Kikata awoke to an ominous digital tone. It would start out as a high scream before lowering to a deep buzzing sound. It took her a few moments to remember exactly what this signal meant.
"What the hell is that?" She heard Richards small voice call from below her bed.
"It's...It's an enemy ship signal!" She said as she realized what it meant. She jumped from her bed, crouching down to collect Richard before running towards the piolets seat, her bare feet smacking loudly against the plastic floor. She flew up the ladder and nearly dropped Richard by his seat.
Richard rubbed his palms into his eyes in an attempt to wipe away the waking blurred vision. He sank into his seat and squinted down at his screen, "Where is it?"
"About two miles, down and to the left."
"Alright I see it now." Richard said eyeing the red mark across his radar. "What are we going to do?"
"I will give them a chance to surrender." Kikata said, wondering how the ship had been tagged as a hostile vessel. Perhaps it had a pervious run in with a Nova Guard. Her ships computer quickly contacted the vessel. Once a green light displayed that her com was open she spoke, "Attention. This is a Nova Guard ship, your vessel has been flagged for arrest. Turn off your engines and-"
There was a rumble of laughter over the com, "Oh yeah? And what you going to do? Scratch us?" Another rumble of laughter followed.
"I will not hesitate to engage your ship. I am giving you thirty seconds to-"
"How about this, babe, turn your ship around. Forget you saw us. I'll give you thirty seconds before coming over there and turning that pretty face of yours to dust."
Kikata snarled as the com turned off, "Alright, you want a fight?" She muttered. She felt fear in her stomach but she knew she could hold her own.
"I'm guessing that the chat didn't go so hot?" Richard called back.
"No. We're going to engage them." She stated, hardly believing the words as they flowed off her tongue.
"Oh." Richard said, taking his dual joysticks in his hands, "So, want me to disconnect my controls from the steering?"
"And set them to weapons yes."
"Roger that." He said, scrolling through his display. He connected his controls to the weapons functions. He eyed over his weapons, "Um. You're going to have to give me a bit of a walkthrough here, I can aim but I'm not familiar with these weapons."
"We are looking to dissemble the craft in as non-fatal of a way as possible. Your main trigger there is small rounds, use that and aim it towards engines. If we can decimate their defenses we can punch them with a EMP. But do not launch that EMP unless we are ready for it, it can backfire easily."
"Alright. I'll just stay away-" A yellow streak zipped by their window.
"Here we go!" Kikata yelled, pulling back her her controls and driving their ship vertically. She watched the display, taking note of the ships location as she eluded their fire. The vastness of space gave the illusion that they were moving slowly, giving an almost un-climatic feel to the dogfight. Kikata maneuvered her ship in a looping motion, giving more power to the engines so that they could work their way behind the enemy ship. Powerful defensive computers worked hard to scramble heat seeking missiles and other guided weaponry.
Richard arched his neck to look up towards the ship which they had circled from above, He jerked backwards as Kikata threw on the back burners so they could make a seemingly impossible ninety degree turn, now facing directly upwards.
"Kill anything that might look like part of the electronics!" Kikata ordered, firing two harpoon like rockets towards the dark colored ship. Had it not been for the vibrant green outline created by their computer it would have been nearly invisible.
"Like I'm shooting at a shadow." Richard responded, pulling his fingers down on the trigger. He watched as a silent stream of burning metal cut through the space, sparks exploding against the ships hull. Space combat was a strange experience. The ships would be weightless, completely under the control of momentum and the power of their engines. The fighting was perfectly silent outside of the ship, the only sound that reached his ears was the sound of the weapons inside of the ship. A loud clattering sounded beneath the floor as he fired off his rounds, a cloud of empty bullet casings floating away from their ship.
"Keep shooting." Kikata ordered, grinning to hear that her computer spikes had landed accurately. As of now their ship was invisible to their radar. "Fire off number three on your panel."
"Alright." Richard said, his wrists straining to keep the ship in the crosshairs that displayed against the window. He selected the third square on the weapons panel, it almost reminded him of some video games he had played, and fired. He watched as two red dots zipped towards the ship, only to suddenly avert from their paths, disappearing into the blackness of space.
"Shit." Kikata muttered, :"Their defense systems are buried deep, we've got them in a bad spot though." She said with a nod. "He just keeps circling but at this rate they are at a loss of hope to get the upper hand." She watched as the ship tried another spiraling manever.
A round green sphere outlined the ship, an unmarked planet. "Fire number four! Now!"
