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Those Who Soar on Broken Wings

Chapter One: The Escape

"The definition of insanity... It's doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result... " it was a quote by an old world genius, someone from a history long forgotten. On a planet that no longer exists, it didn't matter though, only one thing mattered now, and that was escape.

The gentle hum of FTL engines eventually turned into a never ending reminder that there was no way for me to escape. I shot bolt awake as the fuel gauge began to beep. The space around my ship began to ripple and there was a low bass note as I dropped into sub-light. The ship began to drift, robbed of any FTL fuel. I punched the maneuvering thrusters, attempting to get the small cargo ship into a course towards any planetary body. Thats when my luck finally ran out. My ship pinged as three more ships dropped into my area. Two frigates and a cruiser. Fighters deployed from the cruiser and formed attack squadrons, but none of them attacked me...yet. Space rippled behind the ships and a flagship dropped into space. My comms crackled and I watched the video screen pop up on my HUD, and the face of the man who killed everyone I loved appeared.

"Felix... Its been quite a long time since we've spoken" he said.

"Colonel Reynolds... Sorry for the cold shoulder, I've been occupied with avoiding your hit squads." I spat back

"Don't think of them as hit-squads. They're... Technology reclamation teams. Don't forget, you stole some very valuable technology from me."

"I am not just a piece of technology... And neither were the others... And you had them all killed!" I yelled. Reynolds simply smiled

"And the technology was recovered."

"What about the people... My friends... My family. You killed them!" I shouted and my ship beeped. The frigates had locked onto me.

"Well... Felix... If it's any consolation, you won't have to miss then for long. Sorry we had to have... Creative differences." Reynolds said before being interrupted by a technician

"Sir, firing patterns locked"

"Good. Fire at will, destroy the processor." Reynolds said before the feed cut. Light bloomed along the stern of the closer frigate as missiles streaked through space towards my ship. The fighters also shot forwards in attack formations. I hit my thrusters and forced the ship into a roll. A missile streaked past me and curved, plotting a new course. I punched the acceleration and shot forwards opening fire at the nearest fighter squadron. The squadron broke into individual targets and I launched my small missiles at them. I sped past the squadrons as they tried to regroup, just as a warning lit up my screen. I hit the emergency thrust, and a concussive explosion rocked through the ship as it shot sideways at high speed to dodge the incoming railgun projectile. I launched missiles at the frigate. They followed my thoughts through the neural interface. They hit only the sweet spots of the frigate. Fuel lines, hangar bays, weapons targeting systems, and the bridge. Fire bloomed where the missiles hit and the frigate was crippled. It turned away from my ship and attempted to enter FTL in retreat. I flew through the spot where the frigate was, headed towards the flagship. Suddenly alarms blared all over my ship. A fighter's missile impacted my engines and I spun out of control. My lock-on warning blared and my HUD flashed red. I scrambled towards the airlock, sealing my suit as I opened the door. The impact of a ship to ship railgun blast destroyed most of my dropship instantly. The force of the blast propelled me away from the flagship as it fired another railgun, obliterating my ship. Fragments of metal flew past me in blurs as I fired my suits thruster. I tried to turn away, but I was too slow. A fragment of jagged metal flew towards me. My HUD warned me of the proximity and I scrambled, trying to avoid the metal to no avail. The piece of metal hit me in the chest and I spun around, flipping through vacuum unable to stop. The pain was immense, coupled with the flashing decompression warning. I had a half concocted thought as I reached for the pocket plasma welder attached to my suits utility belt. I turned the welder on and touched it to the base of where the metal met my chest. My vision swam and I screamed as the metal bubbled and melted to my chest, fusing the armor, metal, and skin into an airtight seal. I slowly brought the welder around the entirety of the metal finally sealing my suit from the harshness of space. I keyed the magnetic hardpoints on my feet, knees, and elbows, and they pulled me towards a hunk of hull plating. The hardpoints gave a soft click and a blue glow as I was magnetically stuck to the metal. At that point I could already feel the processor taking over, shutting me down. So I gave in, and let my world fade to black as I floated helplessly through space, mag-stripped to a chunk of metal.

Thirteen minutes earlier, Avali deep space outpost XXV

The bridge summons alarm sounded in our barracks. I shot up and jumped out of my bed and slipped into my armor. The feeling of the armor powering up and clicking into its place was a comfort to me. I grabbed my helmet and put it on, my personalized HUD winking into view, it displayed the vitals and location of the rest of my pack, they were all in the room, doing just the same as me. I grabbed my weapon and looked to my pack, we were ready, so we moved to the control deck as one. We entered the room and stepped into our formation grid. The Avali numeral for six was painted on the floor, and on the chest of all of our armor. We were the legendary sixth squadron... Or we used to be... We hadnt been the same since...Arrior. I pushed all thought of him from my mind as the deck commander walked in.

