by Josh Hayes
Wendy's temper flared. "Tom, go!"
He shot her an angry look, then winced as more bullets tore through the jungle around them. He hesitated for another moment before shouting a curse, and taking off after Lily.
A strange calmness came over Wendy, and the voice started speaking to her again. The soldiers, you need to take out the soldiers.
Wendy got to one knee, ducking as another bullet sent bark spraying, and brought her rifle up. It only took a moment to find her first target, and without any hesitation at all, she fired. The solider closest to the entrance alcove jerked back, the force of the impact lifting him off his feet, throwing him to the ground. She barely saw his body land before she moved to the next target, firing as soon as she had a bead.
The bullet caught him in his shoulder, spinning him like a top, sending him sprawling to the ground. The third soldier, seeing his companions drop, ceased his almost constant barrage into the jungle, and ran for the safety of the alcove. She adjusted her aim, held her breath, and fired.
The shot missed, slamming into the ground just behind the fleeing solider, tossing dirt and grass into the air. Wendy cursed under her breath, aimed again, fired. This time she couldn't tell where the round had hit, but it certainly hadn't hit her target. The solider slipped behind the wall of the alcove, disappearing from view.
Wendy slammed a palm on the trunk. "Son of a bitch!" She held her aim, wanting the soldier to reappear, then cursed again when he remained hidden. She leaned back from the rifle's optic, surveying the scene. The constant stream of bullets had ceased, and the two soldiers she'd shot still lay, unmoving, where they'd landed. However, now that it was relatively still around her, she could hear gunfire to her left, coming from the row of parked skiffs.
"Come on, Carter!"
Two of the skiff crews were pinned down behind their aircraft, a barrage of fire from the tree line preventing them from reaching their respective cockpits. She couldn't see the third crew from her position, but Wendy assumed they faced a similar predicament. Through the thinning jungle, Wendy saw Black's yacht lift off the ground. She cursed, but kept moving; there wasn't anything she could do about it now. It banked away from her and disappeared over the top of the Graft Fortress.
As Wendy reached the edge of the tree line, she paused, examining the surrounding trees and clearing ahead. The entrance alcove to the fortress was still empty, the fleeing Blackhand solider probably now inside with the rest of them. Just for a moment, conflicted, she turned back to the sound of the gunfire. She desperately wanted to get inside and stop Black, but she knew that Lily and Tim wouldn't be able to keep those skiffs on the ground indefinitely.
It only took a moment for her to decide. She moved along the edge of the trees, making her way to where she thought Tim and the Redleen woman would be.
An earsplitting crack thundered across the clearing, and the ground shook as if the very earth was splitting apart. Instinctively, she dropped to a knee, looking around, trying to identify the source of the commotion. Even the gunfire paused briefly. It seemed Black's soldiers were just as curious as she was.
Carter crouched down beside her. "What the hell was that?"
Did the yacht crash? Wendy wondered, looking for any sign of smoke. "I don't see it!"
A second crack thundered, seeming to split the very air around them. Wendy ducked again.
Behind her, the comm crackled in Carter's hand. Wendy barely heard Ace's voice as the gunfire at the skiff row resumed. "I don't know who's on the ground next to those skiffs, but take cover, I'm going to try and help you out."
Wendy looked around as a third crack rumbled across the clearing, then she heard the screaming sound of skiff turbines over the jungle. A second later, the skiff closest to Wendy and Carter exploded in a tremendous fireball, flame and debris streaming into the air. Ace's skiff appeared over the canopy. He flew through the rising smoke, angling up and over the fortress.
"Pan! Pan, do you see that? The whole roof is breaking apart!" Ace said.
Wendy glanced up. From her angle, the only thing she could see was a cloud of dust expanding through the sky above the Fortress, fading away as it grew. Is the roof collapsing? A small part of her jumped with joy, imagining Black and his crew being crushed under heavy chunks of falling debris.
"Wait," Ace continued. "No, hold on, it's not breaking apart, it's opening. Shit!"