Richard nodded, quickly selecting the display and pulling the trigger, simultaneously Kikata unloaded a fury of missiles, none of which she planned on landing lethally. Like insects the missiles started to scatter in random directions as the enemy ships computers worked furiously to to protect itself. Meanwhile two bright blue rockets ran straight through the red lines and struck the ship accurately.
"Yeah baby!" Richard cried out.
"Good hit! Good hit! Perfect!" Kikata cheered as well. She watched as the outline of the ship grew smaller, falling towards the small green planet.
"Now what?"
Kikata turned the engines to follow the ship, which at the moment was spinning out of control. "I'm not sure. In a combat situation we might finish them off but I cannot bring myself to do that. It looks like they will crashland on that planet, their engines will be offline for an hour at least...they will be impacting in about forty seconds.
They maintained a slight distance as the ship silently spun towards the planet, "Oh no...they are going in too fast." Kikata whispered, "We need to slow their fall."
"How?"
"It's a long shot." Kikata said, "But I am going to try and rope them in." She scrolled through her display, finding her tow rope function. She pushed her ship faster, getting into range before lining up the shot.
"Jesus..." Richard muttered, watching at how fast the ship spun, "Gotta' be rough on their stomach in there."
Kikata nodded, "The least of their worried right now." She fired the towing spike, cursing under her breath as it quickly bounced from the ships hull. "It's going too fast! It wont stick!"
They watched as an orange glow formed around the ship, the bullet pelted shell spewing narrow flames as the atmosphere tore at the ship. Kikata was forced to put on the back burners to slow their decent. She watched with a grimace as the ship spiraled towards the green landscape below.
~ ~ ~ ~
Kikata and Richard climbed into their armor quickly.
"The air is thin out there." She warned, "You might be okay, I wont be able to leave my suit." She slipped her helmet over her head and knelt down, "You ready?"
Richard nodded, pulling on his helmet before climbing onto her outstretched hand. "As I'll ever be."
~ ~ ~ ~
Kikata eyed the shattered ship, metal plates smoldered for seemingly miles into the distance. "Hello?" She called, though from the looks of it anyone in the cockpit would have been disintegrated on impact. She reached her hand to her shoulder and took Richard, setting him on the odd ground. It was perfectly flat and green, as if covered by moss. "Look around Richard, see if you can find anything at all."
Richard nodded, "Alright, just watch your step."
"I will." Kikata assured him, her familiar seriousness taking over her attitude. She walked towards the base of the ship, which was jutting out from the exploded earth horizontally. She gripped the loading ramp, the suits added pulling power helping her to pry open the damaged panel.
A cloud of black smoke billowed from the ship, "H-Hello?" She called again, waving her arm to try and bat away the thick cloud. Her eyes fell on the seemingly empty ship. Though as her eyes scanned the walls she saw what looked like black lumps of dirt pressed against the walls. "O-Oh god." She gagged, backing away from the ship. The cockpit window had caved in during the crash, the burning heat of the atmosphere had literally charred all the occupants to the seats and walls.
"Kikata?" Richard asked, watching as she stumbled away from the ship.
"They're all dead." She gasped, falling to her knees, "Oh...god it was..."
Richard shifted uneasily as she tried to gather her thoughts, "We did everything-"
"God dammit!" Kikata screamed in her native tongue. She lifted a slab of debris and hurled it at the ship, "Why did you have to go and get yourselves killed you fucking idiots!" She shrieked. "What is so god damn important that you have to go and kill so many people!"
"We did what we could..." Richard muttered quietly into the radio.
"I just don't understand." She whispered in English, "These people would rather take their lives and our lives into their hands than surrender and face most likely minor military charges. And for what? What great justice are they after?"
They fell silent for a few minutes, Kikata had walked back towards the ship, sitting down on the odd, soft surface.
"So where are we?" Richard asked, kicking his foot against the shallow strands of green vegetation.
"Just a random number." She mumbled.
"This is vegetation, is it not?"
Kikata's hand skimmed across the ground, "I suppose it is."
Richard lifted his helmet off cautiously, taking a breath of the fresh air, "Breathable."
"Oh, that was smart of you."
Richard shrugged as he sat down. Richards brow furrowed as he felt something strange tugging at his finger. He glanced down to his hand and nearly jumped to his feet, "What the hell!" He yelped.
He lifted his hand, the strange creature dangling from his fingers. Its wings fluttered quietly. But something was very strange. It was humanoid in appearance. It's glowing blue eyes looking into Richards. It was about six inches long, with bright green skin. Its hair was a deep purple, but other than its size, wings and colors it was human in appearance.
"Kikata." He called up.
"What?"
"I don't think your going to believe this..."
Giantess World
Nova Force by Ginbug