Emily T302 Part3: Dark Federation Clone Wars
“So what are you boys doing?” Emily asked as she walked up to rejoin Andre, Brad, and Terrell. “We’ve been guarding the door while you T models did your work.” Brad stated matter-of-factly.Terrell spoke over his shoulder to Emily, his eyes remaining on a monitor mounted next to the door they’d been guarding, “We are watching the live feed of Bravo team making their way to the mainframe. Here take a look.”Emily stepped up between Brad and Terrell feeling both small as well as protected, for the time being. On-screen, Emily saw Bravo team making their way down a corridor. With the three identically suited Seth, Paul and Andy out front, each had their shoulder-mounted plasma projectors ready. With the force of an old anti-tank rocket, the plasma projector had a shorter range but this was made up for by the fact that it had five shots with very little recoil and no backblast to hurt friendly troops nearby. The camera angle changed as Bravo rounded a corner and caught 6 Cyrealians by surprise. Immediately a volley of plasma projectors fired off, followed a second later by another volley. Lucas could be seen in the middle of the group firing the heavy repeating blaster. The P models began throwing grenades and firing their rifles full auto to keep the level of fire up. It was a truly impressive sight to see. A deadly ballet of combined arms laying waste to the enemy. The Cyrealians didn’t last long under such withering fire. Soon Bravo continued walking past the blown apart legs, claws, and shell fragments as the corridor fell silent once again. And there was Kaylee right in the middle of it all, walking closely behind Lucas, surrounded by the P models as they guarded her. “Wow they seem to be doing alright!” Emily remarked with admiration remembering her own encounters with the Cyrealians. “They have run into a few different groups now. So far Bravo has no casualties.” Brad reported.“Yeah heavy weapons and great training mixed with enough troops seem to turn the tide in battle most of the time,” said Andre as he looked at Emily. “Didn’t you have a helmet on earlier?”“I took it off to work. It is over by reactor 2. Speaking of helmets. Where is yours? Do you not have armor?”“I am a scout clone,” Andre replied as he and Emily stepped away from the monitor, leaving Brad and Terrell to watch Bravo’s progress. “I am sometimes given armor but it depends on the mission. It is cheaper for the Federation to have scout clones unarmored. I can also move more freely without it. Sometimes I need to climb trees or be in stealth capability. That works better if I don’t have 30 Kilos of armor on like Brad. And I definitely couldn’t do my job with 50 Kilos of armor like Terrell here,” as he pointed to the hulking 228-centimeter frame of Terrell.“I see,” said Emily as she looked at Brad and Terrell, taking a moment to take in how massive Terrell was. “So I understand that the three of you are different models then. Or would you and Brad look alike if he took his armor off? Hey, you can answer that as we walk to reactor 2. I need your help with something.”“Sure. I don’t mind helping a pretty girl in need,” smiled Andre as he followed her to the reactor. “And no Brad and I are different models. He is slightly taller and way bulkier. He is the Standard Combat Assault model. The most common clone and considered the backbone of the Federation military. When he reported to Lucas earlier, the CA before the number denoted the Combat Assault. Basically, they are the standard line infantry. Cloned to near perfection.”Emily stopped at the end of the catwalk and turned to face him, “So if the Combat Assault models are so good, why have you and Terrell?” Emily smirked before she turned around and started to climb a ladder up to the next level. Andre smiled to himself at Emily’s words as he watched her climb the ladder in front of him. Then he continued to smile at the view her skin tight VaccSuit gave him. “Well any military throughout history has done better with combined arms. Terrell is absolutely vital for heavy weapons. His model is very costly in comparison but any Platoon needs at least 1 or 2 CH models. Combat Heavy. They are not as agile and they fill up a troop transport rather quickly. But having a few of them in a battle laying down lots of heavy fire sure helps. Also, CH models are the only ones with armor that allows them to stand up to a Cyrealian in hand-to-hand. Although it will usually take at least two or three CH models working together to bring down one Cyrealian in a hand to hand fight.” Andre got to the top of the ladder to find Emily waiting for him. Before he could say anything. she cocked an eyebrow and gave a coy smile, “So the CH and CA models make sense. What model are you, and what is your specialty? Helping Technicians like me...with that big gun of yours?” as she glanced at the sniper rifle that was slung across his back with the barrel sticking up past his shoulder, giving a vague ninja sword look. “What can I say, you techs are so fun to help!” Andre half-laughed keeping Emily’s obvious flirtation going. “You said something about being a scout earlier,” Swatting his teasing aside, Emily responded semi-seriously, actually wanting an answer as she continued to play hot and cold with him.