The Uneasy Alliance
by AJ Marks
Part 9
Morpheus stopped the Hammer inside the building that Deux Ex Machina had led them into. He still had a hard time getting over what he was seeing inside. In front of them were what appeared to be several one-man fighters, what he might find inside the Matrix and his shock was shared by the others.
“I have a feeling they really meant what they said,” Morpheus said knowing the machines wouldn’t go through such an elaborate hoax. If they wanted to eliminate them it would have happened already.
He looked again at the small fighters, silver and triangular in shape and in the front was flattened with a slight hump which was where the cockpit was located. Two engines gave the fighter a look from the Matrix than anything he had ever seen inside Zion. In a strange way he considered the ships a step back considering the technology available to them.
“Come on,” Morpheus said getting up out of his chair to head out. “Let’s see what they really need, and if we can actually pilot these things.”
Morpheus stepped out of the ship followed by the rest of the group. DE hovered nearby as Morpheus looked on, and saw machines all around which seemed oblivious to the arrival of humans. Morpheus waited as DE finally came over to them after the last of the group exited the Hammer.
“I’m glad that you have come,” DE said addressing the group in front of it. “Our attackers have come from above the clouds which we cannot go, but these ships are equipped to go above, and into space.”
“Why don’t you go up instead?” Ben asked, a question Morpheus was sure on many people’s minds.
“If we try to penetrate the clouds the electrical current would destroy us. We can build ships for a human to pilot which can go through it and still function. However complex command systems are still fragile to the EMPs of the clouds,” DE replied back to them.
Morpheus understood, realizing the Oracle was right in they needed to cooperate together to figure out what who the enemy was, and where they came from. The machines could build the ship, but needed the pilot to function above the clouds.
“These ships are what will be considered scouts, capable of high speeds, but few weapons, we need information fast,” DE said to them.
He heard a few of the men grumble at the thought of being the brains of a machine and it reminded a few of the Matrix. Morpheus gave it some thought before finally asking any questions.
“Communications?” he asked wondering what type of answer he would get.
“That is unknown, at least until you get above the clouds. We have no significant data to know what will happen once you’re above the clouds, or how it will effect communications,” DE replied back to him.
“So it’s a suicide mission,” one of the men said and Morpheus felt that the group was hovering on the side of not wanting to help out the machines on this , but he understood trust hat to be gained somewhere.
“Enough,” Morpheus finally said. “I’ll go first.”
“I’ll go with you,” Ben said stepping up to stand beside Morpheus.
“Only one person should go above the clouds to minimize risk,” Morpheus replied back to him.
“And that’s why I should go with you,” Ben said once more.
“He is right Morpheus,” DE said interrupting the argument between the two. “The calculations give better odds with two of you going than one.”
Morpheus looked at Ben and then at DE for a few seconds before finally looking over at Niobe knowing what she would say before finally agreeing to allow Ben to come along. They followed DE over to where the fighters were parked and he looked them over. It reminded him of a futuristic F-16 Falcon from the Matrix.
“Falcons,” he heard someone else say and realized they saw the resemblance as well.
“Falcon?” Ben asked unsure about the statement.
“The Falcon is fighter from the Matrix, and could be from our past before the machines,” Morpheus said.
“All right, I have no problem with calling them Falcons,” Ben said with a shrug of his shoulders.
They moved over listening as DE and a few other machines instructed them on how to operate the fighters and what they might expect upon leaving the clouds.
*****
Morpheus and Ben climbed into the cockpit of the Falcon fighters after getting a quick overview of how to fly them, and a quick instruction from the link. The machines had created an easy ship to control, and learn which slightly surprised Morpheus. The controls were much less complex than the Hammer, he had his thrusters on his left and on the right was the flight stick. Many of the important controls were in easy reach of his left hand which meant he didn’t have to take his hand off the flight controls.
Strapping himself in he looked over to see Ben doing the same as the canopy closed and the fighters were pushed out into a large flat area where they could take off from. The Falcon’s twin engines powered up with a distinct whine pitch and when they reached full power he pushed the throttles forward releasing the brakes sending the fighter forward.
The fighter roared down the runway as he pulled back on the stick and felt the Falcon lift up off the ground, a strange feeling to be flying in the sky. One thing he had not been prepared for was the g-forces which had pushed him into his seat at takeoff. Taking a look around he spotted Ben not far away. Morpheus angled the fighter upwards and towards the clouds with some anticipation knowing that he was about to reach the moment of truth, either the Flacon would work or it would fail.
He felt himself jerked around as he went through the clouds, and he could see the intense electrical storms as it brushed all around him yet the Falcon continued to climb. Finally after one last bump he cleared the clouds and into a vast openness he never experienced before, including a sight ne had only seen in the Matrix, the sun. It was large, bright and warm. He had to blink a bit and turn away from its brightness.
