Inferno

12 - Erebus

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

He smirked at the tinge of envy he'd just detected from her, and turned around. "We good to go, Tyra?"

"Waiting on your word."

"Take us out."

The drop-bay ramp closed by raising up and becoming the door, closing as it did so. The ship's engines rumbled and flared to life. Slowly, the dropship raised itself up, and out of the hangar. They passed easily through the shields, and into the vacuum of space. The Widow carrying the Titans followed them as they distanced themselves from the Griffin.

"Dropship 69-21, this is the Griffin. You may proceed."

"Copy that, Griffin. Putting the coordinates in now." She punched in a few numbers on the dashboard.

Tobias' comms lit up again. "Four, remember; there's not much we can do if you three run into trouble. So make sure you stay out of it."

He nodded, though she couldn't see. "You worry too much, Gates. We'll be fine. Right guys?" he called to Vale and Tyra. They didn't respond.

"Well... alright then."

He cut communication, and gave Tyra a thumbs up. She turned back to the console, inhaled deeply, and pushed a lever forward.

Space seemed to bend around them for a second, warping to accommodate the size and shape of their ship tearing through the fabric of reality.

After a flash of light, it died down, and Tobias looked to see a new planet below them.

Erebus.

It was hard to see the surface, there were too many clouds in view. But he was having a hard time finding any green or blue. The likelihood was that it wouldn't be a fertile planet like-

"That didn't take very long," Tyra muttered as an alarm began to go off. "We've got several bogeys approaching rapidly, my bet is missiles."

He wasted no time in ordering her to move. "Break atmosphere, we need to get as close to the ground as we can! Don't want to be stuck in this tin-can if we're shot down too high!"

She spent no breath on a response, but obeyed. He and Vale held onto the handles that hung from the ceiling, keeping their balance as the ship shifted. Behind them, the Widow followed suit.

Sure enough, the bright orange glow of the missies hurtling towards them came into view on the screens soon enough. From what he could see, they didn't stand much of a chance of outrunning them.

"Try to outmaneuver them if you can, but don't bet on it," he called up front. Tyra gave a nod of acknowledgement while Vale just held on for dear life.

The screens began to glow red from the ship puncturing the planet's atmosphere, the air around it heating up. It dissipated after a bit, and was replaced with the sight of clouds whizzing by.

"Brace yourselves, first missile incoming!" Tyra yelled, and both Tobias and Vale tensed up. It still didn't prepare them for the shocking jolt that hit the ship a few moments later, nearly sending them flying around the cabin.

Finally, the cloud layer disappeared. Before he could get a better view of the surface however, another missile landed its mark on the hull of the ship, and an alarm began to whine.

"There it is, we're going down. I repeat, we're going-"

"Pilot!" The deep voice of CH made its way onto the comms. "The Widow has been damaged as well, we are veering off-course and crashing. We will send you our coordinates once we have landed."