Stuck in the Middle (Ep.3) "Escape"
21 Sep 2021Isabella Levine
Ahh! Was late uploading this because I was busy with other things in life. This is continued on from Ep. 2. I'm looking to keep these short and sweet if I can but some might be long with dialogue.
Deep heavy breaths reverberated inside her helmet as she was in full sprint towards her ASP Scout that sat snugly just on the other side of the sloped hill she ran up. Golden beams from a Laser Rifle passed inches from her and slammed into the hard reddish-brown rocky surface in front of her as she ran.
"Go! Go! Don't stop, you don't have shields!"
Isabella said with beaten breath. Violet was first to disappear behind the sloped hill. She was fast, thank goodness, but so were their pursuers. Just reaching the top of the hill, she felt and heard the impact of one of the laser projectiles hit her in the back. These guys weren't scavengers, Violet confirmed that but what really set the difference was how accurate they were. Now at the peak of the hill, another shot made its mark in her back and this time, completely overwhelmed her Maverick suit's shields. The impact of the shot was strong enough to cause her to lose footing and she tumbled forward now down the hill. This wasn't the way she wanted to go down but the 1.34G that pulled her head over heel didn't care. Down she went in a dramatic role to the bottom where she was now only a few feet from her ship. This was the good news. The bad news was that her pursuers continued their relentless hunt. Three armed men in black tactical-looking combat armor crested the hilltop and began shooting again. Isabella ducked and continued to bound the last few meters to her ship. Waiting at the lowered rear ramp was Violet who frantically waved Isabella on as if she could run any faster.
"Really wish I had a gun right now, Violet!"
She said with labored breath running up the slender ramp. Violet screamed as bullets and laser projectiles flew inches from the two sending sparks and flashes all around them. Without so much as a thought, Isabella grabbed Violet and threw her further into the ship before turning and punching a solid red button on the side of the bulkhead to close the ramp. Without taking a breath to stop, she quickly moved through the ship to get to the cockpit.
"They're shooting at us still!"
Violet cried as Isabella practically jumped into her pilot's seat. She was right, the shields were Bi-weave so strength wasn't reliable. Even with just small arms fire, they cut off 30% of her shields.
"Strap into the bottom seat! We're leaving!"
Isabella didn't wait for a response and immediately initiated the main thrusters. Within a few seconds, the ship lifted off the rocky surface throwing brownish-red dust in every direction. She tilted the nose to a 60° angle and pushed the throttle to max with an added boost that sapped half of the energy out from the engine capacitor. She felt herself sink back in her chair as she watched the altimeter reach 1km, 2km, 3km, and onwards. Isabella wanted to take this chance to catch a breath of relief but Violet's panic-stricken voice shouted up from the seat below.
"Isabella! There's a-"
The ship violently rocked to one side, throwing her trajectory completely off its mark. COVAS only said the obvious.
"Impulse Attack. Trajectory Disrupted. Shields Offline."
Isabella cursed aloud as her sensor picked up a signature closing in on their six and climbing rapidly with them. A Vulture, she identified through her contacts page. She knew exactly what type of weapon just hit her from experience in past conflict zones.
"A Railgun! Who the hell are these guys!? Are you kidding me!? Fine then, let's play."
The hardpoint on the bottom of her ship opened and Mine launchers began to deploy. They were shock mines, designed to throw targets off their trajectory...but violently. It's what she wanted for a light recon ship trying to get away. Like right now. The only thing was that this was her first time ever using them and to top it all off, she was still in atmosphere with a planet pulling over a full G on her. Regardless, the Vulture pilot didn't care as another magnetic slug pierced the ship's hull and slightly threw her trajectory off once more. Internal damage was unknown but the controls felt fine as she yanked the flight stick left and rolled the ship as a third slug passed inches from the ship. She had enough of this. She couldn't hesitate any longer so Isabella squeezed the trigger hard and held it as 2...4...6...8 mines dropped like bombs falling from an old aircraft.
"Piss off!"
The mines made a positive connection, and detonated all as one, sending a pressure wave in all directions. The Vulture must've been close because not only did it take the brunt of the shock mines but so did she.
"Impulse Attack. Trajectory Disrupted. Module Malfunction."
CORVAS said, speaking the obvious once again. She lost her thrusters and her ship began to tumble upwards slowly losing speed as the planet tried to pull her back down. Her ship, spinning slowly, faced back towards the ground and that's when she saw a brief glimpse of a fiery damaged Vulture tumbling uncontrollably. Both relieved and surprised that that actually worked, she remembered that her thrusters still hadn't come online as they began their free fall towards the earth.
"Come on, come on! Come back to me!"
She watched as her speed indicator decreased then quickly increased but in reverse. She continued trying to bring her thrusters back online by yelling at them incessantly and just as if the ship had ears, it did exactly what she asked and she had her controls back to pull her nose towards the stars again. She knew that Vulture wasn't completely destroyed so she retracted her hardpoint and entered supercruise as quickly as she could. Once in SC, her shields came back with the telltale woosh they always make. A joyous sound for any Commander.
"Finally...guah!"
Now that the ship slowly accelerated away from the rocky brown-red surface and into low orbit, she felt like she could finally take a breath. She leaned back in her seat and felt a small pinching pain in her lower back that became more and more aggressive. The pinch quickly became a deep repetitive throb, like if she was just stabbed with a burning knife the more she focused on it. That's when it became clear. She was shot.
Breaking atmosphere. About to escape.
Next Ep. 4