Parallel: United Front

Chapter 13: Plane Hijack!

Several miles ahead of Dayle, Arthur screeched to a sharp halt, eyes wide at the aircraft chamber before him.

Dozens of vorgs ran about in a circular area, roughly 150m in diameter, into a number of parked aircraft carriers, their designs ranging from the two-seater sparrows to the larger 'buses' which were designed to carry up to 20 troops. Curiously, the vorgs were too occupied in entering the escape shuttles to care for the intruders. After all, they knew quite well that these two were Augers. Killing them would only send them back to their respective cities even faster. There was no longer a need to prioritize killing them when it would only result in more losses on the vorgs' side.

So it was with bitter hearts filled with thoughts of vengeance that the vorgs dashed into their respective aircrafts.

Arthur ran a quick sweep of his surroundings as he searched for the way out, but from what he saw, vorgs poured in from all the tunnels entering this area, but none went into those tunnels. As if to answer his question his questions, Arthur felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to Eli, who then pointed toward the ceiling. Arthur looked to the direction he pointed at. Arthur immediately thanked the gods for his helmet or Eli would have seen the young agent's jaw drop to the earth.

Up above, rays of moonlight and raindrops trickled into the cavern as several meters of rock slowly shifted from each other. A subtle groaning sound like the yawn of a primordial beast echoed through the cavern as its jaws slowly, but surely opened to the outside.

Arthur stared blankly at the ceiling that was at least 100m away from them. His gaze went from his bike to the ceiling, then back up again. He muttered incredulously, "I do not think we can reach that on this."

Behind him, Eli asked, "Ever played flight simulators?"

"Master level," Arthur replied. It was better than saying he had flown real fighter jets right?

"Good, stow the bike and follow me," Eli said as he hopped down and stole behind an abandoned vehicle.

Arthur quickly assimilated the hover-bike then followed Eli's lead. "What's your plan?"

An assault rifle appeared in Eli's hands as he peered around the corner. "There are five buses in total," Eli said as he pointed across the chamber where five aircrafts slightly larger than a double-decker bus were parked, with their rear open for the evacuating vorgs to enter. Even as he spoke, one of the aircrafts' cargo doors tightly shut.

Seconds later, the craft's engines rotated so they faced the ground. Blasts from the propulsion units seamlessly lifted the aircraft off the ground, and toward the open ceiling above.

Eli squinted at the aircraft then pulled his attention back to the four that were still grounded. "I hope you're ready for a firefight. We'll wait till the three take off, then make for the last."

Arthur squinted his eyes at the last aircraft. Twenty-seat bus, ten by each wall opposite each other. Close proximity, roughly two meter leg-room. Firearms not advised, might damage the craft's electricals. Arthur took a deep breath as he scrolled through his inventory to see if he had gotten anything suitable at the armoury he could use. His fingers paused on a pair of alloyed metal rods which oddly occupied the same inventory space. It was the sign of a set. Upon selection, the rods appeared in his hands. Both were very smooth, silver cylindrical rods made from an alloy he did not recognize at first glance. Anyway, it looked really high level stuff.

Suddenly, his gauntlet flashed a message prompt.

Foreign Device Attempting Synchronization