The Impossible Journey Part 1: The First Encounter

by Decimatore123

Chapter 1: The Crash

Chapter 1: The Crash

As I switched neural imager I heard loud voice come over the intercom of all the remaining ships, and over the transmitters inside the cockpits of the fighters, “Attention all squad leaders, new orders from command. They have deemed this situation unsalvageable, and have ordered a complete withdraw of space forces from this system.”

Instantly there was uproar amongst the pilots and com channels were flooded with annoyed shouts to stay and fight. They had the courage the guts, but command was unwilling to yield to their requests.

The voice came back on sounding more irritated than before. “Hey you all want to be court-marshalled?!” There was a long silence that followed over the com channels. “That’s what I thought. All of you form up behind the Patriot we are jumping together.”

This didn’t sit well with Jacob. He knew some of the garrison on that planet, and did not like the idea of abandoning them to the Snake. “Sir, what about the civilian population on the planet?”

“For now they’re on their own.”

His heart sank. He was abandoning his friends to “freedom fighters,” but they acted really like pirates. The terrorists' leader, the Snake, envisioned himself as Robin Hood in stealing from an oppressive government but in reality he pilfered for the thrill. He raided colonies to sustain his ever growing fleet. Infamous for his colony raids and refusal to give quarter to prisoners, he became a real threat to EDI forces. Jacob feared greatly for the garrison down on the planet, and he lay uncertain if they were equipped to handle an attack force this size.

The remaining ships all lined up on the far side of the planet. Left alone, the space station’s anti-gravity systems were hit and it began to fall into the planet.

“Commencing slip space jump procedures.” Jacob looked down at his navigation systems everything seemed to be in order his coordinates matched up with those of the nearest friendly system.

Now the fighter Jacob was piloting was a Javelin H-30 gunship. It had amazing speed for the amount of firepower it carried as well as high maneuverability. The problem is it required a three-man crew, and sadly all the other ships in his squad required only one or two pilots and were slightly smaller. Because of a shortage in manpower, Jacob was sent with two bots I built. Their names were Michael and Jiggs. Jiggs was about 5’11” and he adopted the speaking habits of an Englishman and a heavy Yorkshire accent because of an English program the science division tested on Jiggs earlier. Designed to be the ultimate nerd, he channeled all his nerdiness into science and weapons design and production. Michael was designed with the same chasis and proportions as Jiggs, save for Jacob using the normal language program on him, and he spoke well by the standard of the science division “normally.” He is not as crazy as Jiggs and way more subtle when it comes to killing things; he was designed to be an assassin, and like all good assassins he valued clean, efficient and silent takedowns. It came as no surprise that he favored swords, blades, axes—any kind melee weapon really—over those hideous, inelegant, uncivilized and noisome blunderbusses called "guns". In fact to this day he begrudgingly carries three firearms, and even then he avoids guns. Today, he only came with one gun: his single-barreled shooting wrist cannon. He could control the rate of fire by directly dialing into the gun as well as the barrel angle so really if he wanted to, he could use this like a mini auto-turret but I made it so that Michael could not, for safety reasons, angle it over 45 degrees—otherwise he might harm himself. Michael is an assassin, not a gun nut. Yet he is obsessed with ammunition. He would literally lock himself in a room and do nothing but build bullets that have long gone out of production or are hard to obtain. He keeps the long chains of bullets on his back at all times, so he can pick the ammo he wants on the spot. His wrist cannon was designed to use all ammo types using adaptive barrel-and-chamber technology.

Both bots were very intelligent and Jacob would trust them completely with co-piloting and manning the turret in the back, but Jacob didn’t seem to confident trusting his ship to AIs. How could he, especially after what they did?

“You all set back there Michael?” Jacob called back.

“Yes sir, ready for slip space.” Michael said as he fired another shot using the cannon mounted on the back of the ship to blow down a fighter behind him.

“What about you Jiggs? You ready to get sucked into space?”

“Look mate, I was born ready. How dare you ask such questions!” Jiggs said from the co-pilot seat, and flipped a few additional switches readying the engines for the jump.

“Alright, we’re set then.”

“Commencing count down: 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…” Jacob’s expression immediately changed as he saw a horrible event transpire before his eyes. A massive beam of light cut straight through the hull of the Patriot, and the explosion that followed blinded him for a few seconds. This shot sent the remainder of the fleet into a panic with the long range artillery ships of the Snake firing on what big ships we had left. Instantly another voice came over the transmitter. “This is the Patriot…retreat is still a go…get your…outta here…engines sustained heavy damage…” Before he could finish a second beam cut long ways through the ship, slicing straight through the ships reactor. The ships exploded instantly in a massive wave of fire and light. The explosion destroyed the Dreadnaught, as well as the Shadow, the two frigates that were guarding the Patriot’s left and right sides. There was nothing left of the Patriot and the Snake’s forces were coming in to finish the remaining ships off using the confusion and chaos to their advantage.

