The Raid of Hopewell: Conclusion

Jack Cooper and Miranda Cross bolted through the docking tunnel to the Aetherwing. They entered the airship through the open hatch at its rear. The lights were still on and the humming of the engines warming up could be heard as they entered.

Miranda turned on a dime and started quickly down a side corridor inside the Aetherwing. “I’ll check the engine room and make sure everything is okay there. Meet you on the bridge?”

Cooper nodded and jogged off. The lift had remained out of commission for several months due to some long overdue maintenance, making the spiral staircase the only available route. It twisted around a tall pole that was used as a quick means of descent.

He took two steps at a time and quickly took in the view at the top of the stairs. As he stepped further onto the bridge, the walls faded behind him and the thick glass windows revealed the weather and chaos around Hopewell.

To his right, the docking tunnel was retracting from the Aetherwing back into its hub on the airship tower. Ahead and far beneath the Aetherwing, a fire fight ensued on the ground with other airships monitoring the progress from above. In the distance, the Hopewell Portal was shifting colors, much in the same way the clouds overhead were changing from blue to green and back again. The people who controlled the portal on the ground had the ability to control the clouds in the sky. Cooper knew if the Influence managed to seize control of the portal, the clouds would reflect the victory. He had never spent much time in Influence territory, so whatever happened after that would be entirely new to him.

Frankly, he wasn’t planning to stay long enough to find out. He moved forward and felt something inside his pocket poking his leg. He pulled out the datarod and remembered what the security captain had told him to do with it. The command tower was in the center of Hopewell airport. He would have to maneuver the Aetherwing further into the fray if they were to get it there in time.

“Jack?” asked a voice in front of him at the controls.

He snapped out of his thoughts and focused on the figures before him. Allen Fox stood almost to Cooper’s height, glasses mounted on the bridge of his nose with cropped unkempt hair. Meanwhile his fiance, Maria Salazar stood a few feet from Allen, her curly brunette hair cascading over her shoulders, and brown eyes intent on the controls before her.

“You two made it back. Good,” stated Cooper matter-of-factly as he strolled forward and sat down at the pilot controls in the center of the bridge.

“We never left Jack,” replied Allen with mild irritation at his uncaring feelings of the moment. “They thought Maria had been kidnapped. They yanked me outside and questioned us separately. Once they realized the truth, they let me back in.”

Cooper didn’t care much at the moment about what had happened. He knew now the pair were alive and well in the Aetherwing. Getting out of Hopewell was Cooper’s top priority, so he gave no reply. What Allen felt was not his concern.

“And now we have the Influence to contend with? Did they follow us?” Allen continued.

“I don’t know, Allen. I need a status report. Are we clear of the tower port?”

This time Maria spoke up. “We have approximately two minutes until we are fully clear,” she said with a heavy spanish accent.

Cooper set the data rod on a table near his seat. “What’s that, Jack?” Allen asked as he stepped closer to the helm to inspect the gadget.

“I don’t know. It’s meant to be in the command center of Hopewell airport.”

“Are we--” started Allen before he was interrupted.

“I don’t know yet. Taking this to the command center could bring us unwanted attention from the Influence.”

“We can’t just leave these people like this if they are depending on us!” interjected Allen.

“We are definitely not going to stick around and risk being taken prisoner by the Influence!...or worse! I don’t know what it is, and frankly I don’t trust it any further than I can throw it.” said Cooper, eyes like steel on the readouts on his display.

Maria spoke up from her station. “We have an incoming message from one of the Influence airships.”

“Put it through,” sighed Cooper.

An audible click sounded throughout the bridge as the connection was established. “Airship Aetherwing, you are not cleared to leave. Resume docking procedure or we will open fire to protect our fleet.”

Cooper motioned to cut the transmission. After another click of the speakers, Maria spoke through gritted teeth. “Transmission cut. What now? Are we going to help?” She didn’t even look at Cooper this time.

Just then, Miranda appeared on the bridge. “Everything checks out in the engine room. We should be clear to leave when you’re ready.”

Maria and Allen both turned to Miranda with pleading looks. It was Allen who spoke up. “Jack has a device that Hopewell command needs in order to keep Hopewell from being taken by the Influence.”

