Beyond Sol

Chapter 22.

Freezing cold water slowly drained out of the four pods. A warm, tingly air flooding in. The cryogenic pods remained closed whilst the OGS and EWS fired up, producing energy, water and fresh air. They grinded a tad bit, but it was expected. Hell, we just waited thirteen years in cryo-sleep. Slow ships.
My pod opened first, the lights slowly flickering on as it did, module by module. The air smelled like old carpet. Quite pleasant actually. But we didn't have time to admire the smells of anything. Maybe after, of burning wreckage. This, This was Project Aurora.
I was able to make it out of the pod, my legs shaky. All of us most likely have heavy muscle atrophy. Yet we all relatively looked the exact same.  Doesn't matter. We're gonna be working them out real hard real soon. I limped over to the other three pods, tapping the AWAKE button.
Steam funnelled out of the pods as the seals unlatched. "I'll let them wake." I mutter to myself.

I pull down the projector screen in the Cafeteria, a diagram suddenly appearing. It was of KLMA-3B, The Aurora team and the Horizon team. (The Event Horizon.) Amelia, Eliza and Muhammed sat at one of the tables, either eating or leaning back on the wall behind them.
"From what we know, the Aeson's know we're somewhere on the planet. Which means they have hundreds, maybe thousands of Ixtals and gunships. But we have the element of surprise." I took a deep breath in, grabbing a french fry from the table quickly.
I pointed towards two clusters just above the planet. "The Aurora team begins the entry interface in less than half an hour. The Horizon team along with them. Only once they engage do we start any main systems. The Aesons are drawn to electricity like flies. And we also do not leave the coverage of this tree until they do. They can track bio-signs." Amelia and Muhammed perked up a tad.
"How are we going to take them out if they outnumber us?" Eliza asked.
"There's thousands planet wide, but in this region maybe a couple hundred. We corner them one by one. Once we destroy them the next wave arrives. On and On. We're looking at hundreds of jets. The water wave that sweeps over the planet is awfully close right now. The Aurora team brought warships in cargo transports. Long story short. It's warfare."

