Gunship - The Series

by John Davis

  “Raise it by two credits.” Dalton said as he threw a handful of poker chips into a pile.

  Adam's initial reaction was that of relief, his crew was safe and sound. As that feeling began to fade, he began to wonder why they hadn't invited him to play in a game that he considered himself to be such an expert in. The Captain walked down the metal steps in a much louder fashion, immediately gaining the attention of the entire crew.

  “You would start a card game without me?” Michaels said as he approached the table.

  “Hell, you been asleep for nearly two days.” Dalton replied, a primitive looking cigar that looked as though it had been hand rolled by a blind man hanging from the corner of his mouth. Adam shockingly gazed at his green and brown military style titanium watch, astounded that he had slept for such an extended period of time.

  “We're sitting in uncharted space Captain, thought it best to kill the main engines, save fuel and not gain any unwanted attention.” Kelly said, waiting for the Captain's approval.

  “Good job,” Adam said as he pulled up an empty chair, sitting beside Troy to help him play his hand with the best chance of winning. “Where's Luck?” Michaels asked, doubting anyone even noticed that he wasn't present.

  “On the bridge running more schematics on the ship's vitals.” Kato replied as he laid his spread on the table, smiling and raking the winnings in his direction.

  Under normal conditions, Adam would remain focused on the hand of cards in front of him, however these weren't normal conditions. They were on the run, sitting in uncharted space and Sarah Blaine sat across the table from him, her beauty almost impossible to put into words. She had a look of such magnificent innocence, every feature of her face glowing with undeniable passion. He tried to keep it at nothing more than a passive glance in her direction every few minutes, until one of his glances had been answered by one of her own. How could he have let it happen? He dared not glance back for several minutes, going out of his way to ignore her while showing Troy the finer points of becoming a world class card shark in only a matter of minutes.

  Finally gaining enough courage, he quickly joked with the crew and threw a glance her way; only to find that she had already been watching his every move. Sarah smiled softly as she continued to stare at him, causing him to begin playing nervously. He couldn't understand what was happening. Since when did he ever get nervous around women? In his line of work he met plenty of them, a lot of them tougher than the average girl; most of them could handle a weapon as well as any man and could hang drink for drink with Dalton himself.

  Nobody like Sarah however, not even close. She was stunningly beautiful, very well spoken and above all, political. Political? His idea of politics involved small arms fire or even a good old fashioned bare-fisted brawl. They had nothing in common aside from being here at the same moment, the same spot together; something he knew deep down would be long forgotten by Sarah the moment she arrived safely back home. Still, the heart wants what the heart wants, and his was becoming increasingly dependent on seeing her as much as humanly possible.

  Maybe he was reading too much into her smile addressed to him, he had to be. A love story between two worlds as different as their own is destined to fail.

  “I think Troy has the hang of it,” Michaels said as the boy played the winning hand and collected the pot with a smile that was larger than Dalton's tolerance for alcohol. “I'm going to go check on Luck, you guys enjoy the rest of the game.” Adam added, being much more polite than usual.

  As he stood up to make his way to the bridge, he glanced at Sarah once more, earning another inviting smile as he nodded his head slightly before walking away; trying to concentrate on not walking nervously as every single step landed abruptly onto the cold steel flooring.

  Before the Captain could make it to the bridge, all hell started to break loose. The last thing you want to see during flight as a passenger, much less a Captain is pitch black. Several seconds of darkness stretched throughout the ship as Michaels reached around and found one of the corridor walls to hold onto. There was a flutter of light throughout the ship for a couple of seconds before going back to complete emptiness. The emergency lights, which were nothing more than small red bulbs mounted into the ceiling throughout the ship powered on, coinciding with a very primitive sounding siren that echoed through the entire vessel. Providing very little light, the red glow produced just enough for the Captain to begin sprinting in the direction of the bridge.

  “What the hell is going on?” Adam shouted as he entered the bridge. Luck, sitting in one of the two pilot chairs spun around to face him.

