Chapter 23
"Got it." Violet hefted the large block like she was going to hand it off. Then she glanced at Lily and me and frowned. She seemed to realize she was going to be stuck carrying it as she worked to get it into a more comfortable position.
"Just down through here?" I asked, and the AI bobbed her head, her tails swaying behind her.
"Now you just need to remember how helpful I was." She gestured at herself. "I'm so helpful, you should be on my team when the helivore tries to kill me."
Violet wasn't listening to her ramble. Her new beam saber lit up a clear orange before she slashed three times, cutting a large triangular section from the floor.
The metal fell and thumped on the level below.
Violet pulled her arms in close and jumped down, only for blasters to open fire from both directions down the hallway.
I quickly learned that she had been holding back all the other times I had watched her fight.
She moved too fast for my eyes to track, her saber flitting over her shoulder.
The only part of her that was visible was an orange and purple blur below me as blaster bolts flew back the way they came.
She stood up for a moment and disappeared a second later.
Lily jumped down next, every inch the predator that she was, landing with her fingernails scraping on the metal before she launched herself toward the exit.
I paused and glanced at the wide-eyed, hopeful AI beside me. "Thank you."
Her tail swished. "You know, the best way to thank me would be—" but she was cut off as I, too, jumped into the hole.
My rifle came up to my shoulder as I dropped to one knee and glanced in both directions.
I spotted Violet with five men wounded and moaning on the ground on one side, and on the other was Lily, standing alone, a black mycelial mass growing not far from her as she buffed her nails on her chest.
"Let's go, Captain." Lily tilted her head.
Without another thought, I lowered the rifle and raced after her as she led us back out into the mine and up to the dig site. Violet shot past me a moment later, and before I could even see the sunlight, I could hear the blasters firing as she raced out ahead.
When I turned the corner and saw the light, Violet was nothing more than a silhouette flickering back and forth, her saber deflecting blasts.
Lily came up behind her, ducked under the swinging saber, and threw herself twenty feet into the air.
I wasn't nearly as bold, dropping as soon as I saw soldiers in the distance.
I put the rifle on my shoulder and my eye up where there should have been a scope, only for a second later, a digital screen to flicker to life.
The three soldiers within the image all had reticles placed on them, and with a small twitch of my aiming, one of them flashed green, and then a word in another language scrolled across the top.
I didn't need to be able to read it to know what it was instructing.
I pulled the trigger, and the rifle simmered in my hands.
A clean pinprick of light shot out the front, and through the digital display, I saw the beam enter the forehead of one of the figures, only for him to crumple to the ground.
A slight twitch of my shoulder followed, and the reticle glowed green around another.
A flick of the trigger and he was done as well.
"This thing is incredible." I chuckled, pleased with my new weapon.
Violet glanced over her shoulder at me, casually reflecting blaster fire.
"Of course. It was my master's favorite hunting rifle.
She was a famously bad shot, so she had that thing custom-made with multiple stabilizing gyroscopes and a miniature ship-targeting system built into it. It was also incredibly expensive."
I laughed, subtly adjusting the targeting system and pulsing the trigger, though it did seem to need a few seconds between shots.
"It has an auto-aiming feature, stabilized aiming, and selective targeting, along with 150 times zoom," Violet said.
As she was blocking plenty of fire, a massive beam launched down from overhead.
Violet flicked her wrist and caught it on the beam saber, but it was simply too big for the blade.
Much of the energy spilled around and caught her in the chest. The blast flung Violet back, and I dropped the rifle to catch her, cradling her in my arms as a massive wound that had nearly cut her in half wept kikai blood.
"Holy shit, are you okay? Is there anything I can do?" I had recently learned she was a divine, but my mind was still screaming at me that she was going to die.
Violet only grimaced, her wrist flicking to bat away several more shots that had managed to chase us this far from the entrance.
"I'll be fine," she said. "But thank you for your concern.
" As she spoke, her tails flicked up and curled around my waist for a moment before she pecked me on the cheek, blushed, and threw herself out of my arms.
The gaping hole in her side was almost gone.