“Yes, I did. I am a scout.” He answered. “Why couldn’t the CA models be taught to scout?” she inquired.“Well they are sometimes. Although usually in an assault recon setting,” Andre answered patiently, already accustomed to playing 20 questions with a newly hatched T clone. “However I am a purpose cloned scout that is also a sniper and also have wet work assignments. Usually I work independently. If I am attached to a unit I stay out ahead to perform reconnaissance. Often I am on the planet's surface alone and calling in orbital strikes on hard to find targets from a concealed location. Much of the information obtained by us CS models is used to plan and coordinate our efforts against the enemy. This is all done best light and fast without armor weighing my model down.”“I guess you are not talking about scuba diving when you say wet work,” Emily stated as lowered her head and looked up at Andre through her eyelashes.“No, not scuba diving,” laughed Andre “Although I am one of only two clone models that is scuba rated,” he added. “Really? Why and who else is scuba diving rated?” Emily cocked an eyebrow. “You never know what kind of insertion method will be best for a mission,” Andre answered. “And as far as I know it is just the C.S. models like myself and the C.C. models.” “What are C.C. models?” Emily asked realizing just how much she didn’t know as well as thinking how dumb she must be making herself look to Andre. “Lucas is a C.C.” Andre said. “Oh…” Emily just looked at him wanting to know more but deciding to not ask any more questions as she had lost confidence. “You just hatched didn’t you?” Andre smiled at her.“Ah…Yeah...I guess that is what you might call it,” she answered and shifted nervously then grinned at him. “Still getting my bearings.” “Hell of a time to wake up!” he said.“Quite.” she nodded in agreement.“Well if you have any questions I am happy to answer them for you,” he reassured her. “Really I would rather my technician be as up to speed as possible in case you need to know something. Feel free to ask me anything.”“What color is your hair if you grow it out and why are you shaved bald?” Emily asked with a smile.“That is your question. You wake up in the middle of a space battle after being cloned 75 years ago, and want to ask a bald guy about his hair!?” Andre exclaimed, both amused and incredulous. “Well, I don’t know what else to ask cause I don’t really know what I don’t know. I guess I could ask you to tell me about the last 75 years.” Emily said. “My hair is brown,” Andre answered. Emily giggled.“Other than knowing my hair color if I had any, what did you want me to help you with?” Andre asked, bringing Emily’s attention back to the task at hand. “Oh, I need you to push this button,” Emily said as she pointed to a green button that said start next to a small digital display that read 4:00, on the face of the explosive charge attached to the reactor. Andre immediately began reaching for the button. Emily swatted his hand away with surprising reflexes, “Not Yet! Pest will give us a signal and you push this button to start the countdown here at the exact same time I will start the timer on the other reactor.” Emily instructed excitedly after almost having a mishap. “Got it. Push-button when Pest says to push button then we run away to the escape pod I assume.” Andre answered. “Correct. And not a minute earlier. So I am going to head over to the other reactor now and stand by until Pest gives us the signal. Shouldn't be too much longer now.” Emily turned to leave the little platform and head further toward the back of the room to a catwalk that crossed to the other reactor. “Hey wait!” Andre called out to her as she started to go. “You are forgetting something.”As she turned to ask what she was forgetting, Andre plopped Emily’s clear fishbowl helmet over her head. He’d found it on the floor from where she’d left it earlier and his efforts to help her out cut