seaQuest: The Dawning
"Gandalf to Siren" My head snapped up at the sound of my call sign. I smiled at the sound of Jasper’s voice.
"Siren here."
"You know, we’ve got a lot of open sky here."
"I’ve noticed."
"We could test out the maneuverability of these new planes. Warm them up for Sky Wars."
"I’m all for it."
"I’m in!" Alex agreed.
"No!" Manda broke in. "We’re not getting crazy up here, kids. Let’s just get the planes home."
"Aw, Rogue. You spoil all the fun!" Alex teased her.
The four of us had been sent to drop supplies over the Perseid Colony. It wasn’t really a mission, exactly. A sub could have delivered the medical supplies to the distant colony just as easily as we could, but Miramar had just been given four new ThunderHawke planes. Captain Arrington couldn’t resist having his pilots test out his new toys.
"These planes are new, we haven’t put them through their paces yet, and 87 miles from Miramar is not the place to discover faulty wiring."
I sighed.
"Always the voice of reason. Dakota, doesn’t that ever get to you?"
"I’m going to refrain from answering that." Alex said.
"You better!" Manda laughed. Then she screamed.
"Bogey, 5 o’clock low!"
"Not funny, Rogue!" I checked my monitor and gasped.
"Shit!"
"Whoa! Where the hell did they come from?" Jasper exclaimed.
"UEO ThunderHawke 12 to unidentified planes, please identify yourself. You are in UEO airspace. Please identify." I heard Alex broadcast. There was no response. I locked my site onto one plane and hit a button on my console.
"They’re not in our directory, I’m not recognizing the signature."
Suddenly, an explosion caused Alex to break right.
"What the hell!"
"They’re firing at us!"
"Attack positions!"
"11 o’clock high!"
Another explosion rocked my plane. I gripped the controls, struggling to stabilize my aircraft. I could feel my heart racing as my fear grew.
"They’re everywhere!" Panic filled Alex’s voice.
"Why didn’t we pick these up on radar?" I screamed.
"6 o’clock high!"
"6 o’clock low!"
"I already called that one!"
"There are two!"
"Ok, we’re going to have to break apart to take them!"
"1 o’clock!" I banked right as Manda banked left. Together, we broke over the cloud and faced our attackers.
"I’ve got this one!" I screamed, calibrating my sites. I locked on, just as I saw a flash of light streak from Manda’s plane. A missile raced towards the unidentified assailant, but before it could impact, a similar white streak screamed forward and detonated her missile.
"They’ve got counter-measures!" Manda screamed.
"Who the hell are they?!" I called.
I spun around, desperately struggling to lock my sites, but the planes surrounding us were too fast to lock onto.
"I can’t get a lock!" I screamed.
"Fire anyway!" Alex called. "Maybe we can scare them off!" 3 missiles flew from his plane, exploding several hundred yards from their intended targets.
"They’re not backing off!" Jasper cried, desperately firing his lasers into the sky.
"Back to back!" I screamed.
We swiftly maneuvered our planes into a wide circle in the sky, each protecting the others, as the bogeys circled around us.
An explosion sent Alex careening towards me. I pulled up as he slid under me, coming within inches of my undercarriage.
"We can’t out fly them!" He called. "We’ll never make it back to base."
"Everyone, go for your own and hightail it home!" Jasper ordered.
We broke apart.
A white flash.
A scream.
I turned just in time to see Jasper’s tail get separated from the body of his aircraft.
Smoke poured into the sky as his life capsule detached from his plane.
"Nooooooooooo!!!" I screamed into my headset.
An explosion.
And then there was nothing.