“These are only the first shots,” he acknowledges.
The bombs hit the first waves of bugs, and explode. Fire billows among their ranks. A few black bodies rain down, their wings in pieces. Ulfarri soldiers zoom between them, burning the rest of the bits to black dust.
The air fills with that hellish, sulfuric smell. The wind carries the stench. I cough when it hits my face. Each breath burns like I’m sucking in acid. Tiny knives are cutting the insides of my nostrils. I rub my nose.
“And now?” I ask. “There are still more of them.”
“It’s up to the Aurum Army now.”
“Put this thing on manual control,” I order, indicating the gun. “Now.”
“I must program it to override—”
“Do it!” I scream. “Now!”
I swing the gun around and point it at a cluster of Chitin swarming a single Alpha soldier. I aim for the edges of the mass, and shoot a firebomb into them. It explodes. The blast knocks the warrior back, but the Chitin around it all catch fire and fall. The Alpha zooms away.
“Haha, yeah!” I punch the air.
“Well done,” the Beta murmurs.
I grin at him. “I told you I’m a badass.”
His face contorts; he’s staring at something over my shoulder.
“What?” I whirl around. Crap, the Chitin must have realized something was shooting at them. A black cloud of them is coming our way.
“Run!” The Beta grabs me, and we dive for the stairwell. I land hard on the stone, covering my head with my hands.
Something zooms overhead.
“Look!” The Beta gasps.
I’m afraid to, but I peer out of the opening to the stairs as best I can while still keeping cover.
A ship hovers overhead. It’s hardly bigger than a skimmer, with a triangular body and two long prongs sticking out in front. Red light crackles between the prongs. The ship’s hull shimmers with a purplish sheen.
It darts forward, into the Chitin swarm. There’s a crackling sound, and bits of bug start raining down. The stench of sulfur thickens, with an added bitter, burned edge.
Eww, fried bug.
Holding our hands over our mouths, the Beta and I take cover again.
“Who are they?” I shout through my fingers.
“Sky Fighters. The warriors of Altrim have come.”
Altrim—Emma’s kingdom. “Yes,” I growl. “Get ‘em, Khan. Fuck them up.”
Purple ships zig-zag across the sky. They are smaller and faster than the Chitin spaceships, but bigger than the bugs. The red lasers make short work of the black cloud, and then the Sky Fighters cluster around the Chitin’s ships. Red flashes pulse out of their purple hulls, slicing into the black craft. More obsidian bugs pour out of their spaceships, raining down upon the Sky Fighters.
But Aurus’s warriors are ready, flying into the swarm like golden avenging angels. Between the Sky Fighters and the Aurum Army, the Chitin ranks begin to thin.
Both the Beta and I watch from our hiding place.
“Thanks for your help,” I tell him. “I appreciate it. I’m Kim, by the way.”
“I know.” He looks down his narrow nose at me. “The Omega.”
