by Rob Buckman
“She ready to go, Chief?
“Yes, sir, if you have a pilot.” A heave set man answered.
“Have one here, says he can pilot one of these.” The heave set man looked at Mike, and he could see in his eyes what he really felt.
“If you say so, sir. You want me to check him out on the controls?”
“Yes, and prep him for the flight, a suit and all that.”
“Aye-aye, sir.” He answered with a salute.
“Good luck, and I’ll see you when you get back.”
“Thank you, Leftenant...” The officer either didn’t hear him over the noise, or just ignored him as he turned and ran across the deck towards the lift.
“This way...”
“The names, Mike, Mike… Grayson.”
“OK, Mike. Let’s get you checked out.” The Chief Petty Officer gave him a dubious look, wondering if this kid even knew how to ride a bike, let alone pilot an assault shuttle. “My name is Master Chief Langford, and I’m in charge of this mission.”
“Right.” Mike answered, stifling a yawn.
“Take the command seat and look things over while I get you a flight suit...”
“Thanks.” Mike was betting he’d also check upstairs to see if they really did have clearance for this flight. Either way, Mike didn’t care as he sat down in the command seat in front of the helm. It was like slipping into a pair of comfortable shoes. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs and got to work.
One quick look told him that standardization was still in effect within the Royal Navy. The controls were similar in layout to the ‘Prometheus’, many in the same place and severing the same function. Without waiting for clearance, he began the pre-flight sequence, bringing the main power plant online, running down his mental checklist as indicator light went from red to yellow, then green. Looking around, he found the checklist pad tucked into a side compartment, tapping the button to flip from page to page. As the last system light turned green he spooled up the inertial compensator, feeling more than hearing the unit build power.
“What the...” The Master Chief spluttered as he came back into the compartment.
“Pre-flight sequence completed, Chief.”
“I can bloody well see that! Who gave you permission?”
“Didn’t think I needed any, seeing I’m sitting in the left seat.”
“Well, you do, son!”
“Oh? You want to fly this bucket?”
“I’m not rated to fly this ship.”
“I am.” Even as he spoke, he ran down the checklist, verifying each item before going to the next. “I take it, you are acting as flight engineer on this trip.”
“That’s right, ” he answered gruffly, “and I’ll give the orders.”
“Not unless you want to sit in this seat, Chief.” Remembering his grandfather’s words about command.
“What’s that suppose to mean! If you think I’m going to take orders from some snotty nosed kid still wet behind the ears, you’ve got another think coming!” Seeing Mike unsnapped his shoulder harness and exited the seat.
“She’s all yours, Chief, have a nice flight.”
“What! Hay! Where the bloody hell do you think you are going?”
“To get some food, I haven’t eaten for god knows how long, and I’m hungry.”
“Get back here! I can’t fly this bloody thing!”
“No?”
“No, I just told you.”
“So you want me to sit in the command seat and fly this mission?”
“Of course I do, that’s what the bloody Leftenant said.”
“Then I am in command, is that clear?” The Chief gritted his teeth, then nodded. “I didn’t hear you, Chief.”
“You are in command, kid, but just wait until we get back onboard, then we’ll see who’s in command.” Mike climbed into the flight suit and sat down again, reaching out to grip the Chief by the upper arm, as if to steady himself. He squeezed, hard, hearing the man groan in pain.
“Sorry, Chief, I didn’t hear you, what was it you said?”
“Nothing,” the Chief answered, trying to breathe through the pain. This kid was a heavy worlder, as no one had a grip like that unless he was. His thought about beating the crap out of this kid when that got back faded away like a summer mist.
“You wired?” He asked after the pain subsided.
“No, manual only.”
“Just my luck. Guess you will need this. He held out a VR headset, and Mike took it and slipped it on. The moment he did, the HUD came up, and he used it to complete his checklist.
“Inertial dampeners to 50%, Chief.”
“50%! The manual calls for 80%...”
“I said 50%, Chief.”
“Aye-aye, 50% it is, SIR!”
“Call whoever commands the launch sequence and tell them we are ready to launch.
“Launch control. This is shuttle 05 ready to launch.”
“Copy 05, prepare to launch from bay 3.”
“Understood, bay 3 it is.”
With a slight jerk, the auto handler lifted the shuttle and moved sideways, then forward to position the shuttle in launch bay three. With a few bangs and bumps, the handler connected the shuttle to the launch rail, then moved out of the way. The moment they connected, red warning light began flashing over the doorway and down the tunnel, warning any maintenance personnel to clear the tube, or seek safety in a maintenance alcove during the launch.
“Control, we are in position in bay 3 for launch.”
“Copy that 05. Timer set, standby for release.”
