Penguins of Anarchy III: Edge of Disaster

Fifteen

Panic rose among the passengers in the gunship. For hours and hours, Drake's aircraft had been shadowed by cloudy weather, and now, the gauge in the cockpit that reported how much power the cloaking device had left was telling him that the gunship was about to become visible.

"They've probably locked down all air travel until they find us!" Glyphton exclaimed. "The moment we're visible, we'll be dead!"

"We'll stay in the clouds and keep out of view," Celtic assured him.

"Maybe not," Drake growled.

The others turned to him. "What's that supposed to mean?" Glyphton asked suspiciously.

Drake gulped. "We're almost out of fuel."

"I told you we didn't have enough to make it back to Alcatraz!" Celtic exclaimed.

With that, the four soldiers scrambled around the aircraft looking for emergency fuel hidden in some compartment onboard, but they could find no extra gas anywhere. They were in deep trouble.

"If we go down, what will we do?!" Larikos demanded.

"We'll find a way," Drake replied, hoping he was right.

"I'll need a better guarantee than that!" Glyphton exclaimed.

"I don't have a better guarantee than that!" Drake shouted back. He sat in the cockpit's chair. They were getting plagued with one problem after another. Felly falling behind. Nekron getting killed. And now, they were running out of fuel and time remaining that they would be invisible.

Drake was startled as an electrical hum resonated through the gunship. The needle on the power gauge for the cloaking device was past the "Empty" symbol. "Bloody icicle," Drake growled.

Within two minutes, Drake could see blue blips on the cockpit's radar. That usually meant there were friendly aircraft in the area, but since, in this case, it meant aircraft friendly to their Martial Alliance gunship, it meant trouble.

Suddenly, streaks of light began flashing past the cockpit; the other aircraft were shooting at them. "Buckle up, boys!" Drake warned. "This might end in another crash landing!"

Drake turned the gunship around to face the three jets assaulting him head-on. He fired his own machine gun back at them. A few shots grazed one of the jets, but didn't seriously damage it.

Drake evaded the gunfire that once again poured from the jets and fired a pair of missiles. The jets quickly turned around to avoid being blown apart by the projectiles. They all deployed flares; one missile detonated within the cluster of decoys, but the other sped through the gap and hit one of the jets head-on, blasting it into debris.

Drake fired another pair of missiles and then turned back around, heading in the direction he had been going before. The gunship began to descend; Drake knew if he had any chance of controlling the gunship's landing once it ran out of fuel, he would have to be low to the ground.

There was snow across the landscape. A vast coniferous forest stretched as far as Drake could see, similar to the one back in New York, but much bigger. They had crossed into Canada on their trip back across the country. Drake knew it would provide the most cover should he land the gunship there, so he called to his teammates in the fuselage, "Prepare for landing!"

"We're as prepared as can be, General!" Celtic assured him.

"Try to land smoothly, huh? I'm not too fond of motion sickness!" Glyphton remarked.

The remaining two jets had evaded the pair of missiles and now were heading right for Drake again. They each fired a pair of missiles. Drake deployed his own flares, and all of the missiles detonated among them.