Jared cried out in pain, every round sending a lance of fire through their bond. Scarlet said nothing, but Jared knew how much it hurt.
“Scarlet, get out of there!”
Steely resolve settled into Jared, and he whipped out his own phase pistols. They were laughable compared to the ones this other person held. It looked like the cities had reserved the latest in technological upgrades for themselves. Yet another example of those above treating the rest of humanity with disdain.
Jared roared in fury and rocketed forward at the enemy. He brought his pistols up and squeezed the triggers. His foe somersaulted backward, and the rounds sizzled harmlessly into the dirt. It was as though the guy had eyes in the back of his head.
His adversary brought his pistols up to fire, and Jared leaped, soaring twenty feet into the air to drop down dozens of yards to the side. The guy’s eyes widened in surprise, but the moment passed so fast Jared doubted he’d seen it. Midway through his leap, the man blurred into action, pivoting to face him. Before Jared touched down, there were already phase rounds headed directly at his landing spot.
Jared performed an aerial roll, throwing his body into a different trajectory and barely avoiding the bolts of energy seeking his flesh.
He landed hard, the wind knocked out of him. On instinct he continued the roll, avoiding another barrage of super-heated energy boiling the air next to him.
“Scarlet, this guy is good. I’m not sure I can take him out on my own. He’s fast, and his reaction time is on a whole new level.”
“I will help. He cannot hope to take us both.”
“Be careful. I saw what he did to you already. Is the wound deep?”
“It burned through my protections, but I will survive.”
“Please be careful. If he gets a few more shots…”
Jared left the rest unspoken. Scarlet wasn’t invincible, and this guy’s weapons were much stronger than Jared’s phase pistols.
No matter where he went or how fast he was, his opponent anticipated and reacted to his every move, refusing to let up for even an instant. Jared’s diving maneuvers brought him close to some wrecked cars on the side of the road, and he dove behind one, hoping for some respite. However, the phase rounds burned right through the rusted bucket of metal, one energy beam leaving an angry red line burned down his arm.
Jared cried out in pain and sprinted in a zig zag in the opposite direction, hoping distance would help. The fire was relentless, and he couldn’t get any breathing room to go on the offensive.
“Scarlet, I think this guy is biding time for reinforcements. We’ve got to take him out now before it’s too late.”
“Almost there—”
Jared whipped his head around the moment he heard Scarlet breathe fire. The barrage of phase rounds stopped, and the city-dweller’s face flipped from impassive to shocked as the flames spewed from Scarlet’s mouth. He escaped the majority of the flames, but the violet fire hungrily burned through his legs, the skin charring off of them.
Screaming in pain and unable to walk, he clutched his weapons and returned fire on Scarlet, but she’d already rocketed past him, and his lack of mobility prevented him from getting off a clean shot.
Jared reversed direction and ran flat out for the downed enemy. Bringing his pistols up, he loosed a volley of rounds that created a wall of deadly energy. The downed assailant saw the rounds at the last second and tried to get away, but he couldn’t move fast enough. Several of the rounds missed as he moved his body in impossible ways, bending and twisting like a contortionist. Jared didn’t let up, and a few of the rounds finally burned into the guy’s body.
One round caught him full in the face and left a smoking ruin in its place. Exhausted, Jared flopped to the ground to catch his breath, but a movement drew his attention back to the downed ship.
George descended from the ramp holding a phase rifle with a white-knuckled grip.
“Come on, already.” Jared groaned and rolled to his feet, once again finding himself on the defensive. Only this time, the shots were easy to dodge. Most of them went wide, and George fumbled with the rifle awkwardly. Using the man’s inexperience against him, Jared quickly moved closer to him while evading the shots. Once he was certain he could take a shot without getting hit, Jared leveled his pistol at George’s head and squeezed the trigger.
One shot was all it took, and a clean, cauterized hole appeared in George’s forehead. The body, not realizing it was already dead, stood for a moment longer before collapsing to the ground, lifeless.
Jared sprinted for the corpses of both enemies. Unceremoniously, he collected the weapons and battery packs. Then, he sprinted up the ramp on the ship, grabbed the duffle George had stolen, and ransacked the interior of the ship.
This ship differed from the others he’d seen. There was no robot driving it, but a seat where a human fit comfortably. The interior also had more character, like someone had taken the time to add personal touches, paint, and decorations.
“Scarlet—”
“Jared, get out!”
It was too late; He heard the ships at the same time as Scarlet’s shout in his head.
Reinforcements.
Jared didn’t know what to do. There was no way they could take out more of the superhuman enemies. They’d only just taken out the other one, and he was by himself. If several of these guys showed up at once, he and Scarlet were in serious trouble.
“It’s time to call your brothers in.”
“Malsour, Kanundran, Ashazad! Come!”
The mental blast smashed into Jared’s mind, sending a sharp stab of pain into his temples. He didn’t hear Malsour respond, but he knew she’d reached him. Now they needed to hold out while they waited for the cavalry to arrive.
Though the ship he was in couldn’t fly, Jared looked for a way to use the phase cannons.
