“Sirona's getting the hell kicked out of her, Crystal!” yelled Daf over the com link.
I know, dummy. “Just follow me. We're coming around the back of it.” Crystal and Daf were standing a hundred feet or so above Starship Sirona on a rock plateau that extended in a straight line for miles. The ship was at the base of the plateau only half a mile away.
“Daf,” uttered Crystal. “You see how low the plateau takes a dip behind the back of Sirona?”
“Sort of. I don't know if I can see that far.”
“Well, when we get there, we're going to use it to jump down from the plateau and land behind Sirona. Got it?”
“Uh... hell no!”
“Trust me on this, Daf.”
On the other end of the com link, Crystal knew Daf was shaking her head and cursing, maybe even flipping her the bird. Silence hung in the air until Daf's voice finally came over the com link. “Whatever you say, Chief.”
A cough startled Crystal. She dropped her eyes to the doctor. “Hang in there. We'll get you into a Suficell Pod soon enough.”
He was hanging onto the HDC console much like Daf had done until she had gotten her own Mech. Jerrod smiled, giving her a thumbs up. “Just get us safely inside of Sirona so we can get out of here. Then I'll be happy.”
Crystal smiled, hiding her displeasure about the whole thing. The attack, the frantic escape from what she ultimately assumed would be death, and then always carrying a passenger. The first two were simply hell, but being in charge of another person's life was even worse. She withheld a sigh and shifted her Mech around another boulder, pressing her Mech into a fast run. She glanced at her HDC. “How much time until we reach Starship Sirona?”
4 minutes blinked on her HDC. We've got to pick up the pace.
“Daf, you on my six?”
“Am I on your what?”
Crystal rolled her eyes, something she found herself doing a lot around Daf. “Are you right behind me?”
“Yes, but look who—” Daf's com link fizzled out.
That wasn't good. Crystal turned her Mech’s torso around expecting the worst. When she saw Daf's Mech she froze. “Dammit!”
Daf was being assaulted by several giant humanoids still masked in their frightening green and gray suits. Laser impulses were shooting from their spears. It singed the armor of Daf's Mech, but the armor still held.
Crystal moved her Mech faster than she'd ever pushed one before, eying her HDC’s heat sensor’s blinking red light. “Jump!” she ordered. The Mech lurched forward, pushing off with its legs and soaring into the sky to its maximum twenty-two foot jumping capacity. On the way down, Eden saw laser impulse fire shooting up at her from two humanoids next to Daf. No matter, they were conveniently standing side by side, so she squashed them both by landing feet first on the head of one and by bringing both fists down on the head of the other. Great! She stepped off the lumpy bodies and her next thought was about Jerrod. He was still gripping the HDC, cringing from ankle pain.
“You okay?”
Jerrod opened his eyes. “Not entirely, but I’m alive.”
Crystal turned and looked at the two dead enemies on the ground, oozing red blood from their suits. For a moment, she thought she saw pink skin through a ripped sleeve. Then her Mech shuddered from being pushed too hard. She turned back around to see Daf waiving her Mech's arms wildly, smashing green humanoids and shoving them to the ground like rag dolls. A sudden flurry of laser impulses riddled Daf's Mech, making her Mech stumble backwards. Crystal ran at the line of green giants pelting Daf with rapid fire and slammed her Mech's arm onto the head of the first one. She was reaching for another one when a laser hit Crystal's window, searing a black smudge. “Dammit!”
She landed a crushing blow on another head but then stopped, took a step backwards, and gaped at a triangular craft soaring over the edge of the plateau. She knew it would chop them to pieces, just like Hendricks.
“That doesn't look good!” shouted Jerrod, his eyes shifting from the smudged window to Crystal.
Crystal could see the craft speeding right towards them but it was still a ways away. She had to dodge a giant's dead body and slug a live one back to the ground before she could look around for an escape route.
“Daf, Daf! Can you hear me?!” Crystal slammed her Mech's fist into the groin of another giant. It stumbled, lost its balance, and fell off the cliff.
