by Morgan Cole
We pushed up the center of the ramp. A gap in the camouflage appeared again as Marty opened the ramp and the hatch completely. We pelted up the ramp, Regar pulling while I pushed the cart. It slid up the Redemption's boarding ramp and then screeched and ground to a halt as the metal hit the ship’s structure on both sides of the open hatch. The mass of metal blocked the entryway completely.
"What the hell, Jake? Didn't you measure it?" Marty asked.
I had measured it. I'd measured it perfectly. What I hadn't accounted for was the fact that we were going to be overloading it so much. Bits of metal were sticking out of the sides, and there was so much of it that it stopped the cart dead.
"Yes," I replied shortly, not wanting to get into it right that moment. "Regar, can you get in there and start throwing things into the back? If we can get stuff on the sides off, it should fit through."
"I'll do what I can," Regar replied, from inside the Redemption. Things started to shift as Regar pulled metal free. I heard clanks as he tossed it behind him into the small cargo hold.
"Ospreys are two minutes out. We don't have time for this, Jake," Marty said.
I didn't know much about Ospreys, but if they were flying in they definitely wouldn't miss us here. They would see the giant hanger doors open, and me attempting to push this cart full of metal into a poorly camouflaged Redemption. It would make them suspicious, to say the least.
"Okay, Regar. It's brute force time."
I gripped the two rear rods of the cart with each hand. I could see how it was binding, and I could see that there was a way to push it through. But it wouldn't be pretty.
I wrenched hard, pushing with my left hand and pulling with my right as I put all my strength into it. The suit assisted me, and I needed the assist. This thing was massive. It tilted to the right, and small, looser pieces shifted and fell. Most of the pieces were so jammed in that they stayed.
"Regar, pull!" I grunted as I lifted and pushed.
The cart slowly shifted and became nearly vertical. I shoved, and the metal scraped and squealed against the sides of the open hatch as I forced the heavily loaded cart through.
The rod in my hand began to bend. I had not designed it for this abuse.
"Put your back into it, Jake!" Regar yelled, invisible to me inside the ship.
I braced my feet and pushed hard. The cart scraped and inched forward, then with a lurch, it pushed into the interior of the spaceship. It stopped just inside the doorway, leaving me still on the outside.
"Stop. That's as far as it's getting. It's jammed up against one of the seats, and it doesn't look like it will fit in any farther."
The cart and its cargo were filling the hatch nearly entirely, and from what I could see, while the hatch could probably close, there was no way I was getting in. With some time, Regar and Marty could unload the cart into the cargo bay behind the cockpit, but we didn't have that time.
I hopped down to make sure I wasn't in the way.
"Marty, can you close the hatch?" I asked.
"It looks like it. We've got to go, Jake," Marty replied.
"So go. I can make my way back. The armor can fly, remember?"
"You're not stealthy though. They'll pick you up on radar, or hell, people will just see you."
"I'll be fine. Go," I ordered, and slapped the side of the ship twice. I don't know where I'd learned that, perhaps from my father. It was the universal signal that the vehicle was good to go.
The hatch slid shut as Marty followed my order. The Redemption wavered in the air in front of me. Up close the camouflage effect wasn't perfect and I could see the slight distortion in the air as it shot upwards, leaving me behind.
"Brick, can you cover me? Keep me off radar?" I asked.
"No, Jake. Not perfectly. There are many redundant radar systems, and the secure military ones are network isolated. I will try to steer you through a route where I have more control of the radar systems, but I can't guarantee invisibility to their systems."
"Shit. Okay, I have to go. Guide me," I said.
In the distance, I could see that the guards of the base had large groups of True Believers rounded up and kneeling on the ground with their hands behind their heads. The fences had been breached by a pair of large RVs, covered in paintings of grey aliens and flying saucers.
