War of two Skies is a story about two binary planets in close orbit with each other. These planets are home to two cities that are constantly at war with each other. Follow our heroes, Biniah and Resha as they fight to defend their home planet, struggle to survive and somehow, if possible, seek for peace or victory!
written by Jeremiah Shively
illustrated by Luke Edwin
edited by Abi Stanley
Chapter 1
Red dust billowed through the blue sky, darkening the sun and clouding Resha's way back to the 6Track. Her GPS device beeped softly as she tried not to trip over something buried in the dust. She glanced down at the GPS to make sure she was still on the right heading and quickened her pace.
Their planet, Strona, would soon be in eclipse with the planet Bellum, which they had planned for. The growing windstorm was another matter.
The 6Track loomed ahead. She huddled into the shelter of its side and sent a ping from her GPS to the others. The windstorm had come up quickly, and visibility was down to ten feet. Biniah's ping came from inside the 6Track; five others came from somewhere in the swirling dust.
Resha pulled the edge of her hood down to shelter the GPS screen and stood waiting for the others to come in. She pinged again and was disappointed to see that not many of the team had moved.
She scooped some red sand away from the door to the cargo bay of the 6Track and pulled it open. Once inside, she climbed the short ladder that lead to the passenger area, past the seats on either wall, and into the cockpit. Biniah sat in the pilot chair looking at his GPS and comparing weather data.
"How many respirators do we have?" Resha asked.
"Three,” said Biniah without looking up.
"Can I take them out there?” she asked. It's getting hard to breathe, let alone move."
"Yeah, you take one to Beki to the north. When you get back, I'll move us south to be closer to the others." Biniah led Resha to a locker in the passenger area and handed her two respirators. "I have always been thankful to have a sister like you,” he said.
"I'd rather be here than in the textile factory," said Resha as she jumped down into the cargo compartment and forced open the door.
Biniah turned back to his weather uplink and charted the windspeed change again. It was now blowing at forty-three miles per hour, which was a five mile per hour increase over the last five minutes.
Out in the windstorm, Resha strapped the respirator to her face and kept pinging Beki. Eighteen yards north of the 6Track, she found her lying on her stomach, half covered in blowing sand. One hand was hopelessly pressing her hood to her mouth to try to breathe. Resha strapped the second respirator to Beki's face and flipped her onto her back. Beki's heart rate was low and her breathing was unsteady. She pulled a length of chord from the bag on the back of her belt and tied both ends to the loop on the collar of Beki's hoodshirt. She quickly slung the loop over her shoulder and across her chest and took up the slack with a slipknot. Then she started to pull, digging her feet into the rocky ground. With the wind at her back, she was able to drag Beki through the dust. At the 6Track, her brother was waiting and opened the door.
"Three of them have congregated!" he yelled. "We will head there first."
Inside, they propped Beki up, and Resha attached a monitor to her hand and neck. She watched Beki's heart rate and respiration as Biniah moved the 6Track toward the other pings.
"Windspeed is sixty miles per hour!" Biniah yelled down. Resha snatched the third respirator and stood at the door. Soon they stopped, and Biniah yelled down from the cockpit, "This is as close as I can get."
Out in the blowing dust again, Resha held her GPS close to her face. Her eyes stung, and she squinted to see her heading. She came to a drop off. Down below her was a small three-sided structure. She pinged again and saw that three of her teammates were inside. She slid down and yelled, "Come on! We have one more person lost in the dust to the east." Her three teammates sat huddled against the rear wall. "Beki isn't doing well! We have to get her to a medical center fast! Come on." She led the group back over the berm to the 6Track.
Biniah was at the top of the ladder that led into the passenger area. "Resha! Come help me navigate! Joash, monitor Beki and get her on oxygen. Strainjer and Kailev, take the three respirators out and bring back Ignaci."
They all whipped out of their daze and followed their leader’s instructions.
In the cockpit, Resha sat in the navigator chair. She searched the GPS system for the nearest medical center. The large screen in front of her showed her a map with three options. She chose the nearest one and set a route. "Two hours and twenty minutes," she yelled to Biniah over the roar of the wind. Biniah was following his GPS to Ignaci's ping.
"How long till eclipse?" He asked.
Resha opened her weather uplink. "It says twenty-three minutes until we are eclipsed by Bellum. We won't see daylight until tomorrow. We need to find Ignaci fast."
Biniah looked out his roof hatch at Bellum. The dark planet loomed from west to east toward the sun, turning the opposite direction from Strona, casting its shadow and turning their world dark as night.
Suddenly, Strainjer and Kailev burst through the door of the cargo area below, dragging Ignaci behind them.
"What’s his status?" Biniah yelled down.
"Barely breathing!" Said Kailev.
"Get him on oxygen!" Yelled Biniah as he hit the accelerator.
