by Erica Rue
The man’s lip curled in anger, but Lithia didn’t care. There would be a reckoning when the battle for the Marauder was over.
Soon after, the Ficaran Flyers showed up, Oberon co-piloting one of them. Apparently the threat was dire enough that Victoria had relented and let him use a Flyer. More likely, she didn’t know, and he was piloting this craft under her nose.
She and Bel squeezed in with Cora and her maximute. The other Flyers each took a maximute on board. Without ceremony, Oberon closed the shuttle and took off.
He spoke without turning to look at them. “One of the lookouts in the woods sent a warning. It gave us some time to get prepared, but the Vens are already there. If we hadn’t known to look for them… I just hope we’re not too late.”
Lithia felt a strained hum as Oberon pushed the Flyer to its limits, so it was no wonder that they beat the others to the battlefield. They landed a short distance from the fight, but close enough that when the Flyer opened, they were met by shouts and gunfire. A howl pierced the air, as Canto welcomed Cora’s maximute to the fight.
Lithia held a real gun in her hand this time, one recovered from the Green Cloaks. It felt heavier than her stun rifle, even though it was just a handgun.
She stood, ready to follow Cora on her maximute out onto the battlefield, but the second the light hit her, all of the sounds—the yelling, the cracks of gunfire—grew impossibly loud. She struggled to breathe. She leaned against the shuttle’s frame and coughed, trying to catch her breath. Her head grew fuzzy, and nausea overwhelmed her. Leaning was no longer enough. She sank to the ground and turned all her focus onto breathing.
Not another battle. She couldn’t do it. She wasn’t built for it.
Get up, a voice inside her screamed.
“Lithia?” Bel was by her side. “Oberon, I think she’s having a panic attack.”
Lithia shook her head. This wasn’t a panic attack. She was fine. She just needed a second, and she’d be fine. She tried to tell them, but she couldn’t get the words out. The other Flyers were arriving now, each setting down at the edge of the battlefield.
“Go on,” Bel said to Cora, who had hesitated when Lithia fell to the ground. “We’ll be right behind you.”
“Leg’s asleep,” Lithia managed, as she put all of her mental effort into breathing in, then breathing out, each breath slower and more controlled than the last. “Just need a minute.”
“Bullshit,” Bel said. “You’re panting. You can’t even stand. Stay here. We don’t need you getting yourself killed.”
Oberon was by her side now, picking up the gun that she had been holding. “It’s okay to sit this one out,” he said. “No one doubts you or your bravery.”
Lithia took several deep breaths as she listened to Bel and Oberon talk.
“Where is he?” Bel asked. “I don’t see him.”
“Zane’s inside the Marauder,” Oberon replied.
“You’re kidding! That stupid…” Bel’s words were unintelligible as she ran toward the fray.
“Stay put. Don’t get yourself killed. I’ve got to keep an eye on Zane and Bel.” With that, Oberon was off.
Tears stung at the corners of her eyes, and her chest felt tight again.
Get it under control, that same internal voice said.
Even though she dreaded not being able to see what was going on, she closed her eyes and counted out her breaths. In for two, out for two. Then three, and four, and five, until she was back under control.
She stood slowly, but felt shaky on her feet. She had no weapon. She would be useless in the fight, and as much as she wanted to help, she couldn’t. Every time she started walking toward the others, she stopped short, her chest gripped by some invisible squeezing hand. After minutes, she had only advanced a few meters.
She couldn’t do it. Her body was refusing to cooperate. Her body was rejecting her mind’s greatest desire, to kill the Vens.
Burning alongside her hatred for the Vens was rage at her own impotence. These monsters who had maimed and killed so many would accomplish their goal. Fly off, send a message to their kin, and rain down more death on Kepos. Fear locked her muscles even as she tried to will herself, then coax herself forward.
She failed. But maybe she could help in another way. As long as she kept her distance, she could breathe.
