Ready for part 3? We left trainee pilot Juno in the back of a gunship flown by officer Radzikowski as they take to the air…
Want to start from Part 1 – here you go!
Juno felt her stomach lurch. That initial moment of the feeling of gravity disappearing always made her feel queasy. It usually passed quickly though. The gunship hovered for a few moments in the still air outside G-Police HQ. Obviously, there were no gunships in the area, they wouldn’t have been cleared for launch if there were. Control was based on the floor 80 of the building and their radar and tracking equipment was the best possible. Juno looked down at the road far below. It always seemed strange that the roads which were built 6 lanes wide, were mainly empty, but of course the widths of the roads where for the benefit of the flying vessels in the air than actual the road traffic. These days the majority of workers commuted by the metropolitan. Road and air vessels were mainly for transportation of food and goods, industrial and city works etc. Some people did have cars, but what was the point? More people had flyers than cars. They went a little lower. Juno could see a couple of delivery trucks for Sandy’s, with their famous logo of the cute, gap toothed kid beaming from the side. That was the biggest supermarket brand and driving their large delivery trucks, goods flyers or transport wagons was just about the only secure these jobs. Sandy’s needed armies of drivers to meet the demand for online shopping. A cousin of Juno’s worked for them and at least three of the people she went to school with now worked for them. Her family had their groceries delivered by Sandy’s, of course. There was a truck from the water company and a couple of trucks coming from the HQ, delivering stores and parts. Apart from that the street was empty. A handful of people were trickling out from the metro station she had exited earlier, which already seemed like a long time ago.
“What do you think?” asked Radzikowski.
“It’s great, sir” she answered, not really knowing what to say, and she felt stupid at the childish answer she offered.
“Let’s get going”, he took the gunship forward, following the course of the streets. Pilots were trained to follow the streets. Mainly because if there was an incident it was more likely they would crash down onto the street. On the other hand there was a risk of flying into the side of a building. It was very rare that G-Police accidents happened, unless the government covered them up, which was always possible. They followed the route to the Gateway to Dome 27. It took about ten minutes. The Gateway was a square hole in the side of a Dome that lead to a tunnel into the next Dome. Traffic was controlled automatically so air and road traffic would take it in turns. The air signals where red so they hovered over an empty lot and the traffic system assigned them a number. Juno watched the Sandy’s trucks coming through the Gateway. There were also vehicles of the street cops and trucks belonging to the power company. Another gunship pulled up alongside them. It was another training ship so it would be one of the her friends. The other two must not have been far behind. As cockpits were usually blacked out she couldn’t tell who it was. Luckily, she resisted the urge to wave. She had to remember she was not here to have fun.
“Hey, Snyder” said Radzikowski through the comms link. Juno wondered how he knew it was Snyder, as it wasn’t Snyder’s ship. Maybe the way she flew? She felt a bit silly for not knowing. But she would learn these things.
“How are things with you, Tom?” asked Snyder. Juno felt a little thrill at finding out a bit of Radzikowski’s first name.
“Not dead yet, which is good. She doesn’t stop talking though” he deadpanned.
“Maybe we could swap, I think this one’s more suited for IT though” Snyder quipped, laughing very slightly. Juno knew this dig would be a low blow for Mitch. She was already getting a measure on the banter between the pilots. It didn’t fool her; she knew Snyder’s deadly reputation. They had seen several cockpit cam vids from her battles in the battles with Klaxon Corp in Dome 22 last year. The vids were shocking, Klaxon Corp were a corrupt company who had generated millions from money laundering, then when they had been caught, they used illegal battle-drones against the police. The directors of Klaxon Corp had escaped and would be hiding out with new identities somewhere. Snyder had destroyed the most battle drones. Footage from the battles, and of the wreckage from both battle drones and G-Police gunships that covered the streets had made news all over. Mitch was lucky to be with her today.
