SS Odysseus

Chapter 2

"Great question." I muttered, looking at the control board. "Shame we didn't have any pilots up here." I said, looking doubtfully at the buttons.

"Correction: Shame the pilots all ran like a bunch of babies as soon as the enemy fighters exited the atmosphere." Kay said and I promptly rolled my eyes.

"Accurate. Sad, but accurate." I said and laughed drily "We trained for an event like this, then as soon as it happens, order completely fails us."

At that moment, static could be heard on the radio. "Odysseus, do you read me?" a voice asked.

"This is Odysseus, continue." I said sharply into the radio.

"The Rebels struck DC and New York with nukes, estimated casualties are about 9 million. Mr. President is safe. Over."

I looked at my friends, who were both wide-eyed.

"Odysseus is in no condition to assist, if that's what you're asking. The Rebels struck us yesterday. 94% of people that were on board are either dead or in a separate module. Over." I said, shakily.

"Are you kidding me! Odysseus has extensive security measures to resist Rebel assaults! Let me talk to the Captain. Now." He growled angrily, and I rolled my eyes.

"The Captain is MIA, as well as all the flight crew." I said back, and was responded with stunned silence.

Another voice came over the radio. "This is the official POTUS. Code Delta Alpha Romulus."

I coughed awkwardly "Okay. Well, um, the crew up here consists of three people. 2nd Lieutenant Nielsen, um, Lieutenant Colonel Abby, and Captain Kaleigh. I am Nielsen." I said and I heard a desperate groan on the other side.

"Is this a joke? The spacecraft that could easily save billions of lives, and the person in charge is a 2nd Lieutenant?" He asked

"Yes sir. The highest rank that was supposed to be piloting this was a Major General. He is MIA."

The President sighed "Jus-" He got cut off by a loud crash and people yelling "Mr. President! Get down!" Then the signal went blank.

"It's a nuclear war down there." I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose. "And we, theoretically, know how to stop this."

At that moment, a loud beeping sound came from one of the dashboards "Incoming enemy ships! Get to the turrets." I said quickly to Kay and Abby, who quickly stood up and manned the turrets on either side of me. I was also strapped into one, but I also had a whole console in front of me.

"Fire on sight, I suppose." I said, and immediately shot down an incoming fighter.

Then, out of nowhere, about 50 fighters came soaring right at us, in perfect formation.

"Fuck! Fire!" I yelled and pressed the trigger, but all the fighters immediately swerved around the missile, then closed back in, firing at us.

"We need to get out of here! Get to the Armed Escape Pod!" I yelled, and heard them scramble to the pod, which was on my left. I sent a last volley at the starships before running towards the capsule, bringing in 3 rifles, all our medipacks and frozen meals.

"Take off!" I shouted and pressed a button, which shut the entrance, and then I jumped into the other turret - Kay in the other one and Abby in the controls.

"Go!" Kay shouted and we burst out of the ship, soaring above the enemy fleet and going away from them. Finally, I watched as the Odysseus broke in half, I watched as the Earth's gravitational pull overpowered the command tower, and finally, I watched it plummet through the atmosphere, burning up. Soon after, CR crashed after the tower. "Odysseus AEP 2 to Houston, Odysseus is down. I repeat, Odysseus is down." I said into my radio and slowly the burning pieces faded out of sight.

"Well shit. We should probably try and land." Abby suggested.

"No. First, the enemy fighters would literally demolish us. Second, the atmosphere will burn us to a crisp. And third, the world has gone to hell." Kay responded.

Abby sighed "Point made. So, let's save the world now." She said gloomily

~-~-~-~-~

So, how were we going to save the world? Well, good question. We were just a few college grads who knew how to fire guns. So, we decided we're going to have to risk it. Dive through the atmosphere, with this shield thing that Abby found as our heat shield. Then, we would have to destroy the nuclear launchers - which to our knowledge were placed all around the world.

"Okay, ready?" said Abby, and I nodded tightly. I'm pretty sure Kay nodded as well.

"3, 2, 1, we're off." Abby muttered, steering us at an exact angle, a huge wall of heatproof material positioned in front of us.

"Entering the atmosphere... now!" She said and we all gasped.

It was burning. It felt like being melted, then microwaved, then froze and melted again.

I was vaguely aware of somebody screaming.

Wait.

That was me.

Although I'm pretty sure both Kay and Abby were also screaming, after we got past the atmosphere was even worse. Abby was passed out, and we were in free fall towards the ocean, doing numerous flips.

"Abby!" I screamed, "Wake up!"

No reaction.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Abby get unattached, then she began flying through the pod, hitting me in the face at least once.

Finally, Abby regained consciousness, let out a scream, and tried to hold onto the steering wheel.

Great.

Instead of a complete free fall, we were only plummeting with a little control.

I was vaguely aware of the fact that we smashed through two airplanes.

"Abby! Aim for that field!" I shouted, and she nodded, aiming the controls in vaguely that direction.

A couple things went horribly wrong at once.

First: Our wings ripped. That's right, our wings fell off, and we had no more control anymore. At this point, Abby said "Fuck it!" She got a parachute, and jumped out of the pod. So did Kay. So, I did the natural thing.

I followed the crowd.