Chapter Twenty-Eight Sadie
Twenty-Eight
Sadie
We were close to the landing pad. It was empty of ships, probably because they had all taken off before we arrived, ready to lure us close and then shoot us down.
Arturo said I wasn’t to blame. And I’d played the part I was assigned to play.
But it still felt like I’d failed, like it was my fault we were now fighting for our lives against an overwhelming enemy with very little idea of what kind of resistance we would face when we landed.
All that stood between us and that terrifying discovery were the gun emplacements around the circumference of the station’s circular opening.
There were four of them positioned at twelve, three, six, and nine o’clock.
The landing pad was positioned toward the front of the tubelike opening, with an atmospheric bubble over it.
It extended farther into the pipe than I could see, the hangar concealed somewhere within.
Arturo and Alanik were doing a good job keeping the enemy ships off our backs, but every time I swooped too near the landing pad, the guns locked on to my ship and sent a barrage of energy flying at me, driving me back again.
“Orders, Amphi?” I asked.
“Nedder,” Arturo said, “can we destroy those stationary weapons?”
“Affirmative,” Nedd said. “They have shields, but with enough fire, we should be able to take them down.”
“Do it,” Arturo said.
“Copy,” I said. “Let’s team up on the top one.”
Gilaf and I flew at the weapon at twelve o’clock and fired on it. The gun locked onto my ship, and I danced through a set of scissor maneuvers, keeping it trained on me while Gilaf got in a few more shots at the emplacement’s shields, dropping them.
I leveled my ship out, aimed at the stationary weapon, and fired.
My shot struck the gun, reducing it to smoke and leaving a gap of torn, scorched metal at the top of the station.
The two guns nearest to the one I’d taken out swiveled toward me, and I took a hit to my shield, the force of which blasted my ship to the side.
“Sadie,” Nedd said, “weren’t you really excited to insult your enemies’ entrails? This seems like a good time.”
He was right! “Curse you and your—” Stars, stationary guns didn’t have entrails. “Barrels of fiery…fire. May they all implode in a cloud of smoke and may you choke on it!”
“Hey, that last part was pretty good,” Nedd said.
“Your mother was pretty good,” Gilaf said.
“Your mother fell into a smoking gun emplacement,” I added, and Gilaf laughed.
“Are you focusing on those weapons?” Arturo asked. “We’re a little busy out here.”
“On it,” I said. I speared the top edge of the station with my light-lance, using it as an anchor to pivot around and come up behind another of the autonomous guns.
Which gave me an idea.
“Hang on,” I said. “I’m going to try something.
” We might eventually be able to take all the stationary guns out with our destructors, but every second we delayed was one more that Ivy’s people had to prepare inside the station.
The gun in front of me was still shielded, but as I passed behind it, I tagged it with my light-lance and continued forward at top speed.
When I reached the end of the beam of light, the stationary gun resisted, sending a jolt through my ship, and then broke free from the station. I glanced behind me to see the emplacement tumbling loose.
“Nice going, Sentry!” Nedd said.
“Nice going, Sentry!” Twist echoed, and I looked down to the sling beside my seat to see her curled up with Hoid, who was trembling slightly and missing all his rainbow stripes, his spines now the same pearly white color as the rest of his body.
We were in the inhibitor field now, so he couldn’t even summon an illusion to decorate his own spines.
“Good work,” Arturo said. “Do it again.”
Gilaf grabbed the gun at the bottom of the station and ripped it off. He spun around and dropped it, tossing it down onto the landing bay.
“Better,” Suki said, while I grabbed the fourth cannon. My ship jolted again as the light-lance pulled on it—and then something popped beneath my ship and my light-lance winked out.
“Oh, scud,” I said. “I think I just broke my light-lance.”
“You got the gun!” Nedd said. “It’s dangling free of its mount.”
“Incoming!” Alanik shouted, the air around the station filled with destructor fire as an enemy ship bore down on us.
I turned to face it, dancing between the lines of fire as more approached.
Gilaf got close enough to hit one of the ships with his light-lance, tossing it toward the station, where it collided with the side, one of its wings folding.
The ship fell in an uncontrolled descent.
“Sentry, Ghost,” Arturo said. “Can you land now?”
“Not yet!” Two more enemy ships were circling the landing zone, firing across the landing pad to keep us from descending. I didn’t dare land without my wingmate. I circled around, dodging more enemy fire, trying to find Gilaf.
I saw his ship just as an enemy hit it with a light-lance. I opened fire as it used Gilaf’s momentum to swing his ship in the direction of the station. The Dulo containing Gilaf and Nedd went spinning around in a loop—
But the enemy ship didn’t let go. At first, I felt relief that they hadn’t collided with the station, but then the ship shifted its own momentum, continuing to rotate Gilaf and Nedd by the nose of their ship, down and backward like a ball at the end of a string.
Stars, the angle of the rotation was so small and the acceleration so great, the force must have completely outstripped the GravCaps.
I’d never seen an enemy drone try this maneuver.
The drone ships we’d fought before didn’t even have light-lances.
This pilot was significantly more skilled than the remote pilots we usually fought.
Spinning like that, Nedd and Gilaf would be taking hard g’s, their blood flowing to the front of their bodies and down into their feet, knocking them unconscious.
The enemy ship spun in the opposite direction with equal force, but it didn’t have a pilot.
It could withstand much stronger g-forces before it sustained damage.
“Ghost!” I yelled over the radio. “Nedder? You okay?”
Silence.
“Amphi!” I said. “Nedder and Ghost are in trouble.”
“I see it,” Arturo said. “Fire on that ship!”
I was already firing, and Arturo and Alanik joined me. The ship stopped spinning Nedd and Gilaf, and turned toward the hangar opening, flying deeper into the facility.
Towing Nedd and Gilaf’s fighter behind.