T-Rave nods at me, “Colonel,” then storms out of the cockpit and down the hall.
“I’ve no idea why you military folk pick people like that, he must be hard to keep on a leash,” Krystil says.
“He’s a good soldier, I’m lucky to have him covering my back when we land down there,” I say.
“If you say so.”
“Strap in you two; there will probably be turbulence higher up in the atmosphere,” Jayon warns us.
I sit down in one of the seats, reaching over my back for the full body straps.
“Alright, sit tight. T.A.R. control this is Comets End, requesting permission to lift off,” Jayon says through the intercom.
“This is T.A.R. control, permission granted Comets End. Good luck Captain, have a safe flight.”
“Thank you T.A.R. control.”
The ship lifts off from the pad, its engines rumbling the whole ship from bow to stern. I look through the top viewport; I can see the whole roof opening up so the ship can pass through.
“And we have a lift off, alright folks just sit back and enjoy the ride, we should be there in about three hours.”
The metal interior of the hanger disappears seconds after take-off, getting instantly replaced with clear blue skies.
All that I can think about as we take off is Syreena; I want this mission to be done as quickly as possible. All I have to do is wait and see, and then I would know soon enough how fast I would be able to get back to my wife.
Six
Day 8: Cycle 1: Period 2: Year 2397
My eyes opened slowly, I must’ve nodded off a little bit. The scenic ride’s a lot better than I had originally thought it would be, the minutes pass by almost as fast as the land travels beneath us.
I’ve been sitting here for who knows how long, just watching the sky fly by. It was quite boring actually, just watching as everything passes you by. I stand up, making my way to the entrance of the cockpit.
“Where are you going?” Jayon asks.
“I’m going to see how the Captain is doing,” I say, opening the door to the hallway.
I make my way through the corridors; I head for the guest quarters first.
The door to the quarters hisses open, revealing a largish sized room. T-Rave isn’t in here though; he’s probably in the mess hall.
“Captain?” I say, not sure if I’d be heard or not.
“Yeah, in here Colonel,” T-Raves voice echoes through the corridors, it originated from the mess hall.
I walk towards the source of the noise. “Ah, there you are Captain; it's easy to get turned around in this place,” I say, stepping through the door.
“Hmm, I found this place rather easily, this was the first place I went after getting kicked out of the cockpit,” he says.
“Well, to be fair you were being rather rude; there is one thing I have learned in my years that you don’t want to go against: You never want to piss of your pilot; he is the man with the power to just dump you off somewhere where no one will ever find you.”
“He wouldn’t do that, and we are in kind of a hurry.”
“No, he is not the right type to even consider doing something like that. But look at his face when he sees this ship, he just lights up, which means that this job means everything to him, and he won’t do anything to jeopardize it,” I say, sitting down in one of the table chairs.
“Want something to eat? There’s loads of food in these cabinets,” he says, opening the food cabinets behind him.
“Oh, uh, do you think it’s wise to go eating the man’s food?”
“What? He said make yourself at home right? Well, this is home for me then.”
“If you call raiding a food cabinet home.”
The ships intercom crackles before T-Rave can say anything else, “Colonel Woods, Captain Ravenson, please come to the cockpit immediately.”
“Now what's going on?” T-Rave says.
“Let’s go find out,” I say, getting up and walking out the door.
The walk back to the cockpit takes no time at all seeing as I know where to go this time.
“What do we have Captain?” I say.
It probably wasn’t the safest idea to have the entire crew in the cockpit. What if something happened and we all get locked in here? I’m thinking we’d be screwed.
“A few minutes ago our long range sensors picked up ten contacts, flying our way.”
“How fast are they moving?” T-Rave asks.
“If they keep their present course they should be here in thirty minutes,” Jayon says.
“How long until we reach the mining facilities?” I ask
“That’s the funny part; we should get there within thirty six minutes.”
“Damn, can we hold them off for that long?”
“Not in this tub, this is a freighter equipped with some firepower, but not enough to destroy ten bogies, if anything we would get shredded out there doing that.”
“We can use the escape pods,” I say, staring up into the faces in front of me.
“That could work, there are quite a lot of them out there though, are you sure that you can handle them? Because once you drop out of this ship you are on you own for a while, I will need to lie low for a while and put her in stealth mode.”
“That’s alright with me, just as long as we can get to that mining facility,” I say.
“Well, they will definitely do the trick. Come, let’s get you boys ready,” Jayon says, leading us back through the cockpit doors, “Miss Aakia you have the controls, keep a watch on those bogies, and keep us informed.”
“It’s Krystil, and yes Sir, I’ll do my best.”
“Good! Good to hear…Krystil.”
It’s going to be another thirty minutes until we get there? We’ve been flying for that long already? When we boarded the ship Jayon said that it would take three hours, not thirty minutes.
“Captain,” I say to T-Rave, “What did you do when you left the cockpit?”
“Well, like I said, I went to the mess hall, then I found the quarters, I had a nice nap, then woke up hungry, so I went back to the mess hall, which is when you found me Sir.”
