Matrix Fanfiction Chapter 16: Return to Zion

Chapter 16: Return To Zion

I opened my eyes and Isaiah pulled out the jack. 

"Ok everyone's out go, go, go."  The ship quickly lifted into the air and took off in high-speed flight.  Isaiah and I made our way up to the bridge while Tarra was preparing the medical bay for Colin. 

"Parker tell me when we're over him," said Dan as we stepped into the bridge and took our stations.  Isaiah sat at the holographic scanner and I took the seat of the co-pilot. 

"Isaiah keep an eye on any sentinel squads in the area, after we pick up Colin we're heading straight to Zion."  Isaiah nodded and his scanner activated as he started to scan the area. 

"Captain I've got a lot of activity in the area," said Isaiah, "they are already heading for us." 

"Alright, Dan it looks like were gonna need some fancy flyin' after we pick up Colin, you better hurry."

 The ship picked up speed as Dan pushed on the accelerator.  We burst through the tunnel opening and we were out into the fields. 

"Ok Dan slow down, we're coming close," said Parker in the headset. 

"Ok," said Dan, "just say when so I can drop the grapple in time."  We hovered slowly over the wasteland for several long moments. 

"OK Drop it!"  Suddenly came out of the headset.  Dan quickly hit the drop button and the ship shook slightly as the grapple dropped, picked up Colin and retracted. 

"I've got him," said Tarra, "Now get us the hell home Danny!"  Dan drove the accelerator to its fullest speed and the ship took off once again. 

Just then the proximity alert sounded and the ship's lights began to flash red. 

"Great how many is there?" I asked. 

"It's a good sized attack squad there is about 20." 

"Isaiah, Tarra, Parker, we have to man the gun turrets." 

"Ok."  All three of them answered me through the headset.  Isaiah and I took off out the door to the weapons level of the ship.  We met Tarra and Parker there and each manned a turret. 

"Alright guys remember as always shoot to kill!"  I said. 

"Well dah!" said Isaiah as he opened fire. 

"What the hell else would we shoot for!" yelled Tarra pulling the trigger.  Parker and I joined the others in firing into the swarm. 

"How far from Zion are we captain?" asked Tarra. 

"We'll enter the defense perimeter in about 22 minutes, we just need to hold'em off until then.  Try to get us there in one piece Danny." 

"Got it," said Dan in the headset.  As we flew through the tunnels more and more sentinels were drawn to us until there was a massive swarm behind us. 

"Holy shit look at them all!" yelled Isaiah.  There were several in my viewer that had clung to the hull of the Navras. 

"Never mind the swarm just help me keep them off the ship."  I shot several off and Tarra followed my example, while Isaiah and Parker concentrated their attacks in the swarm. 

"Good work Tarra keep shooting."  As we knocked off the sentinels that had clung to the ship, two more were there to replace it. 

"God dammit, you two we could use some help keeping the ship together," said Tarra frustrated.  Isaiah switched his target to the ones attacking the ship directly. 

"Eat led you god damn bucket of bolts!"

We fought for the longest minutes in our lives as the ship whirled through the tunnels at a great speed.  The sentinels relentlessly attacked the outer hall of the ship literally picking it apart at the seems with there lasers. 

"How much time have we got left?" asked Tarra in a slight panic while she fired her gun turret. 

"Just sixteen more minutes you guys hang in there, keep yourself and the ship together!"  I hit two sentinels in my viewer sending them rolling in a ball of fire.  One of them suddenly clung to Tarra's turret and started the cutting laser. 

"Can someone get him off me?  He's just out of my viewer." 

"Hang on I think I can get him!"  Parker yelled.  Parker got the sentinel in his view and opened fire, quickly making short work of the sentinel. 

"Thanks Parker!"  Just then the sentinels began to pick up speed and suddenly the entire back end of the ship was immersed in the swarm. 

"Holy shit!  Danny go faster use the auxiliary power to make the ship move faster!"  Isaiah yelled at the sight of the attackers. 

"Got'cha, but I don't think we can move much faster than this!" said Dan. 

"Alright everyone focus your attacks on the ones clung to the hall, we need to get those things the hell off us before they completely destroy the back end."  I yelled as I began to fire non-stop into the swarm that had attached themselves to us.  The other four turrets began to do the same, firing continuously into the swarm of sentinels.  Several more long moments passed as we slowly cleared them off the hull, the ship had continually began to pick up speed as the auxiliary power was pumped into the hover engines. 

"Come on we can make this you guys!" said Isaiah trying to sound enthused that we were going to make it.  Just then the ship lost an engine and we dropped in speed slightly. 

"Shit they got one of our engines Captain!" said Dan, "we're gonna loose some of our speed." 

"Just concentrate on what your doing, we'll handle it!"  I said frustrated, "alright guys step it up a bit.  We just need to last a little over seven minutes." 

"Captain, maybe we should use the EMP and wait for another ship to come to our aid, I don't think we'll make it." 

"We'll make it trust me!"  I shot as many of the sentinels as I could, but still they closed in on us faster and faster.  The time was seemingly running long when everything including the ship went dead.  We had made it. . . now to restructure and train Colin.