Descent: Aries Wing

“What do you mean you don’t know?” demanded the Admiral.

Bryan scrambled to come up with answers he didn’t have. “That’s exactly what I mean. I don’t know what happened to Ensign Jacobs. Her Pyro was nowhere to be found. I can only assume that it was disintegrated in the lava.”

The Admiral was visibly not pleased with that answer. “And what about Ensign Jacobs? You ordered her to eject. Did she or did she not eject from her craft?”

Bryan knew lying was not his forte, and until now, he had never lied as an officer of the CED. However, Bryan also knew that if he told the Admiral what had actually happened in the mine, it would be a lot harder to explain her unexpected return. “I don’t know, I was under heavy fire at the time, and had to defend myself first. It is quite possible that she had ejected, made it to safe ground, and was captured by the enemy.”

Fortunately, the Admiral was too upset to realize that Bryan was being less than truthful. “And I suppose it’s also quite possible that she had ejected and was killed in the lava?”

Knowing what the correct answer was, Bryan replied softly, “That is possible, sir.”

“So without knowing for sure, we need to list her as MIA. Dammit!” The Admiral was clearly upset. He sat down to relax for a moment. He put his head to his forehead as if it had been stricken with pain. He said gently, “I suppose I should be thankful that your wing has lost far fewer officers than most other wings.” The Admiral looked up at Bryan. “The entire Phoebus Wing has been destroyed. The Wings, collectively, have had more CED casualties on this mission than any other mission since the Battle of Alpha Centuri. I am losing commanding officers left and right, Bryan, and I am very quickly running out of reliable personnel to fight this battle with.”

Changing the subject, Bryan tried, “So what exactly are we fighting for, sir? This doesn’t seem to be a normal rebel uprising. Some of these pilots fly far better then the rebels do. Up until now, I had assumed that we were fighting them. This last battle was a coordinated attack. The pilots flying the enemy Pyros had very little skill, except for the ones that Ensign Jacobs and I chased down to the mine. They were perhaps two of the most skilled pilots I have ever faced. They wanted to be chased.”

The Admiral’s hand returned to his forehead as a new wave of stress hit him. “Commander, you are going to have to take this for an answer. This mission is highly classified, very tight security. Not even the Captain of this vessel knows why we are here. Please understand that I cannot answer that question.”

Bryan was quick to return, “It’s about the Orb, isn’t it.”

The Admiral looked up, directly into Bryan’s eyes. It was right at that moment that Bryan got a chill that would have shook his entire body if he would have allowed it to be shown outwardly. Bryan had only felt a similar feeling once before. He could almost see the reflection of the Black Pyro that killed Jared in the Admiral’s eyes. The Admiral said very sternly, “This conversation ends now.”

Bryan was frozen. When a CED Admiral says something like that, your best response is no response.

“You are dismissed,” said the Admiral in the same tone.

Without hesitation, Bryan stood up and left the office.

Something was very wrong. Even as an Ensign, Bryan was never left in the dark about a mission’s specifics. Even if the mission did contain classified data, it would also be classified to him, as well as anyone else involved in the mission. Add the fact that the Admiral was as cold and stern about the issue, and Bryan couldn’t help but feel that there was something in this mission beyond just defending a few mines. And Bryan knew he was dead on about it revolving around the Orb of Infinity.

But the Orb of Infinity was Bryan’s now. He knew the power it was capable of, and he knew that given the right set of circumstances, he could use its power to do what he wanted with it. He was not about to let his wingmen – his friends – die for nothing. Bryan knew that it was critical that he learned how to use the Orb’s powers to bring them back.

Bryan entered his quarters and went straight for the closet. He immediately removed the chest, and used the key to open it up. He took the sphere out of the chest with his bare hands for the first time. The sphere reacted to the touch by fluctuating its light where Bryan was holding it. Bryan then sat down on the bed and began to concentrate.

Bryan began thinking about bringing Natalie back. He knew that they had a future together, not only in the CED but in life as well. Bryan had always tried to not feel so strongly about a woman, but Natalie was able to break through those emotional boundaries. Thinking about being with her again made Bryan concentrate even more on the idea of bringing her back.

But the sphere glowed and fluctuated, doing nothing but changing its light patterns. It almost seem to mock Bryan for even trying to accomplish such a task.

Bryan knew that the Orb’s powers where as infinite as its name suggests, and he knew that if he could get the Orb to interface with him…

“Aries Three to Aries Leader, requesting transport back to the ship.”

It took Bryan a second or two to realize that this wasn’t the Orb creating a false reality. The computer had received a subspace communication from the surface and automatically opened the connection.

“Natalie?” said Bryan, nearly in disbelief.

“Bryan,” she responded in a relieved tone.

“Are you okay?” asked Bryan.

“Uh, I’m not sure how to answer that one,” answered Natalie. “Physically, I’m okay, which is hard to believe, considering. Otherwise, I’m a little confused. Does your fatty Magnum have room for two?”

