Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1) (13 page)

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.

“Whoa, that didn’t feel so good, I think I’m gonna be sick,” T-Rave says.

“Please don’t, this compartment is very small, just keep your eyes on the targets.”

More green fire launches itself from the hidden tubing in the side of the fuselage. The enemy ships get closer; matching the speed of the opposing ships had been smart.

“Strafe right, sensors are showing that two targets have reversed their thrusters and are now behind us.”

I look over my head franticly; two ships directly behind us, shooting weapons of their own.

“Oh no you don’t, you did not just shoot that red shit at me!”

I deploy flares from the rear compartments in hopes that it’ll stop some of the bolts of energy that are flying towards us.

Explosions shake the air around the ship as the flares take effect on the energy bolts. “What the hell? One of the ships behind us just went off the sensors.”

I glance over my shoulder; an object is falling out of the sky, like a bird that’s lost the will to fly.

“Hmm, ok I think those flares did more than what they’re originally intended for.”

“How?” T-Rave asks.

“Whatever the ships are shooting at us had a reaction to the flares. The flares that had been hit exploded; they must have knocked out the engines on one of the ships. That must be why there’s only one of them now.”

“Well, good to know, we wouldn’t happen to have any more now would we?”

“Nope, fresh out. We only had one bursts worth.”

I continue to dodge more enemy fire, weaving in and out of the clouds, hoping to make myself less visible to the following ship. Probably useless though, the ship that’s following us probably relies on sensors and technology, not the naked eye.

If we don’t get rid of that following ship soon we’ll probably both be dead soon.

“Hang on, do exactly what they did,” T-Rave suggests.

“And what exactly is that?”

“Reverse your thrusters, get behind them so I can take him out, the mounted cannons on this tin can doesn’t turn around far enough, I can’t target stuff behind us.”

I look for the thruster control panel, my fingers fly over the controls to find the right command code that will allow me to reverse the thrusters. It isn’t an ordinary combat tactic, which is why it isn’t already programmed directly as a subroutine.

“Got it, hold on,” I say, hitting the panel directly on the activation command.

The ship stops instantly, the ships dead point lasts only fractions of a second after it stopped before flying in reverse. I don’t even have to check over my shoulder to see if the following ship is still behind us. The entire ship rattles as the enemy ship shoots past us.

“Shoot it!”

The air around us lights up with green bursts, followed by an explosion as T-Rave hits his mark.

I put the thrusters back to forward power.

“Three down, seven to go. Wait, where are the others?”

“Scanners are showing they’re right on top of us,” T-Rave says.

“What does that mean? They’re nowhere to be seen, unless…Oh shit!” I switch the engines to max power; the ship begins to climb vertically.

“Get that trigger finger ready,” I say.

“Are you nuts!?” He yells.

It definitely isn’t what the enemy ships are expecting; none of them begin to fire until we’re only a kilometer away from them.

Green and red bursts collide in the air, illuminating the clouds around them in great beams of light.

The encounter lasts only ten seconds max, with half of the ships destroyed in the first pass.

A shudder rocks the ship; surprisingly we aren’t hit from any oncoming fire.

“Uh,
Colonel?”

“What is it Captain?”

“The engines are failing; don’t ask me why I’m not an engineer.”

“We didn’t get hit did we?”

“Not that I can tell, sensors would have picked up anything that could damage the hull.”

“Shit, we’re stalling out!”

“This is some of the newest technology. How the hell could we be stalling out?”

“All technology is the same Captain; people just fail to realize it.”

I try to level out the ship, only to be stopped when all the controls go dark.

“Power's out in all systems,” T-Rave states.

“You know, you have a talent for stating the obvious, did you know that?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“How high up are we?”

“Twenty four clicks and falling rapidly.”

“Initiating a full engine restart.”

“Won’t it take too long?”

“Hey, unless you got any ideas then spit them out, I’m in the pilot seat, and that means that I make the decisions.”

“Ok, here we go.” I say, transferring power from all offline systems directly into the engine output.

“It’s not working!” T-Rave says.

“Don’t panic, just give it a minute!”

“Fifteen kilometers and still falling!”

I look above my head and through the viewport, looking straight at the ground. The ship is falling in a spinning motion instead of falling in a straight line.

“Try the reboot again.” Panic rises in his voice as he says it.

I hit the reboot button again, the engines whine in response as they begin to fire up.

“Ten clicks and still falling.”

“It’s still not working!” I yell.

“Try it again!”

The engines continue to whine as they attempt to boot up, maybe all they need is a little more power to get them started up.

I pull up the inertial dampeners console; I switch everything offline and I transfer the power to the engines.

“What the hell are you doing? We need those!” T-Rave screams at me.

“We won’t need them if we crash genius. When the engines come back online then I will divert whatever power I can back to the inertial dampeners.”

I try to reboot the engines, the whining seems to last longer and is louder, hopefully that means that it’s working.

“What's our altitude?”

“Seven clicks up, this better work, I didn’t come all this way just to end up as a pancake!”

“Don’t worry it’ll work.”

The engines burst to life in a glow of fire.

“Yes! Alright, I’m leveling us out.”

The engine console beeps at me hysterically.

“Uh oh, we got another problem,” I say.

“What is it?”

“The power that is being transferred is getting stopped in the buffer.”

“What does that mean?”

“The pipes plugged.”