Jack Raze, the Hero of the Universe
Chapter 1:
These Are Dark Times
Jack was flying through the Lorenda sector of the universe after he broke away from the Imperidon Empire. The Empire had slowly started taking over the universe, overthrowing the most successful kingdom in history. It had been a time of peace for over nine millennia, where creatures, not just humans, gained the technology to travel through space quickly, and to survive almost anywhere, not just on a planet.
Jack, a 19-year old, was illegally flying his custom speeder to the location of his older brother, Justin. Jack adored his speeder. For many years, he would come home after school to perfect it. He tested it thousands of times, repaired it many more times than that. It was his pride and joy and he loved to show it off. He remembered the coordinates his brother gave him, leading him to his safe place. Jack had never flown there but his brother spoke about it often, making Jack excited to see it for himself. He had heard there were many, just like him, looking for a safe place to live. It was hidden from the Imperidon Empire, and the people there were forming an alliance to try to destroy the Imperidon Empire and keep peace in the world.

Chapter 2:
Catching Up
When Jack arrived on the refuge planet, he realized something was wrong. His brother said there would be a sentry at the outpost but he wasn’t able to find it. He landed and decided to continue on foot. He soon found the sentry post and went back to his cruiser to fly it into the bay. He met his older friends who all decided to join the the group of rebels known as the Peace Keepers. The name was an oxymoron because they actually were trying to interfere with the Imperidon Empire by damaging outposts, capturing supply ships, jamming signals, and bothering soldiers. Until now, they had not been much of a threat, more of a nuisance. After tripling their numbers to a large population of roughly 30,000 pilots, soldiers, medics, commanders and more, they were becoming a larger force. In order to join this elite squadron of fighters, a test was required where judges decided if you could join or not. There was only one spot left, and Jack wanted it badly. These fighters were able to take on an enemy with four times the amount of pilots. Since Jack wasn’t old enough to be tested last year, he hoped to get in this year. The judges had high expectations of him. The Elite Twelve was the name of this high level group of pilots. Jack enjoyed being with these people, most of which hated the Imperidon Empire and were willing to sacrifice anything to stop it.
Over the last three days, Jack had been checking, re-checking, and checking again his ship, training, and talking with his friends. Finally, the day had come, Test Day, Jack named it three years ago. He got into his cruiser and flew out into space. He had no idea what to expect because information about the test would give others an unfair advantage. Jack wanted to pass without any inside information because he wanted to prove himself to the judges that he was skilled enough to deserve a spot on the squadron. He was so nervous that he kept getting repeated chills down his neck and spine. He then shook all of his nervous energy and focused on staying alert and being prepared for anything. He thought to himself the encouraging words his older brother once said, “Whenever you are nervous, remember that the more you believe you can and will do it, the more likely you will succeed.” He remembered how his brother had always been optimistic, even when his memory disc was scratched. He had all of his data on it and his personal information. He was still optimistic, even though the situation looked bleak. Ever since Jack had learned of the elite squadron, he had wanted to join. He heard his brother’s stories of the Peace Keepers, but he mostly liked hearing about the Elite Squad.

Chapter 3:
First Mission
After his test, he flew back into the port channel and waited beside his ship as the judges came up to him.
“Congratulations Jack, you are now officially part of the Elite Squadron!” Judge Curt said, while handing him the special honorary uniform and helmet with the Elite insignia on it. The insignia showed three animals, a cheetah, representing speed and efficiency, a lion, representing power and hierarchy, and the Gorilla, representing discipline.
“Now that you are a part of the Elite Squadron, which we call the Elites, we will send you instructions for your next mission. You must fly out to the Kuintar region of space. There you will help shoot down a secret band of space bandits who are selling secrets to the Imperidon Empire,” said one of the other judges. “You must go now, for they have been expecting you.”
Jack nodded his head and ran back to his ship. He started up the engines and flew straight into space. He typed in the coordinates that the judge gave him into his cruiser’s computer. The quickest way of getting around was through the tube. The speed needed to enter this faster method of space travel was 1,784 larcs per second, which is roughly 100,000,000 lightyears an hour.
He pulled up in a spot behind a medium-sized planet. A couple miles ahead of him he saw the other pilots. Jack reached for his transmitter and set it to the correct wave length.
“Hello! I am Jack Raze, the newest member of the Elite Squadron. Do you copy?” Jack said.
