Vale's mood improved after John's advice. Yes, maybe they didn't belong here, and perhaps they were responsible for some of the activities they had done here, but she knew that she and John were doing the right thing. They would take back this bomb and free the taskforce, whether they liked the duo or not.
But most of that thought went out of the window when she heard what came over from John.
Vale quickly exited the jumpseat and peered out the cockpit window. She could see John, his back facing towards her and his arms in the air as he yielded for the two onmics that had their guns on him.
Panic started to set in. She didn't think John would be caught so soon unless he did something intentional.
Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, there was no time to debate. She needed to save him.
The only problem was how. How could she attempt to save John from the jumpseat of the dropship, metres away from where he was.
John was the only one who knew how to deal with targets from a distance, while Vale was more of a close-quarter combat specialist.
She didn't have the weapon for this task.
Wait. Weapon.
"Eve, spawn me a rifle. Any kind at this point." She asked her AI.
"Sorry, Vale. I'm trying to communicate with Tom at what the onmics are saying." Eve told her owner. "Looks like they are transmitting info to the command ship that a human is lost on board. I'm trying to stall their communications as much as I can."
Damn. Besides Tom and Eve, they were the only two who could supply their backup arsenal of weapons stored within them.
She scoured her brains for something.
Think Vale. Think.
Wait.
The weapon crates. The taskforce confiscated weapons.
She dashed out of the cockpit and out to the back as she went to find a suitable weapon.
John froze as he watched the two onmics march closer to him. The tense situation was getting to him as he felt like the air was starting to get thin. The androids split themselves so that the two stood on either side of John to prevent him from doing anything else.
He did not plan to go out like this. His breaths became short and heavy as he spent most of his energy using his brain to scramble a plan, formulate an idea, or do anything that could get him out of this situation.
He gulped hard as their weapons got ever closer to his chest, ready to kill him.
He silently prayed to the heavens for a miracle to occur to him.
And somehow, he got his prayers answered.
But not in the way he expected.
Like the heavens heard his pleas, something fell on the onmic's head on his right.
The onmic, startled by this, tried to get whatever landed on him off using its weaponless hand. But whatever it was, it was clawing and gnawing away his vision. Its hand tried to grab the object, but its fuzzy texture made it impossible to grip as it stumbled backwards and fell on the floor with a clang.
John's eyes widened with shock.
It was Hammond. He glanced up quickly and saw an open vent from which the hamster had fallen out.
The onmic's partner turned around and aimed for the fast-moving furball of a hamster from its companion. Its arm cannon moved and refocused every time Hammond shifted from one spot to another.
This devotion of the onmic's attention towards its comrade quickly allowed John to strike.
He quickly whipped out his bow and arrows that hung from his belt, loaded one arrow in and fired at the distracted onmic. Its head flew off its shoulders, and the sparking headless body staggered as it slumped towards the ground.
By this time, the other onmic had finally grasped Hammond, holding him by the scuff. The onmic took time to possess this unknown creature, while the critter was temperamental, squeaking and hissing at the android. Possibly profanities and other swear words it had learnt over its life.
Unfortunately, this short distraction was also the onmic's downfall. Something grabbed the miniature beast away from it, and something hit it directly into its lone eye, causing its vision to fizz for a second.
John grabbed Hammond from the onmic's grasp and swung his arrow at the onmic's head. The droid stumbled, having lost its balance after John's hit.
Having regained its vision, the onmic swung back at John using its weaponised arm. As it swung its arm out, John took advantage of this. He dodged the arm by ducking under it, and with its arm fully out, he took the whole limb, lifted the onmic off the ground and with all his strength, threw the onmic with no direction in mind.
That was a fatal mistake on John's part, as the onmic could do nothing, and it landed on the control console with a bang. The landing force was so great that the onmic bounced off the console and sent its body nearly out of the control booth.
John grabbed the onmic's hand, hoping to prevent the onmic guards from finding out. Despite his ever-tightening grip on the droid's hand, the sweat on his hands, mixed with the smooth metal surface of the onmic's hand, meant that only the inevitable would happen, as John was about to find out.
The surprisingly lightweight onmic slipped from his grasp.
And fell.
Once John no longer felt the onmic, he rushed to the balcony's edge to see the onmic falling to its demise. He hoped that none of the onmic guards would hear the impact.
