by Ryk Brown
“One moment,” Loki answered as he set to work with the Falcon’s scanners. “About fifteen thousand meters per second.”
“So it will take us, what, about ten percent of our propellant to get off this planet?”
Loki again buried his attention in his display as he ran precise calculations.
“Loki?” Josh asked impatiently.
“Yeah, yeah. Eight point six eight! So ten gives us a nice margin. You’re not thinking of landing, are you?”
“Not if I can help it,” he proclaimed. “Just want to know where my point of no return is, propellant wise.”
“Let’s just worry about not burning up right now.”
“Or slamming into the planet like a meteorite,” Josh added.
“That too,” Loki agreed. “Altitude: eighty kilometers. Speed: forty thousand. Temp: five thousand.”
“Loki?” Josh asked as the ship shook violently. “What would happen if I did a half end-over right now?”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously.”
“I’m not sure you could. The aerodynamics…”
“I was thinking about using my maneuvering thrusters.”
“Uh, it might work,” Loki said, “if the drag doesn’t snap us like a twig.”
“Could you run that for me?”
“Sure. Why not?” He glanced at the tracking display. “By the way, in case it matters, the third fighter group is still hot on our tail, albeit in a much more controlled fashion.”
“I see them,” Josh told him, glancing at his own tracking display screen. “But they’re not overtaking us anymore.”
“Hell no, they’re not as crazy as we are,” Loki declared as he ran simulations of the Falcon doing an end-over in their current situation. “It doesn’t look good, Josh. We need to be down to at least half our current speed before we can even think about it. Even then, it’s risky.”
“So we’ll be at, what, sixty kilometers by the time we get down to twenty thousand kilometers per hour?”
“Something like that. But we’ll also be at seven thousand degrees on our shields,” Loki added. “Failure is at six thousand three hundred.”
“Bring the reactors up to one twenty and dump the extra into the shields.”
“That won’t work, Josh. It might keep the shield generators from blowing, but heat will get through, a lot of it!”
“So we’ll be well-done,” Josh said. “That’s better than becoming ashes!”
Loki shook his head in dismay. “Passing seventy. Speed: thirty thousand. Temp: six thousand. Reactors at one twenty.” Loki watched the thermal shield control display. “Thermal shields are holding. Shield temp is sixty-five hundred. Hull temp: fifteen hundred and climbing.” Loki shook his head again. “Josh, it won’t work. You can’t shave off twenty-nine thousand KPH of speed in less than sixty kilometers. Even if you successfully end over without tearing us apart, the turbines just aren’t powerful enough.”
“We’re not going to use the turbines!” Josh yelled. “Override the auto-drive selection and put all propulsion systems on manual activation.”
“What?”
“Slave the turbines to my flight controls. Slave the main drive to yours.”
“Oh shit! You are crazy!” Loki declared as he began to make the necessary changes. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. I don’t know if I can do this, Josh.”
“You’ve got the easy part! I’m the one that’s gotta try a half end-over and fly ass first at twenty thousand KPH!”
“Got it. I’ve got spaceflight. You’ve got aero!” Loki took a deep breath. “Twenty thousand kilometers per hour and falling.”
“Here we go,” Josh announced. “Roll forty-five right. NOW!” Josh and Loki simultaneously executed the same maneuver, Loki using the thrusters and Josh using the aerodynamic control surfaces. The ship snap-rolled forty-five degrees to the right, and they began falling starboard side first toward the planet below.
“Good!” Josh yelled. “Now we’re going to yaw left forty-five. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“Ready, NOW!” The ship yawed to port, shaking even more violently as the airflow was forced to change its path across the interceptor once again.
“Okay! Awesome! We’re back in the slipstream again!” Josh announced as he struggled to hold the ship at its current attitude. The problem was it wasn’t designed to fly tail first in the atmosphere. “Oh shit!” Josh cried out as he felt the interceptor slipping out of his control. “Loki! I can’t hold it! The control surfaces are locking up! You’re gonna have to take her!”
