The Skie is the Limit
I was out driving around the city, trying to re-familiarize myself with it. The city seems strange and new but at the same time familiar. Tonight I find myself in Bellevue. Bellevue is one of the “better” neighborhoods in Seattle, housing the high paid white collar elite. Even though this was a gated garden community a quick lie and a small bribe would get me inside.
It was there that my com-link went off. I answered it to find Bolt, my fixer, on the other end. “Hey kid” he started off the conversation “I got a job interview ready for you.” Straight to business, no small talk. You have to admire him for that.
“Of course. What about my fake ID?”
“One thing at a time, Tonto. You still have to do the job to pay for it.”
“As long as you're sure this Johnson will paying me” was my reply.
“Hah. All I promised was to find you a job, nothin’ about a Johnson that would pay for it. But if you're ready, meet him tomorrow night at Tilted Kilt. Later, kid.” With that he hung up. Well, at least I have the rest of tonight to have fun.
We met with the Johnson and received the mission details the next night, as planned. He’s offering a big chunk of change for the job, but once we had all the details I didn’t think it was enough. Mr. Johnson wanted three containers off an aircraft. Unfortunately he did not know when or where the aircraft would pick them up, but only knew they would be on board during a certain leg of its flight. So our job was to get containers while the plane was in the air. Do I look like Mary Poppins? Sure, I can just walk on water, or air as the case may be. Why the hell can’t I just get a smash and grab once in a while? If successful, and that’s a mighty big if, the group gets 750K space NuYen for our efforts. Nope, not nearly enough. But, beggars can’t be choosers.
Our team consists of five people. Dane, an orc mage, looked like he had the most experience, with the scars to prove it. Shaun would be our pilot and possibly a huge liability since she’s a drug addict. Then there’s Caleb, our whiz kid decker for the mission. The strangest member had to be Katrina (Kat for short), who reminded me of a leopard - the kind that eats people. Her lithe, muscular body was dotted with spots and feline eyes. Then there’s me - Jason Bourne, or JD, or Jon Doe. I don’t know who I am, but I’ll still kick your ass.
After the Johnson left, the group hung around to discuss the attack plan. How do you board a plane in flight? Duh, from another plane obviously, but we needed to pin down some minor details. Our most promising idea was to first take control of their plane remotely. That would be Caleb's job. Then, use grapple lines and a harness to slide across, like a breeches buoy. The main glitch in the plan was none of us has the grappling equipment needed. Since I was the face of the group (why do I volunteer for this crap?), it was up to me to define and buy these items before the plane departs tomorrow evening.
Everything started to come together the next night. I purchased a grapple gun and other gear. Shaun had connections to get us a SkyTrain for the run, a larger plane with tilt wings that gave it the ability to hover. Everybody else was ready to go, no one was looking forward to two boring days flying across the country waiting for our opportunity. I just hope that our druggie pilot doesn’t crash the plane.
As planned and on schedule, the target aircraft appeared on our radar. It was an MIG-67. The Johnson failed to share that vital bit of intel with us. We’re not getting paid enough, we really aren’t. The MIG-67 is a flying tank, literally. It has heavy armor for defense, a large cannon that rotates 360° for offense, and more speed than our SkyTrain can muster. Caleb needs to take control of it before the pilot reacts or we’re all dead.
It was time to get to work. Dane ordered an elemental to conceal our aircraft as Shaun maneuvered the SkyTrain into position. The MIG had the ability for great speed and lucky, for us, it was only going at half maximum. Once in range, Caleb got to work. She hacked the computer system by remote and took control of the MIG. As planned, the crew didn’t know she had control until it was too late and now she was the pilot. “They’re mine” she whispered. That was the signal to start the next phase of the mission.
Shaun placed the SkyTrain on autopilot (great, we’re in the hands of engineers) and then opened the bottom hatch on our aircraft and joined us. The rush of wind howled, making it hard to hear anybody speaking, or screaming. Kat jumped from our plane to the MIG. She freakin’ JUMPED! With her bare hands and feet clinging to the MIG, she appeared to be having the time of her life. She glanced up at us with a look that said, “are you coming”? Sometimes I think that I’m invincible, but I decided discretion was the better part of valor when leaping out of an airplane. Besides, I paid for the grapple and harness.
Having an air elemental on-call, I ordered him to take out the crew of our target aircraft. As he materialized within the cargo bay of the MIG, I received mental images of the crew firing on him. The bullets went through the air spirit as if he wasn’t there. The key word here is air spirit, as in nothin’ but.