More cannon fire echoed in the sky above, though these blasts were a slightly different pitch than Ace's had been. Wendy saw a flash as Ace's skiff appeared from behind the Fortress to her left, Black's yacht dead on his tail, cannons blazing. Both craft vanished above the jungle's thick canopy.
Wendy felt panic start to rise within her, quickly becoming overwhelmed as the battle raged around her. There was just too many things happening at once, and she couldn't affect them all. Another round of auto-cannon blasts sounded, this time from the row of skiffs to her right. Behind the smoking hulk of the first skiff, one of the pilots had managed to climb into the second and was firing wildly. Whole trees shattered and blew apart as the large-caliber shells tore through the jungle.
She watched horrified as round after round ripped through the trees. There wasn't any way anyone could survive that. Movement at the back of the craft caught her attention. The second pilot appeared from behind the skiff's tail and climbed quickly aboard. She couldn't let them get into the air. You can do this, Wendy, her father's voice told her.
With only the hint of a plan, Wendy ran.
Chapter Seventeen
Then
Wendy could only just barely hear the whine of the skiff's engines through the constant barrage of cannon fire. She slowed her run as she neared the flaming wreckage of the skiff Ace had destroyed, bring her rifle up. Something popped inside the smoldering heap, sending tiny bits of flame and smoke spinning and twisting through the air. Her heart pounded, blood pulsing in her ears as she slowed to a walk, knowing that in just a few more steps she'd be in full view of the deadly cannons.
She didn't hesitate for a second.
Wendy, girl from another world, girl who'd made a promise, stepped past the flames, eyes hard with determination. The skiff was already off the ground, hovering several feet above the green grass of the clearing. The faces of the two soldiers inside the skiff turned, seeing her, one pointing, shouting. The auto-cannon fire ceased, and the turret on the nose of the craft began to turn. Wendy squeezed the trigger.
The rifle bucked, but she held it steady, pulling the trigger again and again, sending round after round downrange. The skiff's glass windshield disintegrated, sending thousands of tiny pieces flying in all directions. Bullets slammed into the two men, their bodies convulsing wildly under the onslaught. Time seemed to slow as the rhythmic pounding of her fire continued, her father's dying face the only thing she could see.
The skiff listed to one side, engines screaming to keep the craft level, but failing. The port-side turbine slammed into the ground, exploding. The fuselage followed, rolling through the flames, coming to a rest upside down. Wendy watched, awestruck at what she'd done. Flames snapped and popped, and just as they started to die down, another explosion ripped the craft in half, a massive fireball curling into the air.
She followed the trail of smoke with her eyes, then something much higher caught her attention. An enormous cloud of dust was expanding across the sky above, flowing out of the Graft Fortress. Wendy stood there, watching the cloud begin to dissipate, and briefly wondered if the cloud was related to the loud cracking booms.
"Wendy!"
The panicked voice brought her back from her thoughts. She looked around, confused, and saw Carter emerge for the jungle, arms waving.
"Get down!" she shouted, pointing at something behind her.
"What…" Wendy turned in the direction indicated and froze, horrified. She'd forgotten about the final skiff. It was still grounded, but its cannons were coming up, searching for a target. Searching for her.
Something slammed
into her, knocking her to the ground. Carter's voice howled in her ears as the cannons roared, but she didn't understand the words. He rolled off her, pulling her with him, moving behind the burning wreck of the first skiff Ace had shot down.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he shouted, wincing.
Wendy rolled on her back, looking up at the bright blue sky overhead. Puffs of grey darted across the sky as the fire from the final Blackhand skiff cut through the pillar of smoke still rising from the wreckage behind her. Waves of warm air beat against her as the rounds zipped past overhead.
I'm sorry, father, Wendy thought, staring up at the cloudless sky. I'm sorry I didn't keep my promise. Tears obscured her vision as she thought of her mother and sister and wanting to see them just one more time. Please, find a way home.
Something exploded in the distance and the cannon fire died away.
"Yeah, Ace!" Carter called, sitting up, fist pumping. "Way to go!"
