“Shit! The guns jammed”

The Banshees split apart, one climbing above me while the other dropped low beneath the Pelican. 

“Pip, they’re trying to herd us,” Tedros warned. His hands moved over the display, tracing the enemy craft’s flight paths. “They’re pushing us away from the ground positions.”

“Ted, any ideas.”

“I've got one but you might not like it”

“Does it look like I've got a choice" 

“Okay just follow these coordinates”

I banked hard toward a jagged line of peaks rising through the clouds. The mountains seemed to float, enormous islands of stone suspended in the sky, their waterfalls spilling into the mist below. The Hallelujah Mountains. Even from a distance, they looked impossible.

“Those formations are unstable,” Tedros said. “The updrafts and magnetic interference could compromise our flight controls.”

“Good thing I’m an excellent pilot.”

“You are an inexperienced pilot with an elevated heart rate.”

“Thanks for the uplifting speech, Ted.”

The Covenant fighters closed in behind us. I pushed the throttle forward and aimed for the narrow gap between two floating islands. Their shadows swallowed the Pelican as we plunged into a maze of cliffs and hanging vines. Ikran scattered from the ledges in a flurry of wings, crying out as we roared past.

“Pip, the Banshees are separating again,” Tedros said. “One is climbing along the eastern ridge. The other is circling around the western side.”

I glanced at the rear display. They weren’t chasing us anymore. They were spreading out, cutting off the routes ahead and behind.

“They’re trying to surround me.”

“Correct. Their current flight paths suggest an encirclement maneuver.”

A flash of violet light burst from the clouds ahead. I yanked the controls, and a plasma blast streaked past the cockpit, close enough to turn the windshield white. The second Banshee swept in from my left, its cannons glowing.

Thats not good.

I dropped the Pelican beneath a rocky overhang. The cliffs rushed past so close that the wings nearly scraped stone. A flock of…I didn't know what I was looking at, erupted from a cleft in the rock, scattering across my path.

“Pip, pull up!” Tedros shouted.

I hauled back on the controls. The Pelican surged upward, missing the island’s jagged underside by what felt like inches. The hull shuddered as loose stone clattered across the cockpit roof. For one moment, the mountain filled the entire windshield view.

Then we cleared it.

The Pelican burst into open air above a carpet of clouds. I twisted around the next floating island, using its bulk to break the Covenant’s line of sight. One Banshee shot past the ridge and overshot us. The other banked sharply, trying to find a new angle through the maze.

“Did we lose them?” I asked, keeping low beneath the drifting rock shelf.

“Not yet,” Tedros replied. “But their formation has broken.”

I let out a shaky breath and tightened my grip on the controls. The flying creatures wheeled around us, their wings catching the light as they vanished between the islands, they looked like the flying dinosaurs from my old picture book I used to have when I was a kid, but more…colourful. I followed them deeper into the Hallelujah Mountains, hoping the twisting passages would keep the Covenant guessing and hoping I wouldn’t run out of sky.

“Pip!” Tedros shouted.

I twisted the Pelican through the narrow passages, dodging the cliffs and jutting rocks.

“Pip, they’re doing it again!”

“What?” 

“The encircling maneuver, the same one as before.”

An idea struck. I glanced at Tedros, and he met my eyes.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Always.”

I kept the Pelican weaving through the narrow passages, letting the Banshees close in. They swept nearer, their cannons glowing as they tightened their formation around me. I held my nerve and waited until they were almost on top of us.

“Now!” Tedros shouted.

I shoved the controls forward. The Pelican plunged, dropping hard beneath the Banshees. They tried to follow, but there wasn’t enough room to correct their course. Seconds later, they slammed into each other in a burst of violet light and explosions.

I hauled back on the controls. The Pelican shuddered as it climbed, then leveled out above the drifting clouds. My hands were still clenched around the controls. I scanned the cliffs and the sky beyond them, flinching at every flicker of movement. The Banshees were gone, but I couldn’t shake the fear that more were waiting somewhere among the mountains.

“Tedros, keep an eye out for anything else.”

“I am. I’m detecting multiple heat signatures ahead.”

My stomach tightened. “Covenant?”

“Unconfirmed.”

I banked toward a gap between two floating peaks, searching the clouds for violet engine trails. Instead, a flock of flying dinosaurs,looking…whatever the hell they were, appeared out of the mist. Their wings filled the windshield as they swooped around the Pelican, shrieking and beating against the airframe.

“What the fuck!” I screamed.

“Pip, look out!”

I jerked the controls, trying not to hit them. One ikran clipped the side of the cockpit. The Pelican lurched, its nose pitching sharply downward. The mountains vanished above us as we plunged through the clouds toward the dark green jungle below.