“AG system to 10%, Chief.” Mike ran his eye over the board one last time.
“You’d better tighten you harness, this could be a bumpy ride.” Without answering, the Chief did, pulling down on the shoulder tabs. “Any idea what’s out there, Chief.”
“Not much. Big battle with the Sirriens from what I heard.”
“So, we are at war with the Sirriens then?”
“Nar, this is just some border dispute from what I can gather.”
“Who won?”
“Hard to say. The jungle telegraphs said we did, but you can bet the other side is saying the same thing.”
“You’d better set the shield at 100%, Chief.”
“Getting worried?” He asked with a nasty laugh.
Even as he spoke, the digital counter on the control board reached zero. The electromagnetic rail shot them down the tube, picking up speed with every foot. With only 50% dampening, they were both pushed back into their seat, which didn’t bother Mike. The Chief found it hard to breathe for a while, until they left the tube and shot out into space.
Having flown through the asteroid belt on more than one occasion to chase down a runaway cargo module, Mike was more prepared for what came next than the Chief. Within seconds of leaving the launch tube, Mike pulled the shuttle through a wrenching turn that threatened to push them through the bottom of their seat as a massive beam with hull plating still attached whirled out of the darkness at them.
“Oh my lord!” Was all the Chief had time to say before he was hanging on for dear life. Mike deftly slipped the shuttle around the debris, breathing a sigh as it slid past.
“That's why the dampeners are set to 50% and the shield at 100%, Chief.”
“Got you! Struth! I thought we were a goner then.”
“Never flown thought an asteroid field before, Chief?”
“Not on your life, who would be crazy enough to do that!”
“Me, for one.” He laughed, feeling the tension ease a little. The shuttle handled better than he imagined.
“What on earth for, fun?”
“No, chasing runaway barges for one thing.”
“Judas Priest, who were you working for?”
“Work on a tug for a while.” It was only partly a lie.
“That's where you learned to drive?”
“Right. Now let see where we have to go.” He punched up the nav-comp, but left the autopilot off.<
br />
Until they were well out of the debris field, he wasn’t chancing his luck to a machine. Launch control had downloaded the coordinate of the stranded Marines into the shuttle nav-comp, so finding them should be easy. What wasn’t easy was dodging his way through the debris field and learning to fly the shuttle at the same time. The exercise did give him a better feel for the capabilities of the ship, and he felt a lot more confident of his ship handling skills as they dropped into low orbit.
“Nice not to have to worry about traffic control for once.” He grinned at the Chief, who looked none too happy.
“How many hours did you say you had flying one of these ships?” He asked, looking a little green around the gills.
“One of these shuttles, you mean?”
“Yes.” Mike looked down at his crono.
“Including this fight, I’d say, about an hour.”
“What!” The Chief groaned and shook his head. “You mean to tell me this is the first time you’ve ever flown one of these?”
“Yup.”
“God help us.”
“No problem, Chief, one ship is much like another. If I can fly a 100,000 ton deep space tug, this should be a breeze.” The Chief didn’t say anything, just looked up towards the heavens with a silent plea.
As luck would have it, the LZ was on the other side of the planet, near the dawn terminator, and rather than drop down into a spiral descent into the LZ, he kept her in high orbit.
“If you don’t drop soon, son, you’ll miss the LZ and have to go round again.”
“No problem, Chief. I hate to run into any wandering Sirrien air or trans-atmospheric craft. I can’t out maneuver them down there.”
“Good point, so what do you plan?”
“This!” He said, and flipping the craft upside down. Gravity pulled them down as the AG field reversed and they plunged it straight down through the atmosphere towards the LZ with the shuttle on its back.”
“Oh SHIT!” The Chief yelled, grabbing the armrest and the ceiling at the same time as she flipped over.
The shuttle dropped like a rock, gaining speed with every foot as the orange red flames of re-entry wrapped themselves around the shield. Mike kept one eye on the altimeter, and the other on his air speed, computing numbers in his head. At some point known only to himself, he flipped the shuttle back over, presenting the AG footprint to the planet.
“100% on the AG and thruster, Chief!”
“Aye-aye, sir.” He groaned, his voice barely audible over the sound of air screaming passed.
The shuttle began to buck and sway as the shield distorted under the air pressure. Somewhere in the back, they both heard the generator warble up and down the scale as it tried to keep up with the changing loads. Flicking his eyes around the cabin, Mike checked for anything out of the ordinary, but found nothing, except the Chief eyes glued to the altimeter and their air speed. Imperceptibly they both slowed, but much too slowly for the Chief’s liking. As far as he could tell, they’d reach zero/zero at the LZ twenty feet underground at the rate they were falling. Then physics took over, as between the AG system at 100% and the thruster the same. The closer they got to the ground, the denser the air, and the better for them to push against. With a shuddering bang that shook the hull, Mike sat the shuttle down at the designated point on the LZ, gently cutting the power back the last notch as they touched down for a zero/zero landing.
