by Tim Marquitz
“That’s a great idea,” she called back, and even she could hear the maniacal tone in her voice.
“Wait, what?” Cabe replied. She knew he was shaking his head, trying to figure out what she meant.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Taj,” Lina begged, knowing damn well that was exactly what Taj planned.
“I wouldn’t call it reckless so much as crazy,” Taj fired back, grinning.
She didn’t give herself time to second-guess her choice as another of the fighters screamed past the outpost’s wall.
Coming in low to do as much damage as possible, the Wyyvan craft was just above the crew’s location. With her advanced optics, she could see the lizard pilot smiling in the cockpit, gleefully desperate to be the one to take out the Furlorians and earn his admiral’s praise.
“Gack that!” Taj called. “Ain’t gonna happen.”
She leapt into the air ahead of the fighter as it fired at the ground where she’d just been.
The smile disappeared from the pilot’s face as he realized what she’d done.
But it was too late.
With the power of her suit flinging her into the air, Taj rose before the craft and just managed to clear its nose as it streaked beneath her. She howled in disbelief that she’d pulled the maneuver off.
Then she screamed in agony as the cockpit clipped her foot and sent her tumbling.
“Taj!” Cabe screamed in her ears. The sound was a blur of indistinct static; her head spun along with her body.
Her stomach did somersaults and the world whipped past her visor, a blur of gray, brown, and red like a swirl of paint slathering across her vision.
She tumbled head over heels as the Wyyvan fighter flew away and Taj found herself in open air, caught up in the wake of the craft, spinning out of control.
“Well, that clearly didn’t work,” Krawg muttered over the comm.
That was an understatement, Taj thought as she struggled to right herself and figure out which way was up.
A second later, she found a marker to gauge her positioning.
Unfortunately, it was another of the Wyyvan fighters, which shrieked toward her, engines roaring.
She caught a glimpse of the pilot as he gaped, clearly wondering how the gack she’d ended up in the air with him.
He didn’t have time to process the scene, let alone react, before he was right on top of her.
He was so shocked that he didn’t even try to shoot her, even though she was a helpless target dead in his sights.
That was a mistake.
Taj twisted as he closed, throwing her entire body into the move.
Her armor responded perfectly, and she slammed into the hull of the fighter just behind where the pilot sat, craning his neck to stare wide-eyed at her through the cockpit’s shielding.
Taj clawed at the metallic hull, but the armor was too thick for her fingers to penetrate.
She growled and thumped against the hull, bouncing as the ship’s momentum threatened to dislodge her. The craft’s tail was coming up behind her; she only had seconds before she collided with it.
Taj knew what would happen then.
If the impact didn’t kill her, it would send her careening out of control. As high up as she was, she didn’t figure the fall would kill her so much as break her apart.
Splat!
She ignored her mind’s sarcastic attempt at humor and pawed at the hull again, desperate to find purchase.
Her fingers found a vent, and she clasped it with all her might.
She thought her shoulder might rip free of its socket as the powered armor caught.
Taj screamed as fire tore the length of her arm, down her shoulder, and across her back, but she held fast.
The fighter pulled up and shot away, the ground hurtling by underneath.
Taj went along for the ride.
“Are you seriously straddling a fighter craft?” Torbon called over the comm.
“Like riding a trrilac,” she answered, although it was anything but.
The giant winged beasts were fast, but they were nothing compared to the speed of a fighter as it circled for another around for another pass.
It hadn’t quite sunk in yet that the pilot had a hitchhiker.
He glanced behind him as the craft banked, most likely thinking he’d whipped past Taj as though she were an insect, but there she clung, not more than a meter behind him.
The pilot gaped, and Taj knew she only had a split-second before instinct took over and the guy made evasive maneuvers to shake her off his ship.
But who the gack trained for melee while piloting a fighter?
This particular Wyyvan sure hadn’t.
He simply stared, unable to comprehend the fact that Taj hung from his hull just behind his cockpit.
She watched the war between reason and insanity going on behind his eyes.
Taj didn’t wait to see which won.
Ignoring the burning pain that had engulfed the entire left side of her body, she triggered the blade on her right forearm. It ejected cleanly, gleaming silver in the sunlight.
The sight of it seemed to spur something in the lizard’s brain and he whipped around in his seat, pawing at the throttle.
He’d finally processed that she was really there, and he needed to shake her off.
She didn’t give him the chance.
Taj swiped her blade in a wide arc, cutting through the shielding at the back of the cockpit.
It gave way easily, metal struts and plastiglas parting in the blade’s wake.
The back half of the canopy creaked and broke loose from the front. It clanged off Taj’s armored back, nearly dislodging her, but she held on.
Nothing was going to stop her now. She’d risked too gacking much to fail.
She heard the pilot screaming over the shriek of the wind and she figured he was begging his compatriots for help, but there was nothing they could do.
Despite the pain that radiated along her side, she yanked hard and pulled herself forward, nearly leaping into the now-open cockpit.
The pilot went to spin the fighter, but he was too late.
Taj sank her blade through his back.
