Difference between revisions of "Summary:Skyward"

== Part Five ==

=== Interlude I-3 ===

Ironsides walks away from the launchpad and into the command building with Rikolfr, feeling a little guilty but dismissing the feeling. She approaches a small conference room, where three National Assembly Leaders are waiting, and briefly checks with Rikolfr over the shipyard recently spotted by scouts. The two enter the room, and Ironsides tries to put on a positive front, only to be interrupted by the NALs criticizing her handling of the DDF. Ironsides is internally frustrated because she doesn't have too many resources to work with, but holds it in, instead presenting the reports Rikolfr gave her on the shipyard, telling the NALs that if they manage to claim it, the DDF will have hundreds of new acclivity rings for their ships. She proposes that they send everything they have at the shipyard to claim it, emphasizing how important it is. The others comment on how it will be an all-or-nothing fight, like the Battle of Alta. Ironsides tells the NALs that she knows what the implications are and that they're out of options, and manages to convince the NALs to give their support.

 

=== Chapter 48 ===

Spensa attends the graduation ceremony, feeling conflicted as she watches Jorgen and FM receive their pilots' pins. Ironsides gives an unusually short speech and leads the graduates away, announcing that they have an operation to perform. Spensa is puzzled at why so many are needed as she watches a flight of ships take off. She turns to leave, but is stopped by Cobb, who asks her if she is simply going to give up, and also informs her that the DDF are trying to claim the shipyard she spotted earlier. Spensa tells him that she has the defect, and then morosely turns to leave, watching another flight take off. She is interrupted again by Nedd, who is looking to gather Skyward Flight's members for a party. Spensa tells him that Jorgen and FM are flying a mission, then follows Nedd. Spensa, Nedd, Arturo, and Kimmalyn gather around a radio from Arturo's family in a restaurant, listening to reports of the ongoing battle. It is mentioned that all the flights will be engaged, even the reservists. Finding the Assembly monitoring channel too dull, the cadets switch to listening to the actual flightleader radio channel. Cloak, a scout, reports that a hundred Krell ships have been spotted, meaning that the Krell are fully engaged as well. Ironsides orders the flights to protect the shipyard. Spensa imagines the grand battle that must be happening, as a bomber is spotted, and Ironsides orders them to drive it away, even though it will push it towards Alta. The cadets express frustration at their inability to do anything to help. They continue listening, tense, as the shipyard battle rages on, nervous about the bomber heading towards Alta. Cloak says that the bomber is moving faster than most, and Ironsides orders her flight to engage, only using scouts. Spensa inadvertently does Gran-Gran's exercise, and is startled and unnerved by the star-eyes and the unnatural things seeing her. The scouts manage to shoot down the bomber before it reaches the death zone, but FM announces that only three of the twelve scouts survived the blast. The cadets, getting even more frustrated at their helplessness, discuss the three private ships Arturo's family owns, and they make a plan to steal them, since they can't take the ships by consent. Spensa tells Arturo and Nedd to take Kimmalyn instead of her, and encourages the girl when she expresses doubt, saying that she herself can't fly. Alone, Spensa continues listening as a woman from an antiaircraft gun outpost contacts the flightleader channel and announces that her post was destroyed by the lifebuster, and that she has spotted Krell ships heading towards her position. Ironsides hurriedly orders Riptide Flight to head back, but there isn't enough time for them to make a difference. Spensa decides that she has to do something, and realizes that there is still a single ship in Alta Base she could use.

 

=== Chapter 49 ===

Spensa hesitates for a moment, but decides to go anyway, chastising herself for being afraid to discover who she is. She thinks about using M-Bot, but can't because the ship has shut down. Instead, she heads towards Alta Base, and asks the ground crew to prepare Arturo's broken-down ship for her to use. Dorgo protests, but Spensa insists that someone needs to stop the second group of Krell, and he relents. As they prepare, Dorgo tells Spensa that while the ship's destructors are functional, the shield system is entirely burned out and the acclivity ring is not working very well. The preparations finish, and Spensa takes off.

 

 

=== Chapter 50 ===

Ironsides contacts Spensa on her radio, giving her the coordinates for the Krell after Spensa insists on it. Spensa tells the admiral that reinforcements might be coming (in the form of her former flightmates managing to steal ships) and that her Poco's shield isn't working, then heads in to fight the Krell. She notices and radios in about spotting a lifebuster, and Ironsides orders her to try and take out the bomber. The Krell ships try to distract Spensa, which she doesn't fall for, but she is unable to get to the bomber either. As she flies, Spensa realizes that she can somehow hear the commands being sent to the Krell ships.

