The fires, fires. Just fires. Fires raged everywhere across my mind. No matter how far I went, the fires would follow me non stop. People were dying left and right and getting murdered by men in red suit. Reminding me of that unholy scene, driving me towards my goals. If I stopped, I would simply be consumed. If I went forward, I would charge right into the fire of the ruthless forces. I would only die quicker. But nothing's better than charging straight into battle and dying honourably than getting burnt to death.
That's what drove me, that's what drove me to take up arms against the settlement defence force. They tried to take my home. Our homes. They burnt and butchered everyone in their sight. Now it's time to repay the favour. The Settlement Defence Force shall soon watch as we burn their homes in front of them and we shall repay what they have done unto us. They burn our homes, we burn theirs.
Naturally this sort of motive would play in my head whenever I went to sleep. It reminded me to never stop, but to keep going forward. Move onto the future, don't dwell on the past. Staying in the past would only bring you down until it's too late to make any decisions anymore. My friends, my brothers, they all died on that day the SetDef decided to attack us. Some survived, others, not so lucky. Their deaths however, shall not be in vain.
Waking up to a heavy start, my eyelids slowly opened themselves to the inner cockpit of my Jackal. However, it wasn't a pleasant start as my ears kept ringing and my head kept spinning around like a washing machine. My body felt like I just pulled extreme turns and somehow the G-force managed to affect me as if I was on earth. Usually in space, our Jackal fighters would reach supersonic speeds that would instantly kill us if we were on earth. Space had different laws however, meaning more tighter turns and faster speeds. The worry of being torn apart or having your organs rupture was put behind us if we're flying in space.
Trying to move my hands, I felt nothing as I could only move my shoulder. Waiting for the blood to come back, I finally moved my fingers slowly before my whole arm. Testing my other arm, it was in proper working order too. Tapping my helmet, the holographic display came on showing me my body status. So far, no broken bones or anything of the likes. Dismissing the holograph, I looked around the inside of my cockpit and checked to see if anything was out of place.
Checking the switches and dials, everything was in seemingly perfect order. Tapping the control screen, I brought up a status report on the fighter. Hull integrity was at 100%, engines were fully operational, weapons and ammunition were good. However, the fuel gauge bugged me as it was at the 100% bar. I swear to God when I left the retribution it was at half tank. Tapping my helmet, I ordered the A.I to do a internal system check.
"All systems nominal" it responded.
"The hell? Did I stop to refuel? Hang on, I was out on a patrol mission. There are no resupply ships deployed at all. Wait, what the bloody hell happened?!" I asked myself.
Calming myself down, I began to collect my thoughts and pieced together what I could remember.
It was a normal time really, I was aboard the USS retribution preparing to launch from the hangar bay for my usual patrol routine. I launch from the hangar via catapult and exit the ship as usual. I put my engines to max and speed off into the vastness of space towards my destination. Arriving at my destination, I began my patrol for any signs of SetDef forces. At this point I would lay back in my seat and relax since barely any Skelters showed up. But this time however, things were different. As I was about release my controls over the joysticks, my alarms began blaring and my radar showed signs of enemies approaching fast.
So doing the most logical thing, I went straight into combat mode and fired up my engines. Hailing the Retribution about the incoming trouble, I was ordered to hold off the enemy until 2-3 showed up for the support. Obeying the captain's orders, I banked my fighter towards the enemies and charged right at them. Drawing out my 30mm cannons, I kicked in my rocket thrusters and zoomed past the enemy fighters. Killing the rockets and executing a tight turn, I turned 180 in less than two seconds. Firing up my engines, I blasted forward and locked sights on my first target. Catching up to the fighter, he performed various acrobatic movements in an attempt to throw me off.
Keeping track of him however, I pressed the fire button on my joystick and released a small burst of bullets at my opponent. As the bullets penetrated his right wing and fuselage, I watched as fires began and he spun out of control. Banking away from the oncoming wreckage, I flew straight into an oncoming Skelter. As his machine guns blazed away at me, I dropped down below him and used my superior speed to avoid his reckless gun fire. Climbing up and spinning around, I appeared behind the mad shooter and launched a missile at him. Banking away quickly, his aircraft exploded into a fiery ball of flames. By now only four targets remained and they were closing in from all directions to kill me off.
