Flying Under

This doesn’t make sense. It cannot make sense. Nothing I have done warrants the position I find myself in. I mean, put yourself in my shoes. I’ve played this game about as smoothly as you can expect. And from what I can tell, the computer has played about as smoothly as I have. So, how the heck has our position transposed like this? All I have to do is trade my queen off the board, which will lead to a rook trade, and I should be golden. I’ll supposedly be the one with the advantage here- a knight and a bishop are supposed to be stronger than a single rook. But I’m playing against a computer. Computers are devious little machines that will find a loophole in any position. So, now I’m thinking to myself- If I make all of these trades, who’s actually on top?

The computer is… because it has more pawns. Ooh, that was trouble, that was almost big trouble. Well, technically it’s only one pawn up, but that pawn is standing beside two others and the three of them are collectively staring at one. If I’m not careful, one of them could slip past my knight and bishop. But at the same time, if I try chasing those pawns, I’m in big trouble, because the computer has all of their pieces- well all three of them- ready to bulldoze through to my king. Well, no route is easier than the obvious one. I take the queen and start to think about how I can equalize the pawns or capture the remaining rook.

Before I could think too far my radio came to life. “Ethan? Ethan come in…”

I sigh, put away my personal device and pick up the receiver. “Reading you clearly, what’s the situation?”

“We’re requesting an evac, we traversed down a couple of rock formations and now we realise that it’s not safe to climb back up them with the equipment we have.”

“How do you safely climb down a rock face that needs equipment to climb back up?” I asked them as I powered up the engines and went through the flight checklists.

“Well… climbed down, might not be the word we use…”

“… Is one of you injured?” I asked in a concerned tone.

“No, we’re all fine!”

“… Right… well then, sit tight, send me your co-ords and activate your transponder for good measure. I’m on my way.” I said as the HEAV’s engines whined to life and I pulled up and out of the clearing I had set down in.

I was impressed that nothing hangry found its way into the clearing in the time I spent there. I swear every other time I’m conducting a simple aerial patrol whenever I streak just a little too low to the tree lines, I could almost hear the cries of something or somethings. I’ve always wondered if they were scurrying away from or taking their chances at the HEAV. Also always made me wonder why I chance those fly-bys with absolutely no clue as to what might be lurking right under, or even as, the treeline. Speaking of hangry things, I really need to hurry. A bunch of science personnel aren’t going to go unnoticed for long.

Fortunately for them, they were not too far away, and the ledge they found themselves stuck by seemed quite a way off the path that anything might stumble on. Now the only thing that could give away their position is something that sounded like a football stadium crowd. Oh wait, that would be me in my HEAV. Better not dilly-dally then. The only problem is, there’s not a lot of space to land on the ledge.

“Hey, I see you guys, but I don’t see enough space to put down. I’m going to circle back around. Keep the noise close to you guys at a minimum. Hang tight,” I said into the radio.

“Copy that,” The reply came back.

All right, how can I safely do this? I could open the bay door, hover over the cliff face and have them walk in like how it could be done in a helicopter. But that would be safer if there were doors on the side, which there aren’t. Maybe there is enough space to land on the ledge, but they’ll have to stick to the wall and I’m not sure they’ll be able to make their way to the bay door after that, not with the engines in their faces. I do have some rope and ascenders on the craft, but I’d need someone to either help with the rope or operate the craft. I should note all this down, things to suggest to command- have two pilots ready and waiting in the craft to help out in situations like these and provide a full suite of equipment regardless of the purpose of the mission.

Well, there is only one thing to do then. I need to land on the ledge above the team, then drop down the rope for them to climb up. This is going to make a whole bunch of noise and anything hangry nearby will definitely come around for a chance at lunch. So, I’m going to have to set the rope up quickly and have a weapon ready to defend the team and myself if necessary. I hope it doesn’t come to that though. I radioed the plan to them and turned around to land. I reached the point and landed without incident. I need to leave the engines warm; we need to bug out as soon as possible. I turned to the onboard armoury, picked out a rifle, grabbed the rope and ascenders, secured the rope to an anchor onboard, tied the ascenders to the other end of the rope, opened the bay door, and bounded out to the ledge. Have to work quickly. I looked over the ledge and dropped down the ascenders as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, all of the personnel were well-trained with rock climbing equipment so they made equally quick work of all the stuff and then the team was ascending one by one within the minute. I kept watching with a rifle at the ready the whole time, can’t take any chances here. We were down to the last two members when I heard a very prominent hiss that was not coming from the engines.