The onmic fell onto the metal floor with a loud and almighty crash and a loud echo across the hanger. Its body disintegrated into multiple pieces. Some were big and obvious, such as its left arm and split torso. Other smaller parts were either blown to smithereens from the impact on the ground or caved into the metal shell of the former onmic.
John winced at the crashing sound that the onmic made. He prayed that the onmic guards were stupid enough not to hear.
Sadly for him, when he peered over the edge of the control booth, he could see now that multiple onmic guards were looking at him back emotionlessly and dauntingly.
Then, without any warning, the onmic guards opened fire at John, which quickly prompted him to duck behind the control booth. And to make matters worse, he could hear the clamouring of footsteps approaching the room, surrounding him.
John could only hope that Vale could get him out of this mess.
Vale was rapidly scouraging through the weapon crates at the back of the dropship. Since Eve was too busy to spawn the arsenal of weapons stored within her, she decided to settle for the next best thing.
The task force's stock of weapons.
She never really understood why the onmics bothered to pick up these weapons in the first place. Maybe it's because of the market value of these unique firearms. Or are they considered secret weapons?
Regardless, she pushed these thoughts aside as she shuffled the weapons crates along the ship's floor. Vale organised some of the guns and combat arms according to usage. Some could be handled, like smaller firearms, rifles, and even melee weapons. Others were not suited for her. Either they were too big or heavy, like the Particle and Tesla cannons, or entirely not suited for her, like Doomfist's Hand Cannon-Fist thing.
She heard a loud crash from outside the ship as she contemplated which weapons to pick.
Vale was so engrossed with the weapon choices that she wanted to ignore the commotion outside. However, the uproar throughout the ship made her realise something was amiss.
She dumped the golden-brown lever-action semi-automatic rifle and ran back to the cockpit. Vale burst through the door and headed straight to the co-pilot seat. She peered out and saw the remains of an onmic on the hangar floor. Its metal shell and limbs spread over a small area.
Then she saw John looking over the robot's corpse. His attention too focused on what he had done that he was utterly taken aback when the onmic guards started to open fire at the balcony.
She could see him duck behind the console controls as the projectiles hit the surrounding walls, with some entering the room.
As if John's situation couldn't get any worse, some of the onmic guards rushed towards the doorway below the booth, most probably to subdue John.
She then went over to her AI.
"John?! Tom?! If you can hear me, get the hangar barrier and the main door for the hangar down! I say again, get the hangar's barrier open and shut the main doors to the hangar! Don't get any more onmics in here!"
With the order hopefully received by her companion and his AI, Vale looked out the door to the ramp at the back of the ship.
She didn't like the idea one bit, but it should be enough for a distraction to give John some breathing room.
"Eve, get the ramp down."
John was ducking behind the doorway as more of these onmics opened fire into the room, with all the shots missing him and flinging off the room with sparks flying nearly everywhere. Hammond could only hang onto his shoulder for cover as John would peer out from the corner of the doorway to fire off some of his arrows.
In the meantime, Tom was still on the control panel. He managed to receive Eve's instructions despite the chaos and mayhem. He had already turned off the enormous light barrier, which was the hangar doors.
Unfortunately, the hangar doors should have been deactivated last. Once they were down, he quickly rushed to shut the big hangar entrance. But thanks to the entrance's massive double doors, it took some time for them to be fully closed. And now, in the hangar, reinforcements were coming in through the hangar entrance, which amounted to at least two companies.
Back to John, he cleared the onmics outside the control room and was ready to go down.
But before doing so, he quickly returned to the control room to disconnect Tom. As he got the wire unplugged from the terminal, he saw the massive number of omnics inside the hangar from the balcony.
Already facing an uphill challenge ahead, John took Tom off the console and rushed out of the control room without intention of returning.
Vale knew she was going to fight the onmics one way or another.
It just didn't occur to her how soon that would be.
As the backdoor ramp of the dropship slowly opened up, she took a peak and saw the massive number of onmics now in the hangar in the distance.
Tom didn't close the entrance to the hangar fast enough. The good news was that the entrance to the hanger was now shut, meaning no more onmics could come through for now.
The bad news was that many onmics had entered the hangar before it could be shut. Vale felt this new encounter with the unfamiliar foe would be a manageable skirmish.