"Five human ships jumped into our sector, four following the first. They opened fire on their own ship and then jumped out of system. I want to know what happened out there. Squadrons four, nine, seven, and two, run perimeter, I want to know if the human ships come back. Squadron six... You're on scan duty, you haven't been cleared for combat yet." The deck commander called before she walked back towards her post. I turned to look at my pack, they all had their heads down. We were from a militant settlement, we had climbed the ranks, and become an almost legendary fighting force... And now we were broken. A damaged pack, ignored by the others because we were no longer whole, because of Arrior... Because of his death. We jogged to the hangar bay, our ships were fueled, and sat in a line, the six was painted below the cockpit of each fighter. Unlike most packs, who operated as one in a single ship, we fought as one single force, in our three fighters. They were nova class, mid-range fighters. FTL capable and armed with rotary cannons, missiles, two attack drones, and two over wing mounted spinial rail cannons. I climbed into my ship, and was welcomed by my AI, it was a simple AI, not as smart as a larger ships would be. But it aided my combat and scanning skills. I complete my preflight checks, and fired my engines. The familiar orange HUD winked on and my launch trajectory popped into existence. I waited for the two small ship icons to change from grey to orange before I pushed eased my ship forwards, flying it out of the stations bay. I set my course and pushed my ship to full thrust, edging closer to the speed threshold before activating my FTL drive. Space blurred into white lines and the pulsing of my engines brought me to calm. It only took a few minutes before we reached the edge of the search zone. I dropped out of FTL in stealth mode, the wings folded in, reducing my scanner detection probability. My pack mates dropped out of FTL and did the same. We moved forwards and began to find wreckage. Human fighters floated lazily, their pilots ejected, or killed. Large sections of armor from a frigate, seemingly jettisoned, floated aimlessly, hitting each other. My scanner passed over the pieces of wreckage as I began the slow process of cataloging each piece. Almost an hour into scanning I noticed an anomaly. My scanner had skipped a certain piece of wreckage. I manually selected the debris and began a scan, but my scanner jumped to another nearby piece of metal.

"Soraiyan, Tael I believe I've found something interesting. Meet at my position." I said, sending out a beacon.

"On my way Ava." Tael replied

"Ooh, same I hope theres some human tech, I just love to mess with their machines!" Soraiyan called

"Don't you dare touch anything until I get there! Last time you got something to tinker with, you broke it before I could examine it!" Tael yelled back. I smiled as the two began to bicker, it was comforting. I eased closer to the floating object, my scanner still refusing to scan it. Something was deflecting my signal, and I wanted to know what. The hunk of hull plating was spinning slowly towards my ship, so I waited to see what was on the other side. I focused my spotlights on it as it floated past. At first glance it seemed to just be a useless piece of slag, but just before it passed out of the spotlight I saw a hand. I immediately refocused my light and discovered that there was a human attached to the metal. I tried to scan it but my scanner wouldn't acknowledge that it was there. Thats when I noticed the piece of metal jutting out of its chest. I relayed the situation to my pack as the drew near. Their ships swinging around to focus their lights on the human as well. I eased out of my chair, floating in the small cockpit as I sealed my environmental armor.

"Nine minutes of vacuum exposure for unsealed wings, twenty-six when sealed." I unconsciously twitched my wing feathers as my suit sealed around them. I had twenty-six minutes before the skin at the base of my wings was damaged. If I left my vents open, I'd only have six, so I ignored the discomfort of my armor squeezing tight against my wings. I opened the hatch and activated my EVA thruster. I floated towards the human, and aimed for the metal it was strapped to. I got close enough and deployed my tether cable. I winched myself in until I was close enough to touch the humans armor. Thats when I noticed something odd. The armor was welded to the piece of metal, it looked as if the human had fused the metal to its armor, and in turn its own flesh. I relayed my thoughts to my pack as they watched through my helmet camera. I touched my data chit to the humans helmet and it hacked into the suits computer. I was shocked when the humans vitals came up on my HUD. It was alive. I frantically hacked the magnetic field locking it to the metal and shut it off, allowing it to float free. I grabbed hold of its abnormally large body and pulled it towards my ship.

"There's no way it will fit..." I thought seeing that the human must be almost two meters tall, most Avali never grew past a meter and three-quarters in height. I managed to push it into my ship by curving its body around my seat, it looked terribly uncomfortable, but the metal shard protruding from its chest seemed to have rendered it unconscious. I floated back into my chair and sealed my ship, letting the artificial gravity return to function.

"I'm going to bring it in, I still don't know how it avoided my scan." I said as I spooled my FTL drive and shot off towards the station. I dropped out of FTL and approached the landing bay, I passed the landing over to my AI as I completed my final bank towards the landing bag of the station. I landed and equalized the pressure of my ship. I climbed out and ran to contact a medical pack. Soon I returned to my ship, a medical, science, and security pack following me. My pack mates were situated around my ship in defensive positions. The head scientist of our station walked alongside the deck commander. They argued about security and the safety of the station versus the scientific reasons to have a human aboard. Head scientist Furlow seemingly won the argument as the deck commander stepped back with her pack and returned to the control room somewhat disappointedly. Furlow approached me and my pack slowly.

