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Shaking that single missile lock was routine, but now there’s three, a shut down and flare is only good for one. One… three… I’m bleeding like a stuck pig… we are ripping through the sky… whole cloud banks pass in fractions of a second… my knuckles are white like ivory. I feel the panic building in us. Calm it. Compartmentalize it. Tourniquet the leg with your tie… we’ve got approximately 12 seconds to decoy the first one.
There’s nothing for it, we have to disengage a stabilizer engine. Evinrud knows it, even though it must be like hacking off an arm, it’s done. The starboard engine rockets and pirouettes off into the sky beside us. The missile breaks away and we dive, good boy. Bat out of hell, all black and smoking we peel out of the explosion. Only right turns now, it’s a wobbly decent, A-grade turbulence, but that worked.
Timing... timing... if we drop the portside then there is no steering at this speed. Lose the second missile lock and what about the third? 10 seconds…
God we are plummeting… there’s the earth. Beijing’s industrial outer rim. Smoke stacks. Furnace flares. 5 seconds. Be cool honey-bunny.
We have the idea. Set the course. Evinrud knows it. The portside engine spirals off and the second missile detonates on it. I’m instantly sun-burnt everything goes black. We tear through it on a 30 degree pitch. 8 seconds…
It’s drop and pray time. We rocket for the top of a 40 storey industrial fuel chimney. No turning, no dodging, our calculations predetermined, just straight at it. 3 seconds…
We tear over the heat blasting out the chimneys mouth. Evinrud’s paint peels. My suit contracts like fried bacon. Our keel clips the brickwork and we are sent spiraling over the edge. The missile sucks the heat like its mother and Voomph! The whole industrial shit house goes up in flames. It explodes so many times I forget about it.
Evinrud deploys the chute, because I can’t even think. We rip and jerk and careen through the paneling on the back of a moving semi trailer and come to rest with its cargo.
I raise my head. 'Fuck that was close'. And I pass out.
There’s nothing for it, we have to disengage a stabilizer engine. Evinrud knows it, even though it must be like hacking off an arm, it’s done. The starboard engine rockets and pirouettes off into the sky beside us. The missile breaks away and we dive, good boy. Bat out of hell, all black and smoking we peel out of the explosion. Only right turns now, it’s a wobbly decent, A-grade turbulence, but that worked.
Timing... timing... if we drop the portside then there is no steering at this speed. Lose the second missile lock and what about the third? 10 seconds…
God we are plummeting… there’s the earth. Beijing’s industrial outer rim. Smoke stacks. Furnace flares. 5 seconds. Be cool honey-bunny.
We have the idea. Set the course. Evinrud knows it. The portside engine spirals off and the second missile detonates on it. I’m instantly sun-burnt everything goes black. We tear through it on a 30 degree pitch. 8 seconds…
It’s drop and pray time. We rocket for the top of a 40 storey industrial fuel chimney. No turning, no dodging, our calculations predetermined, just straight at it. 3 seconds…
We tear over the heat blasting out the chimneys mouth. Evinrud’s paint peels. My suit contracts like fried bacon. Our keel clips the brickwork and we are sent spiraling over the edge. The missile sucks the heat like its mother and Voomph! The whole industrial shit house goes up in flames. It explodes so many times I forget about it.
Evinrud deploys the chute, because I can’t even think. We rip and jerk and careen through the paneling on the back of a moving semi trailer and come to rest with its cargo.
I raise my head. 'Fuck that was close'. And I pass out.
1 comment:
You rock Reese:::))
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