Chapter 1

Earth was glistening like a jewel amongst the cold blackness of space, tantalizing any passerby. Its hypnotic beauty was marred by a flaming hulk hurtling towards it. The vessel plummeted to the ground below, sparking as it broke through the atmosphere. It radiated in the night sky momentarily before crashing into a pile of refuse. The light died, and the dead of night returned to rule the sky.

The sound, however, lingered, dispersing throughout the piles of junk, and debris in the yard. It shook the piles of junk, sending pieces crumbling off of them and clattering to the ground below. Eventually the sound reached a group of young boys, resting peacefully amongst makeshift shelters made out of odd bits and pieces pilfered from amongst the debris.

One of them jerked awake at the sound, his dark brown eyes scanning the area for any trouble. He turned to the boy next to him and whispered, “Otto wake up”.

Otto opened one eye, the bright blue iris focusing on the person trying to wake him, then rolled over and groaned, “just a few more minutes Boss.”

The brown eyed boy scowled, then jabbed a finger into Otto’s side, causing him to yelp and jerk upright.

“AHHG!, Boss,” Otto whined while rubbing his side. “What’d ya do that for?”

The other two boys began to stir at this point. One of them sat up, silently, his green eyes fixing on the brown eyed boy, “Bravo, what's wrong?” he asked.

“I don’t know Delta,” Bravo replied, “Something caused a loud noise from further in the yard and sent some of the piles tumbling.”

“You don’t think it's the Wolvers, do you?” Otto asked, concerned, “I’d really like to not have to deal with them again.”

“Unknown,” said Bravo, then turned to the last boy to wake up, “Mickey, I need you to run off and find Buck, and Data, warn them something might be up, and see if they’ve spotted anything suspicious on their watch.”

The boy’s eyes filled with worry, and a tinge of fear but he nodded, the motion causing his long unkempt hair to sway, then they took off silently into the junkyard.

“We,” Bravo paused to glance at the other two, “Are going to go check out that sound,” he finished as he stood up.

Otto let out a sigh as he stretched his legs and back, “Oh great. It’s always fun to go check out mysterious sounds in a junkyard in the middle of the night.”

Delta shot the boy a harsh glance, quieting him quickly, then looked to Bravo, “Do you know where it came from?”

Bravo shook his head, sending his greasy brown hair swaying, “No, I think it came from further back that way,” He said pointing to the left of them, “But I can’t be sure.”

Delta nodded, as he grabbed a burlap sack nearby, and began to fill it with rocks, and other small throwables.

Otto walked over to an old, beaten up table, and pulled a box from underneath. After rummaging through it for a few minutes he produced three flashlights. He thumbed one on, and the light burst into existence, lighting up the area around him for a few moments, before flickering out.

Otto groaned in frustration and whacked it against his hand a couple of times, causing it to turn back on. After leaving it on a few more moments to make sure it’d stay on, he thumbed it off and smiled triumphantly before handing the other two to his friends.

Bravo took the flashlight and hooked it to his belt, then looked at the other two, “Ready?” He asked, looking them each in the eyes.

Once The other two nodded in return he walked over to a metal rod sticking in the ground and yanked it free. “Let’s go”.

They stalked slowly through the junkyard passing pile after pile of rubbish. Their eyes scanned their surroundings, trying to discern if anything was amiss. The beams of their flashlights cut into the darkness of the night as they moved them from pile to pile, Then suddenly, a startling loud clanking rang throughout the junkyard catching the boys off guard.

“What was that?” Otto asked.

“I don’t know,” Bravo replied, “But we need to find out, Delta, did you catch where the sound came from?”

Delta pointed to a Junk pile to the right of them, “Somewhere in that direction.”

Bravo nodded as his hand tightened around the metal pole he held, “Let's keep moving.”

The boys continued moving quietly through the yard. As they got closer and closer to the source of the sound they began to hear the whirring of drills, and screeching of a saw cutting metal.

“Ya know,” Otto stated, his voice shaky, “I’m getting more and more nervous the closer we get.”

Bravo grunted an acknowledgement to his comment, as he continued on. Soon they came to a bigger pile sitting in the middle of a group of smaller piles, however this was different from the rest. Bits and pieces of it lay strewn across the area, like something had slammed into it and sent pieces of it flying off in all directions. Atop the pile sat a huge object. It was metallic and gray, its oval shape making it look almost like a giant metal egg. On either side of it were two sleek wings. Atop of those wings, on either side, where they met the hull of the “egg”, set two oval shaped tubes.

“Is that…” Otto started to say, but paused and continued to stare in amazement at the thing, “Is that a spaceship?” He finished.

“Unknown.” Bravo stated while cautiously moving forward, brandishing the metal rod he carried.

Delta moved opposite of him toward the vessel, digging a rock out of his sack to hold in his hand.

Otto however continued to stare, awestruck at the strange sight. “I mean look at those things,” he said pointing to the tubes that sat atop the wings, “They look like jet engines.”