“You better believe it!” exclaimed Bryan. “I’m on my way.” One down, one to go, thought Bryan. Not wanting to be without the Orb again, Bryan put it back into his chest and locked it. Almost running, he left his quarters carrying the sphere, and headed to the central loading bays. As he arrived to the bays, he stated to the officer on duty, “Commander Chambers of Aries Wing, I have a wingman on the surface who was MIA. I need to go to the surface to pick her up.”

“Roger that, sir,” responded the young officer.

Bryan proceeded to his Magnum, climbed aboard with the chest, and started up the ship. He maneuvered to the airlock, and once it was open, flew into it. It seemed to take ages for the airlock to depressurize. Seconds seemed like minutes to him as the airlock opened, revealing the void of space. Bryan maneuvered the Magnum out of the ship, and began to descend once again to the unforgiving planet.

It was times like these Bryan realized how sluggish the Magnum was. Even the newer AHT2 model couldn’t match the speed of the Pyro-GX. Every once in a while, Bryan would have a need to fly a Phoenix-SP in the simulators, and that would normally quench his thirst for speed. But after traveling from orbit to the planet so many times, he began to realize that he would be there in half the time if he had a faster ship.

Slowly, the surface below revealed itself, and Bryan began slowing his descent. Once the ship leveled off at the surface, he found his way toward where Natalie had sent the call for the rescue. He soon found himself entering a large mine. Large pillars extended either way, while in the hallway in front of him had a large pool of lava, covered by a glass floor. He proceeded ahead, and the hallway split off toward two rooms. Following the coordinates, Bryan proceeded to the larger room to the right, and through a passageway in the floor, which had a river of lava, also covered by glass. Once beneath the room, he spotted an energy center, which was where the coordinates said Natalie would be. Sure enough, Bryan moved ahead and saw her sitting right on the edge of the energy center. She was doing nothing but smiling and waiting for Bryan to arrive.

When he first saw her, he almost thought he was seeing a ghost. It wasn’t more than a few hours ago that he saw her plummet into the lava, an inescapable death. But Bryan knew the voice that called up to him belonged to her, and that the Orb had done its work…

Then the second round of mass driver hit her ship. Natalie’s Pyro was flung down to the lava. Alarms were sounding all over the ship, her shield reading at a mere 9%.

“Natalie! Eject now!” came Bryan’s voice over the subspace channel. For a split second, she contemplated which was worse, dying in an explosion or falling into a lava pit. Figuring the lava pit would be a lot less painful, she hit the eject button. Immediately her entire seat was propelled out of the Pyro and into the air. As her parachute opened up, she could clearly see Bryan’s Magnum, directly to her right. It was so close to her, she thought she could reach out and touch it. And then it was gone, replaced by a bright white streak, the signature of a mass driver round.

“No!” she screamed, hoping that Bryan wouldn’t suffer the same fate as her. Natalie looked over her left shoulder just in time to see Bryan reorienting his ship. Then, his Magnum worked its way back to her right, firing some missiles at the enemy ship. The ship dodged them, and just as Bryan was about to charge it, the world faded out.

“What the hell?” said Natalie, unsure of what was happening. Slowly, the world faded back in. The first thing Natalie noticed is that she was on a pad of some sort. The only thing that she could think of was that she was teleported somewhere. Then she saw the man standing behind the controls several yards ahead. The man was in a full uniform and helmet. It was mostly a grayish-blue suit with some black patches on the front and on the sleeves. Then the man talked in a very chilled and evil voice. “Welcome, Ensign Natalie Jacobs.”

Natalie didn’t know what to do at this point…

“A trap!” yelled Bryan to himself as the orb’s bright light faded. Bryan instantly recognized the voice as the same voice of the pilot who killed Jared at Apparition Base.

Instead of landing next to Natalie to pick her up, he tricorded into the energy center and out of site. He began charging his fusion, waiting to hear some noise.

And that didn’t take long. Three distinct afterburners were heard from further down the hallway. Bryan waited for the squealing of his fusion cannon’s charge to reach a certain pitch, and then he thrusted his Magnum out into the hallway, releasing his fully charged quad-fusion down the hallway.

Bryan was able to identify the three ships as Black Pyros before all three of them shattered, sending fused scrap metal parts to the walls and the floor.

“Impressive, Commander Chambers,” came the voice over the subspace channel. As cold, dark, and evil as Bryan remembered it, the pilot seemed to taunt him using only the tone of his voice. “Now why don’t you come up here to the main room and face a real challenge.”

Bryan responded in a calculated tone, “You’ve got my attention, and this time you won’t get away.”

Natalie watched Bryan’s Magnum return the way it came from, going up into the main room. Expecting to hear an ensuing battle, she was rather shocked by the silence – a silence that was broken by another afterburner coming from the same direction the other three ships had come from. Natalie turned in a panic and saw another Black Pyro, and it was facing her straight on.

