Pegasus: Eos Typhoon

by Jatheus

08 the edge of the sword

Eos Typhoon and Vortex stumbled into the launch bay. She could just make out her own hoofsteps now. The ringing in her ears hadn’t subsided, but other sounds returning was a good sign.

Nimbus and Squall were talking as a glider launched. They noticed the incoming pair. Squall turned to them and spoke, concern etched on her face. Eos was about to answer that she couldn’t hear but Vortex beat her to it.

He shouted, barely audible to Eos Typhoon over the ringing, “You’re going to have to speak up! We got blown half way to Tartarus!”

“What is your status!” She shouted back.

“We are all that’s left!” Eos replied, unable to hear her own voice and yelling all the louder for it. “The guns are all destroyed!”

Squall nodded, calculating her next move. She pointed toward the next glider in line to launch.

“You two take that one and get back to Rocky Crag! We’ll be right behind you!”

The bedraggled duo entered through the loading bay and Eos was going to the cockpit. Vortex grabbed her and shook his head.

“Let me fly!” he shouted.

She nodded and began working the crank to shut the loading door. She could feel it clicking away more than she could hear it. Locking it into place, she opened a slot in the ramp and gathered up a rifle. Loading it was almost second nature. With the safety on, and no round in the chamber, she put it through the gun port and tested how far she could angle. It wasn’t too bad, but there were massive blind spots to the sides.

She stowed the weapon and nodded to Vortex, who signaled Nimbus. The stallion outside activated the launch control. A wire on a track in the ceiling pulled taught, and the glider began to move forward. Eos Typhoon strapped herself into a chair and waited.

Within moments the slope of the floor allowed gravity to do its work. The glider rocked and vibrated as it rolled down and accelerated. With a final jolt, they were being buffeted only by the wind. She couldn’t see it, but knew that their launch wheels had fallen away by design. The gliders were only made for a single trip each. Vortex worked the yoke to bring them through the wind sheers and bank toward Rocky Crag.

As Eos unbuckled herself, she could hear wind buffeting the fuselage over the ringing in her ears. She checked out the gun port and could see two of their gliders charging at the remaining airship while a third spiraled, falling from the sky as the pilot jumped out. Hostile fire was pouring out in all directions to stop them, none of which came at Eos and Vortex, for which she was grateful.

Both pilots made it out of their gliders, but one was hit by an expert shot and went limp as he fell. The others got far below the airship before changing direction. The airship was unable to turn from the rudder damage, but the marksmen on deck began shooting at Eos’s glider. The distance was too great and changing rapidly enough that their shots went wild, and the Lieutenant didn’t bother returning in kind.

She felt her stomach tighten uncontrollably, and the mare doubled over. She heaved, but had nothing to bring up. Her head pounded as she sat there a moment collecting herself.

“You okay!” Vortex shouted above the wind.

Her hearing was really getting better, though that awful ringing hadn’t let up yet.

“Yeah!” She called back.

Straightening up, she reclaimed her position at the rear and kept watch. A little bile had worked its way up her throat, the awful taste filling her mouth. She spit it out into the wind. They were in poor shape, but they only had to get back to Rocky Crag. Once they resupplied, they’d be in a much better position to defend.

Her thoughts turned back to the catastrophic radio messages that had been coming in. If even half of them were accurate, The Storm’s offensive had embattled practically the entire country. They had let their guard down with the cease fire and armistice talks, all the while the enemy was plotting, preparing, poising to strike. Eos Typhoon clenched her teeth together.

She stamped her hooves, trying to push the rage away, or at least dial it down to a manageable hate. She grabbed the radio headset and put it on. They never had fit well since she’d lost her ear. She switched it to internal, allowing ease of communication with Vortex.

“How’s it going up there?” She asked.

“Looks clear,” his voice crackled back.

She could make out his words above the ringing, which was steadily subsiding now.

“Same here,” she replied.