For the first time since landing, she took stock of the battle. The two dozen surviving Vens had their armor on, protecting their back plates, but they were also closely packed in formation, holding what looked like shields, as green as they were. Since when did the Vens use shields? Where had they gotten them?
Realization hit her as suddenly as her panic had. Their shields must have been fashioned from Ven plating, and where else would they have found that much plating than their dead? Had they truly looted the bodies of their brethren to create these shields?
Of course they would have no qualms about defiling their dead. They barely cared about preserving their own lives, let alone the bodies of their fellow Vens. It also explained why they had taken so long to arrive here, considering their head start.
They advanced slowly and steadily, careful not to break rank. It made them an easy target, but a powerful one. These were not the Ven tactics of the vids, but this was not a typical situation. Destroying their comms had significantly impacted their behavior. Now they had a new goal. It was no longer kill everything in sight. The Vens had to board the Marauder and restore the signal. Maybe even flee. Whatever their motivation in attacking colonies, it was only as good as their ability to share their experiences.
She couldn’t let them broadcast the location of Kepos to more Ven ships. Lithia would prefer if the colonists didn’t have to rely on the Icon to protect them against more of the invaders.
Lithia watched the battle rage around the mass of Vens, which easily stood a head taller than the human defenders. With their added shielding nothing could break through. The defenders didn’t have a chance. The Aratians and Ficarans tried to draw out individual Vens, but their prior lapse in communication had been remedied. They were all of one mind, growling together in rhythmic steps toward their goal.
They’re almost at the Marauder, Lithia thought. They’d moved through the defenders like a plow through a field. They were slow like this, but unstoppable, and far more deadly. Anyone who approached the column received a heavy blow to the head or abdomen. Though she was far away, she thought she could still hear the cracking of bones after each swing.
As the Vens approached the ship, the fighters’ cries and charges became more frantic.
She saw a woman with a long, dark ponytail stand right before the Ven formation, firing a sidearm at close range into the green mass. Victoria. After a couple of shots, one near the front fell. Victoria stepped back, maintaining a consistent distance between herself and the Vens. Another Ven near the front stumbled. Victoria paused to reload her weapon, and suddenly, in a horrible, synchronized movement, the entire formation darted forward. One of the forerunners swung with its club, and Victoria crumpled to the ground.
A cry of anguish rose up from the defenders, but none of their efforts made a dent in the armored, green mass.
Lithia paced, fingertips at her temples. Even if she had the means to run in guns blazing, the last several people to do that were now lying on the ground, probably dead.
They must not get to the Marauder, she thought. They cannot get to the Marauder. She squeezed her eyes closed. Think! They cannot get to the Marauder… if the Marauder doesn’t exist.
She opened a channel to Oberon, Bel, and Zane.
“Zane, can you fly the Marauder and have Sam destroy it?”
“I’ve been in here for hours trying to figure out how to do just that without triggering any fail safes,” he said.
“And we can’t blow up the ship?”
“No,” Zane said. “I’ve already told you, this isn’t some vid or holo. Self-destruct buttons aren’t a thing.”
“Understood. Is there
some way to ruin the ship? So they can’t fly it or use it to communicate?”
“Probably, but it will take more time than we have,” he replied. “Dione and Brian tripped some fail safe in here when they disabled the transmissions array, and I don’t want to rush and make things worse.”
Worse? Lithia didn’t think it could get much worse, but she was done arguing with Zane. That left one option. She wasn’t entirely sure she could pull it off, but she didn’t see an alternative.
“Zane, get out of there! Get everyone out now!”
She reentered the Flyer, empty except for her, and strapped in. She checked the emergency equipment, then did some quick math with the Flyer’s help. If she crashed into the Marauder, it would be grounded, just like the Calypso.
“Lithia, what are you doing?” Bel shouted through her manumed.
“Helping,” she replied, cutting Bel off. She needed to prepare.
