A/N: Man! A whole year since this story was last updated, but its finally here! I'll also be narrating the story on my Youtube channel under the name, SkyRunner SG-1, so feel free to check it out and subscribe.
Disclaimer: My OC's are all that I own.
Chapter 5: Exodus VI
Lincoln stood at the window of the observation deck with Lucy, gazing out at the stars rushing by as the Daphne flew through hyperspace. It had been over an hour since they had left Earth, or what remained of it, and the whole Loud family had been very quiet since then. They hadn't accepted the facts up until this point, but there was no denying it. They had all truly slept for 460 years in cryo pods while drifting out in deep space in what remained of the ISS. Lori was still mourning over losing Bobby and her entire future while Lisa still remained as intrigued as ever, which was no surprise given the fact that she was a prodigy with a nack for this kind of thing.
She had decided to accompany Lloyd on the main bridge while the rest of her family stayed in their guest quarters, yet Lincoln remained with Lucy on the observation deck. Lucy showed little emotion, but Lincoln could tell by her actions that she was in distress. She had been staring out into hyperspace for the last hour, not saying anything, yet occasionally turning her head from left to right.
"So, you think this other planet might be interesting, Lucy?" Lincoln asked Lucy.
She glanced at Lincoln, still showing no emotion, then flatly said, "This century doesn't peak my interest".
Lincoln frowned, clearly understanding from her melancholy tone that she didn't sound interested. He had never seen Lucy this distressed before, but Lincoln could only imagine what must be going on inside her mind. Lucy had slept for 460 years, then woke up in a completely different century that she didn't know or understand, only to find out that Earth had been completely destroyed by a nuclear war. This was far more serious than anything Lucy had ever dealt with, and Lincoln knew that having to accept it was tearing her apart.
"Lucy, I can tell that your scared from the tone of your voice, and I get it. Trust me, we all are, Lucy. I never thought nor even predicted that something like this would ever happen, but we're here and we have to accept that we're never going back to Earth" Lincoln said.
"I'm aware of that, Lincoln. I saw the state that Earth was in" Lucy replied flatly.
"I did as well, Lucy. And believe me, I'm just as upset about it as the rest of us are, but getting all seclusive and sulky isn't going to change anything. I'm sure we'll find a way to fit in with this century" Lincoln said hopefully.
"Lisa seems to fit in just fine, but that's not surprising given the fact that she's a total science geek" Lucy replied with a bit of sarcasm.
"Yeah, all this advanced tech is like a dream come true for a prodigy like Lisa, so I have a feeling she'll have quite an amazing future ahead of herself" Lincoln agreed.
"But what about the rest of us? What will we do about our future's?" Lucy wondered.
"That's a pretty good question, Lucy. A lot of things have changed, so I'm not sure how to answer that one" Lincoln replied.
"Lynn wanted to be a professional athlete before all this, but I'm not sure if they still do sports in this century" Lucy said.
"Actually, they do," Lincoln recalled something Lloyd said to Lynn earlier. "Captain Lloyd mentioned a sport called Pararena. It's a sport that's very similar to soccer, only it involves moving around on a hover board inside a large arena in the middle of space, and the objective of the game is to throw a ball into your goal on the left side of the arena. I saw some holo-vids of past Pararena tournaments in my quarters earlier and it looks pretty cool".
"Sorry, throwing a bunch of balls around an arena in space isn't my thing" Lucy replied, clearly not interested.
"Yeah, I think I could have guessed that" Lincoln said as a matter of factly.
The door to the observation deck opened and P.A.T came rolling in.
"Ah, I was looking for you two. Captain Florence told me to inform you two that we'll be arriving at Exodus VI in about ten minutes, so you might want to return to Recreational Room where your families waiting for you" P.A.T informed.
"All right, we'll be there in a moment" Lincoln answered.
P.A.T acknowledged him and left the room.
"I take it we should get a move on then" Lucy said.
"Yeah, let's get going. I'm eager to see what this planet looks like" Lincoln said with a hint of excitement.
The two siblings rushed out of the Observation Room and headed for the Recreational Room where their family was waiting for them. Once they got there, they found their family standing near a large view port window with P.A.T standing next to them holding Lily.
"Wincoln" Lily said, pointing at her brother.
Rita and the others turned to face Lucy and Lincoln as they approached the window.
"Oh, there you two are," Rita said with relief. "I was wondering where you two ran off to".
