Skyracos: Set Adrift

SKYRACOS:

Set Adrift

By John Picha

MOON T02, CLAOUS.

The crimson depths of the Red Sea writhe and boil with strange aquatic life. However, the surface appears surprisingly calm as the gently oscillating plane of wavelets roll from horizon to horizon. The orange sky above is clear, except for the panoply of moons that dot the heavens and slowly coast along their orbits. Throughout the day, some cross the path of Zod, the sun, and cast a cycle of massive eclipse shadows over the land and inland sea. To the native life of Claous, the celestial phenomena largely goes unnoticed, but many of the humanid visitors from the planet Centrus find the stark toggle from light and dark unsettling.

As a gigantic moon-shadow crawls across the Red Sea, the penumbra discovers a tiny life-raft miles away from any sign of land. The inflatable material is a deep rust color that blends into the crimson waters. It's an unfortunate choice for any outworlder set adrift and hoping to be spotted for rescue. Typically this type of life-raft is stowed in a compartment on a LPB-29, and only deployed in an emergency.

A matching tarp is draped over two humanid figures seated across from one another in silence. They're currently hunched over a portable checkered board and preoccupied in a game of “Territory”. They take turns planning then moving metal pieces toward one another in an evenly matched exercise. The game pieces are made of parts collected from the scraps of downed aircraft, mostly LPBs. It didn't take long to complete the set.

Suddenly, the tranquility is shattered by the powerful rumbling of two large bulky objects racing across the sky.

BBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZ!

The sound becomes overwhelming as the alien vehicles pass in tandem with the power of a flying freight train.

On the life-raft, the passengers feel the vibrations in their chests and quickly pack up their unfinished game, but make no signal for help as they watch the vehicles pass overhead.

From the confines of the tarp, the two figures reveal themselves as armored Skyracos. Their mechanical wings pop open as they launch themselves over the water under the power of their zero-g flight-packs. They skim the wet surface hoping to avoid detection from the strange aircraft as they move into a parallel pursuit course. Behind them, the scuttled raft deflates and disappears into the depths of the Red Sea, leaving no evidence of their presence.

Skyracos are encased from head to toe in a bronze and brass armored flight-suit. It’s sleek with streamline stylings. Each of their chests has a number painted on it. Jet Coto wears a 03, as in seeing dimensionally, and Jay of Tanner wears a 13, daring danger to find him. They are best friends and have been split off from Unit 1768 and drafted for a special mission.

As the flying Skyracos close on their objective, Jet Coto thinks. “Two days ago, an alert radioman in a remote locale intercepted a secret transmission from the Byz. No single person really had a handle on the bug language. It's been described as patterned-noise that rolls back around into itself, and can't be duplicated by humanids. Interpreting their clicks, buzzing and droning chirps is virtually impossible for one person. Luckily, he recorded it.

“With the help of mathematicians and forensic linguists, the communications team, Echo, pieced together parts of the message. It appeared that an important military figure of the Byz was taking a trip. Apparently, it was headed to a hive-ship launch-site for a voyage back to Byzantius, their homeworld for a holiday feast. We didn't even know he was on Claous. It was a lucky break for us.

“From the recording, code-breakers sifted a flight plan for a trip across the hemispheres of Claous. It's takeoff and landing sites were well fortified, but the route between them was not.