Jon Messenger: Fall of Icarus

Suddenly, Iana was jerked to the right, nearly pulling her from her seat. Her shoulder slammed into the cockpit’s glass window, bruising the skin, as the seat restraints bit into her flesh. Awkwardly, Iana pushed back against the alien force and slid back into the seat. Slowly, she felt the tugging sensation building again, threatening to pull her in another direction. Along her waist and boots, the sleeves of her one-piece flight suit, and the buckles of the restraints, Iana felt the tug growing. She realized, in horror, that it wasn’t a Terran weapon that had disabled her ship. It was the planet itself. On top of the radiation, the gas giant was emitting an incredible magnetic field, one that was strong enough to short out her controls while leaving the ship itself intact. Alpha Two’s erratic flight pattern suddenly made perfect sense as she passed from one part of the field to another. And Iana, foolishly, had flown right into the field without a second thought.

Realizing that her fate was now in the hands of chaotically overlapping magnetic fields, she slumped in her chair and stared out the front window. Though she had been jerked from side to side repeatedly upon entering the field, it seemed that her pattern had now stabilized. Growing closer to the planet, the nose of her Duun fighter angled away from the gas giant’s core. Instead of flying headlong into the atmosphere, it appeared that the magnetic fields would keep her skimming along its surface.

A knot grew in her stomach at the thought. The planet was creating intense gravitational fields as well as the magnetic fields. Much like the Fleet had done when advancing on Earth, she would be slung around the edge of the planet. The difference was that she would not be in control. Instead of being able to slow or control her rapid acceleration, she would simply be along for the ride. Iana found herself wondering if either she or her ship would be able to survive such an intense trip.

The forces began pulling on her fighter and it sped up rapidly, quickly outstripping the normal capabilities of her engine. The inhibitors did little to lessen the pressure that began to build on her chest and limbs. The skin on her face grew taunt and strained as the speed increased; Iana found her arms pinned to the sides of the pilot’s chair.

Speeding around the planet, Iana covered half the circumference of the gas giant in mere minutes. Air was stolen from her lungs and she strained to find replacement breaths. Pain lanced through her joints as the acceleration increased beyond the realm of what was safe for a pilot. The vibrations she had felt before returned with such ferocity that it jarred her in her seat, despite the gravity holding her in place. Rolling her head to the left, she stared out the window at the already damaged wing. It shook in opposition to the bouncing the rest of the ship was experiencing. Sheets of metal peeled away as piping within the wing’s interior collapsed from the force. With a loud screeching, the wing tore down its center, half of the wing ripping free and tumbling out of sight.

The loss of the wing unbalanced her Duun fighter and catapulted Iana free from the decaying orbit she had been in around the gas giant. Weight slammed into her skull as her fighter tumbled away from the intense gravity. Sparks of light danced in her vision briefly before fading, replaced instead by a hazy darkness that crept along the edges of her sight. The world seemed to close in tightly around her, as unconsciousness found root in the recesses of her mind.

Angrily, Iana bit her lip to stave off the weariness that she felt. Struggling, she reached out for the controls, fighting against the pressure on her limbs. As her fingers closed around the controls, she battled with the ship, slowly stopping the spinning and haphazard flight until, eventually, she regained a small semblance of control.

Alone, gasping for breath and moaning against the pain she felt throughout her body, Iana fell heavily into the pilot’s chair. Her controls were still sporadic at best and radar was not functioning. Her trip had taken her most of the way around the gas giant, meaning that she had been expelled somewhere close to where the Terran forces now lay in wait. Shaking her head slowly, Iana wondered why she had bothered. Her ship was now severely damaged and she had no idea the scope of her own injuries. And, throughout all of her pain and suffering, she had wound up almost directly back where she had started, staring down a Terran assault group.

Through the cockpit window, Iana could see some of the Terran fighters breaking away from the main pack and moving in her direction. Judging from their movements, she assumed that they knew where the danger areas were around the gas giant and were quick to avoid them. The fighters moved to intercept her, leading Iana to believe that she had been tossed completely clear of the magnetic interference. A small smile spread across her face, a mirth that didn’t reach her eyes. Though she appreciated the irony, she didn’t find the humor in realizing that the gas giant had only thrown her free of its grasp after completely disabling her ship. In essence, it had left her debilitated but left the dirty work of killing her to the Terran pilots.

Letting go of the controls, she crossed her arms across her chest and stared at the approaching pilots. Stoic to the end, Iana refused to look away from her executioners. Rapidly, the Terran fighters closed the distance until she was sure that they were within range of their deadly missiles. Frowning, she stared straight ahead, a sense of dread filling her chest and making it hard to swallow.

To her surprise, the closest fighters erupted in flames; obliterated within seconds from an unseen enemy. The rest of the Terran fighters turned quickly and tried to speed away from Iana’s Duun . As they fled, dark projectiles shot through the air from somewhere beyond Iana’s view, striking the Terran ships and tearing unceremoniously through their thick hulls.

In the distance, the swarm of Terran ships scattered and tried to flee. Blue and purple plasma filled Iana’s vision as the entire universe in front of her erupted into flames. Small fighters, silhouetted in the explosion, sped away only to be consumed by the rolling shockwave as rocket after rocket exploded in the empty space.

As Iana stared in awe at the devastating firepower, a dark shadow passed over her ship. Looking upward, Iana stared into the dark underbelly of an Alliance Cruiser as it passed overhead, still raining down its rail gun slugs and large yield plasma rockets on the surprised Terran forces. In its wake, another Cruiser passed followed by yet another. From around the far side of the gas giant, dozens more Cruisers entered the solar system and destroyed the fleeing fighters.

All around her, walls of metal appeared as her Duun fighter was swallowed by an open Cruiser hangar bay. In front of her, the large hangar doors slid shut and her Duun set down heavily on the metallic floor. Alliance soldiers hurried to her ship to render aid. Iana smiled as they cut away on the cockpit, trying to free the trapped pilot within. Her salvation had come not in some carefully devised plan by her and the other members of the Squadron. It had come instead from an Alliance Fleet who was willing to fly at such incredible speeds that they arrived ahead of schedule.

Finally, after all she had been through, Iana allowed tears to stream down her face. The Fleet had arrived. In her heart, she knew the fall of the Empire was now inevitable.

Yen’s lungs screamed for air as he was suspended in the air above the rectangular, manmade pond. Achilles’ psychic, vice-like grip tightened around his throat, choking out what little oxygen remained in his body. Though Yen struggled against the Terran’s power, he was helplessly trapped. There was no physical hand crushing the life from his body against which he could break free. And with a lack of air clouding his mind, Yen couldn’t find the mental clarity to concentrate on severing Achilles’ psychic control. Instead, Yen felt his limbs growing heavy as darkness crept into the corners of his vision. His legs slowly stopped kicking in the cool, damp breeze. His arms clawed weakly at his throat before flopping, limply to his side. The muscles on the sides of his neck tightened until it caused Yen physical pain, but he was unable to find the smallest iota of breathable air.