“I hate to ask this, but can you keep them occupied while I search in here? I want to figure out how the cannons work and turn them against the other ships. If any of them land, let me know. Or, if any of them try firing on this ship, let me know so I can get out.”
“I will keep them busy. When my brothers get here, we will take them down.”
“How many ships are there?”
“I count six.”
Six. Jared’s mind threatened to spiral out of control as his heart tried to hammer its way from his chest. How did they hope to take out so many?
Six drop ships and only four dragons. The only saving grace for Scarlet was her speed and agility to fly circles around the ships. He hadn’t seen any drop ship ever practice much in the way of aerial evasion, aside from the erratic jerking movements when there’d been stowaways aboard.
Scarlet’s brothers were easily bigger in mass, but the ships were likely more nimble with four engines in the back and several on the bottom, allowing them to pivot and hover with precision. Jared almost communicated his thoughts to Scarlet, but she knew the stakes and what the ships were capable of, and his thoughts only wasted precious seconds.
Jared ran to the console, reading furiously. Before, he’d looked for ways to move the ship and hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the other buttons. Now, he needed to find and activate the weapons system to shoot down its fellow ships, if that were even possible.
He hoped they didn’t have some kind of friend or foe mechanism that would prevent him from firing on another ship. Regardless, he needed to even up the odds a little. Even if he didn’t take any of the ships out, he would at least provide a distraction so the dragons could do their work.
He smacked his palm down in frustration. He’d forgotten to use his abilities, again. Activating Hyper-Cognition his world slowed to a crawl. He also activated Clear Mind. Everything in front of him came into crystal clear focus, and his mind fractured into a dozen thoughts, devouring the information in front of him.
There was a button for every conceivable thing the ship could do. Yawning, pitch, elevation readouts, flaps, wing tips, thrusters, communication displays, forward viewport, ground cameras, landing gear, upper hatch, ramp. The list went on and on. Nearly a hundred buttons, switches, and levers decorated the panel and Jared marveled at the complexity and convenience of having so much at the tip of his fingers.
In only a moment, his mind snapped into focus on a single section of the control panel that read Weapons System. The readout was simple, had several buttons, including one that read Automatic Targeting.
Bingo, Jared thought, deactivating Hyper-Cognition so his movements sped up. Sometimes he wished he could will his body to move as fast as his mind. He kept Clear Mind going so he had a complete awareness of the situation and could multi-task. Really, he should’ve activated the ability the moment he engaged the enemy. That might’ve been how his opponent had anticipated his every movement.
Pressing the automatic targeting, Jared hoped to hear the weapon engage and fire, but what happened next confused him for a moment. The forward display changed to show the surrounding landscape, but instead of an unobstructed view, the display had a digital targeting reticle, very similar to the ones in the phase rifles.
Text scrolled across the screen, and a synthetic feminine voice carried over the ship’s speakers.
ACQUIRE TARGET.
Acquire target? How?
In his clear mental state, he ran through all the possibilities and realized that he needed to manually acquire a target before he could turn automatic targeting on. With nothing to lose, Jared grabbed the lever next to the buttons and twisted it. The targeting reticle moved in a circle, and he heard a mechanical whirring as the phase cannon mounted on top of the ship rotated. Taking a moment to familiarize himself with the directional movements, Jared tried to find the ships. It didn’t take him long to see half of them hovering a short distance away while the other half pursued Scarlet through the sky.
Sitting ducks.
Carefully aligning the closest ship in the display, the targeting reticle blinked a furious red, and the same feminine voice sounded throughout the cabin.
TARGET ACQUIRED.
Jamming the big red button labeled Automatic Targeting, followed by the button that read Fire, the cannon chugged to life, drilling the other ship with a massive flood of phase energy. The thumping of the cannon vibrated up Jared’s legs, making him smile in satisfaction. In seconds, the ship exploded into a massive fireball, rocking the two ships near it. Secondary explosions detonated as the engines blew up, further shaking the others. His momentary surprise over, the two remaining ships pivoted to face his own. The ships moved swiftly, but his mind processed the movement so fast it was almost like Hyper-Cognition was still active. The phase cannons swiveled into place and small pinpricks of light illuminated the tips of the weapons.
Uh-oh.
Quickly selecting the next target and depressing both buttons again, Jared launched himself from the cabin, scooping up the duffle bag on his way out. The two remaining ships’ phase cannons kicked to life at the same time. The explosion and concussive force blasted Jared hard in the back, propelling him a dozen yards away. Thankfully, his Natural Armor held and protected him from the bulk of the blast. It still hurt, the pressure wave punching into his side at full force, but it caused no lasting damage.
Sparing a glance over his shoulder, Jared watched with extreme satisfaction as the second ship he’d fired on plummeted to the ground. The three smoldering heaps of wreckage sent great clouds of black smoke into the sky, acting as a beacon for anything—or anyone—nearby.
The final ship that’d been hovering in place was no longer content to wait things out, and joined in the fight against Scarlet.
