Path of Ranger: Volume 1

by RJ

  “What’s going on?” the scientist asked. He looked scared and confused.

  “Bad weather,” JB answered.

  He fully concentrated on watching for the next closest flash.

  “Aren’t you going to lower the speed?”

  “No, we gotta check the connection.”

  They were high enough, but still in the clouds. The computer started to scan for a signal. JB noticed a malfunction in some of the other instruments. At first it was tachometer, barometer, and chronometer. In a minute, the whole cabin went crazy. The arrows of all of the instruments were spinning, the computer’s screen went blinking, then it turned off. The handling of the swinger was becoming more and more difficult. It was tossing from side to side, the thrusters lost their sync. A red light went blinking inside the cockpit, then the siren sounded. It was a control failure warning.

  “Da fuck is going on?!” JB complained.

  “I’ll try to do something,” Doc said.

  He unbuckled and went into the backroom, fighting the shaking. Gibson bet on redirecting the thrusters control configuration manually to regain the stability.

  The swinger was rushing through the thick clouds full of chaotic wind and lightning. The maneuver thrusters went off, the control over the flight was lost with them. JB looked in front of the vessel, where the lightning storm was seen among the clouds. The swinger was carried by nature’s force. The mutant realized that there was nothing more he could do; the crash was inevitable. The best case scenario was to lose the rest of the thrusters and fall into the water. But if lightning hit the vessel, the outcome would be much less predictable. JB had his doubts about his own survival after the crash, but he was confident of Doc’s death in such case. Mark needed protection.

  “Yo, Doc!” the pilot shouted to the backroom.

  “What?” a displeased voice came from behind.

  “I think you betta get in the mech,” JB said while staring in front of him. The clouds went much darker there.

  “I’m busy,” Gibson responded when his hands were full of thin cables of the switchboard.

  “Now!” JB shouted as loud as he could.

  Gibson flinched from such a yell. He left the switchboard and looked outside to see what the fuss was about. The picture cleared all of his previous thoughts: an incredible storm was in front of them. There was nothing he could do now. Doc crawled over the shaking floor to the mech. Then he rushed to put all of missing pieces to their place. When the machine was complete again, Mark got in and set the operating system reboot. Usually, he had to spend about fifteen minutes for all that process, so it was surprising how he managed in only five that time.

  “How is it going, Doc? Are you ready?”

  “Almost!” Gibson shouted when closing the front hatch.

  The white giant entered the cockpit. There wasn’t much room for the mech, but somehow Mark managed. He picked up a rear shield to put it on and sat in the co-pilot seat. Of course, it was tight and the safety belt was barely enough to go around the mech’s waist. Yet, it was better than flouncing with the rest of the baggage in the backroom.

  By that time, all of the thrusters went off, the vessel was carried only by its velocity and wind. JB released the steering wheel, he tightened the belt and grabbed onto the seat as hard as he could. The rain had flooded the windshield. A thick current of water wouldn’t let them see outside, only blurry flashes reached the cabin with their light. The sound of thunder grew louder, perhaps it was the most terrifying of those elements. The vessel got carried to the heart of the storm. The darkness coated it.

  There was an enormous amount of energy around the ship, JB could feel it. His skin was covered in goosebumps and shivers went over it. A mighty force was in those clouds. It was only the beginning. The mutant’s breathing became hard, his heart rate grew, he got worried all of the sudden. The presence of such a power around had wakened a strange feeling inside of him, similar to hunger. JB could sense that energy as a shark could smell blood. He wanted to touch it, take it, even though it would kill him.

  The first lightning charge hit the swinger, the sheathing took most of the damage, but no consequences. Then a whole series of hits followed. The light went out inside the ship, and the dashboard went sparkling. If there had still been hope before, now it was clear that none of equipment remained functional. Three tons of steel and titanium had to go down, but that wasn’t the case. Nevertheless, neither Gibson nor JB paid attention to the abnormal direction of the vessel.