“Fuck!” Loki grabbed the controls again, twisting the stick from right to left, back and forth, side to side. Thrusters fired wildly outside as he tried to keep the ship falling smoothly tail first. “That’s as smooth as I can get her!” Loki announced. “Firing mains!” he announced as he slammed the throttles forward.
Once more, they were slammed back into their seats as the main space drive that was designed to quickly accelerate them to near relativistic velocities used its might to quickly decelerate them.
“Passing fifty!” Josh announced. “Speed: eighteen! Shield temp: seven thousand! Hull temp: two thousand!” The idea of a rocket flying backwards suddenly appeared in Josh’s mind. “Fuck me! It’s working!”
“We’re not there yet!” Loki yelled as he struggled to keep the ship at the proper attitude while they rode the massive tail of thrust coming from their main space drive.
“We just lost our deep-space comm-array,” Josh announced. “Long-range sensors are offline as well.”
“We’re starting to melt,” Loki mumbled as the interceptor continued to shake.
“Passing forty-five. Speed: fifteen thousand. Shield temp: seventy-two hundred. Hull temp: twenty-two hundred!” Josh tried not to giggle. It was working, but Loki was right; it wasn’t over.
“I cannot believe I am doing this,” Loki mumbled.
“Passing forty. Speed: ten thousand. Shield temp holding at seventy-two! Hull temp also holding at twenty-two! I told you!”
“Check tracking!” Loki yelled.
“They’re still coming,” Josh said. “Range: one hundred twenty kilometers and closing fast.” Josh glanced at the flight systems display. “We’re sucking up propellant awfully fast here. Passing forty. Speed: five thousand. Temps are falling!”
For the first time in the last ten minutes, Loki was beginning to feel hope. They were still being pursued by at least twelve Jung fighters, all determined to destroy them, but they might actually avoid both crashing into the planet and burning up.
“Passing thirty! Speed: five thousand. Temps dropping.” Josh checked the thermal shield control display. “Thermal shield temps are down to three thousand! I’m dialing the reactors back down to one hundred percent. Passing twenty-five. Speed: three thousand,” Josh continued to report. “Speed down to two thousand. Passing twenty.”
“Pitching over!” Loki announced as he used the thruster to perform another end-over. As the ship shuddered through the maneuver, Loki killed the main drive. “Mains at zero!” he announced. “Nose is coming down!”
“Spinning up the turbines,” Josh announced as he grabbed the flight controls again.
“Killing thermal shields!” Loki announced as the view of the planet below filled their forward view once again.
“Turbines are hot!” Josh announced. “We’re back in powered aerodynamic flight mode!”
“I’m reengaging the auto-flight system,” Loki reported. His body went limp with relief, his head dipping forward for a moment. “Don’t you fucking ever do that to me again!” he screamed.
“What? You were awesome!” Josh said as he began leveling the ship off. “Leveling off at five thousand meters. Speed at five hundred KPH.”
“Four more contacts!” Loki announced. “Three o’clock low, about twenty kilometers out and closing fast. They’re skimming the mountain tops.”
“Loki, is this the hornet’s nest th
e captain was talking about?”
“I expect so, Josh.”
“Arm missiles,” Josh ordered as he began a slow turn to starboard. “Target all four and prepare to fire.”
“You’re not really going to take them on, are you?”
“Don’t have much choice, do I?”
“Missiles armed. Acquiring targets. Josh, I’m pretty sure stealth recon doesn’t include engaging enemy targets in combat.”
“Stand by on the nose turret as well, Loki,” Josh ordered. “I’m pretty sure they’re going to launch on us.”
“Targets locked. Powering up the nose turret and acquiring targets.”
The seconds ticked by as the Falcon closed on the four oncoming Jung fighters skimming along the edge of the mountain range that stretched out below them.
“Targets will be in missile range in five seconds,” Loki announced.
“As soon as all four missiles are away, I’m gonna roll over and dive so that you can keep our gun turret on them. See if you can take out their missiles. We’ll deploy decoys just before we duck down below the other side of the ridge line.”
“Max range,” Loki announced. “They’re pitching up to fire.”