Blood sprayed her visor, and she twisted her wrist as the blade tore through the lizard and slammed into the controls in front of him. Sparks exploded and flashed past her face as she ripped her weapon free of the dead Wyyvan.
Taj howled her victory.
Her jubilation only lasted a second.
The craft whipped to the side, and her grip on the craft slipped.
She hung in open air an instant later, the Wyyvan fighter spinning away in front of her.
“Oh…gack,” she muttered.
“Hold on!” Dent screamed over the comm.
“To what?” she asked, laughing, finding a sliver of amusement in her situation.
It wasn’t the first time she’d been left to gravity’s mercy, dangling in the air over Krawlas’ surface, but she thought for a second it might be her last.
The dusty ground loomed below her as she flew like a rock.
The fighter she’d taken out toppled end over end a distance in front of her. The pilot dead, it would never recover.
She took solace in that as she followed it, the strings of gravity tugging at her.
Then there was a sharp, brilliant flash as the fighter struck the ground.
Her visor dimmed to save her eyes, which she thought was humorous considering it couldn’t do anything to keep her from following the ship down and getting caught up in its explosion.
The flames raced toward her.
Then there was a wall of gray between her and the wreckage.
She slammed hard into something metallic and heard several clangs reverberate through her ears as the impact stunned her.
Her head whirled, and she reached for it to stop the spinning, but she couldn’t move. She was trapped.
Taj started to panic, confusion screaming inside her skull. Dent’s calm voice
came over the comm a moment later.
“I’ve got you,” he told her.
It took her a second to comprehend the words, but the reality of her situation hadn’t yet sunk in.
“You’ve got me?” she asked, having no clue what he meant.
It was only then that she realized she was no longer falling.
She was pinned to the roof of a shuttle, her limbs splayed and stuck to the hull.
“What the…”
“I’ve engaged the magnetic locks in your suit,” the AI explained. “You won’t fall, so just hang tight.”
As if she had a choice.
“You couldn’t have, I don’t know, thought to do that earlier?” she asked.
She could almost hear him shrug over the comm.
“Coordination is the cornerstone of good teamwork,” he answered. “Had you advised me of your plan to tackle a Wyyvan fighter, I might have been able to devise suitable tactics for such a maneuver. But since you didn’t…”
“Gotcha,” she replied with a chuckle. “Advise Dent of the crazy stunt before it happens next time. Noted.”
There was a flash of light somewhere ahead of her and the shuttles veered off, giving her an unobstructed view of another of their shuttles slamming into the side of one of the Wyyvan fighter craft.
The two went up in a flash.
“Two down,” Torbon called out. “Only two more to go.”
“Only,” Cabe growled.
“I was devising a plan to take them out,” Dent started, “but our fearless leader decided she needed to hitch a ride, distracting me.”
If Taj had been able to shrug, she would have, but the magnetic clasps held her tight. “Sorry,” she muttered.
“You almost were,” Cabe complained.
“Yell at me later, Cabe,” she told him. “What are you thinking, Dent?”
“A moment longer,” he answered and went silent.
“Better hurry it up,” Lina advised.
She stood on the ground, ineffectively hurling small-arms fire at the two remaining fighters. One of the ships was headed straight toward the shuttle Taj was locked onto.
Taj’s scanners picked it up, warning lights flashing across the visor.
“Yeah, I’m with Lina,” Taj noted. “I’m not liking being stuck here in the sights of that lizard crawling up my ass.”
Bursts of energy streaked past her as the fighter tried to blow her shuttle out of the sky. The shuttle whipped to the side, barely evading the attack. Taj hissed, seeing the energy blasts sear the air not more than a meter away.
“That was too gacking close,” she whined. “Dent?”
“Almost done,” the AI replied.
“With what?” she asked. She had no clue what he was planning.
“Whatever you’re doing, Dent, you better hurry it up,” Cabe told him over the comm. “The second fighter is closing.”
Taj saw it pop up on her scanner, the other Wyyvan joining the first on her tail.
“Yeah, I agree with Cabe. Hurry!” she said. “Please?” she added.
“There!” Dent shouted. “Got it!”
“Got what?” Taj asked.
She got her answer a second later.
Both fighters dropped into a dive so steep there was no way the move had been natural.
There hadn’t even been time for her to catch her breath before the ships hit the ground and exploded, kicking up of clouds of sand and debris and licking flames behind her.
“I hacked their flight systems,” Dent explained. “It only works at short distances, but with the shuttle’s transmitters to boost the signal, I could gain control of the ships before they could counter my efforts.”
“Good timing,” Taj told him. “I was starting to get a little airsick up here.”
Then the shuttle spun and came in for a landing. The magnetic clamps released as soon as it touched down, and Taj slid off the shuttle’s roof and dropped to the ground.
Her legs wobbled beneath her and she nearly fell, only managing to regain her balance at the last second by leaning against the hull.
Cabe was there a second later, wrapping her in a tight embrace.