“Debris is too thick to make a jump. We gotta get clear of the debris field first.”

“Yo Jake ,this is wing 12, 16, 5, and 11. We’re behind you all the way buddy.” The four fighters formed up behind him ready to charge through the field."

“Did anyone else make it?

“As far as we know, most of the remaining frigates did. The moment they saw the Patriot go up, they jumped the gun and left us for dead. Now it’s every man for himself! Most of the squad hopefully already made the jump but we're not sure about the others.”

“We don’t have time to search, we have to move! Thanks for the support gents.”

“Anytime squad leader.”

Most of the frigates had already made the jump, but it was a nightmare for the fighter squads. They had to clear the debris fields before they could make a jump due to their small size. Meanwhile the Snake’s fighters simply came in and picked them off one by one. There were only two squads that made it out of that mess: the majority of the Night Hawks, and a few from the squad known as the Steel Wings. The five ships charged into the debris field, and Jacob was feeling confident as he navigated through the wreckage. When he looked down, he saw several signatures on his radar.

“Gents, I got something behind us, stay loose back there wing 16 and wing 5.”

“Copy that squad leader.” A few seconds later a yellow laser sliced through one of the fighters at the back of the line. “This is wing five, I’m HIT REPEAT I’M…” and the fighter's loud throe disappeared into static. Jacob watched in horror the fighter spiraled out of control into a piece of space debris. “This is wing 16 wing 5 is down, repeat wing 5 is down. I count 3 baddies behind me…take ‘em out Jonny.” The rear turret of wing 16 flared to life and shot several hot blue bolts at the persuing fighters. The bolts sailed through their formation and managed to hit one of the leading fighters sending it off into the torn hull of the Patriot. The others broke formation and began to go after the remaining Night Hawks. “Heck man, I count 7 baddies— WHOA!” A rocket flew straight in front of wing 11’s viewport and impacted on wing 12, destroying it instantly.

“OH, YOU DID NOT JUST SHOOT MY WINGMAN!” Wing 11 broke formation and began to go after the Snake’s fighters, revenge clearly his intent. “YOU SCREW WITH THE HAWKS MAN, I’M GONNA BEAT YOU SO BAD YOUR GRANDCHILDREN WILL COME OUT WITH BOOTPRINTS ON THEIR BUTTS!”

“WING 11 BACK IN FORMATION NOW!” Jacob called out over the comm.

The pilot didn’t listen to Jacob, and raged like the old Norse berserkers if they had laser guns. “OH WHAT, YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE HEAT?!” Jake watched as the super-heated, blue bolts tore up the fighter in front of the pilot’s ship, causing it to explode “Ohhhh baby, those explosions are just beautiful. Two down five to go.”

“WING 11 BEHIND YOU.”

Jacob saw the two fighters forming up quickly behind him. “I got these wussies under control baby, just hang loose, leader.” He pulled up quickly as one of the fighters fired. The laser missed him by mere inches, but the fighter continued to adapt to the situation. “Dang, these boys are good.” The pilot of wing 11 continued maneuvers, however, he was quickly running out of them. He took a hard left, flying straight into some hollow debris, letting the fighters follow him. “Let’s see how you dance in here.”

The piece he chose was a large part of the Patriot’s hull, it was riddled with debris on the inside, once-sturdy support beams now floating bars of steel, and it was narrow enough that if any of the debris got in his way, he wouldn’t have the time to turn and go back—this literally was a one way street. Jake saw the glow of the fighter’s engines fade as it flew into the hollow ship. Jake watched as small explosions erupted from what remained of the hull. “Crap…weapons lock…Don’t lose your cool, Frank, that’s the quickest way to get blown up, breathe.”

A few moments later, Jake saw a massive explosion burst out from the further end of the hull, and Frank hit what I am guessing to be the remains of the ship’s fuel cell supply for powering their defense craft.

“YEAH BABY, YOU JUST GOT PLAYED BROTHER!” He said in a loud voice into the com, “I’m home free everyone, just give me a sec to get back. Yo Jake, I’m staring at a way home! Request permission to go slip space.”

Relieved that the pilot was still alive, Jacob pressed the transmit button on his communication set and exclaimed: “Granted. Get out of here man!”

“Alright then, later bro see you back at the base.” It was over for but a few moments before he heard Frank’s voice come back on the com. “WHOA WHERE’D THESE CREEPS COME FROM!” Frank hadn’t reached the other side of the hull yet, and sadly Jake didn’t see that, so I can only make an educated guess about what happened. I am guessing several fighters were waiting for him on the other side, and trapped him in the hull.

