CELESTIALS PRESENTS: THE FIRST SQUADRON
break-out
ASHLAND OUTSKIRTS
08–02–4993
7:40 PM
We boarded a matte black airship. The Zenix Model 3 was one of the most expensive airships of our time, due to its popularity and sleek design. It had to be the Aerial Army’s finest. I wondered how Axel and Jax could even afford a ship of this class, but then I remembered that they lived in a rebel base camp. They were able to get their hands on whatever they needed.
The whole trip I sat and listened to the two as they conjured up the most effective breakout plan possible. Their minds were astonishing, unlike anyone I’d ever met in my lifetime. They were born for this; living outside the norm, creating their own distinguished realities with total disregard for the law.
The atmosphere soon became gray, and fog clouded the windows of the airship.
That’s how I knew I was home.
“Alright, we’re off the radar. Absolutely invisible,” Jax said. “We’re going to drop you off first.”
“Don’t you think someone can still detect us? I mean, I know you guys are smart or whatever but there’s always a higher technology. The truth is, someone is always watching.”
“Listen,” Axel began. “We’ve done these a million times. If anyone wanted to detect us they’d actually have to know we’re coming. And no one knows we’re coming so shut your— ”
The monitors in the airship started to beep.
“I think you spoke too soon Axel, someone’s hacking our servers.” Jax frantically pushed and pulled several buttons and levers in an effort to restore control. He began to sweat.
“That’s impossible… Who could be…?”
The airship stalled and tilted 180 degrees.
“They just blew out our right engine! Axel, hand me that cutter. I need to cut out the wires for the left engine for stability — ”
It was too late. The ship began spiraling through the atmosphere with great force.
This is it, I thought.
“Change of plans! We gotta jump! Axel, grab some parachutes,” Jax yelled.
The monitors projected a rapidly decreasing number labeled ‘ALT: 9,000 feet…. 8,000 feet…. 7,000 feet…’
“There’s none in here!” Axel yelled back.
“F***! We’re going to have to glide it!”
“Were nearing 6,000 feet, that’s impossible, Jax!”
Jax turned his coat inside out and revealed a set of military air gliders. The airship door he sat next to suddenly flew off, and the force pulled him almost completely out of the vehicle. He held onto a handle bar and smiled at us.
“Glide or die!” He yelled as he flew out of the airship.
“Alright Helena I’m going to grab you and on the count of three, we jump. I need you to hold firmly, alright?”
Axel’s words were muffled, and everything slowly became a blur.
6,000 f****** feet…
“3, 2, 1, jump!”
As we jumped I looked back at the blurry airship, which seemed to be spinning in slow motion now. The gaseous particles in the atmosphere engulfed my lungs and I struggled to breathe.
“We got to catch up to Jax!” Axel screamed.
I heard Axel’s faint voice as if he were a mile away. But he was right there.
“Helena… Helena…”
It felt like a dream. I looked at Axel again, as he yelled my name. Then it all registered.
“Helena!” Motion sped up and the exhilaration kicked in. “Pull that rope coming out of the inside pocket!”
“Pull what?” I replied.
“The rope!”
“I can’t find it!… No okay, I see it now! You said pull it?”
“Yes, pull it now!”
I pulled the rope and his overcoat tore off, unfolding large black mechanical wings. We spiraled again.
“Helena, I need you to straighten your form, like your diving!”
“Okay, like this?” I yelled back, as I changed position.
“Yeah, yeah! Good!”
At approximately 600 feet above the ground, we banked upwards. We were flying.
We flew through a valley before we saw Jax at a distance. He looked back with that same smile on his face, and motioned us to follow him.
I worried about the fate of the airship. Axel didn’t seem to care, thus reinforcing my belief that they had access to many more just like it.
I hope it crashed somewhere safe, I thought to myself.
We landed on a hill which overlooked the cities and towns of Ashland.
“It’s 8:10. I hope we’re not late to the party.” Jax said.
“The train to the penitentiary just left. If we’re quick, we can still carry out phase one. Put this on.” Axel handed Jax a gas mask that covered his whole face.
“Take me with you,” I said to them.
“This is dangerous Helena, we’re setting you free. Go home.” Axel quickly retorted.
“Don’t underestimate me. I can help you guys.”
He looked at me. “Helena, this is bigger than just saving Orion. If you join us now, you’ve gotten yourself into a war. You’re either with us the whole ride, or against us.” I nodded, and he handed me a similar mask.
After a brief review of the plan, we glided off and west of the hill. In a few minutes, we saw the long bullet shaped train enter a tunnel. Axel fired a hook blade into the side of a car. Jax did the same. The force dragged us out of the air and straight onto the side of the train. I closed my eyes as I heard their magnetic boots clank onto the steel train car. At that moment it finally occurred to me what I’d gotten myself into. These two better not get me killed, I thought to myself.