Cooper turned around to face Miranda and interrupted. “All we know is that a leader within airport security handed it to me before dying, saying that it needed to go to command.”

He then turned to Allen and Maria. “The last thing we need is to get the ship locked up here in Hopewell. We would be stuck here at the whims of the Influence. Maria, we were the ones who managed to get you out of Influence custody. They can’t keep tabs on you now, because of us. Allen, you couldn’t do it without my help. So both of you sit back and be thankful that we even have an escape route.”

Turning then to Miranda, he issued orders. “We are leaving Hopewell. Maybe we can come back when things have calmed, but right now, we are leaving. I need the engines at full capacity, Miranda. Maria, I want to be updated when we are clear from the docking clamps.”

Cooper, not giving anyone a chance to speak, then turned back to his controls.

“Coop,” started Miranda but the word caught in her throat. Outside the Aetherwing, two massive airships turned course and headed straight for them.

“We are cleared from the docking clamps,” Maria stated loudly and with a bit more urgency now, having shelved her frustrations for the time being.

Cooper immediately put his hands on the controls and slowly pushed the engines forward. The Aetherwing lurched ahead and ascended higher into the air as everyone on the bridge took their respective seats.

Cooper was surprised that he had not heard more from Miranda. He had expected her to snap back at his brash decision. Did she too believe they needed to leave? No matter the case, he was resolute.

He then turned the Aetherwing as tightly as he could without causing an accident. Slowly the visage before them shifted as the Aetherwing moved in a new direction. The constantly shifting clouds in the sky eventually revealed an abnormality ahead of them.

“Coop, we can’t go that way!” Miranda exclaimed. “Yellow clouds coming in fast from that direction. A temporal storm!”

“That has to be our exit. There’s no other way out!” cried Cooper.

This time Maria interjected, her spanish accent coming across a bit thicker. “We can’t risk it!”

Cooper’s eyes narrowed at the screen as though he could simply will the clouds away. He knew that it was a temporal storm. The only options were to fight the Influence and seek shelter in Hopewell until the storm passed, or risk it and go straight through.

“I know,” he said in a low voice as he kicked the throttle in, thrusting the Aetherwing forward into the oncoming storm.

To the right and left of the Aetherwing several fighter jets appeared emblazoned with a green streak on each wing. The Emerald Legion, the Influence’s elite force, was on their tail.

The airship rumbled from weapons fire striking the rear of the Aetherwing. There was no longer any choice but to press on into the storm, and the grim faces throughout the cockpit knew it. The only way to get the Emerald Legion off their tail was to risk their lives in the temporal storm that moved toward them.

Another rumble on the starboard side of the ship also rattled the bridge causing the device Cooper had been given to clatter onto the floor near Maria.

He had no time to think about it. Their lives were at risk and he needed to focus on navigating through the dangerous storm. Once the Aetherwing was lined up with the entrance of the storm, he kicked the throttle as high as it would go. One more lurch forward, and the Aetherwing was off at high speed.

“We have another communique, but this time it’s from the lead fighter,” stated Maria.

“How much do you want to bet they want us to stop and surrender? Someone bet against me, please! Let’s hear it.”

The voice this time was the same masked voice Cooper and Miranda had heard inside the airport, leading a group of Legion Mercenaries to take over the structure. “You didn’t truly think you could escape, did you? In case you aren’t aware, you’re headed for a temporal storm. Turn your ship around and we will consider how you might benefit the Influence. If you continue, I’m left with no choice but to shoot down your airship.”

Cooper laughed. “You want my airship? You want my crew? My goods? Well, come and get it!”

And with that said, Maria instinctively cut off the communique again.

“This could turn out better than I thought,” said Cooper optimistically. “If we can drag them into this storm, it might help the Ascendancy beat the Influence in the fight for Hopewell.”

“We’ll never know at this rate, Coop,” Miranda whispered with an acute shake in her voice.

Within moments, yellow clouds engulfed the Aetherwing while fighters flanked the airship on either side. Yellow lightning arced through the clouds, and between the clouds, and the ground. The Influence fighters closed the distance slowly as the Aetherwing kept up its speed.

