I tighten my grip.
And we charge.
CHAPTER 10
ARIA
The wind howls like a dying god, all fury and teeth. I taste iron in the air as Whiplash crouches low, its servos whining against the pressure. Dust grinds against the hull like it wants in, and the world outside has gone all colors of panic—orange lightning, purple haze, the sky bleeding neon as the storm creeps closer.
I’m half-blind from static. Every sensor’s half a second slow, and every breath feels like it’s borrowed.
“Left quadrant, back under the wreckage,” Naull says, voice steady even as the comms crackle. “Bio-signature’s holding, but weak.”
“Trapped?” I ask.
“Looks like it.”
No time to doubt. No time to weigh options. I’ve got seconds, maybe less, to make a call. Because the thing circling us—thatmonster—is still out there, pacing like it’s waiting for us to slip up. One wrong move, and it’ll tear through the dropship, the survivor, and us like we’re tissue paper in a hurricane.
“Can’t take it head-on,” I mutter. “Too fast. Too armored.”
Naull doesn’t argue.
Doesn’t question me. Doesn’t push.
He just nods, like he already knows I’ve got this.
That trust? It’s the realest thing I’ve ever felt.
“Rerouting power from the forward ballast,” I say, hands flying across the controls. “Channeling it through the cable arms.”
“Going for a trap?”
“Damn right.”
I guide Whiplash in a wide arc, dragging the high-voltage cables through the sand. Each line pulses faintly, the energy current building under the surface like a snake coiling for a strike. I cross the terrain twice, loop them into a choke point near the wreckage’s exposed wing. The wind makes visibility garbage, but I trust the readings—and my gut.
This thing’s heavy. Fast, yeah, but it’s a goddamn mountain with legs.
It’ll charge.
Ithasto.
Naull keeps the mech steady while I patch in a feedback circuit and flip the last breaker.
The trap hums. The air sizzles.
And the beast roars.
It moves like a nightmare, all blur and jagged light, slamming across the sand toward us. My heart slams with it. For a second, it feels like we’ve misjudged, like we’re too slow, like the damn thing’s gonna bowl us over before?—
CLANG—KRAKOWWWWWWW?—
The cables light up like lightning rods, the current slamming through the creature’s body. It convulses, limbs jerking, mandibles shrieking against the night. For a split second, the entire world holds its breath.
Then the beast drops.
Hard.
