The Fractured World 5

by David Aries

  “Do you like it? Sylvetty did it,” Casella said.

  “I cannae say it’s me best work,” Sylvetty said, modeling a suit of her own, “but I think it’s pretty good for summat I had to throw together without a furnace.”

  Vay, who had mercifully let Akko go, let out another of her trademark laughs. “Always happy to help, little one. That flimsy metal doesn’t stand a chance against these hands.” She mimed bending a pipe, something I had no doubt she could do with ease.

  Unlike Casella and Sylvetty—Trez too, actually—Vay looked less like a herix cosplayer and more like a raider from Fallout. How much protection the few shards of metal adorning her bare flesh would provide was debatable, but it did look pretty damn cool. I mean, she was wearing the skulls of robots as pauldrons.

  Guess that explains what their armor is made of…

  “And it’s not just our outfits,” Casella said, drawing a blaster. “Trez did lots and lots of tinkering with our weapons.”

  “Did you say weapons?” Trez said as she rushed over, cradling a familiar boombox-sized cannon hanging from her side with a strap. “Have a look at this bad boy. Two days it took, but it’s as good as new and ready to rip up any fucker who thinks it stands a chance.”

  “Impressive,” I replied. “It’s almost a shame you won’t get to show it off.”

  Trez’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah…”

  “Can you not say stuff like that?” Akko squeaked, eyes scouring the sky. “You’re going to jinx it.”

  “Jinx or not, we should move soon,” Faris warned. “We shouldn’t risk a repeat of last time.”

  “Fair point,” I replied. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they were preparing the metaleaters as we speak.”

  There was no sign of them, but how long would that last?

  “How are we going to do this?” Demi asked. “I can’t help noticing this vessel is smaller than Bogdan’s, on top of less-equipped.”

  “Aye,” Sylvetty said, pinching her nose. “And it reeks too.”

  Vay laughed. “Smells like my team’s laundry hamper after a workout.”

  Akko retched. “Did you have to say that?”

  Demi ignored the sideshow and peered into the open ship. “I’d be surprised if you could fit ten people in here.”

  “That sounds about right,” I replied. Four of us and Rocket had been one tight fit.

  She seemed glad to be back in the open.

  “Less than ten?” Keith said. “Then it’s obvs who we’re sending. Right, bro? You and your mates have gotta get first dibs.”

  “Huh?”

  “Come on, dude. We totally talked about this before. Of course it’s gotta be you guys.”

  “He’s right,” Aya said, back to her tearless best. “After everything you’ve done, it would feel weird if you didn’t go first.”

  “I’d feel abased jumping the line ahead of those I’m so indebted to,” Eret said.

  “Agreed,” Demi said. “All we herixes owe you a great gratitude. It would be an honor to watch you go ahead.”

  “You saved my Keith,” Millith said as she clung to her man. “You saved me. Now it’s time you saved yourselves.”

  My mouth hung open even though I didn’t know what to say. I’d always done what I thought was right rather than looking for anyone’s approval. Hearing how much my deeds meant to people I was proud to call friends… honestly, it made my cheeks burn.

  I wasn’t the only one looking a little sheepish; an awkward aura drifted from my mates.

  Most of my mates.

  Vay chuckled. “I can’t help but feel I’m taking advantage of other people’s hard work.”

  “Then stay,” Faris said.

  “And let my man skip this planet without me? Never!”

  Switch that for me leaving any of my girls behind, and you had the same answer.

  Demi crossed her arms. “Besides, it’s not like we’re telling you to escape and leave us. We’re expecting you to find help. If anything, we’re lumbering another responsibility onto your shoulders.”

  I grinned. “Honestly, knowing I’m being worked to the bone is much easier to handle than everyone praising me.” I swallowed my embarrassment and stared straight ahead. “Don’t worry, we’ll find help. Just hold tight. We’ll have this place covered in rescue teams by this time—”

  “Beep boop,” DD said. “I hate to interrupt, Master Brandon, but I am afraid I sense a large power surge above this location.”

