It’s a two seater, so she climbs nimbly into the back.
The minute her ass hits the seat, I speak. “You need to pull the harness over your shoulders down and make sure it clicks into place. When I start the engines, a clear panel will slide into place between your seat and mine. It’s designed so that if damage is sustained on one half it doesn’t take both soldiers out of action. If anything happens to me, a panel will open up that allows you to guide the warthog to the ground.”
She startles at hearing this, which comes as no surprise. “But I don’t know anything about flying a jet.”
“I know, and there’s no time to give flying lessons. I’m just giving you a short run down so you’ll know what to expect. Don’t worry; the chances of us taking any kind of fire are extremely remote. All Earth Gov vehicles carry transponders so the Draconians know not to take us out in a friendly fire situation, and as far as we know the Moltan have been cleared from this planet.”
“Got it. I’ll just sit here and look pretty until it’s time for me to do my thing.” Her nervous grin speaks volumes about how anxious she is.
I drop down into my seat and spare her one last reassurance. “I’ve spent thousands of hours in the sky flying everything Earth Gov has to offer. Trust me, I’ve got this.”
With that, I begin the preflight sequence, and the partition slides into place. Within moments we’re slowly gaining altitude. I’ve keyed in our destination so the jet pretty much does the rest. I remain alert with my hands on the guidance mechanism. Technological advances in aviation led to the agreement of a round track ball as being the best way to navigate through three dimensional space. My palm rests over the cold metal ball as we reach the proper altitude and begin picking up speed.
There’s nothing going on in the skies today. The sun beats down with a vengeance and a few puffy clouds fly by, but there are no longer birds, nor are there other jets or shuttles along our course.
It takes roughly two hours at maximum speed to reach our destination in Japan. The jet slows well in advance of the landing spot I programed in, and our descent is similar to most I’ve experienced. Breathing out a sigh of relief, I find myself hoping the rest of our mission goes off without a hitch.
In an effort to make that happen, I jump out and sprint around the back to pop the back hatch. Amber follows in my wake and her jaw drops when she sees all the weapons Earth Gov sent. I quickly begin sticking weapons all over my body, because in my world weapons are tools. I appreciate that these are light and easy to handle for human hands. Also, I’ve got to load up to make up for all the raw Draconian muscle that we’re missing on this mission.
After I’m finished, Amber whistles. “You look like you’re going to fight off an enemy invasion all by yourself.”
I jerk around to look at the temple rising up from the ground in front of us. “With any luck we’ll be able to get in and out without encountering anything ugly. Let’s get going.”
Petit Fight
Juliet
She turns to lead the way, murmuring, “I know, I know, we’re burning daylight.”
I don’t laugh at her wry joke because I’m too busy rolling right into combat mode. My weapon is up and I’m scanning all sides for any movement or flash of color that shouldn’t be there. The place seems like a ghost town so far. We cover the distance between the landing site and the temple in about fifteen minutes, and I watch Amber slip inside.
Slowly turning a full three-sixty, I double check to make sure nothing has followed us from the landing site. Toggling the light onto my battle rifle, I search the walls and ceiling as I enter the temple. Humidity gathers on my skin because of all the moisture in this place. I creep forward, still scanning for anything unusual while keeping Amber in my sights.
When we come into the huge central chamber with the pool of water, she rushes forward. I hang back a bit, trying to figure out what her plan is. Amber walks up to a large round piece of metal on the wall and bangs it three times with a smooth round stone. As the sound