At this point, there was no escape as they came in from different angles blocking all escape. But if one was to react quickly, there would be a small hope of survival. Betting that the enemy was competent enough to bank away from a plane attempting to crash into it, I took that chance and fired my engines to the max towards a Skelter. Flying right towards him, the pilot pulled away and I zipped past him just barely touching him as my wing tip went past his cockpit. Zooming away from that cluster fuck, my hud glared red as missiles were being locked onto me. Deploying flares, I heard explosions erupt behind me as the missile took the bait. Turning around, I flew straight towards the four of them. Locking onto all four, I fired four missiles to finish them off. Sadly, only two hit their mark while the remaining popped flares and the other did an acrobatic move to avoid it.
Picking the closest Skelter, I locked onto him and fired my cannons tearing his plane apart. Banking to my left, the remaining Skelter fighter flew overhead with his guns blazing. Turning my plane around, I began chasing him through the empty vastness of space. I didn't need to kill him however as a stray missile came out of nowhere and obliterated him. Looking for the shooter, a Jackal came into view with a skull and crossbones signature on it's fins.
"I see you didn't need any help 2-4, seems like you were having fun" the pilot chuckled.
"Thanks for the assist 2-3. Although you're kinda late. Been here faster and you could've gotten more pickings" I said mockingly.
"I like to conserve my fuel thank you. Unlike you, I don't activate my rocket thruster during battle to execute crazy turns. Jeez sir, even normal thrusters can do it"
"Where's the fun in that? Although I don't use it all the time, so don't babble too much. And if the Captain heard you addressing me in such manner, you'd be cleaning the exterior of the Retribution right now" I scoffed.
"Don't worry Sergeant. I will refrain from such actions again"
"Good, that's what I wanted to hear Lieutenant"
From that point on, everything went smoothly until a bright white light appeared in front of us making a hole at that.
"What the hell is that?!"
That wasn't all however, the white hole began to suck us in. All things pointing to that would mean that was a wormhole. And that is how I ended up in this position.
"Shit, what happened after that? Did that wormhole disappear? What about the SetDef forces? Goddammit I need to contact the Retribution!" I yelled to myself. "Computer, patch me into the Retribution.
Waiting a for a few seconds, I spoke into the helmet mic hoping for a response.
"Retribution, this is 2-4 come in, over?"
Nothing, silence only greeted me.
"USS Retribution, this is 2-4 hunter. Please respond over?"
Getting no response, I switched to the open frequency in hopes of someone answering my calls.
"This 2-4 hunter. Anybody on this frequency please respond"
Getting no response again, I hailed one more time.
"This is SATO Jackal pilot Gideon Koll. Is anybody listening? Please respond"
Waiting for a few minutes, I got no reply. At this point I was frustrated. There was so many things I wanted to clarify. Yelling out in rage, I leaned back in my seat wanting to punch something.
First things first, I need to find out where I am and what sort of sector this is. If anything, I could hopefully find my way back to the Retribution or any SATO outpost. From there on out, it's all dependent if life is willing to spare me it's bullshit. Bringing up my left hand, I typed in the map display to see where I was. As the array of planets came up on the screen, I projected it onto a larger holographic scale.
"Computer, what planet are we orbiting right now?" I asked.
"Scanning planet surface….recognition check. Comparing similarities. Planet scan complete….The current planet is Earth. Home of the SATO fleet" it responded.
Staring blankly at my screen, I scratched my head and wondered if the A.I was drunk or I was still asleep.
"Ummm, computer. This is not earth. If it was, they would've answered my transmissions earlier on" I scoffed.
"The data matches sir. This is a 100% match with earth. I don't see any misinterpretation"
"This better be a joke computer. Quit with the bullshit and tell me where I am" I said irritatedly.
