Chapter 6: Thruster
The tunnel exit is far, but I’m not running to it. I must save my energy for the sky. Thirty minutes later, I find the access.
A pair of blue eyes in the shadows stop me before I can rocket up the shaft into the daylight.
I ease back and tap a fist over my chest. I know who it is by the frequency in my scanners. “Commander.”
"Thruster." Savage doesn't come into the light. "I have just returned from the BlazeStar that Chaos and Fury found in the mountain. I am sending you coordinates for the proposed target. They have reinforced the shields and say it is ready for jailbreak."
My plans are changing fast. “Have you informed Holo?”
“A-firm. He’s ready.”
“Are the camps prepared to move?”
Savage steps forward into a sliver of sunlight. His body is covered in fresh claw marks like he’s been wrestling Welvirs.
“Sir?”
“I’m fine. But we must move whether we’re ready or not. Welvirs replicate fast. I have no doubt they will take over Ellipsis when we leave. But that should quickly rid the planet of Solcrue forces.”
He tilts and peers around me and down the tunnel.
“Commander Savage?”
I wheel to find Kelta jogging toward us with a mostly empty pack on her shoulders and a rifle in her hands. “What are you doing here? You should be resting after your surgery.”
She draws in a deep breath. Kelta still has a contusion and healing split on her forehead along with the burn marks of my engines on her chest.
Savage notices it in her shirt and then dissects me with his eyes.
Thruster>>Savage: I didn’t do it on purpose. I was trying to save her.
Savage>>Thruster: Your anger has made you reckless. A Cosmic Piercer would not be so careless.
Thruster>>Savage: I am nothing but a Titan rocket now. I take out ships. I scan for targets. I do whatever it takes. I have no real weapon but my body. Her arrival from the sky was unexpected.
Savage turns to Kelta. “I do not advise that you leave the camp. We must move soon. Welvirs are in these tunnels.”
Kelta studies Savage's torn-up body with curiosity, making me feel like shrinking inside myself. The others take a beating, and females always pay more attention. With the exception of units like Drillbit and myself.
“Are you okay?” she asks him.
“Leah will care for me,” Savage says. “Please tell me your plan.”
“Recover what I can from my ship,” she says. “I have parts that might be helpful. I’ve been wanting to talk to you, sir. But I was told you were hunting.”
“You will need a guard,” Savage remarks.
“I don’t want to take your soldiers. I am comfortable on my own.” Kelta is daring for a human.
Savage sniffs the air, rumbles a low note, and then turns and growls behind him. "Tell me what you find after the operation is complete. You will stay with Thruster. Thruster, get her out of here. I'm closing the tunnel."
A snarl echoes down the passageway. Then another. It’s all the motivation I need. I pull Kelta against my chest, focus on just my boot thrusters, and launch us out of the shaft into the desert sun.
Dust puffs up in thick plumes from the hole concealed by a handful of twiggy bushes.
I frantically scan the sky and find we’re safe from Solcruean fighters for the moment. The ground rumbles. A plume of dust and sand puffs out of the sinking dirt. I land us away from the access.
