章 15: Pursuit
"No." I finally said. "I don't support any political entities."
"In a world like this, you will have to choose a side." the man told me. "The fire of revolution burns hot."
"Why did you bring me here?" I finally had the courage to ask.
"Are you a Navy officer?" the man asked me. On one hand, I was relieved because they had not found it out yet, but on the other hand, I would have to choose my words ever more carefully.
"No." I said.
"Liar!" this was Tachibana's voice. That filthy traitor!
The man turned to Tachibana.
"Are you sure this is the right person?" he asked.
"I know what I am doing." said Tachibana.
"What is going on?" I asked.
"Well, my friend, I think you will be our guest... for a long time." the man said.
"What is the meaning of this, Admiral?" I raised my voice. "This is treason!"
"From a point of view, yes." Tachibana replied. "But my loyalty lies with the values of Martian people, not those of the government."
"I would choose my words carefully, young man." the other man said to me.
"The Army will not hesitate to blow you all up." I said.
"We know." Tachibana said. "And we thought you could help us out a little bit."
After a long pause, I spoke.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"We want the best for everyone. So, here is a deal: You will take this message to the president, and we will set you free." Tachibana said.
"Why don't you do it yourself? Furthermore, why not just transmit it?" I asked. I actually had another question I did not dare to ask; they were a bit too trusting. How could they know that I wouldn't just inform the police or the army after they let me go?
"We are not willing to give up our privacy." Tachibana replied. "The MIM and the Black Arrow has both been banned from the Martian Assembly yesterday, and we are to be arrested."
I thought about it for a long time. It was a mistake coming here in the first place, but... I did not want to spend any more time with these traitors and terrorists. After all, it was a simple courier job they offered. An easy way out of here. Perhaps suspiciously easy...
"What does the message say?" I asked. Tachibana suddenly went excited.
"N-no!" he shouted. "You are not allowed to read it!"
"But..."
"Look, are you going to do it our way, or should we just hold you here until the Army decides to 'blow us all up'?" Tachibana asked.
"Agreed." I said. "I will deliver the message."
"A few of our men will accompany you." Tachibana said. "Make a mistake, and you are toast."
I nodded. Tachibana gave me a small digital device that contained the message. The other man gave my shuttle remote back and let me leave the building with two armed men on my sides. They had black uniforms, and their faces were covered. They did not speak, and closely followed me as I walked.
I walked out of the city, towards where I hid my shuttle. The shuttle was waiting for me in a small canyon-like formation. I unlocked the shuttle's doors and stepped inside. Just then, I started hearing a crowd. A horde of citizens had probably followed us, and they were running towards the shuttle.
The men in black shouted.
"Stop!"
The crowd kept running. I couldn't understand their motives.
One of the armed men fired a few warning shots to the air. It was no use. As soon as I started up the engines, the men stepped inside and locked the door. Before the crowd could reach us, we lifted off. I started flying the shuttle towards the inner regions of Cydonia.
While I was approaching the Martian Assembly, my shuttle received a transmission.
'WE HAVE JUST RECEIVED NEWS THAT THE PRESIDENT HAS LEFT CYDONIA. HIS SHUTTLE IS PROTECTED BY AN UNKNOWN NUMBER OF FIGHTERS. MAINTAIN SECRECY, AND DO NOT LOSE THEM.'
The armed men looked at me.
"Stop being creepy, I get it." I angrily said at them. They looked away in silence as I changed our flight path. Now, I had to find out where the president's shuttle was.
Since the president's shuttle was protected by a lot of fighters, sensor craft and ECM equipped vessels, it was not hard to locate the large fleet flying above Cydonia. After that, I shut all the unnecessary systems down, and put the sensors in low power consumption mode. Flying at a very low altitude, this increased our chances of remaining unseen. I was going to track the fleet visually, using the binoculars.
Keeping my radar altitude below 200 meters, I followed the president's fleet as it rose into the higher parts of the atmosphere, and descended down near Olympus. Just then, two fighter craft from the fleet has separated and started coming my way.
"Oh no." I said loudly. Perhaps they had detected us following them.
I immediately turned the shuttle around and engaged the thrusters to run. Unfortunately, the fighters had a much better acceleration rate. I kept my altitude low and began going towards the nearby Olympus City. Perhaps I could lose the heat in the air traffic of the civilian spaceports.
The fighters quickly closed the distance. They were just three kilometers behind me now.
"Shuttle NN-1076, you are under arrest. Please ascend to 2500, redirect to 240 and lower speed to 75 m/s."
The armed men sitting in the shuttle looked at me in a threatening manner. I could not get caught. I kept running at full throttle, at low altitude. The fighter pilot repeated the warning a few times, and eventually threatened to shoot the shuttle.
I only had 7 kilometers to the city of Olympus. I could make it if I tried.
One of the fighters fired a short burst towards us. There was no way I could dodge it. The shot disabled the shuttle's main engines at the back. I could still fly using the underside engines, but our speed began dropping with atmospheric drag. I leaned the shuttle forward to counter the effect and keep going.
The fighter shot once more. This time, a few of the underside engines were destroyed. The shuttle's hull was damaged as well. With the reduced and unbalanced engine power, the shuttle started losing altitude.
At the last moments of the flight, I redirected the shuttle towards a large construction field at the edge of the city. The shuttle's rigid structure was more powerful than the unfinished building. The shuttle pierced through the construction. The fuel tanks exploded in the air as the passenger cabin and the cockpit dropped burning down into a large market building through it's roof.
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