Chapter 16: Armor
An alert flashes in my vision that my corrections officer is in trouble. It takes a second for me to make sense of the signal as I dart through a barrage of Skysprinter fire toward a glowing Venom gun. I have learned that they give a pale visual warning before they go off.
I have to watch them and the Skysprinters and other ships for Brothers in trouble or about to be. But as I steal a glance back in Esthi’s direction, my ultromotor stalls for a beat.
She’s falling from Kelta’s smoking LightBlade. More ships descend upon us from the motherships:Marst,Vessna, andCorenge. We are failing, and the BlazeStar hasn’t quite broken free of the rocky mountainside yet.
All I can think about is Esthi.
Armor>>Corrections Officer 952: Suit thrusters!
Esthi’s suit blazes with light and stops her midair. But in my distraction, I’ve missed the window to stop the venom missile. It tags the passing Solcrue transport we’ve acquired and eats a hoverpad into a dripping metal mess, leaving a gaping hole.
But it’s what I see dropping into orbit behind them that terrifies me more. A CSP transport, one of the deadliest, cuts like a black blade through the hazy sky.
A spray of acid hits my right wing as I patrol the Venom ships. The blast glances off of my hydramidium lining and rains back onto the Venom ship’s hull. To my surprise, it fizzles and eats metal.
Rushed job? Or they didn’t find enough to plate the hulls!
Armor>>Local: Update - Venom ships not immune to friendly fire! Crash and burn! Scythe entering orbit!
Fury>>Local: Come again? Did you say Scythe?
A Skysprinter races by with a flaming orange Titan inside one second, then outside the next as he jumps free and smashes his ship into one Venom vessel, which sprays acid onto three others, including a Skysprinter. All five ships explode and fall to the desert’s edge below. The wreckage trail takes out small trees at the forest’s edge and lights it on fire.
Thruster catches Fury and drops him onto another Skysprinter before darting off to punch through a different Skysprinter and out the other side.
When I check on Esthi, I find she’s not where I last saw her. A faint trail of light from her suit follows Kelta’s ship.
Redline>>Local: Are you sure you’re looking at Scythe and not the Poison Arrow that’s been hunting us recently?
He sends me a visual of an oily black ship currently tearing up another area of the battlefield further south.
I copy an image of the ship and forward it to the local network. The chatter in response confirms my suspicions. The deadliest CSP vessel, the one with anti-Titan ballistics, is headed into battle.
CO 952>>Local: Can it target a CSP Corrections Officer’s suit?
Savage>>Local: With an override. But it is a one-shot deal. It must be approved each time.
CO 952: Understood. Engaging now.
Dread sinks me in the sky.
Armor>>CO 952: No, Esthi. Do not engage! That suit is your only protection. If you are captured…
CO 952: Understood.
She’s being short with me, and I realize that the way I pushed her off our ship without talking to her may have come across as rude or inconsiderate. But I was desperate to protect her.
Armor>>CO 952: Be careful, Esthi. Scythe is not a ship to mess with.
CO 952: Women are Omega Force now. We have seen Solcrue and CSP take many things we love: our friends, our men, our Titans, and our future. Sometimes, our virginity, our sanity, and our restraint. I hope they’re ready for me.
My insides are tearing apart as I watch her suit brighten and bank into a collision course with Scythe. I can’t protect her over my Brothers or them over her. I have to protect who I can and hope everyone else is able to hold their own. I can’t be everywhere all at once.
“Armor!” Thruster crashes into me as a writhing mass of metal arcs by us. The gravity of the cannonball grabs us, slings us in a wide arc around it, and drags us after it. Thruster’s rockets blaze as he winces and fights the pull of the weapon.
I track our trajectory and call out to Brothers in danger. The weapon slams into a Skysprinter as Fury and Redline leap from its hull. The ship implodes, crushing into itself on impact.
