by Jeff Kirvin
Jack got a thumbs-up from each of the Marines. Everyone was checked out and ready to go. He led them to the back of the dropship, where they all walked up the ramp into the belly of the ship. Robyn and her co-pilot Corporal Shimura continued forward to the cockpit while Jack and rest took their places along the walls, fitting themselves into armor-sized restraints for the ride down. Once secured, Jack and the other Marines would be parts of the ship, as immovable as the hull itself. Jack was right next to ramp. He insisted on the last in, first out position.
He heard Robyn's voice over the TacNet, a radio link between armored suits. “Everyone secure?” He knew she could see a readout in the cockpit that showed the status of each Marine in their harness, but she asked anyway. Like many pilots, Robyn didn't trust instrumentation.
Jack looked around, then joined the TacNet. “That's affirmative, Lieutenant."
"Roger. Buttoning up,” she said, and the ramp began to pull forward and tip up to become the bottom panel of the dropship's tapering tail. It sealed with a metallic clang.
"Clearing the drop bay,” Robyn announced with calm routine. Jack heard a wooshing through the hull of the dropship as all the air was sucked out of the room and into other parts of the ship. No sense wasting it by letting it vent out to space when the doors opened. Looking to his left, he could see down the center of the dropship into the cockpit. The drop bay was bathed in red light, a warning to any unsuited civilian to get the hell out of there.
"Drop bay is clear,” Robyn announced. “Opening the bay doors."
Jack saw but could no longer hear the huge white doors slide up and down, revealing the blackness of space beyond. He couldn't see the planet below from his vantage point.
"Powering cat,” Robyn said. Jack's adrenaline level and heart rate was rising, but Robyn sounded bored. Jack knew her well enough to know she was as excited as he was, but military pilots had a tradition going back to the dawn of the jet age of keeping their cool. If they didn't sound like they were about to fall asleep, they weren't pilots.
Jack felt an increase in vibration as the catapult holding the dropship powered up, building and holding enough power to fling the massive armored craft out of the Envoy and into space.
"Launch in five,” Robyn said.
"Four, Three, Two..."
Jack felt a sharp build in power. Here it came...
"One."
With a jolt, the dropship plunged out of the drop bay and into the open space beyond. The exploration of humanity's first extrasolar colony world had begun.
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(CC) Jeff Kirvin 2005
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