Chapter 4

The wing is about to embark on the most dangerous leg of the run

“Ok crew, were taking off in about an hour so get back to your ships and get ready” John instructs the wing. “Ky, don’t get lost this time, remember 39 Tauri?” Kyber could never live that incident down “Yeah yeah I'll be fine. See everyone in a bit.” as Ky and Z make their way to the Viper, Z finally asks “Ky, you going to say bye to Kl, before we leave?” Ky looking down and sighing “No man, I think we said our goodbyes earlier” “Hey, Kl didn’t look very happy when she left the ship, everything ok?” Z asks as they round the walkway that leads to the small landing pad that the Viper sat proudly upon. Ky noticed George and his two goons standing in the way between Ky, Z, and their ship. 

“Trade Rat! We're not done here!” yells George as he rubs his fists. “George” Ky begins, exhausted and annoyed “it's been a long night, just drop it. We're out of here soon enough and you can forget about me.” “Not that easy, you see, Kl is MY girl and you've been stepping on my turf” Z pipes in asking “Ky what the f**k is he talking about?” Ky glanced at his friend “I'll explain later” Ky and Z continue there walk towards their ship, attempting to ignore their would be assailants. “Hey, I said we're not finished! You’re not leaving here alive” George angrily walks to Ky and Z “George! what the f**k do you think you’re doing!” Craig Radich, Georges Father and Captain of the security detail for Solo Orbital yells from the second floor observation deck “You’ve already lost your wings want to lose your pay as well?” as Craig continues to yell at his son, George in a low, threatening tone “I will kill you one day, watch out rat.” and throws his shoulders into Ky and Z. 

“F****n’ a*****e that guy is.” Ky was already at the loading ramp for his ship. “Z, cross check the weapons and make sure the cargo bay hasn’t been tampered with” “Roger” calls Z as he turns down the hall to access the weapons hold and cargo bays. “I’m going to grab a nap wake me when we are t-minus ten mikes” “Ok” yells Z’on.

Kyber crawls into his living quarters, and slumps down onto a hastily made bed, Ky was asleep before he had hit the pillow. it felt like only five minutes before he was shaken awake softly by Z’on, “Come on were wheels up in ten” Ky couldn’t believe he had slept for almost an hour. “Oh..ok ok I'm up” as Ky sniffs and rubs his eyes. “Do we have coffee? I’m going to need lots of coffee” he asks Z, as Z is heading to the bridge he says “I figured as much you alcoholic, it's brewing now” Kyber now groggily walking to the locker just before the doorway to the bridge and began putting on his black, Bio-suit. Designed to keep blood flow to the extremities and combats G-LOC or Gravity Loss of Consciousness during high speed maneuvers, there were two small canister looking appendages located on the outside of his upper thighs on the suit, these contained the carbon dioxide scrubbers, temperature controls as well as radiation shielding and the electronics that power the suit.

“Charlie Romeo Oscar, Viper cross check, 0650 16 March 3301 Lt Kyber Crowell. Pilot, Sgt Z’on Duven. Weapons, Systems tech.” Kyber placing his thumb over the Bio-scanner of his ship to indicate that he was indeed who he had said he was, the ship would power down and lock out within 30 seconds of engine startup if this step was not completed, standard procedure in all vessels. On the screen directly to the right of Kyber flashed Ky’s demographics.

  Crowell, Kyber. Wing: 4 Ships

  Combat: Competent

  Trade: Peddler

  Explorer: Scout

  Balance: 650,000 cr

  Rebuy: 22,000 cr 

“Welcome Lt Crowell and Sgt Duven, I hope you had an enjoyable stay here in Solo Orbital.” A female A.I voice flared from Kybers console “Some more than others, Alice.” Z’on calls out with a laugh. ‘Alice’ the A.I’s nickname, technically the voices name is A.L.C.S which stands for Artificial Life Control Systems or ‘Alice' for short. This A.I’s function was to assist the pilot and crew with any ship functions and calculations, such as Flight assist, Fuel consumption, Systems analysis, and High G maneuverings in the event of a pilot G-LOC situation, just to name a few. For Kyber, however, she makes a mean cup of joe. “Well that is unfortunate Sgt Duven, I hope it was good for her, though” Kyber beginning to laugh as Z’on asks, “Ky did you turn up her humour setting?” ignoring Z’s question Ky continued with business “Alice, cross check systems please, report engine and fuel status, and did we get a new photon concentrator for our beam?” Ky asks. “Cross check complete two hundred fifty-six out of two hundred fifty-six system status green Lt, Engines are at one hundred percent and fuel at 32 metrics. Photon concentrator was installed by Technician Wasley at 0237 16 March, 3301” “Thanks, Alice. Z, how are you looking back there?” Z’on completing the final checks of his position “Green Ky.” “Perfect.” as Kyber brings his attention forward-looking out the canopy. “Alice," Z begins "Open a channel, Wing only please” “Channel opened Sgt.” “Good morning Boys and Girls! are we all excited to be flying home today!” Z’on exclaims into the mic. 

