The Lanterns
2am Over the Nevada Desert
The serene calm of the desert was suddenly shattered by a 15,000kg streak of lightning moving over half the speed of sound.
"Tower this is Highball, Highball calling tower, over." The pilot, Captain Hal Jordan said into his mask as he pulled it up to his face. It took a second before he got a response.
"Highball this is tower, we've got you on radar, you are looking 5 by 5 from over here. How is the new crate holding up?" Inside of the tower of Nellis Airforce Base was a number of the joint chiefs of staff, including the Chief Air Marshal. At the station was Carol Ferris, chief engineer of Ferris Aircraft INC.
"Are you ready to make the push? Over." Inside of his Cockpit, Hal checked his instruments. Everything was so far looking good, but that wasn't surprising. Ferris were known for sturdy craftsmanship. This was the equivalent of a gentle stroll in the park as far as testing was concerned.
"Roger. All lights are in the green, looks like she's as ready as she's ever going to be. Over." Hal responded. The big concern wasn't so much it breaking apart. After all, this was a prototype, it was his job as a test pilot to try and break it. But the big concern was doing so in front of the woman who designed it. Especially when he had a date riding on this. He flicked the safety on the of the afterburners to make sure they were still in place
"And our deal is still on. Mach 3.3 and you treat me to steaks?Carol laughed nervously as several of the old men in chairs behind her seemed to grunt disapprovingly.
"Mach 3.5 and i'll pay. She looked around, several of the other engineers monitoring the Jets systems quickly made some last second adjustments and gave her the thumbs up.
"Highball this is Tower, you are go for test. Repeat you are go for test. Over."Hal simply laughed as she mentioned Mach 3.5. He seriously doubted this thing could reach Mach 3.3 let alone 3.5. MiG 25 Foxbat held the current speed record for a fighter jet of Mach 2.83 in a dive. Carol was confident the new F-24 "Blackhawk" was going to be the fighter of the future.
"Time to make a pretty ladies dream come true" He whispered to himself away from his mask, before strapping it on fully.
"This is Highball ascending to 50,000ft where i shall commence testing." He reported as he pulled back on the stick gently. He didn't want to put this thing through any more stress than it needed to before something this... Well, frankly insane. But Hal had done stupider things when there was a pretty girl watching... That was a lie, but he probably would have done stupider things if a pretty girl had been watching when he was given $150m worth of equipment. After 20 minutes of gentle climbing, levelling out ever 10,000ft to make sure the engines were doing well enough. Here he sat, among the clouds, the black of the night above him, the rays of the sun on the other side of the planet BARELY just peaking over the horizon. He made the final preparations and checks, made sure he had his checklists ready in case anything went wrong... Not that he'd have terribly much time to go through them if he couldn't pull out of the dive. At least the last thing that would go through his mind would be Carol's plush, doughy ass... Followed by the canopy of the aircraft crumpling in front of him at 3 times the speed of sound.
"Tower this is Highball, we are at optimal altitude, all systems continue to register green." He flicked the safety off of the afterburners.
"Awaiting final clearance. Over."Carol looked at the rest of the team, before double checking her instruments. Thumbs up from everyone.
"Highball this is tower. You are go. Repeat you are go." Carol took a deep breath and hoped that 7 years and $3t of development wasn't about to smash into the desert floor along with a kinda cute jet jockey who refused to stop hitting on her.
Hal made the last possible checks as every single part of his body went numb from a combination of fear and excitement. He reached a tingly finger up and flicked the switch of the afterburners, before reaching down to the throttle and slowly pushing it up. Immediately he felt himself being forced back into his seat. Barely 5 seconds later and he felt the sound barrier smashing around him. With so little wind resistance up here, it was fairly easy.
"Highball to Tower, we are at Mach 1 and continuing to accelerate." He reported.
"All systems continue to register green." He sat there as he saw the world rush by him, one hand on the stick to keep her steady, the other slowly and cautiously pushing the throttle up.
"Mach 1.7. Goodbye Lightning II." He laughed. There was another jolt about a minute later as he checked his speedometer.
"Mach 2." Hal began to feel blood try to push to the back of his body, but luckily his flightsuit was compressing his arteries and making sure everything flowed at a constant and even rate so he didn't pass out.
"Mach 2.6, Congrats, Blackhawk just became the fastest American Production Jet Fighter... Assuming the very handsome men sat behind you choose to go forward with her." Hal laughed. There was also a few courteous laughs from inside of the tower. He then saw a warning light on the console in front of him.
"Highball, your oil temp is starting to rise. Watch that." Carol stated.
"It's all good, Tower, it'll stabilize. Hal replied, as the jet reached Mach 2.7... 2.75... 2.78... 2.79... 2.8...
"Looks like in level flight, 2.8's best we're getting." The speedometer ticked one last time over.
"Correction 2.81. Permission to begin dive? Over." Hal asked.
Carol and the team monitored the data. He didn't have too long on the afterburners left. But everything was in surprisingly good shape to continue. There was a series of thumbs up from around the control room.
"You are go to initiate dive. Pull out when you reach 10,000ft."F.A.B. Vergil." Hal laughed.
"Highball beginning my descent. Over." He slowly eased forward on the control stick. Partially because the shallower the dive, the more time he had to accelerate before he was a bug on a windscreen, but mostly because the G forces were pushing against him on this. With Gravity's help the speedometer began to climb again.
"2.85, goodbye Foxhound." Another jolt
"Mach 3, about to leave the Valkyrie in the dust."Highball this is tower, abort the test immediately. I repeat, abort the test immediately." He heard come through his comms. He frantically looked around the cockpit for what the malfunction was.
"All my instruments are fine up here, she's going strong. 3.06, we've just left Valkyrie behind.""Radar just picked up something entering your area. Abort." Hal quickly checked his instruments. It wasn't coming anywhere close.