Axel smoldered a large circle into the car and we jumped in.
About twenty shocked eyes landed on us as we dusted off our clothes and headed for the front of the train.
We heard radio chatter and heavy footsteps approaching us.
“Identify yourselves or risk detainment!” We turned around and saw 5 armed officers standing at the back of the car. “Requesting back up, situation 3509 on train headed towards penitentiary, car number XVII. Three hooded individuals wearing masks — ”
Axel quickly unholstered a c-shaped platinum hilt, then pressed a button which beamed a long blade of alloy wrapped in plasmatic energy resembling an uncontrolled electric current.
The plasma blade.
I had never seen one. I always thought they were a myth. He pointed the tip of the blade at the officers and pressed another button which fired a controlled blast of immense heat and plasma, blowing them through the back of the car.
What immense power…
The blade dimmed, and violently folded back into the hilt. Axel holstered the hilt and we continued, as petrified civilians huddled up to themselves in trepidation.
“If you all want to keep your lives, stay the f*** down and don’t move a muscle. What’s the time, Jax?”
“8:20. We’re at the penitentiary now. Right on time!”
The train came to a stop and the doors opened. Sirens wailed and officers tried to board the train as hundreds of scared civilians ran out, obstructing their path.
“Look for three hooded figures with masks! Kill anyone in your way. Go!” I heard as we ran off the train amongst the crowd of people. Clueless civilians surrounded us, with a dire intent to get as far away from the danger as they could. “This is not even my stop but I need to get off this train… They blasted five of those guys right through the back… What were they wearing, gas masks?… deixe-me viver por favor, Deus!” The commotion made the perfect setting to take the masks off and show our faces. No one noticed us criminals standing right next to them.
Hundreds of civilians swarmed the prison gates seeking shelter from what they probably thought was a terrorist attack. It was pure chaos. We slipped into the prison and past the security, as the sirens continued to sound.
“Alright, phase two. Masks back on,” Axel said.
“BREAKING NEWS
AS OF 8:20 PM THE ASHLAND PENITENTIARY IS UNDERGOING LOCKDOWN PROCEDURES. THREE UNKNOWN INDIVIDUALS BOARDED A TRAIN WHICH MAKES FREQUENT STOPS TO THE PENITENTIARY AND INFILTRATED THE PRISON. RIOTS HAVE BROKEN OUT AND THE PRISON GROUNDS ARE IN A FRENZY. OFFICERS ARE STILL SEARCHING FOR THE THREE INDIVIDUALS. SENATORS BELIEVE THIS MAY BE A BREAKOUT ATTEMPT FOR CRIMINAL ORION PIERCE, WHO WAS SCHEDULED TO BE EXECUTED IN 7 MINUTES. UNTIL SAID SUSPECTS ARE FOUND AND CAPTURED, THE EXECUTION OF PIERCE WILL BE RESCHEDULED. TIME IS T.B.A.”
Axel led us to a stairwell. “They’re moving him to another location. Split up, and intercept the target as quietly as possible.”
“I don’t think anything’s happening quietly here,” I said as I watched a 7-foot inmate violently lift a prison guard into the air and throw him into a light shaft.
“You get my point. Take this.”
Axel handed me a TX 22 handgun, said to be one of the most powerful gun advancements produced as of late.
“Remember, Orion must come out of this alive.”
We dispersed.
I went to a lower level and spotted a sign labeled câmaras.
“Chambers…” I said to myself.
I walked in the direction the signs pointed in.
With every step, my body tensed a little more. My heart raced.
I turned a corner and a guard grabbed me by the throat.
“I’ve been watching you for a while now,” he grunted as I tried to break free. “Where are your friends huh? Maybe if I kill you they will come looking. And I will kill them too!”
I chomped at his forearm, and he let out a shrill scream. He loosened his grip and I maneuvered my body around his, putting him into a standing armbar.
With an acrobatic front flip over his back followed by a ground kick to his temple, I put him to rest.
For now.
The man looked like he’d already been in a few skirmishes before this one. His shirt and vest were both torn, and he had no weapons. I was relieved that all those years of martial arts training at the academy finally paid off. I stepped over his body and continued to look for Orion.
“Orion?” I yelled as I entered the chambers.
The place wreaked. I looked around and saw bodies upon bodies chained to stoned pillars. dead or alive, I couldn’t tell. A weak voice from the shadows startled me.
“Please madam, free me of these chains… I have been here for 20 years. Let me go and fight for my honor…” My first instinct was to walk away. Just leave him there. But then I realized that I was no better than he was. In fact, what he did to deserve imprisonment probably wasn’t as severe as what I was doing.
I found a key on the guard that I knocked out, and I set the inmate free.
