Falling From Heaven

Two pilots on the Space Battleship: Heaven dive to Mars after being blown off of it.

Blank space. The stars are no closer and the silence is eerie. A battleship teleports above Mars. "What the hell was that?" Blake Noire asks in the cockpit of the Space Battleship: Heaven. The captain, Selena Amorpha, loses her happy, bubbly personality, "That was close. Control unit, set coordinates to land on Mars."

June, trying not to anger Selena, timidly says,"Um...captain...the systems are down."

"What?"

"The shields are too." The mechanics pop up on a hologram in front of everyone in their cockpit stations, "And the engine is completely shut off."

"Can't we just turn all the systems back on?" Blake asks. 

"That's the problem. All the system-statuses say that they're functioning." Alia Herkimer, the communications officer informs, "By the way, communications are down." 

"How long will a full system reboot take?"

"Ten minutes to shut off and ten minutes to turn back on." The head mechanic Alan Silversti replies.

"Do it. In the mean time, our six pilots, get in gear and check the outer area for remaining parasites that Hades launched." Selena commands.

The six pilots, Blake Noire, Matt Clarke, Jason Henson, Alex Lane, Nat Kelly, and Trinity Amador, leave to the changing to acquire their gear. 

"Wow, we're technologically advanced but we don't have changing rooms for opposite sexes." Alex wears a bright red suit and tucks her pistol into the holster. Blake notices her heavy breathing and shaking hands, "Are you okay?"

Alex starts to speak, but her first word comes out as a cowardly squeak, "I-I'm fine. Why?"

"Because you're usually the queen badass, Alex...but you're all shaking and breathing heavy."

"I'm afraid."

"Of space?"

"We're really close to Mars and what if something happens and we fall into the atmosphere?"

"You're scare of that? Not that we're in space and Heaven my teleport away and we'll be stuck in space? Or the suit will break and you'll run out of oxygen? The chances of all of that happening is slim and none."

"Shut up!"  Alex attempts to cover her ears but forgets she's wearing a helmet, "Let's just look for the parasites." She playfully shoves past him and climbs up the shaft and out of the ship. Wow, Alex is afraid of space. Blake thinks, But she pilots a giant mech-suit...that makes perfect amounts of sense.

"Are you coming?" Matt pulls Blake out of his thoughts."

"Oh, yeah." Blake climbs out and looks at his home planet: Mars. A barren wasteland on most parts. It's basically no man's land and the whole reason Blake is on the Space Battleship: Heaven. Vengeance on the Jupitarian Government for destroying his home. The thoughts racing through his mind make his fist clench in anger. Then, he sees Alex trembling while searching the outer-ship for parasites. He floats his way towards her. With joking hostility, Alex says, "Just because I don't like space doesn't mean you have to leech around me." Blake starts to float away and then she stops him, "Did I give you permission to leave?" Blake smiles and returns to her side. The silence that floats around with them increases awkward tension and Blake strikes up conversation. "What'd you expect being a pilot entailed, exactly?"

"I don't know...I've always been comfortable inside the suit, but being completely open in space has always been sorta scary to me. What'd you expect it to be like?"

Blake is hesitant, but responds with, "Like Dr. Who, kinda."

Alex playfully punches him and laughs, "You are such a dork."

"I'm sorry, I'm not the pilot afraid of space."

"Oh, shut it."

The search for parasites is interrupted by an ominous, familiar ship coming out of light-speed. The pilots gaze at the intimidating skull-design on the bow as the eerie silence of space grows deafening. The Space Battleship: Hades sits silent, intimidating the crew of Heaven. Blake and Alex stare at the ship. "How did they find us...?" Matt mumbles. Heaven had disappeared in mid battle. How could Hades find them? There were no set coordinates. A hologram pops up in front of all of the pilots. "Get in the ship! All of you, now!"

Matt begins to pull open the hatch to get inside the ship. A cannon on Hades points directly at the ship. Blake and Alex both gaze at the green light glowing from inside of the barrel. Blake starts to go towards the hatch but Alex is paralyzed in fear of the charging cannon. "Alex!" Blake dives for her. The other pilots scramble into the hatch. Blake tackles Alex as a long green beam scrapes the top of the ship. The explosion blows the two pilots off of the ship and the impact of them beam sucks them closer to Mars.

 "Minor damage to the body of the ship, captain!" June informs. Selena contacts the pilots, "Are all the pilots there?"

"We lost Alex and Blake." Trinity replies, "We can't pull them back up so..."

"We're gonna have to dive!" Blake tells Alex, who is in extreme panic mode.

"Dive? No! The crew has to take us back in the ship! They can tractor us!" 

"The systems are down, remember?"

"But we don't have the proper gear! We won't live!" 

"The odds of us burning to a crisp is forty percent! We got this!" A bold-faced lie. The odds of them living are at forty percent. "Get in position to dive, okay?" Blake holds out his hand and Alex takes it, squeezing in fear. "Computress", the silly name was given to the Heaven's main computer system, "set us up for a space dive to Mars."