I hadn't heard any gunfire except the ones that had been pointed at us a little bit earlier, so I was hopeful that none of them had died, but I felt bad. Getting arrested breaking into a government base probably wasn't the lightest charge. I knew my conscience would bug me on that one, so I made a note to help how I could.
"Route plotted, follow the marks, Jake," Brick instructed.
A blue dot appeared in my vision off to the right, leading to the Northeast.
With some instinctual visualization, I shot off the ground like the superhero I was, leaving a crater in the sand below me. I knew the base below wouldn't have caught anything on camera, since Brick still owned their entire surveillance system, but someone would have seen it. The Krigar Assault Armor was far from invisible, even if it wasn't painted bright red like Regar's.
I flew toward the marker as fast as I could, staying low. As fast as the armor was, I knew I couldn't outrun fighter jets in it. At least, I didn't think I could. My only hope was to stay low. Low enough that radar couldn't see me—at least not any of the installations that Brick couldn't influence.
"Even with this route plotted, there is a significant possibility that military assets will be dispatched to investigate your radar track, Jake. Those units have their own independent radar as well. While I don't expect that their weapons can penetrate your armor, it is possible. I would suggest you avoid detection, if for no other reason than to prevent them from following you back to the northern outpost."
"Got it, Brick. I'll do what I can to stay invisible."
The desert flashed by a mere two or three hundred feet below. Metra hadn't built in an altimeter so I couldn't really tell. I was just trying to keep as low as I was comfortable with. The thought of screwing up and plowing into the side of a hill in the desert at just under Mach one wasn't pleasant. I wasn't sure if I could survive that, even in the armor. It's not like it was built for those kinds of shenanigans.
Flying was as exhilarating as I'd remembered, and now that I was on Earth it felt even better. It only took a few minutes to leave the empty desert surrounding the unnamed military base we had just raided. Off in the distance I could see the twinkle of headlights on a distant highway, and the bright white lights illuminating the compound around someone's desert home. I pulled up as hills rose underneath me. The blue mark shifted, pointing me toward mountains in the distance. Well, mountains or really big hills. I wasn't a geologist.
"Why am I going toward the mountains, Brick?" I asked. "Won't I show up more when I fly over them?"
"You would. That's not the plan, though. You'll be flying through a pass. Try not to hit anything."
I chuckled. "Was that a joke, Brick?"
"I am not programmed for jokes, Jake," Brick said, his tone deadpan.
I laughed again. At least if our AI was going to go rogue and kill us all, he'd have a bit of sense of humor about the whole thing.
The mountains were there much quicker than I thought they could be. Towering walls of greying brown stone rose up from the desert hills, and I slowed without even thinking about it. The consequences of clipping a mountain at this speed were just too much to contemplate. The promised pass was easy to find, a notch seemingly cut through the mountains, winding its way in a jagged pattern. Trees started appearing as I entered the pass, the brown of the desert giving way to lush green. I could see the sparkle of water below, some kind of river. What I didn't see was any hint of a road, or humans. Whatever this pass was, it was too rough and high up for humans to use. I caught a glimpse of what I thought might be goats, or some other big plant-eating four-legged animal. I was too busy concentrating on not hitting anything to take much of a look.
/> "Jake, a patrol has been redirected to your general area. You were briefly visible on radar before you entered the pass. With the situation at the base, the military is on high alert. I suspect that normally they would have dismissed your radar contact as some kind of glitch as you are flying very low, and are quite small. The return was weak but they are investigating it."
"Shit. What should I do?" I asked.
"Continue on the route. Stay low. With luck, their search pattern will not cross your path, as long as you are fast enough."
I groaned. I'd been right down in the pass, but it seemed I had no time to do this the safe way.
I moved to the center, speeding up as much as I could. The pass wasn't long, five or six miles at most, but it seemed to take forever to get through it even as fast as I was going.
It got very narrow at one point, the rock walls closing in around me. I almost lost my confidence and pulled up rather than threading the needle. I couldn't imagine how base jumpers and those crazy squirrel suit people did this. I was in powered, flying armor and it was scary.
