Aeronautics

Jack Higgins spotted something on the edge of the horizon. The young man of about fourteen took off his synth-leather brown cabbie-hat and smoothed back his tangled black hair as he squinted his eyes, peering out over the clouds. It started as a small black dot, out towards the eastern sun of Luminas. It had been obscured by the dark cloudbanks below the airship, but it now rose above them, so that the light of Luminas created a glinting effect upon its surface. Jack rummaged around in the courier sack he wore at his side and withdrew a long brass spy-glass, a present from Captain Drakis. He extended it with a well greased sliding, and peered through it towards the glinting shape. After a moment, he saw quite distinctly, the shapes of three biplanes.

"Raiders," whispered Jack as he sucked in a great deal of air. He snapped the brass spy glass shut and took off running down the catwalk. He slammed into the metal railing at the end of the walkway and pushed down hard on a red "alarm" button. The alarm snapped, and a sound like that off a very angry cat emanated from the numerous speakers around the ship. The bi-panes drew closer, approaching from the eastern side where Jack was so that now he could see distinct shape of their lightly-armored canvass wings. Around the ship men shouted as they were roused from their sleep. Jack turned back in towards the ship and watched anxiously as the gunners scurried, racing to the defensive machine guns. One such young gunner, a man with sandy-blonde hair stumbled up the metal stairs to the catwalk where Jack stood. His metal helmet was skewed and he still wore his night shirt and a pair of canvas pants. A stray bullet from a previous attack had done a number on the young man's cheek bone, so that he had a long scar running up his fair skin to his ear. Ignoring Jack, he raced up another set of circling stairs to the eastern engine gun port. Jack followed him up and watched with fascination as the sandy-haired man strapped himself into the gun turret and slid on his targeting goggles. Jack squatted next to the gunner, watching the horizon look growing excitement on his face. With anticipation, Jack looked out to the eastern sky. The biplanes had spread out across the horizon, and seemed to appear like grim line of advancing soldiers, ready to do their bloody work.

"There's only five of 'em" rattled Jack off to the gunner, "Really light armor, even for real cheap pirates. Looks like they were built for speed or something, just canvass and wood…."

"Quiet." Said the rough gunner, "and get your bloody head down before you get a bullet through it." Jack hunched down obediently, lying down on the wood deck of the gun turret. He took out his spyglass and watched the raiders anxiously.

The biplanes raced over the airship, two going underneath, tow around the side and one over. They opened fire at the gun turret and Jack squeezed his eyes shut as the bullets rattled around him. If the raiders could penetrate the engine hull armor on either side of the ship, the zepplin would spiral out of control and be useless to any conventional pirates, so why were they using such a deadly strategy? The gunner opened fire as well, but the rat-a-tat of the machine gun stopped suddenly, and Jack looked up to see the problem.

The gunner was slumped over the gun, a bullet had raced over the protective laser barrier and into his neck, severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly. In horror, Jack rose to his feet and shook the man.

"They're coming around for another pass!" barked a man in the gunner's radio, "All units, prepare for incoming, they're going all or nothing, gents! They pierce that hull and we're done!" If they circled around to the east again, they would have no opposition to the eastern engine, Jack knew what he had to do. He pulled the dead man from the gunner seat and pulled the goggles from his eyes. Jack sat down in the hard metal seat and snapped the large goggles over his eyes. He wrapped his hands around the gun joysticks and set his feet on the swerve peddles. His goggles targeting software picked up another two biplanes, indeed circling about the ship for another pass. Jack's hands shook with nervosa, and he compulsively flicked a switch at the side of one of the joysticks. There was an audible grinding as the turret switched armaments, but Jack was too wracked with emotion to notice it.

The two biplanes rounded about the keel of the ship, and Jack slammed the right gunner peddle, twisting the port into position. With a deep breath, he lined up the ship and pushed down hard on the two joy sticks. Two heat rockets streaked from the gun port and smashed into the first biplane, sending it careening back into the first biplane and then down towards the keel of the ship.

Lindsey sat in the biplane, feeling the wind whip about her face. The air was cold, but her scarf, goggles, and gloves, made it a little more bearable. Quickly, she went over her briefing papers as they flapped in the wind, a simple termination mission, freelanced out from god-knows-where. She smiled down at the black-and-white photograph of her target, a smiling young lad with tangled black hair of about thirteen years of age. However, her deployment was disagreeable. She would have to be dropped down onto an airship in flight, a very unappetizing prospect, but, besides that, she thought it would be a relatively simple mission.

The pilot of her plane hammered on the plane, trying to get her attention. She looked up from the plans, and looked over to the airship where he gestured.

"We'll circle around to the keel, that's where you'll drop on. The others will put up a distraction while you take care of your job, you hear?"

She nodded distinctly, and stood up in the biplane, flexing her muscles and gripping the support pole of the upper canvas wing. She checked her knives and flechette pistol, and bunched her auburn hair back into her helmet. They neared the ship, and the east side burst into a reign of bullets, targeting the other incoming ships. As planned, they balked over the gondola, distracting the ships gunners. She clutched the side of the biplane as it slowed, rounding over the keel, and, after taking a deep breath, jumped. Terror gripped her as she realized that she had miscalculated the speed of her fall across the gondola. She withdrew a knife and dragged it as she slid down the metal plating. Thankfully, the knife found a chink, and with a jolt, her descent stopped. She breathed in for a moment, and looked down below her. She needed to find some way onto the upper cat walk which she had missed. As she hung on the side of the keel, she tried desperately to calculate her next jump. A pair of biplanes circled around the keel, and buffeted past her, pressing her into the metal plating. Suddenly, there was an explosion, and the front biplane exploded in a mess of wrecked canvass and flame. It careened backwards into the other biplane, which grinded back along the gondola, heading straight for her at an amazing speed. She gasped as the wreckage hit her, knocking her grip of her knife, and threw her up the keel line, smashing her into the east engine room, through six inches of heavy steel bearing. Bruised and bloodied, the heat of the engine room buffeted her like a wave of hurt, searing the fringes of her clothes, wounds, and hair. Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed with pain, and she sniffled weakly. She crawled feebly into a corner of the engine room and gripped her knees to her chest as she cried. The room spun around her, whirling into black.