Chapter 11: Dancing in The Heavens
Driving throughout the city while not getting caught was no easy task. Roland deliberately took various unorthodox routes to avoid getting undetected as much as possible. All the while Amaterasu was sticking her head out the window like any ordinary dog and enjoyed the breeze of fresh air that originated from the Guardian Sapling which she had sprouted.
"I'd be careful if I were you, somebody could notice and make a nice gaping hole through your head." Roland cautioned her as he had assumed that there could be marksmen roaming about the streets or rooftops.
"Also, we're almost here." He nudged Amaterasu by the fur to make her get back into the interior, in which did so.
Roland slowed down the vehicle as they approached closer to the entrance of the spaceport. He then stopped the car when noticed soldiers guarding the checkpoint along with a couple of defensive towers equipped with searchlights and autocannons. To make things more complicated, that spaceport itself was on separate island on its own, with the checkpoint being the only way in and out.
"Well, we certainly can't cross through there without drawing attention. We probably won't even be able to cross that bridge before the whole place goes into lock down. Any ideas girl?"
Amaterasu thought to herself for a moment on how to overcome this predicament. She then had a wonderful idea pop up in her mind. Since she has the ability to walk on water, they could easily cross under the bridge without being noticed. She then pawed over the door handle on her side and exited the vehicle and signaled Roland to mount on her back. He did so accordingly and jogged away from the checkpoint far out of sight. She then leaped over from the pier and landed on top of the water without sinking through it.
"Woah! You can walk on water too? You're full of surprises aren't ya?" Roland praised her, though slightly shaken from her sudden actions. Amaterasu galloped full speed ahead towards and under the bridge undetected. At the opposite side, she noticed a small berth with a stairwell that led to the surface, it was also unguarded. She headed towards it and then made Roland dismount her.
"That was a clever idea pooch. Now, we must tread lightly up there. Also stay behind me." Roland and Amaterasu silently made their way up. As they reached the top, Roland pointed towards one of the large hangers nearby, mutely telling her to get up on top of it. Roland then warped his way up it with Amaterasu skipping after him. Once at the top, the duo crawled surreptitiously towards the front of it to get a perfect view. The Kamiki spaceport is one of the largest in Nippon. It consisted of two runways and a dozen launch pads bordering them, with various rockets, aircraft, starships, spaceplanes, and other vehicles present while connected to launch towers. Within the row of the larger launch pads were those that were smaller in size. Over there were smaller crafts parked in a horizontal position with launch erectors connected under them. Those were the FS-43 Delta I exoatmospheric interceptors. The most practical and ideal craft they can commandeer since it also has a space for two in a side-by-side configuration. More importantly, Roland had partial experience in piloting them, at least in the flight simulators he used to play in his spare time.
"You see these fighters? We are going to take one of them. Although there are some guards there that you need to deal with quietly while I start one of them up." Roland whispered to Amaterasu. She contemplated on whether or not she could trust Roland to safely operate this spacecraft, but there weren't any other better alternatives at this moment, so she agreed.
"Ok, let's stay along the edges of the port and try to get behind them." Roland then warped down from the hanger and signaled Amaterasu to come along with him. She jumped down and two proceeded to make their way towards the spacecrafts.
They successfully snuck around the perimeter of the port and came right behind the parked fighter. Roland peaked over the barrier that was surrounding the vehicle and spotted numerous guards along with technicians at work.
"We need to make a diversion of some kind to make them vacate the area…" Roland eyed the surroundings, and the first thing that he observed were the fuel storage tank at the opposite side of the spaceport.
"You see these large tanks over there? Why don't we make'em go off and I'm sure it'll make everybody here scatter like ants. As soon as everyone clears, we'll hop into this thing and blast off. Sounds good?"
Amaterasu thought about Roland's proposal for a moment. She could very well summon a cherry bomb right underneath one of the tanks, but she did not want there to be extensive collateral damage when the tanks burst. She took a look herself by peaking over the barrier and saw a row of fuel storage tanks where there was nobody within its vicinity. Amaterasu glanced back at Roland one last time to see if he wished to through with the plan.