When the ramp was halfway opened, Vale returned to the weapons spewing all over the dropship floor. The onmics were metres away from the dropship, and while Vale was prowess in her melee and armed combat, she wasn't known for her gun skills. Not that she is any good with firearms, but it was not her calling.
She knew she was smart enough not to rush there with her lightsabre and shield. Forget about fighting hand to hand; she would be blown apart by their weapons alone.
When the ramp fully lowered, Vale stepped out of the dropship and could see the onmics approaching the control booth.
Now, with a lever action semi-automatic rifle in hand, she fired a couple of shots at the nearest onmic, whose head flew clean off.
These new bulker onmics, realising that they now had to quell two threats, began to split into two groups. One headed to the control booth while the other went towards the dropship.
So far, the plan has mainly been working in Vale's favour.
She hoped that it would go accordingly from then on.
With Tom safely with him and Hammond perched on his shoulder, John fired foam arrow after foam arrow at the onmic guards from the top of the slopes that lead to the control room. John made work of the much less brawny onmic guard. Having multiple shots coming close to a millimetre to your face with deadly precision was beyond frightening and not for the weak-hearted.
And this was only from the onmic guards. John wanted to avoid knowing the devastating firepower the backup onmics would provide.
He grunted as he fired more shots at the foe. More onmics met their maker as their lifeless metallic shell fell to the ground; some slid down the slope as they attempted to make their way up.
John finally reached the main floor of the deck. As he ran out of the doorway, he could see more trouble heading his way. He took a second to look at the new threat.
As Hammond pointed out, the 50 or so Nulltroopers were not like the Slicers in any way. Their overall looks were much more human-like in terms of build and movement. They were much more streamlined, refined, and well-armoured than the Slicers. And to drive home their imitating factor, they weren't using any guns. Instead, their weapon is now a cannon, nearly taking up their whole right arm.
John's eyes squinted as he thought of exploiting a weakness. The only area he could think of was removing the head right off its torso.
His observance was interrupted when they proceeded to open fire at him, prompting him to duck behind the doorway. This time, their shots were much more catastrophic compared to the onmic guards. Watching one of the shots land near him, he could see what he was facing.
Each shot fired was a magnetic concussive charge stuck to the closest target or surface. Once stuck, the charge gave off a small sonic boom. Though not significant, the effects of the sonic boom were strong enough that John could feel the rush of air hitting him.
Somehow, the onmics didn't want John and Vale dead but rather subdue them by other forceful measures.
To make it even more difficult for him, he peered out and saw that half the onmics were now entering the dropship. If the taskforce wasn't free, that meant Vale was going to be severely overpowered. He knew that Vale was firm in her own right, but he also knew that she wouldn't last long there.
John's will to fight had just gone overtime. He had to get to his soon-to-be wife before those androids took hold of her.
But first, he needed to force his way back to the dropship. He had to come up with something. As he did, his eyes fell on the pallet, and the lone weapons crate moved away to one side by the doorway when the onmic guards entered.
John went towards the pallet and saw the hacked Slicer they used when escorted into the hangar, lying on the weapons crate. From the looks of it, it was rendered disabled when one of John's foam arrows hit it in the chest.
But he didn't have time to mourn the loss of an ally. He gently pushed the onmic to one side and picked up the empty crate.
Now, with the crate in one hand and his bow in the other, he has a temporary shield to protect himself from those concussive blasts.
John stepped out of hiding and into the open. He fired some of his foam arrows, aiming squarely at their heads.
While some shots had met their mark, the onmics retaliated for their fallen brethren. All of them fired their concussive shots at John.
John raised his makeshift shield from the shots that stuck onto the weapons crate. While he could feel the knockback from the shots fired, he didn't anticipate the serious firepower of the concussive blasts, as he thought the charge detonated.
The rush of air from the multiple blasts was sending him backwards. This made it even more challenging to push forward to the onmics. John knew that if the barrage of shots kept coming, he would be pushed towards the edge of the hangar and out into the dark sky, which flashed multiple streaks of lighting throughout the hangar.
He was about to grab another handful of arrows when he thought of something.
"Tom, smoke grenades now."
John knelt behind the weapons crate that he propped out as a temporary cover. His AI immediately flashed out a couple of smoke grenades that he kept within his arsenal.