  And, just like that, our feel-good mood shattered.

  “What?!” a medley of voices responded.

  “In just under ten minutes, this location will be destroyed,” DD continued.

  A burning rage ripped through my insides like a roaring dragon. I clenched my hands into fists as I stared at the sky.

  This again?!

  Not this time, you bastards.

  “Everyone, run!” I ordered before twisting around. “Come on, girls. We’re going.”

  Nobody argued; my mates rushed into the ship while the rest fled with the mounts.

  “Master Brandon,” DD said. “Please, allow me to come along. I know you have reser—”

  I grabbed DD and dragged her aboard. “I’ve got a lot of things, but we don’t have time.” We could argue about android morality when there wasn’t a cannon charging above our heads.

  As predicted, eight of us made for a tight fit. It was standing-room only, with Trez taking the pilot’s seat.

  “Hang on,” she said as she powered the shuttle up and took us into the sky.

  “Bleeding heck!” Sylvetty replied as she clung to the back of Trez’s seat and stared through the window. “We’re fecking flying!”

  “I don’t want to point out the obvious,” I replied, crammed in the middle of the cabin, “but you can already fly.”

  “Aw, shut it, ya bleeding eejit. Obviously, this is different. We’re flying in a fecking wingless bird.”

  “You ain’t seen shit yet,” Trez replied. “Shields online. Stabilizer fields online.” The floor started to glow. “Brace yourselves, gang. This is about to get bumpy.”

  It was time to get moving.

  Trez dragged the ship back so the nose was pointing straight up, yet none of us took a tumble. The floor held us in place, even after the engine kicked in and we shot forward. Up and up we ascended, far higher than Sylvetty’s wings could venture or I’d traveled previously in one of these vessels. Blue sky and clouds raced by so fast they blurred into one.

  We had to be moving at some ridiculous speed, but I hardly felt it. At worst, it was like riding shotgun in some shitty car going sixty on a gravel road.

  Akko squealed as the ship vibrated. “You’re going too fast!”

  “Nothing’s too fast when there’s a laser pointing our way,” Trez replied. “Now get ready, we’re about to punch through the atmosphere.”

  “Already?!” I said.

  How fast is this ship?!

  It could seriously have been going a million miles an hour, and it wasn’t like we were riding some top-quality machine. This was pretty much the space version of a lifeboat.

  Damn, the universe is incredible.

  It was time to really experience it.

  There was no mistaking when we hit the aerosphere. A ball of fire engulfed our shuttle that started trembling twice as hard.

  “Are you sure this will hold?!” I asked over the commotion.

  “Since when am I suicidal?!” Trez replied. “Any second now!”

  True to her words, we punched through the wall of fire and arrived on the other side.

  My mouth fell open.

  We’ve… we’ve made it.

  After so much hard work, after so many months of struggle, we’d finally made it to outer space—we’d finally swapped our fractured prison for the endless kingdom of star-jotted darkness we’d spent many a night admiring.

  Sylvetty pretty much pushed Trez aside so she could stuff her face into the window. “Bleeding strewth! We�
��re seriously in space.”

  Vay laughed. “You sound so uncivilized.”

  “Aw, feck off. Cannae a girl be surprised without being judged? I never thought I’d see nothing like this, nor did I know it’d be so bonny.”

  Beautiful was right. I’d been in orbit before, not to mention gotten a pretty good view from Ulium, but that couldn’t be compared to this. Sure, it was the same glitter and jewel laden canvas I usually pined for, but it was somehow different. Back then, it was like a pretty picture in a gallery. Now? Well… it was freedom embodied.

  Maybe not the big glowing metal moon preparing to fire at The Core part, but the rest had that symbolism down to a T.

  Akko covered her face. “We’ve done it…”

  Trez shrugged. “Well, duh. Where did you think we were gonna end up?”

  “Be quiet. I just… I was sure something would…”

  “Oh, Akko,” Casella said as she rubbed Akko’s back.

