I target Aidathrin’s aft engines.A single shot right up the core should cause it to overheat and shut it down, without a detonation.
Switching to short-range missiles, I send one right up its ass, then bank around the belly of the ship, take out another shield generator, and expose the guns to space. I target every one I can and press Fire, holding my finger down as I swerve toward the front of the massive ship, laying down a trail of fire that ripsopen the belly. It shuts down the rest of the shield, and I don’t hesitate to try a new type of barrel roll.
Maybe I have a death wish. I shouldn’t, but the real possibility that Evo is gone, that our time together was so brief, wrecks all remaining reservations I have left. I wind up and over the warship like a corkscrew and fire at everything that glows and isn’t Titan. Aidathrin spews parts into space, and clouds of bodies and gases fill the darkness.
I try not to care. They have taken everything from me. But I do not enjoy feeling like a monster, not deep down.
I just have to be one today.
Raven’s voice comes over the coms a little crackly. “I’m hit, but they’re out.BlazeStarandAegisare free. Net up andjump, bitches!”
“Net open, Nebula,” Esthi calls out.
Navi’s voice joins in. “Net open, Tharsiiren.”
“Net open, Gargresk,” Raven calls out.
“Rebels, portals open,” Kelta says. “Blinking blue.”
A small Rebel ship zips through the space with a flashing blue pattern in its lights. It glides over a Rebel ship, and the vessel vanishes. Rebels disappear all around the nebula. Esthi and the Relics in Scythe collect Titans in a blue gravity beam, dodging enemy fire, and I realize no one has claimed Aidathrin’s remaining Titans for jump.
I clear the stars of every fighter I can as I make my way back to the warship. “Aera, Local: Aidathrin Titans, I have no net, but I will carry who is left.”
A bunch of clicks rattle my earcom with such a horrid popping sound that it makes me cringe. I understand now why Evo doesn’t want me connected to the telenet in its entirety.
I’ve got quite a few Titans to pick up.
Dodging a missile from a cruiser makes me miss the first sweep. I grit my teeth and whip back around for them. “One second, have to deal with a little shit head.”
I circle around the warship, target the cruiser, and send my last long-range missile at it, then fire a set of short-range missiles for good measure. “Coming in hot. Swinging low. Ramp dropping.”
Igniting the sealscreen, I tap the Lower Ramp command and hit reverse thrusters. I glide in over the warship’s hull and slow my pace as much as I can.
Thumps of boots on the hull and inside the ship make me glance back. Titans pour into the ship, helping catch each other.
“Are we good?” I call back.
“Go!” A dark unit with a white digibadge, Wraith, shouts up at me.
I close the ramp and set the rear engines at full throttle as I chase after Kelta’s portal ship.
“Kelta, Aera. Do you copy?”
A series of white-hot missiles spray around my ship from hers. The rear view screen whites out as something behind us explodes.
“You’re my last pick up. Hurry.”
The nose of Kelta’s ship brightens, and I pray we’ll fit through the ink net beneath her ship before she jumps. I pray we end up where the others are. Mostly, I pray I don’t fail these Titans too.
I’m sorry, Evo.
I love you.
Black ink swallows us as Kelta’s ship coats in blue light. And we punch out into a new area of the galaxy.
Ahead of us is the goldenBlazeStarand the chrome Rogue shipAegis, shining among Rebel fighters still gathering up in the fleet from the portal ships. Kelta’s ship pops into space beside us.
“Whew,” Kelta remarks. “That was a close one.”
