City of IF

[sparta12]

Virtual
Chapter 6: The Inevitable

Colonel Ballows smoked his cigarette on the bridge as they drifted through the sector they had just travelled through
“What’s the Zoraxian status?” Admiral Magnus asked as the hyperspace travel side effect was wearing off
“They are reporting of fires from Deck C, Section Two to Deck E, Section Five sir!” An ensign reported, shaking her head
“Any Boragnians in the vicinity?” Colonel Ballows asked
“No sir. We’re scanning Planet M One-Five-Six-Zero now sir!” another ensign shouted out
“So how are we going to do this? The Zoraxians have their bridge wiped out and their communications are barely working,” the colonel asked his superior. Admiral Magnus thought for a few minutes.
“What’s our status on our engine and thrusters?” the admiral enquired
“Our engine is functioning at forty-five percent and our thrusters are working at sixty-three percent sir!”
Damn it… We wont be able to land and get repairs with that much damage and we have to be on the planet in order to get a signal. We’ll have to- and then the admiral had a moment of clarity and turned around to the rest of the crew on the bridge
“Get all of our pilots off the ship and Jettison half of everything we don’t need. Also we’ll sell some things when we get on the ground. All the pilots will land on the planet,”
“But sir our fighters will burn up in the atmosphere before they can enter!”
“Not really ensign. There’s going to be some casualties but most of our fighters will survive,” Admiral Magnus answered the ensign
“Go down to Code Yellow,”




Jack Art had been out of his cockpit for only a matter of minutes, during that time he had killed someone who use to be his friend, now he and his pilots were being ordered to go back out. Miserably he walked over to his Viper fighter while the hangar crew zipped up the body and prepared it to be sent over to the morgue.


“All Flying Phoenix pilots form up on me!” the Lieutenant Commander ordered calmly over the squadron channel
“Roger that,” everyone acknowledged and Jack stared through his cockpit window as his squadron’s pilots broke away from their flight path. As they came into range green lines made square reticles around the fighters
“All Fighter and Bomber pilots listen up!” a voice crackled over the open channel
“This is Admiral Magnus… The Freedom cruiser is badly damaged so we have jettisoned all pilots and unnecessary goods. You are all to enter the planet M One-Five-Six-Zero AKA Traders Haven’s atmosphere. Once there you are to await the arrival of our cruiser. Transmission over.”
“What!” Gunnery Sergeant Halloway shouted back through the squadron radio in disbelief
“Why don’t they just ask us to be placed inside a fucking incinerator!?!” Another pilot shouted out. That Jack chuckled at shortly and then listened to the hail of complaints from his squadron’s pilots.
“Everyone shut the fuck up! You received orders people now get moving!” Jack shouted back over the radio
“Yes sir!” Aviation Flight Officer Anne replied while laughing and immediately the pilots engaged their ships into full throttle.


Within a few minutes the pilots were about to enter the planet’s atmosphere but as they flew towards it they could see their fellow pilots burning up and entering the atmosphere.
“Alright let’s do this!” Jack shouted out with enthusiasm, began his descent into the planet’s atmosphere and suddenly the cockpit started heating up. Jack started to sweat, his field of vision in front of him was now shrinking and fires were surrounding fighter.
“Ah shit,” Jack whispered to himself as he started to lose control of the fighter as he continued to through the atmosphere. Jack looked to his left to see one of his fellow pilots just within his field of vision. Parts of the fighter were flying off of the Viper and the fighter next to Jack was flailing about as it tried to stay straight.
“Ah. I’m losing control of my fighter. I can’t keep it straight!” a pilot’s voice screamed over the static as he watched the viper next to him while struggling with his own fighter. Suddenly the nose of the other pilot’s fighter broke off and it started to perform back flips. Jack watched intently and as he watched he could see the bottom half of the fighter was being ripped to pieces. He looked to the cockpit of the fighter to see that he was banging on his cockpit window in agony but then stopped. Oh my god! Jack thought and then looked back to the front of his cockpit to see that a piece of his fighter’s nose was flapping about and his radar showing his fighter’s status showing him that the fighter was pretty much about to go. As Jack struggled to keep his fighter steady he could hear pilots scream over the open channel. He looked over to his left just in time to see a small bit of the wing fly off and make a hole in his fighter.