Sunlight glinted off a fuselage above her as Ace's skiff turned. His voice came through the comm. "That'll teach those—"
Ace's skiff erupted into a brilliant fireball. Streamers of flame and smoke spread out through the sky. The force of the blast sheared off the port-side turbine, and it streaked off through the air, disappearing over the jungle.
"NO!" Wendy jerked upright, screaming.
Carter got to his knees. "Oh my God, no."
Wendy watched, horrified, as the remains of Ace's skiff fell, spinning almost lazily through the air. It broke apart into several pieces as it fell, trailing a thick column of smoke from behind. Another explosion obliterated the tail section, sending streamers of flame and debris flying through the air. The craft fell through the jungle's canopy, disappearing save for the smoke curling up through the trees.
"Ace," Carter whispered, his voice trembling.
Hands wrapped around her, Carter pulled her close as she began to cry, shuddering. He can't be dead, she told herself. He's not. He's not.
The comm buzzed on the ground next to them, Tim's voice breaking as he shouted. "Goddamn you bastards!" His guttural, wordless battle cry crackled, and Wendy heard cannon fire in the distance.
Wendy wiped tears away, searching the sky for Tim's skiff. She could hear his constant cannon fire, but couldn't tell where it was coming from. Her eyes fell back on the lone pillar of smoke, watching it curl and lift higher into the air. She scanned the tree line below, hoping, praying Ace would appear, beaten and bloodied, probably even burned, but alive.
He didn't come out.
Movement off to the right caught her attention, and she gasped, a mixture of shock and relief washing over her. Tom and the Redleen woman emerged, Lily's arm around Tom's shoulder. She walked with a limp, careful not to put any weight on her left leg. Even from a hundred feet away, Wendy could see the blood covering the side of her face, her clothes torn and tattered.
They flinched as more cannon fire echoed in the distance, both looking back over their shoulders, searching for the source. Wendy followed their gaze, but saw only trees and sky. And smoke, she reminded herself, looking back at the pillar from Ace's wreckage.
Carter released his hold on her, getting to his feet as Tom and Lily neared. "You okay?"
"Fine," the Redleen woman answered, voice strained.
Wendy met Lily's gaze, the woman's left eye almost completely swollen shut. "You saved my life," Lily told her.
"I…" Wendy paused, not knowing what to say. The lump in her throat threatened to turn any moment. She wanted to curse her for bringing them all the way out here. For bringing them out here to die. For getting Ace killed. A rage burned within her, a rage she hadn't felt since…
"We need to get out of here," Tom said.
"No," Wendy said, getting to her feet. "No, we have to fight. We can't let Ace die in vain. We have to—"
A shadow played over them, moving across the grass, toward the jungle, blotting out the sun. It was massive.
"Oh my God," Tom said, looking up.
Wendy turned, and her heart sank.
A massive grey hull slid out from over the Graft Fortress, covering the clearing below in darkness as it blotted out the sun. It moved relatively silently through the air, with only a slight hum reverberating from somewhere Wendy couldn't see. A sensor cluster pointing out from the tip of the bow appeared first, some extending several feet away from the hull. Wendy gasped as six massive cannons came into view on the either side of the forward section, all pointing down and away from the ship. They were bigger than any weapon she'd ever seen, and Wendy had no doubt they were capable of devastating anything that attacked the warship.
As the rest of the warship appeared, its seven-hundred-foot-long hull cast the ground into darkness. Four struts appeared from either side of the ship, extending away from the hull. As they extended, translucent tendrils of blue and white light appeared, individual strands of color kitting together to form a seemingly solid sheet of energy.
Lily was right, Wendy thought. This will change everything.
A hand touched her shoulder and she jumped.
"Whoa, easy," Carter said, gaze locked on the ship above.
"We need to leave," Lily said.
The warship continued to creep slowly through the sky, a silent behemoth, a predator looking for prey.
"Wendy," Carter whispered, "please."
She didn't know what to say. She was locked in place, held by some invisible, powerful force. An overwhelming sense of despair came over her, pushing her down, crushing her. How were they supposed to stand up against something like this? Fighting soldiers on the ground was one thing, even the occasional dogfight between skiffs, but this? The warship wasn't anything like they'd faced before. What chanced did their small group of fighters have against such power?
