Gearing Up
“What?!?” Grayson nearly lost his grip on the platform
As if in answer to her theory, the ship jerked upwards, and the platform stayed level.
The ship balanced for a few seconds, before tilting downwards.
Grayson was getting dizzy watching the huge pit tilt back and forth.
“Uh Oh!” Grayson said after another crazy tilt. The platform smashed into the side of the pit.
There was a prolonged crunch, that ended with an ominous sizzle at the end.
“Aly!” Grayson said “Hold on, I think we’re going to-”
His words were ripped out of his mouth as the wind rushed by their small platform as it fell into the pit.
Aly sawthat they were at the top of the pit, and the ship was making distressed roaring noises as they neared the bottom of the pit.
Aly knew it was the Anti-Grav thrusters kicking in. They were small, and used up lots of energy. They fired a type of rapidly dissipating gas that basically reversed gravity in a circular shaped thing around the circular thrusters. It made for a rough landing, but survivable “So if we land in spot with the gas... ” Aly mumbled to herself,
“WHAT?” Grayson yelled, his voice strained and scared “Oh! The Anti-Grav!”
Grayson had also heard the thrusters, and due to his knowledge of anything techy he knew what they were.
“Lean!” Grayson said, “Let’s try to crash through that Holo-Projector!”
A couple minutes later, Grayson and Aly smashed into the class coating of the Holo-Projector. They sent millions of shiny pieces of SteelGlass® flying into the air. The impact smashed Grayson and Aly to the floor, but it slowed the platform’s fall considerably. They whizzed through some kind of maintenance room, then slid down some kind of square tube. The platform stopped abruptly once or twice, as the failing HoverUnits in the platform tried to reboot.
A huge explosion rocked the ship, and the platform seemed to go a bit faster.
Aly realized that the ship had hit the ground. Then all of the sudden, the tube they were in ended. And they fell into the trash vault, right smack dab above the discarded ships area. A second smaller explosion made part of the wall next to them break off, and fall like a knife a few feet next to the platform. The platform made one last attempt to restart, and the platform slid sideways into a pile of metal scrap that knocked the pair out.
What they didn’t know, was that the wall piece had pierced a Anti-Grav fuel tank, letting loose the pressurized Anti-Gravity fuel which slowed their fall enough to be nonlethal just before they hit the pile
Grayson awoke to the sound of dripping. A constant pattering that Grayson had never heard.
Then he opened his eyes.
The side of the ship was torn open from the landing, and some of the glow lights lay scattered or hanging from the wires. Parts of the ship were on fire, and some of the engines of the ships they were on had exploded, leaving charred black marks behind.
But all Grayson could look at was the gap. The rip in the ship.
The huge 10 foot thick metal walls had ripped off, and was laying on the ground. Outside.
He was looking outside. For the first time in his life, he saw clouds, puffy clouds, tinged pink by the rising sun. Grayson stared at the shadows, fleeing across the huge field of golden plants and the tall blue mountains off in the distance. Rain drifted down softly, making the outside look bursting with life. Grayson saw a couple four winged creatures play lazily in the air, without a care in the world.
“Wow” Grayson whispered.
“I know, right?” Aly said, “I wanna get out there!”
“Yeah...” Grayson took one last look at the outside, before turning back towards the inside of the ship.
“But we can’t just go tromping off into the unknown, we have to prepare.”
“I guess you’re right” Aly sighed “I guess let’s just prepare and spend the night here, then leave.”
Aly and Grayson walked farther into the ship, searching for things they could need
“I wonder where all the people went,” Grayson said, examining a small transport ship.
“I don’t know, but we can leave now!” Aly said, looking through a discarded weapons pile. “Do you still have your blaster?”
Grayson paused and looked around for his blaster. “Uh, no. I must have lost it on the fall. I think we need a ship. We don’t really need blasters...”
“Please? We never know when we might need one, plus, we should get some with mining/flashlight capabilities”
“Fine. Well, let’s get started! Let’s find a ship first,, there’s plenty here.”
So with that, they started the search for supplies.
Grayson was in the middle of repairing a ship when Aly found him.
“Here!” Aly dropped another huge pile of supplies. (mostly weapons.)
“Are we, like going into war or something?” Grayson asked, eyeing the huge pile of armaments and munitions.
“No,” Aly replied, dusting off her hands, “but there’s so many cool weapons! I think we should each take about five. Cool, is this our ride?”
“Yup!” Grayson patted the side of the ship. “ It’s a Skyhawk V-21, quite an advanced model to see in here, but it was slightly damaged. nothing I can’t fix.”
