"Proximity alert: unidentified objects now closing in towards the rear at high speeds, recommend caution."
"What's that thing talking about?" Johnson asked about the skycar VI's latest announcement.
"For the last time, I don't know." Suzumi replied in an irritated tone. "And quit asking me about it, will ya? I wanted to be a doctor, not a VI programmer."
"Just sayin' Rye, seeing as you're…"
"What, that I'm Asian? You know what, why don't you go to hell? You redneck fu—"
"Can it, both of you." Rodriguez reprimanded both of them with a tired voice, sighing wearily before facing Cortez. "How long 'til we arrive at the clinic?"
"Best guess, five minutes tops." Cortez replied without facing the former colonel, his fingers basically a blur as it kept on operating the vehicle's complicated holo-interface. "If this thing's nav-system is reliable as it claims to be."
"Well, for all of our sakes, it better be."
"Amen to that, Henry."
"Warning," the artificial female voice boomed once more in the vehicle's speakers, "unidentified objects now within twenty meters, recommend evasive maneuvers."
"There's nothing out there," Walters stated as he looked back while gripping an unconscious Perry.
"Maybe the scanner's busted?" Suzumi suggested helpfully.
"That's impossible," the shuttle pilot remarked. "the diagnostics said everything on this piece of crap was fine." Johnson didn't look assured.
"If it ain't broke, then what the hell is it trying to say?"
"I don't know, alright? Just calm down and don't—wait," A shrill beeping sound originating from the holo-interface caught everyone's attention, and another display suddenly came out, showing two red circular dots closing in fast on the green static triangle in the middle of the screen—which was them.
"What the hell…? Rodriguez squinted his eyes to take a better look on the skycar's proximity screen. One of the fast moving dots lets loose an even smaller particle, which moved at tremendous speed towards them. It almost looked like a—
"Oh, no." Cortez breathed softly as his eyes widened at the screen. "Everybody hold on!"
"What's the big deal?" Johnson mentioned casually. "It's only a little—"
A massive explosion from behind the vehicle went off dangerously close, with the percussive force jolting everyone forward from their seats. Rodriguez's harness helped him be secured in place as his empty rifle fell from his lap and clattered towards the carpeted floor. Fragments were loudly pinging all around the battered skycar, and numerous system warnings from the console in front of Cortez were bleeping uncontrollably.
Their attackers suddenly came into view as they overshot the lone civilian vehicle and appeared dangerously in front of them, their bright thrusters and menacing payloads clearly shown for the entire world to see.
"Gunships?" The former lieutenant observed in disbelief. "Since when the hell do these bastards have gunships?"
"They're mercs," Suzumi stated. "they have everything!"
The two heavily-armed attack craft—which terribly looked a lot like A-61 Mantises—broke left and right respectively, going behind the commandeered car again for another pass.
"Cortez?" Rodriguez faced the ex-Alliance fighter jock again with a worried look. "Please tell me we can still fly."
"They damaged the molecular ion pump; we're leaking a shitload of fuel, won't be long now before we run out."
"What about the defense systems? There's bound to be something here we can use."
"It's a civvy skycar; this stupid piece of crap has cup holders!"
The proximity screen flashed a warning again, and one of the attackers released not one, but two more missiles directly towards them. Without saying anything, Cortez banked the skycar heavily to the right, and one of the air-to-air missiles luckily missed them entirely and instead smashed a burning smokestack; making the structure violently explode in a greasy cloud of black and orange.
The second missile was still following them intently, and it looked like it wasn't about to let go of its target anytime soon. A few more aerial maneuvers on Cortez's part still wouldn't shake the rocket off course. Rodriguez gripped his restraints tightly, not bothering to utter another word as he let their shuttle pilot do what he did best, hoping that they all wouldn't die in a fiery death.
"Damn it," Cortez cursed in a soft voice, sweat pouring heavily across his forehead. "I can't lose the persistent SOB."
"Any ideas?" Suzumi asked everyone in a shaky voice.
"Without any ECMs, our chances of losing this missile are slim to none." The shuttle pilot observed while turning the vehicle towards the left, swaying everyone inside.
"What's this missile that's chasing us?" Walters questioned calmly.
"Could be an AIM-344 Precision Kill Rocket, it's the standard air-to-air on all A-61s, last I checked. But then again, with these guys, I'm not so sure."
"But, if there's a chance that they were, those things use an IR-passive guidance warhead right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"We need a bigger heat source then," the former major proposed. "something that'll draw off its sensor away from us."
"How?" Johnson questioned. "Besides holding our drinks, this car doesn't have jack."
"Fuel cells." Rodriguez recommended out of the blue.
"What?" The former corporal queried with a questioning look. "Did you just say…?"
"We can jettison one of the skycar's fuel cells and draw them off."
"Okay, that sounds good and all," the southerner said in an unconvinced tone, "but don't you think that's a bit too dicey?"
"What choice do we have? We're leaking fuel, and if we don't lose these assholes now, we're screwed either way."
"Say we lose this missile, then what? If we even manage to veer this PKR away with half our fuel, what's to say these assholes won't launch another one? Or three?"
"Guys," Cortez called out to all of them in a strained voice. "if you all got a plan, now would be a really good time to use it. I can't dance with these bastards forever."
