Argonomics 101 -- Part 3

**Armitige3** · 03/16/2006 12:41:07

[[ Read "Argonomics 101 - Part 2" ]]

Electric motors whined and screamed as turrets were forced to face this way and that. They complained loudly while they did their best to obey the commands fed to them from the control panel, and ultimately the gunner. Me. But, I couldn't hear them, not with the bark and roar coming from the guns the turrets were hoisting back and forth. Staccato lightening and matching thunder rolled from the ends of the barrels of the guns as deadly spittle sped from them towards their targets, often missing.

The swarm had taken advantage of the moments of chaos when the explosive drone detonated, sending the Argo askew, and sped forward with deadly intention. They were like a ball of writhing worms as they swarmed at us. It was hard to make out one body from another as they closed the gap with the Argo. No sooner did I lock onto one Sentinel and open fire that it vanished again into the fold. So I focused on the throng as a whole.

Metal shards, debris, and sparks flew as round after round collided with the mass. But not a single Sentinel fell... they seemed intent on spreading out the damage between them. I could just imagine them discussing their strategy in some binary language, calculating how they could intercept the hovercraft with the largest number of operational Sentinels possible. Damned, cold, calculating machines. Overgrown, egotistical wind-up toys. "DIE!!"

The words escaped my lips without my realising it. Time was still progressing at its annoyingly perceived slow pace, and it was pissing me off. I mentally attempted to pour my anger into the turrets, trying with all my being to imbue each round with a rage and hunger for destruction all its own, mentally willing it to hunt down and seek its target with unerring accuracy.

I got lucky.

I saw one, no, two Sentinels fall from the mass of metal bodies. I shouted. I cheered and whooped, all the while, commanding more flying death from the ammo cannisters towards the oncoming Sentinels.

"Take that! Ha ha! Eat it you-"

My words fell short. The Argo roared and creaked with the sounds of metal on metal, lurching upwards. The two falling Sentinels had not been destroyed. My tunnel vision on the group had caught the better of me, and I didn't recognise the pair coming in for a flanking manoeuver. They had sped in, and gone straight for the under-sections damaged by the explosion. I could hear metal being torn.

I screamed at the PA system. "SENTINELS ON THE HULL! PORT VENTRAL! SOMEBODY GET ON IT!"

"Already ahead of you!" Dischord's voice rang back.

That was just the beginning of Hell, though. The horde of machines reached the Argo, spreading out at the last moment to cover the ship. There had been eight of them, in all. I could hear them clanking about on the hull. I swung the turrets about, searching for any target possible. I spotted one Sentinel lagging on the very edge of the turret's firing arc, and opened fire. At this close range, it had no time to react. Heavy metals tore several of its tenticals off, causing it to list in the direction of the turrets, presenting itself for annihilation. I complied, pounding round after round into its metal body. Its sensors went dark, and it fell away.

Again the turrets objected, but not in response to my commands. And this time, it was only one turret, the port-side turret, not both. I twisted the turrets towards the port side. Only the starboard responded, and the gun camera revealed a Sentinel tearing at the port turret, holding it in place with several tenticals. I opened fire, catching the Sentinel in a hailstorm of hate. It attempted to retreat behind the turret for protection, but in doing so, released the port-side turret which swung to match its starboard-side twin's position, batting its attacker into view again. I wasted no time filling the assailant with additional metals.

"Two down, six to go. Where the hell are they?"

The Argo's skin continued screaming under the attack of the Sentinels. They were attempting to breach the hull, to take the Argo apart piece by piece.

"Trystan! Arm the EMP! Syphon, give me full power on the pads! Go! Don't stop!"

The forward turrets were useless now, so I left the gunner's chair, climbing back up to the cockpit. I reached the co-pilot's chair with difficulty under Syphon's lurching attempts to dislodge our attackers from the hull. Looking over at Syphon as I sat down, I noticed the beads of sweat that were framing his face.

"You're doing well, kid. Think you can handle some turbulance?" I asked, half-jesting, half-serious.

"Captain?" He didn't look at me, his eyes were focused on the tunnel-space ahead.

"We've got squiddies on the hull. The turrets can't reach them all. We need to make life hell for them, or we're dead. Scrape the wall," I commanded.

"What?" he protested.

"Do it! Don't argue. You're good enough, do it! Just don't crash us at the same time. Retract what pads you can, and scrape the wall!! Why the hell do you think I told you to go to full power?"

Terror was evident on his face, but he obeyed. I flipped a few switches, pulling in a few of the Argo's hoverpads, shutting them down. Our lift decreased, and the ship shuddered. "Brace for impact, kiddies!" I called out to the PA.

Syphon worked the controls, simultaneously fighting our lessened lift from the deactivated pads and attempting to exfoliate the hull with the tunnel walls. He angled the offending hull surface towards the tunnel face, gritted his teeth, and jerked the controls. The Argo lurched, careening towards the tunnel wall. At the last moment, Syphon jerked the controls again, pulling the Argo away just as she made contact. I held onto my chair as best I could, but was thrown forward nonetheless. I stopped myself on the control panel, listening to the hull screeching.

"Contact!" a voice shouted over the PA, and the rapid-fire report of turrets resounded through the ship. Shouts and screams could be heard over the PA, as well as through the corridors. "WHOOHOO! SUCK IT DOWN!!", Dischord rang out. "Three down, Captain," VertigoRising reported, with utmost calm.

"That's five. Three to go. We're not out of trouble, yet. Syphon, hit it again."

Syphon sighed a heavy, "Aye, Captain", and jerked the controls again. Once again, the Argo swooped toward the wall. I could hear the "clank, clank" of Sentinel claws on the hull as they scrambled for cover. Again, the Argo's hull scraped the wall. I could see sparks and hear the metal protest.