"Wendy!" Carter stepped forward, squeezing her arm.
"For shit's sake," Tom said, pulling the comm from a pocket. "Bella, Tim, it's time to go!"
Wendy turned to him, shocked. "What about Peter?"
"He's a big boy, he'll be okay."
"Kinda busy right now, brother," Tim said.
Cannon fire echoed through the air. They all turned in the direction of the sound. A second later, Tim's skiff shot out from over the jungle canopy, climbing high, Black's skiff chasing close behind. Tim's skiff twisted into a corkscrew, narrowly avoiding the incoming fire.
Beside her, Carter was on his own comm. "Pan, you better get out here, man!"
"Way ahead of you," Peter replied, sounding out of breath. "Are you guys seeing that ship?"
Tom frowned. "Is he kidding?"
"Hey, Tom," Tim said. "You remember what Oscar did to that Enforcement patrol back at the docks?"
Tom chuckled, shaking his head. "Lunch for a month if you pull it off."
"You're on."
Wendy gave the twin a confused look, wanting to yell at them both for how nonchalant they were being. One of her closest friends had just died, and they were making bets?
Above her, Tim's skiff stopped spinning and to her surprise, seemed to slow and begin to flip backwards. A moment later, Tim had completed his flip, now flying straight down toward the approaching enemy, cannons blazing. For a moment Wendy felt a surge of excitement as she watched the skiffs close on each other, then cursed as the enemy skiff banked hard, avoiding the incoming fire.
"Son of a bitch," Tim said. He pulled his skiff out of the dive, twisting to follow.
They're heading for the warship, Wendy thought. "No," she said, turning to Tom. "Tell him to break off! Those cannons will tear him to pieces."
The Blackhand skiff disappeared briefly as it shot over the warship's deck. Wendy heard faint shouts coming from the warship. Was that cheering? Tim chased after the skiff, following it over the warship and toward the cliffs beyond. A barrage of gunfire rang out from the warship's deck, but these weren't the sounds of cannons; they sounded like small arms.
"Almost got him," Tim said.
A mechanical whine brought Wendy's
attention back to the warship, and a cold sense of horror ran down her spine. The ship's massive cannons were moving.
Frantic, she snatched the comm out of Carter's hands. "Tim, the cannons! You've got to—oh, no, Peter, don't!"
A lone figure shot out from the Graft Fortress, flying through the air toward the warship. Green tendrils of energy flowed off Peter as he twisted through the sky, arms outstretched. He was holding something, but Wendy couldn't make out what it was. He spun, launching himself high into the air, bringing what looked like a large rifle to bear.
"What in the hell?" Tom said.
The warship's cannon continued to rise, its operators seemingly oblivious to Peter's arrival, searching for Tim's skiff. Wendy's stomach turned as it came level, paused briefly, then the end began to glow.
Oh, God, please, no.
The cannon fired, sending a bright orange beam of energy tearing through the sky. Wendy raised an arm, shielding her eyes as a high-pitched hum reverberated through her. The air around her rippled with residual energy, making the hair on her arms stand up. She turned away, fighting the urge to vomit as she pictured Tim's skiff disintegrating.
Carter stepped around her. "What's he—oh, shit, look out!"
Wendy almost tripped as Carter yanked her away. Tom and Lily were already moving, running for the jungle. She glanced over her shoulder, and saw flames and smoke rising up from the bow of the warship. Peter zipped down out of sky, away from the debris raining down.
A deep rumble rolled through the air around them and as Carter pulled her into the trees, the massive warship started to rise higher into the air. The rumble increased to a powerful thrumming as the ship increased speed, climbing higher.
They're getting away, Wendy thought, horrified. "We've got to stop them!"
Beside her, Tom was shouting for his brother over the comm. Lily had moved back out into the clearing, watching the warship disappear over the thick jungle canopy. Above the clearing, Peter fired his weapon: a small orange beam of energy shot out of the rifle, tearing across the sky toward the fleeing ship.
