Thruster>>StarJumper 2612: How are you here? I thought you were all destroyed.
Seeing a guard approaching and pulling back the sleeve on his shirt, exposing his wristband, I step back into the shadows.Cloak.
He doesn't seem to notice me as he scans his wristband. The moment he does, I charge out of the shadows and barrel into him. The metal StarJumper's suit makes me far heavier and stronger. We careen through the doorway and to the floor. I rip the wristband off of his arm as he gasps for breath, then I punch him in the face. "That's for taking my man!"
Thruster>>StarJumper 2612: Kelta?
There's no time to respond. Six guards are on me quickly, firing warping pulses that glance off of walls and turn the prison into a ping-ponging weave of blast waves. They weren't prepared for my entrance, just like I wasn't ready to greet them. I get up and hide behind a support pillar.
Lifting my rifle, I peek out and see a bullet racing straight for my head. I dart back behind cover, then turn the other way and find an easy target.
The guard falls from my shot with a charred mark on his chest. Someone steps out from behind a rack of torture tools. I turn and fire as I run.
I’m so lucky the suit has good aim.
Rounding the core rooms, toward Thruster’s cell, I find the other four formed up in a squad, chasing my tail. I fire as fast as the gun will let me. They can’t escape or disappear. I want this over now.
The first goes down, then two more. The fourth turns back and fires at me. The fiery plume plants in my chest and shoves me back. Red alerts flash in my vision but quickly subside.
I grin and take one more shot. The fourth drops. Then, I hustle to Thruster's cell, swipe the band, and lug him out.
“Kelta?”
I hug him, then step back. “Sorry if that’s weird.”
He encourages me toward a door in the back of the prison. “I definitely prefer your human body. But I’m more stunned to see you here.”
The doors at the entrance open as we exit into a back passageway, and more guards follow. When we step out of the prison and the door slams between us and the squad, we’re greeted by the barrel of a gun. Thruster launches backward in a blanket of glittering green light.
KillStar narrows her eyes at me. “You—”
She grabs me with one arm and throws me against the wall. My vision spots white, then gray, then shadows of objects. My suit thumps over steps, down, down, then down again.
Metal groans.
I gasp for air, my lungs tight, my body thrumming with pain.
My helmet opens. Water splashes in my face. “Wake up.”
I splutter and spit, unsure if it’s something I want to be drinking. Blinking, I look across the room at her face.
KillStar tilts her head.
“Where’s Thruster?”
She doesn’t respond.
When I try to move, I find something holds my suit in place. I peer down at the metal bars she's looped over me. She's a beast of a cyborg if she can warp metal so easily.She could’ve ripped off my head or every limb.
“Why did you save me from that Welvir?” she asks.
I try to think back through the pounding in my head. I want to sass her with a question about why she’s working for the Solcrue, but by the way she’s got me pinned down, I think it’s best I obey. “You didn’t strike me as a combatant at the time. Welvirs don’t hold back.”
She walks up to me and punches the wall right beside my head, denting it. “I am a soldier!”
I'm not convinced she knows what she is. It's something in her eyes, the way they lack the emotional conviction of someone who understands why they are where they are and why they do what they do.
“You didn’t attack me. You looked human and Titan. I will not hurt either. Both are important.”