“Welcome Jack, I am Pankaar Seegan, leader of this squadron. As you know, we are about to ambush a band of space smugglers. We do not know their numbers, but one of our spies picked up this information. Your brother taught you all the formations, correct?” Pankaar said without waiting for Jack to reply. “We will start in V-Omega formation. Follow my lead.”
Pankaar flew off. Each of them had the same ship except for Jack. The ships they had were built to perfection and were the only ones of their type ever made. Jack would have to earn his ship, but for now they were attacking this band of smugglers. He flew into the last position, and followed as they headed toward the smugglers’ ships.
“Fire!” Pankaar yelled and the whole squadron opened fire, taking out every ship, but one, with their deadly accuracy. The last ship sped down towards a sandy planet that Jack didn’t know the name of. It flew down as the squadron came into a single file formation to help reduce wind resistance. This allowed the squadron to catch the last ship. Pankaar fired and shot it down.
“That wasn’t too bad now, was it?” Pankaar said.
“No, that wa-” Jack was interrupted by another pilot, “Captain! Look up! This was a trap!” the other pilot yelled as they all looked toward the sky. Above them, enemy ships came in like rain from a cloud. Jack had never seen --or imagined-- that so many ships existed. Fire came down like hail, taking out two pilots, while Pankaar yelled to the rest to escape.
“Jack! Go! Save yourself!” Jack’s brother, Justin, yelled.
“Justin! Follow me!” Jack yelled back and the brothers raced off with thousands of enemy ships in pursuit.
“There are-” another pilot fell. “Ahhhhhhhh-” and another.
Pankaar yelled “I’m not going to make it…-” and his transmitter turned to static as Pankaar and his ship were destroyed. Justin was still following his brother when his engine was struck.
“Goodbye Jack,” Justin said calmly as his ship crashed into a sand dune. Time slowed and Jack couldn’t imagine a pain worse than death. Jack turned around and headed toward his pursuers. He noted the leader was in front. Jack fired and shot the leader, and soon after was shot down himself. He let go of the controls as his ship headed toward a dune. He didn’t feel an impact, but the last thing he remembered was that everything went black, and that he lost his brother…

Chapter 4:
The Hard Road Clouded by Fog
Jack woke with pain racking his body from head to toe. His vision was blurry but when it became sharper, he remembered all that had happened.
“Justin!” he thought.  “Noooooooooooooo..” Jack let out a long and agonizing moan and then started sobbing. After what felt like hours of crying, he couldn’t cry anymore. He looked down and gasped. A piece of the control panel bent and twisted a sharp piece of metal, an inch deep, into his thigh. He closed his eyes and pulled. He could feel the piece of metal sliding, though very slowly, out of his thigh. He unzipped his flying suit and tore his shirt off, making a makeshift bandage.
“It’s hot!” he realized. The metal from his speeder was bent all around him. He pushed and kicked until the damaged metal soon gave away, allowing him to get out. He spotted his brother’s speeder about 150 yards away. Jack sprinted toward his brother. As he was getting closer, he saw the glass shattered and his brother’s head was lying on what used to be the dashboard. As Jack got to the speeder, he checked his brother’s pulse.
“He’s alive!” Jack shouted aloud. Jack started pulling his brother out of his speeder and got him onto the sand. Jack started shaking his brother until he came to. His brother’s head was limp but he was still alive. Jack soon realized what had happened. His brother hit his head and damaged his brain permanently. Jack thought how close he was to having his brother, just to have him end up like this. “Now he’s just another mouth to feed. A useless person,” Jack thought to himself. “Well I can’t let him die. He’s a human being, and he’s my brother,” Jack rationalized. It wouldn’t be fair if he just forgot about him, he has no way to help himself. Jack started taking supplies which were surprisingly undamaged, mostly because they were stored in the back. These reserves contained enough supplies to survive for over a month in one spot, while the travel packs contained modified food that expanded in one's stomach, allowing a handful of this food to feed them for a week. It included all climate sleeping bags and heavy shelter tents to block almost anything mother nature can do. Shoes, clothing, flashlights, blasters, and many other necessary items were contained in such a small space.
“Well, I better set up camp for the night,” Jack thought to himself as he got ready for the night. He had no idea what to expect so he brought everything with him. As the temperatures dropped below freezing, Jack realized he had no way of keeping a fire going without wasting his wood or matches so he decided to go to sleep.

Chapter 5:
Life or Death
Jack woke the next morning and got to get out of his tent. To his surprise, he could not open it.