"Do it pooch, we don't have a lot of time left!" He whispered to her, officially giving the go-ahead. Amaterasu used her tail to draw circle along with a short diagonal line protruding out of it towards the direction of the fuel tanks. Once the shape was complete, an oversized spherical firecracker spawned underneath the tanks with its fuse already lit. As soon as the sparkling fuse burned till the end, the bomb exploded and instantly ruptured the bottom sides the tanks. The contents inside of them ignited and the tanks burst into an inferno as the fire spread like waves from an ocean and the pitch-black plume of smoke started rising instantaneously along with the ashes trickling down from the air.
The majority of the personal either jumped or hit the surface from the shockwave of the explosion. A moment later, they began yelling orders at each other before grabbing the nearest fire extinguishers and ran towards the blaze to assist in putting out it all out.
"Go go go! I'll open the hatch for you and get in!" Roland hollered at Amaterasu as he climbed over the barrier and made his way towards the fighter. He first did open the hatch for Amaterasu to enter, he promptly disconnected all the fuel lines from the craft and then got back inside the cockpit where she was waiting for him. Roland closed the hatches for the both of them and prepared to start up the spacecraft.
"Alright…I hope my memory won't let me down today!" Roland examined all the instruments and searched for the ones that were fundamental for flight. He started off from the main battery switch, and sequentially enabled the other batteries as well as the inverters. So far, everything was going the way it should as the interior was noisy from the 400 hertz hum the inverters were emitting along with other running instruments. The digital and holographic avionics lit up and began to load the flight data as well as run diagnostic tests.
"Ok! We're almost ready! Let me get you strapped in somehow." Roland bent over and tried to use the straps of the seat to secure Amaterasu at least in a way that she wouldn't either float while in zero-gravity or get thrown all over while under high acceleration. This is one of those times where she really had to put her faith into somebody else as this type of scenario was beyond her control.
Roland then strapped himself in tightly and turned on the auxiliary power unit, the small turbine used to provide air that spined the larger main turbine which is being used to convert the air from the outside into an oxidizer for the main engine and to generate power while in the vacuum of space. The engine spooled up raucously to the point where it got quite loud inside the cockpit. Roland made sure that the launch parameters were set to automatically control the spacecraft during the ascent phase. He then activated the pad erector arm that was attached to the bottom of the craft. The arm smoothly raised the craft into a vertical position, all Roland had to do was to hit the throttles all the way forward to lift off.
"Hang on to your tails, this is going to be probably really wild! Here we go!" Roland's heart raced out of sheer excitement and terror. All the while thinking that this was perhaps the dumbest thing that he had ever done in his entire life. Nevertheless, he slammed the throttles all the way forward and the main engine combusted directly downwards at maximum power, with fire and smoke spewing around all directions as it hit the surface. One second later, the two rocket boosters attached to the wings ignited as the launch arm released the craft simultaneously; soon enough Roland and Amaterasu were off the ground and began their journey into the heavens above.
Both of them were jolted backwards and fused into their seats from the intense gravitational forces as their ears were constantly ringing from the deafening noise of the rocket engines. Poor Amaterasu was whining and whimpering from the extreme discomfort, while Roland's eyes were essentially rolling backwards as the G-forces were increasing. The sky was getting darker and darker as they zoomed upwards at hypersonic speeds. When they passed the 55-kilometer altitude mark, the boosters detached themselves from the wings with a noticeable thud noise. The main engine also switched to a closed-cycle mode, which uses an oxidizer stored within the craft itself. The flight suddenly got a lot smoother and less violent as weightlessness began to settle in.
The violent sounds and tremors faded away as the craft exited the atmosphere and entered into outer space. Calmness settled into the environment as Roland and Amaterasu recovered from the stressful launch.
"Well…that was wasn't so bad! Was it?" Roland remarked while exhaling all the breath he was holding in throughout the endeavor. Naturally, Amaterasu glared at him with a grumpy expression.
"Ok ok. We gotta stay on track here. If I remember correctly, Shigeru told us to go to specific trees throughout the county and you'd do your spell to make them bloom. But, since we're traveling in space, we could alternatively go directly to Sei'an, deal with The Emperor, and then bloom all the trees afterwards. There should be less threats once he's gone and hopefully make the job for us a lot easier. Also, it'll take us like 35 minutes to get there, what do you think?"
