And the Skies Rained Fire

Marina

Marina Calderon winced behind her protective face mask as indigo sparks shot from the undercarriage of the fighter craft that had recently limped into the hanger bay sporting a smoking laser blast on the starboard wing. Marina had sworn vehemently at the pilot that drove the fighter back into the bay of the Imperial Flagship, the Superiority. As he removed his helmet and clambered out of his smoking vessel, Marina was on him, swearing him up and down.

"Dammit Willie!" she had shouted, pushing the much larger man in her anger "I just fixed up this bucket of bolts from your last little 'skirmish'!"

Willie grumbled under his breath and began to walk away from his fighter, as if attempting to avoid a confrontation with the small Latina who always seemed to be angry with him. But Marina was not about to let that happen.

"Oi space-brain! Listen to me!" Marina jogged to keep up with the long-legged pilot "Do they not teach you anything in combat training? See I know not much gets through your thick skull but I'm sure they say something along the lines of, DON'T GET SHOT!"

Fuming, Willie rounded on her. "Christ Marina! Would you just leave me alone about this? Yes, I got shot. But we defended a Florian space station so I'll take it." With that, he spun on his heel and marched out of the hanger doors.

"Ay de mi, hombre. Have you no respect for technology?!" But Willie was gone. Marina glowered at the doors he had stepped through. "Asshat..." she muttered and turned towards her new project.

Marina wrinkled her forehead in frustration at the memory. She placed her blowtorch back in one of the many pockets of her olive green cargo pants. She dug around until her hand reached the rough fabric of a grease-stained rag. Marina wiped the sweat off her brow and tapped the tiny communicator that sat in her ear.

"Hey Mike?" she said to the Superiority's head engineering officer "Yeah, fighter theta-615 is ready for action. Just need to slap some paint on there and she'll be good as new," she poked her ear once more and sighed in exhaustion. Throughout her life she had heard various "facts" about war. How all's fair in it and love. How its good for business. Even that its hell. Marina couldn't be sure about any of those things but one thing she knew for certain, war was a busy time for mechanics.

Since the beginning of the war with the Vorti four weeks ago, Marina had barely slept. All told, she had gotten perhaps four hours of sleep in the past three days. It seemed that every time she stumbled back to her quarters and began to drift off, Mike's voice sounded in her ear, informing her of a fire in the hanger bay or a coolant leakage in the port engine. She had repaired countless fighters, sending them back into the fray just to be shot down once more. Marina enjoyed the work, she had loved fixing things from a young age. But even she couldn't go as long as she had without some semblance of rest.

She looked around the hanger and noticed something odd. None of the fighters were gunning their engines. No pilots marched toward their ships, taking off, streaks of ivory lightening. Marina smiled weakly. Perhaps she could finally rest. She could finally get a whole nights rest. She turned away from Willie's fighter and began to walk drearily toward the hanger doors that led to her quarters.

As if on cue, the alarms sounded, piercing the momentarily silence. Marina stumbled as the deck beneath her shifted drastically. The Superiority was turning around.

"Puta madre!" Marina swore vehemently and dashed back to the fighter, to make sure it did not slide across the hanger. She heard a dry chuckle behind her. She spun on her heel and glared at Willie, still clad in his black and scarlet pilot's armor. "What the hell do you want?"

"Having trouble there?" his smile infuriated Marina

"I'm fine," she grumbled "why are we turning around?"

He snorted and crossed his arms, "Hm. See the answer to that seems to have gotten through my thick skull," Marina scowled and Willie held up his hands in surrender. "Top brass read a massive energy surge only a light year from here. We're closest and got sent to check it out"

Marina was interested, "Damn that's close. What planet?"

Willie nodded out the airlock, "See for yourself." Marina glanced over her shoulder just as the Superiority came out of light speed. Her jaw dropped. Beneath them spread a massive tan and brown planet, at least twice the size of Earth.

"I know," murmured Willie "official Imperial designation is Cadrum 3, but the natives call it something else entirely I'm sure. Basic primitive tribe population. Lots of monsters. God only knows what that energy surge was."

Marina whistled as she took in the impressive vista. Somewhere inside her she knew she was not going to get much more sleep any time soon. But somehow she didn't mind.