| Jovian APAworks | Volume 1, Number 7 | July, 2001 |
Lt. Liliane Cymri was glad when she received the order to return to the JSS Vigil for it meant two things. One that the ECM jamming field that was thrown up by the enemy exo-armors was no more. Two, that the fight was indeed over, which was good because her Retaliator exo-armor was badly damaged.
Liliane took a quick stock of the damage to her exo. Her damage display, showing multiple views of her exo, coloured many parts of her machine red. There was extensive damage to her maneuver, control and environmental systems. Portions of her cockpit sphere were showing static or darkness, the monitors and display systems having been blown out by the vicious melee that she had been involved in a few minutes ago. Thin wisps of a dark green smoke wafted through the inside of her sphere indicating that something was still burning.
She acknowledged the return order and started to make some small thrusting towards the Strike Carrier. The controls felt odd, as if her commands were taking too long to reach the small thrusters. Her exo was hurting and she muttered some words of encouragement to it. Just hold together a little longer and everything will be alright, she said trying to sound reassuring.
The radio sputtered to life. "Negative on the vector to Hangar 3. Hangar 3 has been destroyed. Change vector 34.7 south for Hangar 5."
The message struck a chord within Liliane. Hangar 3 had been destroyed. Her mind repeated the words with the same cold tone. Destroyed. She was already heading towards the hangar, even though it was still a ways off, and magnified her image to show the hangar. The young pilot inhaled sharply. Her exos home looked as though someone had ripped the roof off and kicked in the walls. At the end of the catapult was a mess of jagged edges to one side of a small crater.
Her mind reconstructed the explosion even though she had not seen it. She watched the hangar explode in a bright brief flash. She watched as her crewmates were thrown about and torn up by the force of the explosion and the sudden exposure to the vacuum of space. She could see their faces locked in their silent screams.
"Gally..." Liliane whispered.
Galen Pax heard the announcement about the recovery of the Vigils exo-armors and joined the throngs of crew scurrying about to ready the ship. Most were working to ensure that the landing systems were all in working order after the chaos caused by the Brimstone launched anti-ship Torpedoes. He asked for a status report as there were 3 exos out there that needed to be brought back home safely and was told how only one was coming in right now. One other exo had been destroyed and the other was drifting. The exo that was landing belonged to Lt. Liliane Cymri, the pilot that he was assigned to.
He ran through the ship a burst through the door of the Hangar 5 control room. The Hangar Chief was busy making final preparations. Galen strode up to him and asked him his readiness.
"This isn't the first time that I've recovered a badly damaged exo, Galen." Master Sergeant Lethbridge said indignantly. He didn't have time for outside interference.
"I know that Jean...."
"Good!" Lethbridge interrupted Galens sentence. "Now get out of my hangar. I don't have time to make reports to you with those newbies on the bridge pestering me every few seconds."
"I want to help Jean. That's my exo-armor out there."
Master Sergeant Lethbridge turned to face Galen. "I don't need you here Galen. I have everything under control. This is MY hangar, not yours!"
"And that is MY Pilot out there!" Galen snapped back. "She's just been through combat, heard that a bunch of people on the Vigil may have been killed and her exo is falling apart around her. She's on edge. What she needs is to hear a familiar voice. Someone who knows how she reacts. That person is me. Let me talk her down Jean."
The two men locked eyes for a moment. An invisible duel was taking place. One of the Maintenance crew called out the distance to the exo and Lilianes approach vector. Neither man wanted to give ground.
Liliane maneuvered her exo into the designated approach vector. The Vigil slowly grew bigger in her view screen. The smoke that twisted around in the cockpit sphere obscured the ship at times, making it seem as though the Vigil was sailing through a fog bank.
"Rose 2 to Hangar 5. I'm on approach but I'm having trouble with visual confirmation." She said as she tried to adjust the environmental controls some more. The thickening smoke was beginning to obscure everything outside of her helmet.
"Copy that Rose 2. Standby."
Standby. The Retaliator was burning on the inside and she was unable to see anything on her final approach. What could they be doing?
"Rose 2 this is Hangar Chief." The voice was familiar. Through the slight static that impaired her radio communications, Liliane thought that she heard...
"Gally!" she almost shouted.
"I'm here Liliane. Can you hear me alright?"
"There is a little...static but I can hear you." Liliane sought to control the quiver in her voice. She was extremely happy to hear Galens voice. Once more he was there to help her.
"Okay. We've got the diagnostic linkup working and we're just going over it. How are things in the cockpit?"
"Gally...I've got smoke all over the inside here and I am having trouble seeing the monitors."
"Okay Liliane. We are going to have to vent the cockpit. How is your flight suits integrity?"
Liliane tapped a small button on her controls and the pressure suit status indicators flashed to one side of the helmet HUD. There were no tears or rips in her suit and she passed this information onto Galen.
"Standby for venting." He replied. Liliane waited. Any moment now the atmosphere in the cockpit sphere would be sucked out and the smoke with it.
Nothing happened. "Liliane. We can't vent. The computer is not responding properly." The smoke grew thicker until she couldn't see the Strike Carrier.