  “My guess is we took gunfire when leaving Tameca, must have hit our navigational system. Even worse, it wasn't until we went dark that I tried to fire everything back up. One of the thrusters is not functional and the life support system is substantially strained.” Luck replied, emotionless as only an android could be in this situation.

  “Can it be fixed?” the Captain asked frantically, taking a seat in one of the vacant leather chairs.

  “No time sir. With limited life support and only temporary use of our second thruster, we are going to have to land somewhere close and soon. Going to be a hard landing at that.” Luck replied.

  Adam buried his face for several long moments in the palm of his right hand before standing to his feet.

  “Find a suitable planet, I'm on my way to break the fantastic news to the crew.” Adam replied as he walked quickly out of the door leading to still dimly illuminated hallway. Fucking deep space. he thought as Luck began taking scans of nearby planets.

  “So, secure as many of your personal belongings as possible in your rooms and meet back in the armory. It's the safest spot on the ship, and from my understanding the landing won't be pleasant.” Adam said as the crew looked on, dazed and facing reality.

  “Are, are we going to be OK Captain?” a scared Troy asked, having already been through a lifetime of trauma in the past few days.

  Caught completely off guard by the young boy, Michaels grew very quiet, unsure of how he should answer. Sarah bent over, placing her hand on the Troy's shoulder.

  “You just stay right beside Roman, everything will work out just fine.” she said in a very calming voice, glancing at Adam for a moment. He returned a nod of thank you as he quickly made his way back to the bridge with Kelly.

  “He's right Captain, we either land to make repairs or we run out of air to breathe.” Kelly said after looking over the calculations Luck had made.

  “Fine. Let's do this.” Adam said as he looked at a map of recent scans of nearby planets.

  “This looks to be the spot sir, all of the planet's vital check out and there's a decent chance we could survive the landing.” Luck added to the discussion, pointing to a spot on one of the black and white scans.

  “Expecting trouble?” Sarah said as Dalton filled a field bag full of weapons to sit right beside a slightly smaller wooden crate that he had stocked with his finest drink.

  “I like to stay prepared for anything.” he replied with a slight grin.

  As they made their way to the armory, the rest of the crew had already strapped in. Thick nylon harnesses were bolted to the wall, surrounding the weapons cache in the middle of the room. Kato held his restraints, nervous, but doing his best to hide it from the rest of the crew. Roman appeared to be expecting a lot less trouble, with only a combat blade strapped to his right thigh; he looked as though he was on the verge of falling asleep, Troy strapped in snugly right beside him. As Sarah strapped herself in with help from Dalton, he turned a small flask up and finished its contents before slinging it onto the floor and climbing into position.

  “Well. It's go time.” he said with confidence, almost as if he had done this dozens of times.

  Two spots left. Sarah thought as she imagined the Captain would pilot the ship down to the surface. What a brave man. A man's man. she imagined as the red glow of the emergency lights did little to brighten the armory.

&nbs
p; “Luck is going to pilot the ship down.” Michaels said as he and Kelly entered the room and began strapping in. Smiling slightly in Sarah's direction, completely unaware of the faith she had placed in his courage just moments before.

  Anyone who has has been fortunate enough to survive a ship to surface crash can attest to the same thing. The fall. Feeling absolutely helpless as gravity pulls you down faster than any human being should ever go, having nothing more to cling to than a safety harness bolted to the steel plated wall as you pray for forgiveness and intervention.

  Objects began to fall throughout the armory as the Gunship dove into a deep descent that slowly led to a nosedive into the unknown, uncharted confines of the planet that the Captain had picked under pressure. It was the first time in a long while that Adam was afraid of dying.

  Sure, the Hunters could have easily killed him back on Tameca. Still, he had a weapon in hand and at least some control of the situation. Falling from the sky at breakneck speeds tended to make him feel just a bit more helpless. Although he feared for his own life, he feared for his crew and the condition of his ship just as deeply.