"Ava, you recovered the human, correct?" He asked

"Yes Sir." I replied

"Well... I have an idea... In the meantime, you will be held accountable for the actions of the Human, if we manage to save it." He said before the medical team dragged the humans limp body out of my ship. The medical team carted it off, chattering with the scientists. Some time later my HUD blinked with a comm message from Furlow.

"Come to lab four-four-three. I want to run some tests, and I prefer your pack to be present as security." I forwarded the message to Tael and Soraiyan, who were maintaining our ships and we made our way to the lab. I entered the airlock and yelped in surprise and pain at the temperature. My suit and nanites rapidly scrambled to lower my body temperature. It was nearly two-hundred and ninety kelvin in the room. I waited for my suit to adjust before going deeper into the wing. Furlow met us by the entrance.

"Pardon the heat, this is ideal temperature for a human to survive, we don't know much about them really... But they have a much higher body temperature than us."

"Why do you want us as security?" I asked Furlow.

"Ah... To the point... You always were such an intelligent pack. The human is alive, and we have stabilized It. We're working on trying to disengage its armor but there doesn't seem to be a shutdown code in the programming. We don't know how the humans get their armor to power on and off." Furlow said as he walked me over to the window overlooking a room of Avali scientists trying to crack the programming of the humans armor.

"May I go into the room?" I asked. Furlow nodded and led me into the room. Several scientists worked on data chits or larger tablets and holographic wall computers. I studied the humans armor, it seemed to be a combination of hard and soft materials, it didnt look like combat armor at all, it seemed to be much more of an environmental armor. I tapped my data chit to the humans head as I had before, the suits information loaded into my HUD, the technical logs scrolled past, the humans vitals spiked after a decompression warning, I assumed that was when it welded the armor to its skin. I noticed there was a recording, it was another human speaking to this one. I keyed my translator to listen to the human called Reynolds order his crew to fire at the human here, the audio didnt work for the rest, I had hoped it would give me a name, something...anything, about the human. I watched until just before the recording ended, the human looked down and twisted a joint on its armor, causing it to join together.

"Furlow... Its not mechanized armor, its more like clothing." I said before I reached for the humans head. I gripped its helmet and twisted sideways. A hiss of air came out of the seal before it popped open. I barely even got to pull the helmet away before a thick red liquid began to dribble out of the broken seal. Beeps erupted from a nearby machine and the medical crew ran in quickly.

"Is that? Its blood, quick get the rest of the armor off!" Furlow yelled as the medical team jumped to action. I was pushed to the edge of the room as I watched the science and medical teams remove the humans armor. The humans blood soon stained the floor in a large pool. The jagged piece of metal was buried in its chest, and had been fused to it. It was breathing, but it sounded wrong. I watched as the team peeled a layer of cloth off of the human before quickly cutting the excess metal off with a precision laser. A scientist was examining the humans head before she let out a surprised squeak. She ran to Furlow and he nodded, I was ejected from the room shortly after, and the viewing window was blocked. I waited in silence with my pack. A silence we had all become accustomed to, a silence that was unnatural among other packs. Our communication was different though. We did not have to speak to understand each other, and if anything it brought us closer. I sat and watched packs march through the halls, off to do odds and ends as the hours ticked by. My pack and I busied ourselves maintaining our weapons and armor until Furlow finally appeared from inside the room.

"There's been an interesting discovery... That human has a neural processor... Its ahead of our own capabilities, we have no idea how it was created or implanted. We contacted the Avali Council... They want it to be transported to Avalon in a few days. Your pack is to accompany it." He said to me.

"Why is there so much interest in keeping us near to this human?" I asked becoming annoyed that we had to babysit.

"Its... Somewhat of an experiment... Your pack is... Different because of what happened to you, and none of us can imagine the pain you went through, but we... We had an idea, we're going to keep the human with you... As a pack mate of sorts. The council ordered it, I'm sorry if you disagree." Furlow said, his tone serious. I turned to my pack. Soraiyan smiled and nodded

"I've always heard of humans being the descendants of the destroyers, I want to study him!" He said excitedly. Tael nodded in agreement, and the two looked to me. I bit back my dark thoughts of the past and nodded... And hoped dearly I was taking the right decision for us. Furlow beckoned us forwards and we followed him into a new room. The human was on a table, it was no longer bloody, and the piece of metal had been removed from its chest. There was a silvery scar marring the spot where it had been. I also noticed the human was naked, thats when I was able to stop referring to it as an it. Now I knew it was a he, and I hoped he would help my pack... I knew I owed them that much...

End chapter 1

Authors Note: So here it is, chapter one of what I hope is a long, enjoyable series. I've got piles of notes on characters, places, and events for this story. I hope you enjoyed the first installment of Those who Soar on Broken Wings, and as always...

Happy Reading!

~Fallen