“Make nice later,” Torbon growled as the shuttle’s hatch hissed open. “We’ve got to go.” He darted inside, dragging Lina along with him, not giving the engineer time to stop and check on Taj like she wanted to.
“He’s right, as much as it pains me to admit it,” Dent said, ushering the pair inside just ahead of the hulking form of Krawg. “The Wyyvans held off using the last of their anti-aircraft guns, but they’re targeting us with artillery now.”
The crew was barely inside when the hatch started to seal and the shuttle lifted off. They hadn’t even reached seats before it was jetting off across the sandy ground, staying low to evade AA fire.
Taj slumped into a seat with a pained sigh.
Krawg dropped into a seat across from her, his helmet sliding back and disappearing into his suit. He had a broad grin plastered across his furry face.
“You are one insane feline,” he told her.
She grinned.
“A girl’s gotta have a hobby, right?”
“I’ve repositioned two of our destroyers to keep the Wyyvans from sneaking more of their fighters around the planet,” Dent informed them. “I should have thought of it sooner.”
“Not like you’re built for combat,” Lina sympathized.
“Neither are we,” Torbon muttered.
“We’re learning,” Taj shot back.
And they were. It was simply a matter of whether they could stay ahead of the curve. They were battling an army that had experience and numbers, as well as just about every other tactical advantage she could think of.
She understood that it would take everything they had to win out here, and time was running out.
“Let’s get back to the others,” she said. “I need some good, solid dirt beneath my feet for a few minutes so I can think.”
Chapter Seven
After creating a diversion to keep the Wyyvans in the outpost from seeing where the crew departed the shuttle, it dropped them off and returned to where the others were hidden.
The crew rejoined the escaped slaves and returned to the underground network of tunnels they called home.
“This enough solid ground for you?” Torbon asked.
Taj dropped to the hard stone beneath her and smiled up at him, patting the rock. “It’ll do.”
“That was insane!” Rat exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at Taj. “You’re amazing.”
“Don’t encourage her,” Cabe growled at the young female, flopping down beside Taj and grabbing her hand in his. “You scared the gack out of me,” he told her.
“Had to fulfill my quota of excitement for the day,” she shot back, chuckling.
“You did that, and then some,” he said, shaking his head as he pressed his weight against her. “You okay?”
“I hurt like all gack,” she admitted, “but I’m all right. Suit’s scanners say nothing is broken, but I’m gonna be black and blue under my fur for weeks.”
“Better than dead,” Lina sniped, coming over and handing Taj a flask of water. Kal and Jadie flanked the engineer, both standing silently, simply listening to the conversation. Harley and Garr walked up a moment later.
Taj took the flask willingly, finishing it in several large gulps.
“Do you always do things like that?” Rat asked, dropping into a squat as she joined the crew.
“Always,” Torbon answered.
“Pretty much,” Lina said.
“All the gacking time,” Cabe assured her, nodding.
“What they said,” the Ursite added at the end.
Rat chuckled at the chorus of agreement.
Malcolm and Jak came over and joined them, standing alongside Dent, who’d been silently directing the bots to drop off the supplies they’d sneaked into the tunnels while the crew battled the fighters.
“I don’t know whether to pat y
ou on the back or run from you screaming,” Jak joked.
“How about neither?” she shot back. “Both would hurt too much right now.” She rubbed her temple, groaning at the contact. “My brain feels like it wants to crawl out of my ears and eat my eyes.”
“The suit’s built-in med systems will kick in shortly,” Dent assured her. “It’s nothing like the Federation’s Pod-docs, but it will suffice for now. Mild painkillers have been injected into your system, and it should be applying soothing and cooling topical anesthetics to your wounds. You should feel it already.”
Taj nodded. She’d noticed the pain ebbing as she sat there, but she’d never had the opportunity to test the latest upgrades to Dent’s armored suits.
He was always tinkering with them, adding new and better gadgets and changing things. She couldn’t keep up with everything, but she was grateful for them all the same—even if Dent had to activate them remotely because Taj didn’t have a clue what-all the suit could do.
“I’ve never seen anything like what you did,” Rat gushed, still in awe of what had happened.
“I told you we’re here to take our home back,” Taj replied. “I’ll do whatever is necessary.”
“Even if it’s stupid and reckless,” Cabe added.
“It worked, right?” Taj answered, winking at him.
Cabe sighed, pressing against her tighter. “This time.”
“All that matters,” she replied.
“But what do we do now?” Torbon asked. “It’s only a matter of time before the lizards find a new way to gack with us.”
“Stop forcing me to agree with you, Torbon,” Dent told him. “I don’t like it.”
“No one ever does,” he shot back, grinning.
“It’s clear we can’t go straight at them,” Cabe added.
“Did you learn anything on your scouting mission?” Jak asked.
Taj shrugged. “I did, but I’m not sure it will be all that helpful at the moment. I was able to pinpoint most of the artillery units and what’s left of the AA guns. They’re manned by three Wyyvans each, not that it really matters. They’re all set up right in the middle of the main thoroughfares, as we’ve already noted. There’s no taking them out without creating way more collateral damage than I’m comfortable with.”
