Chapter 2: Thruster
Wind roars over my streamlined body as I storm across the desert sky after another enemy fighter. He’s fast, faster and more adept than the others, a newer model, shiny with a fresh coat of black and green paint that hasn’t been abraded and dulled by the dirt and sand of a terran surface. But I’m going to make sure it gets a real good taste.
We leave behind a smoking pit of parts, the remains of a fighter Redline stole and repurposed for this distraction mission were calling Badger.
Thruster>>Redline: Do you copy?
I get no response. It burns me to think another Brother is likely gone, and one who recently found a human mate. He loves Aniah. I saw it in his red eyes as much as I felt it in his com connection when he spoke.
I ping him one more time. With continued silence, anger spools up the engines all over my body, even my hoverpads, and I barrel toward the fighter on an intercept course.
Aniah would want revenge.
I am the only weapon capable of wielding proper destruction in the skies. Coil is busy launching Brothers and supplies up the mine shaft into the mountain where Chaos and Fury found theold, wrecked Titan ship. It’s our best hope of escaping the planet and the enemy forces.
If Solcrue don’t realize we’ve found it.
Targeting the soft spot in the Skysprinter’s starboard hull, I knot myself into a ball of cybernetics and fire and punch through. It’s a harder hit than with the older models and slows me enough that I don’t make it through the other side. My body still dents the wall. I drop to my feet and draw my gun as I straighten.
The pilot looks back at me: green eyes, green scales, black teeth, and a wicked grin. “Got you.”
A scanner flashes up front. There's no clear indication of what he's referring to, but I assume the newer model was designed to contain my kind. Yet no forcefield appears around me. There is no one else pointing a weapon at me.
He might be messing with me, delaying while he works up a plan.
I can’t afford to be captured. The resistance needs me to keep them safe.
I aim a gun at his head and fire. It only takes one bullet. He slumps forward. Sparks pop in the dash. Lights dim and flicker. The ship powers down. I climb out of the hole and rocket away from the ship. It crashes below me.
A crackled com feed comes through.
Thruster>>Local: Please Repeat.
Drillbit replies. He's the last of his production model, too.I said, I got Redline out. He’s operational.
I took out the new Skysprinter that shot him down. I think they’re scanning us inside the new ships.
Noted. Will forward to Commander Savage.
I race back across the land, searching the sky for my next target.
My brothers were built primitively but tough. We were designed with one prime purpose. We flew together and soared across the skies into battle through flaming debris, bullets, and blades of the enemy. But the first loss changed everything.
Maybe our cores didn't burn as hot when we started failing and losing our friends. Perhaps the rain of fiery parts reminded us we were not invincible. But I know, for me, it was personal every time.
I could see it, anticipate it. But I was not fast enough to save them. I don’t know if any others like me survived. If they did, they’re far away. I am the onlyburneron Ellipsis…the only one who can patrol the skies for my remaining Relic brothers without a ship.
It also makes me a target.
And now I am alone, the single Titan left guarding the surface from extraterrestrial threats so my brothers can prepare the wrecked ship they've restored to get us off of this planet and to our Rogue brothers in a nebula somewhere Solcrue can't reach them. Some of us will endure, even if we fail. Instinct is all I have. My hope is sputtering out like a dying engine, starved of fuel.
Don’t think like that.
We have to make it work.
But things don’t just work because we need them to.
I clutch my head as I pierce the side of another SkySprinter with my body, then rocket myself toward the next. A few fighters fire at me. Green rockets rip by with scorching heat, but my sensors relay their approach with plenty of time to avoid them…individually. The massive way the ships unload, trying to take me out says they’re getting desperate.