And there it was. Walking up ever so slowly, but with intent. One of the newer critters we discovered after beginning our exploration of the hollow earth. Do you like deep sea creatures? Me neither, at least not particularly. Do you know what a goblin shark is? Imagine a goblin shark that has the legs of a lizard instead of fins. That should be a good enough image if you can imagine it. Of course, it looks a lot more menacing than a goblin shark, it has to be if it’s going to live in a place like this and it's built much more slender and agile than a goblin shark, more like a Komodo dragon. I can’t remember what it is officially called, but I remember it as a shockhead because supposedly it stabs its bony head into its prey to execute them. I also say ‘shock’ because apparently, it can deliver a shock through its… horn? It’s a horn, right? It hissed again right as another member ascended up and over the ledge. They momentarily stopped and looked at it.

“Don’t stop, keep going, slowly though,” I said without turning around, bringing my rifle up to my shoulder. “Tell me when everyone is in.”

They stood for another moment then slowly jogged into the HEAV. I stared down the shockhead. It was still a healthy distance away from the ship, the engines’ noise probably keeping it at bay. I moved my finger off the trigger. I have no clue if a bullet is going to deter one of these things, let alone kill them. I certainly do not want to find out because I got nervous, pulled the trigger by accident and then startled this thing into charging me. I also have no clue how fast this thing runs so I have no clue if I can get away from it. If you’ve seen a croc sprinting, I think you know what I’m getting at. The shockhead is still walking up ever so slowly. Then I heard another hiss.

I kept my gun pointed at the first one but another was coming up a little towards my left. It too was walking up ever so slowly. And then in my peripheral, I saw another further to the left. I switched my aim to the second shockhead which was now in the middle, but the first was closer and as it hissed again, I switched my aim back to it. I took a step back, now getting a little worried. This is getting worse by the moment.

Just as I thought that I heard a call from behind me. “We’re all in!”

Okay, now how do I get back in without these things chasing after me? I feel like I’ve been solving problems all day today. First the chess game, then the evac problems and now this. Why did I walk so far away from the bay door? But enough of that, the more time I spend not thinking about this problem the worse it’s going to get. I know these things are hunters, so it’s fair to assume they know when something is trying to surreptitiously back off. Besides, I can’t imagine they would just let me turn a corner into my ship without chasing after me. And I don’t know if the bay door will close behind me fast enough. Do I run for it? I still have no clue how fast these things are, and if they are like your average lizard, they should be able to scurry along very quickly. But if they turn out to be more like a croc they might tire out before they reach the bay door and then they might not have the time or energy to climb into the door. I just hope they don’t try puncturing the engines with their horns after that. I think they’re horns, so I’m calling them horns. Okay, I’m running for it.

“Strap in!” I called out to the ship. I hope they heard me over the din of the engines.

I scanned all three shockheads again, I took a breath… and then bolted. I heard hisses become retches behind me but I resisted turning around. My focus is getting into the bay door and then hitting the switch to shut the door. After that, I gun the engines and lift off before they can start attacking the craft. Luckily for me, I’m a fast runner. Unluckily for me, so were those things. As I turned into the HEAV, I saw one of the shockheads barrelling down and lunging at me, threatening to skewer me. Now I have not been hunted by a wild animal any time recently. But I used to play rugby back in high school and uni. So, I was pretty well drilled on what to do to avoid a body flinging itself at you. I dived down into the HEAV through the bay door as the shockhead flew past me, almost scratching my shins and ankles, rolling over on the rocks on the other side. The other two were still coming though.

I was scrambling to get back onto my feet to press the switch, but one of the scientists was still standing and not strapped in. He hit it and the doors lifted up just enough that the shockheads could not clamber in anymore. No more time or words were wasted, he jumped into his seat and started strapping in while I ran to the pilot’s seat and started powering the engines up. We lifted up and out before the shockheads could figure out what was going on and we got away before they could damage the craft. Or they ran away after being startled by the sound of the engines reaching full power. I let out a breath I did not know I was holding and slumped into my seat.

“Hey, Raven?” one of the scientists called out from the back.

I sighed again before answering, “Yes?”

“Thanks for coming as quickly as you did. And sorry you had to go through all of that.”

I chuckled and coughed still slightly out of breath from all that running and tension. “Oh yeah, don’t mention it. All in a day’s job.”