Hard Six

[Esva]

Hard Six

by Ryk

"God damn it I've told you get the god damned nose up or your gonna be a nice big stain on someone’s canopy...you got me!" She was angry and rightly so, she had seen several pilots screw the pooch and end up as a stain on the back wall of the hangar bay. The pilots were replaceable...the aircraft weren't.

The door from the control deck swung open with a vicious violence, slamming into the supporting wall followed very quickly by a very angry fennec. Nova was just that angry, angry at allot of things, but what annoyed her most was the stupidity and arrogance of new pilots who thought they were top guns just because they had been accepted into flight school. She barreled down the steps to the hangar deck and steamed over to the predator as it rolled into its bay.

"What the hell was you thinking ?, its going to take us a week just to get the dent's out of the strip let alone a predator that cost's more than you can make it a thousand lifetimes...you worthless piece of ...." it's then she stopped and placed a paw against the side of her head and rubbed gently, thankful that she didn't finish that sentence, yes she was the Executive Officer but she also had to follow the rules layed out to her. She just looked at the predator in shock and disgust. The landing gear was bent, chips and scratches in the metal work and she sighed heavily.

That was three week's ago, if only she knew then...what had been set into motion before her..........

The explosion rocked the foundations around the small strike teams head, the ground heaved and dirt, dust and debris flew high into the air as the bullets tore past, each traveling a course of certain death if it was to hit one of them, so many rounds, so few chances to survival. The air thick with smoke, the smell of the dead a tinge on the wind and all around them one explosion after another. "Hold the line, we have to safeguard this outpost!" Nova barked her orders loud to be sure she was heard, a few marines were firing back in retaliation, not really hitting much if anything, another lay slumped against a wall bandaged, bloodied but also dead while another ducked and coward near anything that would provide cover while she inventoried what was left.

Just when she thought her ear drums would explode from the noise....it stopped, the explosions, the sound of bullets whizzing past...all just stopped. Her ears lifted a little straining to hear any sort of a sound, but nothing...it was as if all the sounds in the world were taken by a foul daemon leaving nothing but silence.

Something was wrong, and she could feel it .......

“If I have to tell you one more time to get your nose up when your coming in for a landing you can forget about being a pilot, you can take your gear, your high and mighty attitude, shove it up your ass and get the hell out of here...am I understood Pilot!!!?”, The young fresh faced numerii snapped to attention and nodded before saying in a shaky voice “Yes Ma’am, it wont happen again”, then Nova snapped “your damn right it wont, your ass already belongs to me, and if you screw up again I’m going to burry it six feet down” she turned on her heels and stormed off across the hangar deck towards the maintenance bay, leaving the pilot shaken up...and rightly so, she only had a short time to get these nuggets, these rookie pilots up to speed and fighting fit, but the strain was starting to show. She kicked open the hatch to the maintenance room and swiftly slammed it shut behind her, plunging the room into complete darkness. She stood there breathing deeply in the darkness, regaining her composure then she reached up and switched on the light, then it struck her...she wasn’t alone in this dark damp little room, the sound of breathing emanated into the air from behind some old cargo containers, Nova drew her five-seven and checked off the safety, and raised it high, her only focus was anything that found its way into the sights of her weapon, she turned the corner and saw nothing...absolutely nothing...until she looked down.......

“You, you and you, get out there and scout the perimeter defenses, i want to know what’s going on...now move!” Nova stood next to the transmitter as it hissed and burbled static, Her fur was dirt streaked and matted in places, blood dripping from her maw, her hands scratched to pieces...all mementos from the last push by the unknown force, as three soldiers vanished she raised her weapon, eye’s focused on the sights and she muttered to herself “don’t freeze...don’t freeze...don’t freeze”. Then a single shot rang out into the air. On the other side of the craterd, littered, war torn valley a lone sentry walked his post, blissfully unaware of the death streaking towards him, then in an instant the sky turned red with the mist of blood as the bullet tore through his head, ripping through his brain and sending him crashing to oblivion. And nova cracked a grin before whispering to herself “gotcha you bastard”