As he rounded up the grenades, his cover was taking a beating, sending him even more backwards as the weapons crate creaked even louder with every blast detonated.
He waited as the onmics got even closer to him. He could feel their heavy footsteps getting louder as they approached him, their weapons falling silent as they felt he wanted to surrender.
"Reveal and surrender yourself, intruder." A robotic voice commanded. John gave a small peak as if to comply with its order. Unbeknownst to the onmics, however, John finally found his opportunity to hit back.
Lifting his cover slightly, he rolled a couple of smoke grenades underneath. They rolled until it softly hit the same onmic that commanded him. The onmic could only tilt its head towards the frags on the floor, then back towards John, who gave the onmic a smirk.
The grenades exploded, and the whole batch of onmics was covered in thick smoke. John took this chance to loob more if the smoke didn't cover enough area.
The onmics could only look around precariously to search for John, hoping their scanners could find their target. John, on the other hand, was relishing the opportunity. The smoke and the flashes of lighting coming from outside the hangar were giving every location of each onmic.
He would sneak close to them individually and fire arrows at point-blank range in quick recession. Each shot takes a head off each onmic to ensure they won't get back up again.
By the time the smoke subsided, all artificial lifeforms were rendered destroyed. Tiny sparks ignited from where their necks used to be, and the erratic and twitchy movement of the limbs made it seem that they were still active, but then they slowly lost all life as they no longer moved.
Satisfied, John returned to the dropship, forgetting his solo victory against the onmics. Right now, his Fiancee's life is all that matters. And from the sounds coming from inside the dropship, he didn't have much time.
If John had thought he had setbacks, Vale's problems would have been nowhere near as severe as John's.
After firing shots at the onmics, half of the battalion immediately headed to Vale and the dropship. Despite their big and menacing stance, they were quick to move. Vale had to act on her toes. Her fingers on the hand lever rifle twitched as it adjusted after every shot.
This resulted in hits and misses on the onmics as they moved in on her. To make matters worse for Vale, after firing several shots, she pulled the trigger after another pull on the lever, only for her to hear a click.
She was out of bullets.
Unfortunately for Vale, the crate only held the weapon and no ammunition. That and the incoming number of onmics meant she had no time to reload.
Ditching the rifle, she dropped it to the floor as she rushed to find another weapon. She had her sidearm but only reserved it as a last resort. Lucky for Vale, she found a revolver and a couple of what looked like smoke grenades in the same box as the rifle.
Picking up the revolver, she was ready to make her shot. But the onmics decided that they were the ones to fire first.
A couple of them fired their concussive blasts at Vale, just detonating a couple of feet in front and all around her. The rush of air from the blasts was immense as Vale had to find cover to prevent being blown over.
In the end, she took cover by quickly constructing an improvised barrier from the empty weapon crates that she had helped remove all of the weapons.
Despite the revolver having a small amount of bullet, Vale managed to destroy a couple of onmic heads before running out of ammo again.
Scouring around for another gun to use, she found some weird-looking white pistols. Vale wanted to take some time to inspect the weapon in hand, but a blast had sent one of the weapon crates flying towards the front of the dropship, which she had to duck out of instinct.
Vale looked and saw that the onmics were already at the ramp of the dropship. And there were still a number of them remaining.
Having little choice, she trusted the guns in her hands and fired away. The pistols were inaccurate for distance shooting but were great for mid to close-armed combat. The onmics fell one by one to the pulse ammunition that was coming out of the pistols. Reloading was no issue; these discs were embedded in the gun, which popped out and twisted back down, arming the pistol again.
At the rate of the onmics being taken down, she could push the onmics back out into the hangar. She leapt out of cover and began to open fire on them, attempting to push them back out of the ship.
This bold and brave move was a foolish one, though. One of the onmics opened fire directly into her chest, sending her flying back and through the ship, knocking out the pistols in her hands.
She landed in an awkward yet painful position as she rolled towards the door of the cockpit. Her vision was fuzzy as she desperately tried to blink her eyes back into the clear.
However, the onmics were already inside the dropship when she got around. Their guns were directly aimed at her as she lay on the metal floor of the dropship.
"Surrender and comply." One of the onmics demanded of her.
Vale may be down, but she was not defeated. If they were to take her down, she would not be going without a fight.