I watched as flesh knitted itself back together before my eyes.
A wound that would have been a death sentence for anyone else healed in only moments.
Her cheeks were flushed red, but I had a feeling it wasn't from the injury.
She darted back out of the tunnel, batting aside blaster fire as she charged into the enemies.
I moved forward.
Up in the sky, half a dozen shuttles hovered, and two of them had begun opening fire on Violet and Lily.
I got the rifle back on my shoulder and crouched down as the targeting reticles flashed across multiple points on the nearest shuttle.
I tilted the gun until the reticle around its thrusters lit green, and this time, I held the trigger down.
The gun hummed in my hands for just two seconds before another beam, this one the size of my thumb, erupted from the tip and pierced clean through the shuttle's hull. Secondary explosions rocked the vehicle as it tumbled down into the mining site.
I let out a low whistle as it landed and exploded, taking several more soldiers with it.
"Well, I suppose that's one way to do it," I said, going to kiss the rifle and nearly burning my lips before pulling back.
"Okay, noted. This gets very hot." I chuckled, moving quickly to start targeting those farther from the entrance who were trying to suppress Lily and Violet, though they weren't having much success.
Violet was too quick and simply unafraid of lasers. Meanwhile, Lily stormed through, using the bodies of those she'd just killed to shield herself, or simply evaporating enough water from her suit to neutralize the energy from incoming fire, as more and more soldiers fell before the two women.
I kept an eye on the field, noting when a new shuttle plated gold joined those flying overhead.
I looked through its diamond glass cockpit and saw a large, richly dressed grogax glaring down at the scene below.
He looked at us for a moment before pivoting his ship and flying away with the haste of someone who knew the fight was done.
Lily and Violet quickly cleaned up the remaining soldiers on the ground as the other shuttles simply left, abandoning their men to a horrible fate.
I came out of the tunnel after a few moments into silence. Not a single blaster had been fired for several breaths.
Lily spotted me and walked over with her hands behind her back. "Captain, let's go. I'd like to get you back to the ship where I can keep you very, very safe."
Violet stepped back into the tunnel and picked up the AI's drive, hefting it onto her shoulder.
"After that, we should probably figure out a plan for what comes next. There's no way they won't come after us after that," I said, stepping forward and kissing Lily on the cheek, then giving Violet a side hug, which caused Lily's eyes to narrow. "Let's head back."
Although part of me was disappointed there hadn't been something of immense monetary value within Aikari's ship, nothing more than memories and memorabilia, the way Violet held that saber close told me it was not insignificant.
“Let me see if I can’t get one of these started.” I dragged them both into a shuttle as Lily clearly had no idea what she was looking at, and Violet’s gaze seemed stuck in the middle distance. Her eyes drifted to the dead in the mining site with heavy responsibility.
Knowing there was more that needed to be done to get us to safety, I focused on the shuttle. I’d seen enough examples working from Gallicard’s toy car all the way up to larger ships to get this one started.
We lifted off, flying into the sky. The bit of Aikari left behind must have felt we were safe enough away, because the night lit up behind us in a massive fireball that shook the city.
***
The second I landed the shuttle at the spaceport, Lily and Violet rushed me into the Griffin.
“When will it go back online?” I asked Brick, joining the others in the cargo bay. Everyone but Tiri was waiting for us.
“They’ve stopped repairs on it since we came back. Between that and the attack on us, the mechanics have been steering clear of us,” the grogax explained.
I narrowed my eyes. “Probably not entirely their own thoughts. But, shit. I think we’re going to have more problems here soon.”
“Let them come.” Lily grinned. Back on the ship, she was even more dangerous.
“Yes. So the helivore can eat them all,” Violet said, watching everyone else’s reaction, only for her eyes to go wide. “Wait, really? I’m the last one to know?”
Melgara looked up from a datapad. “It was obvious.”
“I mean she nearly killed me when I first came on board with the captain,” Brick said. “I don’t think Tiri knows, but she’s finally fallen asleep. We should let her rest.”
Violet narrowed her eyes at me. “Really?”