You’ll die. The thought came from the part of her brain that had kept her from running into the battle. The part that whispered her mortality into her ear over and over.
“Not today,” she muttered to herself. “The math works out. I’ll survive if I eject at the right time.”
As she lined up her trajectory, she factored in the people on the battlefield. She wouldn’t want to hit any of them. She’d need to make sure they were also out of the potential “splash zone.” Maybe the Vens would be close enough that she could clip them on her way in.
Lithia’s hands froze in the middle of their work.
The fighters couldn’t make a dent in the Vens because they were in an impenetrable formation. If she broke their ranks, the fighters and maximutes could do their job.
She’d love to just drop a giant boulder on them, or blow them up with a case of flaminaria, but those were not viable options at the moment. She had only the shuttle, which she needed to be inside.
The Vens were like a battering ram, but so was she. Why destroy the castle when she could wreck the siege weapon? She could slam straight into them instead of the Marauder and eject, but that was even riskier than crashing into the ship. They were a smaller target, so she’d have to eject later. She ran the calculations.
She wouldn’t be able to eject at all. In order to ensure she would hit her target, she couldn’t leave the controls. She glanced once more at the Marauder, weighing her options. She knew what the better choice was.
She’d crashed these Flyers before. Several times, actually. The first time, the initial crash on Kepos, she’d gotten control back in time to moderate the speed quite a bit. When she’d skidded into the Ficaran hangar to rescue Dione, she’d also had a lot of control over speed. The lake hadn’t really counted, since they had hovered over the water before abandoning ship. Rest in peace, Nate, she thought.
In every prior instance, she had been trying to mitigate the effects of the crash on the shuttle. Not this time. She took the shuttle up without another moment’s hesitation.
“Sam?”
There was a several-second delay. “Yes?”
“I know you’re weak, but make sure that my message gets through to everyone out there on the battlefield. Can you do that?” She took the Flyer up several meters into the air, just to get their attention.
“I… yes,” Sam replied.
“Broadcast this message: ‘Everyone, stand clear of the Vens! Make a path and give them room. Get back!’” she shouted. She saw confusion, hesitation, and finally compliance as they looked up to the Flyer in the air.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Bel shouted through her manumed. “We talked about this. It’s not worth it!”
“I’m not suicidal, Bel. This is going to work. Just get the maximutes ready to move in,” Lithia replied. Her mother’s voice popped into her head, reminding Lithia of her oft-repeated admonishment: Brave and stupid share the same hospital bed.
28. LITHIA
If it had been possible to rev a Flyer’s engine, Lithia would have. Instead, she dropped back to ground level, plotting her course carefully, making sure she hadn’t missed any changes in elevation. While a dive bomb might look more impressive, speeding along the ground, just meters above the earth, was a far more difficult maneuver.
But Lithia had more than acquired flying skills. She had an innate ability and acumen that she had been honing through practice, in sims and in actual flight. She took care to angle the shuttle to minimize the damage impact would have on her and the craft while still preparing a powerful punch for the Ven formation. She had never done this in a real craft before, but she felt confident as she accelerated straight toward the armored column.
Then, she crashed.
Straight into their formation. It was like running into a wall. She had certainly killed a few, but the sudden deceleration had truly tested the shuttle’s safety restraints. She shouted in pain.
Oberon’s panicked voice crackled out from her manumed. “Lithia, are you okay?”
She panted. “Still… in one… piece,” she said between shallow breaths.
It was as if a white-hot poker had been shoved into her side. It was hard to breathe again, but this time it was because every deep breath she drew was accompanied by searing pain.
She tried to unfasten the safety restraints, but they were stuck. She tried to move and loosen her prison, but the second she strained against them, her ribs screamed in agony. She had certainly broken one or two. She was trapped, though she wouldn’t have been any use in battle in her condition.
She watched the camera feeds to see what was going on. The late afternoon had faded quickly into evening, and it was getting hard to see what was happening.
