The sudden, violent lurch into light-speed travel pinned Eric to his seat, a crushing force that made it impossible to move even a finger. At the same moment, the acceleration ejected Jimmy from his hiding spot, slamming him against the back of the spacecraft with a loud, sickening thud.
"The fuck?!" Eric cursed, slowly turning his head to identify the source of the sound.
Outside, Yelena struggled to hold on, her nanotech suit tearing under the strain of the unimaginable speed. The suit was meant to withstand extreme conditions, but this was beyond anything it was designed for.
A warning beep sounded inside the cabin, and the lights flashed red prompting Eric to click a button on his armrest, projecting a live external feed.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," he muttered in disbelief, watching the unexpected intruder cling to the hull of his ship.
With no way to get inside, Yelena began to crawl forward, her blades piercing the spacecraft's hull to increase her grip. The damage was critical.
"Integrity depleted by forty percent," a computerized voice warned. "Safety precautions are advised."
"Oh, come on!" Eric yelled in frustration as he watched her move toward the left wing.
Reaching the wing, she generated a plasma weapon from her right arm. Holding on with her left, she fired. But the shot was left far behind, completely outpaced by the craft's incredible speed. Her suit was now critically damaged, exposing the military attire underneath.
"Warning, fifty percent power," a red indicator flashed on her heads-up display.
Desperate, she generated a second plasma weapon, pouring the remaining fifty percent of her suit's power into the shot. She carefully aligned her crosshairs on the wing, exhaled slowly, and cleared her mind. The whooshing sound of space travel disappeared, replaced by a deep, focused silence.
Then, she fired.
The plasma blast tore into the left wing, successfully destroying it, The spacecraft immediately spun out of control, careening from its trajectory before crashing out of the warping tunnel of bending light. The impact of the explosion knocked Eric and Jimmy unconscious, leaving the ship to tumble wildly through the void.
Back at Atlas Tower, Commander Ellen watched Eric successfully escaped from the planet and almost went mad.
"Noooooo! Noooooo!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, unable to accept the outcome. She turned to her staff, her voice laced with fury. "We light-traveled him before, we can do it again! Retrieve his coordinates and bring him back here immediately!"
A staff member fearfully adjusted his goggles. "The damage to the tower is critically heavy, Commander. We won't be able to perform a proper operation for another week."
"And whose fault is that?! Whose fault is that?!" she shrieked. "An EMP device was placed in the building, and not a single soul was able to detect it, even with the so called tech this entire place is stacked with!"
"My apologies, ma'am," the staff member replied, "but it seems the EMP device was far more sophisticated than imagined. It's to be expected from someone with such an outstanding back—"
Ellen cut him off with a roar. "I've had enough of this outstanding crap and nonsense! He's just a human like every other human, for God's sake!"
She flipped a heavy table across the room with a surge of intense rage, sending everyone into a panicked retreat. "I want every single staff in this tower out before the day ends! You're all fired! Get out of my sight before I put a bullet in someone's head!"
The staff members ran out, leaving only Ellen in the room. Just as they were clearing out, Harley Stanford walked in and saluted.
"What do you want, Harley?" Ellen said, finding a chair and collapsing into it, her expression still a furious frown.
"Eric Blackmoor is now on the run, and he has one of my soldiers with him," Harley said, standing at bold attention. "If I may, I'd like to request an immediate pursuit of his craft."
"And how do you plan to do that, Officer?" Ellen asked, stroking her forehead to relieve the stress.
"I found—"
"Pardon my intrusion," the Admiral said, walking into the room. "But like they said, we're in no position to initiate a pursuit. Comms are down. For now, let's just patch this up. No need to worry about a washed up fool, he has nowhere to run."
"He's a dangerous idiot, John!" Ellen said, her anger softening into frustration. "Now that he's involved with NEXUS, who knows what stupid thing he's cooking up? If he does anything stupid, I'll be heavily blamed for his actions and questioned for bringing an exiled fool back into a classified operation. That's why I'm worked up."
Ellen leaned back in her chair and saw Harley still standing there. "What was it you were saying again?"
"Nothing important, ma'am. I totally agree with the Admiral. It would be wise to lay low for now," Harley replied, choosing her words carefully to avoid any conflict with the Admiral and hiding her true intentions.
"Alright. If you have nothing to offer, take your leave. I'm not in the mood for flimsy chit-chat," Ellen said, turning away.
Harley gave a quick salute and walked out, slipping a cube-like object suspect to be Eric's device into her pocket. She had her own plans to worry about.