Scarlet was fast. Faster than he’d ever seen her move, and a lot quicker than when he rode atop her back. She used the ships against each other, constantly putting them in their own lines of fire so that none of them managed to acquire her as a target. Based on Jared’s experience, and watching the ships he’d just taken out, it only took a split second for the phase cannon to prime and fire. That hesitation in the weapons gave Scarlet all the time she needed to easily pivot away.
Jared tried to imagine the fight in her mind, the way she fractured her thoughts at all times and how she controlled her body. For someone like him, this would be an impossibility, but for her a slight challenge.
The display mesmerized him. He’d never had the chance to watch her in action like this. She pulled out all the stops, using momentary lapses in the ships’ maneuvering to loose torrents of flame at them. She tried to target the ships’ weapons with every blast, but they weren’t helpless and often managed to dip out of the way to avoid the brunt of the fire.
The ships twisted and turned, trying to get a better line of sight on her while also trying to avoid each other. If they weren’t in such mortal danger, Jared would’ve laughed at the sight as the huge ships tried to outmaneuver her. But if she stopped for even a moment, it would be game over. If the rounds from the city dweller he’d killed could punch a hole through all her layers of defense and scales, he didn’t want to know what a phase cannon could do.
When the fourth ship joined the fray, it became much harder for Scarlet to avoid their cross-fire. Just when he thought he’d witnessed the extent of Scarlet’s agility, she flipped upside down and dove backward through a gap in the ships and latched on to the underside of one.
“Jared, watch.” Scarlet’s voice echoed in his ears, and a hint of pride preceded her brothers’ arrival.
Jared blinked in surprise as they seemed to materialize from nowhere, descending from directly above the ships. Their speed was so great that each impact tore the wings right off the vessels. In swift, choreographed moves, the three giant behemoths made short work of the engines, and the ships crashed to the ground as all three dragons regained their flight. The final ship Scarlet clung to punched its underside thrusters and launched straight into the air. Scarlet’s claws left huge gouges in the ship, but its upward thrust was too much for her, and she lost her grip. A split-second later, all four rear engines whined to life, and the ship shot away as if from a slingshot. Gone in a blink, there was no way the dragons could follow at that speed.
“That will be a problem.”
“There was nothing more we could do.”
“I know, but… they saw the four of you. No doubt they’ll be back with even more forces. We may end up leaving this area before long.”
“We will do what we must. Though, there are ways we can remain hidden.”
“The den idea, right? Can you have your other brothers work on that? There’s no reason to delay that anymore. If there were more ships in the area they’d already be over here and a little smoke won’t change that.”
“I instructed them to begin the moment we engaged in this fight.”
“Hopefully they don’t burn down the forest. That would kind of defeat the purpose.”
Scarlet looked at him sideways. “My brothers are smart. They understand the situation.”
Jared had meant it to be humorous, but he guessed his current mood didn’t allow that sentiment to show.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply they weren’t. Just my overly cautious nature. We’ve done so much to carve out the new home it would be a shame to leave it already.”
“We have not reached that point yet.”
Jared ran to each of the downed ships, working his way through them and piling up the weapons and equipment he salvaged. In three of the six ships he found the remains of more human beings, but also several robots pinned into place by various pieces of the ship. Two of the robots were still functional and he ended them with a round to the head.
Each of the ships had markings on the exterior next to the hatch that read Star – 1 and had nicknames such as “Avid”, “Seeker”, and “SMD”. Jared had no
idea what they meant, but suspected they were all part of the same fleet. It didn’t matter, but he logged the information for later.
While Jared searched, he remembered Pete asking about the ship they’d destroyed earlier and whether Jared had parts for him to study. Jared studied the destroyed ships during his mad dashes between them and realized that not a single one of them remained intact. They wouldn’t be able to keep one of the ships, but maybe they could salvage key parts and hide them where the cities couldn’t find them.
“Scarlet, can you and your brothers carry one of these ships? Maybe pick the most intact one and carry it off?”
“We will try.”
“Thanks.”
Jared resumed his task. Not only did he find more weapons, battery packs, and medical supplies, he also found more uniforms. They matched the outfit the city-dweller he’d killed wore. The uniforms he’d stolen way back in New York City were much different, less…regal, and seemed plain compared to these. He found five uniforms. Two of the ships were still engulfed in flame, so he left them alone.
Once he’d gathered all the equipment, there was a pile of loot sitting on the ground, and he had no way to get all of that back home. Retracing his steps, he pulled open more of the hatches, searching for something to use as a transport container. Finding nothing to use, Jared searched parts of the ship they could rip off and use as a bucket.
Again, there was nothing. The ship was all flat angles, and the fuselage didn’t have a top window or display. Jared had an idea, but it was morbid, and he really didn’t want to go that route. However, after exhausting other possible ways to get all the gear transported, he buckled down to see it through.
He went to the corpses of the humans he’d killed and stripped off their clothes. He used these as makeshift bags and piled the weapons inside. The battery packs went into the duffle, since they’d be more likely to fall out. He used the sleeves of the shirts to tie around the middle of the bundles to secure everything inside.
Radioactive Revolution: A Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Page 13
