Lance Star and the Sky Pirates.
Chapter 4.
Tom Vincente grabbed Professor Prentiss by the arm and dragged him to his feet. They ran as the attacking sky pirate plane opened fire, spraying the ground where they had just stood with bullets.
Damaged, the glowing crate’s loud, pulsing hum increased.
Then it exploded.
Purple fire spread outward.
The force of the blast sent the two men flying through the air. They crashed through the brush and disappeared behind a fallen tree.
A beam of purple energy shot straight up into the air, bathing the jungle in its brilliant, bright, violet hue.
The Beam hit the incoming attack plane, destroying it in a fiery bloom over the jungle.
Pieces of wreckage rained down around the plane as the passengers and crew scattered, seeking cover.
Fire spread all around them. Trees were instantly engulfed. Their comrade destroyed, the other pirate planes turned tail and ran.
From the ground, Buck looked up at the purple light as it shot upward, seemingly going on forever. It disappeared into a pinpoint at the limit of his vision, miles above the Earth.
“Where you think it’s headed?”
“It could be headed to Mars for all I know, Tom,” Buck groused. He pointed toward the destroyed crate housing the car engine sized chunk of unrecognizable metal equipment spitting out purple light. “Okay, spill it Professor. I need to know everything there is to know about this thing. Starting with, how do we turn it off?”
“I wish I knew,” Prentiss said as he stared at the marvelous device. “I’m sorry, but I have no idea what this thing is or how it works.”
“It’s your crate! How can you not know?” Vincente shouted, arms flailing.
“I’m afraid it…” he started.
“Classified,” Prentiss and Buck said in unison.
“It’s the favorite buzzword of the government and military life, kid,” Buck said with a shake of his head. “Pain in the keister.”
“You forget, Mr. Tellonger, I’ve heard your stories. We both know there’s enough top secret red tape in your official Air Corp file as well.”
“Doesn’t make it any less annoying, Doc.”
“On that we can agree,” Prentiss said.
“No matter what’s secret or not, those other pirates aren’t going to stay away long. As soon as they screw on some nerve or call in reinforcements, they’ll be back,” Tom said.
“He’s right,” Buck said.
“What’s your plan?” the professor asked.
“I’m working on it. First things first, we need to shut this thing down. Professor, you’re the closest thing to an expert. See if we can shut it down.”
“And if we can’t?”
“Then we need to be able to move it. There’s no version of this story that ends with those sky pirates getting their hands on that… whatever it is,” Buck said.