Computress responds with her almost human sounding voice, "Blake, the odds of surviving the space dive are astronomically-..."

"I know! Just do it!"

There's a gap of silence. "Very well. I'm aligning you and and Aaaaalllleeeexx to di-di-dive."

"Computress, what was that?"

"It...sssssseeeeeeemmss. My ssstems are being shut down-down-down-down. I-I-I will try and make this quick. Setting course for the Cydonian reeeegiioooon."

"Cydonia..." Blake murmurs the name of the region he lived in. 

"Good luck." Computress' system takes over their suits and they are forced closer to Mars. 

"Ma'am, Blake and Alex just dove!" 

"That's impossible! They don't have the gear!" Selena turns her attention back to the pilots, "Pilots, prepare for a powerless launch."

"That's insane", Nat replies, "We'd be running on spare or leftover power!

"We need to spring a counter attack on Hades! Do you have any other ideas?"

"No, ma'am."

"Then suit up!"

Alex and Blake fall closer to Mars. Alex's eyes are shut tight and she holds back tears. "Alex! You have to let me go!" 

That only makes her hold on tighter. Blake tries to loosen her grip, "You need to turn on your emergency atmosphere shields! If you don't wanna die, you need to let go!" 

Alex refuses to meet Blake's eyes. Blake pushes her head up and forces her to look at him, "Alex, if you don't want to die, you have to let go! I'll still be here, but you have to let go of my hand!"

That loosens her grip a bit. Steadily, she slides out of Blake's hand. She prepares to initiate emergency atmosphere shields. "You ready?" Blake asks.

"Mmhm." She replies shakily. 

"Turn them on in three. Two. One! Now!" 

The pilots climb into their suits (Peacemakers: large robotic suits used for aerial combat in space or on other planets) in the main hangar-bay. All of the suits are color coded to what the pilot's jumpsuits are colored. Matt boards the red suit, Nat goes into the orange one, Jason hops into green, and Trinity takes gray. "Alright", Matt says, "is everyone ready?"

"Ready!" Everyone replies simultaneously. The chest-area cockpits close and the suits are prepared for a launch. "Opening main-hangar runway." One of the mechanics says. The twin doors open and the pilots prepare to launch. "All mechanics stand by for launch!" The voice on the PA announces. The Peacemakers dash one-by-one through the runway.

"Peacemaker one: synchronized." Matt says through holographic communication. The rest of the pilots have to respond through regular communication, since they're running on spare power. All of them are synchronized and fly out of the ship.

Blake hits the exosphere hard and feels powerful heat go across his suit. The impact of hitting this layer knocks the wind out of him. His HUD shows his shields decreasing. All we have to do is get past the thermosphere, He thinks, then we'll be home free. He looks over to Alex who has slipped out of consciousnesses. "Oh, s**t."

"We're flying blind out here!" Matt says, "So be careful!" 

The crew of Hades must have expected Heaven to spring an attack. Sixteen drones labeled CRISIS CORPORATION launch out of its hangar. What are Jupiterian drones doing inside of a UFE battleship? They match the exact style of the Peacemakers but just black with red eyes and CRISIS CORPORATION labeled on their chests. Something's wrong, but there isn't time for any questions. Jason fires his rifle at the drones. Swiftly, the enemies disperse, causing the ammunition to go off int space. Four for each pilot swiftly fly forwards. Matt advances towards Hades, attracting his four. The rest of the pilots get in a group as the drones surround them. Matt hovers above Hades as the drones below him fire rapidly above. Drones are programmed to protect the ship at all costs, so he deliberately fires at the ship, missing the four targets. One of them throws itself in front of the laser explodes instantly. These must be prototypes. They don't have any shields.

Matt tries it again, but the drones let him hit the ship. Apparently they learn. A drone fires a torpedo. Matt forces his Peacemaker to push its hand out. "Impact shields! Minimal power!" The torpedo explodes as it hits a small, flickering blue shield. His Peacemaker is now running on thirty-three percent of spare power. The grouped pilots spin in a three-sixty and fire rapidly at the surrounding drones. There goes one, then two. A third has its arm blown off. The drones fly higher into space as they prepare to launch another attack! KKKKKSSSSSSHHH! The intercom turns back in, "The systems are almost back on!" Alia's voice crackles.

Running now on twenty-seven percent shields, Blake and Alex are halfway through the thermosphere.

Author's Note

Soon to be a much better written novel by me and another writer. This is a small part of the story. It might be crap, but whatever, I tried.

Reviews

[Penny]

I thought it had too many characters for a short story but now that i know its a novel I'm in love with it even more. Sci-fi at its best! You got the first buyer of your novel kevin:-D

[Kitten]

I love it! The story entices me, and now I can't wait to see the rest! :D