“Ah, alright. Thanks Captain. I just needed to know how long we’ve been flying for. I guess I passed out sometime shortly after take-off,” I say, hmm, I did indeed pass out, probably with my mouth wide open. I likely looked like an idiot while doing so.
“This way gentlemen,” Jayon says, leading us through the corridors back to the escape pod bay.
“How long will it take to get set up in those ships?” I say.
“It shouldn’t take too long; I will have to run you two through the controls quickly,” Jayon says.
“We have military training for all standard and advanced aircraft's; I think we will be fine,” T-Rave says.
“Oh really, well I have made modifications to both of those ships myself, so good luck trying to find out what those will do,” Jayon’s voice cracks, despite his age.
I elbow T-Rave in the chest as hard as I can; wearing armour like this amplified the affect several times, he responds with a huge gust of air rushing out of his lungs.
I look over to him, his face in pain, giving him the look of ‘be nice.’
T-Raves eyes are still on the floor, making sure that his feet step in front of each other, luckily he doesn’t notice the smirk that split across Jayon’s face.
“Alright, here we go,” Jayon says, passing through the door to the ship bay. The two ‘escape pods’ are floating in midair, a small ladder leading up towards the cockpit of the ships.
I walk up the ladder to one and I inspect the interior of the ship, it can hold two people, one seat in the front and the other is offset to the back right of the cockpit.
The exterior is of sleek design, a matte black finish to make it appear stealthy to oncoming enemies. The wings are small and thin, if you looked at it head on it would appear as a black tube. “Very nice, how fast do they go?”
“With t
he engines pushed to the max around Mach two,” Jayon says.
My mouth almost drops open, “how come we are not just traveling with these then?”
“Well, you can only have the engines on max power for so long before they burn out the core, they’re meant to be fighters, not transports.”
“Well, how the hell am I supposed to shoot down a target if I’m going Mach two? By the time I get my target in sight I would be dozens of kilometers away in a matter of mere seconds,” I say, traveling that fast in a dogfight was practically useless, unless you were trying to outrun someone or something.
“It’s like I said, that is with the engines at max power, if you really want speed then you hit the little red button that I have specially installed into these particular models.”
“And what exactly does this red button do?” T-Rave asks.
“It makes the ship go supersonic, climbing speeds into almost Mach four in a matter of ten seconds.”
This time it’s T-Raves jaw to drop open in awe.
“How do you survive going those speeds in atmosphere?”
“Inertial dampeners, It’s what prevents you from being a big oozing mess when you accelerate.”
“Wow, amazing, I never thought that we could achieve those speeds yet,” I say, my eyes now look over the small aircraft with shock and awe.
“Well, enough of all the technical stuff, let’s get you boys ready for drop off.”
I point over to the ship parallel to mine, “Captain, you take that one over there, I’ll take this one,” I say to T-Rave.
“Um, this was one thing that I forgot to mention, you two will be sharing one. Don’t worry, its meant to host two pilots, one for flying, and the other one for the actual combat aspect of it.”
“You mean that the pilot has no control over the weapon system?” T-Rave asks.
“Well of course they do, but if you are in the middle of air combat you will be worrying about keeping your ship in the air, not worrying about what buttons to hit in order to shoot. Besides, I’m not letting you two take my only two escape pods; In case something happens to this ship then we will still have a way off in case we need it,” Jayon says, the man does have a good point.
The ships intercom crackles for a second.
“Captain, we’re reaching the drop point, they better hurry; otherwise we will be targets as well.”
“Damn it, they must have picked up their pace to reach us quicker. Alright lads, time to move out.”
“Thanks for the lift Captain, we will notify you when we need to get picked up,” I say, spinning around to face the small ship.
“You want to drive or shoot Colonel?” T-Rave asks.
“I’ll drive, you shoot, sound good?” I say.
“Perfect, there’s nothing more than I’d like than to shoot some aliens out of the sky,” he says, hopping into the back seat.
“We don’t know for sure if those are even manned fighters Captain. If they are the same as the scout ships that bombed those towers then they are lifeless.”
“How do you know that?” He asks.
“The General said that they scanned the ships when they flew by, the scanners revealed that the whole ship is just electronic. Unless there are parts of the ship that are shielded from our scanning technology; if that’s the case then we are screwed,” I say as I strap myself into the pilot’s seat.
“Why would you be screwed?” Jayon asks; he hadn’t left yet; maybe he just wants to make sure that the drop is a success.
“Well, if they can shield certain parts of their ships to hide life forms than who knows what else they can shield. If they have shields around all of their ships then I’m not sure how effective our weapons will be.”
“Well, good luck to you both,” Jayon says, giving a firm nod to us.
“Thank you Captain, see you soon. I hope.”
The transparent cockpit hatch closes over our heads, sealing us inside, oddly unsettling.
“Hmm, great, there’s nothing better than being stuck in a can,” T-Rave says.
