The Raven

The Raven

The sound and power of the engine rumbled through Cain’s bones, a familiar and oddly comfortable feeling. With a sigh of relief, he pulled himself free of the inner workings of his vessel, glad the complicated machine was still operable. The thing wasn’t new, but it wasn’t exactly ancient either. Cain liked to call it a classic.

He picked up the metal hatch that usually covered the hole in the wall he had just climbed out of, fitting it back into place carefully. Using the metal of his right hand, that of which traveled all the way to his shoulder, he banged the piece of the interior wall back into its place, a tight fit flush with the wall.

There were plenty of bonuses of having a metal arm, but just as many weaknesses. Always better than no arm, he reasoned, even if the cost of maintenance was high when it came to pieces for the prosthetic limb.

As he admired his handiwork, he felt a soft, feather-light something land on his shoulder, and he reached his left hand up to pet his furry companion.

“Miss me?” He asked, peeking at the little creature out of the corner of his eye.

The little creature was long and lithe, and looked quite similar to the ferret of the origin planet of the human race, but that’s where the similarities ended. Where a ferret would have beady black eyes, Cains companion’s eyes glowed a soft amber, illuminating the pearl white fur around his eyes when he was in complete darkness. Another important feature were his wings.

The little creature leapt from his shoulder, extending wings the same white as his body, though tipped with slightly darker greys. The wings were long and wide to account for his body’s length, but even still he bobbed through the air like a strangely inverted snake. Cain named him after the only piece of human mythos that seemed to fit.

“Where are you going, Wyrm? You can’t fly the ship on your own…” Cain said wryly, jogging up the tight interior of his vessel.

The ship was small but held a powerful engine which actually took up a majority of the space-faring vessel’s space. The walls were once a pristine white, but in recent times the paint began to peel, so he stripped it to reveal the chrome finish beneath. Honestly, he preferred it. It fit better with the black accents across the lower part of the slightly curved walls and ceiling.

As he approached a door just tall enough for him to walk through comfortably, barely two yards from where his jog started, the door split down the middle, either side sliding into the wall. Cain passed through the door without skipping a beat, his pace not slowing in the slightest.

As he entered the cockpit of his ship, he began looking for his illusive little friend. Wyrm could be anywhere in the room, and it was his favorite game to make Cain look for him every chance he got.

Cain’s eyes scanned the varying control panels and nobs, most of which did nothing truly important, as well as the single, stationary pilots chair in the center of the room. The room of which being roughly as wide as he was tall, twice over, the far end of it taken up by a cone of space-safe glass. The chair’s armrests were filled with buttons and switches, but two things stood out above the rest.

Twin levers poked out of the front of either armrest, each a slightly different shape, and each hosting a varying number of buttons. Cain knew at least six of them did literally nothing. There were two he was afraid to press, but he suspected the same of them too.

“You’re behind the coffee machine.” Cain said, not turning his head. His guess was answered by a frustrated sounding peep from Wyrm.

Laughing to himself, Cain settled down in his seat. The chair was a little blocky, but the actual seat and back were a soft material, his shape long since imprinted on the chair’s cushions with time. His grin grew wider as he flicked on a single switch, hearing the already running engine roar to even greater life.

“Ready for lift off, little buddy?” He called over his shoulder, though he didn’t worry for the little creature. He’d been through this enough times to know the deal. Cain rested both arms on their respective rests, hands on their levers, his right hand gripping its respective control more firmly. With a deep breath, Cain integrated with the starship.

A rush of different sensations flooded his mind before the mental chip resting at the base of his head sorted through the data, feeding him only what he deemed necessary. Cain’s right hand seemed to half disassemble, and then reassemble into the lever as this happened. Opening his eyes, which he hadn’t even realized were closed, Cain saw the familiar displays fill his vision once again.

Tiny windows of his vision, like he was wearing a data tablet like glasses, blinked to life. Each displayed details ranging from important to minute, like ammunition, fuel left, and other details like engine temperature. The process hurt, but just slightly, like the twinge of an oncoming headache dissipating blessedly soon.

In a familiar motion, he pulled back on the yoke, and his ship slowly lifted itself into the sky, ion thrusters pushing him gently from the bottom. The Raven flew once more.