“Here, Crystal!” replied Daf, her breath fast and jerky.
Crystal sighed relief. “I thought your com link was down.”
“Gee, thanks for thinking of my com link.”
Crystal eyed the craft still flying toward them, estimating that it would start firing in less than thirty seconds. “You see the starfighter coming at us?”
“I do! What the hell do we do?”
“Disengage from the humanoids and follow me! We dodge behind that huge boulder up ahead.”
“Aye, Chief!”
Crystal raced forward with Daf close on her heels. Rocks and boulders littered the ground, yet none were large enough to conceal them. The boulder she had already spotted was perfect. They could hide behind it, protected from immediate fire. The main problem was speed. Could they get their Mechs moving fast enough to reach it before laser impulses rained down on them?
Crystal pounded her Mech's legs harder against the ground as the heat gauge’s blinking light went solid. You can make it. Go, go! Push it, Mech!
A steady stream of thick laser impulse fire erupted out of the starfighter's wings, strafing just in front of the chosen boulder in a straight line as rock blasted into fire and dust. The starfighter was coming at them lower and faster than Crystal had previously thought. “Move faster, Daf! Move it!”
Daf's Mech suddenly appeared alongside Crystal and began to out pace her. When Crystal looked up at the sky, her eyes filled with horror. The starfighter would catch them out in the open.
“Jump!” she yelled, and Crystal's Mech jumped into the air, straining with all of her might and willing her Mech to jump as high as it could, but the starfighter didn’t deviate from its course. She screamed, automatically pulling her Mech into a somersault. The starfighter banked right just in time to avoid hitting her. Crystal reached forward, pressing the air compression button on the HDC. Please work! Slow me down!
She heard the tearing of metal followed by an explosive crash that must’ve been the starfighter. Her air compressors blew air just in time to break her fall, allowing her Mech to land feet first on the ground. Then it vibrated, paused, and gave a heavy shudder, causing Jerrod to finally lose his grip. He flopped on the floor with a yelp.
“Chief! You okay?”
“Don't worry about me, Daf—move to Sirona as fast as you can!”
“Will do. You saved our asses!”
Daf's Mech sped past her with a clear path to the starship. A laser impulse zipped by Crystal's Mech out of nowhere. Shards of rock splayed against her Mech. Crystal twisted around to find the source of the laser, seeing dozens of giant humanoids running after them.
They don't learn.
If the humanoids had been paying attention, they would’ve already seen Daf and Crystal take a dozen of them on without much contest, but then Crystal gasped in horror when she saw half a dozen Mechs almost twice the size of her Mech, and each one had a laser impulse cannon mounted on its shoulder .
Oh, my Guild! She twisted around and sped her Mech after Daf's Mech way ahead. Even though she knew her Mech desperately needed a rest, she ran at full speed and leaped as much as she could to get to Sirona as fast as she could.
“Chief?”
“What now?” responded Crystal.
As she ran, Crystal pulled her eyes off Sirona to eye Daf's Mech just ahead of her, standing at the edge of the plateau and gazing down at Sirona a hundred feet below. It was her mom's starship, the size of a hundred Mech warehouses—probably more. It was heavily armored for photon torpedoes that couldn't be launched anywhere except in space, so the massive amount of
ground fire power striking Sirona wasn’t doing much damage to the ship.
“You jump and hit the air compressor, Daf, and better hurry!”
Daf replied, “Um... no, I don't think so. You see how far down that is? Let's find another way.”
“I'm going to push you if you don't jump! Look behind you!”
Daf turned her Mech around to see the giant Mechs closing in on them. “What the hell are those?!”
Crystal shouted, “I don't know! Jump, Daf!”
The giant in the lead shot an ion bolt at them, missing slightly high.
“I'm jumping!” screamed Daf as she leaped into the sky.
“Get a hold of—” An ion blast hammered Crystal's Mech, toppling her over and she heard the doctor gasp, “We're off the cliff!”