 

 

=== Chapter 51 ===

Spensa considers ejecting, but then realizes that she is the only one stopping the Krell from reaching Igneous. She turns off her ship's atmospheric scoop, opting to fly through lift instead. Spensa tries to gain enough altitude, but fails and crashes. Arturo calls in, announcing that they are coming. Flight Command orders her to leave the wreckage after learning her ship is nonfunctional, but Spensa is stuck in her straps. A Krell bomber escort ship flies over, firing at Spensa's wreckage. She is saved by Cobb flying M-Bot, who defeats the Krell ship by throwing it into the ground with a light-lance. Cobb lands, and M-Bot greets Spensa. Spensa tells Cobb that she does have the defect and can hear the Krell, but Cobb and M-Bot tell her that it doesn't matter at this point. M-Bot reveals that he rewrote part of his programming to accept Spensa as his pilot instead. Spensa climbs in, and as they lift off, tells M-Bot to go at full speed and to turn off the stealth system so that the Krell can see her coming.

 

=== Chapter 52 ===

Ironsides watches as the Krell forces get closer to Alta. She hears powerful families radioing that they will flee to deeper caverns and thinks of them as cowards, though she isn't surprised. Rikolfr informs her that there is a little under five minutes until the bomber reaches Alta, and Ironsides refuses when he asks her if they should evacuate the command center to one of the deeper caverns. She contacts Arturo, and tells him to shoot down the bomber despite it being in the death zone, saying that Alta is irrelevant now. A technician yells at her about an unidentified ship moving at a speed beyond what DDF ships are capable of. Ironsides thinks they might be attacked by another Krell ship, but then Spensa radios in.

 

 

=== Chapter 53 ===

Ironsides observes in the command center as Terrier, flightleader of Riptide Flight, announces that the lifebuster bomb has been dropped and orders all nearby ships to pull out. She braces herself and hopes that the Defiants can rebuild after Alta Base is destroyed. Suddenly, she notices Spensa diving towards the bomb instead of trying to escape.

 

 

=== Chapter 54 ===

Spensa feels herself entering a place of nothingness, and sees a field of stars or eyes that suddenly focus on her. She feels as though they not only see her, but know her as well. Spensa jolts out of the place and back into M-Bot's cockpit, stressed. The diagnostics report that the cytonic hyperdrive is now offline, and M-Bot tells her that they are 100 kilometers away from the blast site, despite almost no time passing, commenting that they must have used FTL travel. They contact Alta Base, to cheering. Suddenly, Spensa sees a hole in the debris field, leading to the stars. Ironsides contacts her after she puts her helmet on, telling her to come back and saying that she'll pardon Chaser and needs to talk to her about the defect. Spensa tells her that she won't be coming back to the base yet, and flies upwards into the hole.

 

=== Chapter 55 ===

Spensa thinks to herself that choosing to fly through the hole is an unwise decision, but she feels an intense need to see what is up there. As they continue going upwards, she realizes that the debris fields are really a series of organized platforms. They eventually see a space station and some boxy Krell ships, and Spensa realizes that she can hear their communication, sent through the nowhere-place she can sense, and wonders if they know about the dangers of using it. M-Bot tells her that they are also using normal communications that he can decipher. Suddenly, Spensa is hit by something, and realizes that the Krell are trying to overwrite her vision. M-Bot engages his stealth and jamming system, and the sensation goes away. She tells M-Bot about the defect that she has, and that she thinks her father turned traitor on his flight because the Krell made him think that they were dead and that he was shooting at Krell ships. They observe the Krell ships, which have brighter colors, and M-Bot translates the words on their sides as "Penitentiary maintainance and containment of Earthlings". Spensa tells M-Bot to lower the systems he was using to block cytonics, and she listens in on Krell chatter. One of the aliens expresses fear that Spensa is going to eat them, and outright panics and flees after she makes a face at it. M-Bot hacks their systems and downloads some data before getting caught. Some Krell interceptors come out from the space station, and they decide to leave. Strangely, the interceptors do not fire at them, and stop following after they pass through a few layers of debris. Spensa asks M-Bot what he got from the Krell computer, and he tells her that while he didn't retrieve too much data, what he did get is rather helpful.