Nova looked down puzzled, there was Ryk with a fuel compression unit in one hand and a screwdriver in the other, and he was....snoring. Nova tilted her head to the side slightly wondering on earth how if for any reason he could of slept through the noise of yet another botched landing, she bent down to look at him. He was covered in grease, soot and oil and a few other trace things she couldn’t really tell, some was green others were blue. She sat down and just stared at him, no one had seen him in days since he was ordered to strip down a Nemesis to solve a guidance computer problem, and she guess he had been working on it for days and tracked it down to the fuel system, then he snored again and without thinking she just cracked up laughing which woke him, up instantly and with a fright.

“Outpost Delta Three Zero Two, this is Astra command, I repeat this is Astra Command calling Outpost Delta Three Zero Two”, the sound hissed and vibrated strangely from the comm unit, the hi8ss and crackle filling the air automatically drew Nova’s attentions and she reached down to pick up the unit, she took a deep breath before speaking in a dull cracked voice “this is outpost Delta Three Zero Two, go ahead Astra Command” a few moments past, the crackling and hissing the only company she had at this point, then the voice came again “Glad to hear your still with us XO, we are five minutes out carrying the special package for our friends, we just need a guiding hand”, Nova looked down at what used to be the payload assistance laser guiding unit, even the sight of it made her wince, as it was pretty shot up during the initial push. “Well I hate to disappoint you boys but there’s no help down here”, the transmitter squealed and whined “well we need some sort of visual target so we know where to deliver the cake”, Nova sat in thought for a while, but he thoughts took her back to the day in the maintenance bay......

“Woah! Don’t shoot” Ryk had dropped the fuel unit and the screwdriver at this point, his hands in the air “Geeze XO, kill a guy for sleeping”, Nova just couldn’t help it, she just laughed harder and harder, even more so when she looked at him to see the state he was in “if only I had a picture of this one long runner, guess we would have to change your call sign to Long-Sleeper” and with that she creased up and rolled on the floor. Ryk couldn’t help but laugh also, this was the first time in a long time he had seen her laugh this much, in fact he couldn’t recall the last time he had seen her laugh at all. He got to his feet and offered a friendly hand to which Nova took and he hauled her up, and they sat there chuckling.

She looked up to see a battered, torn dirty flag blowing in the wind bearing the symbol of the Imperialis, and she grinned as a thought flashed through her mind, and she called back over the comm unit “How about a nice big visible flag waving in the wind...will that do ?” a few moments of silence before the response came “you place it and we will light it up” and on hearing that she smiled brighter.

“So I hear your going on an assault mission” Ryk wasn’t laughing anymore, he was deadly serious and Nova knew it, they hadn’t know each other very long but with their love for the air, the same thrill they both got from combat they had stricken up quite a bond, Nova just looked at him and nodded slowly “well the rumor mill is right for once, I’m under orders to take back Outpost Delta Three Zero Two....at any cost, it’s vital that we do so we can get the supplies coming in again”. Ryk just nodded slowly “well you know I have your back, just say the word and I will be cocked, Locked and ready to pull the trigger”, Nova smiled and patted his shoulder “Thank you, but not this time, I need someone here to keep my planes flying, besides this one is high risk, high priority.... I’m not even sure I want to do it myself”, the two just sat in silence for what seemed the longest time, then Ryk said on a whisper “Sometimes...you just have to roll a hard six”

Nova’s paws wrapped tightly around the flag, and she looked up at it blowing vigorously in the wind as she pulled it free from its mount, she turned to face the direction of the enemy, then barked her orders “O.k. boys and girl, lets finish what we came here to do” and with those words the explosions started again, the bullets flying past without pre warning, Nova leapt from the top of the destroyed outer building landing hard on the soil sending a billowing cloud of dust up around her, she raised her head, so much determination, duty and a willingness to complete the mission burning deep in her eyes and she whispered “sometimes you just have to roll a hard six”...then she was off..running at full pace over the ground, flourishing the flag of the Ordo Imperialis high into the air.

