“Craze, huh?”
He nods. “We lost him during the jailbreak. Fell back to Hyperion’s surface.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“You sure you can carry all that gear?” Thruster asks.
“I’ll offload a lot when we’re with the camp again. I just have to manage it until then.” Collecting the gear net from beside my toolbox, I hand it to him. “Net me?”
Thruster takes the webbing with a frown, holds it for a second, and then stretches it around my packs to help hold everything in place. “Why do you have this? This is a StarJumper’s net for military bags.”
I motion for him to lead the way out of my ship. When Thruster is outside and I step into the rear ramp’s exit, I look back at the crushed inside of my ship and choke up. “I am so sorry, girl. I never wanted to leave you like this.”
It’s not easy to leave behind something I spent years building and more improving. VAL saved my ass more than once.
Staggering down the sandy mounds into the desert tunnel, I know the weight of my pack is going to make the journey from here a lot more difficult. I’m going to have to be reserved in my pace to carry everything I’ve collected.
“My father was a StarJumper. My older brother was enlisted as well. My younger brother and I planned to join, but there wasn’t a chance to before the shit hit. My father started our rebel fleet when I was very young. We avoided servitude, but isolation has its downsides, too. So we formed the Astral Rebels Alliance. Our fleets met up in rotations to exchange goods and meet others. It’s how my brother found his wife, Eira.”
Thruster tilts his head, glances over a shoulder down the tunnel, then collects me. “Grab on!”
I hook my arms over his neck and my legs around his waist, and feel his body tug upward on mine. Thruster’s engines blare with horrendous droning power. We punch through the cavern’s ceiling and into the sunny sky.
I look down as sand rains from our bodies. Several sets of clawed hands and snapping teeth rake at the opening.
Thruster hovers us as he scans the sky. “That was close. But I’m going to have to get back to hunting. Ships on approach.”
He rushes me to the forest’s edge and sets me down. “I can’t stay, Kelta. I’m sorry.”
I don't like the idea of being left alone on the planet, but I understand. "The camp is more important. The ship, too. Poppy told me about the BlazeStar. Let me take the power cell."
Thruster packs it under the net. He quickly straps the blade to my waist and hangs my rifle over my shoulders. He frees the knife and places it in my left hand. Then he motions to the gun on my right hip. I draw it.
“Always both here. Gun steadied in your right, blade in your left. Rest your right wrist over your left wrist to steady your gun. I know it’s tiring, but that extra two seconds you don’t have to draw either can save your life.”
“Understood.”
“I’ll check on you now and then from the sky.” Thruster steps back and lights his engines. “Watch your back. The nearest camp entrance is five clicks south. A dead tree with two rocks marks nearest access."
“It’s marked with nature’s dick?” I chuckle.
He sways. “What is it with you?”
“I’ve lived in space a long time without quality release,” I reply. “I’m burning up with needs.”
“Focus on getting to the camp in one piece. Worry about those later.” Thruster swivels at a faint drone, looking worried.
I check around us to make sure no one’s going to snipe Thruster out of the sky. But the trees are quiet.
Thruster levitates. “Change of plans. Savage wants you to stay with me. Holo’s down. We have to get to him. And they’re closing all accesses to the camps. Welvirs have flooded the tunnels. They think the Solcrue are trying to flush us out.”
A glint of metal flashes at the other end of the desert, dropping in from the stars. “Thruster?”
He looks where I point. “I’ve got them on scanners. I want you to parallel me in the trees. Holo’s eight clicks northeast, toward the facility we’re going to break into.”
“Roger. Be careful.”
He beams down at me. “You too, beautiful.”
I watch Thruster rocket across the desert. It won’t take him but a few seconds to intercept the fighters. And suddenly I’m alone, listening to the light wind rustle the low bushes and sway the trees with swishing sounds further up the hill.
Keeping my weapons low but ready, I hike quietly up to the tree line and scan for mutant wolves, CSP, and scaly Solcrue. I’m glad Thruster found me, even if the burns on my body sting. I’d have died because I had no purpose, no direction, and no plan.If my heart or my crash didn’t kill me first.
I check on Thruster’s gold orb as he zigzags across the sky, praying he doesn’t start smoking and fall to the desert. I don’t think I’ll be able to get to him before the Solcrue do.
But I know that if they do take him, I will have just another reason to turn them into void dust.
