Note: Parallels abound! Anyway, here it is, thought up and typed in just over two hours:
But first, the obligatory character intro:
Wilson: 22 year-old American physics major, optics guy, and writer.
Declan: 19 year-old (or is he 20 now?) Englishman, artist, web developer, and guy who harbors a severe distaste for 1337 and chat acronyms. (I don't hate, I just like to poke fun)
FCS Founding, Chapter three
It turned out that no one was hurt, and the hovercraft didn't run into anything in the time it took for LZ to get up and back to the controls. Amazingly enough, the cars seemed to have survived the fall intact. Things became awkward in the hovercraft's control structure as LZ slowly navigated between wrecks; often, Mike's upraised hand was the only thing that alerted him to the presence of a barely-visible hazard. Though it seemed to be much longer, it was actually less than seven minutes before the LCAC was on the open ocean.
"Mmm . . . where are the ships?" Sera ventured, seeing no vessel but their own.
"You've heard of the GGG, right?"
"The Gaian Global Grid? Only in theory."
"So, what do you know about it?"
"Back at the end of the Eidolon War," Sera began in the manner of one giving a presentation, "Though a total disaster was averted, the cataclysm that was to transform Gaia into Terra was actually interrupted rather than prevented. And though most Gaians don't notice it, there is a plane on this planet parallel to our own, and in which – or so the theory goes – a miniature society exists. Were it possible to get 'on the Grid,' so to speak, one would become effectively ethereal, and unable to affect events in the plane we inhabit. Theoretically."
LZ chortled. "It's not just theoretical anymore! Both of our ships are on the Grid, probably not more than a few kilometers from us." Sera cocked an ear and raised a skeptical eyebrow, which her acquaintance didn't see because he was concentrating on the controls. "The theories are mostly true; but while on the Grid, we float on water just like we otherwise would, and we can't move through Gaia itself for some reason. But what we can do is be impervious to the beasts of the seas, foul weather, and the like. And we can get to the Mist Continent in a few days instead of a few weeks. Oh, and you don't have to worry about explaining this to your friends; that's what Dan was just down there doing."
"You do understand that I don't really believe much of what you just said, right? I mean no offense, but this vessel isn't exactly the sort of thing that a group with the technology you claim to have would be caught dead in."
"Ah, but we iwon't/i be caught dead!" LZ proclaimed, as though that made all the difference in the world. "There are some things to be aware of on the GGG, though, so I'm glad you brought your rifle." He smacked a small, unremarkable button near the control column, bringing a klaxon and a spinning red light mounted outside to life. "In a few seconds, I'll be creating a bubble around this vessel and bumping us onto the Grid. It may be a bit disorienting at first, but you'll get used to the transition after experiencing it a few dozen times."
Why do I always get mixed up with these kinds of people? Seratna wondered to herself. This guy probably belongs in a padded room somewhere . . . why didn't he mention this to me in any of our conversations, if any of it's true?
"Oh, and I would've mentioned it to you earlier, but you'd have thought I was crazy and tried to cross the sea in a dinghy, or in the hold of a big cargo freighter full of stinky things. Don't worry. Hold on . . ." As his voice trailed off, the world seemed to start spinning on multiple axes. Sera tried to grab onto something to steady herself, but only succeeded in grabbing her own tail and yanking her own ass out from under her.
"YOWCH!" Before she could think of any creative curses, the sky darkened to a deep purple criss-crossed with the black cloud-like filaments that gave the Grid its name. Forgetting the pain in her ass for the moment, Sera didn't even notice that LZ was helping to steady her as she stood up. Incredible . . . When she looked back towards the shore, though it was still the same distance away, she could barely see it at all. Soon, she lost sight of it completely. The sea was no longer a deep blue, but had lightened to a sickly grey, the sort of color one might imagine a zombie's skin to be. There was no longer one sun, but many; hundreds of small stars covered the sky, providing only slightly more light than a set of full moons.
"Some people think that each of those stars belongs to a planet that was once Terra's," LZ quietly remarked, breaking Sera's trance. "It's something you never get tired of seeing . . . everyone's wowed their first time in. Oh, damn!"
"What?" A thundering chatter erupted from the gun mount, with the accompanying flashes.
"It's an ambush! Look behind us!"
Sera did, and gasped. Not even a hundred yards behind them cruised three of the most ramshackle-looking vessels she had ever seen. Yet, somehow, they were gaining. She thought she could just make out a crude battery of cannon mounted on the bow of each, manned by cloaked figures. "Who are they? What do they want?"
"Spammers, we call them. They try to inundate you with scrap metal shot you don't need, to slow you down to the point that they can catch you and do what they like . . . fortunately, we've never let them get quite that far before." As Sera watched, the cannon fired – their projectiles spread out shotgun-style, peppering the sea next to the LCAC. "That was a pop-up, trying to get our attention. If we don't do what they want, they'll start firing directly at us."
"What can we do?"
"You and your friends can arm yourselves. Jana's a good shot, but she can only shoot at the one trying to flank us – she shoots at either of the others, she risks hitting our props! All we have to do is keep them occupied long enough to reach our ships."
"How am I supposed to hit anything vital with this thing bucking beneath me?"
"Then you can tell me when they're about to fire!"