her off mid-sentence. He gave it the necessary turn to lock it in place, showing that he knew how her gear worked. Emily instantly blushed and silently mouthed the words thank you. She turned to go again only to have him hold onto her arm and swing her around and put her backpack on her over her rebreather in one fluid motion. He then guided her back to the walkway and sent her on the way with a pat her lower back.Emily, now completely embarrassed about forgetting her entire kit and helmet, started her walk back to the other reactor. As she walked she berated herself, “OMG! Why do I always lose my mind around a hot guy?” She shook her head and knocked her fist against her helmet, “Seriously get it together girl. Failed at flirting and after obviously trying to get him alone to talk and then nose-diving the conversation and bailing in a hurry…” she hit her fist against her helmet again, “then leaving all my stuff...what is wrong with me?” She froze as soon as she heard Andre’s voice in her ear via the ‘space earplug’ comms. “And forgetting she has her comms on.” If she was embarrassed before, now she was extremely embarrassed. Then she heard more voices in her ear. First Brad “Hey keep going, Terrell and I loved the dialog. You are doing great.” Emily could hear Terrell in the background chuckling. Then Stacy, her sister T model, “Hey Pest has me working to reprogram this whole reactor alone down here and you are flirting with my man!” Now Emily just wanted to die on the spot. She literally bent over and briefly considered jumping over the railing. No, I can’t do that. It might not kill me and it would make the situation worse if I survived, she thought to herself. Getting a hold of herself, Emily ran the rest of the way to the other charge that she had placed. Sitting down she took her helmet off to breath as she was feeling claustrophobic. Removing the helmet helped only a little bit. She took the comms pieces out of her ears and put them in her helmet and set it upside down next to her. Then she refocused on what had just happened. This is probably, no definitely, the most embarrassed I have ever been. She thought quietly in her head making sure she wasn’t thinking out loud. Her whole body was tingling. Ugh... he is so hot...Why do I have to be like this around hot guys?As she played the events over in her head for a moment, and thought about the others point of view, she realized that the whole thing was pretty funny. She didn’t blame them for having a fun time at her expense; she would have done the same if it had been Stacy. And she knew she earned a few laughs. She just had to suck it up and laugh too. Realizing this helped Emily get over it a bit as she started to giggle a little to herself and reach for her space earplugs. Once Emily had her comms up and working again, she spoke over open channel again, this time on purpose. “Haha, that was pretty funny wasn’t it? But seriously how do these things work? How do I change channels?” Pest’s voice came over the radio, “Ok let me walk you through a tutorial, dear.” “Thanks Pest,” Emily said. Emily soon understood how to work the comms under Pest’s instruction. It was a simple and intuitive system as soon as one had been shown what to do. After Emily had a firm grasp of the controls she decided to ask Pest a few questions about Andre and the other clones. “Pest can you tell me a little bit about the combat scouts? What are they like?” “Well, they are excellent scouts. The fit their mission profile near perfectly,” Pest answered. “I was hoping for a little more than that, Pest. Tell me about their personality. Do they interact with my model often?” Emily wanted to know.“Oh...Yeah, they interact with your model on occasion. Are you thinking of becoming ‘romantic’ with Andre?” Pest asked her. “If so I advise against it.” “Really? Why?” “Well, your model has liked his model ever since the combat scouts went into production. And his model has had fun with your model.” “That doesn't sound so bad.” “Well if you want to have fun then no it is lots of fun and not that bad. If however, you want feeling from him in return, it is kind of disappointing. At least that is what I have heard from others of your model. He is a good time but not really capable of emotional human connection. It is because he was designed that way.” Pest told her. “Designed that way? Why was he engineered that way?” “Because the Federation needed accurate intel unclouded by emotion of the situation. And he is the most normal human-looking combat model. So Federation Intelligence has used him as a spy and assassin on multiple occasions. He is