The Last Sky City

Chapter 1: TRAITOR

Never in his life had Zeb imagined that he would hate himself so much for doing the right thing. Much less had he imagined that the "right thing" would be to betray his captain and his crew of three years, steal from them, and then disappear like a coward into the clouds. But he had made a decision. The right decision, and the only decision he knew he would have ever been able to live with. He gritted his teeth as he ripped the yoke of the aircraft upwards in a desperate effort to regain control. Cold sweat seeped through his filmy metal-threaded navigator's gloves and made his hands slick.  When the ship bounced, he once again had to resist the urge to vomit all over the dashboard. The dingy was quickly losing altitude, and he was completely confident that if he couldn't regain control of his ship soon, he would eventually, anyway.

The Desperado loomed dangerously close in the clouds behind him. She was an abomination of an airship, a hulking black shadow against the icy blue sky, all jet-black metal and sharp, serrated  edges. Never once during their chase did she accelerate. She didn't have to. She was a massive ship, with a wingspan of over four hundred meters wide, and any degree of acceleration would put  strain on her hull and her engines. Instead, as a large ship with large fuel reserves, the  Desperado was the ultimate endurance predator,  plodding a steady pace and gradually edging closer and closer to her prey while he was forced to watch his own fuel levels dissipate.

 The dingy's warning system blared, and red flashing lights illuminated the ship's large, bubble-windowed  cockpit. Five holoscreens hovered above the dashboard to indicate that his left engine had been shot out. "WARNING." the ship's  metallic voice echoed. "MAIN ENGINE COMPROMISED." 

Zeb gritted his teeth. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up. The navigator part of his brain that was already calculating liters of fuel into minutes and kilometers told him not much longer. "I KNOW THAT ALREADY! PULL UP! PULL UP!" He could see the ground below him clearly now. Spring-colored grass rolled across the hills with the wind in  icy green waves. A bronze port city with a cloud of airships going in and out of it stood out like a star in the far distance. Thick black smoke filled the cockpit, stinging his eyes and making him cough. He flicked up his implanted solar lenses  to protect his eyes, but in the hazy air they only made it harder for him to see and his vision look orange. Sparks from frayed wires burned his hands.

 He felt sick, but he couldn't stop.  He could still see it in the clouds behind him. The looming black shape of the Desperado, effortlessly gliding along the tops of the clouds like death itself. A long-ago pirated, repurposed and rebuilt Spanish flagship, she had a wingspan of over 400 meters, and her jagged metal hull was covered in silver rivets and scars from years of battle. She had a crew over one hundred pirates strong,  with forty guns and forty laser cannons on each of her massive sides. Heavily armed, heavily armored, and Jovian in proportions, she was easily the most formidable pirate ship to ever sail.

 After what he had done, Zeb knew deep down that if he were caught, her captain would not be merciful enough to end things quickly. It was too late to turn back now. He had crossed the Rubicon. He had betrayed them. To be caught by the Desperado now would be a fate worse than death.

Just then, a low gust of wind rose up from under the dingy's wings, steadying her out. Zeb took a deep breath as he felt the aircraft settle beneath him. He could still sense the hulking black pirate ship behind him edging closer, but at least now he knew he wasn't going to crash. His radio fizzled. "ATTENTION ZEB THE TRAITOR:" rumbled a familiar voice. He felt his heart rise up in his throat. "THIS IS YOUR FORMER CAPTAIN SPEAKING. YOU HAVE SOMETHING OF OURS. WE WANT IT BACK. RETURN IT NOW AND WE MAY SPARE YOUR LIFE." Zeb felt his hands beginning to shake again now. But he had made a decision. He bit his lip, then pushed the button to send a message back.

"ATTENTION CAPTAIN ANDROMEDUS OF THE DESPERADO." He felt dizzy now. "THIS IS YOUR FORMER NAVIGATOR, ZENITH ALSAFI, AND I REFUSE TO RETURN ANYTHING TO YOU!"

The captain's response came back swift and spine-chillingly clear. "...THEN WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO SHOOT YOU DOWN."

The Desperado opened fire. Guns and laser cannons blazing, her ugly, uneven black shape  broke free of the clouds. Zeb felt ship his jump and jolt as his right engine was hit, and his previous emergency rapidly began all over again. White streaks of wind raced against all sides of the window. With no engines, the controls were now as good as non-responsive. He screamed. There was nothing more he could do. His ship had been reduced to a glider, and while he knew that even in the dingy, he could glide for a while at this altitude, the Desperado was still gaining on him. He decided that he had to hide. 

In one final burst of power, he used the auxiliary engines in the bottom of the ship to disappear into a low-flying cloud. Unfortunately, this was also the last of his fuel. Even if he didn't crash, a rough landing was inevitable. He had lost his pursuers, but now he knew how this would end. He could see where he would have to land now, in the middle of an airship graveyard between two hills. Suddenly, he felt the ship jolt again as he was hit by what must've been a laser. The ground was rising up to swallow him.  Finally, in one last, hail-Mary effort to cushion his landing, he tried closing and reopening the expandable wings of the dingy. The subsequent gust of air from below him was just enough to catch the ship before her keel dragged the ground and his world went black.