Blood, Fire and Steel

Chapter 4

I yawned, glancing wearily at the 100 page document that sat on my lap. Even though I technically had the ability to perfectly concentrate on this, I didn't want to. This was more boring than my 9th grade geography homework. I'll just pretend I read this and tell my staff to fill me in on anything I miss. I stood up from my chair and stretched, relishing that satisfying feeling. I was about to go for a walk around the plane when suddenly, the ship tilted sideways dramatically. The world rushed past me in a dizzying blur as I was thrown to the back of the room, my body hitting the wall hard. I got to my feet almost immediately, my pain masked by the adrenaline pumping through my veins.

"What the hell was that?" I yelled.

A soldier rushed into my room, his face red and his eyes wide with shock.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I don't know, Your Royal Highness, but the officers want you in the control room."

"Obviously," I muttered as I followed the soldier out of my office.

A woman with light olive skin stood in front of the large screen in the control room, hands clasped in front of her, a nervous smile on her face. She bowed as I entered.

"First Lieutenant Marsh at your service, Your Royal Highness. The captain ordered me to report to you on his behalf," she said.

I nodded for her to continue.

"You're not going to like this, Your Royal Highness," she began.

"Did you think I was asking you whether or not I was going to like this?"

"No, ma'am, you did not," she paused, swallowing, "approximately five minutes ago, a military-style aircraft launched a missile at us, on our port side."

"Rebel ship?"

"No, Your Royal Highness. It was a ship from Leonia."

"Could it have been hijacked by rebels?"

"Perhaps, Your Royal Highness. We don't-"

The Lieutenant's words were cut short by another explosion that rocked the ship, this time coming from the starboard side. A deafening roar filled the entire chamber, so loud that it hurt my ears. I didn't crash into the wall as hard this time, as two guards threw themselves in front of the wall to protect me from the impact. I jumped to my feet, giving them a quick nod of appreciation before returning to the Lieutenant's side. A thin trickle of blood dripped down the side of her face, but otherwise she seemed fine.

"As I was going to tell you," she rasped, "we're being pursued by several ships. We believe they aim to destroy us."

I was slightly alarmed by the urgency in her voice. This wasn't just a few desperate rebels on a stolen, barely functioning ship with one or two missiles. These were fully-functional Leonian ships armed to the teeth. This was real. This was serious. The most urgent question now wasn't "why?" anymore, it was "how?". How do we survive?

"Can we fight back?" I asked the Lieutenant.

"No, ma'am. We're outnumbered four to one."

"Can we jump?"

"Again, no ma'am. The first hit damaged our engines pretty badly. We're in no shape to jump."

"Can we outrun them somehow?"

"Sorry, but no ma'am. Although this plane does have weapons installed in it, it is still modelled after a commercial aircraft. It can't outrun our pursuers."

"Can we cloak ourselves?

"We can, but they will still be able to sense us and attack us."

"Give me some solutions, Lieutenant!" I barked, feeling a foreign feeling blooming in my chest.