"Lucy was in the Observation deck, so I joined her" Lincoln replied.
"When will we arrive? I'm anxious to see this new planet" Lola wondered, gazing out the port window.
"The ship should be dropping out of hyperspace in a minute or so" P.A.T answered.
No sooner than when he said that, the rushing stars slowed down outside the window and then the ship dropped out of hyperspace and into normal space. The Loud family then saw a large Earth like planet come into view with four moons orbiting it. Two small continents could be seen on the top and bottom of the planet while a much larger continent shaped like an L stretched far across the planet's enormous ocean.
"Wow!" Leni exclaimed in awe.
"Intriguing," Lisa said, gazing at the planet. "The ocean on this world seems so much larger than Earth's ocean".
"You are quite right, Lisa," P.A.T replied. "Exodus VI is about 20% larger than Earth".
"That's the same size as the exo-planet called Kepler-78b" Lisa said.
"Indeed it is," P.A.T nodded. "It's surface is also composed mostly of water, and it's land mass is slightly smaller than Earth's land mass".
"I only see a few continents," Lori pointed out. "How many are there?".
"About six in total," P.A.T answered. "The L shaped continent is the largest one of all, and holds a population of about 15 billion people".
"Dang! That's quite a population" Lincoln exclaimed.
"I can't wait to see what's down there! I wonder if they still do beauty pageants in this century" Lola wondered.
Just then, the ship jolted violently and came to a stop as it was approaching Exodus VI, then red lights began flashing in the corners of the ceiling and an alarm began sounding throughout the ship.
"What the hell?! What's going on?" Rita asked in a panic.
Before anyone could say anything, P.A.T's communicator came on and Lloyd yelled, "P.A.T, are you there? The ship's under attack!".
"I'm here, Captain. Who's attacking us?" P.A.T asked.
"A large Black Shadow scout ship just dropped of hyperspace and opened fire on us. I need you on the bridge right now! Tell the Loud family to remain in the Recreational Room and tell them to brace themselves" Lloyd informed.
"Right away, Captain" P.A.T answered, then signed off.
"What's going on? Who's this Black Shadow?" Lincoln questioned in confusion.
"There's no time to explain," P.A.T replied, heading for the door. "I need to get to the bridge. You and the rest of your family need to stay in this room and brace yourselves for any impact".
The robot then left the room and headed for the elevator.
...
...
"Attention, pilot of the Greyhawk class vessel, this is Captain Brutus of the Black Shadow scout ship, Grimhilde. We've detected high quantities of Maltaian salt crystals on your ship. Drop your shields and prepare to be boarded!" a nasty male voice barked over the ship's com system; it was the Captain of the Black Shadow scout ship.
"Not a chance in hell," Lloyd snapped. "You pirates had better turn back now unless you have a death wish. In case you haven't scanned my ship, you should know that it's far stronger than your petty pirate scout ship".
"You dare to insult us, you little shit?! You'll pay for it with your life!" The pirate Captain roared with rage, then cut the audio feed.
"Those fools," Lloyd scoffed. "They're going down".
P.A.T entered the bridge and joined Lloyd at the tactical console, then said, "What have we got, Captain?".
"A Predator class Black Shadow scout ship called Grimhilde, and it's well armed, but it's weapons aren't that powerful. It's 1,000 feet in length, 710 feet in width, and 150 feet in height. Despite its size, we can probably take it on easily" Lloyd reported, gazing at the viewscreen in front of him which displayed a large black and red colored space vessel.
The Grimhilde resembled a great white shark with four armored fins extended from the left and right bottom sides of the ship, along with two additional fins on the top. The rear area of the ship was shaped like a T with four impulse engines and four FTL engines on the ends of the armored fins. The front of the ship looked similar to the front of Lloyd's own ship, only it was much larger and had several laser cannons and photonic grenade launchers extended from several gun ports built into the ship. Lloyd also saw multiple rotatable laser turrets mounted onto the top of the ship near the center of its body and near the aft section as well.
"It truly looks like a predator, Captain. You sure we can take it on?" P.A.T asked, concerned.
"Yes," Lloyd nodded. "Its weapons are almost about as strong as our ships weapons, but our weapons, shields and double armored hull are much stronger. Taking this ship down shouldn't be that hard".
Just then, the tactical console began beeping and P.A.T said, "Captain, the Grimhilde is powering up its weapons and shields".