“We are here.” He said in a cheerful voice.
“No shit! How far underground are we?” The Chief snarled. “Jesus Christ on a fucking crutch kid! You could have killed us both, you fucking maniac!” The Chief was as white as a sheet, and looked as if he had a bad case of the palsy.
“Anything to eat on this barge, Chief?” Mike asked, raising his eyebrows in question, his face covered with his most innocent look. Chuckling inside. The landing wasn’t as hairy as the Chief thought, but he wasn’t about to explain why.
“Eat! Eat! Is that all you can say?”
“What else is there to say?” The Chief just shook his head and unsnapped his harness, muttering to himself, standing on shaky legs.
“I’ll go round up those Marines, you stay here and be ready to get the hell out of here the moment I have them aboard, got it?”
“Aye-aye, Chief.” Mike keyed the outside viewer, but there wasn’t much to see in the predawn darkness. He switched to infrared, and the screen lit up. The surrounding landscape wasn’t much to look at, a few buildings, and some parked vehicles.
Off to the horizon, he saw multiple contacts, but at this distance, it was impossible to tell if they were people, animals, or just bushes moving in the wind. Something pinged off the hull, but Mike ignored it, thinking it was probably a windblown stone. Then it came again, then two more in rapid succession. Then he knew it was more than just a rock. He swiveled the camera around and spotted two reddish blobs about one hundred and fifty yards away, he couldn’t tell if they were human or anything about them until the screen blossomed with light.
“Shit!” Someone was shooting at them with an old-fashioned slug thrower.
Not particularly lethal to someone in body armor or against the shields, but they could still do a lot of damage to body parts and sensitive equipment. Mike immediate thought was to raise the shield, but with it up, the Chief and the Marines couldn’t get aboard. He opted for a second course of action, and slipping into the rear compartment, he felt around in the dark for the weapons rack. As a precaution, the Chief took a blast rife with him and left the weapons rack unlocked. Taking a rifle, Mike slid a power pack in place and tapped it home. The rear hatch was still open, and worming his way off the ramp on the opposite side, he slipped into cover behind the shuttles left landing sponson. Residual heat from his landing would mask his heat signature from the shooters infrared imaging and plugging in his headset to the weapons HUD he slowly scanned the horizon. His position was fair, but he didn’t have a clean shot at both the shooters. Slowly, he moved his position until he could see both positions and settled down to wait. The two men, or people kept up a steady stream of fire, first one, then the other, never both at once as they peppered the shuttle with slugs. They probably thought they were doing some damage, or just hoping for a lucky hit on something critical. Whatever their thoughts, Mike concentrated on his sight picture, waiting for the opportune shot.
It came when the shooter decided to change positions, or move in closer for a better shot. Whatever their reason, they made the mistake of moving from cover together. As there was no return fire, they may have thought the shuttle was empty. It was a fatal mistake. As they came out of hiding, one in front of the other, Mike fired, killing them both with one shot. The moment he touched the firing stud he elbow walked backwards behind the relative safety of the landing sponson, but there were no querying shot at his firing position. That could mean they were alone, or? He inched his way backwards, using the sights to look around before he moved. With the HUD, he only had to move the rifle to look in out of sight locations, satisfying himself it was clear before moving again. In all, he took half an hour to move twenty feet, this time to a position below the chin turret of the shuttle. His two shooters hadn’t moved from where they’d dropped, so he could safely assume they were dead. He did put the inferred scope on them to make sure, seeing the diminishing heat signature as the bodies cooled.
“Chief to pilot! You there son?”
“Yes, Chief.”
“I found the Marines, but they are badly shot up. They’ve been taking sniper fire for three days now.”
“No shit, Chief. I have two dead here.”
“Dead ones?”
“Yes, had to shoot them.”
“You what?”
“They were firing on the shuttle, so I took them out. Didn’t want you to run into them on your way back.”
“Good god, kid, is there anything you can’t do?”
“Yeah, have a baby or change color.” That brought a chuckle from the Chief, who was black.
&n
bsp; “You’re all right, kid, even if you do make heart stopping landings.”
“Glad you enjoyed it, Chief. How soon with you be back?”
“We should be there in less than ten minutes.”
“Good, keep your heads down. I don’t know if there are any more shooters out here.”
“Copy that. The Marines will be running interference for us.”
“Good. By the way, tell them not to shoot at the body under the shuttle or they will have to walk home.” He heard the Chief laughing as he passed the message on.