  “What a splendid scene,” DD remarked, seemingly about space rather than Akko. “I never thought I would get this chance. You have my thanks once again, Master Brandon.”

  I smirked like a cool customer… so I could hide how much I was freaking out inside. “We’re not done yet. Everyone is counting on us. Trez, get us—”

  The main console started beeping.

  “What’s that din?” Sylvetty said as she tossed her head from side to side.

  Trez dragged her out of the way. “That, my friend, is shit hitting the fan.”

  The window lit up. It highlighted an incoming swarm with red outlines, like they were enemies from some video game.

  However, these monsters were very real.

  They came in two varieties: stubby drones and big hungry metaleaters. The latter surged forward while the former opened fire, testing their lasers against our shuttle’s shield.

  “Shit!” Trez said as she took evasive action.

  “They sent robots to stop us,” Akko said. “Of course they sent robots to stop us.”

  I snarled.

  Yeah, there was never any chance of them making this easy, was there?

  “DD!” I said. “Any idea what we’re up against?”

  “Apologies, Master Brandon,” she replied as the world outside spun, even as we stayed upright. “I am unaware of what defensive capabilities the orbital stations possess.”

  “It looks like a fecking lot to me!” Sylvetty screamed as a metaleater came rushing from our eleven.

  Trez swerved, curving us beneath the robot’s path.

  “A lot?” she said, scoffing. “No, no, no. This ain’t nearly enough to stop me. Just you watch; I’m gonna blow this joint.”

  There wasn’t much else we could do. My zerrin’s power didn’t mean much when I was stuck in a tin tub without so much as a turret.

  Our lives were in Trez’s hands.

  More metaleaters rushed to join in on the fun, coming from all angles as a barrage of lasers rained down upon us.

  Trez didn’t let it slow her down. She powered on ahead, zigzagging left and right, up and down—whatever it took to keep us from becoming scrap.

  The metaleaters came in droves, as did the lasers, but they couldn’t touch Trez or our shuttle. She zipped between their attacks like lightning jumping between invisible rods. When they went one way, she went the other, and then another after that before they knew what was going on.

  I gawked the whole time as we were tossed to and fro without our feet leaving the ground.

  “You’re… amazing,” Faris said before I had the chance to do so.

  Trez laughed. “Well, duh. Didn’t I tell you I knew how to drive? I’m an ex-pirate; I built my first ship from scratch.” She pulled us into a barrel roll that spiraled around a pillar of lasers and their drone sources. “For me, this much is nothing.”

  Any skepticism I’d had earlier was blown away. Exhilaration replaced the fear in my chest.

  Go on, Trez! You can do it!

  Trez definitely wasn’t in the mood to stop. She pulled off tricks I didn’t even know you could in a spacecraft as she bombed forward.

  “Look!” Casella said, pointing forward. “We’re almost there!”

  Only a few drones remained.

  “You guys seriously think you stand a chance?” Trez said. “In your fucking dreams.” She approached the robot’s last defensive line in a huge spiral, forcing the drones to try and keep up.

  A bunch of low-rent robots? No chance.

  Trez tied their lasers in knots and zipped past with ease, putting us on a collision course with the boundless wilderness of open space.

  “Booyah!” she cheered, throwing her arms in the air.

  I wanted to cheer myself, but I needed a moment to process that we’d seriously won—that no more obstacles waited ahead.

  Vay shook Trez’s shoulders. “Way to go, little one!”

  “We did it!” Akko screeched. “We did it!”

  “Are ya fecking serious?” Sylvetty said. “It’s finally done?”

  “You betcha,” Trez replied before waving behind her. “So long, suckers.”

  I exhaled. “Trez… you were brilliant,” I would have liked to have said something more poetic, but I was still dazed.

  She looked back with a grin. “As usual. Now how about we start discussing my payment for totally saving the day? I was thinking at least a month’s worth of private massages, if you get my—”

  “Hard left, now,” DD said.

  “Huh?!” Trez replied.

  I tensed and pointed ahead. “Look out!” Where there should have been nothing emerged a faint yellow glow.

