Author's Note: This story is a first draft, and I need advice.
I came up with two different endings for this chapter, which one should I choose?
Also, any advice on making longer chapters?
I am aware of any grammatical errors.
My word processor is a plain-text editor without italics. Text that is between I and I is meant to be in italics.
FIVE HOURS LATER
It was raining at the airport. Water poured down the sides of the transport aircraft. Shouts could be heard over the roar of the downfall.
"Don't forget that crate!"
"What is it?"
"Dunno."
"Holy Shit! Mudflap! I need some help! This is heavy!"
"Alright! Wow, it is heavy!"
"Shut up and get that side. Try not to drop it"
The voice named Mudflap did exactly that. On his foot.
"AARGH! LORD OF ALL FUCKS! DAMN IT!"
"Told you so."
A new voice cut through the air.
"Mudflap! Iodine! Cut it out and get moving! Wheels up in 5!"
The silhouette of a dragon could seen from the lit entrance of the cargo bay
"Okay, sir!" Iodine replied. "You done?" he said to the orange-and-brown dragon grumbling next to him.
Mudflap grunted, and being a little more careful this time, he lifted one end of the metal crate. Iodine picked up his side. They both hauled the wet, dripping box into the C-130. "Finally, that's over with. Now I can go home," Mudflap said, wiping water off of his face.
"Took you long enough," the voice from before complained. A tan dragon with white splotches and webbed spines, dressed in an olive-drab flight jacket, stepped out of the cockpit. Looking at her appearance, one could guess that Sergeant Alloy was a SandWing-IceWing hybrid. The SandWing tail barb and the spiky IceWing tail had merged into a very deadly bundle of venomous spikes. She had never used them in her life. She just didn't need to. The United Colonies of Selene technically was at peace, if you could call it that. In reality, Tensions were very high between the U.C.S. and Drosophilae. If war broke out, natural defenses would be useless. To top it off, Alloy's job wouldn't allow for claw-to-claw combat.
She was a Pilot, and a very experienced one at that.
She glared at the dragons in front of her, then turned her gaze towards the crate that Mudflap and Iodine dragged in. It was made of tough, shiny metal, which was rare for crates. This one must be special. Painted on its side were PROPERTY OF UCS and EXPERIMENTAL. There was also some of that CLASSIFIED bullshit the Alloy was well acquainted with, having done many trips like this over the years. She sighed. At her rank,all she knew was the project's codename. NOVITA. She turned back to the other dragons. "Mudflap, you're done. You can go. Iodine, get in your seat. We're going."
Iodine walked past Alloy into the cockpit. He was her Copilot. He was helping because there weren't enough dragons to load up the Airplane. Mudflap trudged out of the cargo bay and started toward the nearby building. Once he was gone, Alloy pressed a button to close the cargo door. She entered the cockpit, where Iodine was drying himself off. She maneuvered into her seat, careful to mind her sharp tail. She had considered getting it surgically removed a couple times. I Something to think about on the flightI, she thought to herself as she put on her headset. She pushed that aside, as a voice started talking in her headset. "N824AH, you are cleared for takeoff," the Air Traffic Controller chirped. Alloy put her talon on the throttle. Iodine flipped a couple switches. A faint roaring could be heard as the engines activated.
Except for Engine Number 3.
"YYZ, we are experiencing issues with-" Iodine started, but stopped as engine 3 started up. "ah, never mind, we're fine". Alloy turned up the throttle. The C-130 gave a lurch as it started forward. Alloy mentally recalled what maintenance operations were performed prior to flight. I An engine pump was replaced. But the Shift Maintenance Manager approved it, so it must be fine.I She wrote it off as it being a new pump without oil, and starting up before the oil pumps could supply it with lubricant. This happened a lot with brand new components.
The plane was gaining speed. Iodine flipped some more switches to get the air flaps in the correct position. They were off the ground now. After years of flying, the novelty had wore off for Alloy. She remained concentrated on the end of the runway. They were going fast enough and were high enough, so she pulled the yoke back, and the plane started climbing faster. Iodine pressed down on a button to make the landing wheels fold into the body of the plane. They were in the air.
Alloy steered the craft in the right direction. Once they had reached cruising altitude, she pushed the throttle down a little, and leaned back in her chair. Nothing much left to do. The autopilot would take care of things until it was time to land. She turned to Iodine, his purplish-black scales visible in the light from the instrument panel.
"So Malus unveiled the ePhone 15 at CES last month," she said.
Iodine turned his head in her direction. "Yeah. Many people were excited. Suckers," he snorted.
"Is that so?"
"Yep. 300 thetas more than the Stellec SX2, but with an incompatible OS. What a rip-off"
"You don't seem very excited."
"How could you tell?"
They both laughed.