"Zipper jam," he said aloud. He opened his bag and took out his knife. He saw that his jacket had gotten caught in his tent zipper. "Great, just great," Jack thought to himself as he cut his jacket from the zipper. After several moments of frustration, Jack was finally able to open his zipper. He stepped out and he heard something crunch under his foot. He realized the sand had frosted over and it looked like someone put a layer of crystal over the sand. The purple, orange, and blue moons shined on the crystal, creating a mosaic of glitter, color, and vibrance. "This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen," Jack thought to himself as he stood motionless and stared off into the distance. He shook his head and turned to look towards his brother's tent. What he saw was a very tall hooded figure, about eight feet tall, crouched over his brothers tent. He reached for his quick draw laser rifle and pointed it at the figure and yelled:
"Freeze!"
The hooded figure yelped in surprise. "I'm innocent, I swear. I was only checking to see if you were alive," it yelled in surprise.
"Remove your hood, now!" Jack yelled quite harshly.
“Okay, I am,” the tall figure revealed a pink face, and held up his hands as if they would block the laser rifle.
“Who are you?” Jack asked as he stared at the man’s pink face.
“I am Kan. I was banished here from my home city,” Kan said.
“Where is your home?” Jack asked.
“I have no idea. They blindfolded me and flew me out here, took off my blindfold, and dropped me right here. Thankfully I had plenty of supplies. You know, I may have a cure for the one in there. It will take years, but it will work,” Kan said.
“Really? Oh, and by the way, I’m Jack, and the one in there is my brother. His name is Justin,” Jack said.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Kan said.
“We need to get to your city, any city where we can fly out of here. We have underestimated our enemy. They have many more men than we could ever imagine. We need to tell the others,” Jack said.
“Well, if we keep walking, we will find a city. How long that could take, I have no idea,” Kan said with foreboding in his voice.
“Oh,” Jack answered. He was hoping Kan had an idea better than walking until they found civilization. As Kan started packing for the three of them, they decided to try to make each pack equal weight. Jack used the remaining power of the damaged engines to create a hovering platform that they would lay Justin on so they could easily move him over the desert without dragging him. He removed the hovering capabilities from the bottom of the ship. This part of the ship made takeoffs in more remote places easier because it would float the speeder above the ground. Jack took a large piece of the dashboard containing several wires to connect the hovering power into a circulating cord, while keeping it attached to the window of the speeder. The window served as a platform for Justin to lay on. By keeping Justin suspended a few feet off the ground, Jack and Kan could push him over the sand with no resistance. Kan was loading all the necessary supplies into their travel packs. Lack of water was their largest drawback. Water required lots of effort to retrieve, because sand falls into the hole used to scoop it out.
They agreed it was time to sleep when the sun set and the three moons appeared. Jack helped Kan set up his tent. It was almost the same as the tents he and his brother were using. They ate a small meal then went to sleep. Hope was the last thought to leave Jack’s mind as he drifted into sleep.

Chapter 6:
Capture!
Jack woke up to a completely silent morning. “It’s seems too quiet,” Jack thought to himself. He stepped out of his tent and saw nothing there. The tents were gone, and no sign of footsteps were there.
“What happened here? They,” Jack was at a loss for words, “disappeared.” Jack looked around for evidence of anything that might give him a clue to his brother and Kan’s disappearance.
“Freeze!” a gruff voice yelled impatiently. Jack spun around in surprise to see a man with a strange weapon pointing at his forehead. The man was dressed in a camo suit that blended in with the sand so well that he could have been laying down and Jack would have missed him.
“U-u-u-u-u,” Jack stammered as he held his hands up in the air.
“Follow me, now! Try anything and I will hit you with this little miracle,” he said as he smiled smugly, knowing he had Jack where he wanted him.
“O-o-o-k-k-a-a-y,” Jack said as he couldn’t think of anything else to say. The man kept his weapon pointed at Jack and followed closely behind him, but at a safe distance where Jack wouldn’t be able to do anything to his captor.
Jack walked and walked. “Where is he taking me?” Jack wondered but decided against asking his captor. A little while later they came up on a group of about six other sand men, as Jack decided to name them. As they approached, Jack tried to make out the figures ahead of him. “Is that…...it is!” Jack said as he realized his brother and Kan were ahead. When they reached the group of sand people, his captor whispered something in another man’s ear, and the other man nodded.
“You will stay here until our boss comes to examine you,” one of the sand men said looking at Jack and Kan. This one,” the man said, “is useless. We can just leave him here,” he said.
“No!” Jack said, as he realized they would leave his brother to die.
