Night Sky

He stared blankly up at the night sky, watching the moon rise with a fierce white glow. He slowly stirred when the water from the pond next to him gently nudged his weather riding boots. ’’Well it’s time to get going.’’ he murmured to himself. Rising from  on the ground he looks around him into the darkness now illuminated by the moon. Faintly he can see his breath; he walked to where he had parked his vehicle some 200 feet away. 

He is about to get onto his new Python Anti-Gravity bike when a glass shattering boom knocked him to the ground.

“What the heck was that.’’ he with shock in his voice. 

 Looking over head he saw a bright red and yellow glow from a space craft enter the earth’s atmosphere. Another slightly smaller ball of fire followed behind it with a much sharper angle of re-entry. It sped closer and closer to the cold, hard ground and only slowing a little as it collided with the air in front of its deadly path. Still dazed by what he saw, he quickly and quite clumsily started to get back onto his feet, shaking a little, he started his bike to get out of the collation course of the falling object. Revving the engine, he shot off to seventy feet off the ground in only a few seconds. He flew faster and faster being frightened that it might hit him at any moment.

“Go faster you dumb pieces of metal,” he yelled to his bike, now whining from the high RPM’s. 

With a massive explosion the object hit the ground, leaving a crater the radius of a car. Around the crater fire was spread sporadically, casting light and shadows in every direction. The grass that surrounded the object now pointed away from the impact. Seeing that the object had now made contact with the ground he decided to take a close look at what had fallen from the sky. As he approached it, a wave of heat enveloped him. He could now clearly see what hit the ground. It was jettison pod used on the military spaceships Thanatos, named after the Greek god of death. But this pod is a little different as he thought to himself. It had no marking of any kind except for a logo of a black dragon.

“That unusual. There suppose to be an identification number on it?’’ he said curiously. Still approaching it cautiously he slowly walked trying to avoid the fire still lingering about. When he was ten feet away he heard a latch opening and then a moan. He quickly ran around the pod to find the source noise.

 In front of him an older man staggering out with a torn military suit. He was bleeding from his ears, nose, and mouth.

“Sir are you alright? Is there anything I can help you with? Here let me help you.” Offered the rider.

“Thank you, but I should be fine I’m only a little shaken up.” replied the man. As the rider carried the injured man away from the still hot wreckage another voice came from the pod. This time it was a young girl’s voice. “Dad are you all right, did something happen, I hear someone else?”

“Im fine it’s all right for you to come out now. Just be careful not to touch anything; you can still burn yourself.” The man said softly to her.

The young rider gently set the man down then went to assist the girl who was now trying to navigate through the mine field of still burning fires. After getting her to safety, the rider quickly ran over to his bike and retrieves his med pack from within its hiding place. He returned with bandages for the gentlemen, who now seemed to be doing much better than he was before.

“Do you mind if I asked you what your name is?” questioned the man.

“No, not at all, my name is Ryder Van Howen, that’s Ryder spelled with a ‘y’ instead of an ‘I’. “ Ryder said promptly.

“That’s a cool name.” said the girl almost flirtatiously.

“Im Ryan Rivers and this sorry sight is my farther…”

“Captain Phillip Rivers, of the battleship Thanatos.” Said the captain proudly.

“Or was the captain frankly speaking.”  

“Do you mind if I ask what happened up onboard the battleship?”Ryder asked curiously.

 “Well I don’t rightly know, everything went in to code red then in a flash we were all forced off the ship into an escape pod.” The man said.  There was silence for a little while as Ryder try to process the new information that he had just heard.

“Have you ever thought about joining the military?” asked Ryan to Ryder. She broke the silence which had gone on for quite long enough.

“I’ve thought about it but I have not explored it all too much.” Replied Ryder.

“Well, we could use a bright mind like yours.” said the captain honestly.

“Shouldn’t the rescue shuttle be here soon?” Asked Ryan.

Just when she had finished saying that a low moan of an engine could be heard in the distance. Soon the search lights had fixed their eyes on the escape pod position. A few seconds later the shuttle had landed just a few yards away from where they were standing. Two men in flight suits emerged from the shuttle and rushed towards them.

“Captain were here to pick you up.” roared the first man over the sound of the now deafening engines.

“Well it’s about time.” Answered the captain.

The captain and Ryan  walked with the two men into the shuttle. Ryder could barely see Ryan waving to him from the shuttle as it took off. Ryder was once again left alone in the darkness with only the comfort from the light of the moon.

Ryder got onto his bike he sat there for a moment, thought, then he started the engine. He was about to take off when a military helicopter appeared out of nowhere and landed next to the escape pod. Heavily armed soldiers poured out of the back of the vehicle. More men followed them. They immediately came towards him with guns drawn.

“Sir, get off the bike and get down onto the ground now!” the men said fiercely.  Ryder got off his bike and onto the ground he could see even with their lights in his face that they were military police.

“What are you doing here.” one of the men said.

“I was the first one on the scene when the escape pod first crashed. I help the man and his daughter.” Ryder said calmly.

“Where are they now” one of them said coldly.

“A rescues shuttle just came to pick them up.” After this the men ran to the other said something and then they all ran back into the helicopter. Ryder could tell that something was wrong, and that the helicopter was going in a different direction from which the rescue craft had gone. But now he thought that  it was strange that the first craft had no identification numbers on it at all.

 Fear began to fill his heart once again. He threw on his helmet and  raced onto his bike. “Have they been kidnapped?” he thought to himself. Ryder took off once again this time in the direction of the first craft.

He was picking up speed fast he went from zero to 325mph in ten seconds flat. There was no longer any fear in his heart, what replaced it was rage, rage against the men who would dare do this. Ryder now flew carelessly through the black sky, continuously looking at the ground, and then back at the sky until he found what he was looking for. Then he found the craft next to an old factory. Without thought, Ryder began a high speed nose dive towards the factory topping 500mph. He silently landed onto the ground a few hundred feet away from the decrepit building.

Ryder began his assault upon the building. He creped in the shadows still being casted by the moon until he found his first victim. Ryder took the man  by surprise from behind him, and stuck the back of his neck knocking him unconscious. He grab the man quickly so that he would not fall and make a noise to alert his companions. Ryder then went further into the building, until he came to a room with a lock on it, but next to the door were a set of keys. He tried the keys and they worked but what he found on the other side was not Ryan or the Captain but an armory.

A smile slowly grew upon his face, he knew what he had to do. A half an hour later his plan was ready every piece of the puzzle was where it should be. The moon had now sunk behind the horizon and he knew he had to act fast before the first light of dawn appeared. With a click of a button his plan was in motion. He knew where the badies were keeping them when he heard a couple men talking. Not seconds  later a loud and powerful explosion shuck the building on the northeaster side.

He heard men running in the direction of the blast. Ryder with a pistol in hand quickly moved to where Ryan and the Captain where held. Running, he found the door that they were behind, and with a quick aim and fast trigger finger he blew the lock right off the door. He rushed in with gun drawn ready for anything. What he found behind the door  was the Captain and Ryan tied up and unconscious. He got the Ryan and the Captain out safely. Like clockwork his plan had succeeded.

The Captain woke slightly, looked at Ryder and said ”I told you that you had a bright mind."