Alloy turned to look out the window. They where passing over the ocean between North Selene and Pyrrhia. To protect the Natives of Pyrrhia and Pantala from culture shock, the nations of UCS, Drosphilae, Neotopia, Sutherland and the Oceanic Union all signed a treaty to not interfere with the inhabitants.
Thinking about this, Alloy shifted to talk to Iodine. "What if the the dragons of Pyrrhia got to see our cities? How would they react?"
Iodine gave her a look, the outline of his head barely visiable. "I don't know. They'd probably think it was magic or something. Technology has a habit of seeming like magic."
Alloy pondered this in silence. Due to the Noninterference Treaty, gathering information on the native population was difficult. Much was unknown about these dragons.
They were flying over Pyrrihia now. North Selene was northeast of Pyrrhia, while their destination, an island where a UCS base was stationed, was south of the forbidden continent. The Government wanted to go around south of Pyrrhia without passing over it, but it was too long.
Alloy glanced at Iodine. The SeaWing-SilkWing-NightWing Hybrid had a bored expression. Most likely thinking about video games. Classic Iodine. She closed her eyes. It was midnight. Iodine was part NightWing, so he could handle nighttime tasks better than most dragons. He could cover for her.
While the dragons did their thing in the cockpit, events were taking place inside the cowling of Engine 3. To keep up with the demands of the WhisperSky J26C jet engine, the fuel pump was spinning at 200 times a second. This caused quite a bit of vibration in the pump.
This kind of vibration was expected of a machine doing this much work. Nothing a proper bolt couldn't handle.
This was not a proper bolt, however.
The constant shaking was working the bolt loose. Years of abuse had worn down the threading on the sides. The bolt was loose enough for the pump to shake around more. This, in turn, loosened the bolt even more. The bolt eventually come loose, and the fuel pump went psycho. Its movement ripped open the fuel pipe. The engine shut down.
Jet fuel gushed out of the unintended opening. It did not explode just yet.
The air at 10,000 meters is very thin. Some aircraft carry oxygen tanks for their occupants. Others use excess compressed air from the jet engine's compressor to make the interior breathable.
This C-130 was one of the latter.
The violent movement of the fuel pump ripped open the compressed air pipe. Fire needs air to burn.
It still did not ignite, however. The fire was missing one other thing.
The shaking of the fuel pump was wearing out the cables that supplied the pump with electricity.
Shit, as they say, was about to hit the fan.
The cable finally snapped.
As the two ends separated, momentarially, high voltage arced across the gap. At that moment, leaking jet fuel touched the arc.
The fuel pump had finally stopped shaking. Unfortunately, it no longer mattered.
The entire airplane shuddered. That woke Alloy up. When she realized where she was, she noticed Iodine giving the instrument panel a concerned look. She followed his gaze to a blinking light that corresponded to Engine 3. That was a sign that something was wrong. She raised a talon to contact her controller when a loud bang shook the cockpit. An alarm started blaring in the enclosed space. Iodine was jamming keys on the intrument panel to pull up a diagnostic message
"Error 28. Complete failure of Engine Three," he shouted over the alarm.
Engine 3 was on Alloy's side. She twisted in her chair to look out of the window.
Jamming her face against the glass, she it: Engine 3 was on fire. In the darkness, orange flames glowed brightly in the night. She continued to look at the nightmare, and part of the intake exploded, shaking the plane even more. Alloy turned back to Iodine. "Engine's on fire,"she said.
When she said that, Iodine's face took an a look of pure terror.
Alloy started yelling into her headset."KPC, this is N824AH! Engine 3 is OF! We are currently over the southern rainforest of Pyrrhia! We have to make an emergency landing!"
She tried shuttering the fuel line to stop the fire, but she was too late. Another explosion rocked the machine.
Iodine was this point clenching his seat, panicking. He wouldn't be much help.
Alloy did not panic. She knew how to make emergency landings. If you do it correctly, you can maximize your chances of survival.
Grabbing the yolk and pulling it back, she angled the craft into a position that would allow it to slide. She also activated the landing light to see the ground.
The instruments and a quick bit of mental math suggested that the collision was 45 seconds away.
Alloy gave the yoke one last yank, closed her eyes and braced for impact.
It was loud.
-ALTERNATIVE ENDING-
A glance at Iodine confirmed he had fainted.
Alloy made some last-second corrections, then tensed as she waited for the impact.
A few seconds later, a crunch could be heard through out the forest. Alloy was nearly yanked out of her seat as the multi-ton hunk of metal touched the ground. It slid across with a scrape, before catching on something. The fuselage pole-vaulted back into the air. Alloy stared in awe as a couple coins and a candy wrapper floated in the air in front of her. The shattered remains of the airplane crunched as it landed. It flipped again. The last thing Alloy remembered was a sharp pain in her side right before she conked out. What was left of the C-130 bounced a couple more times before rolling to a stop, its two passengers unconscious.