a borderline psychopath. Has no remorse or guilt, has little care if any for the safety of others, and can plan out complex assignments with no emotional connection to the outcome. He is mission-focused. Even his looks are a part of this. He has brown hair that can be dyed almost any color. He has an attractive symmetrical face with no features that directly stand out to describe him to authorities. His hazel eyes are easy to cover with a set of contact lenses. He is calm, cool, calculating, and charming. Everything an assassin or a spy would need to be. He is a sniper and expert in martial arts. He fits the scout role, assassin role, and spy role, perfectly. Your model is better suited to be with a nonclone crewmember or a Combat Command model like Lucas.” Pest informed her. “Andre will not love you back.”“So if I have fun with him then find someone else it won’t break his heart if I leave him?” Emily asked curiously. “No, it won’t break his heart.” Pest said. “Whatever you decide just keep what I have told you in the back of your mind. Don’t hurt yourself by expecting love or commitment from him. Find a good member of the crew to date one day. Andre is only for play.” “Ok Pest,” Emily said. “Does his model even like my model?”“Well yes. However, since the introduction of the new P models in the last several months the Combat Scout models have definitely been highly attracted to them. Historically the Scouts have liked the Ts, but now it seems that if there is a P model clone nearby they are usually the preferred choice as of late.” “I was afraid you would say that. Any way he cannot love me so not really a big loss I guess. However there is not a P model in the Alpha team.” Emily smiled “Ok everyone get ready!” Pest shouted over the open channel to everyone in the reactor room, cutting off the one-on-one communication with Emily. “Kaylee is at the mainframe and I am counting her down to pull my data drives and start the clock on executing the roll and ram maneuver. Stacy, look sharp! Start the reactor now and send it into overdrive as soon as I am offline.”“Roger that Pest!” Stacy said as the reactor roared to life with Stacy at the console controlling it. “Excellent! Get to the escape pod as fast as you can once you do that,” Pest commanded. “Andre and Emily, are you two ready?”They both answered, “Yes,” in unison. “Good! 3-2-1-Now!!” Pest ordered. Andre and Emily both pressed the button on their respective charges. In 4 minutes this room, and the whole ship, would explode so violently that they would hopefully kill the enemy ship right next to them. Emily checked her surroundings to make sure she had everything this time then took off to the back of the room. “Brad! Terrell! Go go go! You don’t need to guard the door anymore; get to the escape pods with everyone else. Stacy pull me in 3-2- - - - -,” Pest was gone. Realizing this, Stacy sent the reactor into maximum overdrive past every safety protocol she had spent the past several minutes overwriting. Grabbing her gear and securing her helmet, she took off to join the others making their escape down the Jefferies tube to the rear escape pod cluster. Andre was the first one in the tube followed just a split second later by Emily. Andre slid down the tube to the escape pod room landing right in the middle of it. There was a row of five pods open and ready to climb in and launch on either side of the small hallway room. At each end of the room was a door to seal off the ship from decompression when the pods launched. Emily landed on the floor right next to Andre with a thud. Andre picked her up off the ground and growled, “Be quiet. There is a Cyrealian right there,” he pointed just outside the door. Emily followed his gesture and looking through the large clear metal window she saw the midsection of a Cyrealian facing the other way that hadn’t noticed them yet. Just then they heard Stacy yelling excitedly from somewhere up above them in the Jefferies tube. She must have lost balance having only one arm while sliding down the tube. That was all it took for the Cyrealian to notice them and turn and ripe the door off of its frame and come crawling into the confined space with them. Andre yelled, “Get in!” and practically picked up Emily and dove into the nearest escape pod to their right. Landing in the pod headlong, Andre used his foot to kick the lever down, closing their pod and sealing them in and the Cyrealian out. Just then Stacy landed on top of the Cyrealian, at about mid-body. She froze for a second then screamed as she rolled off of its back. The startled Cyrealian turned to try and snap her with