Earth Is Mine

Chapter 32

I grind my teeth together as sweat runs down the sides of my face and shoot out like a mad person, shooting down a small Plutonian ship that was attacking one of our own. 

Just then a few peculiar looking bullets shoot out from the Space Splitter and fly towards us. 

"Shoot at them!" Luna says angrily as a few of these cylindrical bullets follow our every movement. I try my best but the bullets are smart enough to evade my shots. Even Vix is not so lucky but after awhile he manages to shoot down one. 

However,  there are still three more pursuing us. 

"Hold on tight," Luna says and then she pulls at the levers, the muscles in her forearms flexing. Just then I see one of those bullets shot down by a ship behind us. 

"Squadron C-13B, I got your back," We hear Pollux's voice in transmission and I catch Luna smiling briefly. 

"Cover me," She instructs and his ship follows us as Luna flies further and further up, away from the crossfire. 

I am about to ask her what she is doing when she suddenly free falls back down towards the space splitter with Pollux's squad and the two smart bullets on our tail. 

My nerves are a frantic mess as the smooth white surface of the Splitter grows nearer and nearer. Is she planning to crash into it? 

"Luna," I murmur in panic as we dive towards the bubbling electric shields of the Splitter that look like it is ready to swallow us up. 

"Luna!" I all but scream as she pulls up, grazing the shields with the underbelly of our ship, setting off our alarms momentarily. We glide over the splitter but the smart bullets are not as lucky. 

They crash into the shields with a loud bang, the explosion momentarily blinding. 

This results in a small hole and Pollux's ship fires down onto the Splitter but they barely cause a scratch. 

"This one has been modified. It's too big," He groans through the intercoms as others join him in the shoot out. 

I turn to Luna, desperate, my face and uniform now drenched with sweat. My arms are a bit sore and she looks just as tired. 

How long have we been fighting? 

Vix rushes in and Luna admonishes him for not strapping in. 

"Low centre, gravity," He mumbles in broken Plutonian and rushes off to the pantry. He force feeds us with drink and algae while we fly across the smooth terrain of the splitter and then stuffs his face too. 

"Lead squadron C-13B, we are running out of manpower, the Splitter has destroyed too many," A voice addresses us from the intercom that sounds a lot like Leader Mori's. 

"We need to get rid of this thing," I nod at the humongous space ship angrily. "Do you know of any weak points?" 

I remember the one we shot down at the rebel base had a weak point at it's engines but we were only able to destroy it after it's shields were down. 

"This shield has been reinforced and it doesn't have its engines exposed like the others," Luna says. 

"Inside," Vix mutters, pointing to the small temporary hole created by the smart bullets. The shields have already started patching itself up, the hole growing smaller by the second. 

Luna and I look at each other, I wonder if her heart is currently lodged in her throat like mine is. 

Another suicide mission. 

She turns to Vix, her gaze frightened but determined. "You're right. The engines are inside. Hold on tight guys." 

"No!" Pollux protests when he notices what we are doing but Luna cuts him off. 

"Cover us. That's an order, Commander." 

Numerous ships fly our way to grant us cover from the other Plutonian ships and we narrowly escape the obliteration from the shield that closes above our heads. 

I glance at Luna nervously as she manoeuvres our ship past the sensors and across the underbelly of the Splitter to avoid detection. Although a small voice tells me that they already know we are inside. 

"Brace yourselves!" She shouts as we fly through the most narrow window that destroys the sides of our ship. Our ship groans to a stop, destroying the floors and a portion of the walls in a room that was clearly not meant for landing. 

The alarms blare in the distance, indicating that a part of the ship has been damaged. I notice the lights start to flicker as Luna unbuckles her straps and gets up. 

The entire room goes dark and I catch her smiling in satisfaction. 

"Looks like they didn't change everything. We just crashed into one of the circuit maintenance rooms. It should buy us some time as they get the power over here up and running again."

We exit the ship with two loaded laser guns each, Vix and I in tow as Luna leads us to a small door by the wall.

The soft swoosh of the door makes me wince, afraid of being caught by a dozen soldiers but we are met with silence. We creep silently along the narrow corridor and I am utterly thankful that we are with Luna, who practically grew up in ships like these. 

She seems to know exactly where she is going. My heart thumps in my chest like a set of beating drums hoping we will find the engines before we are caught but then I hear foot steps nearby. 

Luna holds up her hand, the other one already on her gun and we stop walking. 

My hand wraps around my gun and I turn to Vix as he does the same. His face is stoic, not a hint of fear in his dark round eyes. 

But I feel it all the same as the foot steps grow louder each second, the sound of army boots slamming onto the floors urgently. I draw a long breath just as Luna closes her eyes. 

She opens them and points down the corridor to our right. We hold our guns tightly and run after her, but the flickering lights aren't enough to hide us from the prying eyes of Plutonian soldiers. 

"Get them!" Somebody shouts. 

Heyyy I'm back hehe. A hectic chapter and the battle is far from over so strap in and I hope you enjoy the ride :) :)