Page 22 of Blightfall

I tagged a chunk of debris with my own light-lance, using it as an anchor to turn my ship. The ship I’d chased off was nearing Alanik, though Sadie had her shield reignited, ready to join her. It opened fire on Sadie, and she jagged her ship to the side, weathering the barrage behind a piece of debris. Rock and ice filled the air, obscuring her from view.

“Sentry? You okay?” I asked.

“You okay?” Naga said.

I reached down and scritched her blue spines. The taynix saw us all as family. They felt as worried as we did when our friends were in danger.

“Still here!” Sadie said, but she no longer sounded cheerful. She sounded terrified.

“We got this,” Nedd said, though he, too, seemed shaken.

I angled myself toward Blaze and Gilaf and let go with my light-lance, catapulting in their direction.

“Blaze’s shields are down,” Nedd said. “Scud, Ghost, can we—”

Gilaf didn’t need direction. He was already chasing the ship harassing Blaze. Blaze flew past me, toward three large chunks of ice where she could shelter and reignite her shields. Gilaf and I focused our fire on the enemy ships, forcing them to dodge instead of racing after her.

“Blaze, look out!” Nedd shouted, and I glanced at my monitors just in time to see destructor fire emerge from the cluster of ice and pummel the rock Blaze was using as a shield. Another ship slid out from its hiding place, catching Blaze unawares with her shield still down.

“Blaze, get out of there,” I said, but before I finished speaking, her ship was torn in two, colliding with the rocks where she’d tried to take shelter.

The enemy fighter kept flying, heading straight toward us.

Seven

Arturo

Scud. Scud. We hadn’t lost people like this since the war. We weren’t even attacking this outpost, but there was no radio frequency I could call, no way to reach the pilots of these drones. They might be on another planet, if their slugs had the codes to use their hypercomms inside the inhibitor. I didn’t understand how they found us so fast or why they had ambushed us. It was like it used to be in the days before we won the war, when the Krell ships pursued us relentlessly, trying to drive us underground and keep us there, when we never knew how many were coming or why they insisted on exterminating us.

“Flightleader,” Suki said, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I wanted to inquire if you had a plan.”

Stars, did I have a plan? Both our scouts had just been cut out of the sky, and if we didn’t do something fast, we were all going to meet that same fate. Our most important job was to protect the diplomats. We’d clearly come unprepared, but none of our intelligence had warned of this onslaught.

“Skyward Flight,” I said. “Descend toward the planet. Take out the ships if you can, but if not, lose them. Once we reach the other side of the inhibited zone, Bob can request a hyperjump. Even if we can’t leave the planet, we need distance between us and them.” Hide and regroup. It was the only way I could see out of this. “Cover Orator. Orator, evasive maneuvers. We’ll do our best to keep them off you.”

“Copy, Amphi,” Ferret said. He maneuvered Orator around the rock, with Sadie in position on one side and Alanik on the other. Gilaf took point, using destructor fire to keep the path ahead clear. I moved to join them at the rear, keeping an eye on our six.

“Amphi!” Alanik shouted. “Up top!”

Destructor fire shot down at me, barely missing my left wing, and I went into a dive. A flock of birds skittered from the rock and joined me, mimicking my flight path as if I were one of them. I did not want to gun them down, but I also couldn’t afford to spare their lives if they came between me and an enemy ship.

The ship dove after me, raining destructor fire around me. I spun to the side, barely dodging a shot at my shields. Alanik followed, firing on the ship and taking out some of the birds. The remaining flock scattered as Alanik knocked out the enemy ship’s shields and then delivered a final, fatal blow.

“Amphi,” Nedd said, “another six ships are converging on our location.”

Stars, we had no way to know how many lurked in the debris between us and the edge of the inhibitor field. Either these drones had seen us coming a long way off, or they’d already been stationed here. It was almost as if the Superiority expected an attack. These operatives must have means to communicate with their commanders at the Superiority, maybe by flying out through the debris to send messages outside the inhibitor field. They must know the Superiority had fallen, and they’d been waiting for us to come for their outpost as well. If the DDF had realized that, Jorgen would have sent a whole contingent of flights to subdue the remaining threat.

But he hadn’t known, so he’d only sent us.

Orator moved toward the planet, and I followed, watching the incoming enemy ships. They didn’t seem any more focused on Orator than the rest of us—so this wasn’t a direct attack on our diplomats. But that just meant they wanted to kill us all equally, and until we could escape the inhibitor, we were trapped here.

Three of the enemy ships broke off, skirting to head us off, while the other three flew straight for us. “Enemy, nine o’clock!” I said. “Sentry, Ghost, set course to intercept. Angel, hold your position. More ships dead ahead.”

I sped up, flying on Orator’s left wing, ready to peel off if the enemy targeted it. But stars, that left two fighters to deal with the harrying forces and Alanik alone to fend off the three ships that waited for us ahead—assuming there weren’t more hiding in the debris like the one that had picked off Blaze.

“There aren’t enough of us,” I said, my headset turned off so only Naga could hear.

“Enough of us!” Naga said mournfully.