You know, I noticed something-- there's a lot of yelling in this story....
Eh, anyway. My new goal in life (one of them, anyway) is to update on one story or another every two weeks or so. Seriously. Life's crazy right now, but I think I can do it....yeah. So, thanks to all who have reviewed-- please keep doing so!
Standard disclaimers apply. On with it!
"Harry, what's going on?" Ron asked, rapidly pressing buttons on his control panel. "I can't see anything out there. Bring up the outside screen."
"It's broken. You'll only be able to see out of the front windshield," the disembodied voice came from Aisha's side of the controls. "There's audio, but I don't know if you wanna hear it. We're about to break out of this hangar."
Aisha was busy wondering where in the hell Harry's body was. He was a bio-android like Melfina, wasn't he? Shouldn't he be naked in a tube of goo somewhere? Ew. She flipped her braid contemptuously and decided not to worry about it. It wasn't like she was going to ask either of them.
Ron said, "I'm opening all channels, brother. I need to know what's going on."
Bang! Boom!! Thud, thud, thud...
Ron shook his head in annoyance. "What the hell are they trying to do?! Do these idiots really think they can break into this ship with a half dozen bazookas?"
"They've been trying for a while now," Harry replied. "I say we blow them up. We've got enough firepower."
"No time," Ron brought up an ammo inventory and frowned. "These guys travel in packs. They'll have more ships somewhere, fully loaded. We need to go, now."
Harry didn't answer, but the engines roared again. The floor shuddered as the El Dorado pulled against the clamp holding the ship in place from above.
"Idiots!" Aisha curled her lip. "That isn't gonna work! If this were the Outlaw Star, maybe, but not with a piece of shit ship like this!"
"Shut up!" Harry's voice blared from the console in front of her.
Aisha leapt up and raised her fist threateningly. "Don't you tell me to shut up!!" she shrieked. "I'll-- yeek!"
Ron grabbed her arm and dragged her back down into the chair. "You'd better strap yourself in," he growled at her.
Aisha ripped her arm away. "What's the use? We're not going anywhere." She and Ron glared at each other for a moment, neither one willing to blink or look away.
Rrrrreeeeeeeek! There was the awful screeching sound of metal being wrenched apart. Aisha clamped her hands over her highly sensitive ears and snarled in pain. She could feel the ship straining to break free of its constraints, pulling and jerking. The force created extra pressure in the cabin, and her ears popped. Why does this seem oddly familiar?
"Come on, Harry!" Ron yelled, rapidly pressing buttons. "Get us out of here!"
With a sudden teeth-clenching jolt the ship was free. It shot straight up into the air with a speed that made Aisha squeeze her eyes shut.
"Now what?" Harry shouted. "Somebody noticed that something's going on! The garage is being sealed-- the roof's gonna close!"
"Take it back down," Ron ordered. "There's a huge garage door on the second level for the trucks. They won't think of closing it just yet."
The El Dorado instantly dropped so quickly that it made Aisha's stomach lurch. Now the external pick-ups were flooding the cabin with the sounds of people yelling and panicking outside.
"Hey! HEY!"
"What the hell!"
"Aauuggghh! Get out of the way!!"
"Second level, Ron!" Harry called out.
Ron glanced over at Aisha. "Take it forward, but watch out-- you'll have to take a left at about 200 yards."
Take a left?! Aisha's eyes went wide. That's not possible! But just in case... Aisha reached around and strapped herself securely into her seat.
The ship swung out wide to the right and then dropped into a quick roll, abruptly pointing its nose left as it did. SSSSHHHHHKKKKK!! The side of the Shangri-La scraped against the walls of the hangar as it came out of the turn. Aisha slammed her hands over her ears again. She couldn't see it, but sparks were flying from the walls and ship as the two surfaces met. And then, thankfully, the screeching stopped and the ship steadied. It had been tight, but they'd actually made it.
Ahead the open garage door was visible, sunlight shining brightly through it. The problem was, there were a lot of people wandering around in front of it, and it didn't seem as though either Ron or Harry were the type of guy to stop and politely wait for pedestrians to get out of the way.
"Hey! HEY!" Aisha yelled frantically. "There are people there! Look, there are people there! You can't just run 'em over!"
Ron fixed her with his yellow eyes. "They'll move."
Sure enough, when the truckers and techies saw the ship speeding towards them, there was a mad scramble away from the door. Luckily no innocent lives were lost-- though quite a few pairs of pants were ruined.
