Conflagration

Spoils of War

While Erin began preflighting the hardpointer, Lyssa climbed up onto the big freighter's back where the smaller fighter was parked. She then climbed up into the cockpit of the fighter itself. The controls of the fighter were unlike anything she'd ever worked with before, but she found all the necessary buttons and switches easily enough. Within a couple minutes, she managed to get the fighter's engine started and its power output routed, via the umbilicus cable, to the hardpointer below. That would provide Erin with the power she needed to jumpstart the freighter's huge engines.

Next, she accessed the fighter's weapons systems and transferred the control commands for all its ordinance to her personal phone. She felt a megalomaniacal thrill at how much destructive power she now wielded at the press of a button. She slipped the phone back into her pocket and climbed down out of the fighter's cockpit.

By this point, Matty had fully recovered from being dazed and had climbed up to join her on the hardpointer's back. For the next task, she would need his help. They opened up the shipping container. It seemed like a lifetime ago since she'd watched Loadmaster Serpico secure this container to the hardpointer's back. Inside the container, Lyssa saw the spare TFG capacitor they'd brought with them from Gonaways. The capacitor was covered with bales of unprocessed lady and surrounded by several huge, plastic tubs of processed, yellowish paste⁠—Lu-Reban lady, ready to be smoked or injected by addicts.

"That's a lot of lady," Matty said in Estrellan. "Must be a fortune there."

"That's a lot of destroyed lives is what that is," Lyssa said. "Looks like the greedy bastards were even planning on selling my TFG capacitor."

"Spoils of war."

"Well, I've got a better use for that capacitor. You ever see one of those things catch on fire?"

It took them a few minutes, but they managed to get one of the fighter's two EMP missiles detached from its wings. They loaded the EMP into the shipping container and strapped it to the container's floor. The missile's engine output nozzle was mere centimeters away from the TFG capacitor.

Then, Lyssa got an idea. She looked at the second EMP, still hanging from the fighter's wing. It was slightly smaller than she was, so it should fit anywhere she could fit. "Hmm," she said. "Matty, lend me a hand with this other EMP. I got an idea."

* * *

While Lyssa and Matty took care of things topside, Erin was in the cockpit going through checklists and getting ready to start the first of the hardpointer's three, big engines.

PRIM. FUEL PUMP...ON

SEC. FUEL PUMP...OFF

FUEL CUTOFF...OPEN

IGNITION...ENG 1

START...ENG 1

As she pressed and held the start button for Engine 1, she heard a whining from the back of the plane as the values on her engine displays rose slightly for a moment. Then, the readouts on the engine displays for Engine 1 rose sharply and she felt a familiar, satisfying rumble through the aircraft's structure as the engine roared to life. She put her hand on the control stick and fancied she could feel the spaceplane's soul. 788NC wanted to fly.

She repeated the process for engines No. 2 and No. 3.

"Crew Chief Ruiz," Erin said into the boom mic of her headset. "We have a good start. Let's get away from the dock." It felt good to use her friend's company title. This was a Noémie operation. They were finally out from Third Law's and the Fourthers' thumbs. Lyssa didn't respond, so Erin repeated her request. "Crew Chief Ruiz. Seven-Eight-Eight-November-Charlie. Request tow."