Page 9 of When Dragons Play

They each moved through the ferns, careful not to move the plants any more than a light breeze would. They took rotating circles. He was a third of the way around when the familiar whistle of a bird known as a mockingbird on Earth alerted him that Rumor had found Cameo. Relieved, he adjusted his path and carefully made his way back to the group.

Concerned, Laser studied Cameo’s pale face, covered in sweat, and his eyes glazed with pain. He crawled closer and gripped Cameo’s hand. Cameo’s lips moved, but he appeared to be having difficulty pushing the words out.

“You-you’ve got to go... on,” Cameo finally mumbled.

“What is it? Where are you hurt?” he demanded.

Cameo closed his eyes. From the white lines forming around the man’s lips, he was in intense pain. Cameo’s head started to slide to the side before he jerked it back and opened his eyes.

“Take the cylinder... and go,” Cameo wheezed.

“He’s got busted ribs. I think one punctured a lung. From the discoloration, I’d say he has internal bleeding as well. Without his symbiot, he’ll die,” Rumor said.

“No, man. We’ll carry him out,” Timber protested, rocking back and forth. “It’s not that far.”

Laser shook his head. “The terrain is too rough. If it doesn’t kill him, us moving him will.”

Rumor nodded. “Add in the fact that we’re also trapped between two troop transports and a dozen or more sky bikes, we’d be lucky to make it out without any injuries.”

“How about I take one?” Timber asked.

Laser frowned. “Take what?”

Timber gave him a nervous grin and stared down at Cameo. “I take one of the troop transports, pick you up, and fly us out of here?”

Rumor’s scowl deepened, and he shook his head. “How are you going to do that? It’s not like you can just walk up and say ‘Hey, can I borrow this?’ There are security lockdowns, communications between the ships and the guys on the bikes, not to mention a squadron of purple bastards between us and the ship.”

Laser studied Cameo’s pale face. If they didn’t do anything, Cameo would die. If they did something, Cameo could still die. One was a would, the other was a could. He closed his eyes.

What would Trisha do?

Her voice, a ghostly apparition in his mind, flowed through him as if she were sitting beside him.

What are your strengths together? What are your weakness? Turn your weakness to your advantage and don’t be afraid to do the unexpected. When you do something unexpected, even for you, there will be a delay in your enemy’s reaction time. They will have to regroup. Be long gone by the time they do.

He opened his eyes, knowing what he needed to do. There was a risk to the mission and the odds were low, but it was the only chance they had. There was no way they would survive until the V’ager made it to them. They stood a chance if they met the V’ager halfway.

Chapter 5

“Systems are online. How are you coming along?” Timber asked.

“Almost there,” Rumor muttered, his fingers flying across the screen in front of him. “I’ve taken the first troop transport offline. I’m working on the sky bikes. Damn, they aren’t all linked. I’ve got one group disabled, but there are two more to go.”

“We don’t have time. We’ll take care of them as we go,” Timber suggested.

Rumor nodded and rose from the pilot seat. “I’ll man the swing arm.”

Rumor squeezed through the narrow opening between the pilot and co-pilot seat and strode along the corridor, hanging onto the grab rail overhead when the troop transport wobbled as Timber lifted off. He sat in the swing arm, strapped the harness over his shoulders, and pressed the large red button that opened the side of the transport vessel.

Laser fire immediately opened up around him and he fired back. It was a lot harder to hit him as the vessel swung around. He sprayed the ground, seeing the purple bastards running for cover. His eyes scanned the canopy as Timber angled the nose of the vessel down and picked up speed.

“Careful, you don’t want to overshoot them,” he yelled.

“Don’t be a backseat driver. I’ve got this,” Timber hollered back.

Rumor released a burst of fire when several sky bikes rose above the canopy. Twin explosions pulled a whoop of triumph from him before a burst of fire sent him ducking for cover back inside the ship. He cursed not being able to disable the last two groups of bikes, but they needed to leave. The Marastin Dow warship was dispatching several more troop transports.

“Down, Timber. Take us down,” he yelled when he saw the clearing where Laser stood with his arm around Cameo.