its pinchers in the confined space but just barely missed, only snapping on her empty sleeve meant for her missing right arm. She turned and rolled away in the very narrow space and wound up underneath the angry Cyrealian trying to deal with being in very tight quarters for its massive size. Brad had been looking down the tube as he slid toward the escape pod area. He landed on his feet standing on the back of the Cyrealian and shot it three times in the face with his rifle before doing a roll backward down the Cyrealian’s back. He stopped his roll, landing in a kneeling position with one leg up and fired two more shots into the now very angry Cyrealian. Brad then leapt off of its back into an empty escape pod. Andre and Emily watched the close quarters battle for survival from the large window of their sealed pod. Stacy was now crawling toward the rear of the Cyrealian underneath it as its 22 legs stabbed the deck around her. It was starting to thrash and back up a bit to get into a better position when Terrell landed on top of it as well and opened fire with his heavy blaster. The Cyrealian lost its right eye to the blaster but quickly managed to clamp down on the heavy blaster with its large pincher. With a powerful squeeze, the blaster was broken. Terrell used it to hit the Cyrealian in the head before discarding the broken equipment. Brad yelled “Look out, here comes another one!”Another Cyrealian came to the doorway behind the one that was currently stuck in the small narrow room with Terrell on its back. This new Cyrealian opened fire with two plasma rifles even though Terrell was still on top of its comrade. Terrell’s armor shrugged off the hits easily as he jumped in front of the Cyrealian he had been riding. The narrow room kept the Cyrealian from reaching its large pinchers around in front of it to snap at Terrell. Instead it grabbed Terrell with its large 4 fingered arms. Terrell yelled loudly “Grab onto something!” he jammed his broken heavy blaster into the way of the safety vacuum door at the last escape pod. This would prevent it from closing to stop the atmosphere from venting into space. As the Cyrealian pulled him to its maw he pulled a lever to close the last pod on the left across from Emily and Andre as they watched the scene unfold. Brad reached to Stacy and shouted “Take my hand! Quick!”Stacy grabbed Brad’s hand just as Terrell manually launched the escape pod he was next to while in the grasp of a Cyrealian. Both Cyrealians and Terrell were sucked out into the vacuum of space. Brad held onto Stacy as the air rushed out of the room, as Emily watched from her escape pod window. Emily noticed something looked wrong with Stacy’s face. She was gasping for air and about to pass out. There was a hole in the empty sleeve of her suit. A thin trail of blood was coming out of the hole and being sucked out into space. Her wounded arm was causing her to bleed out while she suffocated with a lack of air in her suit. Her body thrashed and her legs kicked rapidly as she started to convulse with lack of air. “Brad, her suit is compromised! Get her in the pod quick!” Emily shouted over the comms to Brad. “Ok I am bracing myself and then pulling her in!” Brad shouted back. Brad started pulling her closer to the pod against the torrent of wind trying to rip her from his hands. Just then another Cyrealian was pulled out with the atmosphere from somewhere in the ship. It was clawing and scratching at every surface it could trying to stop from being sucked out. Its front pinchers managed to get ahold of the door and stop it from flying out the opening where the missing escape pod had been at the end of the room. It frantically jabbed its legs into anywhere it could to gain a footing as the air rushed past it with hurricane force. One of its legs speared Stacy right in the midsection as Emily and Andre watched. From the looks of it, the spiky Cyrealian leg went straight through her navel and pinned her like an insect on display to the wall. Brad unable to see what had happened still held onto Stacy not letting her go as he braced his legs in the doorway of his pod and leaned back. He continued to pull for all he was worth. Just then another Cyrealian was pulled out and slammed into the one that had Stacy pinned. Both of them lost their footing and quickly were pulled into the vacuum of space. As the one with the thick spiky leg through Stacy exited the ship, it tore Stacy in half at the midsection. With the suit still snagged on its claw much of the suit went with her lower half out of the ship with the Cyrealian. With Stacy’s top portion now free, Brad