  The swinger’s coating got covered in black burns from the lightning. In the few next minutes, the rain got a bit lighter. One thought which comforted the comrades was that it couldn’t be worse. Suddenly, a flash struck the vessel straight to the windshield. The bright light blinded them both for a brief moment. White spots kept blocking JB’s vision. He looked aside, at Gibson, the mech stayed still.

  “Doc, are you okay?” JB knocked on the mech’s front glass. No answered followed. “Yo, Doc!”

  Nothing. Gibson was out.

  In a minute, the ship was pulled out of the clouds. Everything got illuminated there, a bright sun was upon them, a blue sky around. It was like entering a completely different world. No dark clouds, no rain, no lightning. It was the first time in months since JB had seen the sun. The thrusters were out, yet, the swinger kept flying ahead. JB felt tiredness, his eyes wanted to shut, the sleepiness tried to take over. But he didn’t get to sleep. The mutant tried to fight the fatigue. He tensed the muscles and held his eyes wide open.

  When the storm stayed behind, that sense of surrounding energy was much clearer. He realized that it was an unknown force that pulled the swinger forward.

  JB believed that the lightning had burned all of the instruments and there was left nothing functional on the dashboard. When a radio turned on.

  “Hawk-One, come in. Hawk-One, can you read? Come in, Hawk-One.”

  “It’s Hawk-One, talk to me, Josh.”

  “Thank God! JB where were you? I tried to hail you for the last twenty minutes,” Skyman expressed a lot of concern in his voice.

  “There was a stor…” JB stumbled when the swinger came out of the clouds. “Man… Cap, you gotta see this…”

  “See what? Where are you?” Skyman asked.

  “Fly up!” the mutant put down the radio.

  Just the clouds cleared, an unbelievable picture appeared in front of the mutant’s eyes. Several kilometers from them there was a plateau hovering in the sky, and a golden city lay on it. The swinger moved towards it. Those inside had an incredible view. The city rested on the white clouds as if on pillows. To JB, it looked like how he would imagine heaven might be. There were tall buildings seen from that distance, with lots of forms and structures. The mutant’s attention got attracted the most to the giant mushroom-type skyscrapers. And flying transport was there everywhere in the city airspace. Life was thriving there.

  When going through thousands of kilometers over the ocean they wished to get to civilization, but no one even dreamed of seeing something like that. It seemed highly unreal. JB realized that the city had something to do with attracting his transport. He didn’t know anything about that place yet. It might be good, or bad, or ugly. One thing Bridgers knew for sure, he wanted to get there very much.

  The mutant unbuckled and moved closer to the co-pilot seat. He scanned the hatch carefully, there was an emergency handle, he pulled it. The hatch opened up and the unconscious Doc’s face revealed. At first, JB was going to slap Mark, but then he just grabbed him by the cheeks and shook them from side to side.

  “Doc, wake up. Come on, dude,” JB talked to Gibson while shaking him.

  The scientist opened his eyes and moved.

  “A-a… What? I’m up…” Mark said overcoming the sleepiness.

  “Look there,” JB pointed at the windshield.

  “JB?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Where have you driven us?”

  They both looked at each other fearfully
.

  “I think you betta close ya hatch, man.”

  When the swinger got closer to the city, the comrades took a good look at it. The place was shining with bright colors. After so many weeks of dimness and darkness, it was almost blinding. But the beauty that they were looking at charmed them. It was like a new world, which opened up for them. Without that constant fog and gray clouds, the mutant’s eyes experienced entirely fresh vision. The picture was so crisp; he could recognize even the smallest detail over the distance. The color bandwidth had been expanded. JB wasn’t sure exactly how that worked, yet Gibson’s work was worth it. He hung the blindfold on his belt.

  The swinger was dragged around the city’s perimeter, to the landing spot, one of about twenty. It looked like an airport, half of the spots were occupied by other ships. There wasn’t much time to scan them all since they were almost there. Nevertheless, JB and Mark were fascinated by those machines. They differed quite a bit from one another. The ships were of various shapes, structure, color, etc. The pile of junk in which the comrades arrived passed by a huge chrome vessel partially painted in blue. It somewhat reminded them of an American shuttle. Its surface was smooth and polished. Judging by the size, it looked like a civil transport.