“A hard six ?...what do you mean” she looked at Ryk questioningly, trying to figure out what he meant, “sometimes we have to do what’s hard to succeed, some things are easy, no challenge, but then sometimes you have to face yourself, your own abilities, your own draw backs and roll a hard six to overcome them”. Nova just beamed a smile and let her paw rest on his shoulder and she said warmly “you know I’m glad your apart of the squadron” and he muttered back “me too”

Two soldiers had fallen to bullet fire already, without even making it halfway across the open expanse of the battle torn field, and the third dropped just before Nova’s feet, she tried to dodge the body as it feel, but as quick as she was, she wasn’t quick enough to avoid the blood spatter and she ran straight through it, the crimson life slashed across her maw and eye’s turning her once pink fur into a deep foreboding red color, and it only served to push her on harder, she clamped a paw around the flag pole while the other reached down for the five seven, she raised it up and started to let rip, raining a hell fire of bullets into the direction of the massed force. Each step, each paw thudding onto the ground brought her closer and closer to her goal, dodging and weaving bullets as the whipped past, one tore through her right leg revealing something very few knew about her, revealing she was part mechanical, she groaned as she felt the bullet ricochet off the metal and still she kept running....then a new sound filled the air...a low rumbling....she could hear the reapers descending to deliver the death of gods upon them.

“This is Reaper Seven, sixty seconds from target”...”Received Reaper Seven...Good luck Pilot Ferina”

The stage was set, the actors took their mark, and the action played out one line at a time...........

Nova threw the five-seven to the ground, the cartridge spent, all the ammo gone, she reached down and drew her sword, her last weapon of attack and defense and in a moment she had leapt the wall plunging it deep into the chest of an enemy, the sound of the bombers getting louder and louder as she fought to complete her mission. She turned a corner to see a muzzle flash, then the burning sting of pain in her arm as a bullet tore through the muscle, she twirled the sword and in a quick movement removed the head of the man in front of her, and time in the moment seemed to slow as she watched it fall to the ground, droplets of blood following closely behind and as it hit the dirt and started to role, she knew she has only seconds, and sprinted up the stairs towards the roof. The sun caught her off guard as the door burst wide open, it causing her to shield her eye’s and she stammered out onto the roof lofting the flag up high.

“This is Reaper Seven, I have the flag in sight, permission to deliver the package ?”...”Permission granted Reaper Seven, give them the surprise”, the nose of the bomber angled down slightly as it began a death run towards the compound. It steamed closer and closer, just a little closer wit every second...then the bomb was released “Package is away....and Oh my god.” He looked hard at the viewer screen that showed the exact impact location of the bomb, and he screamed over the comms ..”NOVA’S DOWN THERE!!!”. She didn’t know it but Ryk had been reassigned to the mission while she had been in transit to the outpost, and it was he that had just released the bomb that would prove to be certain death to all below.

Nova dropped the flag and sprinted towards the edge of the roof, each step thudding down harder than the last as she pushed herself as hard as she could, then the flames engulfed the roof, and the shockwave expanding in all directions destroying everything in its path.......and the world....faded to black................

Nova’s eye’s opened slowly, her vision severely blurred, and with each blink of her eye’s she tried to focus. Her consciousness filtering back into reality more and more, the sounds of beeps and whistles was the first thing she noticed, she blinked again and again and realized she was staring at a white ceiling. She just lay there looking up at a white panel for ages before she turned her head slightly, the pain coursing through her muscles making her wince, and that’s when she saw him, there was Ryk, by her bedside...asleep and she smiled, her eyes were then drawn to the flowers and treats by her bedside, offers of “get well soon” from the rest of the squadron, and then she noticed the calendar, had she really been laying here for four days, hooked up to heart monitors and machines....had he been here with her the entire time...she thought for a few moments and then decided she didn’t care and she whispered softly “sometimes you have to roll a hard six”

................................................................................and a voice replied softly “I’m sorry”

Edited March 18, 2011 by Rykiana Ferina

[Fox Cheri]

I an touched to tears...

[Esva]

Edited March 18, 2011 by Rykiana Ferina