Chapter 3: Flying Away

"Hey Jeffrey!" a young, lady pilot shouted in the very busy Hangar Bay 2. She was pretty tall and very beautiful with black eyes and short, straight, raven hair (The LCF required short hair for females). Her markings on her uniform told everyone that she was of high rank and should be respected. Her name, was Angel which obviously described her in Jeffrey's opinion.

"Hi Angel!" Jeffrey yelled back over the loud engines of the planes.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Kelsey whispered to Jeffrey aggravatingly.

"Please shut up," Jeffrey retaliated defensively.

"What did you say?" Angel asked, suddenly interested for there was a different tone in her voice.

"I just was assigned to an AI for the mission and she's really frustrating," Jeffrey explained to Angel.

"Well anyway, I'm transporting you for your mission," she notified him walking gracefully towards him.

"It's a modified ONI transport with slipstream capabilities and a top speed matching a Longsword," she continued excitedly. Jeffrey followed her until he saw a black plane as sleek as his MA7B rifle that looked like a Pelican transport but with two more class J-914 engines.

"It's called a 'Black Hawk' and there's only 10 of them in the LCF fleet," she continued eagerly.

"Wow!" Jeffrey exclaimed as Angel climbed into the cockpit.

"You can sit in the passenger seat over there," Angel indicated to a leather and black seat. Jeffrey sat down in the comfortable chair and buckled in.

"You are clear for lift off Angel," the hangar bay operator informed Angel who put her helmet on her head and flicked a couple of complicated switches to check the ship.

"All systems are A-OK," Angel told the worker as she activated the afterburners. The bay doors opened and the black ship flew off into space.

We're going to fast, we're going to crash!" shouted Kelsey as the plane entered the artificial atmosphere of the moon Alpha II. The plane which represented a diving hawk as it plummeted to the ground before Angel activated the hover engines. The plane came to a stop just centimetres off the ground. Jeffrey silently chuckled as Kelsey winced as if expecting to crash while Angel sat there calmly in her seat.

"I wasn't really scared," Kelsey denied as she opened her eyes. Jeffrey jumped out of the plane heavily laden with his expensive equipment.

"You still owe me a drink Jeffrey," Angel reminded him smiling showing her white teeth which were as white as pearls.

"I'll be back soon," Jeffrey reassured her as he waved goodbye.

"Good luck!" Angel shouted as she steered her Black Hawk to the bright morning sky and flew away.

"Nav point please," Jeffrey requested looking very bored.

"Nav point please," Jeffrey repeated with a touch of annoyance in hid voice.

Find your own way," Kelsey responded in a gallingly voice.

"Doesn't moss grow in a certain direction mister know-it-all," continued Kelsey annoyingly.

"I want a nav point now Kelsey!" Jeffrey shouted through the helmet.

"Okay, Okay……feisty," she acknowledged as a red arrow appeared on his HUD (Heads Up Display). It said that his objective was 5km away. This is going to be a long mission Jeffrey thought.

"You've got a Covenant patrol coming your way," Kelsey notified Jeffrey who looked at his motion tracker indicating that there were two Elites, one jackal and two grunts. With a further 1.4km to go, Jeffrey was getting very bored with arguing with Kelsey and jogging in the bushes.

"Damn, just what I need," Jeffrey commented. The patrol was just in sight but they did not notice him. Jeffrey looked for somewhere to hide and he decided to climb up a tree. Using his surprising agility he scrambled up the mammoth tree. He rested on a branch using the leaves as cover. He took the MA7B rifle out of its holster and scoped on the unfortunate patrol. He fired a HE shot at a grunt which soon had a hole in its head spurting out blue alien blood on the ground. The patrol was instantly alert as the remaining grunt began running around screaming. Jeffrey activated his translator to hear the grunts screaming.

"We're all gonna die!" the grunt screamed. One Elite drew his plasma rifle and began firing randomly. Jeffrey fired a whole clip at the monster. Most of the bullets hit thanks to Jeffrey's magnificent aim as its shield glowed turquoise blue as the bullets rocketed on its shield. Jeffrey reloaded as the empty clip fell down on the ground. A smart Elite saw the clip fall down so he pelted the tree with burning plasma, Jeffrey ducked as an overcharged plasma pistol beam scorched the tree. A grunt pulled out a plasma grenade and activated the deadly mechanism. Jeffrey shot the grunt causing it to drop the primed grenade. BOOM! The grenade exploded setting off the other grenades. The bodies of the aliens were incinerated as blue explosions rocked the ground. Jeffrey slid down the tree and walked on the crater covered ground inspecting the havoc he caused.

"You should hide the bodies," suggested Kelsey.

"What bodies?" Jeffrey asked smiling as he continued walking towards the nav point just over the horizon.