“Firing missiles,” Josh announced. “Four away.”
“Four running hot and normal, locked on targets. Time on target: twenty seconds. They’re firing.”
“Rolling and pitching.” Josh rolled the interceptor to port in a lazy arc, moving across to the opposite side of the ridge line as he did so. “Pitching down.”
Loki tapped the nose turret’s targeting screen with his finger, touching each of the symbols that represented the incoming Jung missiles. “Guns have acquired. Keep us on this attitude for ten seconds,” Loki said. “Firing guns.”
Long, angry, red bolts of energy leapt from the twin barrels of the Falcon’s nose turret toward the incoming Jung missiles, firing in continuous succession. First one, then another, then a third missile fell to the assault.
“One missile left,” Loki announced proudly.
“I can’t hold this any longer, Lok,” Josh declared. “I’ve gotta roll and level off, or we’re gonna hit the mountains.” Josh rolled the ship back over again, slipping down on the opposite side of the mountains from the oncoming Jung fighters.
“I’ve lost the contacts,” Loki announced. “They’re on the opposite side of the ridge.”
“Pop decoys,” Josh ordered as he pushed the Falcon down deeper into the valley below.
“The last missile is coming over the ridge line,” Loki announced.
“Is it tracking us or the decoys?”
“Too close to tell,” Loki said. “The decoys, I think.”
“Pop the last batch,” Josh ordered.
The last twelve decoys shot out the back of the Falcon, glowing red hot as they fanned out from either side in an irregular pattern.
“Decoys away. That’s the last of them.”
Josh watched as the oncoming missile streaked over their starboard side. “Shit! That was fucking close!” he declared as the missile struck the second set of decoys and exploded.
“Canyon narrows up ahead, Josh. Terrain following sensors can’t see past the next bend while we’re below the ridge line.”
“Any idea how many of those fighters are left?”
“Nope,” Loki answered, “can’t see them either.”
“Damn.”
“Wait,” Loki said, “I’ve got one climbing. He’s down a half loop,” Loki decided. “I think he’s gonna roll next to try and get in behind us.”
“I like this guy,” Josh said.
“There’s another coming in behind him. Same maneuver.”
“Fuck! Did we hit anything?”
“No one else. I think we got two of them.” Loki watched as the two Jung fighters finished their roll and dove in behind them. “Yup, they’re diving down, coming in behind us.”
“It’s on, baby!” Josh announced, pushing his throttle forward.
“Josh, we don’t know the canyons ahead.”
“Yeah, but they do, and they’re not backing off. So they must be navigable. Just keep the nose turret pointed aft and take a shot whenever you can. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Several energy bolts streaked past them.
“I think they’re trying to tell us something,” Loki said.
“Like what?” Josh laughed.
“I think they’re trying to tell us to stay out of the canyons.”
“So say something back.”
“Like what?”
“Like, ‘Eat hot plasma, asshole.’”
“Okay.” Loki opened fire, skimming his turret from side to side. For the most part, their rounds of energy were far below their pursuers, as the targets were flying at the same relative altitude and the Falcon’s gun turret couldn’t fire aft at an upward angle. “Bounce up a bit,” Loki suggested. The Falcon suddenly rose upward a few meters, giving Loki a clean shot. He fire again, missing the targets but making them feel the heat of the plasma bolts as they streaked past the enemy cockpits. “That made them nervous.”
“Here we go,” Josh announced as he made a hard left around the first cliff.
Loki tried not to notice as the reddish-purple canyon wall passed uncomfortably close to port. Instead, he focused on his targeting screen, hoping to get a clean shot as Josh snaked back and forth through the narrow canyons.
The lead Jung fighter had the same idea, firing continuously as he weaved to and fro just a few hundred meters behind them. The Jung leader’s wingman followed closely behind, taking a single shot at a time whenever his leader was out of the way and his sights were anywhere near the Falcon.