The Skyhawk was roundish with a flat bottom, with three stubby landing “legs” that retracted into the ship. The front leg was longer than the two back legs. There were spikes on the landing “legs” to secure them into the ground. The two front legs folded up into the side of the ship.There was a ladder on the back leg too, that went up to the door in the back. . There were two small windows on each side, along with a curved windshield in the front. It had two big engines in the back. There were two short stubby wings in the top back side, with a small gunning dome in the top. Surprisingly Grayson read that the Skyhawk V-21 was a civilian ship, but in earth times there were dangers of pirates.
There were two long and thin slanted wings pointing at the ceiling, they could adjust their length to almost half of their fully extended length. The wings had two radar antennas on the wing tips. The oval shaped engines were vertical, and the door along was between them.
The ship was pretty old, Quite new when Exo 3 was made, but by now outdated.
The gunning position even required a person to climb up into a small pod right between the two wings.
“Well, I’ve collected all the supplies, so i’ll go clean up the inside.” Aly walked inside the ship, leaving Grayson repairing the engine.
The inside of the ship was covered with dust and dirt. So Aly got to work. She took a couple bottles of industrial cleaner, and a couple of rags. She scrubbed the slightly cylindrical room till it was perfect, and the cockpit was nice and clean. But some of the controls were off kilter or ripped off completely.
So Aly got to work
While Grayson was modifying the engine, and preparing the fuel tanks, Aly was preparing the inside of the ship.
She inserted fold down beds, with thin but comfortable blankets that had a reflective side, perfect for survival. And she set them flush against the wall, with no visible cracks. Also, she stocked the side cabinets with dehydrated food, and E-Bread packets of five different kinds. She put extra food in a space in the ceiling, strapped in for safety. The Hydro-Air system was also beneath the floor. It provided water and food, created by absorbing the molecules in the air, and putting them together.
She had also installed about six Phony-Grav modules, for gravity in space, much like the huge ones on the Exo 3. Whoever had owned the ship previously had ravaged the inside of the ship for any usable parts.
Grayson was busy polishing the dark orange ship, and getting the deflector shields and the sensors in the wings up to date. He repaired the heavy turret between the two wings. He oiled the ramp that would slide out of the back, between the two engines.
He made sure the airlock was tight, and that the toilet and shower were still working. He and Aly stuffed supplies into the supply room. He put two space suits for if they ever needed to leave the ship. Both an orange color. The Airlock would act as a escape pod if necessary, and would fall out of the ship, using parachutes and rockets to land safely. The inside had been white, but Aly had painted it a light blue, and had inserted a rich brown Self-Cleaning Carpet, not quite fluffy, but still nice and soft.
“Wow!” Grayson said, popping his head in the doorway, “you really fixed this place up!”
“Yup!” Aly said proudly, “Though some parts fell off, I think you should connect them better.”
“Now,” Aly said excitedly, “We get to choose our weapons! Woot Woot!”
“You are obsessed with weapons” Grayson mumbled
“What?”
“Nothing”
Aly dashed out the door and came back a couple minutes later. With a pile of Ion Detonators, ancient BiggieExploders, and a Stack of different blaster Rifles, Pistols, and even a Plasma Rocket launcher. Aly immediately grabbed five Ion detonators, The launcher, and a high powered double barreled pistol.
“Ummm,” Grayson said “Aly, Just take one!”
“Awww,” Aly sighed, but after about five minutes Aly said “Fine, i’ll take the pistol. But at least let me keep the Ion detonators!? The’re x-Inc model b-3245, Super rare. How about it?”
“Fine.” Grayson said. “Having that much explosive on a ship isn’t very safe.”
“Don’t worry Grayson, it’ll be fine!” She took a briefcase out from behind her back “Look, this says resists up to Type 500,000 explosions!”
“Whatever. Luckily, that one is actually explosion safe.” Grayson tapped the box with a grease stained finger “Most are not.”
Aly carefully put the cylindrical grenades into the briefcase’s Anti-Explosion Gel, then clicked it closed.
She stuffed the Briefcase inside one of the built in shelves.
“What weapon are you going to take?” She asked, curious,
“This.” Grayson said, Leaning into the control room and removing the Pulse Rifle.
“Oooh!” Aly whistled “That’s awesome! illegal but still awesome”
“Aha” Aly looked closer “XL- Corporation VB Model 459”
“Wow! You know a lot about weapons!”
“I know. I pride myself in that.”
“We’re heading out tommorow, so lets get some sleep.”