A blur of dark blue and light spun in circles through the window as they fell. Crystal reached a finger toward the air compression button but missed, feeling the dizzying spin grab hold of her, not allowing her to position her finger just right on the holographic button. She tried again, but missed. She felt like throwing up.
C'mon! Push it, Crystal...push the damn button!
She glanced at the HDC to see how many more feet she had until they hit the ground, but couldn't focus on the numbers.
In desperation, she reached her hand forward. She knew if she didn't get it pressed, she and the doctor would be a pile of broken bones when they hit the ground, not to mention dead. She wondered if they’d fall on Daf. The attackers would get two kills with one blow. At least they'd be happy.
One more reach! She extended her finger; wiggled it around, making sure she hit something, any button for all she cared. The Mech abruptly slowed as the air compressors switched on, automatically calculating the Mech's center of gravity and mechanically moving the air compressor tubes exactly where they needed to be, pushing air out and successfully flipping Crystal's Mech upright. She had leveled out, her Mech's feet now pointing to the ground. The HDC spun numbers and registered 32 feet until ground impact. She gripped the cockpit straps with all of her strength. Even though she was in the right position to land, she hadn't readied her Mech's legs and feet to land softly. Most of the shock absorption would bypass the feet and legs, so her low back and torso would take the brunt of it and the doctor would get it even worse.
“Brace yourself, doctor!”
When they hit ground, a solid pound sounded in the cockpit and the Mech shook. They swayed back and forth for a moment and stopped. Dust blocked the window and Crystal glanced around the cockpit. Jerrod was leaning against the window behind the HDC column, his broken leg stretched on the flooring, his other knee pulled against his chest. He exhaled loudly, not realizing he'd been holding his breath the whole time. He pressed his hands against his eyes, rubbing them. “Nice landing.”
That's right. Her Mech had landed. How she was able to do that without killing them both, she did not know. Luck was on her side. No harsh repercussions so far, and the Mech hadn’t toppled over.
Now what?
She peered through the window, seeing Starship Sirona covered by shadows that overtook the land at this time of night on planet Lumus.
“Crystal!”
Crystal turned her head and her Mech did the same. “Where are you, Daf?” She saw the starship in front of her, flat lands to the left and right. Turning around, she looked at the base of the large ridge she’d just been blasted off.
“Inside Sirona. Bay 15 is open.”
Crystal lifted her hands up, shrugging an I-don't-know. “Where the hell is that?”
“Starboard side, near the back of the ship.”
Jerrod pointed to the right. “Around the ship there.”
Crystal stepped her Mech to the right, seeing a wide, open bay. “I see it! I'm coming to the Thunderbird launching bay!”
As she approached, she saw Daf's Mech with its arms out, waving her forward. Her Mech stepped through the doorway of the bay. Orange lights suddenly flashed, making Crystal wince and look away. She stopped her Mech, not knowing where exactly in the bay she was, but not caring, either. All she wanted was for the launch bay door to shut behind her. She would be safer, at least for the time being, yet knowing that safe wasn't something she'd be while remaining on this planet.
A thick stream of steam rose up her window. The gravity equalizers in the launch bay had activated, telling her that the bay door had closed. She let out a great sigh of relief, accompanied by an unexpected whimper. She felt her body relax as she unstrapped her belt harness and sank to the cockpit floor, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. She started shaking. She wanted to cry more than ever, to ache in the moment and let everything out, but she withheld it. She was Chief. They don't cry.
“Your mom will be proud, Crystal.”
Crystal looked up to see Jerrod sitting across the floor from her. He wore a serious, exhausted expression mixed with grimaces of pain obviously caused by a now grossly bloated ankle.
“She'll find a reason not to be.”
Jerrod nodded with a frown. “I'm not telling you what she'd say, just what she'd think.”
Crystal gave a curt nod, thinking he could believe what he wanted, then peered out the window, looking at the long runway. She noticed several people running toward her, wearing dark blue Star Guild uniforms.
She stood up and opened the dome hatch, moving up and over it as she felt fresh air hitting her face. Daf was halfway up the ladder, climbing up to help her chief.