Amaterasu glanced at one of the monitors displaying the map of Nippon and noted their current location and how far they were from the city. Roland had a point that the sooner The Emperor was neutralized, the less likely hood that they would encounter demons or any cursed areas. She then took of her paws and fixated it on the map to Sei'an City's location.
"Alright, we'll go there first. Let's just hope I'll be able to land this thing first, heh." Roland set Sei'an City as a waypoint and enabled the autopilot. The starfighter slowly rotated and pointed towards the heading of the destination and fired its two plasma thrusters beside the main engine to let them cruise towards their destination. During this time period, it gave both of them a time of some peace and calm. Roland took in the view of the stars and galaxies in awe as anybody else would for their first time being in outer space.
"Man…space is just so beautiful to admire. Did you really create all of this? The stars, planets, and life itself? Like, what was the purpose to create us in particular? Do all of us a have a purpose after all?" Roland was asking too many questions that Amaterasu cannot answer. In fact, she didn't know the answer to some of them either. Although she certainly agreed with Roland's comment about space, as she gazed out of the window observing her own work of art.
"Oh right. Kinda dumb of me to ask such questions when you can't talk anyways, heh. Hey by the way, is it ok if I call you something a bit more formal than just pooch? What about errr…Ammy! I heard that it was your nickname or something in the books I've read. I think it's cute name too!"
When Amaterasu heard him refer to her as Ammy, she barked with glee and rubbed her ahead against his shoulder. Nobody has called Ammy for centuries, as it once again brought back memories of her past adventures and the companions she had established a bond with whom she misses so dearly.
The reposeful environment was abruptly shattered when three loud beeps from cockpit's displays went off. Roland scrambled to pinpoint the reason of this event. He then noticed three dots on the radar page that were directly in front of their position and were getting closer at a rapid pace. Three more beeps went off including an additional warbling tone, indicating that they were being pinged by the objects that were approaching.
"Shhhhit! I knew this would happen! Ammy! I need you to get ready to use your abilities, just wait for me to call out." It was evident that their grand escape in a stolen starfighter wouldn't be unseen and disregarded by the authorities, at some point they would've been tracked and intercepted as is the case now. Roland had this in the back of his mind, but didn't expect for it to be that soon.
He gripped the flight stick tightly along with the throttle and armed the spacecraft's countermeasures. Amaterasu also braced for whatever was about to encounter them, despite her confusion of the whole situation. A sudden overly-loud hi-lo style tone began emitting from the speakers in the cockpit, along with the words MISSILE WARNING flashing red on both screens and heads up display.
"HOLD ON!" Roland yelled as he pushed the flight stick all the way forward which made the fighter flip downwards and hurl towards the earth at full power, all the while dispensing the chaff and flares to fool the missiles that were locked onto them. There were three blue streaks homing down directly towards them at a high rate of speed, but as Roland leveled the craft from its dive; there was now a wall of decoys floating behind them. The missiles dove upwards away from Roland and Amaterasu and instead guided themselves directly towards the decoys and detonating shortly afterwards. Following behind the missiles were three FS-43 starfighters which zoomed right above Roland and Amaterasu's fighter.
"Alright then…if that's how they want it, then let's DANCE!" Roland turned the flight stick sideways and then back towards him, which made the fighter make a sharp U-turn towards the direction of the opponents.
"Ok Ammy, on my word, you bend the time as soon as they're right of us. I'll blast them then!"
Amaterasu nodded at Roland's command. Even though Roland could use his abilities in the midst of the dogfight, there were simply too many factors at play that may distract his piloting ability, the main one being under intense stress.
Roland hit the throttles again all the way forward and rocketed head-on towards the foes. They too turned around and attempted to engage again. However, they have seemed to give up the use of missiles, and instead opted to use guns for this pass. Roland focused intensely of what was ahead of him, and on the aiming reticle of his fighter's own gun. As soon as he spotted the three hostile crafts with his naked eye coming towards them, he hollered at Amaterasu to execute her brush technique.