fell back into his pod with all that was left of her and closed the pod door sealing it off from the vacuum. Finally, a security door closed somewhere, stopping their ship from venting all of its atmosphere and the noise of the air rushing by stopped. “Are you alright?” Emily asked over her comms. Brad answered “I am and I have the top ⅓ of Stacy with me. She didn’t make it.”Andre followed up with “We saw happened to her? You did all you could man. These things happen. And Terrell did the right thing. We should all be so lucky as to kill 4 Cyrealians,” Andre said. Just then they felt the ship’s engines come alive and the thrusters started to roll the ship as it rumbled to life. “The ship is starting its roll!” Exclaimed Emily. “PIck a seat and buckle up. I hear launching in one of these can be rough.” Andre said. “You will see the surface of Signa-4 soon Emily,” he smiled and pointed to one of the other escape pod windows. The Pod was an octagonal shape. It had 8 trapezoid-shaped windows. One of them was a little smaller and was set in the one door the pod had. There was seating for 8 crew members in the pod. One seat below each of the 8 windows. Each seat had a 5 point harness to secure its occupant. “I suggest we strap in now,” Andre said as he chose a seat and sat down. Then he looked up at Emily who had her face glued to the window. “Oh, I can see it now!” Emily said, looking at a planet from space for the first time ever in her 19 years. Signa-4 came more into view as the ship picked up speed in its roll. The thrusters were fully engaged, causing a low rumble that shook the pod. At this point, the planet took up the whole view out of the window of the escape pod. “Buckle up buttercup,” Andre said in a warning tone knowing what it felt like to have a rough take-off and landing. “Ok, Ok,” Emily said as she sat down across from the window she decided would have the best view. Just as she was getting buckled in, the pod was launched with a jolt out into space. The boosters then engaged and the pod took off, racing for the planet as the G force pressed heavily on Emily’s chest. Emily strained to breathe against the G force at first until the quick booster stage was finished. She looked out the window and saw hundreds of pods all racing away from the FSS Budapest. Then she looked and caught a glimpse of the Cyrealian ship. Wow, it was twice the size of the Budapest. And it was Blue. Blue with green lights running the length of it. Emily thought it looked more organic in shape with its curves than the Federation ship it was attacking. Then the dark sky was lit up by streaks of green plasma missiles being launched from the Cyrealian ship. Some were streaking towards the pods and others the FSS Budapest. Then the danger of the situation hit home for Emily. The Cyrealians were trying to destroy the FSS Budapest before it could ram them. If they succeeded in shooting the Budapest down they may somehow stop the plan Pest had of ramming them and taking both ships out at once. A green flash closeby caught her attention as a plasma missile blew up a pod close by. She was reassured a moment later to hear Brad over her comms channel. “That was a close one!” Clearly, the idea to launch all the pods at once was working. Each pod destroyed by a Cyrealian missile would most likely be empty after all. This increased everyone’s chances of making it to the surface. Emily noticed the fighters now buzzing around, shooting at the Cyrealian ship and what must be Cyrealian fighters too. The Cyrealian fighters were much larger and slower. They looked much tougher but lacked the mobility of the Federation fighters. Emily was used to the X shaped dragonfly fighter. These newer models however had a round clear bubble cockpit for the pilot instead of the angular one she remembered. However, the rest of the fighter seemed much like the classic SF-203 Dragonfly fighter she remembered. There was also a new Federation fighter Emily didn’t recognize. “Hey Andre, what is that new fighter? The Federation one that is bigger than the Dragonfly. It looks like a U-shape with a pilot in the middle. Almost a horseshoe shape. With a clear all-glass cockpit in the middle of it.”“That is the Kestrel,” he answered her. Smiling in amusement at her fascination with the battle she was in as opposed to being afraid. “It is the smallest warp-capable fighter in the Federation. It is also capable of atmospheric flight as well as space flight. It is a favorite for planet defense because of being able to take off from a landing pad and fly into orbit then even warp to another planet and conduct a mission then fly back.”