The former lieutenant did bring out a really solid point. Without any assurances that the enemy gunships have spent all of their air-to-air missiles, then their spur-of-the-moment plan would only serve to hasten their quick and explosive death.
A staccato burst of loud gunfire was heard from behind, and the vehicle's auditory receptors quickly picked up the hypersonic slugs whizzing by overhead. Rodriguez flinched when several of the rounds from the gunship's mass accelerators grazed the topmost part of the skycar with somewhat minimal damage. But it scared the living hell out of the shuttle pilot though, and Cortez quickly drove the futuristic vehicle into a steep angle; positioning them just right outside of the Mantis pair's line of fire, with the missile still in hot pursuit.
"Come on, come on…" The shuttle pilot kept on repeating those two words as he recovered from the dive and made their skycar jump even higher towards the station's rusty orange-hued ceiling
"It's now or never, sir." Suzumi reminded all of them.
Oh, fuck it.
"Cortez, do it."
"Alright, standby…"
Cortez rolled the scruffy vehicle upside down on its belly, then dove it again towards the ground, with the outside cameras showing an overturned view of the rundown houses and shanty towns of this particular district. The ex-Alliance pilot quickly decreased their altitude, and the view from the external cams became even bigger and more up close.
"Cortez, what the hell are you doing?" Johnson screamed as he tightly gripped on his own harness.
"Getting us down there quick."
"This is fucking nuts! Shiiiiiii—!"
The shuttle pilot expertly rolled their vehicle again, bringing them on an even level with the horizon, with the skycar less than a hundred feet off the ground. From where they were, it looked as if the buildings would just come up and snatch the damaged car right out of the sky like a tree swatting out birds, where a single mistake here could jeopardize all of them in the blink of an eye.
The attacking gunships swiftly fired again with their twin M350 mass-accelerator autocannons, showering the area around the escaping skycar with deadly API rounds. Structures that were near the commandeered vehicle suddenly blew into smithereens, with the smoke slightly obscuring everything in front of them as the A-61s kept on their relentless assault.
"There's a narrow pass we can use up ahead," Cortez informed everyone as he evaded several cannon bursts from both of the attack crafts. "I'll drop the fuel cell at the base of the entrance there and hope we can actually lose 'em."
"Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God…" The former lieutenant cried out repeatedly and loudly as he closed his eyes to shut everything out.
"Four hundred meters." Rodriguez read the digital readout in front of him, which showed how much distance that separated them from the pass.
"Come on, you son of a bitch." The shuttle pilot gritted his teeth, trying his best to keep the skycar level despite the mercs constant onslaught.
"Two-fifty."
"Oh, shit!" Suzumi cursed at full volume while he was facing the rear. "They've fired two more missiles!"
"Come on, don't fail us now…"
Another cannon burst from one of the Mantis gunships made a lucky shot somewhere around the skycar, and the next thing Rodriguez knew, everyone on board was thrown sideways as a small explosion shook the vehicle violently. The sleek hull was already starting to list a few degrees downward slightly towards the right, with the recent damage starting to trail smoke as the VI started broadcasting the vehicle's status.
"Warning: starboard stabilizers critically damaged, cannot sustain powered flight. Repeat, cannot sustain powered—"
"Damn!" Cortez swore out loud. "Mass effect core's redlining, we're losing flight stability."
"Gozu district's on the other end of that pass." Rodriguez reminded. "Just make this tin can hold out a little bit longer."
"Ten seconds!" Suzumi called out, mentioning about the probable time the missiles were going to make impact.
"Dropping the fuel cell…now!"
A small thump was heard, as one of the four-feet long hydrogen fuel cells were jettisoned out of the vehicle. And with whatever responses he had left on the dying skycar, Cortez pulled up to gain as much altitude as he could before he lost all semblance of control.
A larger explosion that was even bigger than before detonated, and the residual shockwave from the blast clipped the skycar's aerodynamic flow, abruptly bleeding off all the excess speed and momentum the vehicle carried. The external cameras that were showing the outside world were suddenly offline, immediately darkening the interior from its source of illumination, save from Cortez's small holo-display that slightly lit the shuttle pilot's face.
A pair of secondary blasts was also heard as their battered commandeered car finally went through, signifying that their near-suicidal plan worked in knocking the PKRs off their tails. The two A-61s, whose large size and wingspan prevented them from entering the really narrow pass, broke off from their pursuit and literally stopped dead in their tracks; their huge thrusters stopping them just in time before they collided face first into the huge metallic wall.
They could've cheered and hollered in celebration from losing the hostile merc gunships, shouting like madmen for being alive and kicking. But their problems were still far from over.
The skycar's fuel reserve, which was still down to fifty percent before their little stunt, was drastically cut down to less than ten after they jettisoned one of the fuel cells. Andit was still decreasing at an alarming rate, due to the molecular ion pump being damaged by shrapnel from the missile strike earlier. Controls were practically shot, and whatever responses the vehicle was still capable of reacting were pretty much thrown out of the window when the starboard stabilizer got hit.
All of the skycar's passive sensors were also decommissioned, when the shockwave from the explosion a while ago flooded them with a metric ton of data, crashing them into the next Stone Age and waiting for the next system reboot.
In other words they were blind, severely damaged, and running on fumes. It didn't take long before they crashed two minutes later on the other side of the pass.