I awoke to a start when I heard the voice in the cockpit announcing that I'm breaching the atmosphere. That was faster than usual. I thought to myself, but if I thought it was fast, the Boss would think I took a light year to get here. I glared at the base from afar, knowing the debriefing was going to be utter hell for me. Usually I can keep my calm while in debriefing, but recently he has been getting on my nerves more often than not. He just couldn't keep his mouth shut on what I did wrong and what I needed to improve on during missions.
I mean I got he meant well, but I couldn't stand when he kept going on and on for hours on end. I just wanted to get to my cold floor to sleep and get on to the next mission already. It was a vicious cycle of just getting a longer mission than multiple short ones. The one I did earlier today was a bit longer of a mission, so I didn't have to ship hop. Ship hopping was a common occurrence for assassins that were off duty and could give the younger ones a lift. My ship broke down on an assignment once, so I got to experience the beauty of begging a girl name Phyllis a ride to the next one. She was pretty nice, but sometimes she got on my nerves. I breathed out calmly. Gotta keep cool, or I'm off to the Doctor again. I thought to myself, placing my hand on the air to ground communications button.
I slowed the ascent to the base, waiting for the usual "Pilot 4869, are you there?" Usual flight procedures, making sure the runway is available for me to land. Today, however didn't work like that. No one came across communications, so I sat up there for a bit, but I didn't mind. There were a few other ships in front of me, so it meant traffic was going to be pretty high compared to normal. This was a high mission and assignment day where it would be a gold mine for the base. When there's gold, there's always going to be thieves trying to get in. I personally didn't care for the thieves, as they were usually just trying to make a quick buck. Eventually a few kids came around here and there, so I would sneak them a few coins, because the Boss is not going to miss just a few coins out of the 60% of gold he earns from each successful mission.
A few ships went down, doing their usual procedures. I waited until my name was called, "Pilot 4869, proceed to the coordinates on your screen to land in your zone." My zone? Coordinates? "I don't understand. You must have the wrong chart, I'm only returning to the hanger to put my ship down for the night." I was utterly confused. Me, an assassin that isn't even ranked in the top 10,000 or even close gets their own zone? This isn't right. Something must be up."Pilot 4869, proceed to the coordinates now. Captain needs to see you immediately." Oh no, that means he's ticked off with me again. I braced myself for the scolding of how incompetent I was to listen to directions. I was in for a big earful, but the Boss knows what's best for me. He always knows what's best.
I flew in the directions towards the coordinates, watching the other pilots land their ships. The coordinates were heading up towards a cliff, a lot further away from the hanger. The landscape changed before me, shaping itself to be different around the coordinates. It seemed it was cloaked to be hidden from normal view, but it usually never was. Probably something happened and they were on high alert from some made up threat from another planet. With the guild Blazing Striders having a huge rivalry with us, I assumed that it was for some petty reason they threatened us.
Guilds are built under an Organization's watchful eyes. The bigger guilds are pretty famous and are hard to get into. My guild is semi popular, with the occasional view in the spotlight due to someone's performances. The guild I am in is called Scarlet Raven, after the founder of the guild Scarlet Mead. She was a warrior at heart, and when life threw her punches, she blocked them with one finger and stabbed life with a sword.
The same sword that I hold today was said to be handed down by generations and generations of her descendants. The last one died before she was ever able to give birth to a decedent. She was 12 years old when she caught the most deadly disease in the galaxy, known to kill and never let anyone survive. The girl fought it for years, and I even got to grow up with the honor of knowing her. Sadly, the disease finally took its toll on her, and ended up taking her life.
Before catching the disease, she was the best assassin in the guild. She was an archer at heart, and her shot seemed to never miss its target. When she couldn't use that trust bow of her's, she resorted to using a short blade that she called Quiff. The tip of the dagger curved back, giving it more cutting ability and length to do more damage to the enemy. I smiled inwardly remembering Esther, as she was such a nice girl and would've made for a nice partner. I never got to get a partner due to most assignments I was given were solo missions, but she would've been nice for the duel missions. Most of the time I was stuck with an incompetent partner that couldn't kill even if their life depended on it.
