Fall of Icarus

red flames as the round exploded nearby. As far as he could tell, though, the ship had yet to sustain any serious damage.

“Who?”

“Coastal guns, maybe?” Pelasi said, unsure. “They’re packing some pretty serious explosives, whoever they are.”

The force from another explosion drove the Cair Thewlis downward in a rapid descent. Yen could feel his last meal creeping higher into his throat and he suddenly felt very nauseas. As Yen braced himself against the forward console, Pelasi managed to regain control and pull the ship skyward moments before they would have crashed into the churning ocean below.

“Are you intentionally flying into every round they fire at us?” Yen yelled angrily, his heightened emotions overwhelming his sense of queasiness.

“Not intentionally, sir,” Pelasi retorted.

“Then do you think it’s even remotely possible for you to avoid one of the explosions?”

“I’m trying!” the Uligart yelled back. “If you’re so concerned, you might call one of the other pilots and get some Duun support down here. You have them blast those guns to hell and maybe they won’t do the same to us!”

Yen frowned at his pilot, knowing that though he was frustrated with Pelasi, the Uligart was also correct. Reaching to his throat, Yen activated the Squadron channel.

“Alpha Leader, this is Commander Xiao. If you’re not too busy up there, we could really use some of that air superiority we’ve heard so much about!”

Iana’s voice called back over the radio, though the background noise was filled with the sound of alerts and sirens sounding from within her cockpit. “This is Alpha Leader. No, sir, of course we have nothing important going on up here. Just relaxing and having the time of our lives. Hell, when you boys get done down there, feel free to come join us. We’re getting ready to fire up the blender and make some cocktails.”

“Can the chatter, Alpha Leader, and get me some air support!”

“Roger, sir,” Iana called back. “I’m breaking away two Duun fighters to your position now.”

Yen closed the channel and turned back to his pilot. “Buy us time. Dodge, weave, do whatever you have to do. Just keep us in the air long enough for the Duun pilots to get here.”

Warrant Pelasi turned on the internal ship’s communications. “Everyone hold tight. This is about to be a bumpy ride.”

The Cair Thewlis dropped nearly to the ocean’s surface before climbing steeply toward the overhead cloud cover. Pelasi continued a random flight pattern as they moved ever forward toward the Earth shoreline. As they grew closer to the shore, the rain began to lessen. In the far distance, Yen could see the faint silhouette of mighty skyscrapers, the tops of which were lost in the clouds above. Closer, however, the flash of fire alerted him that while the lightening rain allowed him to see the shore, it also allowed the large caliber coastal guns to see him as well.

“Incoming!” he yelled before another barrage of explosions rocked the ship. Gritting his teeth, Yen hoped that the Duun ships would reach them before they were blown out of the sky.

In response to his prayers, two small ships streaked overhead, rocketing toward the coast. The small Duun fighters were nearly impossible to track by the massive guns that jutted out over the water. Firing in a defensive pattern, the coastal guns tried to keep the two darting fighters at bay, but to no avail. From the cockpit of the Cair Thewlis, Yen watched as smoky trails leapt from the missile racks under the wings of the Duun fighters. The plasma rockets streaked toward the shore, the missiles separating until they were each targeted on one of the large caliber cannons. The guns continued to fire, but Yen knew that their fate was sealed as soon as the missiles were launched. Onboard the missiles, the computer system tracked the inbound rounds from the coastal guns and easily avoided the barrages. They drew close to the large cannons before launching skyward, flying over a hundred feet above the massive cannons before turning in midair. Hurtling downward, the plasma rockets slammed into the coastal guns one after another.

When the plasma missiles struck the cannons, the gloomy sky between Yen and the rest of the Terran capital city lit up in a solid wall of burning plasma. The purples and blues of the plasma danced through the center of the flames as subsequent explosions erupted. Fuel cells, ammunition depots, and coastal guns exploded in steady progression, wreaking more and more havoc to the nearby Terran communities.

The Duun fighters disappeared through the flames, oblivious to the potential hazard as another series of explosion erupted from around the gun ports. Beyond the closest set of flames, Yen could see further explosions from within the city as the Duun fighters launched volley after volley into the city itself. Though hardly carrying the destructive capacity of the plasma bombs on board the Cruisers, the rockets bore enough explosives to bring down some of the heavenly skyscrapers, which collapsed into the city below.

By the time the Cair Thewlis broke through the wall of flames along the coast, the Terran capital city lay in ruins. Metal and stone lay twisted around one another in a macabre dance. Terran civilians nearby the multiple rocket strikes were lucky, having been instantly obliterated by the explosions. Others on the outskirts of the blasts, however, were now buried beneath tons of rubble and, in many cases, burning debris.

Staring out the window, Yen struggled to fathom the depth of destruction and loss of life caused by a single pass of the Duun fighters. Suppressing a sadistic smile, Yen imagined the sheer volume of destruction that would be waged once the rest of the Fleet finally arrived at Earth.

“Sir,” Pelasi said, the Uligart angling the Cair Thewlis further into the heart of the capital city, “I’ve got something on radar.”

Yen broke his attention away from the rain-streaked window and examined the radar. Overlaid on the radar, a satellite image showed the terrain of the city. Ahead, blinking red on the overlay, a section of the city was illuminated. Tracking his gaze outside the window toward the area marked on the map, Yen noticed a sudden downturn in the height of the buildings, as though the closer they got to the heart of the city, the more the buildings bowed in solemn reverence to the area contained within.

As the buildings grew ever shorter, they eventually leveled out at a series of two and three story structures. Beyond the low buildings, however, the structures stopped altogether in an architectural cliff face. In the valley created by the lack of buildings, lush green grass spread over multiple city blocks. There, towering over the green grass and flowering trees, Yen could see the large tower, jutting toward the sky. The odd, square-sided structure reached over a hundred feet high before ending in an elongated point. As to the purpose of the building, Yen couldn’t fathom, nor could he understand the rectangular lake that sat at the base of the tower and stretched away like a long, reflective shadow.

Breaking his attention away from the grassy park, Yen gestured toward an open square a few city blocks away. “Put us down over there.” As Pelasi complied, Yen continued. “Once we hit ground and download the equipment, I want you airborne again.”

“Sir?” Pelasi asked, confused.

“You’re our way out of this hellhole. If you stay on the ground and this ship gets damaged, then we’ve not only walked right into the lair of the enemy, but we took away our only way out. I’ve been in that situation before and I have no intention of repeating a bad mistake. Land, download us, then get the hell out of here. Understand?”

Pelasi nodded. “Yes, sir.”

The Cair Thewlis set down heavily on the paved Terran square, its heavy alloy body crushing the flimsy vehicles beneath it. Before Yen could climb out of his chair, he could hear the back door to the ship dropping and a scurry of booted feet. He opened the door and was proud to see that most of his men had already hurried off the ship.

“I’ll be manning the radio, sir,” Warrant Pelasi called from behind him. “The second you all get into trouble, call me and I’ll be back here.”

“I know you will,” Yen replied as he hurried to catch up to his men.

Stepping outside, Yen wrinkled his nose in displeasure. The city smelled at though far too many Terran bodies had been living on top of one another for far too many years. It permeated the buildings and floated along the air