"My...Visibility is Zero. I repeat my Visibility is Zero." She said into the radio. "Switching over to Intruments."
At the press of a button, the inside of Lilianes helmet HUD flashed landing data. A series of lines was drawn, indicating her approach vector with intervals for speed reduction. Another series of lines crossed the vector indicating the hangars arresting cables. A small compass-like display showed her the attitude to take on her approach.
And her attitude was wrong. She was tilted 60 degrees to one side. If she tried to land like this, the Retaliators shoulder would catch and she would roll over. "Adjusting attitude." She said as she manipulated the controls to make the proper adjustment.
"Liliane! What are you doing?" Galens voice shot across the radio-link. "do not adjust your attitude!"
She froze in mid-maneuver. "Say again Gally."
"Your computer is feeding you wrong approach information. The receiver is not working properly."
Liliane, who had calmed down quite a bit upon hearing Galens voice, began to tense up. If she was receiving incorrect information from the approach systems, and she was unable to see the ship on her monitors, then she was flying blind.
"We're going to have to talk you through this landing Liliane." Galens voice had the calmness that he was known for. Liliane found some comfort in it. "Ignore your computer and just follow my voice." Liliane nodded her assent, aware that the landing crew probably couldn't even see it.
"You're gyro-compass is functioning. Its calibration hasn't been lost. Use it to adjust your attitude. Tilt back 14 degrees to your right and bring your nose up 8 degrees."
Liliane checked her gyro-compass and made the necessary adjustments. It was a strange feeling to be bombarded with all this information from her exos computer systems and not believe it.
"You're over compensating Lil. Ease up on the motion a little.'
She stared down at her controls. She could barely see her hands through the smoke. "I'm not over-compensating."
There were several seconds of silence immediately after her reply. "You're main thrusters are leaking burn mass. It's throwing off your steering. We're going to have to vent burn mass. Standby to release tanks."
Liliane instinctively brought up the fuel system controls and set them up on her HUD. Upon the remote command from the Vigil, the main fuel tanks were released from the Retaliator. They disconnected and Liliane felt her Retaliator lurch from the action. She used her reserve mass to compensate and bring the exo back onto its proper course.
Using Galen as her eyes, Liliane made small changes in her approach, constantly having to make up for the damage to her motive systems. All through the approach, Galens calm voice reduced her nervousness. She fed off of it like a vampire, drinking herself full of it. Her movements became more controlled and relaxed. Tension melted away from her.
"Okay. We're almost there." Galens voice sounded closer in her headset. "It might get a little bumpy. We're going to have to use the arrestor cables to catch you. Hope you're buckled in."
"Galen catch me." Liliane joked back but it was a nervous tone that she used.
Meter by meter was counted down and Liliane followed the instructions that Galen gave, but as much as she tried the exo was still fighting her. It was almost like the Retaliator knew that this was not its hangar that they were about to land in and it did not want to go in.
The pilot lurched forward in her control harness. She must have hit the arrestor cables, but she couldn't see them or hear them. Galen gave her an all clear, told her that she was caught. Liliane relaxed her grip from the controls but improperly. Her fingers brushed the thruster firing stud and the Retaliator twisted to the side.
Galen yelled something but Liliane couldn't hear it. She was thrown to one side and then the other. Liliane grabbed hold of the controls and tried to fight the unexpected twisting. Her gyro-compass spun wildly with the motion of the Retaliator. Finally the motion stopped with a loud crash of metal hitting metal. Liliane let go of the control, a touch more careful this time, and radioed her okay.
Galen breathed a sigh of relief as Liliane calle din her okay. The careening Retaliator had finally hit the wall of the hangar and stopped. Luckily there was no one around to get in its way. Galen and Jean Lethbridge looked at the exo. The final thrusting had caused it to tear through one side of the arrestor cabling and topple head over feet through the hangar. It finally rested upside down, its feet bent and twisted looking as though it had tripped.
The two hangar chiefs looked back from the exo to each other and broke out laughing.
"Well I suppose that any landing that you can walk away from is a good one." Galen said as he straightened up.
"True but you're not going to get many points for grace." Jean replied.
"Heh heh. We should take a picture of this." Galen pointed to the comical landing position of the Retaliator. He turned back to Lethbridge. "Thanks Jean. I appreciate this."
Jean Lethbridge clapped Galen on the shoulder. "Galen. I've served with you for a couple of years now and I've never seen you act this way for a pilot. Not enough to almost slug me. What could I do?"
Galen furled his brow in thought at this. Sure he did take a great deal of responsibility for the pilots that he worked for. Somehow Liliane was different but he couldn't understand why.
Editors Note: This multi-part piece by Grizzly Bryan Lee. You can follow the story from the beginning here.
| Jovian APAworks | Volume 1, Number 7 | July, 2001 |
Jovian Chronicles is © 2001, Dream Pod 9, Inc. All rights reserved. Jovian APAworks is not affiliated with Dream Pod 9 in any way. Submitted material remains the property of the creator.