“Oh fuck me!” he said to himself. Then as his computer informed him that he was beginning to lose Aerial control of his fighter he had just managed to get out through the atmosphere and was in the clear.
“This is Iron-man! I have made it through the atmosphere and am struggling to keep control of my fighter!” Jack reported over the squadron channel. Jack pulled back on his joystick but it was being reluctant and was only pulling up by a small bit but it was not enough. Not to mention the increasing speed of his fighter in his fall was going to continue to tear it shreds.
“This is Iron-man my fighter is increasing its speed I’m losing control. I’m transmitting my co-ordinates now. I gotta ditch!” Jack shouted over the radio, still pulling back on the joystick
“This can’t get any worse!” he whispered while transmitting his co-ordinates over the radio and then finally pulling back on the handle located to the bottom left of his cockpit. Suddenly the computer started flashing and it showed the schematics of the fighter. It showed the cockpit detaching from the rest of the fighter. Jack looked back up in front of him to see that his fighter was almost levelled but it was going to crash into a small mountain in a few a seconds. The cockpit detached from the fighter and jack pulled away from the mountain to avoid an oncoming death. As he pulled up however the escape pod he was now flying clipped the branches of the trees situated on the mountain. As he reached the peak of the mountain his radar started picking up enemy blips
“Everyone get into combat formation we have incoming bogey’s!” Jack informed his fellow pilots.
“This is fucking nuts!” Jack said aloud as he flew over the mountain to see a cluster of enemy fighters coming his way. But then he looked beyond the cluster of dots to see Traders Haven… But it had been changed. It had changed from an amazing metropolis to… to a living city
“Freedom this is Iron-Man. Traders Haven is Boragnian territory! Repeat Traders Haven is Boragnian Territory! Do not land on Traders Haven!” Jack screamed over the radio.
“Jack get out of there! Those Boragnians are coming in from all directions!” Anne’s voice crackled over Jack’s headpiece
“Roger that Anne but I need some cover! They’re coming at me fast!”
“Roger that Iron-man. Gunny get over here and follow my lead!” Anne’s voice crackled over the squadron channel.
Jack performed a back flip, flew back towards his entry point, the first thing he saw were two friendly fighters inside a green, square reticle and smiled. Finally something was going for him today. Jack checked his six, still smiling but only to have it wiped off of his face when he saw a Boragnian Fighter/Bomber with guns blazing. He threw the joystick left in an attempt to avoid the gunfire but his reaction was too slow and the laser round from the enemy fighter clipped his escape pod and suddenly his ship was being thrown towards the ground. Jack looked back down at his computer to check his pod’s status:
Navigational Control Failing
Fuel Leaking
Power Failing
Enemy Missile Closing in at 200 metres.

To be Continued…

[Guyron]

It sucks to leave someone behind . Even if there is no chance of pulling out of the situation . So my vote is for the first option .

[sparta12]

personally would vote for no.2 because starting mission to rescue one person could lead to more casualties.

[Muaddib]

....So you're saying we should vote no 1 ? Alrighty....no wait first let me catch up on this story, could you please make a chpater summary

[sparta12]

No im not saying we should Im just giving my opinion on the reader's suggestions. You guys can vote for whatever you want.

[sparta12]

we're at a tie. Come on Virtual readers. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!

[ethereal_fauna]

I have voted! We'll have to flush out some of the other readers.

[Araex]

Hey sparta, where's the second half of the chapter? You're missing loads of it! Well done on winning by the way!

[sparta12]

well we're still at a tie ladies and gentlemen so I guess I am going to have to cast a vote :lol:

[Smee]

I've been flushed out and voted for Jack leading an offensive :)

A shorter chapter but the usual good read.

Happy Writing :)