“Thank you Captain, you just confirmed my nightmares.”
“What don’t you like flying?” He asks.
“Yeah, of course I like flying, usually in something with a little more room though.”
I hit the launch sequence and the floor beneath the ship opens up to the outside world. Luckily Jayon evacuated to the airlock outside the room before we popped the floor open. He watches us through the small window in the door, he gives us a salute through the window; I return the gesture.
“Bay floor is completely open, ready to drop Colonel.”
“Punch it.”
T-Raves hand jams down onto a button on the console in front of him. The ship shudders as the engines come alive and we start to fall away.
The all too familiar exhilarating sensation of dropping surges through my stomach.
“Woohoo!” T-Rave yells, I guess he likes the feeling of your stomach passing through your entire body and into your head.
The ship passes through several layers of clouds, drenching the ship in thousands of sparkling droplets of water, the outer hull of the ship looks as if it’s made out of black diamonds.
“Comets End, we have a successful launch, be back soon.”
“Copy that pod-one, have safe flight, and good luck,” Krystils voice says over the intercom.
“Come on Captain; let’s see what this bird can do,” I say, slowly easing the throttle to max power.
“Just be careful Colonel, we don’t want burn out the engines,” he says cautiously.
“Yeah, thanks for the advice, as you noticed I didn’t just hammer the throttle down. This isn’t my first time at the controls of a ship Captain.”
“I meant no offense Colonel, I was just saying, that’s all.”
The ship continues to pick up speed, passing Mach 1 within thirty seconds of the launch.
A beeping sound emanates from one of T-Raves consoles.
“What's that?” I ask.
“That would be the radar; we just picked up a contact.”
Several more beeps came from the controls.
“Um, make that a lot of contacts. They’re heading our way, and fast.”
“We already picked up those in the ship, how come we’re just picking them up now in this ship?”
“Well, Comets End is better equipped in almost every field, except speed. Their scanners must reach farther out than this ship.”
“How long till we reach them?” I ask.
“Ten seconds.”
“Holy shit, that fast? How the hell am I supposed to slow down?”
“Too late, here they are.”
“Where? I don’t see-” The ship lurches to the side from the turbulence as the hostile ships rush past us.
“Shit, they over shot us, turn this bucket around so I can get a clear shot!” T-Rave says; his hand flying over the controls.
I hit the reverse thrusters, sending the ship into a fit as it tries to slow down frantically. I punch in numerous commands into the consoles in front of me. The ship pivots abruptly.
My head snaps to the side, hitting the viewport. The ship moved to fast for me to react quickly enough, good thing I’m wearing a helmet. It did its job protected my head from any serious damage, although, it does feel like I’m going to end up with a massive bruise on my right temple.
The commands that I had punched in just a split second ago into the console had taken effect instantly. The ship had turned 180 degrees in seconds, thanks to the thrusters installed on the side of the ship. We’re lucky that that particular maneuver didn’t tear the ship apart.
“They are circling around, time to light’em up,” T-Rave says, his voice ringing with excitement at the thought of blowing something up.
The air around us crackles and hisses as T-Rave pulls the ‘trigger’ on the command console, in response green bursts of energy fly through the air, traveling at speeds faster than the ship is.
Our eyes
can’t actually see the enemy ships, but apparently, the sensors can. The green bursts fly into the distance, disappearing quickly. The ships however appear to be within weapons range. Close enough so the bursts can make contact with the ships before dissipating harmlessly. That’s if you got a lucky shot through.
A small explosion appears in the distance, following suit is a little beep from T-Raves console, confirming that one ship was destroyed.
“Wow, can't believe you actually hit him from this distance,” I say as I begin to turn the power to the engines back on. The ship -which is currently running on the repulsors- hovers in midair.
“Yeah, me to. Why don’t we pick up some speed eh?” T-Rave says.
“That’s what I’m doing. Why don’t you just concentrate on shooting and I’ll do my own job. Deal?” I say.
T-Rave could be irritating at times; he never knows when to stop and think about what he’s saying and how it will sound to others.
“Deal.”
Enemy fire keeps flying through the air, T-Rave didn’t score another hit on any of the enemy ships. The first one had been luck. The ships are just too far out to get any accuracy.
The speed of the ship increased slowly, getting the small vessel closer and closer to the targets that exist only on the monitor.
“Here they come,” T-Rave says, his eyes never leaving the consoles that are in front of him.
Little specks appear far out, specks that grow larger and larger every second.
“Captain, scan the targets for their speed,” I say.
“Why?”
“So we can match their speed instead of overshooting them every time we get them in our range.”
“Right, gimme a sec,” beeps and clicks originate from T-Raves consoles, “ah, alright they’re traveling at five hundred kilometers per hour, roughly,” he says.
I drop the throttle down to five hundred. I was expecting the ship to decrease slowly in its speed; instead, it slams full on the brakes. However, my body is still moving faster than the ship. I jerk forwards. The only thing that stops me from projected through the viewport is my harness restraints.
Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1) Page 9