Her gamble had worked, from what she could tell. The Vens had been scattered and disoriented. Many had even been killed. Even from inside her metal stronghold, she heard a maximute howl. Several others echoed the cry, and at first Lithia thought it had been Canto rallying the Aratian maximutes. Then, in the dying light, she made out a few massive, dog-shaped shadows bounding out of the forest toward the fray.
“Wild maximutes,” she mumbled to herself. Now that the Vens were scattered, the furry beasts would be able to attack with ease. Apparently, the maximutes had been waiting in the wings until the opportune time. Dione had mentioned that wild maximutes had saved them once before, when they were looking for the professor.
Dione. What was her friend doing now? Was she in the middle of her own battle?
She could take this Flyer right now and rescue Dione. The thought energized her, and she ran a few checks.
She could probably—
She winced in pain. No, she couldn’t. This Flyer would need serious repairs, and Victoria wouldn’t let her so much as look at one after this. Better to wait it out and see if the Aratians would lend her theirs.
As much as she hated being trapped, she was glad to be out of the battle. She’d been surrounded by so much fighting and killing and dying that she didn’t know how much more she could take. The chaos felt manageable from inside her broken metal box. She might be stuck, but she could still keep an eye out with the cameras. It was getting dark, but the cameras showed her the battle as clear as day.
It looked like her side was winning, thanks in large part to the maximutes. They were tearing apart the Vens, who lacked the numbers and coordination to efficiently take on the giant beasts. The Vens had planned for maximutes, but not for maximutes in combination with her shuttle.
When the last Ven fell, she didn’t hear shouts of victory. Instead, she saw men and women going around with pila blades, systematically and decisively killing the last of the Vens on Kepos. They had learned well.
Something inside of her relaxed, a tension she hadn’t realized had been there. Was it possible that the Vens were all truly dead? Were they really safe?
“Open up,” Bel said from her manumed.
Lithia groaned as she reached for the release. Her relaxed feeling was giving way to a weak feeling. The adrenaline was wearing off.
Bel
, Oberon, and Zane poured into the shuttle. Cora was conspicuously absent, but Lithia was surprised to see Jai with them. He cut her harness carefully with his pila blade.
Her newfound freedom felt good, yet everywhere the harness had touched her was tender. When she stood up, the room swam a little. She took Jai’s outstretched hand for support as she got her bearings.
Oberon frowned at her. He opened his mouth as if to berate her, but sighed instead. No one spoke as he looked her over. “Damage report.”
Lithia cracked a smile, careful not to laugh. He finally got her. No doubt there’d be some lecture later, but she had no regrets. She’d done what was necessary.
“Bruises from the restraints. Cracked ribs, probably, but I can breathe okay. It just hurts.”
“You’re still an idiot,” Bel said.
“That makes two of us, where the Vens are concerned,” Lithia replied.
“You may be an idiot, but you’re one hell of a pilot,” Zane said. “Who even thinks of doing that?”
“I appreciate that, Zane,” she replied. “Mind if I list you as a reference once we get out of here?”
She forgot herself and laughed, then winced, leaning on Jai a bit more. They led her out of the shuttle, where a few curious Ficarans watched. A couple even clapped as she made her way out.
She was not the only one injured, but the death toll was astonishingly low. Some of the injuries would likely prove fatal in the coming hours. Victoria had already been taken back to the Mountain Base along with the other gravely wounded. Apparently the Vens had one-track minds. At the Field Temple and Vale Temple, all they did was kill. Here, they were only trying to get back to their ship, and they almost succeeded.
Theo handed her a drink, its steam visible in one of the Ficaran spotlights that had been erected for nighttime work.
She took a whiff. It smelled medicinal, and she recalled the last time she’d had some. Her ankle had healed in no time. Her ribs might need a few extra days, though. Everything was agony when she closed her eyes, but she closed them anyway. The conversation was moving too fast for her to follow, leaving her with her own thoughts.