Off the Space Station

Crynn POV

Bang! Bang! Bang! Three shots to one of the enemy ships and... BOOM!!!! Hell yeah! I laughed out loud like a full blown maniac, art really is the tiny glimpse of transformation in between an explosion! Bang! Bang! Bang! Three more shots to the other unsuspecting ship and another... BOOM!!! Oh I love this.

"Two enemy ships down, we're good to leave, blast the window, Crynn," Calian flicked a couple of switches on his part as the ship turned to face a lovely reinforced glass panel, waiting to be destroyed. So it did, just one shot from my autocannon and glass is flying everywhere though a metal gate immediately appear from below and above to seal it tight.

Our two pilots are obviously ready for it as the ship zoomed out to the vacuum, a combination of speed in both thruster acceleration and forceful pull towards the void. "We're out, first things first, we need to get out of range from the Crystal Palace while heading towards the moon at the same time," Jill spoke as the ship moved ahead.

My holographic screen suddenly issued a red warning as another window opened next to the aiming reticle of the autocannon. "We have homing missiles incoming, deploying decoys," I quickly maneuvered my fingers on the console, finding what I'm looking for next to the flare box option, I pressed down on 'Deploy Decoy'.

I heard something pressurize behind the spacecraft as an item was ejected out of the back. Next, a burst of fiery red and orange appeared in a reflection on the edges of the windshield as I perfectly guessed, the decoy worked well in redirecting those homing missiles. "We have two enemy ships on our tail!" Aria shouted from her seat as I switched screens to display back cameras.

Yup, two bogeys. "So, how far to escape the Crystal Palace's sphere?" I asked the two pilots, heavily concentrating on controlling the ship. "Should be another kilometer forwards, maybe two," Jill can't give a specific answer and my autocannon can only rotate 180 degrees towards the front and can't rotate backwards.

"Don't worry, while you guys are having all the fun in the cockpit, we command the missile systems. Hopefully we'll be able to pick those guys off," well good then, I'll let V and Aria operate that while I can 'relax' for a second, this is a heavy day after all. Of course, in the end, I can't so much as put my hand down when another missile warning popped on my screen.

"Releasing another decoy," I said as I did my 'routine' once more. "One enemy ship down!" V yelled as I can hear her excitement, thrill and adrenaline through all this stress. "How did you do that exactly?" I inquired because out of everyone else, looks like I'm the most free of the bunch with Calian and Jill staying silent in focus.

"We simultaneously launched missiles after a brief lock on as well as only firing them when the decoy exploded, creating some sort of smoke screen that caught one of the enemy ships by surprise and inevitability, blowing it up," sounds like a professional strategic move. After all, this ain't chess, no rules of engagement here.

I think it's time for me to do something. I switched back to my autocannon and peered through the back camera to find the correct position of the enemy spaceship. "Calian, Jill, can you do a sudden spin towards the enemy ship," Calian did not respond but instead gazed at Jill as she did so back to him. "Why not," he said as they both stirred the wheel sharply as the spaceship moved around.

"Bye, bye," I smiled devilishly as my autocannon burst out three rounds in quick succession and while the speed at which each round travels is much slower than indoors, it easily finishes the job, just as well. There were no loud noises, the 'air' is completely silent. What was in front of us is only an enemy ship, three holes through it, a short shot of pressure and... boom... an explosion with absolutely no sound effects.

"Well... that's done dealt, let's go," I told or dear pilots as they escaped into the depths of space, towards the one final frontier, space and the moon.

***

"So, I realize this isn't good. One, we crashed into a giant space station. Two, we crashed into a giant space station. And three, we crashed into a giant space station," important subjects must be uttered thrice, I mean, this ain't a tripe issue you know. This is real, raw, annoyance of a dangerous problem.

"You're trying to say..." Aria started with her brows raised, indicating for me to continue. "The point is, the space station is likely to have issued communications about us, and our ship so... we have become the most wanted men and women on space and most probably, the moon as well. How are we going to land? We're going to get arrested," that's the huge problem right now.

"Huh, that somehow crossed my mind," even Jill can sometimes forget. "That isn't a large issue. You see here, the space station is largely owned by the ESA or the European Space Agency which is owned by 'Earth'. The moon on the other hand is largely owned by the 'Moon' and 'Earth' only holds a small amount of power over it."

"The only few locations on the moon still owned by 'Earth', include the Jade Crater, Shadows of Lariet and some others including one the public doesn't know, the Lunar Palace because I certainly don't know that before you guys told me about it. So, to put it simply, the 'Moon' doesn't care about the 'Earth's' wanted designations."

"We can roll right pass and enter one of their ports with just a fee," wait, seriously? It's that easy? "I sometimes wonder where all of you come from, all this common knowledge, you don't have," ahem... that can be explained... maybe...