Kim
The sky overhead is boiling with smoke. Bits and pieces of Chitin rain down on the palace in a clattering downpour.
It’s deafening: the creepy clicking, the whoosh of flames, the crunch of wings and carapaces meeting armor—and thunder in the distance as the Chitin spaceships crash to the ground.
The tide of the battle is turning. A few Chitin ships ascend into the heights, trying to return to space. Sky Fighters hound them, red lightning striking their hulls again and again. Still, Sky Fighters and Aurum warriors have also fallen—streaking comets flaming bright through the enemy swarms as they hurtle from the sky.
“Come on,” I shout to Terral, and race back out to the gun. I aim it at solitary clusters of Chitin, and fire upon the swarms. But I’m really watching the skies. Where is Aurus?
Finally, I spot him. He’s hovering by a spaceship hull, incinerating Chitin at their source. A trio of Sky Fighters swoop at the huge ship, their lasers carving into its hull. It starts shaking. Aurus leans back, and zooms out of the way as it falls. But a huge cloud of insects hover, left by their mothership to die.
The Sky Fighters are gone, following the spaceship down, carving it into smaller pieces. That leaves only Aurus. Huge, gold, armored, armed—and alone. The perfect target.
I’m biting my lip hard. Aurus raises his arms, shooting flames into the enemy above him. Bits of Chitin start raining down on either side of him. Small flashes of gold wink at me through the seething shadow of the insects’ bodies.
“No!” I try to aim, but I don’t want to firebomb him. I’ve got to do something.
I leave my post, and dash for the skimmer.
“Kim!” Terral shouts. “What are you doing?”
“I’ve got to go to him.” I grab the joystick, fingering the lump on my forehead with a wince. The last time I did this, it didn’t end so well. Second time’s the try?
“You cannot!” Terral grabs my ankle and tugs. I keep my hold on the joystick. I could kick him in the face—but I don’t want to hurt him.
“I have to go,” I cry. “He can’t fight them all! There are too many!”
“He is the king! It is his right to fight, to die for us!”
“Not on my watch…” I twist out of Terral’s grip. He overbalances and stumbles backwards, shock seizing his features.
I lean in to the joystick and lift off. The skimmer shoots away from the palace. I angle it to head towards the black cluster that’s surrounding Aurus…
…just in time to watch his armored body plummet out of the bottom of the Chitin cloud, and continue to fall.
* * *
Aurus
My armor’s systems are overloaded. The combination of dust and smoke is too much. The Chitin are directed by a hive mind, which makes them individually stupid. But they are hard to beat when they act as one, each individual sacrificing themselves for an overall victory.
Their main form of attack is to overwhelm an Aurum soldier, jam his suit’s boosters, and let gravity do the rest. Now, several are hovering in the air, ready to feast on my flesh when my body hurtles to the ground.
Not. Going. To. Happen. As my boosters fail, I angle myself backwards and spray fire into the hovering swarm. If I die, I’ll take as many as I can out with me.
I have fought the good fight. I have given my all. For my kingdom. For my people.
My one regret is that I will leave behind my one and only love. My Kim—
“LEEEROOOYYYYY JENKINS!” A fierce cry pierces the air. I twist, my mouth open. There’s Kim, her short hair plastered to her head in the whistling wind, her green eyes wide, and lips stretched with maniacal glee.
“No!” I roar, trying to wave her away a second before I slam onto the skimmer. The platform bucks under my weight, and Kim’s slight body jerks wildly back and forth.
“Whoa!” Only her grip on the controller keeps her from falling off. “Hang on, big guy!” She zooms up, down, around a swarm, then onward into a patch of clear sky, cackling the whole time.
“What are you doing!” I bellow, holding on to the side of the skimmer. This thing is a pleasure craft, not made for warfare. That point is proven when the craft tips in an evasive maneuver, and I promptly topple off it.
“Crap!” Kim shouts, whipping the skimmer around to catch me. I punch through a few Chitin, smashing their wings and incinerating what I can before I land with a thud on the platform once more.
