Sonic Aftermath

Not far from a certain evacuation fleet, a small alien craft with a long black smoke trail flowing from its right engine was struggling to maintain altitude. It had plasma burn marks and large gashes across its fuselage from some recent battle. Era looked nervously at her controls, the ship was in bad shape. The yaw control pedals vibrated under her feet, her gauges were telling her they were lucky to be alive, much less still aloft. Out ahead of them was a vast wilderness, dense jungle below them as far as the eye could see.

"Guys, I don't know if we're going to make it all the way back to base. We may have to make an emergency landing in the jungle. I want everyone to have their weapons and gear ready to depart immediately after we touch down should we have to make a landing. The rebels will be right behind us, we can't be nearby when they find the ship. Everyone is ok right? Gichii, you hanging in there?"

"Somehow, I don't think that matters. They will find us. That was a light destroyer, they've got thousands of troops to spare to hunt us down. Not only that, we're they're secondary priority because they think we know where the ship is." Amero said.

"We'll have to be smart about this, use the dense jungle to our advantage. If we can keep them busy, maybe those other raptors will have a better chance of escape and complete their mission."

"How do we know we can trust them, they didn't even tell you who they were. They have Nail for the stars sake, they could be rebels or worse, Yudanese regulars. They would torture him like the stars would burn out if they didn't." Amero retorted.

"I know a republic when I see them. They were ours, their armor was similar to our special forces."

"You think they were spesh?"

"yeah"

"How is that even possible though? We never got in contact with them, we couldn't"

"I don't know, but they were our guys I'm sure of it. Maybe they found their way here following rebel troop movements or something."

"For Nails sake, our sakes, I hope you're right."

"me to"

Amiroo looked out of his blackened window, the world beyond barely visible through the burned glass.

[Will there be another topic for Nail, Amiroo, and Gail?]

"I'm...I'm not doing so well." Giichi's voice trembled. He didn't know what they would do once they crashlanded in the jungle. They'd been through enough excitement for one day, as far as he was concerned. But it looked like there was more for where that came from. "What's a Yudanese regular anyway?"


He looked out the window. The jungle stretched out in all directions like an endless sea of green. Absolutely no sign of civilization was in sight.

"Jeez...even if we do get away from the rebels, what are we going to do next? We could be wandering around this jungle for days, if not weeks."

Quote:"I'm...I'm not doing so well."

Rye Nudged Gichii reassuringly with her snout, "It's alright Gichii, whatever comes, your friends are here with you. We're all going to face this together, as a team."

"Yeah man, you're gonna be alright. We're gonna get ourselves out of this one way or another. We may have to fight our way out, but have faith that we'll get out." Amiroo added.

Quote:"What's a Yudanese regular anyway?"

"A service member of the regular military of the nation of Yudan" Amiroo replied without taking his eyes off the jungle below. "They're even worse than the rebels. They're the reason the rebellion is so well equipped. All you really need to know about them is that they are a society gone mad, ruthless, and they're militarily as strong as the republic in most respects. They stand opposed to pretty much everything you would consider just, just name it. Totalitarianism at its worst."

"Guys, gear now.." Era said annoyed. The ship quite suddenly dropped vertically, everything in the cabin suddenly went weightless as the craft screamed earthward.

"What's happening!?" Tybe yelled

" we just lost power to the gravimetrics" Era said taping furiously on the holographic displays trying to reroute electrical power to the engines. The clouds below drew closer, eventually passing the ship by as it fell like a stone.

"Anytime now Era"

"Please Era hurry the ground is getting awfully close"

"shut up Amero, she's trying!"

"I'm moving as fast I ca..."

Just then the engines roared to life once more, a mere six hundred feet from the ground....

"I don't know if I an pull that!!" Era said as she pulled hard on her controls. The G's piled on as the ship pulled away in an attempt to miss the ground, but it was becoming apparent that might not be successful...

"oh crapcrapcrapcrap" Era said as the ground raced up to greet them.

"AHHHHHHHH" Amiroo yelled as the ship leveled out just barely over the tree canopy below. Trees swayed in its vortexes as it zoomed by overhead.

Everything in the cabin fell silent, everyone rendered speechless from their near death encounter. Amiroo looked shakily at Era, "Put it down in the jungle, land it now".

"yeah, seriously Era" Amero agreed verbally, while the others simply nodded their heads in agreement.

"agreed" Era said as she slowed the ship into a hover before setting it down gently in the tall undergrowth of a dried out riverbed.

Era quickly unstrapped herself, grabbed her gear and headed for the rear hatch. The others quickly made preparations to do the same.

"we've probably got just a half hour at the most before this place is swarming with rebels. We have to make tracks."

[to great forest]