I shot out the other side of the pass, hugging the ground as the land opened up in front of me again. The massive lights of a city were to my northeast. My route would take me directly over it, at least if I were going to take the straight route to the blue dot that Brick had put down.
"Brick, do I really want to fly over the city?" I asked.
"Yes, the tall buildings will help conceal you from radar."
"People will see me flying over. Kind of defeats the point, doesn't it?" I asked.
Despite my arguing with him, I did have faith in him. I wanted to hear his reasoning, but I didn't slow down or waver from my course. I was still flying low and fast, straight toward the blue dot. The city was coming up quickly, and I could see his point. The center was full of skyscrapers, and even the outskirts had large apartment buildings. I just had to make sure I wouldn't get caught in any power lines, or face plant through someone's window. It also felt weird that I had no idea what city this was. I needed to get a GPS in this thing.
"Yes, you will most certainly be spotted, and perhaps captured on video. However, the US military is not in the habit of monitoring YouTube. At least, not in real time. This will not interfere with our plan to return you to the outpost safely."
"Fine," I said, and weaved hard to the left to avoid an upcoming ten-story apartment block.
The streets below me were mostly deserted this early in the morning, but it wasn't like everyone had gone to bed. There were still cars moving around, and even people on the streets. Most people never looked up, but I knew that some would. They might even see me when they glanced out their window. I expected to see myself flying through the city on the Internet tomorrow.
In the middle of the city, the skyscrapers were tall, but the avenues were wide. It was easy to fly down them, roughly in the same direction as the dot. It felt great to be living out my superhero dreams. I wondered if I had time to stop and fight some crime. How did you even spot crime when you were flying several hundred miles per hour hundreds of feet above a city street? It would have to be one heck of an obvious crime.
I was bathed in light for a second, the spotlight on a police helicopter momentarily tracking me. Despite the military not listening to civilian complaints, it seems the police did. Even though my transit through the city was only a few minutes, they had been on the ball. It didn't help them much. The helicopter was far too slow to keep up with me. They couldn't even track me with their spotlight, I was moving so fast. Thirty seconds later the helicopter was out of sight, and I was approaching the far outskirts of the city.
"Jake, bad news. While civilian traffic is not monitored by the military, police traffic is. The combat air patrol has been redirected. They'll be here in less than a minute."
"Fuck."
Adjusting my posture, I decelerated hard, the g-forces pressing me in my suit. I looked around, seeing that I was surrounded by five- and six-story apartment buildings. Most of the lights were off, but I had to assume that I was currently on someone's camera phone, maybe live-streaming it to the Internet.
I picked a likely building close by and with a thought shot toward the roof. I landed and ducked down, trying to decrease my visibility to the neighboring buildings.
The roof was covered with air-conditioners, vents, and ductwork, but on the other side of it from where I landed there was a roof access door. In the movies, people were always coming up to the roofs to smoke, but on this roof, there was no evidence of people. I didn't have time to think about it.
I crouch walked over to the roof access door and pulled on the handle. It was locked. There was no way that was going to stop me. I pulled, hard. The handle came off in my hand.
"Christ," I muttered, and pulled Excalibur free. Charging the chisel tip, I plunged it through the soft steel of the door and wiggled it around, smashing and cutting the locking mechanism hidden on the other side. I opened the door and ducked inside, closing it behind me but leaving it open a crack.
The landing at the top of the stairs was much larger than it needed to be for whatever reason, and it took me a moment to notice that I wasn't alone. Three boys were sitting on the floor not far away, papers on the floor all around them. One of them had what I immediately recognized as a Game Master screen, and the floor between them was full of dice and a collection of lead miniatures on a map grid.
The three of them looked up at me, mouths gaping. One of them was holding a bright red D20 in his right hand, ready to roll.
"Sorry guys. Don't worry about me, I'll be outta here soon."