"Earth sir. You are orbiting earth sir"
Staring at the holographic image of earth, I reclined back in my seat and room a deep breath. At this point I thought the bloody A.I had been corrupted and what not. Shaking my head, I turned off my wrist communicator and peered out the cockpit window. Taking a good glimpse of the planet below, I studied its characteristic with my own eyes. Spotting a large continent however, I began to rethink my case. The continent below looked exactly like North America. In fact, it was North America. Mexico at the bottom, USA in the middle and Canada on the top. Cuba could be seen and other smaller islands too.
"Jesus fuck….is this really earth?" I asked in disbelief.
Knocking my helmet, I made sure I wasn't hallucinating or anything. Bringing up my map again, I brought up the moon to see if the moon gate bridge was there. To my surprise however, there was nothing there. Not a single infrastructure. Nothing, the place was completely untouched.
Reclining back in my seat, I shook my head trying to piece together what the hell is going on. The moon gate bridge should be there destroyed and occupied by SATO forces in an attempt to establish a staging area. But nothing was there, completely nothing. Just what the hell is going on? Grabbing my joysticks, I powered up the engines and drifted forward slowly. Putting in more power, I set it to cruising speed and decided to cruise around the planet. At this point, I was all alone. Alone in a wrong period.
"Hello?! Is anybody out there? This is 2-3 requesting immediate support! I am under fire from multiple Smelter fighters! I need immediate assistance! Repeat, immediate assistance!" the voice yelled over my frequency.
Recognizing the voice, I was filled with instant joy as a friendly ally was in radio range.
"2-3 this is 2-4, what is your current position over?" I yelled over the mic.
"2-4?! Is that you Sergeant? Boy am I glad to hear you. I can't tell my position sir. I'm busy engaging these Skelter bastards. I've managed to down 3 already, but there's too many of them!" he yelled.
"Computer, patch in sound visualiser. Track that radio source, plot waypoint. It's time to help a friend in need" I said while flipping some switches.
As the waypoint was plotted onto my map, I gunned the engines and rocketed forward. Hearing the sound of distant explosions through my helmet, I looked around and sure enough, in front of me to the lower left a battle was playing out. Banking my fighter towards the scene, the single Jackal was busy zooming around the place avoiding all sorts of gunfire from multiple Smelters. Counting six Smelters in total, I locked on my missiles and launched six of them. As the warheads flew towards their targets with deadly precision, I managed to score two hits out of the six missiles fired. Turns out Skelters can avoid missiles and launch flares.
Revealing my 30mm cannons, I dove right in and picked on the remaining enemy fighters. Chasing down the first Skelter, he tried to lose me by flying through the debris of the previously destroyed planes. Avoiding the debris easily, I fired a few rounds at the plane and watched as it spun out of control. Executing a tight turn, I locked onto the next Skelter and chased after him. As the remaking three fighters gained some distance between us, they formed up and began descending towards the planet.
As 2-3 joined up next to me, the radio came alive with his voice.
"Thanks for the assist Sarg, I thought I had it back there"
"No problem Lieutenant. Glad you're okay. Now then, before we can chit chat, let's finish off these rodents shall we?"
"Gladly sir"
Smiling to myself, I pushed my engines to the Max and sped after the Skelter fighters. As the enemy made their descent towards the planet's atmosphere, the computer began warning me to drop speed for a proper re-entry course. Obeying the thing, I dropped speed but still kept the enemy planes in my sight. As we kept descending and descending towards the "earth", my plane shook violently in the process. As the re-entry process was complete, I let the computer adjust the fighter to atmospheric flight rather than space.
Since this was planet, I would have to play more carefully now as gravity and physics would literally shit on me of I tried to pull of any tight turns or fancy moves. As the final calibrations were put into check, I resumed my pursuit on the enemy fighters.
"Their breaking formation, one's heading right the other left"
"Take the on on the right, I'll deal with the left" I barked.
As we made our separate ways, I banked a hard left and went into a thick layer of clouds. As my vision was obstructed, I could still see the plan on my radar. Breaking through the clouds, I pulled up as below me was a large body of water.
"Shite! That was fuckin close" I exhaled to myself.