Josh couldn’t tell the difference between the leader’s shots and the wingman’s, as his attention was focused on simply not crashing into the sides of the narrow, winding canyons. Every so often, the canyon would split, forcing him to make a split-second decision to the right or to the left with nothing more to go on than instinct. At any moment, he feared his choice might lead to a dead end, and their escape would fail in either a fiery crash or an unavoidable missile shot as they climbed out of the canyons.
“Missile!” Loki cried. “Jink right!”
Josh didn’t hesitate, rolling the interceptor to the right once as the missile passed under their rising left wing-body. “Missiles! In here!” Josh cried. “I was wrong! I don’t like this guy!”
Loki glanced at the systems displays. “We’re burning propellant, Josh. That red line is coming up fast.” A warning light flashed again. “Shit! Jink left!”
Josh glanced at his rear display and saw the incoming missile approaching on their starboard side. With a twist and a yank of his control stick, he pushed their tail down and yawed it to port, rolling the interceptor starboard at the same time. The missile passed right through the spot where their entire starboard side had been a second ago.
Loki watched the missile pass over them and streak ahead, slamming into the massive overhang that jutted out from the right side of the canyon ahead. The missile exploded on impact, cracking the reddish-purple rock and sending it tumbling down directly in their flight path. “WATCH THE ROCKS!” he screamed.
Josh glanced up from his console just in time to see the rocks falling directly in front of them. He stopped their roll, standing on their left side, passing between two massive chunks of the collapsing overhang, shooting safely out the other side.
The lead pilot was not as quick, trying to climb over the collapsing overhang. He skipped off the top, cracking his fuselage and catching fire, spraying burning propellant all over the wilderness below. His canopy blew and his ejection seat blasted him high up into the air. His wingman also climbed, managing to miss the collapsing overhang. He had to continue to pull up hard, going to full throttle to avoid slamming into his leader as he ejected.
With the lead Jung fighter down and his wingman in a climb with his belly facing the Falcon, Josh had his chance. He pulled hard to starboard at th
e upcoming split as Loki fired a few more rounds toward the climbing wingman.
“What are you doing?” Loki demanded. “Pitch up! Do a three-quarter loop and launch missiles while he’s showing us his belly!”
“All we need is a short run of straight canyon while no one’s on our tail, and we can pitch up slightly and jump away without anyone seeing us!”
“Well he can’t see us now,” Loki reported as the second Jung fighter fell off his tracking system, his line of sight to the target having been blocked by the canyon walls.
“We just need a kilometer or two of straightaway,” Josh mumbled as he navigated the winding canyon. Maybe the next turn, he thought. “FUCK!”
As the Falcon came around the next turn in the narrow canyon, a massive waterfall appeared before them, cascading down from the top of the canyon on their left as they finished their turn to starboard. Unfortunately, their turn was swinging them wide to port, directly toward the massive falls.
“Hang on!” Josh yelled as he switched the automatic thrust vectoring system to manual, swung all four of the Falcon’s turbine exhaust port straight down, and slammed the throttles to full power.
Loki looked up and saw the massive waterfall, his eyes opening wide as he watched the approaching water drop from what seemed like a thousand meters above them.
The Falcon slammed into the waterfall at over three hundred kilometers per hour. It felt like they had hit the side of the mountain, and for a split second, Josh was sure they had. The Falcon was suddenly pushed downward by the force of the water falling down upon them. Their turbines screamed at the additional load as they struggled to keep the interceptor aloft. For a split second, the Falcon was more submarine than aircraft.
That split second seemed an eternity to Josh, the sound of the pounding water deafening him even through his pressurized flight helmet. He wondered if this was one of those moments that warriors spoke about. Those moments in battle when everything seemed to go in slow motion. His eyes darted back and forth across his console. His altitude was dropping fast, as was his airspeed. Warning indicators were lighting up all over his cockpit, on his main console, and on either side of him. He thought he could hear the warning tones in his comm-set, but they were lost in the din of the waterfall. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his canopy as it develop spider-web cracks along the port side. Another glance told him that they were rolling to starboard, already thirty degrees over. He instinctively adjusted his throttles, decreasing the lift on the port side to try to slow the roll, but it didn’t seem to be working.
