Henry a rather simple question;

"Now... Just what the hell happened to this ship those past 50 years after the First Civil War?"

Henry smiled and responded to Jack's inquiry. "Ah, it's a very long story. Are you ready?"

Jack nodded. "Of course I'm ready! Now, tell me everything, please."

Meanwhile... The lone star-speeder flew all the to the Exodus systems, a independent group of three planetary systems ruled by the likes of megacorporations, crime families, pirate groups, mercenary units and bounty hunter units. It is a very dangerous and lawless placed, with constant war between these powers for greater power and control throughout these systems. One of the biggest criminal organizations to exist in these systems is the Dark Shadows, led by the infamous space mobster Leopold Bendwiller. The star-speeder landed on the planet Crylon, which was under control by the Dark Shadows. The pilot hopped out of his ship and dashed to the front of a large and ominous looking building. The building was very tall and fortress-like, it was colored a deep, dark grey, with tall walls and an even taller tower in the center, where a large dome was positioned. It was surrounded by deep moats and guard towers with spotlights, the sky around the tower was dark, grey and cloudy. This dark and ominous building was called Fort Carduna, the building where Leopold resided. He was stopped by two armed guards at the large arch shaped metal front doors. He stood at attention and with urgency in his voice, he shouted out.

"Move out the way, now! I must see the boss immediately!"

Meanwhile, at the very top of the dark tower, there was a large room, covered in shadowy darkness. Sitting in the center of this dark room sat a man, obscured in the shadows. The large doors to the room swung wide open, bringing some light into the room. Between the doors stood the pilot, holding onto one of the doors and with breathed heavily, he regained his composure and stood at attention and bowed. While still bowing, he spoke to the man cloaked in the darkness.

"L-Leopold, sir...! The... Pegasus... It attacked us! Took out two ships...!"

The man in the darkness, stepped out of the shadows, the light from the doors showed his features. He had short, light brown hair combed back, a short beard with a distinct mustache, of the same color of his hair. His clothing was a dark grey dress coat, a turtleneck of the same color and black slacks. His left, was covered with a dark, black eyepatch. He looked at he pilot with his one, cold, green eye. He put his hand on the pilot's head and gave a small smile and spoke slowly.

"Worry not. That Pegasus will soon be ours. Then with that great power, we will become the true power of the galaxy!"

Tune in next time for another exciting chapter of Pegasus Zion!

Author's Note

Ah, the first of many antagonists! What do you think about him so far?