With his left hand, Cain pushed the throttle forward, and his ship soared into the upper atmosphere of Zephyr-1904, the planet he had been hiding out on for some few weeks. He rapidly approached the barrier of the atmosphere, and eventually broke through it into the unforgiving vacuum of space, just as he had done what seemed like thousands of times before.

He was shot at immediately.

A warning flashed in front of Cain's eyes, and he ripped the yoke to the left, dodging a missile of burning plasma just narrowly. In response, he shoved the throttle forward, a far cry from his gentle nudge earlier to get off the planet. As he did so, the light on his comms receiver flashed green, a voice just breaking through the static as Cain pressed a button to accept the transmission.

“-Sergeant of the fourth battalion, you are under arrest! Surrender now and no harm will come to you!” Came a deep voice, and Cain couldn’t tell if the static was making his voice sound gravely or if it was just his actual voice.

“Under what charges?” Cain responded, left hand flicking to the send audio button and back to its throttle like lightning.

“Sixteen accounts of Smuggling, twelve accounts of thievery, and two murder charges, among others like three hundred and sixty-four traffic violations!” Came the voice of the sergeant, boomingly loud in Cain’s ears. He was a little proud at that last statistic.

“Alright, you actually know what I have a bounty for…” Cain mumbled, annoyed. So it was a member of the United Space Force, a massive and wealthy group of zealots who made it their goal to “Protect and serve the wider cosmos in the opposition of evil” or whatever. In other words, Cain’s biggest annoyance.

With a twinge of thought, Cain activated the rear camera of The Raven, spotting the interceptor behind him. It was a heavier craft than his, and he reasoned that some fancy flying would likely give him the edge in the fight. He moved the yoke in varying degrees of angles, adjusting the throttle when he needed. Before long, he was comfortably behind his opponent, weapons hot.

The interceptor tried evading, but wasn’t doing the best job of it. Lining up the crosshairs that appeared superimposed in his vision, he opened fire with a quick barrage of plasma rounds. Half of them hit, and Cain watched as the energy was sapped from the ships shield generator. The shield flickered before winking out, and Cain pressed the coms button again.

“Surrender or I’ll switch to live ammo. I’ve got a few missiles here with your ships name on them.” Cain offered, crosshairs still trained on the ship.

“Hah! As if I’ll need to surrender. Now, boys!” Came the sergeant’s voice.

In an instance, three more presences appeared behind Cain, each interceptor much more agile than the sergeants. Cain’s grin dropped to a scowl, and he dipped down out of the range of the enemy ships, each smaller than his own.

Cain focused the rear camera and ordered the ship to scan his pursuers. A response came after a few tense seconds, identifying them as Arc twenty ones, extremely quick ships with no shield generator, their biggest weakness. Cain’s scowl lightened at this, and he pressed a button he almost never got the chance to mess with.

A field of proximity explosives were flung from the rear of his ship, and he watched as two of the interceptors exploded in shockwaves of shrapnel, the third being shredded by the remains of his comrades. Cain let out a whoop, and Wyrm answered him with a high-pitched cry of his own.

A noise of frustration came from the comms unit, and Cain’s grin grew only wider.

“Now, I graciously re-extend my offer.” He said, a false pompous air of his voice.

“Just destroy the ship, you know these things are remotely piloted…” Came the Sergeants defeated voice. “But mark my words, we’ll-“

His voice was cut off as Cain pressed the button, turning his ship towards the larger vessel, it’s rounded cube-like exterior no longer lit by the varying lights that once were powered by the ship. As Cain approached, she ship roared to life again, and a singular, high-powered plasma shot burst from the cannon on the underside of the ship.

Anticipating this, Cain jerked to the right, dodging the shot. Retaliating, he launched what appeared to be a web of electricity, a high powered EMP blast that disabled the ship as it struck. Once the power was exhausted, a metal fiber net was revealed to be wrapped around the now powered down ship.

Cain casually extended a tether, grappling the ship behind him. It would be some valuable scrap.

Using a burst of his ships power, he extended the radar to a much wider degree. Detecting nothing, he disintegrated with his ship, his right hand once again disassembling only to reassemble moments later. Flexing his fingers, he clicked the autopilot button, putting his hands behind his head as he stretched his feet.

He felt Wyrm land softly on the top of his head, curling into a ball with a soft peep. Cain smiled as he stared into the vast and empty void of space, wondering where it would take him next.

End.