As she lay on the floor pretending to be utterly defeated, she immediately thought of a way out of her situation. She then remembered that she still had her riot shield with her. She could also use its shield bash against the onmics. Then, as luck would have it, out of the corner of her eye, she saw another shield within reach.
Vale remembered that weapon. She sorted it as weapons that could be used against the onmics. It looked like a medieval shield that knights would use in the old days, except it was held together and utilised hard light technology, so it should be easier for her to adapt. Plus, it had a lynx in the middle, and she liked that.
"Surrender. Comply, or we will open fire." One of the onmics demanded of her.
Vale gave the onimcs a cold glare, a grunt seethed through her teeth. She tried to divert their attention as she discreetly reached for the other shield, and her other hand reached behind it.
But another voice echoed throughout the ship before she could open her mouth.
"Hey!"
Some of the onmics turned around to the source of the voice.
There stood at the end of the ship was another human. His hair was completely dishevelled, and his attire was a ragged mess. Thanks to the onmics that were constantly barraging him with many concussion blasts, it made him feel as if he had been inside a tornado for the past 30 minutes.
And hanging onto his shoulder was a small mammal, chittering while giving glaring looks at the onmics. In John's right hand were his two trusty wounded-up foam arrows, and in the other was his archer's bow.
As the onmics turned to face him, they reacted little to what was happening next. John fired his foam arrow at the ground, close to the nearest onmic. The foam arrow bounced off the metal floor of the drop ship and flung itself directly to the mic's head with enough force to tear its head right off. The arrow then ricocheted off the ceiling and towards its next helpless victim.
While the arrow was in flight, John rushed to the nearest onmic. Keeping his bow and his foam arrow in one hand, he used it as a melee weapon against his opponent. Swinging it like a bat at the onmic, it tried to open fire at John, only for his arrow hit its weapon arm. Due to the stored energy inside the arrow, the onmic was pulled by his weapon arm to one side—the onmic's head hit the light walls directly with full force, crushing its metal skull.
As the other omnics turned and got ready to fire at John, Vale took this chance to act. She quickly took her shield and grabbed the lynx shield in the other.
With the onmics back turned on her, she immediately went to the closest opponent. Since the onmics had their weapon arms stretched out, it was easy for Vale to catch them off guard.
Using the shield's base, she swung it hard down on the weapon arm, cutting it clean from the onmic. With the onmic now defenceless, Vale used the lynx shield to bash away the onmic.
Another onmic got too close and kicked the shield, nearly ripping it away from her. She was thankful that she had a good grip on her weapon. Vale did the onmic a favour as she kicked right in the midsection before delivering an uppercut to the chin using the lynx shield, which sent the onmic into a backflip, landing hard on its back.
The taskforce could only watch on in awe through the blurred white light walls as the two made work with the onmics. They watched the shadows dance around at what could be described as a ballerina doing twirls and spins while armed with two shields. The other figure swung his foam arrow at another onmic as if he was holding a two-handed sword, swinging with such force that onmics nearly twice his weight got airborne from the impact of the foam arrows.
Winston and Sojourn especially kept their eyes on the two, who indulged in their combat; it made them so artful. Winston may have only known John and Vale for 15 minutes, and most of the time was spent interrogating them when they got caught. They may not have the most excellent intentions or laid-out plans, but they would be a great asset to the task force regardless of their background. They may be the ones who would help stop this economic crisis and bring The Eye to an end.
As Winston kept watching their handiwork, Sojourn looked down at the floor, a bit ashamed at what she had said to Vale. Maybe she was a bit harsh to the Brit. After all, they returned to help them even though their activities in Europe were far from innocent. Tracer may have the right idea of employing them to the team.
But on the other hand, the two can't be trusted yet. Not without official paperwork or confirmation, at least. The Canadian didn't want another potential scandal going public about two unknown assailants assisting the taskforce and the United Nations in bringing down The Eye.
It was now down the last Nulltroopers. Standing in the middle of a three-way face-off, the onmic didn't know which one to want to face its weapon to. It was busy switching from John to Vale and back to John again.
John and Vale then nodded at each other, signalling their final attack. The two rushed towards the onmic, which tried to fire the closest target, and it was decided that it chose to fire at Vale.
