GEOVRU: Repticatch

Lesson 6

I stood in the hanger of themassive fleet ship outside the atmosphere of the grey planet below me. Therewere small fighter ships everywhere, they surrounded me, and in less than aminute, once the timer in the corner of my vision reached zero, they would takeoff and erupt into space, and I would follow after them, without a shiphowever. Each and every fighter in this hanger, as well as every fighter in allthe other ships, had a pilot and a gunner in them, there was no space for me.But out there, there was the vast emptiness of nothing but. The number counteddown, it was at ten seconds now. Any doubts in my mind, this would be the timeto get rid of them. The engines on the ships started, they rose into the air. 5...4...3... "I can do this..." I told myself. "Ican do this..." I clenched my fists and swallowed my fears. I pulled the filterout of my bag and put it over my mouth and nose. I took a deep breath and heardmyself exhale. "I've been preparing for this for seven months. I can do this..." 2..1... I put my foot forward, then thenext. ...BATTLE! Thenext thing I knew, I couldn't control my legs, the ships bolted forward atbreakneck speed, creating a force that pushed my back, but I didn't let thatstop me, I ran for the force-field that guarded the airtight hanger and jumpedout with all my might. I felt the floor disappear out from under me, and thesudden vacuum of space took all sound out of the space around me, the sound ofmy breath left me, but I had been doing this all year, I concentrated on thefeeling of the muscles in my lungs to remind myself I was alive and keptfloating through space. I ripped a small ball out of my bag and clenched it ashard as I could to make it shatter in my hand. The second it disappeared alight blue ball expanded around me. I looked at all the beams of light zippingpast me; they varied in a range of colors from red to blue, to purple andgreen. Regardless of how many colors passed me, I was focused on one thing, themassive ship in front of me. The radio in my ear was buzzing like a swarm ofbees, there was chatter across every channel I switched to, and red squads weredealing with fighters on the far side of the battle, while Gold squad stayedbehind and dealt with fighters that got too close. The shield around me wasdurable and sturdy, so any shots that happened to hit it would simplyevaporate, sadly the fighters didn't have such a safe haven, Grofton shipscould still fire back at them, shooting down more and more of our guys, thoughthey would just respawn in our hanger to try again, that is until the flagshipwas brought down, or a certain amount of enemy fighters was taken down. Idrifted through the battlefield at a calm and steady pace, not to fast, not toslowly, to quickly, and I would hit the flagship at breakneck speed and mostlikely die on impact, to slowly, and it would take me to long to get there, notto mention I'd be a sitting duck out here. Ships blew up around me, on allcorners of the battlefield, I only wished there were actual sounds to matchthem, but the vacuum of space didn't give me that pleasure. I noticed my coursehad been thrown off a bit, so I kicked my thrusters in to get myself back ontrack, and listened a bit to the radio. Red squad seemed like they were gettingtorn apart, while Gold was having the time of their lives, but regardless ofhow many of our men fell, it didn't matter to me, I had a goal of my own thatwas different from theirs. One particular scream over the commscaught my attention, it wasn't much different, just the usual, 'Look out!' butafter this scream, a fighter blew up directly in front of me, destroying theshield around me, and throwing me across the battlefield, way off course. "Dangit!" I tried to scream, butthere still wasn't any sound. I was reminded of this fact while in a slightstate of panic and forced myself to focus on the movement of my lungs. It hurtmy head to think of how silent this place was. It wasn't anything like themovies. I kicked my thrusters into gear to direct myself back towards themassive ship, but they only lasted in short bursts, and they had to recharge ifI used them too consecutively. More explosions occurred, pushing me off courseeven more, but not nearly as much. The health gauge in the corner of my sighthad depleted slightly, and I couldn't afford that to happen. I would take ahealth kit, but I would have to take off my filter for that, which was evenmore unaffordable. This was taking too long; I shouldhave at least reached the hull of the ship by now. It would take me at least aminute or two to get back where I was, and another to get to the ship. Iclenched my fists and activated my thrusters again. "Faster!"I thought. "Gotta go faster!" "Mödare!"I hear over the radio. The