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Outside, the longer Lex tangled with the drones, the tighter their formations became, and the less room for error he had. He’d only managed to take out ten of them before the shield was taking hits as quickly as it was recharging. The new and improved ship might be faster and more powerful, but it was also a huge target, and the drones were like wasps, packing more of a punch than they had any right to. Without the need for a pilot, they were basically just engines, guns, and shields. That made for a very light, very elusive target. If he didn’t make some progress soon, he was going to be left with no options but to make a mad dash and hope he could outrun them.
As a cluster of the ships aligned for an attack, a sequence of laser blasts from the roof scattered them. Sure enough, the lasers weren’t enough to do any serious damage, but they managed to cause the drones to prioritize, and in the brief confusion, he shot a handful of them down and darted out through an opening.
“How’s the ship holding up?” Karter asked over the com system.
“Little busy,” Lex replied.
“I bet. Listen. In a second, I’m going to be up on the roof. Do me a favor, and don’t let anyone shoot me. I’m going to have something volatile, and I’d like to avoid having my face blown off.”
“I’ll do my best, but my hands are kind of full.”
“Well, your best better be good enough, because we’ve got about a minute-twenty, give or take, before that ship lets loose with a shot that could probably cut a moon in half.”
“No pressure or anything.”
“Most office the lasers have been damages, butter I williams do what I cannon to scatter the focus of the drones,” said Ma.
“Okay . . . thanks,” Lex said, trying to ignore the fact that a malfunctioning AI that couldn’t even speak properly would be firing lasers in his general direction.
Bypass Gemini Page 23