Entry 2; 02-07-TA424

Huh I suppose I'm really doing this, a 'dairy', for a while I've had the urge to write reports - standard protocol you know, this will have to do instead - I should start with name, age, politics, factional alignment, occupation and all that jazz right?

But then again I already know my own age & name, I ain't likely to forget so I guess I can skip all that.

Something I could forget with time I suppose, is 'The Fall' - Atleast that's what I've taken to calling it.

I wrote before that I've lived the soldier's life, but all that kind of came to an end recently - There was a battle, usual thing TSU-s vs IAFS, couple of ships and a few dozen Vijaiks duking it out in the depths of space.

On the edge of this battle were three of us pilots, two Ogres - A kind of green and muddy-brown machine with spiked shoulders and a single red eye-lens - And a single Neo-M, a more 'human' looking machine coloured in cyan and emerald shades with a flat orange visor for a face.

I'll be honest the exact details of what we we're all fighting for escapes me, that is if I ever even knew them - Whatever the case the two Ogres close in on the lone Neo, a mass of writing metal appendages brawling it out.

I doubt any of us was worried about hitting something, we were far away from the warships and the maps showed no nearby asteroids or settlements.

But then 'BANG'.

Man I'll tell ya, I should of tightened my safety harness more - We all three had collided into and through something, I was flung from my chair by the force - Got one heck of a bloody nose in the process.

Next thing I know I'm scrambling round my cockpit to find something, any read-out that might tell me what the hell was happening.

I only had a few seconds and of course it was the last computer monitor I checked that was most important - All of a sudden we had gravity, we were falling, in space.

Maybe that's harder for some than others to visualise but put lightly, imagine you step out your front door - No part of you is expecting to suddenly start free-floating in zero-G right?

Well its the same in reverse for a fighter-pilot, you don't expect, heck it shouldn't even be possible, to be 'Ambushed' by gravity of all things.

But bemused or not, I only got a second to even try and register this information - Most people have driven or atleast sat in a car right?

Well pretend you are going up a steep hill, when suddenly the engine stalls - No biggie, you just press on the break-pedal, except it doesn't work, handbrake neither.

Now panic starts to creep into you - You look at the rear view mirror, watch as you slowly start to roll back down the hill faster and faster, and for a real moment you honestly think you might be going to die.

That bits harder to describe to someone who's never been in a car crash but for a moment its like something on your most base and instinctual level comes alive and tells you; 'This is it then' - It's one of the most bizarre feelings I think I've ever felt, complete terror and absolute acceptance of the inevitable all in the blink of an eye.

'BANG'

The second impact put me out cold for a few moments, I finally opened my eyes to sparks, flashes of lights and smashed-up monitor screens all around me - A hole too, letterbox sized in the hull of my mech, allowing a faint breeze inside my cockpit .

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Didn't take long to establish my machine was kaput, I was stiff as hell but military training and adrenaline kicked in - I reached for the onboard weapon, a black SMG that I'd never had need for before, don't even know what it's called but I was glad of it then.

Took out my own weapon too, a little semi-automatic pistol - I ain't a particularly good shot but heck only knew what I would find outside my cabin. Taking the plunge I pulled the manual release, this massive lever that navigates whatever's left of a damaged Vijaik's hydraulics into busting open the hatch.

Took some incredibly painful pulling on my part, which should of acted as a clue for what was coming, but eventually there was a hiss, the hatch flipped open and sunlight of all things came flooding in to greet me.

Now much like surprise gravity, you don't often expect the black skies and glimmering stars of space to be replaced by a bright blue sky filled with puffy white clouds - But there it was, well, 'clear as day'.

I was in some serious pain as I crawled up out of my cockpit, I think it was only the sheer adrenaline that kept me conscious.

All three of our mechs were 'inside' something, a place with a natural looking sky around us and no signs of the battle we had been partaking in.

I did my best to put the absurdity of it all out of my mind and painedly managed to leap from where my mech had landed, onto the torso of the second crashed machine.

It, like mine, looked mostly intact - Accept for the cabin - Nasty bit of business, the weapon it'd been holding (a big axe looking Calabar-blade) had pierced its own cockpit during one of the two impacts - That pilot had not lived to see the strange sky above us, to put it lightly.

'Tap'.

That's all it was, a faint tapping of your regular military issue boot against metal - I turned at once, both my pistol and SMG raised and there was the third pilot, alive like me.

Our eyes locked, he had his own pistol drawn but that was all.

For a moment I thought we might actually talk it out, form an alliance to work out what had just happened - Become unlikely battlefield allies.

I fired first.

A slew of pellets from the heavy metal gun that struck the enemy pilot in the chest - Enough that his return shot went wild and missed me completely.

My pistol was next.

Like I said, I ain't a particularly good shot or anything, but this was the best hit of my life.

I don't say that with pride mind you, anything but...

Bullet landed right between his eyes, it was a messy kill - The poor guy flew backwards outta' sight, blood spluttering everywhere.

And it seemed that having confirmed my two fellow 'skydivers' were now both dead, my adrenaline ran dry.

I had a split second of bestial exhilaration at so soundly defeating the enemy pilot - And a second later I looked down.

You remember the letterbox sized hole in my cockpit? Ya well that missing piece of metal was lodged right in my side.

I stubbled back, falling off the mech and sliding down to the 'floor' beneath, leaving a trail of blood against the green of the machine's paint - Whether the shock of the whole thing or the blood-loss, I was out cold again before the enemy soldier, the guy I had just murdered - Before his corpse even landed.

Ya actually, now that I really think about it, I doubt I will ever actually forget the fall after-all....