The crew might have been caught off guard when Caleb took control of the MIG, but they are now fully aware of our presence. Caleb opened the outer upper hatch of the MIG. Now that we could see inside, Shaun shot the grapple gun that we had brought and fired it through the open hatch. Perfect shot. She then secured the other end to the inside of our plane.
The next thing I knew, Kat swung her body through the hatch landing inside the cargo bay. Over the radio we heard “four with pistols” and gunfire erupted over the com links. Dane quickly attached himself to the grapple line and lowered himself into the MIG.
With the crew of the MIG focused now on three targets, it was my time to slide down the rope. I connected my safety harness to the rope and jumped. The rope guided me in despite the winds trying to push me off course. As I landed inside, I could see three of the crew members firing at Kat and Dane and the fourth engulfed inside my air elemental. The elemental was cutting off his air supply, suffocating him. I smiled.
Shaun was the last to slide down the rope and join us inside the cargo bay, Caleb stayed inside the SkyTrain insuring that the MIG stayed under her control. Taking cover behind whatever cargo there was, the gunfire between us was fairly short. Dane was using his nark co-jet pistol, drugging his targets as if they were wild game. After missing twice he was able to hit his target on the third shot and the target dropped to the ground unconscious. By this time, my air elemental had suffocated his target into unconsciousness as well. Two down, two to go, with no casualties on our side. Damn, we’re good.
As the gunfire continued to rain out, the crew members on this aircraft couldn't seem to hit anything. Shaun, on the other hand, aimed her weapon and shot one in the head. Dane became furious; he wanted to complete the job without killing anyone. Kat, feline samurai of our group, climbed on top of the cargo in the ship and jumped and pounced on the last standing crewmember. She has wrestled and pinned him to the ground and left him unable to use his weapon or take any offensive actions. I could almost hear her purring.
With no other danger in sight, I moved toward Kat and said, “That's the problem with cats, they’re always playing with their food.” Kat then retrieved a Tranq Patch and placed it on the man's neck. The drug acted immediately sending the man into unconsciousness.
“I'm going astral” Dane proclaimed as he took a seat on the floor of the MIG. About two seconds later, he re-materialized in his astral form warning us about the pilot and his copilot, but the warning came too late. The copilot opened the door, leveled his gun at Dane's astral form and fired. A flechette round went straight through Dane’s incorporeal body and struck me. Dozens of little shards ripped through my armor and into my flesh knocking me off-balance and I fell to the ground. The copilot took aim again and this time Shaun was in his sights. Once again his aim was true as dozens of fragments from the flechette round pierced Shaun's armor. She also hit the floor in pain. Okay, maybe we’re not that good. Someone was flying the plane before Caleb.
My air spirit engulfed the copilot, removing the air that surrounded him. I could tell the copilot had more experience than the crewmembers in the back. He was able to break free from my spirit. Fearing that he’d be able to use his gun again, I concentrated on his gun and ripped it from his hands with a levitation spell. Trying to fight off my spell he was unable to protect himself from my spirit; he once again found himself engulfed. Within seconds he used up the last remaining air within his lungs and collapsed.
Kat, now finished playing with her prey, rushed into the cockpit and grappled the pilot while he was furiously working a console. She wrestled the struggling pilot to the floor, while Dane, after returning to his physical body, looked at the console to see what he had been doing. The console was the aircraft self-destruct panel; five of the six digits were entered. “Just like the movies, stopping the bomb one second before it goes off” he said, as he cleared the digits and deactivated the self-destruct.
The plane was ours. First, Dane attended to Shaun's injuries, casting a healing spell on her while I allowed my body to regenerate. Second, we quickly searched the cargo area to find the three crates that we were sent here to retrieve. I ordered the air elemental to transfer all the cargo, starting with the three crates that were our mission, to our plane.
As the air spirit relocated the cargo, our group had a discussion on what to do with the pilots and crew of the MIG. I had no problem pushing them out the door and keeping the MIG. My own flying tank. But the vote was three to two, with the rest of the team not as practical as I. Party poopers. We had Caleb overwrite the flight recorder showing nothing strange had happened during the flight. We left the crew tied up and hoped that this aircraft autopilot would land safely and allow the airport crew to free them.
One by one we climbed onto the grapple cable and reentered the SkyTrain. Well most of us. Kat, of course, can defy gravity. We cut the cable line and allowed Caleb to reset their autopilot to send the MIG home. Shaun climbed back into the pilot seat and set a course for Ireland. I didn't know why were going to Ireland, but Shaun advised that it had something to do with her getting the SkyTrain. A little favor perhaps. Regardless, the job’s done and I just want to kick back…and evaluate the lute.
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