Jack held the HOTAS gently and continued to push the fighter to full speed. The g-forces weighed heavy on Nancy and she was more than ready to get her feet back on the ground. Jack on the other hand, was in his element. In a dark and testosterone-filled sort of way, he had even enjoyed the tumbling spin and recovery, but only inasmuch as it hadn't killed them.
Nancy scanned the area through the QM sensors as they passed over the Phlegra plains. The giant conifer trees of the plains could just barely be discerned with QM sensors after dark, and at that altitude and velocity it took a trained analyst or a computer with special sensors and algorithms to find them. The trees were there and as they approached the mountains were increasing in number.
Jack, we are approaching the target zone, Candis said.
Roger that. Prepare arming sequence, authorization Boland, one, one, three, one, four, alpha.
Arming sequence verified and target has been acquired, sir.
"Okay, Penzington, we are about to lower the boom. Prepare yourself for deployment," Jack said, smiling at her in the rearview.
"Thanks, Jack. Let's get the show on the road, hey?" Nancy returned the smile.
Nancy, you should take your injection now, Allison reminded her.
Right.
Nancy pulled the radiation dose treatment from her breast pocket and unsheathed one of the one-centimeter-long needles. She pulled back an armor plate on her left thigh and slid the needle through the puncture-seal layer into her leg muscle. The needle quickly made a hissing noise and then clicked. Nancy pulled the needle from her leg and watched as the puncture seal filled the tiny hole in her suit leg. She replaced the armor and then squinted her eyes and gritted her teeth as the serum began working its way through her body, causing her ears to ring and her eyes to sting. The ringing in her ears got louder, the stinging in her eyes worsened, and her head began to pound like a repulsor hammer.
"We've got a good target lock and are ready to go on Hellstorm missile," Jack said into the coms.
"Roger that, one three three. You are authorized to go Hellstorm," replied a voice over the net.
Jack depressed the fire button and the little missile zipped out from under the starboard swept wing of the fighter. The missile cleared the fighter and then accelerated toward a moderate Separatist city a few tens of kilometers from Phlegra. Nancy watched as the missile contrail traced its trajectory downward into the periphery of the Separatist Reservation as deep as any U.S. vessel had ever made it before. The propellantless propulsion system of the missile whizzed it through the Martian atmosphere, creating a faint blue ion trail that tracked behind the missile all the way to the target.
Multiple SAMs and heavy AA fire, Jack!
Evasives, Candis! He yanked and banked at the HOTAS.
"Nancy, this is as far as I go! Time to make your exit. Good luck." Jack yelled as he banked the fighter left then right. Then he pulled straight up to gain as much altitude for Nancy's deployment as he could manage in the anti-aircraft fire.
"Roger that, Boland. Thanks for the lift. You take care of yourself. Retracting rear ejection portal!" The canopy above her slid backward into the aircraft's fuselage, leaving an open circle above her head. The airflow was dampened some by the inertial dampening field but the noise and pounding from the Martian air was debilitating.
"See ya, Jack! Eject, eject, eject!" Nancy hit the ejection switch and then depressed the handle.
The miniature catapult field system ejected her upward and out of the Ares fighter at over four hundred kilometers per hour into the cold Martian night sky. The inertial dampening field and the e-suit protected her from the harsh g-forces and the Martian environment—the flak and anti-aircraft fire was another matter all together. Nancy spun wildly for a couple of microseconds and then the seat released itself from her and the inertial dampening was no longer available. For a brief instant she felt as if she would be torn asunder but the atmosphere quickly dampened her motion to critical velocity which was much more tolerable. Just as she began to gain her wits a brilliant flash filled the sky about thirty kilometers to her north.
The mushroom cloud rose to a perfect round peak with a bright red and yellow fireball filling it. Rings of dust and smoke encircled the stem of the mushroom cloud and rose upward until they collided with the head of it at the forming and rising fireball. Nancy could see the shock wave spread out surrounding the blast area. She continued to fall toward the surface and stabilized her skydiving position. Focus, she thought.
Nancy, shock wave in three, two, one! Allison warned.
The shock wave hit with high velocity but with low pressure at that altitude. Low pressure or not, it was plenty of force to send Nancy tumbling in a wild chaotic fall. She fought the g-forces of the spin by spreading her body out as flat as she could to slow the neck-jarring tumble. With a few adjustments of leg and arm positions and the arch of her back, she managed to right herself into a flat spin and then into a skydiver's prone falling position.
Engage the gliderchute! Nancy thought to her AIC.
Gliderchute engaged, Allison replied, and the harness around her waist and shoulders yanked her tight and Nancy's diving descent rapidly averted from a downward plunge to a slow sauntering enjoyable glide. Nancy shook her head and squinted her eyes until she regained her senses.
IR and QM, she thought to the suit's sensor array. The night vision system kicked in with a big white saturated bright spot over the target zone. The nuclear blast over the outpost was still too hot to view directly. Allison, adjust the contrast nonlinearly on the hot spot, please, she thought.
Right away. Tree detection system is active and will be marked in the view, the AIC replied.
Good. Overlay latest map on the view, also.
Roger that.
Any pedestrian or vehicle motion? Nancy asked. The AIC ran motion detection and change detection algorithms, searching for any flickers of motion within the view of their sensors that might be something other than random. There were no telltale signs of motion with a purpose.
None.
Nancy guided the gliderchute through the now chaotic winds of the aftermath of the explosion. There were occasional whirlwinds and updrafts that would alter her course and cause problems with the gliderchute harness chords, but she managed to stay on course and avoid the chute being ripped away. As the gliderchute fell through the Martian night and closer to the now devastated mountain basal city, Nancy caught a glimpse of Phobos to her south and just above the faded and scattering mushroom-shaped dust cloud. She surmised from the southward-stretching misshapen mushroom cloud that there must have been a high-altitude jet stream moving in that direction. She spiraled her flight path southward around the edge of the total destruction zone and closed in on her landing target zone.