The only partner that I have ever liked was once a girl named Jayden. She knew how to fight, had knowledge on how to fly a ship, but seemed off to me. I only met her three times due to her sudden disappearance. I liked her though, and wished she might be still alive. It's common for an assassin to not come back from a mission if they failed, but our suits give off a signal to base saying that our vitals have dropped significantly. With Jayden's, hers never gave off that signal. Even if it was destroyed, base would be able to see the signal disappeared off the grid. She must be alive, but being held captive. Sadly, we cannot locate her just off the suit as its been idle for over two years.
I missed Jayden dearly, but I didn't know why I was thinking about these people recently. They never crossed my mind before, but maybe I'm opening but my emotions. I needed to rip the link in half and shred it with Tizona before I could think about it. If I didn't, my life would have no true judgement. I needed it to survive the Boss's punishment, but that was probably children's duties for the next week and possibly something else. Helping the children out with sword and bow training? Now that sounded nice compared to risking my life everyday to kill someone.
I had a feeling that the Boss wouldn't let me go so lightly this time however. It was my 3rd time being late by his standards. If I didn't pick up the pace anytime soon, well I'll be heading to the Doctor and his tubes. I shuddered at the thought, but looked down to see the landing pad in sight. It wasn't like the usual runway because they needed to keep it underneath the cloaking shield during times of emergency. Instead of using a runway, they use a complicated device that grabs hold of your ship like a gravitational pull from a planet. The device makes sure your ship doesn't crash, however you must keep running your ship until you land on the pad itself. If not, well it was nice knowing that pilot and they did pretty good on the force!
The device grabbed hold of my ship, and I made sure not to cut the power. It was doing everything correctly like from the few times that I used it before. I sighed quietly, and the near silent purr of the ship calming my nerves. It was the best feeling being on this ship at times like this. The sense of calm filling the air like a gentle breeze on a summer day. That summer day being on a planet that I only visited a few times, Earth. A serene planet, with their waters being surrounded with wonderful creatures that only the best pilots in the guild would ever get to see.
The second part of the guild's name came from a creature that Scarlet herself loved, a crow. It was such a simple creature, but it warmed her heart. The one she even got to take from the planet adored her, pecking her gently with love and cawing at her when there was danger around. Whenever she went to battle, her raven would too.
That's how the duo got named the Scarlet Raven, infamous as where one was, the other would follow. Her raven came out of battles dyed the color of their enemies, but would get cleaned by their loving owner. She even raised the bird itself when it dropped from a tree. Most people would've turned a blind eye to the tiny, frail creature with no feathers. Scarlet was not one of those people, so she was cherished by that bird and the bird watchers of the planet. The bird thought of her as a mother, and rightfully so.
The rattling noise I heard earlier came back full force, and before I ever hit the launchpad the ship lost power. My heart started flaring, thumping out of my chest as I attempted to get it back but it was too late. Before I could get it back online, the device threw me from the launchpad. The ship was going to crash whether I liked it or not, so I quickly jumped out from the cockpit. I slammed the door open from the cockpit and bolted towards the emergency launch door.
I couldn't transform into a flying creature as I never trained for that. It just never came up when the Boss took me out of the normal lessons and into private ones with an instructor. It had a few jetpacks with parachutes built in them due to the jetpacks needing a stable ground position to achieve liftoff. It was called the Jetchute by many as a nickname due to its flexibility to do multiple things. I quickly threw on the Jetchute, shuffling quickly as I came closer and closer towards the ground.
Here goes nothing! I thought myself, clicking the belt into place. I jumped out of the ship, and started falling gracefully towards the ground. I quickly surveyed the area, and saw an outcrop where no trees were around. I attempted to glide over to that area, but to no avail. The ground was coming up faster, and my heart was setting a blazing trail behind me. I quickly released the shoot and headed towards the outcrop. It wouldn't hurt to just stay a bit and get hold of the Boss, right? "Hey Boss? You there?" Static. And a whole bunch of it.
This is just great! Stuck in the middle of nowhere with no chance to get back to base. Oh will the Boss adore this. I thought bitterly, and landed on top of the glowing rocks. I sat down for a moment to catch my breath. How the hell am I going to get back? The fuel in the Jetchute won't last that long to even get me towards base anytime soon. I would have to get in a 500 foot radius of the launch pad to even get close to getting home. I walked over while thinking towards the bundle of rocks and sat next to it. I groaned, letting myself fall onto the rocks behind me. This day couldn't get any better now could it?