Hundreds and hundreds of vessels including the Aurora team and the Horizon team breached the atmosphere, a shockwave so loud it bent over most plants in the craters. "Aurora one, engaging."
"Aurora two, engaging."
"Aurora three, engaging." They went on and on until Aurora three hundred forty two, and then Horizon up until Horizon one hundred twenty three.
We waited patiently on the bridge. "Light's on! Spectrum A, engaging." I started the startup sequence, the engines firing to life. It pushed us up the hill incline, wet frozen argon slipping off. A sheet of ice surrounding the vehicle, slowly being whipped off by the engines. As soon as we were clear of the tree and in the sun, the jets launched, remote controlled. They were connected to us by cables, about 10 inches thick. They went full thrust, bringing us off the ground. Once we had enough lateral velocity, they released us. The jets went off alongside the hundreds of others, most were manned.
The cargo transports had touchdown first. But most wouldn't have a touchdown at all. They were over about thirty metres of water. Three klicks away. There was maybe sixty, seventy cargo ships. They had one large cargo bay and one large opening on the bottom.
They released warships, small submarines, any military boat. For the exception of aircraft carriers. The ships were manned, hundreds of personnel each.
The engines of the transports blew water out of the way down to the surface. "Reconnaissance aircraft A, Aeson's inbound. Navy Warships, ready guns." A female voice echoed over the radio.
"Navy ships, ready." The main cluster of ships arrived, pulling up about seven thousand feet off the surface. They surrounded the crater, creating a dome of ships that was impossible to get through. And if you did you'd be shot out of the skies, or ya know, run into a tree.
The first wave of Aeson's passed over the battle ships, around seven hundred. That's more than expected. Not good. Twenty inch shells from the warships penetrated the Ixtal's like it was butter. A few Navy Cruisers launched guided missiles, blowing debris out of the sky.
Although it only narrowed the field to 589. Once they reached the crater it was full on war.  The TFA's attacked first, latching onto the Ixtal's like piranhas. They cut their way in and then took out engines, generators any electrical equipment. And then they simply fell to the ground.
"Second wave, incoming. Eight hundred ships." The reconnaissance aircraft signalled.
"No, that's too soon." I radioed.
"You better use every gun you got." They radioed back.
"Carter! Nice to see ya. You've been gone a long time." Jayden called out.
"Any longer than your nose? Pinocchio. All ship's, move to attack position." I call out, the vessels moving from a dome around the crater to a cluster, moving towards the Aeson's. The Aurora team lead, whilst the Horizon team which we were technically a part of followed behind.
"Eliza divert maximum energy to weapon systems." I call out, the lights getting a bit dimmer.
"Diverted, Amelia you should have a bit more."
"Affirm. You guys just pilot." Eliza murmured.
"Taking on evasive manoeuvres. Open fire at will." Jayden announced, the massive ships seeming to just fling around the fight. The twenty inch shells tearing the air apart, screeching, turning solid metal into molten glass. Some TFA's just take a shot at the engines, the whole craft going down.
A a few cargo transports flew overhead, at least a thousand paratroopers dropping out. "They're gonna land on the fucking Ixtals!" I exclaimed, watching for a moment.
The Aurora team was tearing ships apart, but the Aesons were too. A cargo transport falling out of the sky, bashing into Aesons and the Aurora team on the way down, it was utter chaos. "Aurora team, Horizon team retreat to inner crater walls. We can trick them." Jayden announced over the radio.
The paratroopers were attached to the Ixtals, drilling in. Once they were in they took control of the vessel. Getting into the system. Quite the smart idea actually. "Paratroopers in!" One of the Aurora ships announced The ships went in a single file line into the crater. The other Aesons
followed into the crater. Any life was hidden in caves or in trees. The ships navigated through the massive crater under the trees.
Most Ixtals crashed into trees, or crashed into other Ixtals. But you could say the same for the Aurora and Horizon teams. Debris and burning wreckage collapsed and fell to the wildlife, causing a fire to burst out. It wasn't much, for now. Just a couple square metres of small bushes and plants.
The aircraft slid across the air when they turned around, they flew low, just thirty feet. The Aurora and Horizon teams zig zagged through the trees, eliminating tons of Aeson ships. Yet when they reached the end, there was still hundreds on us.
"Jayden, what the hell are you doing?" You're about to run us into a wall." Muhammed calls out. 
"Buying us time!"
"For what?" Eliza asked.
"That." He said, excitingly.
"I can't see whatever the fuck you're pointing at, you're in a spacecraft." She sighed/
"Okay maybe but that's not the point- Okay that's exactly the point. Just wait." He said in defeat. The single file convoy pulled up out of the crater, the Aeson ships along with us. We inverted our selves going down the crater wall so our hull and controls could have a better time.
Once we were level the Aeson ships had an unfair advantage, they easily started catching up.
"Alright! Everyone ready to pull a cobra!" I announce, shipwide.
"Carter, don't do it. Our hull is already struggling here." Eliza radioed back.
"Yeah, I'm with Eliza here. You're also gonna get court martialed." Amelia held the mic to her face momentarily
"It's hell of a lot better than the Aurora and Horizon team dying though hey?"
"Carter-" Muhammed was cut off, the Spectrum breaking off from the convoy. Directly up, once we were clear of the two teams we spun three hundred sixty degrees, the nose now directly down. We dived directly through a gap between two Aeson ships.
I cheered momentarily, a few distant whoops audible. We pulled up, banking hard to port. The Aeson convoy redirecting themselves to us. It's just what they want, an easy target, isolated from the pack. It's just what they want. An unfair fight.
"Increasing throttles to full." The blaze from the engines extended back, the air crackling in little pockets. It didn't matter how hard we pushed our engines. They slowly catched up.
"Divert power to engines! Do it!" I called out to AETHER.
"Carter, no energy is gonna accelerate the engine's combustion. We cant- We can't save ourselves. Deep enough water won't reach us for hours. And we're in a sandstone desert, look around. There's nothing for miles except that crater." Amelia radioed.
"We-W-We can figure something out. We always do. We always find a way to survive. I, I need to get back to Sol. I left so many people behind."
"We will find a way back. We will." Amelia leaned her head back in the small, glass dome just overtop of engineering bay.
Engine one sputtered, the blast of the engine shrunk smaller and smaller until it burned out, a swift trail of smoke blowing out. "Engine one is out. It better take a miracle to get us out of here" Muhammed called out in the EWS, diverting the power and water systems.]
"I love you guys! I really do!" Eliza called out.
"We all do." Muhammed responded, the hull groaned and creaked, about to give out. We flew just feet off the ground, kicking up any loose sand into the air. A long beep and alarm in the bridge.
"TARGET LOCK" AETHER alarmed. The gyroscope was off calibration, the automated systems now attempting to run the ship into the ground.
"Climbing!" I shout to myself, the Spectrum now almost vertical. The airspeed slowly climbed down. We needed a miracle to get out of this- and then we got one.