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Post by Machaeus on Oct 1, 2007 12:24:49 GMT -5
Urufu happens to glance at Ash while his eyes are blank. "You okay? And yeah, I think we are."
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Post by tachyon on Oct 2, 2007 6:46:37 GMT -5
Tendrils of flame lick past the windows, casting red light into the interior of the ship. A load roar, like a jet engine, can be heard getting steadilly louder as they plunge deeper into the atmosphere. The whole craft is vibrating.
"I'd say we are." Kei says as she adjusts some of the controls, "Another minute of this and we should be clear."
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Post by Ash on Oct 2, 2007 16:45:35 GMT -5
"My...Head.Feels like its going to...explode...every second.", Ash stutters as red light shines through the ship.
I´m glad you chosen this way,Mr. Ash.
Kill them all.Anyone who isn't on our side is an enemy.
"Something...Someone...is in my head.They just wont shut up!"
Don't worry,Mr Ash.You'll understand it once you're home.
"Who are you!?!What are you doing to me!?!"
No answer.Grabbing his head,one sentence comes to his mind over and over again.
"Anyone who isn't on our side is an enemy."
Ash heard that a long time ago.Right before he killed a human for the first time.
"Once I´m home?What does that mean?", he mumbles,still holding his head.
"I think I´m going crazy.Once this is over I´ll need a long break."
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Post by Machaeus on Oct 3, 2007 15:24:27 GMT -5
Machaeus snaps Ash out of it by sending a small shock of electricity through him. "What happened?!" he asks as soon as Ash has woken up. "You started talking and saying there were voices in your head!"
Urufu raises an eyebrow. "I can refer you to a fine psychiatrist if you think you need it. Helped me when I came out of stasis - not many people willing to put up with a future-shocked werewolf."
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Post by Ash on Oct 3, 2007 17:34:58 GMT -5
"I...I don't know whats going on.This has never happened before.It...started right after we left earth.", Ash says slowly,shaking his head.
"I remember one of the voices.But the other one...Even though I never heard the other voice,it feels...I cant describe it.And this headache.Maybe its just the lack of sleep."
He looks over to Urufu and points at him.
"Do I look like I need a psychiatrist?"
"That was sarcasm.Don't answer.", he adds a second later.
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Post by tachyon on Oct 4, 2007 3:24:14 GMT -5
Suddenly, the shaking stopped. The instant it did a huge 'bang' sounded from all around. Kei, who had been too busy concentrating on flying to notice Ash's little moment, was startled. She looked at the sensor screens for any signs of danger.
"What the frack was that?! Are we under fire?"
Gordon shook his balding visage.
"Nope, that's just a sonic boom lass, well, actually about eight o' 'em simultaniously... Hang on you're a pilot, shouldn't you know that already?"
"Yeah, I am a pilot. A space pilot. I'm trained in atmospheric flight, just not very... experienced." she said.
"How many hours?" asked Gordon.
"About 800... simulated."
"Right. How many flight hours?"
"Uh, exactly how long have we been in the Earth's atmosphere?"
"'Bout 5 minutes."
Kei beamed. "Then I have exactly 5 minutes atmospheric flight time," she pushed down on the control column and put the ship into a shallow dive, "and counting!"
Before them, blotted by groups of white clouds, was the wide blue expanse of the Indian Ocean. From this altitude, the view extended from the coast of Madagascar to the southern tip of India.
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Post by Machaeus on Oct 4, 2007 13:44:19 GMT -5
Urufu grips the floor of the ship, screaming, "FIVE MINUTES?! GOOD GOD, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE HORRIBLE FLAMING DEATHS!"
"YOU will," Machaeus grins. "I have a spell of fire immunity, though it only lasts for like a minute."
"I wanna trade," the werewolf whimpers.