  Glancing around the room, everyone's individual feelings became crystal clear as their faces revealed all. Sarah cried softly, trying to comfort Troy while doing so. Kato stood solid, grasping very tightly to his safety straps, fingers red from the pressure of his clinched fists. Roman showed no fear, holding his crossed arms securely against his chest while his eyes remained closed. Dalton mumbled under his breath, leading the Captain to question if he was praying or cursing. Either way, he held a field supply bag full of weapons and a wooden crate of drink firmly against the wall with his large black boots.

  The ship jolted roughly, causing a massive pull of gravity to one side of the vessel, nearly pulling the crew out of their confines and sending the wooden crate of alcohol smashing against the weapons cache in the center of the armory; shattering its contents.

  “Oh no,” Dalton yelled angrily as the crew looked on for several moments, waiting to see if he was brave enough to free himself in an attempt to salvage anything he could from the crate. The overhead lights fluttered for a moment before coming back on permanently, making visible what looked like a stream of ale and other toxic refreshments running out of the armory and falling to waste over the side of the catwalk. “Oh hell no!” Dalton added, overwhelmed with discouragement before clinching tightly as the ship dipped into a sudden spinning dive.

  Adam heard the ship's thrusters trying to engage, which let him know they were inside the planet's atmosphere and it was almost over, for better or for worse. He could tell because of his extensive time aboard the vessel that the sound he heard was only one of the two thrusters, meaning the other was still malfunctioning.

  He could only hope that Luck put the ship down in a spot that would do the least damage possible. If any of the crew survived, they needed enough of the ship left to attempt a repair job, otherwise it could be a very long time before they would leave this rock. If ever.

  The entire crew could hear a loud alarm throughout the ship, those among them who had military training knew that it was a proximity alert, the time had come. Adam glanced at his crew one last time before settling his eyes onto Sarah Blaine.

  He hoped that some higher power had not purposely placed the woman of his dreams into his life, only to end it a couple of days later. I'm sorry for any wrong I've done. Please, just give me a second chance to make things right, a chance to do something positive for a change. Adam thought.

  A big part of him wanted to yell to her loudly that he had started to feel himself falling in love with her, no matter how forbidden it was in the eyes of society. What did he have to lose? Adam had convinced himself that if it truly was the last thing he would ever do, he needed to tell her. But there was no time.

  The impact immediately caused the Gunship to go completely dark, sounds of metal tearing from its hinges all around them. Several of the bolts had torn from his harness upon impact, still enough of them remained intact to hold Michaels in place, he had hoped that the rest of his crew had been so lucky. A couple of minutes after the initial impact, Adam realized that he had survived. Good chance his back had been bruised from beating against the thick plated wall, but he was alive. Sparks flew as the main light above them shorted in and out, the live current hitting exposed wires that now hung above their heads.

  “Everyone OK?” Michaels asked with true concern, although most of his focus was in Sarah's direction.

  The Captain feared the worst as not a single person responded. Maybe he hadn't spoken loud enough for his voice to overpower the sounds of electric showers and hemorrhaging pipes.

  “IS EVERYONE OK?” Adam repeated loudly, strong enough to be heard several rooms over.

  “Hell no I'm not! You saw the crate shatter to pieces, all my scratch gone in a matter of seconds!” Dalton replied, prompting laughter and relief from the rest of the crew, putting the Captain's worries to ease.

  As the crew slowly found its way through the complete darkness to the cargo hold doors, Michaels and Kelly made their way through the mangled corridors which were littered with scattered debris, heading for the bridge to congratulate Luck on a job well done.

  The first one out was Dalton, solid black riot style shotgun in front of him, he slowly made his way down the ramp, which was slightly bent into an angle. Dalton, of course, still steaming over his forced alcoholism intervention.

  While it wasn't worth a plummet to the surface at blazing speeds in the face of impending death, the scenery wasn't hard on the eyes in the least. Vibrant green grass swaying with a slow wind as they sat in a huge field surrounded by small hills and a distant tree line. It looked almost like a destination for someone in search of a getaway, rather than a spot picked at the last minute for a crash landing.