"Shields up! Power up weapons!" Lloyd commanded.
P.A.T tapped away at the console, then said, "Shields are up, and weapons are online".
The Grimhilde began advancing towards the Daphne with it's weapons and shields powered up, then Lloyd ordered P.A.T to target the enemy ships forward laser cannons. As he prepared to fire, the Grimhilde fired it's laser cannons, striking the Daphne head on. The ship shook violently, but no heavy damage was taken.
"Direct hit, Captain. Shields are holding" P.A.T reported.
"Arm photonic grenades and return fire! Take out their forward laser cannons" Lloyd commanded.
The Daphne took aim and fired several photonic grenades right at the Grimhilde. The glowing blue orbs struck the enemy ships forward laser cannons, completely destroying them. The Daphne then fired its laser cannons and struck the shields several times, causing a ton of damage.
"Enemy shields are down to 43%. Their forward weapons are now offline" P.A.T reported.
"We're not out of the woods yet. Destroy those laser turrets on the top of the ship's hull" Lloyd ordered.
"Targeting laser turrets and firing" P.A.T acknowledged, tapping at the tactical console.
The enemy attempted to return fire, but Lloyd's ship destroyed the turrets before they could even be fired, leaving the Grimhilde with no means of defending itself. The pirates must have gotten the idea that they were outmatched because the Grimhilde began powering up its FTL engines in an attempt to escape. This ended up being futile as P.A.T instantly destroyed the enemy ships FTL engines with several photonic grenades, leaving the Grimhilde stranded in space.
"Enemy ships FTL engines are down. They're unable to retreat" P.A.T reported.
"Good, notify the Exodus VI defense force that a Black Shadow vessel has been neutralized. They can deal with the ship's crew from there" Lloyd commanded.
P.A.T moved over to the communication console, tapped in several commands, then said, "It's been done. An Interplanetary Alliance ship should be on its way now".
As if on cue, a large Interplanetary Alliance warship emerged from the other side of one of Exodus VI's moons and headed in the direction of Lloyd's ship and the Grimhilde.
"Looks like they got our distress signal. There's an interplanetary alliance ship headed in our direction" Lloyd informed.
P.A.T's console beeped, then P.A.T said, "Captain, the ship's hailing us".
"Put it onscreen" Lloyd replied.
P.A.T tapped on his console, and the main viewscreen changed to view the inside of the alliance ships bridge where a white Caucasian man with black crew cut style hair wearing an Interplanetary Alliance uniform stood. These uniforms bore a striking resemblance to the old Marine Corps uniforms, only instead of having grey and green colors, they were silver and black with hats of the same color. Several medals and decorations could be seen pinned on the Captain's uniform, and this Captain was none other than Lloyd's old friend, Nelson Rivers.
"This is Captain Nelson Rivers of the I.A.S Hilda. It's great to see you again, old friend," Nelson greeted. "I presume this enemy ship wasn't too much trouble for you?".
"Not at all, Captain," Lloyd replied with a proud smirk. "They may have been heavily armed, but they're no match for my ships weapons".
"That's good to hear," Nelson said, relieved. "My crew just sent word for several other alliance ships to come and deal with these pirates. What brings you all the way out here, by the way?".
"I was originally headed here to this planet to deliver a shipment of Maltain salt crystals to the Exodus Trade Industry, but I got held up after coming across something very... unexpected" Lloyd answered.
"And what might that have been?" Nelson asked curiously.
"Well, its a long story..." Lloyd began.
He explained about how P.A.T had detected an object out in deep space containing thirteen human life signs, which turned out to be the remains of the ancient ISS station. Lloyd then told Nelson that when he boarded the old Destiny module, he found a family of thirteen inside individual cryostasis pods that had preserved them for over 460 years.
"That... that's impossible! That station was blown to pieces when that asteroid hit it back in the year 2018. How could anyone survive that?" Nelson asked in complete disbelief.
"If you don't believe me, then scan my ship. You'll find that there are additional passengers aboard on your scanners" Lloyd suggested.
Nelson looked over at a screen near his Captain's chair, tapped on it, then his eyes widened in shock.
"Okay Lloyd, now you've got my attention" Nelson said, sounding completely baffled.
...
...
P.A.T rolled back into the recreational room where the Loud family stood huddled in a corner near the window. The red alert lights had stopped flashing, yet the Loud's all seemed a bit tense given what had just happened.