Vale's reflexes were fast enough to see the weapon aim squarely at her. Putting both shields together and tilting at an angle perpendicular to the ground, the concussive blast scrapped the shields as it bounced off, sending them flying elsewhere. With little time for the onmic to retaliate, Vale then aimed the base of her shield towards the neck of the onmic, which was plunged deep into the throat.
The onmic had no time to get the shield off it, though. John came from behind and brought his foam arrow all the way, then, without hesitation, swung at the onmic's lower spine. The force stored in the foam arrow plus the force that struck the onmic only mean one outcome.
The onmic's torso was torn in two. The upper half of the metal body was still clinging onto Vale's shield. Its hand was still trying to remove itself from her shield. The lower part ripped away and skidded onto the dropship floor. Sparks violently ignited as the onmic attempted to get some life into its body but failed.
Vale flung her shield as the lifeless droid flew off, back out of the dropship, and into the hangar. John and Vale took a couple of seconds to catch their breaths. The adrenaline rush that had rushed and pumped through their bodies during the fight was now making them mentally exhausted and physically drained.
"Awesome work," Vale said, her voice strained with exhaustion, dropping the lion's shield.
"You too," John complimented her back. His throat was tight as he was still trying to regain his breathing. "These Nulltroopers did put up a fight."
"So these are the Nulltroopers that we originally needed." Then Vale's eyes fell on Hammond.
"Hey Hammond! You're okay." Vale got up to the hamster, which was perched on her partner's shoulder. She was glad that the hamster made it out of the mothership unscathed. Hammond squeaked something to Vale.
"Hammond says that your fighting skills are impeccable. You two would be worthy of a spot on the team." Tom translated on Hammond's behalf.
"Aw, thanks." Vale appreciated his praise. Then, something caught her attention.
Or the lack thereof.
She peered around the hamster as if she was looking for something. Vale even went as far as to grab her Fiancee's shoulders to get a better look around the poor, confused mammal.
"Uh, Vale, what are you doing?" John questioned.
"Hammond, you said you're going to get the bomb," Vale stated. "Where is it?"
Hammond's face fell. He chittered as he scratched his head sheepishly.
"Hammond says the bomb was too big and heavy. And he couldn't find an onmic to hack without getting harmed. So I had to leave it."
John and Vale refused to believe what Tom had said. Maybe it was a translation error on his part? No, it can't be. His AI brain doesn't make mistakes this small.
"No wonder you felt so light. I knew something was wrong." John stated.
Vale, on the other hand, wanted to scream. Just when everything was going right, something was bound to go wrong. That bomb was not only to prevent destruction to a country but also their potentially their ticket to home. If they brought back the bomb intact to the taskforce and saved a country from being erased from the world map, it would put them in the taskforce's good books, and maybe, with help from them, they could get back home.
But now that was out of the window.
"Vale, you okay?" John politely asked as he braced for another outburst.
Vale knew she was overthinking about this again. The last thing she wanted was to hurt the person she cared for the most, especially now.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Vale took a deep breath, calming herself. "I'm good."
Then, a loud clang could be heard. The small group turned towards the open ramp. The loud crash was coming from the substantial closed doors into the hangar. From the sounds of it, The Eye's onmics were trying to barge their way in before John and Vale could free the taskforce.
John and Vale then faced each other and gave each other a nod. Vale ran to the cockpit while John headed to the controls for the ramp, which were near to him.
While John had ensured that the ramp was back in place, Vale was in the cockpit, preparing the dropship for takeoff with Eve assisting her.
Then, out of nowhere, realisation hit her.
"Eve?" Vale sheepishly asked her AI. "Do you know how to fly a dropship?"
She hoped Eve had some experience doing simulated training flights back in their world. Going airborne was the only answer if they needed a quick escape, and land and sea weren't options.
Sadly, her AI companion's answer was anything but comforting.
"I have yet to program myself with any pilot or co-pilot licenses, Vale. I can do instrumental call-outs to help assist with the flying if that helps."
"Does Tom know how to operate any aircraft?"
"Neither Tom nor I know how to," Eve said. "We were only programmed to store items and information, hack terminals and computers. We are not programmed to fly. I can help by pointing out which dials are which, though."
Vale never thought once to be a pilot. She considered it when she entered Officer Cadet School as the many pathways if her career in Law didn't go through. Instead, she was chosen to be part of an elite unit that most military personnel would enter.