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Post by tachyon on Oct 5, 2007 2:57:21 GMT -5
"Oh quit complaining, I'm getting the hang of it." says Kei as they pass through a bank of high-level cirrocumulus clouds, "All I gotta do is take some extra compensation into controling the thing now that I have gravity and aerodynamics to consider. Besides, I'm enjoying the view."
The wide blue ocean now stretched from horizon to horizon before them. Kei was smiling.
"It's looks even bigger here than from space. Heh, I even think it gets bigger every time I look at it."
"Umm, there's a good reason for that." says Gordon.
"What? Like some sort of philisophical implication? The majesty of creation, that sort of thing?"
"No, it's because we're aproaching it at Mach 7...Y'might wanna think about slowing down...NOW!"
Pulling back hard with one hand and closing the throttle with the other, Kei pulls the ship out of it's dive a few meters above the waves, splattering the canopy with spray. She looks back at the others with a sheepish smile.
"Oops."
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Post by Ash on Oct 7, 2007 17:30:26 GMT -5
"God.If Deathwatch or EDF wont kill us,you´ll do.", Ash says to Kei as he slowly walks to the thingypit.
"Do you think you can handle it?Without flying against a ship,a mountain or something like that?I don't want to question your flying experience.But like you already noticed.Flying on earth is different than flying in space..."
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Post by tachyon on Oct 11, 2007 6:05:21 GMT -5
"Yeah I know already," repiles Kei, " just got distracted that's all."
Ahead, the coastline was rapidly aproaching. The canopy shimmered as it's inbuilt HUD came to life, projecting a series of waypoint markers stretching out to a distant mountain range. Gordon coughed for attention.
"Now, this course should take us all the way to the Aral Desert an' Vozrozhdeniya while keepin' us off Baikonur's radar. That's so long as you keep us below 1500 ft; any higher an' we'll have MiGs up our afterburners quicker than you can say 'sittin' duck'."
Kei nodded.
"Got that. Just one question; what's a MiG?"
On one of the sensor displays, a rotating 3-D image of a sleek looking aircraft with forward-swept wings and no rudder appeared.
"The Mikoyan MiG-404 'Firefly' sub-orbital interceptor." Gordon explained, "Without gettin' too technical, it's faster, bigger, and a lot more expensive than this ship."
"Oh, goody." Kei says as she steers the ship past the first waypoint and up the mouth of a river.
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Post by Ash on Oct 14, 2007 12:31:21 GMT -5
"Even these MIG´s are better than this ship?Thats poor Gordon.Ever thought about getting in a better spaceship?", Ash says as he counts the way-point markers.
(Every time i write thingypit,it changes to thingypit?What the h3ll?)
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Post by Machaeus on Oct 15, 2007 15:58:04 GMT -5
(Censorship thing.)
"We're dead, aren't we?" Urufu asks.
"Not yet," Machaeus says. "It'd be nice if I could just port us there, but we're dodging too much to do that. It might be better if I put up another Retaliation Barrier, but I'm not proficient with it." Silence. "D@mmit!" he snorts. "We've got few choices, don't we?"
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Post by tachyon on Oct 16, 2007 3:54:52 GMT -5
"Relax, we'll be fine." Kei says, adjusting their course as they pass another waypoint, "If it's one thing I can do, it's not get shot. You know how many firefights break out in New Eden's Dockyards? I can tell you it's a lot, and If I could dodge that in a cargo barge carting 100 tons of excess weight then I can do it in this thing. Besides, they aren't on us yet, and hopefully they won't be."
Below, the lush jungles of the Central Asian coast were giving way to the drier forests and plains of the inland. Beyond were mountains, bleak and grey, the higher ones were snowcapped. And they looked a lot higher than 1500 feet.
"Umm, Gordy..." Kei began
"Yesssss." replied the AI.
"How are we supposed to stay under 1500 when we have to go over a fracking mountain range!?"
Gordon looked rather pleased with himself. "Ah, that's the genius of my plan. Y'see, we can -and are- goin' to go above that, an' were going to do by going through the various blind spots created by the mountain peaks an' valleys. See? Safe as houses...relativley."