voice was loud and ecstatic, I immediately placedit, but before I could tell myself a word, I was intercepted by a fighter,which I instinctively latched onto. The pain in my hands was excruciating, but ifI let go now, there no way I'd get back on track. "I've got you!" the voicescreams. I looked to my left, into the cockpit of the fighter. Inside wasAdrakenn giving me a nice wave. I wanted to scream at her, but I couldn't say aword inside this vacuum. "Don't worry about it! Krystal told me everything. I'mgonna make sure you fulfill your part of the mission!" I looked in front of usto see the massive enemy flagship closing in on us. I climbed over to thecockpit of the ship and opened the hatch. "What's up?!" she screams,accelerating towards it. "What are you crazy? You could have killed me!" I screamed,looking to my health bar. "You almost did!"Drake laughed. "Use a health kit I'm not stopping you."I took one out of my inventory and pushed it into my chest,where it evaporated in a faint purple glow. My health shot back up to itsoriginal bright green color as it filled the gauge. "What are you doing here?!"I asked."Helping you! Duh!""Well you've got to slow down! You hit the ship this fastand we'll die on impact!"Drake only tightened her grip on the throttle, and smiled."I know what I'm doing!" She screamed, pulling up and pointing the bow of thesmall fighter to the bridge of the massive ship. I pieced it together in myhead, and nearly pressed the eject button when I figured it out."Drake! I know you're not planning to crash through thatthing!""That's exactly what I'm planning!""You're gonna kill us! Slängdig i backen din idiot!" Those where the last words I could get outbefore I tightly gripped my seat, and braced just in time for the impact. Icould hear glass shatter and the small fighter shook furiously and at screechedto a halt on the metal floor."Now! Eject!""Alright!" I blindly slammed my fist down and felt myselfjerk upwards and outwards. I tumbled onto the ground, rolling multiple times asthe blast doors slammed shut over the shattered windows. Drake helped stand meup and tightly held her massive buster sword in her hands. I disconnected minefrom the magnetic sheath on my back. All the officers and people that were onceon the bridge were either dead or near dead. I ran up to the man near themassive chair in the middle of the room and picked him up by his collar andpressed my blade against his neck. "Where is Caedes?!" I screamed in his face."Why would I tell you?" he mutters back."You wanna die?" I urged him, pressing the sword fartheragainst his pale skin.He spat in my face. I wiped his saliva from my face andstood up over him. I kicked him in the chest and pointed towards Adrakenn. "Thelonger it takes you to tell me, the more diase you're gonna have to pay forrepairs."Drake slammed her sword down on a control panel close tothe blast doors."Now... I know each and every one of these things costsnearly forty million, if not more."Drake smashed another; I thought I heard her laughactually."So... I can let you go if you just tell me, you and yourcrew can get right back into the battle... but the longer you keep me waiting...the more defenseless you're going to be." I pressed my foot down on his face."Now... are you gonna tell me?""Alright, alright!" he screamed.I knelt down beside him, stabbing the sword into the floorbeside him. "Tell me where he is.""He's in the tower that disguises the entrance to thecapitol! I swear that's where he is!"I looked at his facial expression to check if he was lying,his eyes were jammed shut and he was cowering up in a ball. He wasn't lying."Drake!" I screamed. She ran over to me. "Make sure thisguy doesn't go anywhere while we're heading out." I walked towards the massivedoor that opened. As we got towards it Drake slung the man over her shoulderand carried him all the way to the hanger."Alright drop him" I demanded. Adrakenn threw the man down,and he immediately ran back towards the bridge. I jumped into one of thefighters and Drake jumped in behind me."No." I demanded."Krystal needs you up here; taking out Caedes is my deal.""Mödare, I'm not gonna slow you down I can help!""I'm not saying you're going to slow me down!" I snapped ather. "Trust me, get in contact with Krys when you get back to the ship, she hasa plan."Drake looked at me for a few seconds and then nodded,climbing down and into a different fighter."Hey, Drake." I told her. "Thanks... for what you said theother night. I took it into consideration... I'm gonna pull my grades back up."I saw Drake smile and then look up at me. "Good to know!See you on the other side!" she took off and blasted off into the battle inspace. I took off not long after, going in the opposite direction, towards thesurface of the planet.