~~~~~
Jacobi broke the surface of the water and ran his hands through his hair. Just as he had predicted, a river met with the sewage outlet and pooled into a small lake just below the processing factory. All it took was a small trip upstream to find fresh water.
He had never been so grateful for clean water in his entire life and the looks on Sara and Charles’ faces told him that they shared the sentiment.
He knew they couldn’t stay long, but no matter how much the voice of reason protested he couldn’t say no to ridding himself of the foul stench and slimy feeling left by the sewage.
“You’ve had your fun playing in the water, now you should probably start hoofing it.” The inner-voice snapped.
Jacobi looked around. Sara was sitting on the bank using her fingers to brush her hair Charles was lying next to her with his hands folded behind his head.
He waded towards them. “We should get moving soon. Gabgoblin’s men won’t stay in the sewers for forever, they’ll eventually turn their search outward and that could be bad.”
“Can we have one more minute?” Sara asked with a small smile.
“Sure, what for?”
Sara turned to Charles and lightly slapped him on the arm. They both hoped to their feet. Sara stood with her arms stretched out to the sides and Charles placed his hands over Sara’s head.
“What are you doing?”
“Just watch, it’s pretty nifty.” Sara said quickly from behind a smile.
Then, like magic, all of the water evaporated from her. Even her clothes were completely dry.
Jacobi noticed that Charles was also dry. “I see, using Charles’ ability as a heater. That is nifty!” Jacobi mused that this was the first time in his lift that he had used the word “nifty” and his smile widened.
“You wanna get dried too?” Charles asked, his hands were glowing a dull orange.
Jacobi shrugged. “Why not, running in dry clothes will be much easier than trying to run in wet clothes.”
Charles placed his hands above Jacobi’s head and within seconds he too was dry.
When Charles was finished he put his hands in his pockets and stepped back. “Captain, I’m sorry about how I acted back there.”
The sudden apology caught Jacobi off guard and all he could manage to respond with was a thunderstruck: “Huh?”
“Y’know, for yellin’ at you and stuff. You were thinkin’ about our safety, more importantly, Sara’s safety. I just didn’t want to get in the sewage.” He sighed. “So I’m sorry.”
Jacobi put his hand up, signaling for Charles to stop. “Okay. Apology accepted.” He chuckled. “Can you stop talking so sincere now? It’s kind of throwing me off.”
Charles huffed: “Sara made me do it.”
They all laughed, but their laughter didn’t last long.
A low drone filled the air and quickly grew into a blaring roar. Sara and Charles looked around in a panic, but Jacobi knew exactly what the sound was.
“Into the bushes!” He shouted. But even shouting as loud as he could he barely heard himself over the noise of the engines.
Sara and Charles followed him into the brush and the three of them crouched together and watched as three ships touched down on the far side of the river.
Jacobi’s mind was a flurry of thoughts as he tried to analyze this unexpected development. He now knew that the group that they had evaded by jumping into the sewage belonged to Gabgoblin. He assumed that they called for back-up after they heard the splash and that this was the closest entrance that the back-up could find.
“We haven’t been found yet, but the hounds are on our trail.”
Four men exited each ship and entered the sewers in two single-file lines. Each soldier was equipped with a stun-rifle. A hit from those guns would be far from deadly, but capture would be guaranteed and at this point, capture was worse than death.
“Hey now, are you really struggling this much?” The voice of reason coaxed.
Those ships, Jacobi knew them. They were Gabgoblin’s air-to-space assault crafts, Sharpfins. Each ship could hold up to four passengers, which made five soldiers if you included the pilot. Twelve men had just vacated the scene which left at least three people to deal with. And dealing with them seemed to be their only option. If Gabgoblin had deployed his ships the final stretch to the hangar would be neigh impossible to cover without being spotted.
He looked at Sara and Charles. They were both waiting for his command.
“Gabgoblin shouldn’t know that I’m involved yet,” He brought his thumb and index-finger to his chin. “If I can fool the pilots into thinking that I was captured by Wynn and somehow escaped it could provide you two with enough time to spring a surprise attack. If we can get that far I can use one of those Sharpfins to get us to the Outrunner.”
