Sky Striders

Short story based on an RP I'm going to make. Enjoy and here's a tune to read along with.

~~~

"Well, this is it I guess," Linus said as he stood at the front of the bridge, pressing a hand onto the glass window and watching as the broiling mass of black thunderclouds and tangled lightning loomed ever closer. "The point of no return."

"To think a month ago, it was just a dot in the distance," Aelita said as she stood with the pilot, linking her fingers with his. "Aren't you scared?"

"Of course I am."

Linus looked back to check the flight instruments, where a little green light showed that the Sky Strider was on autopilot. The speed remained constant, but the course was becoming increasingly unsteady as winds buffeted the aircraft. The very floor of the bridge was rattling with vibration and Linus could feel his heart beating in his chest. He was afraid indeed. Now that the deadly outer layer of the core was closer than he had ever seen in his life, it filled him with fear... and awe.

Aelita felt the same, but her resolve remained unshaken, even as the blue of the sky became less and less visible, and the storms of the core inexorably filled the air. She had dreamed of this moment since the day she became an explorer and now with Linus at her side and the Sky Strider made ready for the voyage, that dream was becoming a magnificent reality.

"But you know what," Linus continued. "However this turns out, I'm okay with it."

"Then we're thinking the same thing," Aelita replied. "Even if we don't make it back out, we're going to bust through that storm and see what's on the other side."

Linus smiled at Aelita's determination and opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, a beep from the navigation console signalled that the wind speed had risen to dangerous levels. And so the true test began.

"Okay, this is it," Aelita said as she went to the navigator's seat and read her own instruments. "Wind speed's at a hundred knots and rising."

Linus returned to the pilot's seat and switched off the autopilot so he could fight against the buffeting winds. For now, there was not much he had to do other than give a few nudges in the right direction. The Sky Strider was a sturdy old bird, but after less than a minute had passed, it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep a straight flight. The beep sounded again.

"Hundred and twenty knots now, lightning's getting close," Aelita reported.

Just as the words left her mouth, a bolt of light flashed across the window and the whole aircraft shook in its thundering wake.

"GETTING close?" Linus shouted.

"I stand corrected!"

At this point, the blue skies of Granbleu had vanished entirely and the Sky Strider was completely enveloped in howling grey winds that threatened to tumble it.

"Now would be a good time to turn on the shield!" Aelita shouted above the rumbling of the entire bridge.

"This had better work!" Linus responded as he pulled a lever and kept an eye on the metre above it.

The quaking ceased almost immediately as a bubble of blue light formed around the Sky Strider, and the bar on the metre moved towards the right in the green zone, but it was rapidly declining.

"Oh shit, it's dropping fast!" the pilot exclaimed.

"How fast?" Aelita asked.

"Very fucking fast, it's already at yellow!"

"Damn it... looks like Aiden did all that work for nothing."

The bubble of light around the Sky Strider was beginning to wane as storm and lightning chipped away at it. Both pilot and navigator fell into silence as the metre showed the progress of their doom.

"He had no way of knowing if his shield would get us through and back," Linus said after a while.

"I know," Aelita replied as she clasped her hands over her brow. "I just... looks like this is it."

Linus nodded in agreement and watched as the bar on the metre moved into the red zone with implacable haste. Aelita drew in a deep breath and let it out in a heavy sigh, feeling like her heart had already plummeted into the sky.

Just as the shield had reached its limit, Linus pointed out the window and said, "Hey, look at that."

Aelita raised her head and saw a light shining through the diminishing shield and streams of furious winds. As they began to thin, the light became brighter, stronger and then...

"We made it," Aelita said, her voice almost a whisper as tears of joy sprang in her eyes. She turned to Linus with a smile as she held his hand and he held hers. "We made it."

They looked at each other for one heartfelt moment and then at the window to see the last thing they'd ever see, still holding hands as the shield failed at last and the monstrous storm winds tore into the Sky Strider, ripping its steel panels apart like fragile feathers.

~~~

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