“Wow!” Emily said as she stared out the window at the new fighters with her mouth open and eyes wide in childlike excitement. “I am surprised they still use the Dragonfly if they have the Kestrel now.”“Well, the Dragonfly is 1/10 the cost of a Kestrel and is actually better at close-in dogfighting. However, it still is completely unshielded and totally incapable of in-atmosphere flight. It trades safety and range for being much more agile and capable up close. Also, it takes only ⅓ the room of the Kestrel in a ship’s hanger. So you can carry 300% more fighters to battle using the super cheap Dragonfly.”“Oh, I see. What about the cockpit? It looks different than I remember for a Dragonfly.” Emily said watching fighters zip all-around locked in the battle surrounding them.“They make the cockpits out of one piece of clear metallic glass. Extremely cheap to mass-produce and make many of them quickly. The controls and pilot seats are connected to the body of the fighter and stick out into the bubble that totally surrounds the pilot. This gives them as clear of a view of the battle as any pilot can hope for. Some P models say it is like they are not even in a ship and just strap wings on and fly.” Andre explained to her. The battle raged with the P models performing admirably to clear the way for survivors of the FSS Budapest. The Kestrels flew in formation to protect the shuttles and took out a few Cyrealian fighters. The Dragonfly fighters attacked the Cyrealian fighters and made short work of them. “Change your comms channel to the Battle Net,” said Andre as he smiled at Emily sitting across from him before looking back up over her head and out the large trapezoid window into space. They both continued watching the battle as they raced away from the Cyrealain missiles toward the surface of Signa-4. Emily quickly did as Andre said and was soon listening to the chatter of all the Pilots engaged in battle around them. She had no idea which pilots were speaking. Emily was just glad to listen to the battle net and hear what was being said by those P models in the middle of a fight. “Two missiles heading for a shuttle!”“Got em!”“Look out we have pods launching from the Cyrealian ship.”“Tracking. Mandy, Tina, you two follow me we need to shoot those pods. They may have brood mothers on board.”“Aye Ma’am!” came two replies.“Hey girls, it looks like Budapest is making contact.” Emily looked back out another window to see the Budapest slam into the Cyrealian ship. Both ships were starting to buckle from the impact. The Budapest was on fire from all the missile and plasma strikes she was taking. Many of the green lights on the Cyrealian ship went out near the impact area. Suddenly there was a flurry of activity from the Cyrealian ship. Missiles and pods starting launching from it in mass all up and down the sides of the enemy vessel. There were some fighters launching as well and what looked like shuttles. “There are too many of them!”“Keep it together!”“No, my sensors cannot target all of them!”“Mine either! Switching to visual fire control.”“Roger, doing the same!”“ETA on Budapest blowing up?”“Um...Looks like.. Wow hold on. 4-3-2-1”Emily watched the ships intertwin from the impact while listening to the countdown. Instantly all the chatter fell quiet. A white light lit up the sky starting from inside the FFS Budapest. As the initial flash faded away there was not much left of the Budapest other than large chunks of debris on fire. The Cyrealian ship was not doing much better. The rear section of the Cyrealian ship seemed still together. Then, it too exploded but not nearly as spectacularly as the Budapest had. “Hey babes! Looks like the Budapest cleared out most of those pods and several missiles too!” “Where is Mandy?”“She got taken out by the explosion too.”“Ok girls time to rally. We need to finish off those pods and quickly!” “What about the enemy shuttles?”A gruff male voice crackled over the channel “This is Commander Hrothgar. Take out the enemy shuttles first. Pods are secondary. If they have shuttles in play then they will have air mobility on the surface making our job of killing them harder. They could mount a counter-attack or move brood mothers around and hide them. We need to deny them that ability. Taking the shuttles out of play will help us mount a successful defense of Signa-4 until the fleet gets here.”“Aye Sir! You heard him, ladies! Take down the shuttles.” “Kestrels! Fly cap and get our shuttles to Station-2. Our fighters cannot fly in Atmo.”