The kid with the D20 in his hand was the first to break out of the trance they were in. He was a small kid, with round wire-rimmed glasses and scruffy brown hair framing a thin face. They all had the same kind of look to them—nerdy white kids. I had been one of them, once upon a time. It'd been ages since I'd been able to play D&D with my friends, and I missed it.
"Are you an alien?" the kid asked.
"Nope, Earthling just like you, kid. I just gotta wait here until the people looking for me move on."
The roar of a jet engine passed close overhead just as I finished saying that. Through the cracked door I caught a glimpse of a sleek fighter flying by.
"Who's looking for you, mister?" The DM asked.
"Well, the military actually. They don't like me flying around. It makes them suspicious."
The DM nodded at that. "Makes sense."
"Are you a superhero, mister? What's your name?" The third kid asked. He was the only one of the three that didn't have glasses. He had your basic buzzcut, but was small like the other two. It had been so long since I'd been that age, I had no idea how old the kids were. I could only guess that they were twelve or thirteen.
"I'm Jake. I'm not a superhero, just a guy. A friend of mine modified the armor to make it look like this. She saw too many superhero movies."
I heard a familiar sound, a phone telling its owner about a notification. That sound was ingrained in my brain, even though I hadn't been hearing it for some time. That familiar, addictive chime that means look at me, I'm your phone, and I have something important, or at least diverting, to show you.
The DM pulled a smartphone out of the pocket of his jacket, lying on the floor nearby. He looked at the screen for a moment, and gestured his two friends close to look at it with him.
I cracked open the door bit more, and peered outside. I hadn't seen the jets for a while, but for all I knew they were still quite close. After all, if they were monitoring civilian traffic, they might know that I had gone into hiding.
"Brick, where are the jets?" I asked.
"They are flying a spiral search pattern. Military helicopters are coming in as well. You can't stay there, Jake. If they continue their current search pattern, you will need to depart in approximately three minutes to maximize your chances of escaping without detection."
"Jake, this is you," The DM said and showed me his phone. There was some
shaky video of me weaving through the city streets. Flying, like a superhero.
"Yeah, that's me."
"You've got powered armor, and you can fly. You've even got super strength. How are you not a superhero?" The first kid, still clutching his D20, asked.
He looked pretty skeptical, and I didn't blame him.
"Okay, well, fine, I've got the tools. I'm not a crimefighter, though. I'm just a guy that lucked into some alien technology. I'm trying to save the Earth."
I trailed off. Maybe I was a superhero. The kids certainly didn't look convinced.
"I've got to get out of here in a couple minutes, guys. Can you not tell anybody I was here? At least not for about thirty or forty minutes?" I asked.
The boys all nodded. "Aliens are real?" the DM asked.
"They sure are, kid. There are lots of them, too. My friend that modified this armor, her name's Metra. She's an alien, and she's my friend. I've got another friend called Regar, he's a different kind of alien. The galaxy is full of them. Don't worry, things are about to get a lot more interesting here on Earth."
The kids started babbling to each other, talking so fast and over each other that I couldn't understand a word. I smiled. I remembered what it was like to be that age, if only vaguely. That desire for there to be more to the world than getting an education and a job, and finally working, sleeping, and eating until you die. That there must be something more to the universe, more than just us humans and our squalid little planet. That was what had pushed me into D&D, and other role-playing games. That need to escape from the boring every day of 21st-century life on Earth. I hadn't really spent any time simply appreciating the facts of my new life, but seeing it through the eyes of these kids, I realized just how lucky I was.
"One minute, Jake."
"Kids, I gotta go. Watch the news, you'll see me again. Maybe I'll come up with a superhero name."
I pushed the door open, kicking a piece of the lock out of the way as I stepped onto the roof. The boys crowded the doorway behind me, watching closely.
"Good luck, Jake. Don't let them catch you," the kid with the buzzcut yelled.