Now, she regrets not being part of the Air Force squadron. And Eve was not making things better. She was speedrunning through all the instruments of the dropship. Vale's mind became boggled with the many gauges and instruments that were somehow related or depended on each other. Driving a car was a stretch for her, but with help from John, she now could manage on her own. Learning to fly on a two-minute guide and guessing which dial was which didn't fill her with much confidence.
Another clang was heard as she was in the cockpit, her AI guiding her on the instruments. This time, it rang louder. Those onmics were going to burst their way through sooner or later. Around this time, John entered the cockpit and sat in the co-pilot seat. Hammond came down from the former's shoulder and right down in the middle of the centre console.
"Come, Vale, let's take this thing to the air." John rocked in his seat. He was more than eager to get the ship airborne into the sky.
Vale managed to knock some sense into her partner first about her plight. "Well, do you know how to fly this ship or any aircraft?"
John stopped rocking and froze in place. His face fell, slowly turning towards her. "Ummm. No?"
Vale then turned to the tiny hamster in the centre console. "And what about you?"
Unusually nervous as he picked his paws, Hammond quickly shook his head. Vale, however, was suspicious of this.
"Hammond?"
The hamster tried to pass off a brave smile, which Vale didn't buy. She raised her eyebrows at what Hammond had done.
"Hammond, what's going on?"
Hammond sighed. So he squeaked something sheepishly to Vale.
"He says that he knew this mission may not go according to plan. So, to prepare ourselves a scenario that we would be outnumbered and overpowered or we couldn't get the bomb, he wanted to stall the onmics and made a pitstop to the mothership's armaments and engine room." Tom translated.
John and Vale were now concerned at what Hammond had done as he chittered on.
"He said he rigged some of the armaments and engines to self-destruct." Eve finished Hammond's translation.
"How long do we have?!" John nearly shouted. Hammond flinched as John's panic metre was going off in his mind.
"It's not big enough to down the entire ship, but cripple it instead.
Hammond said he planted and timed it 15 minutes," Eve said, calming John down and getting him back into his seat.
Another louder metallic bang was heard. The two could tell that the onmics had nearly breached the hangar from how badly the metal grunted from the sounds alone. Vale quickly thought about Hammond's plan, but only something came to mind.
"Tom, how long ago did John start attacking the onmics back in the control room?" Vale questioned her Fiance's AI.
"Roughly 15 minutes ago." Tom gave a quick answer.
Vale's face went pale as she stared back at John, who had boggled eyes and a shocked expression as the times were nearly identical.
Then, faith came in as predestined.
A distant boom rocked the command ship, sending a violent shockwave into the dropship where everyone could feel the explosion. This was followed by more minor blasts caused by the command ship's armaments going off, making the whole mothership sway back and forth.
However, this only triggered the upcoming chain of events.
As the swinging motion started to die down, the command ship began to list badly to one side at a noticeable rate, the rigid steel hull groaning as it struggled to stay upright. Items inside the prisoner dropship began to slide around like the unsecured weapons and weapon crates in the back.
Things were only getting worse for John and Vale because the mothership tilted the prisoner dropship towards the now open air.
With no light barrier to prevent the ship from leaving and the dropship no longer secured to the mothership, the aircraft slid toward the sky.
Which was still not yet powered up.
And in the control of two people who don't know how to fly an aircraft.
This could only lead to one thing.
John and Vale screamed for dear life, holding onto the dropship's control wheels as it scrapped itself out of the hangar. Then, it was sent tumbling out into the sky and back to Earth.
The ship rolled and twirled in multiple directions, performing several somersaults. Adding gravity to the mix, the two unsecured wannabe pilots, along with their helpless AIs, sent the aircraft into an uncontrol and unpiloted dive straight to the ground.
As Vale and John flew about in the cockpit, things weren't better in the back. The taskforce, still in their cells, screamed and screeched for dear life as not only were they still bound but also had no way to control or keep themselves upright due to the sudden change of flight characteristics. The only one not part of the mayhem was Hammond, who managed to smuggle himself into one of the cockpit's cupholders, holding Tom and Eve tightly to prevent them from being tossed around, unlike their owners.
Vale was tossed and thrown about in the cockpit for the next few moments like she was part of a salad ingredient. She had to find some strength to hang or grab onto something to regain control of the tumbling dropship.
