“Unlock coms,” Commander Savage says.
I unlock my communications channel.
Commander Savage>>Local: Claim your targets. Armor, guard Shifter and Sefina. The rest of us will clean up.
Time: 1:26 remaining.
Whip takes the top floor. Redline takes the bottom floor. Firebolt and Javeline claim three combatants ahead of us. As they charge out of the doorway, I curl a wing around Sefina and another around Shifter, who’s carrying Bomber’s most reaction creation.
We hurry out across the room as Savage, Menace, Mace, and Karambit confront the Solcrue entering from the soldiers’ quarters across the room. The moment we’re out in the open and seen, I light up my radiant shield.
Whip is a blur above us as he takes one Solcrue down with a blade and chases the other. Redline is similarly difficult to track; he’s so fast.
Electric arcs lash out from Firebolt, making enemy soldiers arch and topple. Javelin launches his body through the air from one landing to another, where he crashes into two enemy soldiers.
I take a hit to my left wing.
Armor>>Local: Attack, my eight o’clock!
Savage snarls somewhere behind us and to the left. Something tears.
Savage>>Local: Resolved.
I glance back to see him spit something out of his mouth. Blood drains from his lips. His shoulders heave with his heavy panting. There’s a feral look in his eyes, and yet he looks more satisfied than I’ve ever seen.
We all want this. We’ve all lost Brothers and Sisters toCorengebattles.
Sefina motions to a system of pipes. “Fuels. Set it here.”
Shifter walks to the maze, fractures into millions of little bars that fold in on themselves in rippling waves, then slips through the pipes with the bomb until I can’t see him any longer.
I take another hit, this time over a wing mount. Pain flares in my shoulder so strongly I curl forward.
Armor>>Shifter: We need to go!
Shifter>>Local: Explosive Timer – 1:01 remaining.
Shifter emerges like a fragmented liquid that rebuilds one foot, then another, and slowly reforms into an upright Titan again. He’s matched the timers.
Timer 2: 1:00 remaining.
Timer 2: 0:59 remaining.
Commander Savage>>Local: Escape route blocked.
Thruster rockets overhead, smashing through incoming squads as bullets rain down on us. I hunker around Sefina and Shifter while I scan the ship for nearby exits. “Hangars?”
She motions to a narrow passageway. “On other ships, we’d take the servants’ passageways to escape.
Thruster knocks down the Solcrue that fire down on us as we cross the catwalks to the passageway.
“Sefi!” Menace rejoins us and picks her up, clutching her to his chest. “Hang on. We have to run!”
Savage bounds on four limbs beside us like Menace. Whip and Redline are first through. Javelin is next.
I check behind us as we run. It’s my job to be between my charges and the incoming fire. I am the bullet sponge. Fury swings Mace one more time, sending him tumbling down a filled catwalk. Mace’s body produces spikes and shatters his Starjumper’s suit, save for his rocket boots. But he clears two full squads.
“Come on!” I shout.
