Fall of Icarus

miles ahead of Iana’s Duun fighter.

“Roger, I’ve got you on radar,” Iana confirmed. “Stay on course and I will catch up to you shortly.”

Another vibration rolled through Iana’s ship. Glancing out the window, she could see scraps of metal, peeled back by the Terran machine gun fire, flickering as though threatening to tear free. Beneath, she could see ice crystals forming on the intricate network of wires and cables within the wing’s core. The Duun fighter wasn’t made to sustain long, exceptionally fast flights like she was now experiencing, much less two wormhole jumps and exposure to repeated enemy fire. Her Duun fighter was reaching the end of its life expectancy and was quickly dropping Iana’s life expectancy with it.

“Hold together, you piece of crap,” Iana growled as she tried to compensate for the damaged wing. In her cockpit window, the smoke cleared from the rockets and the gas giant came into view. Though still some ways off, Iana now dared to hope that she would reach it before the Terrans caught her. As to what she intended to do once she was there, that still remained to be seen.

“Alpha Leader, I’ve got a problem,” Alpha Two called to her. “I’m getting some pretty serious fluctuations on my command console.”

Iana furrowed her brow in concern. She wondered if this wasn’t another Terran trap. “What sort of fluctuations?”

“I…” the Avalon began before pausing. “I don’t know. My radar is going haywire. Controls are jerky and growing unresponsive!”

“Get yourself out of there,” Iana said nervously, sensing that there was something going on that she couldn’t understand. “Alpha Two, do you copy? Alpha Two?”

Other ships began calling over the radio, experiencing similar issues. Iana ignored them, instead angling her ship toward her wingman’s position. In the distance, she could see the Duun fighter, its engines still burning brightly as it sped forward. Its path, however, was erratic, taking Alpha Two first toward one of the faint rings of small stone debris before launching her back in the other direction. From the chaotic flight pattern, Iana was sure that the Avalon was no longer in control of her ship. Her new trajectory, Iana noticed, now had Alpha Two flying into danger. One of the planet’s moons had passed into view and was moving in an intercept course with the small Duun ship. Dwarfed by the moon, her counterpart wouldn’t stand a chance in a collision.

“Alpha Two, get out of there!”

She didn’t reply and Iana watched in horror as the Duun fighter slammed into the moon, creating little more than a minor explosion on the moon’s surface. Iana cringed, then shook her head slowly. The anguish of losing yet another pilot pained Iana. The loss also caused a deeper confusion within her. She knew that flying straight ahead was a death trap. Whatever had disabled Alpha Two was doing the same to a number of the Squadron fighters that passed too close to the gas giant. Behind her, however, hundreds of Terran ships were still gaining on her. If she slowed down, even for a second, they would catch her and destroy her ship. From her current position, there wasn’t even time to adjust her angle and fly away from the gas giant. Gritting her teeth in frustration, Iana realized that she didn’t truly have much of an option. Continuing forward, Iana charged toward the planet. If she were going to die, she wasn’t going to give the Terrans the satisfaction of pulling the trigger.

Almost immediately, Iana’s consoles began to flicker as something interfered with her electronic systems. Her Duun fighter tilted slightly, changing its flight path. She pulled hard against the controls and managed to realign her trajectory. No sooner had she regained control of her ship, however, that it was pulled violently in the other direction. The screen flickered wildly before fading to black. She tugged on the controls, but they moved limply in her hand without having any effect on the ship. The engines still burned at full speed, unaffected by whatever had taken control of her ship, but she had lost the ability to maneuver. The memory of Alpha Two flying uncontrollably into one of the gas giant’s moons ran through her mind and Iana frowned at the thought.