“Good morning Z” Jen Replies. “Is Kyber there or still passed out in his bunk?” Li'et chuckles in the background of the transmission “I sometimes wish I were dead” Ky jokingly replies as he squints through the fuel induced headache.”It's all that damn Quirium you drink! you drink more of that than the Python does I think” Kyber ignoring Rob all together “Skip, Frank you guys alive up there?” Z yells as Kyber looks up to the opposite side of the station at his father's Python. “We're here and good to go” Frank replies, “Skip is sending out our jump charts. Radio silence until were out of station. Python crew leads convoy. Asp Second. Cobra third. Viper heading up the rear. Maintain a minimum 7-kilometre distance. were flying ‘Wedge’ until witch.” “Roger” replies all the crew. The Python was the first to take off. The largest and loudest ship of the convoy, the ship lifted off its landing pad slowly, easily telling the thrusters were hurting to lift the fully loaded behemoth. As the ship was exiting, the Asp gracefully lifted from its docking pad, although it was fully loaded it had much stronger hull thrusters. The cobra was next, swiftly and with a smooth flip, it had exited. 

The Viper was the last, the smallest ship in the wing and very quick. “Charlie Romeo Oscar Viper IV, you are now clear for take-off. Please obey the speed limit as you exit the station.” “Roger tower” as Kyber began to flip engine ignition switches, the low roar of the thrusters echoed through the empty hull of the fighter “Hey Jacob, how was your night?” Jacob, the tower controller for the pad Kyber and Z’on were docked at, the three had grown to a love-hate relationship, as in Ky and Z loved to antagonize Jacob and Jacob hated it. “The night was good, How was your's Ky? Melissa told me what happened at the bar last night” Jacob says with an already annoyed tone in his voice “Oh s**t Melissa was there, why didn’t she come drink with me?” Kyber asks as he throttles up the thrusters. “She was too busy point a DEW’y at your head, I told her to pull the trigger and help us both but she likes you more than I do apparently” Z kicking in “So how much was the damage?” “2000 credits Ky." Jacob states, now the viper eye level with the tower “Pay up, or ill have station security on you a*s.” Jacob warns. “you’re so mean” Kyber mocked, “here’s the cash. Can we go now?” Ky asks as he transfers the money to Jacobs account. Jacob now in a professional tone “Please obey the speed limits as you exit the station. Safe travels.” “Hey Jacob were going to do an injection” smiles Ky as he lines up the viper to the slot “Don’t you do-” yells Jacob “Okay, Bye!” yells Z’on, cutting Jacob off as Kyber causes a hydrogen injection in the thrusters to accelerate his ship to top speed of three hundred ninety-three metres per second in just a few short moments.

 Kyber blasted through the thin triple layered shields but not before causing a sonic boom inside the docking bay and caught up with the three other ships exiting the spinning space station ‘Solo Orbital’ John radios “Viper crew, are you giving the tower a hard time again?” “That's a negative skip” radios Ky. “Lt Crowell and Sgt Duven performed an atmospheric injection Captain Crowell.” Alice replying over the radio. “Ok knock it off you two!" John now radioing the crew "were witch in fifteen mikes, tighten up.” “Roger” Kyber confirms. “Z, I'm going to catch some shut eye for a few minutes, I'm still dead tired.” we all know how this goes.

“Ok Ky, is that mic off now?” Z’on asking still embarrassed about what had happened earlier with the ‘Hot mic’ incident.

“Yeah, bud its off now” Kyber replies while plotting the jump route “seriously what happened there with George, what did he mean by ‘Kl is his girl’?” Ky rotating the captain's chair to release himself from the buckles to pour himself a second cup of coffee “she cheated on me man. She cheated on me with George.” “That f*****g b***h!” Z’on exclaims with a shocked look on his face. “You were planning on taking her out of that place, starting a new life and finally getting out of space to live planet side” Z’on continues as Ky floats gently past him to the break area, “She had other plans I guess” Ky pouring another coffee. “Want one?” Ky offers Z. “Oh please, I'm going to need it.” Z with his usual jokingly demeanor  “Maybe Alice can babysit us” “I am not programmed to babysit anyone Sgt” Alice replies. “ Ooh sassy!” jokes Z. “Well to hell with her, trillions of fish in the sea right?” Z says as Ky hands him a coffee. “Yeah, I guess, ” Ky says as he floats back to his chair.

“Witch in 2 mikes, get prepared. Same formation as exiting.” as Frank comes over the bandwidth. “Roger” the crew return. “Maybe I'll take you to the empire, show you some real imperial women” Z calls to Ky. “Ha, that’d be nice. let's just finish this run first” “Roger bud” replies Z. Kyber taking another look at the scanner, the Fer-de-lance was back, and this time closing in on the wing. Ten kilometers, eight kilometers, five kilometers “Skip, the FDL is back and moving to our position quick, permission to intercept?” John returning quickly “Negative were wi-” Ky watched as the Python had made the jump to witch space. Witch space wasn’t like normal space, it was another type of dimension, basically a Hawking gateway between systems, developed in the early 3100’s it basically uses the frame shift drive to create a wormhole for the ship to cut through. the Asp quickly followed the Python, then the Cobra, the FDL was at one kilometer to the Vipers position. “Who the f**k is this guy?” asks Z. “I don’t know man but were not sticking around to ask. Alice now counting down with the witch space tunnel beginning to open around the ship “Four…Three…Two…One… Engage” as the countdown hit, Ky could see the flash of a bright red hull with a black crudely painted skull on the side just port to his ship then, the tunnel.