  Dalton stepped from the ramp onto the welcoming soil, which gave way under his boots, moist from a recent rain as he began panning his weapon around slowly. The next person down was Roman, walking a bit more calmly with a tight grip on a large combat rifle, he immediately made way to the rear of the ship to try and assess the damage. Seeing a large trench dug behind the ship, dragging out for several hundred feet from the recent impact of the crash.

  Sarah and Troy, obviously shaken up quite a bit, stepped onto the ground and remained close behind Dalton as he continued to thoroughly evaluate the landscape. Kato exited the ship slowly, holding a small pistol by his side and walking slowly toward the group as the Captain was right behind him.

  Adam's first thought was of the sun hammering its rays down onto the ship, the slight wind blowing just enough to keep the otherwise intense heat at bay. They could have landed in much worse conditions, leaving him not only thankful for their new lease on life, but a second chance to tell Sarah exactly what was on his heart. All of it would have to wait for the time, however, as he faced the daunting task of giving the shell shocked crew even more bad news; walking down the ramp with a heaviness of heart to face his crew.

  “Luck?” Kato asked as Michaels approached them solemnly.

  Answering with only a regretful head shake, it quickly hit everyone that the android pilot, the hero who had saved them from a certain death, had himself perished in the crash. Moments later Kelly walked down the ramp, crying just a bit; not really knowing how to react to the demise of a synthetic human being.

  “Now what?” Dalton asked as he strategically placed a large cigar in his mouth, nearly the length of a human hand as he sealed the deal with what could have passed as a miniature torch.

  Giving him a scowl, Kelly walked to the rear of the ship with Roman, Dalton looked into the direction of Michaels with a puzzled look on his face before shrugging it off.

  “Good question.” Adam replied a couple of minutes later, looking at the nearby surroundings in the vicinity of the heavily damaged ship.

  He honestly didn't know what move to make his next. Even if they could somehow find a way off of this rock, they were wante
d by pretty much anything in the Skyla System that was attached to a heartbeat. The Legion wanted them locked up, especially after the assault that Roman had played such a vital role in. If they were lucky enough to avoid the legitimate authorities, the important people of the underground world surely wanted their heads on platters, and Adam was pretty sure there was a decent sized bounty attesting to the fact; meaning they would eventually have to deal with contract killers and mercenaries along the way. None of it mattered right now though, because from the looks of it, the ship was in no condition to fly; even if they somehow managed to repair it.

  “I'll put Luck to rest, he may have been artificial but he deserves at least that much for saving everyone's life. You get with Roman, gear up heavy and scout the area, Kato and Kelly can look the ship over and assess the damage, see how long we are going to be stuck here.” Michaels said, finally giving Dalton a definitive answer.

  “What about Sarah and the boy?” Dalton asked as he started checking the weapons he had with him.

  “They'll stay close to the ship, should be safest for them that way.” Adam replied as he began to head inside to collect the body of someone very important to him.

  No matter how ridiculous it sounded, Luck had become what the Captain considered to be part of the family, he would truly be missed.

  Dalton and Roman were geared up and ready to move, waiting for the sunset to begin before heading out to survey the area. It was Roman's suggestion to travel at night, it would be a bit harder to move around, but the shroud of darkness would provide additional cover for the two man team in the event that there was life on the planet. Even worse, if they had been tracked by Hunters, they would need every advantage possible in order to try and even the playing field a bit.

  Dalton was going heavy of course, with a large assault rifle, standard combat pistol and one of the oldest pump shotguns that Roman had ever seen. The majority of the gun was comprised of a faded blue steel, showing signs of significant use throughout the years. Mounted to a thick wooden stock that was marred with scars of abuse and age; it reminded Roman of something seen in a museum. Of course, he could respect the fact that Dalton knew his iron, so he had no doubt that it would follow through with the task of keeping the peace when called into question.