The other two training ships pulled up and the pilots exchanged light banter, apart from Mason who was the most serious. They got the signal to go through the tunnel and their ship went first as they had been assigned first spot. The tunnel wasn’t exactly a tight fit but needed careful flying. This was the probably the part of flying that most worried Juno. If you made a mistake and crashed, you would block a Gateway between Domes. There were other Gateways of course, but blocking them would cause major problems in terms of food delivery and service capacity, as well as your own inevitable death.
“It’s just a matter of going slow and steady” It was as if Radzikowski had read her mind as he piloted, “it’s not a race, as long as you’re not going slow enough to park, we don’t care how slow you go.” They emerged into Dome 27 and carefully past the flyers waiting to come the other way. “We’ll wait a minute for the others to come through.”
When everyone had passed through, the pilots split the Dome into sections to patrol. Radzikowski and Juno went north to the container farms, after calling Control to advise them of their movement. Juno had never been inside Dome 27 before, only through and under in the metro. Not that there was much need to visit here. There were no tower blocks here, no skyscrapers. It was a Dome dedicated to storage and production. There were plants for processing and storing artificial flour. Vast container farms of protein gum were kept here before taking to Sandy’s factories for turning into food. Most precious of all though was the section that acted as overflow storage for the crops grown in Dome 33, the Hydroponics Dome. If production were high, the surplus would be stored here. It was a long way for transport to come, and they required very heavily armed escorts, even more so than the flour transports. Juno guessed that by the end of the week she would take part in an escort of either flour of crops, hopefully doing the flying herself! As it was, storage here required extensive guarding. A good part of G-Police’s funding came from patrolling Dome 27, as the companies paid them to supplement the contracts with private firms, who were obviously not to be trusted. So Dome 27 was the perfect place for training. New pilots could fly around taking part in patrols, and the companies would get free protection. It was a win-win situation, unless the trainee pilot crashed into something valuable of course.
“Do you often get people trying to steal goods, sir?” asked Juno.
“Yes” came the answer. “From gangs, rival companies. Sometimes other security firms come to cause problems and start fights, force the food companies to hire them, it’s a total racket. Every so often a rival company to Sandy’s tries to muscle in. On top of which, Sandy’s have no control over the actual crops, so they’re always casting greedy eyes over that, if they could get away with stealing crops for themselves instead of having to buy it they would. Half of what we do in Dome 27 is protecting Sandy’s flour and protein gum from their rivals and the gangs, and half protecting the crops from Sandy’s and all the other companies. It’s a good thing hydroponics is privatised, their security staff is better than the president’s, and you know how paranoid he is”
By now they had reached the container farms. The huge metal crates were each the size of a storey of a building and arranged into vast racks 10 containers high. Specialised shunters were arranging them and tractors pushed newly arrived containers around on their wagons. There were cars belonging to Sandy’s hired security firms as well as squad cars belonging to the street cops cruising around the farm. Machine gun turrets stood on intersections. There was a G-Police gunship not far away from them on routine patrol, it had barbed wire decorations, which was a bit cliched, thought Juno. She wondered who the pilot was.
Suddenly text started scrolling on the bottom part of Juno’s eye monitor. This was backed up by a call which came in from Control. It informed them that a container was being collected at 11.00 and they were to assist the other gunship in guarding the collection, then carry on the patrol in that sector while the other ship followed the container. It seemed a bit impractical sending one ship with just one container, thought Juno, but probably due to the needs of the day. Radzikowski activated the gunships armaments with his gold key. There was a bit of time to kill so they hovered around the collection point and Juno watched as an enormous loader collected one of the containers from a lower level of the farm and deposited it on the ground on a wagon, then a shunter pulled it into position.
“But how often do things actually happen here?” asked Juno.