  An escort of people was already waiting for arrivals at the landing spot. JB and Gibson exchanged looks. They had to be ready for anything. Either those strangers were going to help them, or it was the beginning of new trouble. Anyhow, the swinger’s crew had no choice there. It was a strange land to them, there was no place to run. Their resistance would be useless.

  JB noticed a movement from aside. It was mech’s hand, which took out JB’s old backpack from a storage case.

  “Here, take it. I’d almost forgotten about it…” Gibson said.

  “Yes! Alcohol!” the big guy responded cheerfully.

  He grabbed the backpack and confidently pulled out a flask of whiskey to start drinking it right away.

  “Are you sure it’s the best idea?” the scientist asked.

  It was a bit strange to JB to hear such a voice of reason from the man, who was taking drug after drug just less than a day before.

  “No, Doc, I’m not. But, in your words: ain’t dying sober!”

  When a force field put the swinger on the ground, several men came closer to it. They were dressed in a formal silvery uniform. The general look consisted of pullover with a semi-transparent vest over it, silver pants, and black shoes. Those four looked like soldiers, they all held rifles against their shoulders. The weapons seemed weird to JB: no muzzle, no clip, and they were thickened towards the end. The soldiers noticed a movement inside of the transport. So they blocked all doors and stayed still.

  Evaluating the situation, JB didn’t even think of resistance. He took his pistol and the knife to lay them on the seat. Then he slowly opened the door. After taking a few seconds for the soldiers to look at him, he went out. The hunter walked ahead, the mech followed him. All of those people were short, about one point six meters and lower. JB seemed gigantic to them, not even talking about the mech.

  Not far away there were three more people; a man, a woman, and another guard. Their uniforms were similar to those that the fighters had, but without the vests and knee armor. The soldiers had markings on their torsos – a symbol of the sun with three dots around it. The negotiators wouldn’t come closer before the soldiers made sure that it was safe.

  Two of the soldiers stood still holding the visitors at gunpoint when another two went searching the vessel. Neither Doc nor JB attempted to say anything, they just waited for hosts to start talking.

  The search had ended with the soldiers taking away JB’s gun, the knife and the backpack. Saying nothing, they closed the door of the swinger. The leader had a ‘fist’ tattoo on his cheek. He gave the others a sign to step back. The soldiers put their weapons down.

  The city representatives came closer to the scientist and the mutant. The man with a golden collar stepped ahead. He had a stripe in a form of an eye with stars on his torso. The stranger looked young, about thirty. They all looked young. He looked into JB’s eyes before addressing him.

  “Plemestau mas stlanneke, it emene smego Atlantis,” he spoke an unknown language. (Greetings to you strangers from Atlantis city).

  Hearing that, JB got a bit surprised, it hadn’t even crossed his mind that they might speak a different language. Bridgers looked at Doc, he seemed confused too.

  “Da-cuti em plebele, kimtsenazna?” the ambassador spoke again. (Where did you come from, strangers?)

  “We are Americans, yo! McDonald’s, Game of Thrones, New York, you know? I don’t get a thing that you’re saying, bitch!” JB decided to show himself as tough.

  The man changed his look, and not in a better way.

  “Are you sure it’s a good idea to insult them when they have a gun on us?” Gibson whispered to JB.

  “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. They’ll think that we’re idiots,” JB wanted to explain.

  “Perhaps they already think so.”

  “No one shoots an idiot,” the mutant finished his thought. “Works for me every time.”

  The ambassador was going to say something when a woman that was with him came closer. She said something quietly to him.

  “Svyatka li yuan kti man vivet piwi pinyat’ eh yakyaz li uve alasle.” (We have to bring them to them, it’s their language.)