“TAKING FIRE TAKING, CRAP I’M HIT GAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Within a few seconds the com went dead silent on the remaining ships.

“Wing 11, are you there?” Jacob called out into the mic, expecting an answer, praying for an answer. “FRANK ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!” Silence.

No answers came from wing 11.

“Sir he’s gone…..we have to keep moving.” As cold as it sounded to Jacob, wing 16 was right.

Jacob searched desperately for a way out the debris field, it seemed endless and the Snake wasn’t far behind. He flew over, under, and through the pieces of debris in front of him but found no clear path he could use. “This is wing 16 I have a clean shot for a jump, requesting permission to go slip space.”

“Granted…” Jacob responded “…get outta here buddy.”

With a flash of light, wing 16 darted off to another system that left only Jacob, leaving him as far as he knew alone with the Snake. He quickly searched around for any way out of this. His computer detected more fighters quickly closing in on him.

“Do either of you see a way out?” Jake said to the bots sitting both next to him and behind him.

Michael was the first to respond. “Sorry boss, too much debris; I can’t see much considering I am watching out back.”

Michael was the third pilot; the specific fighter Jake was piloting as a failsafe allowed the gunner to pilot the ship should anything happen to the pilot and the co-pilot. Thankfully that situation has never come to pass, most of the gunners would have to learn how to fly a ship right on the spot—if that ever were to happen. It would also explain why even though the ship has enhanced attributes and better performance than most standard designs, the Javelin is extremely unpopular amongst the armadas.

“That’s not the only thing you should be watching, Mike.”

“If I don’t, I’m not the only one who gets to be blown into oblivion”

“Well, you’re going to have a lot to put up with if we don’t get an exit soon.”

“I have an idea boss,” Jiggs said as he pressed a few buttons from the co-pilot seat.

“Go ahead Jiggs.”

“My magnetic scans reveal there is a piece of debris that contains an abnormally large hole in it, big enough for this fighter. At its current speed the wreckage will be in view in a few minutes, and for a split second this hole will be exposed and we will have an exit.”

“Can you calculate the jump correctly to match the window?”

“Accountin’ for the time delay, the small millisecond it takes for the ship to move…yeah I can do it, but…” he paused for a moment, “…this ship will have to remain in this exact position till our window.”

“Well I don’t see a cleaner way out of this. Alright we’re doing it your way Jiggs. Killing all power to the ship…we’re in space, so hopefully we should stay still if we don’t feed any power to the engines. Playing dead should give us a little bit of time. Mike, kill everything you got up there, and whatever you do don’t move the turret I want them to believe we are down, go it?”

“Yeah boss I got ya.” The lights in the small ship powered down one by one until the ship was almost completely dark, with the exception of Jiggs’ control panel. The Snake’s fighters circled like vultures around the debris field, searching for weakened prey, and Jacob was right at the center of the circle praying for a clean escape. As the time for the jump grew near, the anxiety in the small cockpit grew. Jacob knew he was going all-in and relying on a machine I sent with him to save his life. Again, he wasn’t too comfortable with that, but he knew he had to live with it for now because the other option was getting eaten by the metaphorical vultures.

“Alright…calculations are set. On my signal I want you to give me full power. I have already transferred pilot control to my console.”

Jacob was slightly unsettled that he took control of the piloting controls without his approval, but figured at this point it was for the best. “I’m ready here.”

“Good, Mike get ready to fire the moment we turn the power back on; they want to blow us up real badly.”

Michael put his metal hands on the controls for the turret. “I’m set up here.” Everything was falling into place. Jacob, even though he couldn’t fully relax because of the situation, felt slightly more secure knowing the plan was going well so far.

“Alrighty, gents, give me full power on my mark…” Jacob hovered his hand over the dark green button that, when pressed, would return the ship’s power levels to full. “…Mark.” He hit the button and instantly the ship’s lights returned, and Jiggs started the jump. Michael quickly opened fire upon the unsuspecting ships flying above them. “Alright just a few more seconds…” The ship began to move forward slightly. The hole came into view.

“…HANG ON GENTS!”

He hit the button initiating a slip space jump, and saw, just as he hit that button, a pile of debris slowly made its way in front of their exit. Before he could even say anything the ship shot straight into slip space. It impacted the debris and altered the course. They didn’t hit it dead on, otherwise Jacob wouldn’t be around to tell me about this, or the memory wouldn’t be around for me to analyze later. Instead, they hit it at an angle, causing them to shoot off in another direction. I only got bits and pieces of the ships log, whatever was copied onto both Michael and Jiggs’ memory units. From those units I can tell for sure they were in slip space for several minutes, because the ship tried to self-correct its course. Both left and right engines were offline, however, due to the impact the only engine remaining was the primary booster, which at that point was functioning at less than 10% of its normal performance, and the computer was going nowhere. Eventually the fail-safe kicked in, which prevents the drive from being active for too long and taking the pilots and passengers too far if they lost control of their ship. But they were on the outer colonies, so they were on the border of unknown space. That jump shot them out of the known universe. When they came out they were staring down at a planet that looked very much similar to earth.

