Unexpected Encounter 13
06 Apr 2016Rebecca Hail
The two soldiers ran along the street towards the entrance of the subway.Another explosion behind them, much closer this time, pushed another duststorm through the street canyons of the city.
Kenneth tripped over a piece of rubble and fell onto the street, where he rolled off as much as the heavy backpack allowed it.
Rebecca slowed down, stopped, then she turned around to help him up.
She grabbed his backpack and pulled him up again.
"NOW RUN!" she screamed over the thunder of the colossal explosions.
150 meters to the entrance.
100 meters.
50 meters.
20 meters.
A piece of rubble on the stairs of the entrance, slid away beyond her foot, and she fell down the stairs onto the dark subway platform.
Right behind her Kenneth sprinted down the stairs onto the platform.
She picked herself up, then she ran behind him.
"Where is it? Where is it? WHERE IS IT?" she heard him screaming as she followed him.
Kenneth stood on the monorail track frantically searching around. His flashlight wandered along the track and his voice slipped.
"Found it." he screamed, then he ran into the dark tunnel.
Dust was pushed by another blastwave into the tunnels.
He stopped after a few meters and jumped besides the rail. She followed him and saw how he tried to pull open a small access hatch in the ground.
"No, no, no, NO! They locked it with a freaking electronic lock. F*CK."
"Out of the way." she yelled back as she pulled the AMR from her shoulder. They lost the barrel when the heli crashed but luckily the gun was designed for the possibility to shoot without a barrel if needed.
She pulled the loading lever back with one hand and sensed how the bullet entered the chamber as she pressed it back.
She pressed the gun into her shoulder then she set it on the lock.
BOOM.
The already deafening noise of the heavy rifle was amplified by the round tunnel walls and even drowned the thunder sound of the bomb rain for a moment.
She shot again and again until the lock and its bolts were vaporized.
Kenneth pulled the hatch open and looked down the ladder leading into the dark.
"Great ... another ladder." Rebecca moaned.
"Ladies with big guns go always first." Kenneth said with a weak smile.
Rebecca climbed down the ladder, Kenneth followed her as soon as he could.
The hatch fell back into it's frame and the two soldiers climbed down the ladder into the dark.
Several hours later.
The gigantic blast door began slowly moving and light fell into the tunnel on the other side. Scream and gunfire came out and soldiers in black gear ran out into the large hangar. A older greyhaired man without a helmet wielding a pistol left the only by muzzle flashes illuminated tunnel.
"Dark Runner, start the engines. NOW.", he screamed into the mic of his earpiece.
The huge rectangular outlets of the anaconda in the hangar began glowing and whirring as the pilot started the ignition sequence.
A big soldier carrying a unconscious blonde girl on his shoulder sprinted out of the tunnel. Blood dripped from her face and her hair were sticky from blood.
"Into the ship." the grey haired man screamed as the soldier ran past him.
More soldiers came out of the tunnel, the one last were walking backwards and delivered heavy suppression fire into the tunnel.
One of them turned to the old man.
"We're the last ones. The others are all dead." he shouted to him.
The old man pressed the button on the earpiece again.
"CLOSE THE BLAST DOOR! FAST! Everyone else don't let them out of the tunnel!."
An exosoldier with a chaingun came down the loading ramp of the anaconda and positioned itself behind the still firing soldiers.
The barrels began turning faster and faster. Then the chaingun fired rounds with a ridiculous high fire rate into the tunnel.
The last thing they saw through the small gap in the blast door was something jumping towards them.
Then the door closed and they lowered their weapon.
"Board the ship ASAP!" Greyhair started yelling, "We lost many good men today. I don't need any more losses because you took your time when we're about to make a getaway!"
"Yes Sir, Colonel Ares, Sir!." They shouted in unisono, then shouldered their guns and ran towards the loading ramp.
The soldiers hurried up the ramp and Ares went in last.
"Pull the Ramp up and then get us out of here.", he said into his mic.
"Roger. By the way: Macek brought the girl into the med bay." the pilot said, then through the speakers of the ship: "All units, prepare for takeoff, I repeat, prepare for takeoff. You better get a hold on something because this is going to be rough."
The ramp wasn't fully closed when the pilot of the anaconda ignited the vertical thrusters. The soldiers in the loading area rushed towards the handles on the walls, the lucky ones even got one of the rumble seats in the back of the loading area.
The blast doors in the hangar ceiling, protecting the anaconda from the federal bombardement and shelling, opened and opened the view onto the blackish-blue sky of Ehecatl A7. High above, the ships of the fifth wave of the federal bomber armada engaged their frame shift drives and hurled themselves out of the system.
The anaconda pilot gave full power to the thrusters and raised the nose of the anaconda in a steep angle into the sky. Then he hit the boost button.
With a gigantic dustcloud and the deep roaring of the main thrusters, the anaconda shot into the sky.
The speakers in the anaconda were so loud they could be heard over the engine noise.
"Prepare for jump in fifteen. Leaving masslock now. Charging."
Rebecca woke up to the countdown of the pilot.
"7."
"6."
"5."
The voice counting down changed into the female voice of the standard ship AI.
"4."
"3."
"2."
"1."
"Engage."
A thousand tons of spaceship, far more than hundred men and women and a girl were catapulted out of the planets atmosphere into another system.
And again, everyone Rebecca had known was gone.