The 6Track lurched forward and began to cut a ten foot wide swath through the windstorm. Faster and faster, its front tracks tore through the drifting sand and its angled body twisted around rocks and debris as Biniah turned and pitched his own torso with the yoke, and the massive 6Track followed his every move. The four large black tires slung rocks and sand as they carried the seven of them back towards the safety of Stratic, the last city on their planet Strona.
Resha tapped the call button for the Med Center and soon a young face appeared on her screen.
"This is Med Center 36, please state your condition."
Resha replied, "We have two team members who inhaled a large amount of dust."
"Do you have them on monitoring apparatuses?" asked the young girl.
"Yes."
"Please connect us to their monitors."
Resha stumbled through the twisting center of the 6Track and pressed the pairing button on the monitors that were tracking Beki and Ignaci's heart rates and respiration. She then paired them with the call that she was on with the Med Center. In a few minutes, the girl came back on.
"We are sending you some medication via quad-lift with administration instructions. Be advised that time is critical, so we will continue to update you with the quad-lift ETA as we can."
Resha updated the team and stumbled back through the pivot to the cockpit again. "A quad-lift is bringing medication. Ignaci is getting blue," she informed Biniah as she sat in the navigator chair again and strapped in. "Do you want me to plan a route through the belt?" she asked. Biniah nodded and didn't take his eyes off of the road ahead. They had climbed through the terrain to where visibility was up to 100 feet. Resha searched the map on the screen in front of her, tracing alternate routes with her fingers and comparing the trip data. She finally settled on one that would give them the fastest time through the rough terrain and sent it to Biniah's dashboard. She checked the status of the quad-lift and saw that it was making good time.
"The medication will be here in three minutes." She told Biniah.
"Go ahead and stage up to receive it,” he told her.
She strapped on a respirator and pulled her hood down low over her face. She went back to the passenger area and unlocked the roof hatch. Harsh wind poured in through the cracks around the hatch. She waited for the quad-lift to get closer.
Biniah yelled back, "Thirty seconds!"
Resha shoved open the hatch and climbed out. She stood on the roof of the 6Track, straddling the hatch hole and holding tight to the hatch with one hand. In the swirling dust, she saw the quad-lift zooming toward her, its four small blades whirling through the wind. It circled her and came in from downwind. She steadied herself and remembered her training in school. Hands at your sides. Wait for the green light.
It crept towards her, locking onto the movement of the 6Track, its flight getting steadier and steadier. Then, it stopped almost within reach and the light turned green. Resha stretched her arm out but couldn't quite reach. She moved her feet and reached again. She took a breath and let go of the hatch. Finally reaching the quad-lift, she grabbed the release handle on the bottom of the package and pulled. After a split second, the package came free and she fell backwards into the hatch hole. Her knees caught the edge of the hole and she tucked her head as she swung backwards to keep from hitting the hatch. She swung in the passenger area upside down for a moment until her knees came free of the edge. She tucked them to her chest to finish her rotation and opened the package as she landed on her feet.
The contents were labeled for each patient, and the instructions began playing as soon as she opened the package. Beki and Ignaci both received their first dosage, and Resha left them in the care of the rest of the team.
"I want to slap that quad-lift pilot,” she said as she sat down in the navigator chair.
Biniah didn't look surprised.
"He didn't get close enough. I bet he has a nice clean room to sit in while he flies,” she said.
"With a bunch of other smelly pilots,” said Biniah.
The road wound through some rocky areas, but the terrain was giving way to more trees and shrubs. The green giants stood alone, bearing marks and scars from the detonations that had rocked their planet for decades.
"These trees have seen more war than you or I can imagine." Biniah said.
Resha looked at the missing branches and scarred bark. Charred stumps marked the trees that had not survived the blasts. Impact craters dotted the landscape as well, marking the places that once held homes and schools and businesses.
Whatever was left of the debris had been carried to Stratic by other scavengers before Biniah. Nowadays, scavengers had to travel a quarter of the way around the planet to bring back useful things. This particular trip had been unfruitful. The few things that they had marked on their GPS units would be buried in the blowing sand before anyone could go back and retrieve them. Biniah pushed the 6Track faster and faster. Its long body curved back and forth as its front tracks turned under the cockpit and its four rear tires tore into the dirt roads. Biniah was a good 6Track driver, and he would get them home faster than anyone else could. Suddenly, the sun overhead began to dim. Resha looked up. Bellum was beginning to cover the sun.
Soon they would be in blackout. Biniah switched on the headlights and raced on toward the east. It was almost sunrise in Stratic, but the city would be in blackout by the time they arrived, and the sirens would be blaring across the city. Every mind would be focused on the task at hand, every eye would be turned to the sky, and every heartbeat would be hoping for the same thing: survival.
Soon Biniah could see the sky lit up over Stratic. Clouds of smoke hung where missiles had been detonated in the dark sky before they could land in Stratic. There were streaks of white where round after round was fired up to detonate the missiles before they could land, and streaks of red showed where the missiles of Stratic were sent to take death back to the last surviving city on Bellum.
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