In 10 minutes they had reached the said mountains, and began the twisting path through them. Sometime later they were cruising up a twisting river valley, they walls rising a thousand feet either side. And ahead...
"What's that?" asked Kei.
"What's what?" said Gordon.
Kei pointed ahead. "That."
Rising up from the valley floor was an enormous concrete wall. A dam.
Gordon's pixelated face went through a range of expressions, trying to find one that matched the general mood that now permeated the cabin. He settled for a cross between 'Numb Shock' and 'Whoops'.
"That shouldn't be there. They must 'ave just built it in the last couple o' years."
"No sh*t! How do we get around it?"
"We can't; no' enough room to turn around."
"Frack... well, only one thing for it now."
Kei slammed the throttle to full open as they soared up and over the structure. Alarms rang as the shuttle passed into range of the area's radar for nearly a minute before they managed to find another valley. Slumping back into the pilot's chair, Kei smiled grimly.
"Guess they know we're here."
YURI GAGARIN MEMORIAL SPACEPORT A.T.C. TOWER, BAIKONUR COSMODOME
"Rodger that Solar System Shipping SSS-092, cleared for approach on vector North 0-9-0."
The young air traffic control officer was only half paying attention to his duties, more concerned with trying to make the folds on his paper airplane perfect. With most of the functions now fully automated there wasn't much else to do up here. Across from him an older man in a Karakul mas being much more diligent, and swatted the paper plane out of the air as it flew past him.
"Voitinov pay attention to your duties." he said.
Victor Voitinov but his feet up on his console. "What duties Hamid? All we ever do is answer the phone."
"We are here as a redundancy in case of an emergency, that is our duty, and it is a very important one." explained the elderly Afghan.
"Whatever," said Voitinov as he began work on another plane, "I just wish something exciting would happen for once."
He nearly fell off his chair when the intrusion alarms sounded a second later. He rushed over to Hamid, who was already checking the radar screens. He pointed to one.
"There. An aircraft is currently traveling inside the No-Fly-Zone... that's about where the new dam is."
"Maybe they were trying to sneak through," said Victor, "maybe they're smugglers or something! That'd be so sweet."
"Or maybe they're just lost and... hang on the signal's been lost."
The screen displayed the two point's at which the spaceship had entered and exited the radar's range, and at Hamid's request showed all possible routes it could have taken. One caught his interest.
"Vic, get on the phone to Air Force command."
"Why? You know something?"
The old man stared at the red line heading roughly north-west across the Aral Desert.
"Just a hunch."
Back in the shuttle, the mountains were behind them, and the desolate wastes of the Aral Saltflats lay ahead.
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Post by tachyon on Oct 18, 2007 3:46:02 GMT -5
(Modified the post just to finnaly get us into the endgame. Posted this just to bump it. BTW, next chap of my fanfic comming along nicely.)
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Post by Machaeus on Oct 19, 2007 23:30:20 GMT -5
Urufu shakes his head. "Too bad you don't have a radar jamming spell."
"Magic doesn't always affect technology very well, and vice versa," the warlock sighs. "It's an unfortunate truth that they are nearly polar opposites, and almost always run on very different rules. The main exception is tech...no...man...cers..." He turns to Kei. "Is is possible that Xacio - sorry, Zeke, came from a planet of technomancers? There have been magical cultures on Earth that guarded their secrets jealously - why wouldn't a culture from another planet?"
"What IS technomancy?" Urufu asks.
"You know how necromancy is the art of death and undeath? Technomancy creates, manipulates, and destroys machinery. It can be very lethal in the hands of a master. Some of the best hackers have been technomancers, but schools of technomancy are incredibly rare - at least in our little cranny of the galaxy - mainly because it's a difficult school. Half of the students walk out in disgust at the supposed limits of technomancy, and half of the remainder give up when they can't do even rudimentary technomancy."
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