Chapter 19: Armor
My mate stuns me more every hour with some new invention or way to work with what we have, transforming it into something new. I am thankful to her for accepting me and my faults and the fact that she still lets me protect her even though I couldn’t stop her uncle from hurting her.
“I’m alright, Armor, really. Please stop apologizing,” she says as she swipes through schematics on her tablet.
I keep her in the shield of my wings as we hike over the BlazeStar’s hull, with my Brothers assigned to stay with the ship. They are eager for some action and ready to get off-world.
“I still don’t like dropping the shields,” I tell her.
“It’s necessary to integrate them. Power has to be off, or we risk throwing ourselves into an unpredictable wormhole from hell to be lost forever.”
Is that all?“Sounds risky.”
She shrugs as she studies a diagram. “Life is a risk. It is not permanent. We do not have the luxury of hiding behind layers of safety nets. Only the very rich and powerful can afford to hide like cowards, usually behind a lot of people who will be sacrificed first. But no one escapes death. Not even them. It will come for all of us, eventually. I’d just rather die fighting than hiding.”
Most of the Terran units like Cobra, Chaos, and Banshee, along with ship maintenance units like Turbo, Bomber, and Turbine, help mount the heavy portal units we’ve stolen from Scythe onto the BlazeStar.
“You’re sure this will work?” Chaos asks as he peels apart into three naked Titans.
Esthi covers her eyes with a hand and extends a transformer to him. “Make sure you position it to stepupthe voltage. BlazeStar is about four times Scythe’s size.”
Chaos One takes a unit, along with each of his brothers, and they leave to set up the portal generators that other Brothers have just bolted to the hull.
A Skysprinter races by, shooting at us. I adjust my wings as Esthi huddles inside my shield. The bullets melt against my shield, but a few tag the hull and ricochet off.
Esthi winces as she monitors the progress on a tablet. Her modified designs come online. She walks along the roof toward the nose to check the bow’s generator. Then, she hustles toward the stern.
I pick her up, run a few steps, and glide us to the back. “Just tell me when you need a lift.”
She smiles when I set her down. “Still can’t get used to that.”
“We’re low on time.”
“I know.” She flips something open and taps on a screen in the stern generator. “We’re synced. Can you confirm with the teams, please?”
The last unit hums to life and swells with storming blue light.
Armor>>Local: BlazeStar hull crew, please report parameters of portal generators.
Chaos 1>>Armor: Alpha, operational. Steady at 11,500 watts. Portal storm at 198wh units.
Chaos Two and Three, Cobra, Banshee, Turbo, Turbine, Bomber, and the other Titans on our crews report back with similar numbers. I relay them to Esthi.
She confirms what she’s seeing on her screen. “Looks good. Call everyone in.”
Armor>>Amp, Clover: Portal generators ready.
Amp>>Armor: Recalling ships for docking now.
Clover>>Armor: Portal warm-up sequence initiated.
“We don’t want to be on the hull when this thing ignites,” Esthi says. “Anyone above it will get sliced in two.”
I forward her message to the local Titans so everyone knows.
As we hustle back to the doors, CSP, Titan, and Solcruean ships, including our acquired Scythe, turn and head forMother,our BlazeStar. Several Titan ships hover out of the hangars on guard, waiting for a Skysprinter or other enemy ship to try to enter.
They will. It’s just a matter of time.
