Flightless Birds [Part 1]

Posted on Sun Jun 15th, 2025 @ 8:53pm by Tanaka Miyahara & Lieutenant Karen Kujo 'Union Jane' & Lieutenant JG Mia ‘Banshee’ Amaro

1,668 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Indivisible
Location: Braxus Surface

Union Jane's voice cut off in mid-transmission and Mia's eyes flicked to where Karen should have been on her sensor screen, then out the viewport to where the other Razor was tumbling from the sky. "Chingada.." She swore as she jerked her stick to the right direction and punched the throttle to max and angling downwards to intercept., the ship shuddering and beginning to shed hull plating. If she timed things just right, she might JUST make it...

Fifty meters off the ground was where she made contact, turning the vertical plummet of Karen's Razor into a more horizontal flight, but forcing her own craft down. They 'landed' on the street, ships skidding from the momentum for nearly three hundred more meters before they came to a halt. Mia paused for only a handful of seconds before triggering her canopy release, then the emergency release which actually DID work as the explosive bolts popped the recalcitrant cockpit cover off the fighter. She gave her fighter a loving caress even as she stripped off the restraints and scrambled out of the seat to where the other fighter sat on her own nose, "KAREN!" She screamed out.

"Man, that was fun..." Karen could be heard chuckling. "We gotta do that again sometime..."

Mia sagged in relief as she climbed onto Karen's nose and peeked over, "Well, we can try it again, maybe even without the ships next time, assumin' your girl wouldn't complain, but for right now, chica?" She made a throwing gesture with her head, "We gotta vamoose! No one wants to be in the way of a couplea birds comin' down hard, but someone gonna be comin' out here to check them out pretty soon an' we don't wanna be here when they do!"

Karen, for her part, seemed to be in a bit of a daze after her near-death experience, but upon seeing Mia, she slowly came back to her senses.

"What's... huh. Oh, yeah, I guess we did just crash or something..."

"Just a bit, chica." Mia reached down and began to unbuckle the other pilot even as her eyes glanced over her to see if there was any blood or obvious injuries, "One thing I can say about these birds, they do protect the pilots pretty good." She patted Karen on the shoulder, then reached and patted herself down to make sure that everything she truly needed was on her, drawing one of her two phaser pistols and scanning their surroundings, a exhaling sharply as the shield dome visible around the government building flickered one final time, then vanished entirely, "That answers that question." She whispered mostly to herself.

"Well, I suppose I'd consider that a job well done," Karen remarked as she dusted herself off. "Now comes the hard part..."

"Yeah, gettin' there." Mia agreed, "That's the one place they gonna be goin' for and we ain't flyin' out." She tapped the commbadge she wore, but it only beeped back with the 'confirmation' that it wasn't connecting, "And we're bein' jammed out here, ain't nothin' gettin' to Myogi from our badges. What say we go join in on the fun and wreak a bit of havoc on the way?"

Karen grinned. "Wey, noo ye're spakin' me lingo!"

Mia hopped down from the wreckage and nervously looked both ways before skirting around it and starting to walk towards the main building even while she played with the safety on the pistol. They actually had a couple minutes, by her measure, before someone really responded, but if it weren't civilians, it would be Confederate soldiers and they would outgun her and Karen by a mile. She couldn't even call for a SAR bird to pick them up, much less a beamout by a ship in orbit. Speed would be their ally and odds were they would be back to their own by dinner, or picked up by the enemy, no need for food or drink to slow them down. She glanced over her shoulder and the Hispanic woman flashed the blonde a grin, "Ready? Let's go!"

The two of them proceeded to duck into a nearby alleyway, where they could regain their bearings and figure out in what direction to head from there. It certainly wasn't going to be someplace in which they could hide for the long-term, but it was better than standing around in the open with their thumbs up their asses trying to figure out where to go.

They checked out both entrances and Mia gestured to a recessed doorway that would keep them at least out of full view of either side, "E&E," She muttered, "This was the part I hated the most of training, you know that? Definitely wanna go towards the building, but everyone's gonna be goin' there too. Whatcha think?"