“It depends”, said Radzikowski vaguely, “you can have a week where it never ends, or a week of flying around in circles. Last week some thieves tried to hijack a convoy of flour trucks that were leaving here, it was unguarded, but two of our ships arrived in time. It was Andrews and Cortellezzi. They chased the flyers off and shot them down. Trucks are easier to take than containers of course, but it does happen. Also, rival companies don’t really want the food, they’ll just destroy Sandy’s stocks.”
This shocked Juno. “But why would anyone just destroy food?”
“Money of course, shareholders in the other companies don’t have problems eating so what do they care, TWXR would destroy all the protein gum in this dome just to dent Sandy’s share price.
“That’s sickening” said Juno, “there are food riots going on in Dome 16 right now!”
“That’s why this work is vital. It’s just as important as the work we do with the drugs squad.”
At 11.00 a tractor appeared with a security escort. The other gunship pulled in and hovered along side theirs. Juno watched as a worker hooked the tractor to the wagon under the protection of two guards carrying assault rifles.
“Keep your eyes on what’s happening around you!” barked Radzikowski. It was the first time he had raised his voice and he was right; she’d been idly watching what was going on as if it was on TV. From what she had just learnt it was vital not to be taken by surprise. This would probably be noted in the report on her performance that would be made later.
The worker climbed back into the tractor and one of the guards got in the cab with him. The tractor was black and armoured and shuddered as the caterpillar tracks got traction to move the heavy container. It chugged into movement and pulled off. It had a security car in front and behind. The other G-Police gunship went ahead to scout the road. Juno watched the area all around them to make sure there would not be a surprise attack from the rear. When the container and escort had disappeared into the distance, she allowed herself to relax a little. “Do you want to get a coffee” asked Radzikowski.
“Yes sir. But where can we get coffee from here?” replied Juno, wondering how many years it would be before she could get away with calling him Tom.
“Are you nuts? As if there’s anywhere they won’t sell you coffee. Plus how many security guards do you think are in this Dome at any time, plus cops, loader drivers? We should all be glad no coffee beans are kept in this Dome, they say that’s the hardest thing of all to protect, thefts are attempted everyday.”
Juno knew that coffee had to be privatised. A few years ago, one coffee company grew so rich and powerful the president of the company, Henry Forrest, had become more influential than the actual president, then demanded to be made exempt from tax. Incensed when this was refused, Forrest hired mercenaries and shady security firms and started a short and ill-advised war with the government. Juno didn’t know how he expected to win that fight, but Dome 7 is now infamous for being the stage of a brutal battle when the police and government corps took him on. Famously, Forrest was torn apart by sniper fire live on TV. Unwilling to risk similar incidents, the government had to buy up the entire coffee business and put strict regulations on it. It had worked out though as now coffee made the state more money than taxation.
A few blocks away they found a recreation block for cops and guards and of course, a coffee shop. Juno felt silly for not expecting to find one here. She had a lot to learn, really. They parked the gunship in a vacant lot and Radzikowski called Control to advise they were going on a break. They clambered down on the gunship using the awkward metal foot holes.
“Always remember to lock your gunship” he fixed her in the eyes to enforce he wasn’t joking, “an experienced pilot once left his gunship unlocked and a street gang tried to steal it” He didn’t finish the story, which was frustrating.
They went into the coffee shop, there were quite a few guards and street cops in there. It was like no coffee shop Juno had ever been in. No one looked at them, but back home if two G-Police pilots entered a coffee shop everyone would stare at them. A few months ago Juno would have been one of the ones gawping. She felt a sudden hit of pride that she really was on the way to being a proper G-Police pilot! They ordered, Radzikowski told her that if she ever ordered Americano in his presence, he’d have her fired. Juno was delighted to find out that G-Police got a 10% discount.
They drank outside, walking around the lot to stretch their legs. Radzikowski told her to go use the toilet and Juno got a bit angry that the trainees were being treated like school kids on a day trip. Radzikowski tossed his coffee into a bin. It was a good shot. He looked at her. “Ready to fly it now?” ?
colourhorizon 