“Too bad, you can’t do anything about it except get killed,” another man said indignantly. Jack struck the man who ordered for his brother’s death, knocking him to the ground as he clutched his stomach in pain. Instantaneously three of the sand people shot him. Jack had never been shot with a laser blaster, but he felt his head ache. He opened his eyes and looked around him. All the sand men lay motionless on the ground.
“What happened?” Jack asked.
“When you got shot, the energy, just, just, bounced back and hit them all,” Kan said in disbelief.
“I what?” Jack asked again.
“No time for explanations. Look!” Kan pointed to the sky. A large gray ship descended from the sky. If there was an engine, you couldn’t hear it. The eerie silence made Jack feel uneasy as the large craft landed on the sand. A boarding ramp lowered and more sand men came out, all firing their blasters at them.
“Stay behind me!” Jack yelled, questioning why his voice sounded deeper and more commanding than he thought possible. Kan dragged Justin behind Jack and ducked. Every bolt of laserfire deflected back, hitting the one who shot it. Within a matter of seconds, all the sand men lay dead on the ground.
“Stay here, I’ll go in and take care of inside,” Jack said in his normal voice again. Jack started walking up the ramp and into the ship. Jack walked down the hallways leading to where he guessed the c***pit was. He encountered only a few soldiers, who were soon killed after firing at him. Jack kept wondering why he kept flinching whenever he was shot at. Jack soon reached the c***pit, where the soldiers were guarding people Jack guessed to be the pilots of the ship. The soldiers fired, and were killed. “I didn’t flinch this time,” Jack thought to himself.
“Don’t kill them just yet. They may be of use,” a voice said in Jack’s head. Jack’s eyes widened as the voice in his head was not his. Something, or someone, was living in his head.
“Don’t kill us, please! We will do anything,” a new voice said in Jack’s head. At the same time the new raspy voice spoke in his head, he heard a weird noise coming from one of the pilots. “I am going insane,” Jack thought in his head as the first voice and the pilot negotiated through his head. The pilots agreed not to notify anyone they had become hostages in return so that after the pilots took Jack where he needed to go, he would set them free.
Jack ran back outside and helped Kan carry Justin onto the ship. “Back to the base I guess,”Jack thought, as he and Kan transported Justin to a place where he could be safe and not get hurt. Randomly Jack felt an incredibly painful surge in his back. As he fell to the floor, he saw a sand man fall to the floor. Jack dropped Justin and blacked out.

Chapter 7:
Next Destination: Home
Jack woke to see his brother sitting up, completely confused. When Jack’s vision cleared, he saw Kan lay unmoving on the floor. Jack turned back to Justin, returning his brother’s confused glare.
“Where am I? The last thing I remember was crashing in the sand and my head hurts so badly,” Justin said as he rubbed his head where a large purple bruise was.
“But, you,” Jack started to say, “You hit your head and you couldn’t do anything, but now you can. Either I’m dead or something crazy happened.”
“The electromagnetic pulse was so strong, you couldn’t handle it all on you own. You sent some back to kill the man, some killed your friend Kan, and the rest reactivated part of your brother’s brain, bringing him back to life,” the unnamed voice said in Jack’s head.
“Do you have a name? And get OUT of my head!” Jack frustratedly said aloud as his brother gave Jack an even more quizzical look.
“I do, and I will tell you, once you promise to never speak to me outloud. And calm down. Explain to your brother what I told you and then I will explain to you who I am,” the voice said, acting like a parent dealing with two kids fighting.
“Oh, sorry, I am going a little insane,” the voice tried to cut in but Jack ignored it, “but you hit your head when you crashed. I found you but noticed you hit your head, making you unable to move or do anything but breath. A man shot me with such a powerful electric gun that it killed Kan,” Jack said as he pointed toward his dead friend, “but enough of the energy reactivated your brain.”
“That’s, just, interesting,” Justin said.
“Well I’m exhausted, I’m going to find the sleeping quarters. The pilots will take us to the Peacekeepers HQ. Sleep well, goodnight,” Jack said as he searched for the bunks. Jack found them pretty easily and he lay down without fear, feeling happier than he had in a long time.
“Hey little buddy,” Justin said as he shook Jack awake, “we’re home.” Jack followed his brother to the c***pit window and saw they were descending down to the HQ. They landed and were swarmed with other members of the Peacekeepers. The leader, who kept his name a secret so they wouldn’t be at risk, yelled to everyone to let the two get back to their quarters.
As Jack and Justin headed to the bunks, neither said a word as they plopped down on their bunks. “Mission accomplished,” Jack thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep.