NaNoWriMo 2014

Chapter Seven

It was on the way back to Amanda's that we heard the news. Herbuk was breaking off from the rest of the planets and becoming their own country separate from the republic. The empire had launched forces against them immediately and they were responding in kind.

"I didn't think they could do that!" exclaimed Amanda, "This will mean excess load on our military I'm sure!

"Amanda?" I asked.

"Yes Ralim?"

"You said you are with the government, what do you do?"

"Military organization and office work." answered Amanda, looking sideways at me, "It wouldn't be interesting to you I'm afraid."

"Why not? I asked her, curious about what she did.

"It's mostly numbers, number's of ships at our disposal, numbers of men to serve on them, numbers of weapons available to arm the men with, numbers representing the amounts of ammunition we have to load into the guns on men and ships alike, numbers representing the amounts of supplies we have to supply and feed the men onboard the ships, it goes on forever."

"That sounds interesting, it must take alot of thinking and planning to do right." I said.

"It does tend to take ...ahhh!!!" Amanda yelled as a missile streaked past us on the left and exploded in a ball of flame against the nearest building. She immediately pulled a sharp left and threw the throttle to it's stops. "I guess I didn't realize that having Herbuk go hostile would mean such quick action from their forces. We can't go to my house now, we're going straight to my office!" shouted Amanda over the loud whining of the turbines.

Another missile flew over the canopy and burst against an old light prop plane flying overhead, throwing fragments of twisted metal shooting through the air. I heard them clattering against the fuselage but luckily none got sucked into the turbine's intake port. Had that happened we would have been goners for sure.

"Will we make it!?" I yelled

"I sure hope so." she shouted back to me, straining against the controls as she threw the jet into a series of evasive tactics.

I quit asking her questions so that she could focus on the task at hand. "Ralim, hit the orange button above your head if you could." I did so and felt the whole plane give a little shake. I looked back to see that we had released a cloud of small, confetti-like pieces of metal that began to flutter downwards the moment they hit the air. The drone chasing us evidently sensed the dangers in it's path because it attempted an evasive upwards thrust, it was to late however and it skimmed off the top of the cloud, the small shreds of steel disappearing into the mouth of it's engines. The drone kept flying for a moment longer however and I almost thought that it was still coming after us when it blew up, throwing a bright, orange light over us and the buildings around us. I felt a surge of triumph, Amanda slacked off our speed and levelled out again.

"Well, that was interesting," she said, "I must say, I didn't expect to be encountering hostile forces not two minutes after war is declared though. We're still heading to my office though, I've got to file a report of our attack and the events that followed. I'll need you to recount as much as you can remember, the more information I can put down the easier it will be for our information department."

"Okay." I said. It didn't matter to me what we did, I was still high on an adrenaline rush and the thrill of having been the one to take down the enemy.

We flew in silence the rest of the way there, both of us were going over the events of the attack in our heads, trying to remember every detail in as much detail as possible for recording. At last we arrived and Amanda landed us on a launch pad out the front of the building. She pressed the kill switch and the turbines wound down to a halt. As I climbed down the steps, I noticed that my legs were shaking; I'd been more unnerved than I'd thought.

"This way." said Amanda; pointing towards a door set in a semi-recessed stairwell mounted on the roof. "Through that door is another elevator and down the elevator is my office.

I went where Amanda had pointed with her following me. Inside the door was a set of steps at the bottom of which was a single metal walled elevator. I pressed the button that would call the car to take us down. "Amanda," I began, "why did that drone come after us? We aren't military."

"I don't know Ralim, that's why we're here, I want to have an inquiry made into why we were targeted over many other, more imposing civilians." answered Amanda with a sigh. "I'm just glad of my love of fast planes as a teen. It sure saved our asses out there today."

"You used to race your plane?" I asked her in surprise. Amanda didn't seem to be a reckless person.

"Yes I did, I also did stunting for added thrill. I once tore the wings of my jet at the time clean off during a controlled spin when I leveled off." she said, "The forces on the older plane were just to much for it's structure to take. Luckily I was sponsored and they bought me a new, faster, stronger jet as a replacement."

"This one?" I inquired curiously.

"No, this one I bought with all my prize money when I went away for my secondary ed." she answered, "It is the same model as the one my sponsor bought me but with a few...modifications of my own. The shrapnel release was one such modification, and as you saw, it's a good one." Amanda said with a small smile.

The elevator arrived now and we both stepped in. Amanda pressed the button for the sixty-fourth floor and the elevator began it's descent. "Do you still do any stunting?" I questioned.

"Well, not publicly but yes. It would be a shame for me to lose that ability; as you can see, it saved our lives today!" she said.

The elevator began to slow down as it approached floor sixty-four and we prepared to get off. The doors opened and together we stepped forward into Amanda's office; or at least the ruins of Amanda's office. Her desk and chair and those of her colleagues were scattered all over, the windows were peppered with bullet holes, papers and briefcases were scattered all over the room, smears of blood were on everything.

"Who would do this?" Amanda asked in disbelief.

And then we both heard it, a voice so faint it could barely be discerned, say, "help".

I looked around but saw no one, "Did you hear that?" I asked Amanda.

"Yes, start searching the area," she commended, her voice stern, "look under the desks, chairs and cabinets, we need to find them. She called out over the rubble, "Don't worry! We're coming! Help is on the way!" she then spoke quickly into her chip, calling medics and police to the tower.

I moved carefully through the mess, trying my best to avoid moving the furniture around me in case someone was trapped underneath. It wasn't long before I discovered the first body.