In the distance, voices could be heard. Someone calling over a radio that Deep State invaders were on the ground, and orders given to 'flush them out.'

"Whatever direction that voice is coming from?" Karen remarked. "Yeah; let's go the other way."

"Works for me." Mia agreed with her in an instant, pointing to the opposite way that they had come, "Thataway, we gotta get some distance between ourselves and those birds.." She took the lead and started out at a fast walk/jog as she kept her head swiveling around, finally deciding to click the safety off on the pistol in her hand. After about three hundred meters, she ducked off into another alleyway, gesturing to Karen to join her.

After double-checking to make sure the coast was clear, Karen quickly hurried over to where Mia was standing. Out of the corner of her eye, she happened to observe a large storm drain that was juuust big enough for them to squeeze into.

"Well, it's not quite what I'd call the scenic route, but..." she glanced up at Mia with a mischevious smirk. "... are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"If you're thinking about diving into the sewer to stay out of sight and mind of the Confederates?" Mia asked sourly, but nodded slowly, "It's prolly a good idea. But when we find an exit, you and me are gonna find a bar and get a drink because we'll DESERVE it. An' we ain't stayin' out of the fight. I gotta good idea of how we'll wanna go, but we're gonna go towards that building and find a way to make our presence known." Her sour smile became a wide grin, "That may make up for losin' my bird, she was wit' me for YEARS! These cabrones are gonna pay for that."

Karen threw her head back and cackled- not too loud so as to draw attention to themselves, but also loud enough for Mia to know then & there that she was all on board with this idea.

"Izzy's going to kill me, but I like your thinking!" she replied. "We crack some ass and then raid their alcohol storage for a little reward!"

Before their conversation could continue, however, a city police patrol happened upon the alleyway the two women were standing in: The officers couldn't be sure if the two women in the usually deserted alleyway were regular vagrants or if they were the Deep State invaders the army had mentioned over the radio. Regardless, they decided not to take chances:

"Oi, you!" Came a sharp shout in Karen and Mia's direction.

Karen and Mia looked at each other, then at the patrol officers, then back at each other.

"On the count of three, we run?" Karen whispered.

"We run, they shoot us in the back." Mia whispered back, raising one hand to actually wave at the patrol, the one without the weapon in it, using the movement to keep her phaser pistol hidden behind one of their bodies. Knowing alleyways from her time as a youth, she figured that at this distance, the flight suits would look like maybe a jumpsuit or something else. They'd have to get a fair bit closer to realize that mistake, "Ai, boys, we saw a couplea invaders runnin' thataway!" She gestured with one hand in a crosswise direction even as she flicked off the safety in preparation.

The patrol lead signaled to his colleagues to check in the direction that the vagrant woman had pointed. As the other officers sprinted off, the remaining officer began to step down the alley towards Karen and Mia.

"Let's see some identification, vagrant." He demanded, glancing over at Karen. "You too!"

"ID, ID, now where did I put it?" Mia leaned slightly closer to Karen as her free hand patted up and down her body as if checking pockets, "Oh yeah!" The time purchased by the 'search' brought him closer, almost close enough that he'd soon see the flight suits for what they were. She leaned forward as if reaching into a hard to reach pocket, then around Karen with her pistol, "Here's my ID." She triggered a stun shot, then a second into his chest before another a third shot direct into his face.

She waited until he collapsed before returning the safety to on, then slipped around Karen and glanced back at the sewer grate, "In we go, chica, up here is gonna get too hot to handle soon 'nuff and we got a ways to go, I think we can find out way in the right direction, and no one 'll be the wiser."

Unfortunately, the commotion of the shots fired had alerted the officers who weren't far enough away to not hear them.

"Shots fired!" A returning police officer called over her radio. "Tell the army we've found the invaders!"

"Time to go~" Karen grinned as she grabbed Mia by the hand and hurried off into the storm drain.

To be continued...

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