  “Shihiri, me demitve hi nem,” the man replied to her. (Okay, we’ll bring them to them.)

  After that short conversation, an ambassador arched his hand widely to lay it on his heart. With such a gesture, he showed strangers that he was trustworthy and invited them to follow him. Those three turned around to go towards the exit of the landing area.

  “Yeah, fuck you too, lil’ sucker,” JB mumbled quietly.

  It became really irritating to his comrade. “JB, please. I want at least study some of those weapons first before they shoot us because of you.” The mutant dropped his play.

  They all came to a car, which had been waiting for them near the landing platform. It seemed similar to a sedan, but without wheels. The vehicle was long, about eight meters in length, had a silver coloration and black windows. Also, it was high as JB’s Escalade. The room inside could easily contain ten persons.

  When the people stopped near the car, the ambassador’s assistant opened the door for their guests to come in first. The mutant stepped ahead, but then looked back at the mech. He smirked when thinking about how uncomfortable it would be for Mark to go there in his metal armor. That limo wasn’t made for such passengers for sure.

  Suddenly, just before getting in, JB noticed with his side vision the movement in the sky. It was the second swinger coming to the city. Skyman had stayed behind for a while, but it looked like the city’s interception system got him anyway. The second transport vessel was brought to the next landing spot. JB forgot about the car and attempted to go there. The soldiers interfered instantly.

  “Whatcha doing, yo?!” the big guy resented. “It’s our people there!” then JB remembered that ‘shorties’ couldn’t understand him, so he continued slower. “W-e a-re with them!” he pointed with his finger at the swinger that arrived.

  The soldiers started saying something, not loudly, but severely and all at once.

  “Doc, tell ‘em, yo!” JB shouted at Gibson. The mech had its own trouble besides that, they kept him at gunpoint all the time. And JB’s last tries ended with him staring directly into two rifles. “Uhuh… So, it’s gonna be like that, huh…” he said calmly this time.

  Looking for the last time as that swinger landed, the mutant saw how that place was already surrounded by the soldiers. It was far, but JB’s enhanced sight helped him to notice that those people differed from the ones that had arrested Doc and himself. The new soldiers had a blue uniform, they were much taller and kind of looked more ‘regular.’ After all of that resistance, JB and Gibson were dragged inside the limo by force.

  The ca
r's interior looked rich and beautiful. A white leather seat over the perimeter, white neon lights on the floor, the windows screens played a ‘sea world’ theme. No city was seen from there, just coral reefs, fish, and other underwater things. Considering the comrades' continuous oceanic adventures, they both hated that theme.

  The passenger salon was isolated from the driver cabin. The rest of the interior had a silvery shade, just like the suits of those people.

  JB sat right behind the driver, Gibson managed to fit his mech on the floor, next to him. He had to crawl on four limbs to get inside the car. Two soldiers were in the cockpit, the other two, along with the ambassador’s retinue, settled next to their guests. When everyone got comfortable, the car started. Its engine was running quietly, the sound reminded them of low sound waves coming from underwater. The vehicle hovered above the ground and moved ahead.

  “JB?” Mark spoke out of the mech. “Are we flying? Is it a gravimobile? Why are we flying in a gravimobile?”

  “Cuz the ‘dwarfs’ couldn’t get the lightcycles?” JB joked.

  There were several lanes coming out of the airport, they all were going through the air, lying on pillars with one common base. The left lanes were colored in green, the right ones – in red. The car was gliding above the red path. JB and Mark finally could see all that after the screensaver had been removed from windows. The whole city was webbed in such transportation lanes.

  After passing several kilometers through the bypass, the car entered the city itself. Everything looked different inside. The colors were bright, yellow mostly, the buildings and structures had lots of variations. Not like that ‘gray area’ where they had come from. The gravimobiles were everywhere, and everything looked alive. The biggest buildings were shaped in a form of mushrooms, there weren’t many of them, but their size was fascinating. And lots of other structures lay under their caps. The air space in the city looked dense, nothing was wasted there.