The twins both replied with a determined nod.
“Oh-ho, it looks like you’re getting better at making these decisions.” Jacobi’s inner voice sang.
Jacobi dug his hands into the soil and started covering himself with dirt. Without even looking up he could feel Sara and Charles’ questioning stares. “If I’m going to put on a show I’m going to need to look the part.” He smeared a final handful of dirt onto his forehead.
He turned to Charles: “Hit me.”
“’scuse me?”
“I doubt Wynn, or Wynn’s people, would pass on the chance to deck Gabgoblin’s right-hand man.” He set his jaw and steeled his nerves. “So, hit me.”
“Are you sure that’s-”
Charles lashed out with his fist, interrupting Sara before she could finish.
Stars exploded in Jacobi’s eyes and he fell to the ground. He could feel his cheek swelling before he even sat up. Despite his thin build Charles was incredibly strong.
“Ah, that smarts.” Jacobi whimpered as he gently patted his already-swollen cheek.
“How was that? Feel like an escaped prisoner now?” Charles asked behind a grin.
“Something like that,” Jacobi struggled to his feet. “I’ll try to draw all three pilots outside. When I give the signal you two jump in and take them out. Can you do that?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve set fire to Gabgoblin’s flunkies.”
“What’s the signal?”
“Good point, Sara.” Jacobi winced in pain at his cheek. “How’s this?” He lifted his shoulders and threw his hands to the sides. A casual shrug. “It shouldn’t seem too odd, right?”
“What makes you think this’ll work?” Charles asked.
“It’s our only option, as far as I can see. As for how it’ll work?” He practiced his shrug. “Our luck’s been pretty good this far.” And with that he exited the brush and headed towards the Sharpfins.
He made it half way across the river before all three pilots exited their vehicles and closed in on him.
Just like their companions who had entered the sewers, they all wielded stun-rifles and all three rifles were trained on Jacobi as the pilots approached.
“Break a leg…” The voice of reason chirped.
If his acting was good enough everything would go according to plan. He donned his “right-hand-man” façade, mixed in a little fear to be safe and threw his hands into the air.
“Don’t shoot!” He cried.
The pilots exchanged nods and continued towards him with their weapons at the ready.
“I’m Jacobi Myles. Mister Gabgoblin’s secretary, surely you know of me.” He scanned their faces but their helmets made it impossible for him to recognize any of them as people he knew.
They met on the bank of the river and Jacobi kept his arms in the air.
The middle pilot spoke: “You say that you’re Jacobi Myles? I’ve heard of him, but I’ve never seen the kid. How do we know that you’re him?”
“Mister Gabgoblin is in a meeting right now, it’s very hush-hush. He’s meeting with the owner of the Merril Company. He’s planning to buy them out.” The pilot on the left was dre
ssed in a suit and tie instead of his standard battle-gear. He’d obviously been deployed from Gabgoblin’s guard squad. Jacobi just hoped that the man would know enough about Gabgoblin’s plans to vouch for him.
The pilot spoke up: “That is top-secret information.” He looked to the others. “Chances of anyone outside of Gabgoblin’s inner circle knowing that are slim.” He lowered his weapon. “But if you are Jacobi Myles, what are you doing all the way out here?”
“I was investigating the escape of two workers from Gillian’s Junkyard when I was assaulted by a group of rebels. I believe they’re under the command of a man named Wynn. I was being held prisoner in the sewers when the explosion occurred. My restraints were knocked free in the blast and I used the ensuing chaos to escape.”
The pilot on the right lowered his weapon as well. “That’s right, I heard Gabgoblin put you on that case. Do you have any idea what the explosion was?”
Somehow this was going quite well. Jacobi was careful to not let a single sign of his joy show on his face. He shook his head: “I have no clue. It could have been the result of a random spark igniting the gases within the tunnels or-” He doubled over and pressed his hand to his cheek. He hadn’t necessarily planned to, but he could use this to carry out his plan.
