Beyond Sol

Chapter 23

Four of the TFA's latched onto our propulsion module, connecting to the Spectrum's systems. They gave the Spectrum the additional thrust it needed. But that still left one problem. The Aesos. It's what this operation is about.

The Aurora team and Horizon were able to take out the few that were chasing us, but the waves ahead were thousands in strength. That fire in the crater? Yeah. It grew. A lot. In fact, the whole crater is in flames. So that's cool. And makes us a bigger target.
Most of the wildlife and such are just outside the main crater wall. We figured we could use them to our advantage. Our number count has gone from about five hundred to tens of thousands. The water wave has arrived too. Any of the land animals, well. Survival of the fittest yeah?
The Aurora and the Horizon team, we just floated hitched to the crater wall. The water was forty metres maybe? The Navy Ship convoy covered us up. We were in a small cluster, reaching out a few ships. The Navy Ships created a lateral dome around us, or like, a 2D dome? A semi circle. Let's leave it at that.
We had minimal power on, and would attack once they were overhead. We once again- had the element of surprise. The cannons of the battleships had full coverage of any possible attack point. The twenty inch shells were able to blow anything out of the air, even if it was fifty miles away.
"Jayden we're getting quite bored of waiting. Shouldn't we be the offensive side? I thought we were here to blow a hole in their racial memory." One of the Aurora teams asked via radio.
"Oh we are. Think of this as a jumpscare. They're looking for us, they're looking, they're looking, they're looking, pow. We detonate their hulls. They look at what damage we can do and they never come back to this place or anywhere remotely close to Sol."
"Mmm, okay." They responded, a sigh.
"All aircraft, all aircraft. Aeson crafts are inbound. Lights on." The reconnaissance aircraft signalled, the Navy Vessels clearing a small path out. Their twenty inch shell cannons targeting the aircraft over the horizon. All one hundred and fifty eight cannons aboard the convoy as a whole open firing, the air tore apart. A shockwave pushing the water back and down for a minute.
"Turn and burn!" I yell over the radio, the other three in the bridge, managing the vehicle. The Aurora team was able to take off vertically, a heap of steam sizzling off of the water. Whilst us, the Horizon team, we turned into massive speed boats.
The Spectrum's lifted off the ground, our ship still  using four TFA's to make up for the lost engine. Whilst the Aurora team had a headstart we still zipped right past. Once we were airborne, the Aesos ships were visible, although many were in flames.
The second wave of shells whizzed by, smashing into the Aesos aircrafts in the distance. Which still left thousands. "Aurora team, engaging. Cargo transports may unload." Jayden announced. A few cruisers fired missiles, guns, etc. Wasn't much. And then the transports unloaded their load.
A group of green, red, blue, white, black didn't matter. Dragon-like creatures were dropped. "Dive, dive, dive!" The Aurora and Horizon team both dived down. The Dragon team, eh. The Moonshine team had contact with the Aesons. The Moonshine team ripped into the Ixtals and tore it apart from the inside.
Whilst they were focused on the Moonshine team, we attacked from underneath. We breached through the gaps between ships. Simply our engines able to rip holes through the ships. The crafts dropped like flies. The third wave of shells hit, pushing them back even more. We swooped behind, making sure they were cornered.
Only fifty three vehicles remained. The hell was almost over. The tortuous, tortuous years of struggling to survive. Everything seemed in slow-motion. The rear engines of the Ixtals slowly flashing, flickering until they died. The creatures exiting swiftly before flying to the next.
The fourth and final wave hit, all of the engine lights going dark, the missile shells flying out the bottom, a fiery breeze following in their echoes. They started dropping like flies.
"Yeah so, we have one more problem before we can go home." Muhammed pointed at the Event Horizon, in which the bottom side was red hot. "It's started entry."
"There's absolutely nothing we can do about that- It must've stranded too far into the atmosphere. And now we definitely want to be off the planet once it hits." I sigh.
"Okay then. Let's get the hell out of here. Although we have one problem." Amelia calls.
"What?" I ask, sighing.
"We can't go back through the anomaly. We're gonna have to warp back ourselves. For us it's gonna be a easy 36 and a half years in cryogenic status which doesn't seem to be much. But at Sol we'll be travelling for six hundred and thirty six years. When we land we're gonna be the oldest humans to ever exist." She sighed, looking down.
"Well then I guess it's time to finally use what our core was made for." I shake my head momentarily.
"You fucking optimist." Eliza says.
"That's me!"