"I'm not seeing anything. Maybe Towers equipment is faulty. 3.1." He replied. Looking around. As he looked out of the cockpit above him, he could see a bright, glowing meteor heading down.
"Nothing on port, nothing starboard, nothing fore. He said. Technically true, technically not court-martialable.
"It's right ontop of you, abort the test now and take evasive action." Carol ordered.
"With all due respect Tower, as a captain, i do outrank you. I am not seeing any danger in continuing. 3.14 We are pie in the sky." He lied, seeing the very imminant danger coming towards him. But if he continued to accelerate at this rate, it should miss him. He pushed forward on the stick a little more to get even more speed out.
"IF YOU BREAK THAT PLANE YOU ARE GOING TO BE IN THE MILITARY FOR ANOTHER 500 YEARS BECAUSE THAT'S HOW MUCH SALERY IT'S GOING TO TAKE FOR YOU TO REPLACE THAT THING!!!" She roared at him, rather unprofessionally, Hal may add. The Chiefs behind her all looked at each other, a little scared of her, but mostly scared of flushing that much money down the drain. At that point, the instruments in the Tower all went dead. Nellis blacked out completely. There was a flurry of activity as the crews rushed to get the emergency backups working again. Of course, Hal had no idea of this, because he had his own set of problems to worry about. Including the fact that his own plane had gone dead at 35,000ft.
"Tower? Tower come in this is Highball! Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, this is Highball, we have lost control. Engine has died, electronics inoperable. Do you read me tower?" He called out. In his panicked state, he forgot that the radio was electronic as well and was also obviously dead. As the fireball came closer, he began to notice that... Wait, that's not a meteor... Wings, fuselage... That's a plane... No, too strange a design... Aliens? Well, he was right next to Area 51, maybe there was a mix up in booking airspace for test flights. The nose of the plane started to slowly pitch down as he accelerated due to Gravity. He tried to pick up the checklist, but the G's were too intense.
"Dammit!!! He grunted, before grabbing the handle between his legs. He saw the altitude meter reach 10,000ft and he pulled as hard as he could. Instantly the canopy blew and a loud roar sent him hurtling safely away from his 500 years repayment scheme. The parachute deployed and he was throttled a bit as the air was caught in the super-highspeed-specialized parachute. He blacked out for a few seconds at this, but quickly regained consciousness. He down to see the rest of the plane smash into a desert mesa, while the UFO smashed into the ground not far from it. It took about 15 minutes for him to land. tucking his legs so he could roll as he hit the dry desert dust. He quickly detached the parachute and bundled it up before taking stock of the situation.
Well, the plane was a rightoff to start with. But the other one seemed to have smashed down relatively intact. Instincts and adrenaline took over as he began to run towards the UFO (Unidentified F****d Object). Getting close was when the tingly feeling returned.
"HELLO!!!" He called out
"ANYONE IN THERE!?!?!? He ran towards the front screen to see two people inside, flames around them. Climbing up, he put his boot into the screen, but as he did so, it didn't smash, but instead vanished, Hal falling through into the cockpit. These two were clearly very badly burned, their skin was all VERY pink, almost rosey, both of them. He quickly undid the straps holding the one in yellow in place, hoisting him over his shoulder, he carried the man out to safety away from the craft, before turning back, running back in and grabbing the man in the green outfit.
"Sin... Sine..." The man hacked and spluttered as he tried to talk.
"Don't try and talk, i've got you. Captain Hal Jordan, US Airforce." He quickly carried him out and lay him next to the first one.
"Sorry, but i don't have a medkit or anything. There's little I can do until help arrives. But let's keep you talking. That's the one i do know. What's your name?""Sur... Abin... Sur..." He coughed out.
"Ah, another military man. Abin, what kind of name is that? Greek? Arabic?" Hal sat down next to them.
"Noti... No time..." He coughed, writhing around and trying to grab his own hand, before pulling off a green ring that was in it.
"Gotta k... Gotta keep... Gotta stop... Him..." He began coughing hard as he weakly threw the ring at Hal.
"Keep them... He can't... Don't let... Him... Tor lorek san, bor nakka mur" He managed to cough out, as suddenly there was a bright explosion from the ship, and 5 brightly coloured lights began to zoom out in different directions. A blue, a pink, a purple, a red and an orange light. Abin then began to cough harder and harder
"KE-EEP HIM-STOP HIM- HE CAN'T! until one final last deep breath and then Abin fell silent and still.
"Abin... Abin, buddy, stay with me." He ran over to Abin and started slapping his face lightly, shaking him a little. He then started chest compressions.
"ABIN, BUDDY, COME ON! He yelled.
"ABIN! DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME!" He continued compressions for 10 seconds before he was distracted by a glowing green light.
"Hal... Hal looked over to see the ring that Abin had thrown at him it was now glowing and floating in the air.
"HAL JORDAN OF EARTH. I SENSE GREAT WILL IN YOUR HEART! SAY THE OATH AND JOIN OUR RANKS!!!"Hal instinctively reached out towards it as he felt his lips moving on their own.
"In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night
No Evil Shall Escape My Sight
Let Those Who Worship Evil's Might
Beware My Power, Green Lantern's Light!!!"In a bright flash of light, Hal was stood now wearing a green and black outfit with white gloves. The Ring on his finger glowing brightly. He looked down to see the man in yellow slowly start to rouse.
"Wow, buddy, you need to lay still." He said, once again, going into protective mode, not focussing on the freaky ring that just pimped his outfit. The man slowly started to lean up.
"The ring... It chose you?" He asked. He then let his head slump back as he clearly tried to stiffle his tears, but that didn't work as Hal saw them flowing.
"Abin Sur... Why...? He cried softly as he slumped back down.