The middle pilot, who seemed to still distrust Jacobi, lowered his weapon and rushed to Jacobi’s side. “Mister Myles, are you alright?”
“Bingo!” The voice of reason cheered.
Jacobi replied in a shaky voice: “I think I’m fine,” He panted. “But those thugs didn’t go easy on me. The explosion wasn’t a walk in the park either.”
“Come with me, I’ll transport you to the hospital.” The pilot draped his arm around Jacobi and started leading him towards the Sharpfins.
Jacobi lifted his shoulders and threw his hands to the sides. “I think that’ll be a good idea. Sorry for interrupting your mission.”
“It’s no problem sir. I’m sorry for doubting you.”
Jacobi didn’t see what happened next, but he heard the pilot to his left scream in pain and the one to his right fall to the floor. He spun around and his fist connected with the bottom of the last pilot’s jaw. As the pilot fell to the floor Jacobi wrenched the rifle from his grip and confirmed that it was indeed a stun gun. He fired a round into the pilot’s chest and looked up to see Sara and Charles waiting for instruction.
The pilot from Gabgoblin’s guard squad was curled into a ball and shivering on the floor, the last pilot had made a dash back to the river. Two more shots from the rifle and the danger was gone.
“We don’t have much time, Charles I want you to break their COMs.” He patted his left hip. “They’re usually on their belts. I’ll get the Sharpfin ready to go.” He wanted to have Charles set fire to the other two ships but time was of the essence and another explosion would only draw more attention to them.
Jacobi ran inside the closest Sharpfin and took the controls. The Outrunner was built using the frame, engine and body of a ship called the Yellowtail, but the controls and console were all based off of the Sharpfin. The controls that he now faced were essentially the controls that he had worked to master for the past two years. He smiled.
Sara took the seat beside his. “Is there anything that I can do?”
He quickly pointed to a green switch on the far side of the console. “Flip that please.”
Charles’ footsteps were soft as he entered the bus. He pulled the hatch closed behind him. “All done, Captain.”
“Good, sit down and strap in.” He flipped three switches to his left, then added: “You too Sara, I can’t say that this will be a smooth ride.”
The engine came to life and the HUD was projected onto the windshield.
Jacobi looked at the series of lights on the top row of the console. Each light represented an important system that needed to be active in order to fly. He mumbled aloud as he confirmed each light’s luminance: “Life Support System, Navigations System, Command System, Communications Systems, Gravity Drive, Power and Propulsion Systems all on-line. Air-lock confirmed.” He took a deep breath and cleared his mind. “We’re ready for launch.”
“Punch it!” Charles shouted. He sounded excited and Jacobi couldn’t blame him, this was his first time flying and he was excited too.
Jacobi eased the ignition into the “ON” position, in response the Electro-Magnetic turbines began to spin. The Sharpfin lifted off the ground as the turbines began to emit their anti-gravity waves and he smiled.
Jacobi pushed the throttle forward and the ship began to cruise forward. He pulled on the cyclic and the Sharpfin took to the skies. A majority of the more complicated functions were taken care of by the ship’s computers and could be overridden by the “Big Red Button” located in the middle of the console, hidden under a plastic guard. In most cases it was wise to let the computer handle these functions, as was the case at hand, it was usually only in emergency situations that a pilot would disable the auto-stabilizers. With the auto-stabilizers in control, all Jacobi really had to worry about was the altitude, direction and speed of the Sharpfin, which made piloting a lot more simple than he had planned for.
The Sharpfin sailed smoothly through the skies. At this rate they’d be at the hangar in no time. As long as Charlie had everything ready to go and Lawrence had made it back safely, they’d be off of Titan within the hour.
Somehow they’d made it this far. Luck played a large role in everything, this Jacobi knew, and he prayed to whatever beings ruled the universe - be they god-like or not - that his luck, their luck, would hold out for just a bit longer.
