A Close One

After the pilot informed David about the incoming fighter crafts, he immediately relayed the message to all of the soldiers, "Captain to Fighter Squads. This is Red Alert. I want everyone to get back to your respective crafts. NOW!"

All of them immediately understood what it meant and started to fly towards their respective Battle Craft.

After a few seconds, the pilot directly talked to all of the soldiers as well as the Captain because there was no time, "The swarm is heading towards us in great speed. You have 30 seconds to get inside the craft."

Captain David contacted the Voyager S-11 to inform them about their departure, "Captain to Voyager S-11. We will take off from here in 30 seconds. Open the hatch of the hanger for us to enter."

Glee immediately transferred the message to the in-charge of the hanger. "Two of our Peregrine Falcons will arrive at the hanger in 27 seconds. Please prepare accordingly."

The pilot of one of the Battle Craft began the countdown which was audible to everyone, "30… 29… 28… 27…"

After hearing the countdown all of those who were still outside started to fly towards their nearest Battle Craft in the highest speed allowed by their suit.

After getting inside their respective Battle Crafts, the Sergeants stood by the hatch and started to do the headcount of the soldiers that entered into their respective crafts.

Sean and another soldier were already inside Battle Craft 1 along with the survivor that they had found. Captain David was near to the Battle Craft 1, so after alerting every soldier, he also got inside the craft and ordered the pilots to be on standby for the takeoff.

And he also ordered the shooters to be ready to fire in case of an attack. The shooters were keeping their eyes on the screen in front of them which would immediately notify them in case any of the crafts locked weapons on them.

Captain David went towards the pilot's cabin to see what exactly was after them. On a big screen, he saw that the crafts indeed looked like a swarm of bees flying towards them in a great speed; of course, not as fast as the hyperspeed, but fast enough to catch up with them when they were still waiting for their soldiers to get inside.

David contacted the Voyager again, "Captain to Voyager S-11. Connect me the Lieutenant Bowen."

And immediately, Bowen replied from the other side, "Yes Captain."

"Lieutenant, I need the Voyager to be on standby to jump through the wormhole, just in case." David spoke very quickly as the countdown was pressuring everyone.

"Yes Captain." Bowen also understood without explaining that whatever had attacked the Space Station was now after the Battle Crafts.

Sergeant Nero shouted to inform Sergeant Patricia through his comms, "I have 14 soldiers onboard. What about you?"

Meanwhile, the countdown was also going on side by side, "19… 18… 17…"

Sergeant Patricia immediately replied, "I have 6 soldiers onboard. Captain and the survivor are also here. Two soldiers are still not onboard yet."

"13… 12…"

Sergeant Nero was now on edge because of the countdown which was about to end. He shouted through his comms, "Come on! Move faster."

"One just on boarded my Craft." Sergeant Patricia informed Nero.

"6… 5…4…"

Sergeant Nero was now stomping his feet and walking around the door impatiently. Then the last soldier entered the Battle Craft 2 with a whoosh sound.

"Finally! The last one is here. Let's go!" Nero immediately informed Patricia and the pilot.

Then he turned towards the soldier who had just entered the craft and shouted, "If you were a second late, we would have gone without you." Nero sat on one of the empty seats and strapped himself.

The soldier also sat down and strapped himself, and spoke in between his heavy breathing, "Sorry Sergeant. I was very far away from the craft."

The pilots of both the craft immediately locked the hatch and prepared to take off.

But before they could take off in hyperspeed, one of the shooters of Battle Craft 1 shouted, "The enemy has locked a weapon on us. Locking missile on that craft… and fired."

That particular enemy craft went down. However, that happened to be a mistake. Immediately around 50 missiles were locked and fired at both of the crafts.

The shooters of both the crafts also started to fire at the incoming missiles but the incoming number of missiles were just too many.

The pilots made a shuttle wide announcement, "Entering the hyperspeed in 3… 2… 1…"

Both the Battle Crafts were now travelling at 830 times the speed of light. But it seemed like they were running in bad luck. Though the fighter craft were no longer after them, the already locked missiles also entered into hyperspeed. It seemed as if the Battle Crafts were attracting the missiles into hyperspeed.

David was sitting beside the empty seat of the pilot and was observing everything that was happening. He immediately informed the Voyager S-11, "Activate wormhole."

It took a second for David to realize that the missiles would not leave the shuttles even in hyperspeed. In another second he alerted the Lieutenant. In the next second, the wormhole was activated and the Voyager was ready for the speed jump. And in another 0.8 seconds, both the Battle Crafts were inside the mother ship.

The missiles were about 75 km far from the Voyager. And the Voyager S-11 was able to enter through the wormhole just in time. They finally managed to shake off the missiles.

On another corner of the universe, Alexis and Natalia were waiting for their masks to be delivered. The girls were still lingering in front of the gate of the Harper's.

Alexis had placed an online order for two masks and two torches that they could strap on their head. She had only told Natalia that they were buying masks, she did not tell anything about the torches.

Natalia went in front of Alexis and screamed like a baby, "Ahhhhhhhh… the surprise is killing me Alexis. Where on Earth are we going? Just tell me already."

"Just wait for few more minutes. You'll know when we reach there."

"What? So, you're not going to tell me where we are going until we reach there?" Natalia puckered her lips and pretended to be sad.

"Okay alright! I'll tell you before we go to that place. But for now, just wait for the masks to arrive." Alexis did not tell Natalia where they were going because she did not want Natalia to shout out of excitement, and definitely did not want to attract any attention from others.

"This is pure torture. Argh…" Natalia folded her arms and started to pace around.

Alexis shook her head and sneered at the impatience of Natalia.

After few minutes, a small drone arrived and landed in front of the girls. Alexis opened her cell phone's gallery and then flashed her ID to the drone's camera. After identifying the buyer, the small doors of the drone opened to reveal a box inside.

Alexis took out the box and the drone flew away after making its delivery. Natalia also came running towards her to see what kind of masks they were going to wear.

When Alexis told Natalia that they were going to need a mask in order to go to the 'surprise place', she had imagined all sorts of places like a mascaraed ball, a Halloween themed party, a chemical lab, and what not.

But Natalia's excitement withered when she saw that inside the box, there were two surgical masks and two torches. She pinched the mask as if she was disgusted by it and brought it close to her eyes, "Seriously?"

She stared at the surgical mask and stared at Alexis with questioning eyes. "So this is what you meant by masks? I thought we were buying Halloween masks or something. And what are the torches doing here? Are you sure you are not going to take me to some kind of surgery?"

Alexis laughed and tried to console Natalia, "Trust me, the place we will be going will be far more interesting than Halloween parties. Just grab one torch as well, you are going to need it."

Natalia obliged and took one of the torches and slipped it inside her pocket. Alexis grabbed the remaining mask and torch that were inside the box and disposed the box.

"If this is the mask that we will be using then I doubt that we will be going to an interesting place." Natalia was still holding the mask like a dead mouse.

Alexis started to walk forward while saying, "Come on Nat. Don't be such a drag. Just follow me."

Natalia reluctantly followed Alexis. "If I don't find that place interesting then I'll kick your arse."

"Pff… as if you can. Your leg will hurt if you try." Alexis tried to mock her friend and patted her butt saying, "These are now made of Astrostial."

Natalia burst into laughter and exclaimed, "Astrostial, my arse!" Natalia could not control her laughter after hearing what Alexis had said.

After goofing around and walking for few more minutes, Alexis and Natalia arrived at the edge of the city.

"Oh dear lord of light! Isn't that the Dead Zone?" Natalia was shocked when she saw the large forest ahead of them.