Meanwhile, on the deck below, things were even more hectic. It was virtually impossible for anyone to make themselves heard over both the roar of the LCAC's turbine engines and the steady chattering of Jana's machine guns. Kabra got the idea that there was something to shoot at, however, and grabbed his "survival kit". Shiva took hers as well, and together they got into the bed of Shiva's pickup truck. Dan didn't seem to be paying much attention to them, as he was hauling a large tube labeled "SPAM BLOCKER" from the deckhouse.
Kabra and Shiva each shouldered a tube from their respective "survival packs", and fired. Shiva's tube was a simple wire-guided missile launcher, and her aim would have been perfect – had it not been for the spammers' first real shot, which severed the guidance wires in a freak coincidence. The missile went wild, creating a nice plume of water behind the spammer ships.
Kabra's was less simple, but more straightforward. It was a cannon, plain and simple. An absurdly powerful energy weapon built to be carried in the turret of an infantry carrier, Kabra had somehow modified it to be portable Though it couldn't sustain fire for long without melting the barrel or running out of juice, it was still quite formidable. There was a thunderous roar from the superheated air surrounding the energy bolt rushing back to fill the vacuum the projectile left in its wake, and the funnel of a spammer's ship exploded. They were about to fire again when the old LCAC jinked right, tossing them out of the pickup and allowing the vessel to narrowly dodge another spread of spammer's shot.
Dan, however, had his large tube ready – it was angled upward, resting on the rear loading ramp. He closed his eyes, and pressed a button on the top of the device. A trio of canisters shot out in a spread, bursting in midair. The fireworks they created were eerily beautiful against the dark sky as they fell in a curtain of light behind the LCAC. Loud thumps could be heard coming from behind the curtain, and Dan grinned. The two spammers that had been behind them were nowhere to be seen, stuck behind the curtain of light. By the time they maneuvered around it, the LCAC would be long gone.
That still left one spammer, though – a fact brought to their attention by the continued chatter of Jana's guns. Though peppered with holes, the spammer was still going, and the cloaked figures were still loading their crude cannon with shot. Just before they fired again, LZ threw the rudders hard to port and cut the port engine to idle, throwing the hovercraft in as hard a turn as it could handle. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Jana and Mike both ducked as the craft's structure was peppered with shot. A panel of cockpit glass shattered, a loud hissing sound commenced from the starboard side airskirt, and the starboard propeller started to sound as though it would tear the entire vessel apart.
Jana started firing again, Shiva and Kabra reloaded their weapons, and Dan started preparing his tube for another use. LZ immediately cut power to the starboard prop, increased power to the port prop, and held the rudder to port to compensate. But the air leaking from the armored airskirt combined with the chewed-up propeller to slow them down considerably, and it was obvious that at least one spammer would catch them. It would take only one more salvo – Jana's machine guns had shredded the funnel and part of the spammer ship's superstructure, but the guns were simply too small to damage the hull itself, and the spam gunners were too difficult to hit with a heavy machine gun.
A sound similar to Kabra's cannon erupted from the LCAC's cockpit, and a the top quarter of a gunner flew to pieces. Sera had gotten a lucky shot – her next only hit air, and another gunner took the place of the one she'd sent to the next life.
It was over. The LCAC was too badly damaged to maneuver, the RoER was steaming towards them but was still too far away, and the other two spammer ships were now back on track. One more good shot from the cannon battery would be enough to damage the hovercraft to the point that it would barely even be able to stay aloft. They were so close now that Sera could see the ship's name: teh r0x0rZ. Then, they all saw the light appear at the end of the tunnel . . . or rather, they saw a light suspended in the sky suddenly veer towards them.
Sera was the first to know what it was, thanks to the scope on her rifle: a tilt-rotor, with "RoER" stenciled in foot-tall letters on its side! The craft carried two large pods, one beneath each wing; the tip of each began to glow, and the spammer's bridge began to smoke. Shortly after, it glowed, and was melted to slag. As the tilt-rotor approached, it lowered its loading ramp and disgorged a large metal object which immediately turned, spouted flames out of its rear, and shot directly towards the spammer's ship.
Even over the roar of the LCAC's sole remaining propeller, the crew would later swear they heard someone bellow, "I do NOT tolerate spammers within the exclusion zone!" The metal object became discernable as a dragon robot just before it crashed right through the hole in the superstructure the tilt-rotor's lasers had created. All eyes were on the ship as it began to shudder violently, as though being destroyed from within. Dark smoke and sparks began to pour from its pock-marked funnel, and a groan like that of a dying animal issued forth from the hull. The entire ship actually ipulled into itself/i, just before it disintegrated in a violent but well-contained explosion. When the smoke cleared, there was a single, tired-looking nezumi floating alone in the water where the spammer's ship had been.
The tilt-rotor loitered nearby until Mike tossed him a life ring and pulled him close enough that he could clamber over the airskirt. After he dried off a bit, he would introduce himself as Declan. "I hate spammers," was all he'd say when asked how he'd found them so quickly. "I can smell them, you know. They leave a stench of rotten eggs and week-old sushi in my nostrils. Very distinctive. And you'll be thanking Wilson for flying that laser-armed tilt-rotor here, though I won't be thanking him for not plucking me out of that bloody cold water."
Anyway, since there are so many of us now, what I'm going to do is try to concentrate on a different group each chapter, so everyone gets some "page time", so to speak. And please remember, this is very rough – I thought and typed the whole thing up in just over two hours after a long day, so I know there must be things that need correcting! Please don't hesitate to point them out to me, and thanks for reading!