The world turned upside down.

The hull twisted and spun, sending both Syphon and I from our seats. Thunderous cracking and smashing reached deafening levels as the Argo flipped, stopping abruptly against the side of the tunnel. It slid, dangling at a dangerous angle, but did not reach the bottom of the tunnel. Instead, it stopped, hanging on some debris hooked on some part of the hull, and a cold silence filled the ship.

My eyes fluttered opened; dust was settling down, causing me to blink. My ears rang, my back ached, my arms throbbed. The ringing died down, and I could hear ragged breathing coming from Syphon.

"Kid?" I croaked. "Kid, you alive? Syphon?!"

He groaned, rolled over, and propped himself up on his arms. We both surveyed the area. We were both lying on what was the wall containing the door to the cockpit.

"Did we get them?" Syphon asked with a weak smile.

"I don't know. That means we can't dawdle. Come on." I nodded towards the seats with my head.

I reached out, batting at the PA system. "Damage report. Is anyone still alive back there?" I asked.

Seconds felt like minutes as I waited. Syphon gathered himself, brushing himself down and wincing with pain. He reached up, and hoisted himself into the pilot's chair once again.

"How's it look out there? Can you see anything?" I asked him.

The PA system crackled. "Vertigo here. We're all still alive, but we could be in better shape. Engine's still running, and obviously we still have power, miraculously. What the hell happened?"

"Later," I responded. "Take up what stations you can. We're going to attempt to get airborne again."

"Lots of wreckage, Captain," Syphon responded. "We lost six pads, but I think we can limp out of here, still. Looks like our last bump on the wall hooked a mass of cabling. Might be able to free ourselves if we have an operational turret."

"Understood," I replied. I climbed into the co-pilot's chair, and made requests for status reports from the computer. Half our ventral pads were indeed offline, but we had to make do. I reached over to the PA system controls.

"Vert, we've got a mass of cables holding us down, I need you to get a turret up and take out the cables."

The warning klaxxons went of again.

"No. No way." I hissed. I switched over to the radar, which crackled to life with the image of four Sentinels rapidly approaching from the direction we came. The initial group was finally catching up with us.

"Syphon! Get in the seat and power us up. Now. Damnit, this is going to be close. MOVE IT MAN!"

Syphon obeyed, sliding into his chair. He flipped a few switches, bringing pads back up to full power. The Argo creaked as it righted itself, listing to port slightly. I routed power to the undamaged pad to help compensate.

"Vert! We need those cables down, now!" I shouted.

"Come on, come on, come on," Syphon chanted to himself, staring out of the window at the offending cables.

Artificial thunder rattled forth from an aft turret, raking the wall with hellfire, two feet below the cables.

"No, no no!" Syphon said.

"Captain," Vert's voice came across the PA, "the cables are just out of the turret's firing arc. Can we manoeuver somewhat?"

Looking out the window, the Argo was pretty tight to the wall. We had the cable stretched as it was.

I snapped the PA on. "You've got it, Vert."

Syphon looked at me wide-eyed. "What the hell do you mean? We've got no room to move!"

"Just do it. But do it slowly. We don't need to capsize again."

Syphon increased the power to the engines, and the Argo strained forward, barely moving. Again, the turret cannons roared, just missing.

"Come on!" I thought. "Work!"

Syphon applied more power, and the Argo threatened to twist about again. I adjusted power to opposing pads to keep us upright. The close range warning klaxxons sounded out. The Sentinels were here.

"SENTINELS!" I shouted out, needlessly, to the PA. Apparently, I wasn't the only one watching, as the other rear turrets opened fire at the incoming quartet. Suddenly, the Argo rocketed forward as Vert's firing arc crossed the cables, and the cannon's fire tore them to pieces, freeing the ship. Syphon struggled momentarily to clear the wall, relaxing somewhat as the Argo straightened out and veered down the tunnel.

The walls slipped by as the Argo lumbered through the tunnels, swaying back and forth as Syphon continued to present a hard target to the Sentinels. Gunfire rivetted from the Argo's tail from a quad of turrets, and eventually, fell silent.

"All targets cleared, Captain," Vertigo's voice came over the PA.

"Whoo yeah! We kicked their asses! Owned!" shouted Dischord in the background.

I smiled. "I'm going back there to assess things, Syphon."

He nodded as I stood, turning towards the door. "Good job, Syphon. Welcome to the Argo." I said.

If Syphon had a response, I didn't hear it. The cockpit swam, and went black, and I felt myself succumb to gravity, and fall to the floor.

----

My eyes fluttered open. I was on the floor. I had no idea how long I had been there, but things didn't seem right. I was staring at a rocky ceiling, not the ceiling of the cockpit. My head throbbed. I looked around, and saw a bed. My bed. In Zion.

I sat up, rubbing the growing knot on the back of my head, looking around. Stark and spartan was the room, with only the necessities: a bed, a small dresser, a light on a small table. The covers on the bed were sprawled everywhere, and a personnel file was open on the bed. I stood up, glancing at the personnel file. It was for VertigoRising, the new crewmember I was to meet later today. The world was coming back into focus. The dull drumming from yet another cave party could be heard. A plate was broken on the floor next to the bed. I had fallen asleep while reviewing new crew member records.

"Remind me not to eat that crap right before bed, again," I said to the air. My head throbbed, but I dressed anyway. I was awake. Might as well head to the Argo to continue repairs.

I turned out the light, and headed out the door.

Message Edited by Armitige3 on 03-16-200603:41 PM