As Bravo neared the vessel it suddenly let out a hiss, causing the boys to take a step back. Light spilled out of it forming a rectangle shape, before a section of the vessel detached and began to lower. It pushed the junk aside until it finally rested on the ground revealing steps leading up into the vessel.

Exterior lights from the vessel snapped into existence, illuminating the surrounding area, and the three boys. They froze as a voice rang out from the interior of the vessel. “ho gees thre?” it demanded, the words sounding off, like the speaker was trying to speak English, but couldn’t quite form the words.

The boys began to slowly back away, Otto’s face twisted in fear, while Delta and Bravo’s faces both formed a grimace, with only their eyes showing the fear they felt inside.

A young man descended the ramp, his broken up armor and tattered clothing giving him a menacing appearance. He stared at the boys, and held a black object in his hands. A moment later the boys could see it appeared to be a pistol however It had a pulsating circle where the ammo clip would be. “Edantefi Yersilfs.” He barked.

Otto shot Bravo a puzzling look. Bravo in return shook his head.

“Edantefi Yersilfs.” The man demanded louder, his unnaturally blue eyes focusing on each of the boys.

“Are you trying to speak english?” Otto asked.

“Ingish?” The man replied, “E’m spakeng Besic.”

“Basic?” Otto wondered then, looking at the other boys, “What does that mean?”

The man raised his gun, “ E Sid Edantefi Yersilfs”

Otto took a step back, while Delta, clutching the rock in his hand, moved back and to the left. Bravo, however, took a step forward. He dropped the metal rod, the sound of it hitting the ground caused the man to jerk a bit, but he remained still. “We’re orphans,” Bravo answered, “We live here in this junkyard. We heard you crash and came to check it out.”

The figure nodded, and lowered his weapon but didn't put it away. “Wo es thi Imperis Praefixis uf thes Sicter?” the figure asked.

“The what?” Otto replied.

“You don’t know what the Empire is?” The man asked, the boys now hearing him more clearly as they slowly began to understand his strange way of talking.

“No, there's not an Empire here. Hasn’t been for a century at least” Delta replied.

The man relaxed a little, “Good, good.” He said to the group, “Can you show me to your planet's spaceport?”

“A what?” Otto asked in disbelief, lowered his voice and shot a side glanced at Bravo, “What is this guy on?”

“There’s nothing like that here, we don’t have any space ports.” Bravo answered.

“Your planet doesn’t have space travel?” The man asked, surprised.

“Well, I mean, we sent a shuttle to the moon that one time.” Otto said.

The man shook his head, almost in disgust, “I really am in the Primcretis.” He groaned.

“The what?” Otto asked.

“Primitive.” the man replied, “You people are primitives,” he said as he holstered his weapon.

“We're not that bad.” Otto replied, offended.

“Well,” the man sighed, “I’m going to be stuck here for a while.”

“Something wrong with your ship?” Delta asked.

“The engines won’t start” he said with a sigh as he turned to look at his vessel, “I think they just need to be jump started, but without power packs I don’t think I’ll be able to do that.”

The boys looked at each other, a silent conversation going on between them, then Otto asked, “Would batteries work?”

“Batteries?” the man said, perplexed.

“Yeah, cylinder, or square things, you plug 'em into a remote or electronic device and it powers them.”

The man's eyes widened in realization, “ Power cells?” He wondered aloud, “Those might work.”

Before anybody could say anything else Mickey came sprinting up to them screaming, “GUYS! GUYS!”

He skidded to a stop in front of them, panting heavily. When he saw the man standing in front of the spaceship he stared bewildered for a second before turning to Bravo, “Boss w-we g-got trouble.” He wheezed and handed Bravo a slip of paper.

Bravo read over the contents of the message, “Dang it.” He hissed in frustration.

“Woah, Boss” Otto said, his voicely filling with concern “What’s wrong?”

Delta looked questioningly, and the man likewise titled his head in a curious gesture.

“The Wolvers took Buck and Data,” Bravo replied, his voice dripping with rage and his face twisted into a scowl as he handed the note to Otto.

Otto studied it, “If you junk rats want your friends back then meet us in Alice park before the moon sets.” He read aloud then looked at the bottom of the page, “Oh look!” he exclaimed in mock glee, “They even drew us a little map.” Then he held it up in the air, pretending to try and get a better view, “Though it looks like a two year old drew it.”

“What are we going to do Boss?” Delta asked Bravo.

Bravo glared off in the distance, “It’s simple,” He growled, “We're going to get them back.”

The man cleared his throat, catching the four boys' attention, “Well maybe I can be of assistance.” he said, “I’ll help you rescue your friends, and you help me get my ship working again. That should be a fair trade”

Bravo looked at him, hesitation evident on his face, before he finally nodded, “Deal.”

The man nodded, “Well gentlemen, it looks like we have a rescue mission to attend to.”

“I’m sorry,” Mickey said, his breath returned, “Who are you?”

“You can call me Kid.” The man replied.