Conflagration

The Darklands Sunrise

Within five minutes, Maj. Tolbert landed on the small service platform. The fighter she was flying today wasn't the same one she'd been flying that first day. This plane was the two-seat, trainer version of the same AF-28 Darklander fighter.

After Maj. Tolbert landed, she didn't even bother to get out of the plane or shut the engine down. She just raised the bubble canopy and stood up in the cockpit. She raised the sun visor on her helmet, exposing her badly scarred face and creepy, orb-like ocular prosthesis. Her long, black-and-gray hair poured from only the right side of the helmet. Whatever else Erin thought about this woman, she couldn't help but admire her commanding presence or her obvious skills as a pilot.

Tolbert easily spotted Erin in the crowd in her crisp, tidy Noémie pilot's uniform. She waved Erin over with her three-fingered, mechanical claw-hand. Erin glanced at Lyssa and saw the worry in her friend's eyes. She wanted to reassure her friend, but they were several meters apart. Nothing she could shout would've been heard by Lyssa over the fighter's idling engine. Instead, Erin just gave Lyssa a thumbs up.

As Erin stepped close to the fighter, Tolbert shouted something down to her, but Erin couldn't make it out over the engine's shrieking, especially with her hands over her ears. Erin partially uncovered her ears and shouted "WHAT?"

Tolbert pointed to the plane's front seat, the training seat. "GET! IN!"

Erin glanced back at Lyssa. Lyssa looked very worried now, so Erin gave her another thumbs up. Then, she reached above her head, grabbed the plane's handhold and hiked one leg up onto the wing. Awkwardly, Erin climbed her lanky frame up onto the wing and then down into the cramped, forward cockpit.

A helmet had been left for her in the seat. She put it on. The helmet had a headset built into it and the moment she pulled it over her head, Erin heard Tolbert's voice over the intercom. "Get your harness on, kid. We're goin' flyin'."

"Roger that," was all Erin could think to say into the helmet's boom mic as she struggled to make sense of the seat's complex harness system. As she finally got the last strap untangled and clicked into place, the plane's bubble canopy secured itself in the closed position with a clunk sound. With the canopy closed, the cockpit's soundproofing muted out most of the engine noise. It was now much quieter.

"You all buckled in up there."

I don't know...I guess I got this stupid harness all figured out... "Affirmative," Erin said.

Erin took in her surroundings. She'd never been in a fighter before. The cockpit was cramped, definitely not designed for someone as long-limbed as herself. Every single switch, button and panel readout was within easy reach. Either side of the cramped space closed in almost to her shoulders. It would have felt claustrophobic were it not for the glorious view out the bubble canopy. She looked out and realized they were already in the air, hovering about twenty meters above the platform on their vertical thrusters. Maj. Tolbert had taken off so gently that Erin hadn't even felt it.

The collective lever beside her left thigh was elevated slightly. Erin noticed that the throttle for the main engine was also located on the collective and was worked by twisting like an electrocycle's throttle. Between her knees, a center stick was moving slightly, mirroring the control inputs Maj. Tolbert was making from the aft cockpit.

"You ready to go burn a hole in the sky?" Tolbert asked over the intercom.

"Oh yeah." Erin couldn't deny she was excited about going for a ride in this sleek, powerful, little plane.

"Good," was all Tolbert said. Erin felt herself being pulled back violently against the seat as the plane launched forward, accelerating almost faster than its inertial stabilizers could compensate for. The main engine was now howling hungrily. The collective beside her left leg dropped into its stowed position as the plane transitioned from thruster lift to aerodynamic lift. Then, the stick moved slightly aftward as Tolbert pitched the nose up. Erin looked out the canopy and over the wing. She saw that they were already several hundred meters in the air and climbing fast.