The tally light showed that he had switched back to external radio, no doubt to monitor any transmissions that were being broadcast. She did the same.

What met her ears was a large amount of half garbled cross talk and partial messages. Some of it was in military code, but she didn’t get enough to try to decipher any of it. There was also a lot of civilian chatter jamming the frequencies. While there were not many complete messages, they all sounded like distress calls or updates about enemy positions. They seemed to be everywhere.

“… fleet of airships… heading west… unicorn fighters to engage…”

“… massive bombardment… need reinforcements…”

“… go to case orange…”

“… civilian transport… trying to get away from the fighting… any safe harbor…”

Eos Typhoon looked out her rear facing gun port at clear skies. ‘Not quite everywhere,’ she mused to herself. Noticing the tally light switch back to internal communications, she flipped her radio back as well.

“I’m pretty sure we just flew over a downed glider. No sign of enemy yet, but keep your eyes open.”

“Got it,” she replied.

Scanning downward, she watched as the wreckage came into view. It may have been one of their gliders, but it was difficult to be certain.

“Enemy airship at three o’clock,” Vortex said. “They are at speed away. Doubtful they’ll bother us.”

“Copy enemy airship,” Eos Typhoon felt her heart begin pounding again.

Her mouth went dry a few minutes later when the airship came into view. It was not turning to pursue them, which only made her more apprehensive. She looked for a canteen, but the search was fruitless.

“Do we have any water?” she asked into the radio.

“There should be a rations pack just behind the cockpit.”

“All clear?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

She stowed the rifle and made her way through the laden fuselage, working her way around crates of munitions that had been distributed as evenly as possible to preserve the flight characteristics of their aircraft.

Eos Typhoon located the ration pack and took a small but satisfying drink from the canteen. It wouldn’t do to take it all down, so she sated herself with just enough to get her mouth wet before passing it up to Vortex. Hardly glancing at her, he took a swallow before passing it back. She returned it to the pack and made her way back to her position.

By the time she got her headphones on and checked everything a second time, she realized that the ringing had gone from her ears.

“Oh, gods!” Vortex spat over the radio.

“What’s up?”

“Multiple airships from eleven to two. It’s like they were waiting for us.”

Her mind raced into action, “Any chance we can go around?”

A stupid question, Eos well knew, but they had to do something. The gliders were great transports, but they were severely limited on evasive maneuvers if they intended to reach their destination.

“We can’t spare the altitude… any chance we can dump cargo?”

“No time,” she answered simply. “You’re going to have to make us hard to hit.”

“Yeah… I’ll bank toward eleven, that should help a little, but we’re still going head to head with all guns aimed at us, and what do we have?”

“One tail gun,” Eos felt herself cringe. “In another time and place this would be funny.”

The pegasus, against her instinct to not be restrained, returned to her small seat and strapped herself down. All she could do was wait and trust Vortex’s piloting skills.

“They have definitely spotted us…” Vortex announced. “Hang on, it’s about to get rough.”

Eos sucked in breaths mechanically and spewed them back out. She did not want to be here.

The glider nimbly lurched to one side and then the other. Small quick movements tossed the mare in her seat. The sound of distant cannon fire was nearly lost to the wind, but a great fast buzzing could be heard. It was as if giant bees were zipping past their aircraft.

A loud thud punctuated the other sounds. They had definitely been hit by something small, probably a sharp shooter’s bullet. It didn’t sound serious, but Eos could only hold on. A knot formed in her stomach at her inaction. She wanted, needed to move, to shoot back. She had to do something, anything.

Instead, she gritted her teeth and held on to her restraints. The unmistakable sound of exploding shells began to fill the air as they detonated all around. Turbulence created by the barrage made the entire glider shudder.

A series of thuds against the fuselage preceded more drastic action. They went into a brief dive before leveling out. Vortex continued the aggressive evasive motions while muttering harsh language under his breath.