Crystal shot Daf a quick look, then motioned to the Star Guild crew on their way over to her, waving her hand in the air and pointing into her cockpit. “I have a wounded doctor in there! He needs the pods, ASAP!”
The starship shuddered as an explosion slammed against the launch bay exterior. Daf lost her balance and slipped off the Mech, slipping a short ways down to land awkwardly on her feet.
Crystal looked down at Jerrod. “People are coming to help you.”
Painfully, he smiled. “Thank you, Crystal. You saved my life.”
Crystal bit her lip and turned back around, ignored the ladder by finding a foot hold on the side of the Mech and climbed her way down. Several men ran up the ladder, barking orders to each other.
A soft hand landed gently on her back. She twisted around to give Daf a hug, but found herself staring into her mother's eyes.
Admiral Diana McCoy grabbed Crystal as she choked back tears, then heard Crystal weeping in her arms as she squeezed her mom tightly.
Diana let go of her daughter, moving her arms to Crystal's face and kissing her cheek. “I was so scared, Crystal. I couldn't find you. We searched and searched.”
Crystal nodded, but then pointed to Daf. “You can thank her for my life.” Crystal brought her sleeve to her eyes, wiping away the embarrassing tears.
Daf extended her hand, but Diana pushed it away, embracing her instead. “I owe you my daughter’s life.”
Daf shook her head. “I just want to know how we can get off this planet and back to Matrona.”
Diana's face hardened, suddenly drained of all emotion. “That isn't happening anytime soon. Ion thrusters are off line. We're doing everything we can to repair them.”
Crystal looked into her mom’s eyes. “That's not all that's damaged, is it?”
Diana shook her head, then turned and walked toward a hallway at the corner of the runway. “We’re on our last reserves. Without the vacuum of space constantly recharging our ion functions, we’ve got less than 20% left. Aquaponics are still at full function or else we'd be completely out of luck.” She pointed over her shoulder without looking. “Warehouse 26 is just over there. We've hooked into their water line and that's the only reason the aquaponics are fully functional. That’ll last until the bastards catch on and blow the hell out of 26.” She gave a slight smile. “So don't be too shocked if your water tastes like fish.”
Crystal eyed a Thunderbird, stopped, and grabbed her mother's arm. “How many Thunderbirds are operational?�
��
“All of them,” replied Diana. “We only have about a hundred left.”
Crystal looked back at her Mech, seeing the doctor being placed on a gurney by several Star Guild crew. A large hover car was parked next to them.
“Mom, how many of the Thunderbird ion cannons do you have lying around?”
Diana shrugged her shoulders. “I don't know. Like I said, they aren’t at full capacity.”
“What are you getting at?” asked Daf.
Crystal ignored the question as she continued to walk, following her mother down toward the hallway. “How many Mechs are there in Warehouse 26?”
Diana wagged her head, estimating. “I guess...a couple dozen?”
“I need to talk with Tech. If they can find a way to hook an ion cannon onto our Mechs, then we would have infantry—a powerful infantry. Any way to mount lasers on them, too?”
A blast against the starship knocked them off their feet. Then a hover car zoomed past. Diana, sitting on her rump as she stared at her daughter, furrowed her brow. “Crystal, I just got you back. I'm not letting you go out there again, nor anyone else except the Thunderbirds. We stay on Sirona until I get her repaired enough to get off of this shitty planet.”
Crystal stood up, patted her now sore hip, and walked past her mother and Daf, not saying a word.
“Where do you think you're going?” asked Diana.
“To Tech.”
“Stay here, Crystal. That's an order!” demanded the admiral as she watched Crystal head toward an entirely different hallway.
Crystal turned around and stopped, placing her hands on her hips. “There's a question I need to ask them.” She turned back around and kept walking toward the hallway. She was on her way to find Tech Quarters.
Daf and Diana gave each other a look. Diana crossed her arms and called after Crystal. “Stop leading me, girl—if there’s a question for Tech, it's a question for me!”
Star Guild Episodes 1 - 9 (Star Guild Saga) Page 14