Lincoln noticed P.A.T and asked, "Is it over?".
P.A.T nodded and said, "You all don't have to worry any longer. The situation has been taken care of".
"Just what in the world was going on out there?" Rita demanded.
"It was the Black Shadow organization. One of their scout ships attacked the ship and tried to board it, but Lloyd and I took them down" P.A.T replied.
"Black Shadow organization? Who's that?" Lincoln asked.
"Sounds like beings of the dark" Lucy guessed.
Ignoring her, P.A.T said, "Black Shadow is a very dangerous group that's been causing trouble for the alliance for years. It's a criminal organization that consists of space pirates, terrorists, and blood thirsty murderers. They've been terrorizing the galaxy for over 20 years, such as attacking, boarding, and looting various alliance ships, launching attacks on various planets for control over territory, and they've even committed mass murder on civilian populations. The Interplanetary Alliance has been searching for their hideout for over 20 years, but they haven't been able to find it. No one has".
The Loud's were all horrified. While there was still much about this century they didn't yet know about, they had no idea that there'd be an organization of dangerous space pirates going around the galaxy causing chaos. Though after giving it some thought, they expected a group of pirates or space criminals like this to possibly exist, yet the Louds never thought they'd encounter them.
"These... pirates," Lynn Sr said fearfully. "You don't suppose they attacked this ship because of me and my family, do you?".
"No, I doubt the Black Shadow has any knowledge of your existence. Captain Florence said that they attacked us because they wanted our supply of Maltain salt crystals, not because they were after you" P.A.T answered.
"That's a relief," Lincoln said. "I thought for sure we'd be done for".
Just then, Lloyd's voice came on over the ship's PA.
"The Black Shadow vessel has been dealt with and we'll be entering the atmosphere of Exodus VI in a few minutes. Once we land, I'll show you Loud's around the city" Lloyd said over the PA.
The Loud family bustled with excitement as the ship began to descend towards the planet, then slowly entered the atmosphere. Once it descended through the stratosphere and into the planet's sky, the Loud's could make out a large number of cities below on the large land masses which appeared to be the continent's of the planet. The Daphne slowly headed towards a large city near one of the larger continents where the Loud family saw a huge tower in the very center of the city that stood even taller than the millennium tower back on Earth.
"Incredible! What tower is that?" Lincoln asked P.A.T in awe.
"That there is the famous Infinity Tower, and it serves as the main power source for all of Millennium City" P.A.T answered.
"Millennium City? I take it that's the name of the city we're headed for?" Lincoln wondered.
"Indeed," P.A.T answered with a nod. "Infinity Tower uses enormous solar panels combined with four nuclear and antimatter cores to provide power to the entire city. The solar panels charge the power systems in the tower to power the cores, and while the tower is mostly unmanned, its systems require a monthly service to ensure the tower is operating at full efficiency".
"How tall exactly is this Infinity Tower?" Lisa asked curiously.
"The tower is approximately 9,000 feet tall, easily beating the height of the old Burj Khalifa tower back on Earth in Dubai long ago" P.A.T answered.
"No way! 9,000 feet?! I don't think Earth ever had any buildings that tall! No wonder it has four power cores inside!" Lisa exclaimed in surprise.
"Imagine the how long it would take to get up to the top of the tower using the stairs. You'd be "pooped", get it?" Luan smirked, cracking a joke for the first time since waking up from cryostasis.
The rest of Luan's family glanced over at her with annoyed expressions, clearly not amused by Luan's joke. While they had to admit that Luan was back to her old cheerful self after several hours of being worried and discombobulated from the revelation of waking up 460 years in the future, the family still didn't find Luan's jokes very funny.
"Oh god, Luan! PLEASE don't start with your stupid jokes again!" Lori sighed in frustration.
"What? It sounds funny to me" Luan protested.
As if to cut in, completely ignoring Luan's joke, P.A.T said, "The Infinity Tower has no stairs for access, only an elevator. Service robots are also used to do the repair and maintenance work on the tower if needed".
"That would make sense. It would take forever to reach the top of the tower if it had stairs" Lola said, gazing at the Infinity Tower in the very center of the city.
"Imagine having to climb that tower. Even I probably couldn't pull that off" Lynn Jr speculated.
As the Loud's chattered amongst each other, the Daphne slowly approached a large octagon shaped building with a long strips of road that lead towards several other smaller octagon shaped structures. One of them opened up on the top and a small starship that resembled a butterfly took off and flew off into the sky.
