File 10.7 - An Unwanted Welcome Reprieve

The last lock rang out through the interior of the transport. Ed could breathe a sigh of relief having to park the machine in mid-flight. Succeeding in it gave him a bit of pride doing something so nigh impossible. “Gonna need a bath…” he remarked on the sweat in his pilot suit from the maneuver. Everything else going forward felt like a piece of cake now.

He tapped on the console at his fingers working through the system checks on the machine again mentally. It ran multiple calculations for him on energy usage and time he had remaining. “Tight window…” Some of the worst estimates had him at only ten minutes of operation time. The Od might have had a flight mode, but it wasn’t built for actual real flight across continents. It had poor energy consumption while in flight with the form and altitude. He hoped that would be something that would change for the machine. A flying machine that burned through energy faster than in combat was almost comical.

Once he finished his checks, he hit the comm. getting Ansgar on the line. “Hey Ensign!” he called out with a bit of a faux cheer in his voice, trying to mask his enjoyment in the situation. “Got two minutes before drop. Think ya can hold out?”

A flash of light came through the background of Ansgar along with shaking before he acknowledged Ed. “We can survive for thirty minutes,” he boasted, trying to diminish the urgency and need for Ed’s Od at the battle.

“Good tah hear, Ensign! What’s tha sitch?”

“The enemy’s got command of the entire security system in West Bollen. They control the air space, so we can’t target the emplacements they have on the rooftops. And they’re jumping in and out of the city streets dodging any attack.”

Live combat cameras and data came through to Ed on the monitor. Mentally he moved them to his side screens working out the picture. As he started to put a plan of attack together he slid in windows for his checks. “Looks hairy! Ninety seconds tah drop. Try getting’ those emplacements attention, would ja?”

‘Given me orders…’ Ansgar groaned to himself. He knew that they needed the help, so he couldn’t really argue with him. Plus, he was supposed to be the leader, their commander, taking the high road was important. As much as he hated the position.

Checking the battle, he looked at Air’s position planning on having her draw out the attention. She already had the long range weapons they used pointed at her because they wanted to keep her pinned down and limited. Every time that she tried out maneuvering them, they only had more plans that she didn’t count on. Worse, the damage on the Skadi started to become inhibiting for her.

Their options kept getting limited with each passing minute. ‘Damn, these things are supposed to be the most advanced technology ever created and yet we’re getting this easily boxed in.’ He didn’t understand how they were being beaten so easily, especially when output wise the enemy machines were far inferior.

Ansgar couldn’t spend much time complaining about it. The arrival of the Od would come soon and to get the most out of the surprise, he needed to ensure that he had them distracted fully. “Time to take a pounding…”