HAWK

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: LIMBO (1/6)

For a minute, the escape pod was so quiet that its three passengers could have whispered to one another if they'd wanted to. Before long, however, the capsule started to shake and a thunderous rumble suffocated the silence. The rumble swelled to a deafening roar as the pod penetrated the membrane of Lysan's atmosphere and plummeted towards the planet's surface at hypersonic speed. Kas, Worm and President Mantana could do nothing but hold onto their restraints and ride it out.

The ride went on and on and on.

With no window to look out of, Kas stared at a small black data-screen on the opposite wall which was currently telling her they were falling at over seventeen-thousand miles-per-hour. Unlike ships, which could use their engines to decelerate, the pod had no engine at all and was designed to slow itself by sheer resistance. Though a cylinder on the inside, its outer shell was a sphere with a weighted heat-shield at its base to keep it from spinning out of control.

After less than a minute, Kas felt the pod lurch and saw on the data-screen that the drag-brakes had been deployed, quickly reducing their speed to a mere ten-thousand miles-per-hour. When it dipped under eight, the pod's trio of stub-wings unfolded and fought to regain some control over its direction. With every little victory, the wings gradually extended outwards, teasing the capsule into a blistering glide.

Over the course of the next ten minutes, the pod corkscrewed downwards in an enormous spiral, their altitude dropping at a steadily controlled rate. Once the worst of the ride was over, Kas looked at Worm and saw her smiling like she was on a rollercoaster. She then looked at President Mantana, only to see that he'd blacked out.

At twenty-thousand feet, the pod jerked violently as the parachutes were finally deployed, lowering it towards Lysan's surface at a leisurely twenty-two miles-per-hour. Kas watched the data-screen until they hit 300 feet, at which point a ten-second countdown appeared. On zero, the capsule crashed with a hard sizzling splash and announced their arrival in the Lysan's ocean.

Kas and Worm unbuckled their straps and stood, having to fight for their balance since the pod was still rocking and bobbing in the water. While Worm freed her X1 and summoned it to stand, Kas looked at President Mantana and saw he was still out cold. She knocked several times on his helmet.

'Wakey wakey,' she said. Mantana opened his eyes and blinked away the confusion.

'Are we here...?' he asked.

'We're somewhere. You wanna undo your straps?' Mantana unbuckled himself before trying to remove his helmet, but Kas was quick to stop him. 'Wait till we're outside,' she said. 'The air might not be breathable in here.'

The president nodded gormlessly and watched as Kas climbed the short ladder to open the hatch.

'You guys stay here,' she said. 'This might take a minute.' The hatch hissed as she unlocked it and threw it open. The Lysan sky lit her up like a nuclear blast. Squinting, she climbed out and onto the top of the capsule.

As Kas's eyes adjusted to the light, she spied the faint dusting of land in the distance but she didn't look at it for long. Her gaze was drawn back up to the sky where five cap cruisers were hovering all around her. She pulled off her helmet and inhaled the cool ocean breeze while the sun warmed her face.

'This is the C.A.P.,' a man's voice bellowed above her. 'Stay exactly where you are.'

Kas exhaled calmly and threw her helmet into the sea.