  Trez turned the ship as hard as she could, but it wasn’t quite enough. The side of our shuttle smashed into the wall of light, propelling us away from the freedom we sought.

  If it hadn’t been for our ship’s shields, that could have been the end of us.

  “What the feck was that?!” Sylvetty yelled once the shuttle was done rocking us about.

  “That’s what I wanna know!” Trez snapped back.

  “It appears to be some sort of forcefield,” DD remarked.

  My eyes agreed. I was still something of a sci-fi noob, but how else could we explain the light barrier we were cruising alongside?

  “A forcefield?” Akko squeaked. “Nobody said there’d be a forcefield!”

  DD curtsied. “My most sincere apologies, Lady Akko. I should have foreseen his development. It has been clear since the start that we are not dealing with amateurs.”

  “That’s not important,” I replied. “How do we get through?”

  “With our current capabilities, I believe that to be impossible.”

  My heart sunk as my mouth fell open.

  Impossible? That can’t be.

  We didn’t come all this way to be stopped here!

  Explosions rocked us from the side.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” Trez said as she powered our trembling shuttle forward. “Won’t these damn bots fuck off?!”

  Trapped or not, our enemies weren’t ready to show mercy. A combination of lasers and metaleaters chased us down, ready to get some revenge for Trez embarrassing them.

  She still had the skills to dodge, but what did that matter if we had nowhere to escape?

  “This can’t be the end!” Vay said through gritted teeth. “I won’t let it!”

  “Me neither,” I said. “DD, there has to be something we can do.”

  “There is indeed, Master Brandon” she replied. “I do believe the closest station to be the headquarters for this operation. If the controls for this forcefield are to be located anywhere, it shall be there.”

  I did get a hint that the big cheese running this show was the one who’d blown up Ulium. It made sense he was the same one aiming for The Core.

  If the light show coming from the nearby ‘moon’ was any indication, he was still preparing to fire.

  “Are you saying we have to blow it up?” I said.

  “With what weapons?”
Faris asked.

  “You misunderstand,” DD said. “I am suggesting we board HQ and deactivate the forcefield from within.”

  I flinched. “We can do that?!”

  “Fuck no!” Trez replied, eyes locked on her dogfight. “How are we supposed to get inside?”

  “It is not as if they will open their doors for us, yes?” Casella said as she held onto me, each jiggle of our ship sending her swaying back and forth.

  “Exactly! If you ain’t noticed, they’re trying to kill us.”

  “Ohh,” Akko whimpered. “I don’t want to die…”

  “There is a way,” DD said. “In a little over a minute, HQ’s orbital cannon will fire. Once the attack is complete, the cannon shall remain exposed for 42.68 seconds. I do believe that should be more than enough time to infiltrate through that location.”

  For a moment, I was stunned into silence… as was everyone else. It took a few seconds for me to finally ask, “Trez, could that work?”

  “It’s… maybe?”

  “I assure you it is possible,” DD said. “However, we must be quick; there is now less than a minute until the cannon is scheduled to fire.”

  And we weren’t exactly on top of the satellite, nor was it unguarded. Between us and it was all the robots we’d sidestepped once.

  “Trez, what do you think?” I asked.

  She bit her bottom lip. “I wouldn’t say I’m a gambler, but if it’s this or get snuffed… fuck it!” She changed directions, taking us from weaving near the barrier’s edge to charging down our enemy's headquarters.

  And into the belly of the beast.

  An entire army of robots were waiting for us. The metaleater vanguard rushed forward while the drone rear support peppered the area with lasers.

  Trez did her thing; she weaved back and forth around various attacks in a showcase that put every movie pilot I’d ever seen to shame. None of them could have transformed our cheap metal shuttle into a dancer pirouetting through space the way Trez did.

  Yet it wasn’t enough.

  Object after object slammed into our twirling ship, almost driving me off my feet on more than one occasion.

  “Shield integrity decreasing!” Casella read off the computer. “Now at forty-nine… forty-six percent!”