"I take it that those are the hanger bays down there?" Leni asked, pointing at the small octagon shaped buildings below.
"Yes," P.A.T nodded. "The big building in the center of the other smaller ones is the main trader port where dropped off cargo is processed, and the smaller buildings are where ships land to drop off their cargo. Think of it like an old sea port where sea ships would unload cargo at the sea docks".
"Ah, I think I get it now" Leni said.
One of the smaller buildings opened up near the top and the Daphne began to descend towards it, then it slowly extended a set of metal legs from under the wings and the tail area of the ship and gently touched down on the ground with a soft thump. Lloyd's voice then came on over the PA system again.
"Okay everyone, we've landed in star port 4. P.A.T, can you escort the Loud family towards the ship's exit?" he announced.
"As you wish, Captain" P.A.T replied over his comlink, then instructed the Loud family to follow him out of the ship.
...
...
Once the Loud family exited Lloyd's ship, they found themselves inside an enormous hanger bay with workers and robots operating different machinery. The hanger bay was also a lot bigger than it looked from above in the sky. While it could have passed for looking like a small parking lot garage, inside and up close, it looked to be the size of a huge zeppelin hanger bay. The Daphne also looked much bigger up close as the Loud's stepped out from under it where the docking ramp stood leading in and out of the ship. The whole ship was shaped similar to a large hawk or an eagle with its wings spread out, and even the front of the ship looked like it had the head of a bird with its beak pointing slightly downwards.
The Loud's also noticed that this ship was heavily armed, as it had two large laser cannons extending from the front of the left and right wing of the ship. There were also two large rectangular appendages mounted close to the ship on the left and right wings, which turned out to be the missile chambers capable of holding a large number of missiles inside each chamber, and next to them on the left and right wing were the photonic grenade cannons. On top of the ship was a large rotatable laser turret dome about the size of a house roof which had two turret cannons extending from the dome.
"Man, is this a trader ship, or a warship? This thing's packing a lot of firepower" Lincoln exclaimed.
"Originally, the Daphne was a pirate ship before my family bought it, so its got quite a heavy amount of weapons on it. I mentioned that earlier, I believe" Lloyd replied.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that" Lincoln said, scratching his head.
Curious, Lori asked, "So, where do we go from here, Captain?".
"Ah yes, about that," Lloyd said, glancing up into the sky where he saw the I.A.S Hilda descending from high above. "I forgot to tell you that the entire alliance has been made aware of your presence, and a friend of mine wishes to see you".
"Made aware? Wait, you don't mean that this whole planet knows about us now, do they?" Rita asked suddenly.
"How did they find out about us so quickly?" Lynn Sr asked.
"Back up in orbit above the planet, I spoke to the Captain of an Alliance ship about you and where I found you all. He didn't believe me at first, but after he scanned my ship and detected multiple human life forms aboard, he was immediately interested in meeting you all" Lloyd explained.
"And who's he?" Luna asked curiously.
"He's the Captain of the I.A.S Hilda, Nelson Rivers," Lloyd answered. "He's also a longtime friend of mine, and he wants to meet you".
"Is that his ship up above?" Lana pointed up to an enormous starship hovering above the star port, catching her families attention.
This ship was much larger than Lloyd's ship, and was shaped like an arrowhead with a T-shaped section in the rear with five large engines mounted to it. It was also painted white with long red striped on the left and right sides. The way this ship looked reminded Lincoln of a star destroyer from Star Wars, as this massive ship closely resembled one.
"Goodness, that things enormous, Rita!" Lynn Sr exclaimed in awe.
"How will it land? I don't think it'll fit in here" Luan wondered.
"Your right about that, Luan. Aviator-class starships like the Hilda aren't designed to land like the smaller starships around here. Instead, they'll send down a shuttle with the Captain and a few crew members" Lloyd answered.
As the Hilda hovered over the hanger bay, a cargo bay door opened up on the underside of the massive ship, and a small star shuttle descended from inside. As the shuttle grew closer and closer to the hanger bay, the Loud family wondered in anticipation about what this starship Captain would be like. Lisa looked more excited than anyone else, given the fact that she was a science geek and a prodigy, fully eager to see what this new century had to offer. There were still a great many things that still remained a mystery to the Loud's, and this was only the beginning.