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The Helios Chronicles: Preview Part I

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The Helios Chronicles


Part I Preview: The Infinite Beyond





I awoke with a start, not terribly sure what had just happened. Someone was lightly smacking the side of my face, talking, but I couldn't quite make out what they were saying. My vision was blurred and my ears were ringing. I tried to sit up, and a sharp pain shot up from somewhere in my left leg up to the middle of my back. That brought me to full consciousness. I shook my head and looked up at who was smacking my face.

"Sir, wake up!" she was saying. I opened my mouth to say something in response, but only a low groan escaped. My eyes are open. Why can't she tell I am awake? I said to myself. It was then I realized my HUD cover was still up. I reached up and pressed a small button on my helmet near my right ear. The HUD cover retracted. I looked around at my surroundings. The air was very hazy, and I could hear sparks flash behind me. I was sitting on the ceiling inside of a T104 Endeavor class transport. I looked up to see empty seats and floor plating... above me. To the right was the cockpit... or rather where it used to be. The floor was folded up (or down, depending on how you look at it), and I could see light through the remains of the door.

"Phoenix is awake. Get S.A.R. out here asap!" said the the woman into a radio. She was wearing a red, black and white combat uniform, with matching armor. She scooped up my head and helped me sit up. The pain again shot up my leg into my back, but with less intensity. I finally nerved up enough courage to look down at it. My armor was mangled above my left hip. There was blood. A lot of blood. Instinct told me to yell in pain, but the training took over. I reached into my leg pocket and pulled the inside lining of the pocket out, and immediately stuffed it into the hole in my armor. The pain was nearly unbearable, but I knew I had to keep pressure on it.

"Sir? Are you alright?" asked the female. She had an emblem on her armor, just above the left breastplate. It had four chevrons pointed down with two stars above them and two black bars aligned vertically behind them. On the opposite side was a simple black bar with white text that read "McKinley".

"I'll live, Major." I asked, my voice cracking. Man up! I told myself. I spoke a bit louder this time. "What the hell just happened?"

"We crashed, Commander." She replied flatly.

"Obviously," I replied in an equally flat tone, "but how? I don't remember what happened." It was all starting to come back to me. We were en route to pick up some VIP civilians from a restaurant who had been under attack. The attack! I remembered. "We need to get to the VIPs! How far out are we?" I found myself asking.

"Sir, we're still well over thirty clicks out. We were unfortunate enough to come across a couple of Alliance fighters." replied the major. Major Jasmine McKinley. I had remembered her name. I didn't know her all too well. She had just been transferred to my command two months ago.

"Our sister ship?" I asked, referring to the other T104. Transports never fly alone, almost always flying in pairs.

"No word. I don't see it in the immediate area, but there's a pretty big smoke plume not too far west of here. I'd almost bet that's it. Or what's left of it, anyway." the major replied, shrugging. "We need to get out of here, away from the transport, but still within visual range. If the Alliance finds us before our guys do, we're in deep shit. Can you walk?"

"Honestly, I don't know. Help me up." I said, putting my arm around her neck. She lifted up, and I stood up, favoring my right leg. I tried to put pressure on my right leg. There was the pain again, but it was bearable. It was then I realized my armor had detected my injury and administered local sedatives. I was surprised it was working. I decided to inspect the rest of my armor. It was pretty beat up. It looked like someone had put it through a rock slide. "I can walk, but I'll need your help. Local sedatives are affecting my balance" I concluded.

"Damn, you're heavy." stated major McKinley. I raised my brow at her. "Sir." she added. She wrapped her arm around my torso, careful not to put pressure near my wound. She was gentle, but firm. "I scouted an area about thirty meters from here along the treeline that should make it hard for any Alliance patrols to see us, but easy for us to see the transport in case our guys hear the beacon and come to get us."

"Excellent job, major." I found myself saying, surprised at my own statement. Major McKinley eyed me with a suspicious look.

"Commander Jayce Palaven, complimenting me? Who are you and what have you done with the real Commander Palaven?" she stared with an almost comical look of disbelief on her face, her emerald green eyes staring directly into mine.

"There's a time for being a royal dick, and there's a time for congratulatory remarks. This time merits the latter. Don't change my mind, Major." I stated, with a low sarcastic tone. That seemed to pacify her, as she chuckled and pressed her shoulder against the transport hatch. She lifted it with her free arm, struggling to hold the heavy door up. I looked at her, confused.

"Hydraulics are out sir."

"I know that. There's no power. I'm just wondering why you're lifting the door when we could just crawl out through there?" I said, pointing at the hole where the cockpit door used to be.

"Well, sir, if you want to crawl through live control wires only to fall about teen feet into a ravine, be my guest," chuckled the major, "now if you don't mind, this thing is a bit on the heavy side."

"Fair enough." I nodded, and limped out from under the heavy door. My eyes adjusted to the sunlight. We were alongside a ravine in a clearing. I spotted where the major was leading me. A large clove of trees with good cover and slightly higher elevation was only a few dozen meters due north of us. Or at least, I thought it was north, judging by the position of the sun. I started towards it, with the help of major McKinley. We were about halfway there when I heard a high pitched whine from behind me. I turned around just in time to see a grey and blue Earth Alliance light transport descending towards us. I grabbed the major's rifle off of her back, the magnetic locks freeing with the press of a button. I pushed her ahead of me."

"Go! Get outta here major!" I yelled. She didn't budge. "That's an order!"

"With all due respect, fuck that, sir. I'm not about to leave a senior officer behind. Especially commander of the 3rd fleet." She replied, stepping towards me. "You can court marshal me all you want, I'm getting you to that treeline." she replied. She grabbed my arm, bent over and grabbed my leg and fireman carried me the remaining fifteen or so meters to the treeline. By this time, the Alliance transport was less than three hundred meters from our downed T104. The smoke obscured us a bit, and I was hoping that it would distract them enough not to see us.

Once the major and I were in the trees, she put me down against a large tree truck. I handed her the rifle, knowing she was probably a better shot than me, being graduate of the Imperial Assault Academy. She flipped up the scope and surveyed three Alliance soldiers stepping out of their transport, moving towards our own.

"They seemed to have not noticed us." observed McKinley quietly.

"And now we wait for our guys to come to us, like knights in shining armor." I replied in a whisper, leaning my head back. The local anesthetic was wearing off, and the pain was getting pretty bad. I used the AMOLED touch pad on my arm to administer a sedative. I felt woozy almost instantly. Crap, wrong sedative. I said to myself.

"Major" I said quietly, speech already starting to slur, "Imma go night night." My vision was starting get blurry.

"Are you fucking serious right now?" she whispered through her gritted teeth.

"I administered the wrong sedat... meds" I slurred, vision going black.

"Jesus Christ, commander, there are Alliance soldiers..." her voice faded, as I was rendered unconscious by the powerful sedatives. I was out, oblivious to my surroundings.
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