Jess was seated in her chair, with her arms folded. “You actually know how to do this.”
Dev turned in her seat and looked back at Jess. “Yes.”
“Unreal.” Jess settled a comm set over her own head and triggered it. “Blue group 1, Blue group controller.”
“One, Tac 1.”
“One, Tac 2.”
The answers came back in clipped tones. “Report ready.” Jess said. “We are ready and standing by to launch.”
Bare hesitation. “Tac 1 ready.” Jason answered. “Standing by.”
“Tac 2 ready’ Elaine followed a beat later. “Standing by.”
“Ask control to open the gates.” Jess told Dev. “We’ll launch first, you all follow. When we get to the first set of coordinates, I’ll split right you split left. Copy?”
“Understood.” Jason reported.
“Gotcha.” Elaine said.
“Control, this is BR27006. Requesting access for flight please.” Dev spoke into the comms.
Even through the hull of the carrier, they could hear the roof opening, the huge metal panels grinding apart and allowing a thunder of water into the bay, drops falling and slamming into the carrier roof with a muted roar.
Dev settled herself and put her hands on the engine throttle controls, her mind going over her next few steps. She was glad she had the programming so solid for this, everything seemed familiar to her and the readouts all clicked in her mind.
“BR27006 this is control.” The voice said. “Access is granted. Launch when ready.”
“Go.” Jess said. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Dev took a deep breath, and let it out, then she thumbed the launch jet controls and felt the carrier shift under her. In the next moment, they were rising past the carriers on either side, and she gently puffed the side jets to position them under the wide opening.
It was like the sim, and not. The rumbling and the sensation was the same, but there was a spatial difference she realized immediately and she gave the launch jets a little more power to get them up and out of the cavern.
Below her, she spotted the two other carriers lifting to follow, and then she was above the hatches and into the steady rain still falling around them. She shifted sideways again, and rotated the carrier 360 degrees on the horizon, looking at the endless expanse of craggy lifeless land and then the equally endless expanse of ocean.
The two other carriers emerged from the cavern, and hovered, as the big panels slid shut. Dev programmed into the coordinates Jess had given her, and then she turned. “Ready to fly.”
Jess was still watching her, with her arms crossed, and a bemused smile on her face. “Let’s go, then.” She said. “So far, you’re doing fine.”
Dev smiled back, then she turned and settled herself again. She opened the controls for the propulsion engines and triggered them, waiting for them to engage forward motion before she shut down the launch jets and they started forward.
The rumble of the carrier grew and the engines spooled up, increasing their speed as they left the cliffs behind and headed out over open water. It was very dark, but the multiband sensors in her forward display let Dev see in front of her as though it were daylight.
She increased the speed, and then settled down to watch the readouts, tweaking the trim on the carrier until the outer rumble slowed, then faded, as they went through the speed of sound.
“Jess.” The intercom crackled.
“Yes, Jason?” Jess leaned back in her chair.
“You driving that thing?”
Jess chuckled. “Nope. I’m sitting in the back, about to start checking my guns.”
“Shit.”
Dev glanced behind her. “I’m sorry if I’m causing him disturbance.” She returned her attention to the readouts, making a slight adjustment to their trim.
“That was a compliment. Don’t’ worry about it.” Jess said. “Okay, I’m going to check out the weapons systems. Don’t make any loud noise. I’ve got a jumpy trigger finger and I don’t want to shoot Jason’s butt from under him.”
Dev’s eyes widened a little, and she turned around again to look at Jess.
Jess grinned, and winked. “Keep your eyes on the road, kid. We’re going to have us some fun.”
**
The long trip had given Dev ample opportunity to explore all the controls on the carrier and she was now reasonably comfortable with them, settled back in her chair as the water skimmed under them for mile after mile of ruffled white gray surface.
Jess had tuned the weapons systems that were rooted in her console, laser cannons mounted on all sides of the carrier along with two racks of flash bombs in eject tubes. Now she was working with the pad at her station, keying in trims on the cannons and keeping an eye on their progress.
She hadn’t spoken much. Dev occasionally glanced back at her, noting the absorbed expression as s she went about her tasks. “Sixty minutes to edge of the storm.” She said, as Jess looked up and met her eyes.
“Good.” Jess said. “Okay, here’s the plan.” She got up and came over to where Dev was sitting, kneeling at her side with her pad in her hand. “This is the layout of the base.” She leaned her forearm on the arm of Dev’s chair and indicated a wiremap diagram.
Dev looked at it attentively. There was a triangular block in the center, with a tracing over it outlining entrances and a landing field. “Okay.”
“We go past the Gibralter outpost.” Jess pointed at the wedge. “That’s where they should pick us up and start chasing us from.” She moved the pad image along and pointed at a set of scattered islands. “That’s the Spanish Archipelego where most of the experimentation happens, and this is the control center at Andorra.” She indicated another large wedge. “That’s our target.”
Dev nodded.
“The service port those other teams were going for is here.” Jess swiped at the pad, enlarging the wedge and pointing out a ruggedly cut square depression just below the summit, obviously a landing pad. “They’re pinned down here.” She swiveled the diagram and pointed to an uneven overhang in a narrow part of a V shaped crack in the rock.
“Okay.” Dev agreed.
“So the tricky part is, we need to keep this thing in one piece while they chase us.” Jess said. “It’s got halfway decent shielding but it won’t take more than a couple direct hits, and being blown to molecules would ruin my day.”
“Yes.” Dev nodded. “Mine too.”
“So you need to let them get close enough to think they’re going to catch us, but not close enough for them to nail us. “ Jess said. “You can use these ridges here, and the edge of the cliffs - they have to think we’re going for the service port.”
“Okay.”
“So then we are.” Jess said. “You’re going to put me down in that entrance and I’m going to leave them a calling card just for what they did to me the last time.”
Dev looked at her. “I don’t remember you going over that in the plan.”
Jess smiled. “What I didn’t tell everyone they can’t tell anyone else.” She said. “If Bain’s right, and there’s another leak inside Interforce, then they’ll expect me to just try and draw them off from the others, which means, they won’t really chase me. “
“Okay.” Dev nodded slowly.
“So then I can get into the service port, and give them something to really worry about. That will draw them off.”
“But they’ll come after you.”
“You’ll have to draw them off, then come back and pick me up.” Jess agreed. “It’ll be tight.”
“I’m sorry, you did realize I’ve never actually done this before.” Dev reminded her. “That wasn’t anything I ever even sim’d.”