“Oh how I wish I could provide some comforting lies right now,” The voice of reason crooned. “But alas, all I have to offer are but four, little words.” Jacobi could practically hear the voice’s sinister smile as it teased him. “Take evasive action, Captain.”
Jacobi’s stomach sank.
The HUD suddenly turned red and a siren began to wail within the cabin.
“What’s going on?” Sara screamed over the siren.
And as if replying to her question large, white letters appeared on the heads-up display: MISSILE LOCKED.
“Jacobi, what’s happenin’?” Charles shouted as he unbuckled his restraints and headed toward the front of the ship.
As frantic as his thoughts were Jacobi took a few precious moments to yell at Charles: “Sit down you fool!”
He pushed the throttle even further and the ship jolted forward. He cycled through the exterior cameras but could find no sign of another ship. Even the radar in the bottom corner of the HUD showed nothing. The sirens continued to blare and Jacobi wondered if it was some sort of malfunction.
Sara had taken over the view-screen and was looking through them when she gasped: “Jacobi!”
Jacobi quickly turned to the screen. There, far in the distance, was a ship. He didn’t even need to zoom in to tell what kind of ship it was, it was one of a kind after all. There was only one craft that Jacobi knew of that had such a round body and bulbous turbines: Gabgoblin’s personal ship, the Bigeye.
Jacobi pulled hard on the cyclic and the Sharpfin banked to the left just as an explosion burst into existence.
“What the Hell is going on?” Charles shouted from the back of the cabin.
“It’s Gabgoblin!” The Bigeye could fire up to four missiles in a row before having to reload. If Jacobi could avoid those four missiles he’d be able to escape the Bigeye’s range before it had time to reload.
The Sharpfin was fast but it lacked any heavy armor or cannons, the only offensive options that a Sharpfin had were two assault turrets fixed on either side of the nose. Its counterpart, the Yellowtail, was essentially a flying tank. Its slow speed was compensated for heavy armor and a main cannon capable of ripping a Sharpfin to shreds with a single shot.
Gabgoblin’s personal ship, the Bigeye, took the best of both ships and made for one tough opponent when it came to aerial combat.
“I should be able
to out run him, but,” He pulled back on the cyclic, the Sharpfin dove upwards and they successfully avoided missile number two. “But we can’t pull away until they start reloading their cannons.”
At this point it would be unwise to head straight to the hangar. They could try to ditch the Sharpfin and hide in the maze-like complex of warehouses, but if they were found it would be game over for everyone.
He glanced at the radar. They were approaching the hangar and at this rate they’d pass it before the fourth missile was fired.
“Here comes another one!” Sara shouted.
Jacobi tracked the missile and rolled the Sharpfin out of its way with plenty of room to spare. “That’s number three.”
He decided that they’d land just beyond the warehouse district, ditch the Sharpfin and run back to the hangars, there was plenty of cover and Gabgoblin probably wouldn’t expect them to be running backwards.
“Unless he knows where you’re headed.”
The voice of reason’s comment sent a chill down Jacobi’s spine. “There’s no way he could know about the hangar.” Jacobi replied, but the voice would not offer him anything more.
“There’s the fourth one!” Sara warned.
Jacobi brought the missile up on the view-screen and tracked its projection. The missile was flying straight towards them, just as the previous three had, but Jacobi noticed - a few seconds too late - that this missile was different than the others.
He pulled the throttle all the way back and threw the reverse thrusters into full burn. “Brace for impact!” The Sharpfin plummeted down and Jacobi pulled hard on the cyclic to keep the ship from spinning out of control. Down was the only safe way to go, he hoped that he made it in time.
The missile reached its destination and exploded into an ocean of cluster bombs. Each little bomb was equipped with a mini-thruster and they all flew in random directions. If Jacobi would have realized that the missile was different sooner he may have been able to evade the explosion, but the cluster rockets swarmed the Sharpfin.
The ship was enveloped in a cloud of fire. Jacobi felt the temperature spike and a sharp pain in his stomach. The last thing he saw before the world turned black was Sara’s horrified, blood-stained face.