“Ben, you still with me?” Morpheus asked hoping he had also made it through the clouds.
“Yeah, right behind you,” Ben replied, his own voice a bit breathless after everything they had gone through to get here.
“”Let’s take a look around, check the scanners,” Morpheus said, turning on the computers as another thought reached him. “Niobe, can you hear me?” he asked hoping they would be able to.
“I’m not picking anything up, are you?” Morpheus asked.
“Negative.”
Morpheus was beginning to doubt what was going on in his mind. He expected to find something, anything to report back when he landed.
“Let’s go a bit higher,” Morpheus said, pointing the fighter up a bit more.
He looked over to see Ben following him as the sky around them changed from blue to a black and he no longer felt the pull of gravity on him. It was an effect he never had felt before.
“Morpheus?” Ben’s voice said with some concern in it.
“We’ve left Earth’s atmosphere, and its gravity seems to no longer be effecting us,” Morpheus replied thinking that’s how things should be, and if the Matrix used the same principles for their artificial world then the real world should be similar.
“Ah, Morpheus,” he heard Ben say, thig time with a bit more panic in his voice. He looked over to see if anything was wrong with Ben’s fighter, but saw nothing and then looked down at the screen, feeling a bit stunned at the screen.
He looked up in the direction of the scanner reading and like it saw, glinting sunlight, something he had never seen before again. It looked like someone had taken two flying saucers and placed them on top of each other. The ship was larger than anything he expected either, but he also knew it wasn’t something the machines had made, nor did they probably know anything about it. Looking at the scanners again he noticed not one, but two ships were out there, and perhaps beyond his scanner range there were even more.
“Morpheus,” Ben said once more breaking the stunned silence which had enveloped them and he realized Ben was scared.
Even as Morpheus looked on he saw several smaller ships were exiting the larger ships, and were headed right at them. Not many but they were closing the distance fast.
“Ben, let’s see what the Falcon’s can do,” Morpheus said, turning his fighter into the oncoming ships.
Morpheus carefully lined up the ship in his target and after a few second he had the ship lined up, noticing it matched the ships he had seen before and pressed the trigger ad waited. Silence and he paused, a bit confused and pushed the trigger again with the same result, nothing seemed to have happened.
“Morpheus, are you’re weapons working, cause mine aren’t,” Ben said as the situation became clear to him.
“No, as Morpheus watched the distance close.
The three craft which were approaching now opened fire even as more ships appeared from the two larger ships.
”I think a strategic retreat is in order right about now,” Morpheus said turning his fighter and heading back to Earth as fast as the Falcon could go. Entering the atmosphere he saw the outside hull temperature rise, but remained in normal limits as they quickly equalized and passed back through the clouds and the machine city and what he hoped would be safety. “Niobe, tell DE that more of the attackers are on their way right now.”
He never heard a reply as he raced towards the city, but saw a wave of Sentinels rise up. Now a new panic filled him, the last time he had seen so many was when he entered Zion at that last battle, they were everywhere, destroying everything.
Even with that panic small explosions occurred all around him as blue bolts went around. He quickly banked the Falcon hoping Ben remained behind him, and let out a breath when the Sentinels raced past them heading to engage the attackers.
He quickly found the runway and discovered landing was perhaps the hardest part of the entire flight but managed to land safely as did Ben. Lifting the canopy he unstrapped himself and placed the helmet on the dash before stumbling out and onto the ground, glad to be back on firm ground once more. Looking up he spotted DE waiting nearby with Niobe as Link headed over towards them.
“Whoever they are they are not in Earth’s atmosphere, but from space. We were able to see two huge ships close to the planet, probably in high orbit and there could be more, we didn’t stay up that long to find out before they sent some ships to attack us,” Morpheus said turning to DE. “Our weapons didn’t work.”
He watched as DE seemed to consider the situation. “It appears that being the vacuum of space the primer and powder we used in the bullets didn’t have enough oxygen in them to properly produce a burn,” it said almost logically as it thought.
“So we’re going to be defenseless against them in space?” Ben asked looking at them all.
“At the moment, yes, until the new bullets are produced, we are already working on a solution to the problem,” DE stated.
“In the meantime, we’ll need more volunteers,” Morpheus said to them having seen what they are up against.
“Is it really that bad?” one man asked Morpheus.
“Yeah, I think so,” he replied back to the man.
“Then Ben and Morpheus should be the ones to head back, they can talk with the council,” Niobe said.
“No, Ben should stay here, he can help train the others in the Falcons. We do need something that can fight these aliens in space, where they are coming from,” Morpheus said thinking about it for a second.
“Okay, I’ll stay,” Ben said.
“Good, we should get moving then,” Morpheus said, having set into action a plan. He only hoped it actually worked.
End part 9
Continued in part 10