“Solid copy on that. Heading to the Surface to follow our shuttles and crew. Give ‘em hell!” “If any of us survive we will orbit the planet in shutdown mode to provide fighter cover in case more Cyrealians show up. At least until our oxygen runs out.” “Good Hunting!”“Heads up a shuttle is way out ahead of us looks like it is about to catch up to our escape pods.” “Missiles incoming to the pods as well!”Emily looked out the window and saw several green plasma missiles streaking towards the escape pods. Then she felt the pod shake violently! “Did we get hit!” She yelled.Andre said “That is the atmosphere. We are starting to experience turbulence from entering the atmosphere of Signa-4. The heat shield and dampers take most of the shock but it is still a bumpy ride. Hold on!” Emily looked out the window over Andre’s head and saw an enemy missile take out an escape pod. She looked up toward where the Cyrealian ship had been to see a few of the missiles left catching up to them. The started to impact a few of the pods. Then all of a sudden the rest of the missiles started to dissipate, lose control, or just explode.“Escape pods and our suttles are in reentry now; the plasma missiles are no longer a threat.”“Maybe not to you down there they aren’t. Hehe” “Don’t rub it in Tina! You girls in the Dragonflys get to have all the fun.”“Yes, we do!”“Any Cyrealian fighters left?”“No, and we are about done with the shuttles up here as well a few pods made it throu…. Wait!! We have a problem!”“Report!” “A shuttle got through flying close formation with the missile salvo!”“On it! I am closest!”“Stephanie I am flying up to assist you, our shuttles have it from here.”“OK, Courtney. I am above them, you come up from below.”Emily craned her neck to look out each window of the escape pod trying to see the action. Her escape pod was in the upper atmosphere and shaking violently as they streaked across the sky of this alien world. There way above them she could see the enemy transport shuttle closing in and the Dragonfly fighter close behind. The Dragonfly opened fire at the shuttle but the atmosphere stopped most of the heated plasma from reaching the target. The fighter and shuttle were close to the escape pod now. The Dragonfly was starting to get rocked by the air it was not meant to fly through. Just then it scored a hit at near point-blank range to the shuttle. Emily could see the P model, named Stephanie apparently, at the controls of her fighter. Stephanie tried again to shoot the enemy and scored another hit that caused the enemy ship to twist and spiral a bit. Then a piece of the ship flew off and slammed into Stephaine’s cockpit. The small Dragonfly fighter instantly broke apart at the impact. “Stephanie did a number on them! I can finish them off!” Courtney’s voice crackled over the radio. “Get em, girl!”Courtney fired a missile up at the incoming shuttle and it was a direct hit. It exploded into a large fireball. “Solid hit babe! Well done!”Just then the parachute opened up and the escape pod with Emily and Andre shook hard at the sudden slowing down but then started to drift lazily to the ground. Emily looked out of the window and could see Courtney’s fighter take a hit or two from the debris field caused by the exploding enemy shuttle. Her fighter started to smoke. “I am hit. Going down. I say again. I am hit but still have flight control. Going to come up just a little short of the station. I will set the fighter down and walk in if I can.” “Ok. Let us know when you land and about how far out from the station you are. There may be escape pods near you. Remember they are not landing on the landing pad either.”“Roger, solid copy.”“We should be on the surface in just a few minutes. You can see the jungle we are going to land in out the window now.” Andre said to Emily. “Oh and take your helmet off. I am going to start to pressurize the pod now.”“But the pod already has pressure. Why do I need to take my helmet off for that?” Emily asked. “Well, this escape pod is pressurized for earth normal atmospheric pressure. The air pressure on the surface of Signa-4 is double that of Earth. The outside pressure is already more than the pressure inside the pod.” He answered her. “Taking your helmet off will let you start getting used to the pressure before we land and open the capsule door”Emily slowly took her helmet off while Andre worked with the pod’s controls. She could hear a slight hiss sound. Andre had started letting the pressure inside the pod to equalize with the outside pressure as they drifted toward the jungles of Signal-4. Emily wondered what adventures awaited them on the surface....
HansApplegate
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