Aerial Knights

College truly did ramp up on me, and I am sorry for taking so long with the other stories. I wrote this a few months back in a few hours, and I am going to post it to see how the reaction goes. If it bodes well then I might turn it into another series.

I am nearly done with the next chapter ofMagical Essence and am in the process of rewriting the second and third chapters ofDade. Let me know what you think of this story, and all the rest of my other stories.

This is a prologue and is more of a back story than anything. Thanks for the support.

Aerial Knights -- Prologue

"Testing... Testing...", the microphone whined and Chris moved it further fro m his headset. He pushed the Mini-Disc into the cockpit recorder, turning on the equalizer, and disconnecting his headset. The screen connected to his forearm read 8 hours 14 minutes 32 seconds of reserve oxygen, he sighed making an attempt to wrap his bleeding side as much as possible before he began. He looked out through the canopy at the desolate landscape, checking the outside air sensors one more time, and then began his recording.

"My name is Lieutenant Christopher Blaine from the Fifth Squadron", he grunted and struggled to keep focused, "I am recording this in order to document what has happened over the past two days, and what ultimately lead to the circumstances that I currently find myself in." He read off some basic diagnostic information into the microphone, his last positional reading from the navigational computer, and the outside landscape readings.

He pressed the fighter's statistics panel, "My life support failed nine hours ago and I jacked into my gunner's at that point. He was injured in the attack, and died during the crash." Chris attempted to sound as calm as possible, but recounting the death of his best friend for the past three years was hard. The truth was that he was torn inside. Jason for the longest time had been the closest thing that he has ever had to family. They trained together, practiced together, and were assigned as flight partners. He held back sobbing and continued on with the vocal briefing.

"As soon as I am done with this recording I will be diverting the life support power to the directional antenna beacon. The GPS computer was damaged during the crash. There is just over eight ours of life support on my suit... I hope that is enough time." He knew the truth, the only way that he would survive is if the rescue team was on route to the crash site, and they did not even know the coordinates.

"Okay. Here we go."

November 26th 2106, 3:23AM

"Son of a bitch, Jay, repair did not fix the fuel leak", Chris tapped a few buttons bringing up the holographic HUD in front of him. He threw a few switches, and eased the throttle down. He then slammed his finger down on the radio-link.

"Zoey, come in."

"What do you wantnow, Chris?", a female voice replied over the communicator.

"How about dinner, a movie, and some sex? Actually, scratch that, I could live with just a quick fuck and some smokes", Chris replied. Jason started laughing behind him finishing up his game of solitaire on one of the flight terminal screens. Chris took the long pause as a silent signal to actually report his problem. Zoey and him were dating on and off for awhile now, but she called it off as soon as she was promoted to their Wing Commander.

He pressed in the radio-link again after a minute or so of dead air, "It seems that the lazy bastards in repair did not fix my fuel leak. I am going to need to break off from these great exercise runs and head back towards base."

"You better be serious, because if I find out that this is one of your pranks again I am going to kick your ass", Zoey knew he was telling the truth she had their flight statistics on her monitor. She also knew that Chris could most likely make the training run, but decided against adding pressure. Ever since they broke off their relationship they have both been at each other's throats while in the air.

"Roger that. I will see you back at bed...base...enjoy the monkey work", and with that Chris broke formation and plotted a new course. He flipped on the automatic pilot and rested his eyes. They were flying over what was once the capital of the United States of America, many years ago, and all that resided there now was a wasteland of what was once civilization. Most of the population had moved in land as soon as the oceans became contaminated. The Fifth Squadron was based out of what was once Ohio.

"Chris, wake the fuck up!", Jason yelled as he activated the infrared scanners, "We are being tagged. What in the hell?" Chris stirred awake as the Master Caution alarmed sounded, his ears buzzed, and he looked over at one of monitors. The ship was being attacked from three different angles by ground infantry, but the shields were holding up perfectly fine.

"Jay do we have a firing solution?", he pounded the coordinates into the navigational computer. They were not aware of any rebels being out there, but they were indeed being attacked. Chris reached up and turned on the uplink to the global satellite. He pressed in the radio-link, waited for the proper tone, and spoke clearly into the headset.

"This is Lieutenant Christopher Blaine with the Fifth Squadron western patrol exercise. I am reporting rebel activity at the following coordinates..." The Master Alarm sounded again and Chris looked again.

"Jay, shit, we have three bogey's at four o'clock", and Chris slammed the throttle to full hoping to out fly them to safe air space. But they were gaining ground too quick for that, and he broke from his flight pattern as the three started their assault.

The first hit brushed their fuselage and some of the digital instruments flickered and died out. Chris started evasive maneuvers in a blatant attempt to gain as much time as possible to make a run for it. The aircraft was built to out fly anything else, but with a fuel problem this could pose to be a moot point.

The second hit went square through the right side of the aircraft and through the chest of the co-pilot. Jason spurted blood from his mouth and covered his mask. The controls on the holographic HUD flickered twice, and everything went black as the aircraft veered towards the ground. Chris made a valiant attempt to land but the craft was moving too quickly. The hit crushed his left leg and pinned it against the seat instantly breaking it. The pain flooded through his nerves and immediately caused his brain to shut off.

November 26th 2106, 4:56AM

The cold overcame his body. As Chris awoke he could feel his leg had gone numb and the combat suit had already instantly created a tourniquet. He pressed the button on his glove to activate the communication-link.

"Jay? Jay, buddy, are you awake?" Chris couldn't move to look back at his friend. The line was dead. There was no static. There was nothing but dead air.

"Jason? What the fuck?" he threw his back into the seat has hard as he could think his friend was just unconscious. He reached forward and turned on the emergency auxiliary power, and immediately was told the bad news.

The diagnostics report showed what he had feared. His childhood friend had died from a shell to the chest. He had drowned in his own blood, choking and gagging until he asphyxiated. Chris could feel his whole body become weak and tears formed.

He tapped the microphone recording device.

"Zoey, I'm sorry babe...Testing... Testing..."