“Is that Earth?” Jacob asked curiously.

“There’s no way, I mean just LOOK AT IT! We shot off in a totally different direction from home. Sadly, I can’t tell where we are, since the computers gone all funky on me.” Jacob looked over to see Jiggs’ console was black with a huge crack in the screen. “Look, the continents are all off, and where the heck is Zion? There is no way one of the most heavily-defended space stations just disappeared without a trace. There’s not even any debris. And look at the North Star, it’s on the other bloody side of the sky! There’s no bloody Australia and Antarctica! Is twice it’s normal size and 7,000 miles off from any map of earth I have ever seen. No, there is no way this is Earth. It is too well defended they would have spotted us by now and the land marks are all off.”

“Well alright, what is it then?”

“I have no idea mate, but whatever it is we’re landin on it. Engines are down, the booster isn’t functioning enough to get us out of the gravitational pull, and the navigation system is offline. We ain’t goin anywhere any time soon. Oh and you might want to buckle-in, because as of ten seconds ago we’ve lost our stabilizers as well.”

Jacob quickly pulled the black straps over his chest and put them into place. The ship entered the atmosphere and fire began to appear around the ship as it fought its way through the upper atmosphere. Eventually they cleared the atmosphere and got their first looks at the planet’s surface. It was far too green to be Earth; Earth was now heavily polluted and had trouble maintaining its normal weather patterns because of this. This world was still thriving with plant life, and had a perfectly sustainable ecosystem. The sky was actually blue rather than the crude grey they usually got on Earth. Jacob now had no doubt, this wasn’t Earth or at least the Earth he knew. Sadly the ground was only becoming bigger, and the three crew members would have to eject since they had lost control over most of the ship. Michael and Jiggs ejected safely and shot up into the air, their parachutes deploying perfectly.

Promptly after they ejected, Jacob pulled the lever that was supposed to launch him into the air. He pulled it and nothing happened. He tried again and again but with the same result.

“Jake, what’s going on in there? You are about to past minimum safe distance.”

“My seat isn’t releasing, I’M STUCK!”

“Alright boss, don’t panic there should be a lever to the left of my console.” Jacob leaned over and looked around the seat and noticed a lever that was covered by black and yellow stripes.

“This one that looks like it could potentially do something dangerous?”

“Yep that’s the one. I want you pull back hard on it.” Jacob was hesitant at first, but Jiggs had gotten him this far, and he did as instructed. He pulled back hard on the suspicious looking lever and instantly wings popped out on the left and right sides of the ship, and a tail popped out back. “You should have manual flight control now…” Jacob looked down and a joystick popped up from underneath the stick, “…since you have no engines you’re gonna have to glide that bird in…good luck to you Jake.”

“You have now passed minimum safe distance for ejection.”

“SHUT UP MIKE, AND LET THE MAN FOCUS!”

Thankfully for Jacob’s sake they were quiet after that. He pulled up on the joystick, leveling out the ship. He searched hard for a clearing he could land safely in, but none were to be found. Just endless trees despite the speed he was going he knew he was going to crash in the forest. He kept the ship level for as long as he could then tilted the nose of the ship up a bit. When he hit the ground, immediately the left wing was gone as it hit a nearby tree. The ship jerked to the left as it grinded against the forest floor. Jake continued to try and keep the ship under control even though he had lost most of his ability to keep himself sitting up. The ship eventually began to roll, breaking off the right wing. Jacob had officially lost all control over the ship and had to ride it out. He couldn’t tell which way was up or down; when he looked out the viewport, all he could see was a blue and green blur. As he rolled through the forest the only thing holding him in place were the belts strapped across his chest but that wasn’t enough to keep him conscious. Eventually the forces being exerted upon the ship caused Jacob’s head to fly forward: his belts held his body in place, but his head slammed against the console he used to fly the ship, breaking the screen, and causing him to black out instantly. The ship eventually came to a stop at the end of a long trench left behind by the body of the aircraft, along with a trail of debris. For now he had landed and was still breathing.

Comments

[poisedanimeBloke]

This is a great story but the universe these guys are in is not believable. I mean, how did we achieve turning the Earth into nothing but a brown and grey rock, invent faster than light travel, and make A.I. all in only 9 years? Because thats how many years we are currently from 2022.

It is still a good story so far so continue with the writing!