As I walked into the hangar that had the shuttle we would be using to make our way to the planet the Rif'nay'fex had managed to construct, Carrie met me and began to speak.

"Our pilots aren't good enough to fly through all the fireworks and make it through the downed parts of the shields," she told me. "Which means, unless we've got better ideas, we're stuck here until things calm down and it'll be too late by then. You have anything bouncing around your brain?"

"I've got something," I told her. "You won't like it, and I really don't like it. It's a risk that we'll have to take though."

"What's up?" she asked as we joined the others.

"Cai what are the odds that the Coffins can make it?" I asked. Immediately, I heard Carrie and Sarah groan while the other three paled.

"Very good," he assured me. "Over ninety percent of all simulations show success."

"Then send word, load up Coffins and prepare to fire them onto the planet." I told him. "Send word to shuttles that I want them to coordinate with the firing crews to punch through the shields and find somewhere to lay low after we're on the planet. They're the exit point."

"Rickshaw, you're making a rash decision," Carrie said, grumpily. "None of us have the same experience as you do with the Coffins. All we have are the horror stories."

"Good thing that you'll get the opprotunity to make some stories of your own then," I told her. "Let's go, Coffins are this way and the faster we get in them, the faster we get out of them."

"How do we know that this won't end badly for us?" Benjamin asked.

"We don't," I told him. "That's why it's called a 'leap of faith.'"

"I don't like leaping," Bunny said.

"Me neither," Sarah agreed as I lead the way to the so-called Coffin Cannon that was used to launch Coffin Decoys usually, but would now be used to send us hurtling toward the planet.

"These Coffins won't be moving fast enough to be destroyed," I assured my squad as the Coffins in question were emptied of supplies and room was made for us. "We will be tracked by all starships in the fleet so we don't risk being shot as we go, but we don't know about any planetary defenses."

"So if they've got goodies and they detect us, then we're boned," Sarah said.

"Precisely," I agreed. "Now get in your Coffins."

"Don't you ever talk me into this again!" Carrie yelled at me over the comm line as our Coffins were loaded into the Cannon. "This is the kind of thing that people do and then when they die, everyone goes 'Well, what did they expect to happen?' and I don't want to be remembered that way!"

"You have a better way to get to the planet?" I asked. "Before they activate their engines to max speed and make it out?"

"You know I don't!" she screamed.

"Then we're going to have to suck it up and do this," I told her. "Cai, how long until we're fired?"

"Ten seconds," he answered. "Brace."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Sir, I hate you!" Micheal's voice came over the line just before all noise was drowned out by the booming thud of the Coffin Cannon firing and sending us all hurtling across the void and toward the Rif'nay'fex constructed planet. There had to be a better name for that.

After a moment of flying through the empty void, I spoke over our comm lines.

"Sound off. Who still hates me?" I asked.

"All of us," Carrie answered just before everyone else made noises in agreement with her.

"Well that's nice but don't forget to brace when we start to pass through the atmosphere," I advised them. "That's how you get hurt in these things."

"I should have listened to my step-mother," Bunny said quietly.

"My ex-wife would be screaming at me," Benjamin said. I didn't know he'd been married.

As the Coffins made their way across the distance between the starships and the planet, I focused on my breathing, trying to even it out and preparing myself for the moment that Cai warned me about atmospheric entrance and thruster activation. For all I'd assured them that these Coffins were safer for us than the Decoys, they weren't meant for people, they were meant for supplies. Sure the Cybers were able to tweak the speeds that they'd be flying at and the shields were good at dampening heat and inertial turbulence, but that didn't mean that we were coming out of this without risking injury.

"Brace for thruster activation," Cai's monotone warned everyone a moment before the thrusters fired and the atmosphere impacted our Coffins. I just hope that the others acted as fast as I did.

As we flew across the artificial skies of the false planet, I have no doubt that we made one hell of a sight for anyone that might have seen us. Meteors racing across the sky while the shield was lighting up with weaponsfire from the fleet that surrounded the planet as it moved and built up greater speed to escape us.

"I am detecting defensive weapons locking onto us and firing," Cai warned. "We will have to engage emergency ejection protocols."

"Emergency what?!" I heard Carrie scream over the comm line before Cai declared our speeds to be low enough and the seams of the Coffins came apart around us.

"Activate the Seraphs!" I yelled over the comm line, more for my squad's benefit than the Cybers that were already making their own efforts to use the mass of gravity drives to grant us flight and manuverability as we approached our target site.

As the artificial wings on my back fired up and yanked me out of freefall, I watched as the remains of the Coffins we'd been in fell to the ground and the missiles shot toward us before passing just below us as our Cybers pulled us higher.

"We need to get to the ground!" I yelled at the others. "Once we're low enough that the trees can be used for cover, we're making our way to the enigine site!"

"Let's move it before they try to shoot us again!" Carrie agreed before diving toward the ground and the safety that was there.

As Sarah and Bunny moved to follow her, I looked upward at where Micheal and Benjamin hovered in the sky above us all.

"See anything special up there?" I asked them.

"I've got nothing, sir," Micheal said before diving toward the ground.

"I see a tower that wasn't showing up on any scans before this," Benjamin said. "It matches the location of where the energy signatures from the engine we're aiming for were."

"Let's get lower before we end up being splattered across the sky," I told him before we both began to descend.

"That wasn't something I expected to happen," Bunny said, sounding as if she was trying not hyperventillate as we approached the ground.

"Bunny, are you alright?" I asked her. If she was losing control best it happened now, instead of when I needed her in a fight.

"I'll be fine," she assured me. "I just need a minute."

"Well, we'll all take a break on the ground before using the Seraphs to make our way to our destination," Carrie said, picking up on why I was asking.

"We don't have to stop because of me," Bunny insisted.

"We don't," I agreed. "But we will. We need you at your best and if we stop and give you time, then everything will work out better for us."

"But what about the engines," she said, her breathing picking up pace. "What if we don't make it and we're stuck here? What if we can't go back?!"

As she allowed her hysterics to grip onto her more tightly, I guided her to the ground and Carrie began to speak to her in a calming tone. Once we'd all touched the ground, I moved away from Bunny enough for Sarah to grab her in a hug and comfort her while Carrie continued to speak to her and reassure her.

"I didn't know that the Coffins had emergency ejection," Benjamin said to me quietly.

"I had them put something together for us before we left," I admitted to him. "It's why I spent so much time before getting into my Coffin."

"Well it saved all our lives," he said. "Thank you sir."

"Don't thank me yet," I told him. "We're out of the frying pan now."