The Shangri-La burst out of the garage and out over a main street. Now the outside microphones were picking up screeching tires and honking horns, as well as a couple of crashes as cars and trucks swerved to get the hell out of the way. The ship was so low that it barely avoided clipping the top of a semi. It sped up the street, blowing smaller cars sideways in its wake. The Shangri-La accelerated and within seconds they were shooting up into the sky.
"Still think this is a piece of shit ship?" Ron called out smugly over his shoulder.
Aisha re-crossed her arms and didn't reply. Around them the sky was fading from blue to black as they headed out of Tesla's atmosphere and into space.
********************************************
Ron brought his attention back to the radar on the screen in front of him, and set his mouth grimly. It looked like they were giving chase already-- but then again, he hadn't expected anything less. "Head for the Lavez meteor field," he told his brother, looking tersely out of the cockpit's windshield. "That's our best chance."
Best chance? Aisha slid her eyes down toward her screen. Aw, dammit... of course those guys couldn't just give up, could they? This is just great... now I'm stuck on a pirate ship, being chased by more pirates! I should have just stayed in bed this morning!
"Seven ships," Ron announced. "Two big ones, five smaller ones. The big ones might be a problem with all the damage we've got. Harry, how's your maneuverability?"
"It's fine for now. Just leave it to me," Harry replied tensely, concentrating on flying.
Ron set his mouth and leaned over to look at the ruined console at the front of the ship. "Did you have to smash that console?" he growled at Aisha. "Those are the main controls-- we can't use the external cameras because of you! That means we can't see anything that's not directly in front of the ship!"
Aisha snorted and stuck her nose up in the air. "You might wanna turn around."
Ron whipped back around to see one of the smaller ships zooming around in front of the Shangri-la. He snarled and reached for a huge lever on his console. Instantly one of the grappler arms extended and snagged the small ship.
Just as the metal fingers closed around that ship, a volley of fire crashed into the left side of the Shangri-La. "Portside shield!" Ron yelled as the ship veered to the side. The grappler arm squeezed the first ship to bits, even as more shots hit the McDougals' ship.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Aisha glanced down at her screen. A jumble of technical drawings had appeared, and one of the square sections was flashing red. That's the left side, she realized, and it's been damaged pretty badly. And the shield's not up yet!
Two more shots hit Aisha's side of the Shangri-La. That damn portside ship wasn't gonna give up, was it? I might be in a little bit of trouble here, Aisha decided. It didn't look as though either Harry or Ron were aware that the shields were malfunctioning; Harry was too busy trying to fly, and Ron was too busy trying to shoot down one of the larger ships-- a big green monstrosity with a demon painted on its back, visible through the front windshield.
All right, I gotta do something. It's my own ass on the line here! She uncrossed her arms and attacked the buttons on the side console. If the external cameras weren't working, she'd just have to find something that would let her see the enemy. Aisha scanned down a list of items with her finger-- external cam (disabled), radar (50% accuracy) infrared scanner... infrared scanner! Aha! Now there was something to work with. If she put that together with the slightly off radar, she could triangulate the enemy ships' positions. The radar and the scanner popped up on screen, along with the systems check for a very large gun. Aisha grinned. The ammo was at 76 percent, and that was plenty.
The other ships now showed up on screen as red and orange blobs, but that was enough. With a smirk, she locked in on that persistent portside ship and expertly shot it down. Ron flicked his eyes over to her as the explosion lit up the left side of the front window. Aisha ignored him-- she was busy with her guns. She'd almost forgotten how good battle felt!
"Transmit that to my screen!" Ron commanded in a rush. Without thinking (or noticing that she was actually obeying a direct order) Aisha did as she was told. The radar/infrared info popped up onto his console.
Now that both she and Ron had at least a partial view of the battle, the other guys didn't have a chance. Ron set his sights on one of the large ships that were presently shooting missiles at them. He shot the missiles down mid-flight, then took out the ship easily. The enemy was down to three ships now, but Aisha quickly cut it down to one with a volley of well-aimed fire. The final ship, the big green one, was now attempting to make an escape.
Ron glared at the screen. "Oh, no you don't," he snarled. "Harry! Increase engine output! Catch that bastard!"
The Shangri-La instantly shot forward. Ron pushed up the huge levers in front of him, extending the grappler arms. The green ship really didn't have a chance of outrunning the McDougals' ship. But Ron narrowed his amber eyes. A cornered animal, he thought to himself, is the one that gives the fiercest fight.
