The Road to Hell

Chapter 1

David's bright blue energy drink sloshed out of his cup and onto his padded flight glove as the ship was rocked by another direct hit. "Damn it, I hate this shit," he said, as he downed the rest of the nearly empty cup and tossed it over his shoulder. "We should be out there fighting!"

Standing next to him, simultaneously looking at the system diagnostics for David's FX-81 "Falcon" interceptor and pretending to care about his friend's endless griping, a sandy-haired machinist named Petty Officer Armin O'Brien shrugged. "How do you think us techs feel? We never get to know what's going on."

"Yeah, well, It was supposed to be a routine distress call from what I heard. Now we're getting pounded out there and my squadron hasn't gotten any orders except to standby for further god damned orders."

They were joined by David's second-in-command, Tanner. Like David, he was dressed in a black vacuum-proof flight suit with a white wing on the shoulder patch and a spade symbol on his helmet, signifying that he had more than thirty confirmed kills. Tanner removed the helmet as he approached. "Still no word?"

David shook his head. He was about to continue his tirade, but was cut short when the ship shook so hard it brought everyone in the cavernous hangar deck to their knees. This time the tremor didn't stop, and soon enough they saw why.

A giant column of fire ripped through the floor, obliterating an entire squad of engineers and melting through the ceiling as though their ship's armour was cheap plastic. An alarm began to blare in the few seconds of stunned silence after the hull breach.

Then another plasma beam ripped through the floor and David knew if they stuck around, it'd be the end of them. "Armin, get clear! Tanner, we're going out!" he screamed.

Armin punched David in the shoulder. "Good luck out there, sir. The Dutchman's ready to go. Just see if you can bring her back to me in one piece this time. Okay, asshole?" He turned and sprinted toward one of the exits.

David's grin disappeared behind the polarized faceplate of his helmet as he dropped it over his face and hopped into the cockpit. He activated his suit's comms and tuned into his team channel, knowing Tanner would have already passed his order along to the rest of the squadron. "Listen up, Triple-S, we're getting the fuck off this ship and into the fight! Aye?"

On his heads-up-display, notifications marked with small green circles appeared to let him know his order had been received and acknowledged. There were twenty-three in total. Each and every member of his unit was ready for whatever this battle could throw at them. The challenge, David realized, would be getting to that battle in the first place.

Fighters were normally deployed from launch tubes on either side of the ship. When they returned from their flight, they docked in a central landing deck, and taxied into one of the hangars via elevators. Right now, however, all crewmen were supposed to evacuate the area, and David doubted anyone would open the doors just because he asked.

Lucky for them, the atmosphere had almost completely leaked out of the launch deck, and thanks to those particle beams, there were plenty of holes in the roof leading right to the landing deck.

"Follow my lead," he said to the squadron as an idea bloomed in his head.

He sped through the pre-flight and activated the ship's gravitomagnetic generators. Then he carefully hovered through one of the holes in the ceiling, bringing him right into the landing deck. As soon as he saw the stark black canvas of outer space, he gunned his thrusters and shot out of the Hawk's Nest at nosebleed speed.

All twenty-three of his men were right behind him, well aware that their boss was probably doing something crazy, but backing him up all the same. David swivelled his interceptor around and got his first look at the ongoing battle.