Spotting the two enemy fighters at low level altitude, I locked onto one of them and fired a burst from my cannons. As the element of surprise worked in my favor, the plane crashed into the ocean. As the remaining fighter sped off, I locked onto him and chased after him. Firing in short burst, I tried to a get a bead on the fighter but the guy just wouldn't stop zipping about all over the place. As we skimmed across the surface like madmen, I was getting irritated by the passing second.
As a small island came into view, the bugger made a hard left and tried to lose me through a turn. Making the same hard turn as him, we both rounded the island while dropping speed drastically. Gaining altitude, the cheeky bastard still kept skimming the surface of the waves. Diving down, I fired in sporadic burst in an attempt to kill him. Pulling up, all my shots missed by a country mile.
"You little shit. Come back here!" I yelled angrily.
As more islands came into view however, I realised we were nearing land. As the enemy gained some height, I realized why as he tried to avoid some figures in the water below. Catching a glimpse of the figures, I couldn't make out their looks or anything as they were simply a blur. Continuing my chase, more islands came into view and we zipped around them. Turning here and there, if anyone was watching us, it must've been quite the stunt.
*somewhere on the docks. The whole fleet academy was watching.
As the enemy ran out of islands to maneuver, I took the chance and forced him to gain altitude. During our time zipping around the place however, I noticed structures on some of the islands. This however, was pushed aside as I was more focused on downing this rat. As we made our way into open skies, the pilot had the nerve to dive down again, following suite, I spotted building below us and all sorts of things. From the looks of it, it looked like a port. Brushing that aside, the Skelter pulled up and I pulled up to to avoid crashing. As we zoomed over what seemed to be a forest, I locked my missiles and fired at the fighter. Scoring a hit, the plane exploded into a fiery ball before the remaining parts fell towards the ground.
Activating my VTOL engines, I slowed my speed and turned around. Pushing my engines to the limited speed, I deactivated my VTOL engines and blasted forward towards Lieutenant Keith to brief him on my discovery.
"2-3, how's your progress over?"
"Solid kill 2-4. How about your end"
"Had a slippery bugger though. Went on a wild goose chase"
"Sounds fun. Where do we rendezvous? Over?"
"Meet me at 156 bearing 257. We'll plan our next course there"
"Solid copy 2-4"
"Roger. I have some news that might be handy for the both of us"
"Isn't it always?...What the hell?..."
"2-3? Status report?"
"2-4 I am currently being engaged by what seems to be drone like fighters!"
"Hang on 2-3, I'll be there shortly!" I replied.
Finding his coordinates, I heard a small buzzing outside from the plane. Looking up, I found nothing. Looking around, my eyes went wide in surprise as small prop planes were trying to catch up to me.
"The hell, prop planes? The fuck is this?" I asked in disbelief.
Looking up, a different colour scheme of the same plane was spotted. However, they began to dive down upon me and opened fire. Increasing the thrust of my engines, I rocketed forward leaving the prop planes in the dust as my superior speed was no match for their engines. Shaking my head, I couldn't believe that I just witnessed myself being attacked by prop planes.
"2-3, what's your current situation over?"
"Fine, managed to escape whatever those blobs were. Didn't put up much of a fight exactly, they were pretty easy to destroy" he replied.
"Well, you're never going to believe this. I just got attacked by a bunch of prop planes"
"Prop planes? You sure you aren't drunk?"
"If I was, I would be crashed and died by now you know"
"Right…en-route to coordinates now. Meet you there sir, out"
"Roger"
Realizing that I had been flying at a pretty low altitude, I decided to climb above the clouds. Turns out I was flying in a storm right now and that didn't benefit me much. Just as I was about to pull up, I spotted figures moving through the water at somewhat fast speeds as if they were equipped with hydro boosters. Trying to a get a better glimpse, they seemed to be humans at that. Zooming right over them, I focused on my front only to pass several more figures, only they had a somewhat darkened look to them.
Pulling my fighter up, I went into the clouds and out of the rain. No good if I flew through the storm, visibility would be crap and I need to meet up with Lieutenant Keith.