The Darkness Inside of Me

Chapter 1: Battle Over the Desert

Machine cannon bullets ripped through the air. Missile exhaust trails created veils of white smoke obscuring anyone's vision. Explosions could be heard for miles.

And there I was, in the cockpit of my veritech going mach3 over the desert plains, weaving into the canyons amid the plateaus and rock formations. I pulled off to the left side to dodge incoming Zentraedi energy repeating fire, and then quickly barrel rolled right and braked, watching as the Zentraedi battlepod shot past me. I tailed the battlepod and tagged it with a few machine cannon shots sending it smoking to the plateau ground.

"Great shot Bobby!" my friend Phillip called to me over the radio. He pulled next to me in his veritech and gave me a thumbs up before falling back into formation.

"You're not so great," Nathan chimed in from his position to my back left. "I could've done that, I just don't wanna."

We were in V formation in jet fighter mode of our veritechs. My squad and I were involved in a base defense mission against the Zentraedi a few miles outside Phoenix, defending our planet from alien invaders.

“OK guys, let’s stay focused,” I said, flipping a few control switches on my front panel. “Break formation and engage individual targets. Stay close and don’t be afraid to help each other out.” I pulled forward again as my two wingmen pulled off to their respective sides. I caught sight of my next target on radar, approaching rapidly from above me to my back right.

She thrusted forward in her Zentraedi interceptor craft, releasing a barrage of missiles. At breakneck speeds, I switched to the humanoid battloid mode pulling my machine cannon up and shooting down her missiles then pumping her full of shells as she passed. She exploded a second later.

“I need some help; I can’t shake this one,” Phillip radioed out, clearly having some trouble.

“I’m busy!” Nathan shouted in the passion of his engagement. “Bobby, you get it!”

At once, I transformed my veritech back to jet mode and took off, within a moment of pulling up to Phillip’s assailant. It was a trap.

From seemingly nowhere, two more interceptors pulled up behind me, each taking a few pot shots. I barrel rolled to dodge, then released a missile volley to take out the one following Phillip. With a forward loop, I pulled behind my attackers, shooting one down and sending the other off to dodge asset of missiles, which she eventually failed at.

“Thanks,” Phillip said. “I thought I was done for.”

“Nathan,” I radioed out. “Stay with Phillip.”

“Fine,” Nathan replied as we returned to formation. “Heads up on the radar. There’s a squad of female armors about half a mile ahead.”

“Gotcha,” I said, checking my radar and ammo gauges. “Arrowhead formation: break off when their squad separates. Everybody stay close! We’re all coming home today!”

With that, their veritechs pulled closer to mine, just behind my wings. Up ahead the female armors blasted closer; four of them with the two in front beginning to open fire.

Then, it was like I locked eyes with the enemy squad commander. From my cockpit, I could see into her face shield. Her eyes were bluish-green and intensely focused. I could actually see her lips move.

“DIE MICRONIANS!” her powerful voice boomed over the radio as we met in the first pass. Both her unit and mine broke formation in the ensuing chaos.

With a lightening quick move, I released a blast of machine cannon shots, sending the right Zentraedi wingwoman into an explosion of energy and flame, but before I knew it I had been singled off. “Damn!” I shouted. “Somebody come in!”

“Ahh!” Phillip screamed, then nothing but white noise. An explosion could be heard off in the distance.

I pulled hard right and flew into a canyon to find Nathan under heavy fire. I roared out as I released several missile batteries. Then, missiles tailing me on my radar. I ejected some chaff canisters to throw off the missiles and pulled and S-cross, bringing my front up and firing at my two assailants, but they were plenty good enough to dodge my incoming fire.

“FOOLISH LITTLE MICRONIAN,” a different voice boomed, a little higher pitched than the other, “HOW COULD YOU HAVE SHOT DOWN ESTELLA AND LYNDIS!?” Her voice grew louder and hot with anger.

I opened up an encrypted radio channel to Nathan. “Look for Phillip, then get out of here! I’ll draw them away!”

“That’s suicide!” Nathan retorted. “Those aren’t regular pilots!”

“That’s an order lieutenant!” I called back. “I can take care of myself!”

Nathan began to pull off, and I took my opportunity.

“Hey ladies, I shot down both of your companions!” I shouted, taunting the massive alien women. I pulled another S-cross and peppered machine cannon fire as I passed them.

“I WANT HIM,” the second, higher pitched Zentraedi said. “LET ME KILL HIM, MIRIYA.”

“HMM, A MICRONIAN ACE. THIS COULD BE INTERESTING,” the one called Miriya, the squad leader said. At once, they commenced pursuit.

Despite the humanoid shape of the female armors, they could travel surprisingly quickly. Yet, I was still faster by a hair.

I couldn’t run forever though. Moving at top speed, we were already miles from the base. When at last I felt like I was as far as I could get ahead, I fired some chaff to catch to catch their missiles and transformed into battloid mode. I shot my machine cannon into the one at the right, sending her smoking and flying erratically towards the ground. I transformed changed back into fighter mode for a getaway but I was fractions of a second too late. As I sprang off, my wing clipped the front of the remaining female armor as she passed. My left wing was ripped off and she was sent spinning. She growled over the radio.

Emergency lights and sirens were going off all over my cockpit. Mechanism parts were broken and I was unable to transform into any other mode. I was going down. Still in the canyon, I managed to stabilize my now disintegrating craft, but I was unable to slow my descent by much. If I ejected at the wrong moment, I would be thrown to my death against the canyon wall. Losing altitude quickly, I at last came up with a crude plan of self-preservation. I activated the distress beacon on my console which fired up and exploded in the sky. I gave my throttle one last jerk to the left and pulled the emergency eject. I could hear the right engine of my veritech explode as I was shot, more or less, straight up into the air. For a brief few seconds I was free falling. The female armor had now returned and finished off my doomed veritech. The sound of her engines passing by was near-deafening. I then pulled my ripcord, bringing my parachute to life and giving my body a sudden jerk, knocking me unconscious as I floated down toward the canyon floor.