"NOW AMMY!"
Amaterasu quickly used her tail to make two horizontal lines that caused the environment around them to deaccelerate. Four seconds was all that Roland had to pick a target and engage it. He swerved the reticle of the gunsight onto one of the fighters and gently squeezed the trigger on the flight stick. This caused a stream of glowing projectiles to exit from the front of the craft and flew slowly to the target which he aimed at. The whole fighter tremored from the burst of the powerful 25-millimeter rotary cannon. With a second to spare, Roland pulled the fighter out of the way from the oncoming foes. At which the 4 seconds have passed, and time had gone back to normal. In a blink of an eye, the projectiles, and the fighter which they were being aimed at collided, shattering the enemy craft into smaller chunks of metal and debris.
"YES! We got one! Take THAT you bastard!" Roland cheered with thrill as he rolled his fighter to make another turn towards the remaining foes who just passed by. However, the two fighters also turned in advance to engage Roland and Amaterasu while they would immediately be in gun range. The two fighters opened fire and sent a barrage of rounds towards the duo's craft.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" In a moment of panic, Roland jerked the flight stick in all sorts of directions to make the fighter spin and tumble to minimize the chances of a direct hit from the oncoming fire. As the projectiles darted right past them, a good few detonated in their proximity that caused fragmentation which pierced through parts of the wings and fuselage. The two foes veered off right after all the projectiles have passed by Roland and Amaterasu to get aligned and reengage them again. Roland tried to stabilize the craft and used his eyes to check if there was any critical damage done to their fighter. Aside from some minor components getting shredded by fragments, miraculously, they never received a direct hit. That in mind Roland again made a sharp turn to face the enemy once again.
"AMMY! DO THE THING AGAIN, QUICKLY!" Roland ordered Amaterasu, despite her being in a state of severe dizziness and nausea. Nevertheless, she did as was told to do. Time decelerated again for another four seconds. Roland used this precious moment to lock onto a second enemy fighter, specifically, the one that was the closest and had its belly pointed towards them. He squeezed the trigger and let out another stream of bullets that shredded through the fuselage of the other fighter; causing a bright flash that was followed by the craft exploding into large pieces as if it were a projectile itself.
"Fuck yeah! Just one more to go!" Roland cheered, but as he was about to make another maneuver, their craft shook violently along with small explosions bursting externally. The third fighter that passed by when they engaged the other one managed to get behind and fire up on them. Not only did one of the wings of their craft get completely shredded, but also a larger explosion went off as soon as the main engine has been struck. The blast was strong enough that it caused the craft to spin uncontrollably, but also changed their trajectory that pushed them out of orbit and began to reenter the atmosphere. Roland desperately tried to regain control of the stricken craft, but it was of no use as they tumbled down back to earth. For the first time, Roland felt that he was at death's doorstep. Even with the goddess on his side, he didn't expect that they will get away from it this time, the situation was simply too dire.
"A-ammy…help…" This was Roland's last plea for her succor before his vision faded, followed his consciousness due to the extreme gravitational forces being applied as they span in all directions while the craft burned white hot through the atmosphere. Amaterasu had to act quickly, she fought against the strong g-forces while frantically looking for any solution before they either disintegrated or impacted the surface. She noticed that one of the wings were missing on the craft and quickly applied her rejuvenation technique to restore it. When it was done, the new wing managed to stabilize the craft and caused it to glide more smoothly through the atmosphere. However, Roland was still knocked out and they were losing altitude fast. Amaterasu pawed and nibbled on him to wake him up, but to no avail. The cockpit instruments began to audibly warn them to pull up immediately, then it transitioned to yell EJECT, EJECT! Amaterasu quickly saw the apparent bright-yellow handle next to Roland's seat with EJECT written in big red letters on it. She wasted no time into scrambling onto his lap, and used her maw to pull as hard as she could on it. This caused the top hatch to burst open and immediately rocket the seat upwards with her grasping on to Roland as tightly as she could. The parachute deployed as they began falling towards the surface, it gave her a good view of their fighter that plummeted into the ground and shattered in a fiery blaze.