Suddenly, Iana was jerked to the right, nearly pulling her from her seat. Her shoulder slammed into the cockpit’s glass window, bruising the skin, as the seat restraints bit into her flesh. Awkwardly, Iana pushed back against the alien force and slid back into the seat. Slowly, she felt the tugging sensation building again, threatening to pull her in another direction. Along her waist and boots, the sleeves of her one-piece flight suit, and the buckles of the restraints, Iana felt the tug growing. She realized, in horror, that it wasn’t a Terran weapon that had disabled her ship. It was the planet itself. On top of the radiation, the gas giant was emitting an incredible magnetic field, one that was strong enough to short out her controls while leaving the ship itself intact. Alpha Two’s erratic flight pattern suddenly made perfect sense as she passed from one part of the field to another. And Iana, foolishly, had flown right into the field without a second thought.

Realizing that her fate was now in the hands of chaotically overlapping magnetic fields, she slumped in her chair and stared out the front window. Though she had been jerked from side to side repeatedly upon entering the field, it seemed that her pattern had now stabilized. Growing closer to the planet, the nose of her Duun fighter angled away from the gas giant’s core. Instead of flying headlong into the atmosphere, it appeared that the magnetic fields would keep her skimming along its surface.

A knot grew in her stomach at the thought. The planet was creating intense gravitational fields as well as the magnetic fields. Much like the Fleet had done when advancing on Earth, she would be slung around the edge of the planet. The difference was that she would not be in control. Instead of being able to slow or control her rapid acceleration, she would simply be along for the ride. Iana found herself wondering if either she or her ship would be able to survive such an intense trip.

The forces began pulling on her fighter and it sped up rapidly, quickly outstripping the normal capabilities of her engine. The inhibitors did little to lessen the pressure that began to build on her chest and limbs. The skin on her face grew taunt and strained as the speed increased; Iana found her arms pinned to the sides of the pilot’s chair.

Speeding around the planet, Iana covered half the circumference of the gas giant in mere minutes. Air was stolen from her lungs and she strained to find replacement breaths. Pain lanced through her joints as the acceleration increased beyond the realm of what was safe for a pilot. The vibrations she had felt before returned with such ferocity that it jarred her in her seat, despite the gravity holding her in place. Rolling her head to the left, she stared out the window at the already damaged wing. It shook in opposition to the bouncing the rest of the ship was experiencing. Sheets of metal peeled away as piping within the wing’s interior collapsed from the force. With a loud screeching, the wing tore down its center, half of the wing ripping free and tumbling out of sight.

The loss of the wing unbalanced her Duun fighter and catapulted Iana free from the decaying orbit she had been in around the gas giant. Weight slammed into her skull as her fighter tumbled away from the intense gravity. Sparks of light danced in her vision briefly before fading, replaced instead by a hazy darkness that crept along the edges of her sight. The world seemed to close in tightly around her, as unconsciousness found root in the recesses of her mind.

Angrily, Iana bit her lip to stave off the weariness that she felt. Struggling, she reached out for the controls, fighting against the pressure on her limbs. As her fingers closed around the controls, she battled with the ship, slowly stopping the spinning and haphazard flight until, eventually, she regained a small semblance of control.

Alone, gasping for breath and moaning against the pain she felt throughout her body, Iana fell heavily into the pilot’s chair. Her controls were still sporadic at best and radar was not functioning. Her trip had taken her most of the way around the gas giant, meaning that she had been expelled somewhere close to where the Terran forces now lay in wait. Shaking her head slowly, Iana wondered why she had bothered. Her ship was now severely damaged and she had no idea the scope of her own injuries. And, throughout all of her pain and suffering, she had wound up almost directly back where she had started, staring down a Terran assault group.

Through the cockpit window, Iana could see some of the Terran fighters breaking away from the main pack and moving in her direction. Judging from their movements, she assumed that they knew where the danger areas were around the gas giant and were quick to avoid them. The fighters moved to intercept her, leading Iana to believe that she had been tossed completely clear of the magnetic interference. A small smile spread across her face, a mirth that didn’t reach her eyes. Though she appreciated the irony, she didn’t find the humor in realizing that the gas giant had only thrown her free of its grasp after completely disabling her ship. In essence, it had left her debilitated but left the dirty work of killing her to the Terran pilots.

Letting go of the controls, she crossed her arms across her chest and stared at the approaching pilots. Stoic