She managed to grab hold of the pilot seat while pulling herself back into it upside down. She strapped herself in and tried to grab onto the spinning control wheel.
John, meanwhile, grabbed the co-pilot's control wheel. However, he pulled himself using the control wheel when he got into the seat, upsetting the aircraft's movement even more.
As Vale fought hard for the controls, she looked at the dark grey skies covering the cockpit's windshield. She needed some indication of where they are now. Soon, the dark grey clouds turned bright and gave way to the more transparent view of the ground below.
Except it was not ground. Nor was it the ocean.
It was the City of Busan. They were now over Korea. And they were still heading straight down at an alarming rate.
Vale's pupils shrunk in fear. "Eve, power up the engines! Full thrust!" She screamed through her gritted teeth, yanking hard on the control wheel.
"John! Help!"
Vale's AI complied, and the aircraft's engines roared into life while John, finally strapped into the seat, assisted his Fiancee in stopping the wheel from spinning and yanking back on the controls.
Now a few thousand feet above Busan, the ship was no longer spinning and tumbling out of control. The aircraft levelled itself out, but the two were stilln't out of danger. The dropship may be stable, and the engines are at full power, but they were still falling fast.
Hoping to glide safely, John and Vale yank back the control wheel hard to get air under the wings, hopefully reducing their falling rate.
At first, it was working. Eve may not know how to fly an aircraft, but at least she does her best to assist Vale by acting as her ground proximity warning.
"Descending to 500 feet fast!"
Vale and John could now see buildings and skyscrapers on either dropship. They were also lucky because they were nicely positioned over a highway section leading into one of Busan's residential areas. All they needed to do now was make a safe landing.
That was easier said than done.
With the ground coming faster rather than slower, John and Vale had no choice but to aim the control wheel downwards to prevent the ship's backside from taking most of the impact.
"100 Feet!" Eve counted down the altitude in quick succession. "50, 40, 30, 20!"
John and Vale had done all they could to save the ship, but now, with the ground coming into contact, they braced themselves for the inevitable.
With such force, the aircraft's hull impacted the highway's tarmac, and the road crumbled beneath the dropship. The dropship kept skidding along the stretch of road, partly thanks to the speed it still carried from the descent.
The aircraft then proceeded to hit everything that was in its path that was on the highway. Small city cars, Mid-size buses and trucks were not spared from the onslaught as the vast, unstoppable aircraft kept ploughing on.
John and Vale kept on bracing themselves inside the ship should the worst have yet to come. The sounds of crunching metal of the vehicles outside and the ship's scrapping along the ruined road were beyond ear-shattering.
As the ship slowly lost momentum, the sound of crushed scrap metal and steel scrapping against the ground faded away.
Opening their eyes, John and Vale slowly raised their heads and exited the cockpit, inspecting the carnage and destruction around the ship.
They turned and faced each other, giving each other an awkward stare before John suddenly laughed. Vale's mind was so distressed by the chain of events that she didn't even think about what to do next except laugh.
The adrenaline rush soon subsided as the two slumped back into their seats, relieved they were safe and far from the onmics.
As they destressed themselves, they were interrupted by footsteps outside the ship. John and Vale looked around the cockpit to determine where the sounds came from.
Then, a blue flash lit up out of nowhere, and a figure landed on the cockpit windshield.
The two, startled by the thud, looked up at their mysterious guest.
She was sporting what would appear to be a traditional Japanese outfit dress, like the ones worn at shrines. However, she also has modern streetwear aesthetics, given the red workout pants and white sneakers that she was wearing.
In addition to her appearance, she was armed with multiple kunai, some paper with traditional Japanese wordings written in ink, and a bell she was currently tossing in her hand.
Still holding up his cupholder, Hammond gave a small wave at the girl before getting a nod back from her. Seeing this new individual immediately reminded Vale of something.
"Wait. Eve, were you able to disconnect from the ship?" Vale asked. "Were you able to free the taskforce?"
Her answer was immediately met when the sound of the cockpit door burst open, and something was pressed at the back of her and John's skull. Both of them froze when they knew what was pressing against her head.
The two slowly look back at their assailant, only to see Reaper pressing his shotguns at their skulls.
"Don't. Move." His metallic and raspy voice spoke, warning them.
"Oh, crud," John muttered as they raised their hands in surrender for the second time in this mission.