Survival Gamers [An Original Story]

Chapter 12: The Cold, Dark End

I have to admit, Raven wasn't exaggerating the quality of his secret "project." Not even a bit. The thing flew with ease, and hit speeds I'd never thought were possible, without even breaking a sweat! We easily catch up with the ship, but run into a little problem.

"Fire the weapons! Fire the weapons!" Exclaims Daxter, enthusiastically.

"Uh... that's a problem." Raven stammers. I look at him nervously.

"Why is that a problem?" I ask.

"This ship doesn't actually have weapons." He admits. I slam my forehead into the palm of my hand.

"You've got to be joking! We catch up with the Survival Gamers with a completely useless ship and now what? We get to watch them float up to victory?" I exclaim.

"No, I have an idea, but you three are going to have to get this ready before we leave the atmosphere." Raven says, then reaches down grabbing some things. Sitting up, he hands Jack a large, flat string, made from a very stretchy material. Then, he hands me a huge rock.

"Alright, now here's how this is going to work..." Raven begins, then pauses to push a button on the controls, and on the back of the ship a small, thick antenna pops up. He plays around with the controls some more and two more antennas pop up on the right and left sides of the top of the ship. "Use those antennas and make a slingshot, we're going to try and launch this rock at their engine." He finishes.

"Are you insane?!" Jack exclaims.

"Yeah, you bet I'm insane! Now hurry up!" Raven retorts, pressing another button. As he does, the window slides open again. I stare out at the ship's top, watching the wind and clouds brush over with terrifying speed. Swallowing hard, I grip the rock tight and climb out on top. Keep cool, Klere, keep cool! I think to myself, slowly making my way towards the back of ship. As I grab the antenna at the back for safety, I look back to see Jack coming towards me with the middle of the strings - the edges having been tied to the other two antennas.

"Put the rock behind the antenna!" He shouts as he comes over to crouch next to be. I place the rock behind the antenna obediently and watch as Jack pulls the string, positioning it tightly behind the rock and the antenna so that the rock is crushed between the antenna and the string.

"You think that'll do?" I call over the wind. Jack hesitates, then nods.

"It's not the best weapon, but it's what we've got!" He calls back. Satisfied with the makeshift slingshot, we climb our way back to the front, jumping in through the opening. Once Jack follows after me back inside the ship, Raven seals the window and we move our ship so that it's lined up just behind the Gamers'.

"Fire! Fire!" Daxter cheers. Raven shakes his head.

"No, it'll work better once we're in space - there'll be no wind or currents to slow it down." He explains. So we wait. We chase the ship up, up, up, but we didn't have to wait too long. After no more than five minutes, I see the light blue sky quickly fade to a dark black. Suddenly everything became visible, the stars, the distant planets, and, of course, the large black vessel hovering intimidatingly over our puny planet. The mothership! I think, beginning to panic.

"Raven, if there was ever a time to fire that slingshot, it's now!" I exclaim sternly. Raven adjusts the ship slightly, aiming it so that the rock will fly right into the ship's engine, rendering it useless. He adjusts the ship, until it's perfectly aligned with the other ship's engine, then pauses.

"Raven!" I snap.

"Ok! Ok!" Raven exclaims, pressing the button. The back antenna flips down, the rock shoots forward, heading directly for the Gamers' ship. My heart sinks when I see the Gamers' ship take a sudden left turn, heading for a small door that was now opening up on the side of the mothership.