Sure enough, just as the Shangri-La was right upon it, the green ship spun suddenly down and out of the way. Ron had anticipated the move. He aimed the pointed nose of his ship in the same direction, spiraling after his enemy. Aisha flattened her ears against the side of her head so that they wouldn't pop from the sudden pressure change. She couldn't use the gun now; the random, spontaneous way Ron was flying made the possibility of flying into their own firing path too great.
The green ship pulled up and to the side, quick as lightening-- but not as quickly as the Shangri-La. The yellow ship darted after it, gaining even though the green ship zigged and zagged, trying every evasive maneuver it was capable of. Ron allowed a smile to curl his lip. He was just playing now. Any time he wanted to, he could reach out and snatch up the other ship and crush it with the grappler arms. Speaking of, now was as good a time as any.
Ron urged the Shangri-La forward and stabbed the pincer-like grapplers into the back of the green ship. "Harry, do me a favor and open up an audio channel to our good friend, will you?" Ron smirked.
Harry laughed. "Right."
There was a bit of static, then a voice came through. "McDougal...." it snarled, furious.
"That was very bad manners, you know," Ron interrupted him. "Running like that. You're the one that started all this."
Aisha sniffed. Something wasn't quite right. That had been a bit too easy, hadn't it?
"You won't get away with this!" the pirate yelled. "You won't escape! We may not have stopped you, but the others will-- the elders will make sure of it! Half the galaxy will be chasing you by tomorrow, McDougal!"
"Damn, he talks a lot," Aisha muttered as the pirate continued his tirade.
Ron seemed to agree. "Tell your elders they'd be wise to crawl back into the holes they came out of. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot-- you won't be able to," he smiled evilly and punched the grappler arms deeper into the ship's back.
There was silence for a long moment, and then a low chuckle came from the com. "McDougal, you're such an idiot," the pirate laughed. The Shangri-La jerked suddenly.
Ron cursed and looked out of the window. A green grappler arm had a hold on the Shangri-la's starboard gun-- Ron's gun. Another snaked out and wrapped itself around the Shangri-la's grappler arms.
"Your overconfidence is your downfall, McDougal," the pirate called triumphantly. "While you were busy gloating, I programmed my ship to self-destruct. You've got less than a minute to live."
"Less than a minute?!!" Aisha screeched. "Aww, what did I do to deserve this?"
Ron attacked his controls, trying to jerk the Shangri-La's grappler arms free. "Harry! Max output on the backburners! Pull us free!"
"McDougal, get those grapplers out of there!" Aisha yelled.
"What the hell do you think I'm trying to do?" he roared back, pulling desperately on the controls. It was no use-- the arms were stuck in the green ship's back, right in the center of the demon's chest. The painting seemed to grin up at them evilly.
Aisha let out an angry snarl and redirected her gun toward the Shangri-la's struggling grappler arms.
"Shit!" Ron swore as the first few of her shots punched into the green ship, way too close to his precious grapplers for comfort. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! We need those! I'm not gonna let you shoot the arms off of this ship, you crazy--"
"Shut up and hold 'em still!" Aisha snapped, and continued shooting. After a moment Ron realized what she was doing and stopped his futile struggle to jerk the arms free.
Aisha was a very accurate shot, when she wanted to be. Biting her lip in concentration, she fired a circle of shots tightly around the grappler arms, severing the grip of their enemy's grappler. With the ring of holes punched into the green ship, the metal holding the arms was weakened.
"Pull out!" Aisha ordered. Ron glanced at her, then attacked his controls again. After a few more moments of struggling, the grappler arms ripped free, tearing out a large chunk of the green ship with them.
Aisha resisted the urge to cheer, but she did allow herself a smug smirk.
The green ship was now a sparking, ruined mess, but it could still self-destruct, even with half of it riddled with blast holes. Ron directed one of the grappler arms to the green ship's arm that still held his gun. With a brutal twist, he bent the grappler until it snapped. The Shangri-la was free.
"Get us out of here, Harry!"
The Shangri-la twisted up and shot away from the green ship. Seconds later, the green ship exploded into a ball of yellow and orange fire. The explosion was so close that the flash, barely visible to the periphery of the Shangri-la's front window, still dazzled Aisha's eyes. Her face split into a wide grin.
So, there 'tis. Tell me what you think. What pairings do you guys like, anyway? Not that I'm necessarily gonna go in that direction, but I'm asking for future reference. Thanks, laterz!