“Oh my god,” said Natalie to herself, realizing that the ship was probably going to fire some overpowered weapon at her and kill her. She took a step back. When the mass driver round was fired, she flew backward, feeling a rush of wind just a few feet to her left. As she landed on the glass floor, she realized she was not hit. She also recognized the sound of a vauss cannon coming from behind her. She scrambled to her knees and turned in that direction to see Bryan’s Magnum firing round after round of vauss at the Black Pyro. No doubt the vauss broke the Black Pyro’s aim, causing him to miss just shy to her left.

Surprised by the attack, the Black Pyro flew away from the Magnum, using its speed advantage over the slower ship to pulse burn and tricord out of the mine. Bryan followed for a little bit, but then, realizing the pilot was running from him, turned around and went back to pick up Natalie.

He landed his Magnum in the energy center, and then climbed out of the ship. “Natalie!” he yelled.

Natalie was near tears. “Bryan,” she cried back, running towards Bryan. “Oh my god, I am so glad to see you again! I thought I was going to die!”

As Natalie instinctively wrapped her arms around Bryan, he replied, “Not today, dear. Not today.”

As Bryan held Natalie in his arms, “You have no idea what we are up against, Bryan, there’s no way the CED will stand up to this… These people are evil, and they want the Orb.”

“Well, I guessed that one,” said Bryan dryly as he broke the embrace. “Come on, we have to get out of here. Get in.” Bryan led Natalie into the Magnum, and then Bryan climbed in himself. He started up the ship and quickly found his way out of the mine. He wasted no time ascending into the sky, towards the S.S. Sirius.

Noticing the chest, Natalie asked, “You brought it with you?”

Bryan was then reminded of what he thought had happened to begin with. “Yeah, uh, I wasn’t quite seeing what I thought I was seeing.”

Natalie pondered the response for a moment before returning, “You thought I was dead?”

Bryan didn’t say a word.

Natalie completed her question. “And you were going to wish me back to life?”

Again, affirming silence from Bryan. But Natalie was also rendered speechless, not knowing how to react to the concept. Bryan then broke the silence. “Regardless of what I was going to do with the Orb, I will tell you I have learned quite a lot today. Mostly about myself than anything else.”

Natalie was confused. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” began Bryan, “before we went out into battle together last time, I had received a lot of information from the Orb. The Orb is simply a tightly packed shell of particles containing a rip in the space-time continuum.”

“What kind of particles?” asked Natalie.

“I don’t know,” responded Bryan, “but the shell is only a molecule thick. The rip in the space-time continuum feeds its infinite power. Once it’s able to interface with a host, a process that can take weeks, the host can use the Orb’s power for anything.”

“Oh my,” responded Natalie, “That’s a lot of uncontrolled power.”

Bryan continued, “I am, quite possibly, only the second owner of the Orb to use its power.”

Natalie returned, “Use? When did you use the Orb’s power? And what for?”

Too far into the conversation to back out now, Bryan conceded, “Remember the morning we woke up and forgot about the prior night?”

“Yes,” answered Natalie.

“Well,” continued Bryan, “that was by my request. My stubbornness got us into an argument.”

Natalie was even more confused. “About what?”

“About us,” responded Bryan flatly.

Natalie was stunned by the response. “Us?” she questioned in a light voice.

“Perhaps the Orb can…”

”Oh my,” said Natalie suddenly. “You’re right, you are stubborn!” Natalie then realized that she insulted Bryan without intending to do so. “I mean, then… You were stubborn then.”

“Huh?” asked Bryan.

“The Orb, it just showed me what happened,” answered Natalie. “You didn’t see it?”

“I’ve seen it already,” returned Bryan, “but not just now.”

“Strange,” wondered Natalie.

Bryan resumed with the previous topic. “Anyway, I’ve had a lot of time to think since then, Natalie. I care about you a lot, and I think it’s obvious that we get along well. Like I said, you’re beautiful.”

Natalie giggled playfully in approval.

“But there’s something about me you need to know,” said Bryan. “I’ve already dealt with the loss of a close friend who I consider family. I know how it feels to go through the pain of losing someone. I also realize that I’m not perfect. So if anything were to happen to me…”

“You’re worried about how I would react if you were killed,” said Natalie, summarizing what Bryan was trying to say.

Bryan paused for a moment before responding, “Exactly.”

Natalie questioned, “And that bothers you that much that you wouldn’t want to have a relationship with me… with anybody?”

Bryan only nodded. “However, seeing the philosophy in practice made me rethink my stance. In a way I’m glad we lost our memories of that night, because I’m sure neither of us would think about so much as talking to each other if we had remembered that.”

Natalie said nothing, and just took in what Bryan had just said, agreeing in silence.

After a pause, Bryan added, “We sure wouldn’t think of starting a relationship, either.”

Natalie began sporting a grin, knowing where Bryan’s heart was. She leaned forward to hug him around the seat. “You are a special man, Bryan,” she said.

Piloting his Magnum out of the atmosphere and into the reaches of space, Bryan grinned and responded simply, “Only with your help.”