Without warning, a bolt of golden lightning flashed through a fighter on their left. The ship exploded, breaking up in a cloud of debris behind them. Then another bolt struck a fighter very close to the Aetherwing, and it too broke into a million little pieces and faded into the storm.

Miranda spoke up, a heavy note of anxiety in her voice. “I don’t think the Aetherwing could handle a strike like that. It would seriously cripple us!”

“Is there any way we can get more power to our engines?” asked Cooper trying to think through their options.

“It would take time that we don’t have,” uttered Miranda with mild irritation.

“Besides, there are limits on how fast the Aetherwing can go. It’s not like I can dump more power and suddenly make it go faster, Coop.”

Suddenly, a blue light appeared out of nowhere. It seemed to shine from one of the main lights on the ceiling, but never had it been tinted in any way in the past. Cooper certainly wasn’t expecting to behold the materialization of a living being in the middle of his bridge. The light vanished as abruptly as it had appeared, leaving behind the spectacle before them. An old man stood with long grey hair slicked out of his face, and the beginnings of an unshaven beard. Hanging out of his mouth was an old tobacco pipe. He had on dark clothes, with a long blue-grey trench coat over his shoulders.

Miranda immediately pulled out a gun, while the others simply stared in shock. “Hands up! Who are you?” she barked.

The old man’s eyebrows shot up out of curiosity. “This does not appear to be Hopewell Command. How odd.” The man commented with a distinct note of bemused curiosity in his British accent. He then turned around looking out at the gold clouds and lightning streaming by. “A temporal storm,” he observed gravely. “This is not exactly an ideal place to be traveling.”

The old man, having ignored Miranda’s question, looked back to the lot of them. “What are you all doing? Where is Hopewell?”

“You didn’t answer her question,” said Cooper fiercely.

The old man then paused for a moment in thought. His eyes then lifted and turned to face one of the windows, the tobacco pipe now in hand. He turned back to the group as though a revelation had just sprung into his mind. “I regret to inform you of this, but your time is up. You’re about to have a lot of questions soon.”

One fighter, that had pulled ahead of the Aetherwing, began making a sharp turn in order to make a strafing run at the airship. Before it could complete its maneuver, however, it vanished from view as it was engulfed by a blinding flash of lightning which arced through the clouds toward the Aetherwing. The next instant, the ship shook violently as the lightning impacted the Aetherwing's rear near where the engines were nestled.

“We have a direct hit!” shouted Miranda from her control station as the weapon she pointed at the old man fell from her hands. The entire airship shook as the screen in front of them glowed white with glaring intensity. The light filled the entirety of the bridge within seconds. Just as quickly as it had come, the light was then gone.

As the blinding light subsided, they were greeted by a totally new and unexpected sight. The angry yellow clouds were now replaced with a grey storm system pushing the temporal storm out of the area. The Aetherwing was flying low over small buildings that could barely be seen as it rushed ever forward. The entire city of Hopewell was gone and replaced with a small town.

“The hover engines are out!” shouted Miranda. “We aren’t going to recover. Initiating emergency landing sequences!”

Cooper was stunned at what had just happened. The old man had disappeared when the bridge filled with the white light, and now, Cooper had no idea where they were.

“The engines aren’t able to compensate! We’re falling, Coop! Pull up hard!”

Cooper snapped back to reality, reduced the throttle bit by bit, and pulled the steering arm with all of his might. They flew past the edge of the small town and passed farms, houses, forests and then one large glass structure with a lightning rod at the top of it’s dome. He couldn’t stop their descent, and veering one way or the other wasn’t possible at their current velocity. Gravity was inexorably pulling them down, but maybe, just maybe, he could miss the domed structure.

The front of the ship just barely missed the lightning rod sticking straight up, however the back was still too low. After an audible snap and crash, the Aetherwing completed its descent and crashed roughly in the nearby forest. Glass shattered all over the bridge, and everyone was tossed from their seats onto the deck.

Instinctively, Cooper covered the back of his neck as he braced himself through the impact. Cooper kept his eyes tightly shut hoping it would all stop soon. And just as the momentum slowed to a crawl, he felt a sudden pain on his back before succumbing to the black of unconsciousness.