Fighter Pilots 2: Dissention (Full Sample Chapter)

Those interested in representing this project may contact Matt Sveum.matthew.sveum@gmail.comThis is book 2 in a planned trilogy. The first two novels are already completed, and manuscripts are available upon request.

Fighter Pilots

Act 2 Chapter 6Operation: King's Gambit

Chaos, panic, helplessness: all of Shock's fears surfaced at once, and rapidly came to a boil. Worst of all was breaking his promise to Angel—which meant there was only one choice left for him: death.

Almost an hour earlier, 91 Imperial minutes to be exact, the squad broke Collonade's horizon and hit their respective drop zones just outside restricted airspace. Each knew their assignments forward and backward. All Shock had to do was put out of his mind that he was about to commit grand larceny—something he would have never imagined himself doing. Then again, next to high treason, this paled in comparison. It's not like I asked for this! He defended his conscience, who scolded him in the guise of his mother back home. All I ever wanted to do was serve and uphold justice. Noble, Bearstone...they got me into this. And Misery...why did you have to go and do that?

Underwater didn't even begin to describe his position. He should have turned his fighter around and gotten away with Angel before they'd entered the air defense grid. If he called on the auto pilot now, Misery's fighter would be turned to a fireworks show. Plus, he knew full well that if he tried anything sneaky like that, Angel would suffer. Ace made that perfectly clear in their private pre-op meeting.

“What kind of a plan is that?” Shock had lost his strictly-business composure at the audacity of the request. Useless, impersonal trinkets shook at the sudden outburst in Ace's stolen office.

“What'sa matter, first mate? I know you all have been on much hairier jobs than this.”

“Taking from a shipment to survive is one thing. But this? This is pure avarice. You are nothing but a fat pot of greed, Ace. You want to stuff yourself, be my guest; but I want no part of this.” Shock stood up with Angel, holding her by the arm and assuming an authoritative posture—this was him laying down the law. Destiny did it better.

“It's like I said before. We ain't tryin' to stuff our own pockets. We're sendin' a message to the Throne and to our brothers and sisters. They're bein' used and abused, and all the Empire's crappin' fancy laws only exist to keep its people down on their knees.”

“Yeah, sure. Keep talking. I'm not falling for that spiel again.”

A sigh whistled past Ace's lips. “I didn't want to pull this one out so soon, but fine, have it your way,” he said casually, and reclined back in his officer chair, reaching for the door lock override.

It didn't register at first what he had said; Shock just thought he was going to let them out. However, Ace was a master of sleight of hand. He planted his right on the table, vaulted himself forward with incredible speed, grabbed Shock's lapel with his left, and dragged the boy down next to his mouth. Angel was taken aback, not sure what to make of this.

“Everythin's fine. Tell her to go wait outside,” Ace whispered, turning his tabled hand over and flashing a live grenade.

Ace's grip was like none Shock had ever felt. He was immobilized; maybe if he could get some leverage, he could—no, Ace was the type to risk it all. Not for a second would Shock put it past him to turn that room into a blast furnace.

Shock mustered up the calmest sense of order he could give in his vulnerable state. “Go wait outside the door, Angel. You'll be safe. I just have a few more things to discuss with Ace.”

Angel obliged. The doors locked. Ace let go, then spoke. “Let's get down to tritainium tacks, here kid. You all know two things about me: one, I know what I want. And two, I ain't stupid.”

“You better not touch her.”

“I won't. I don't have to. Ya see, I know a heck of a lot more about these AN units than I let on. I got years and years on ya, kid.” Always the sly dealer, Ace already had his insurance policy the moment Angel was brought aboard. “They're capable of amazing things, but at a cost. As you may know, their weakness is that they are unstable. All it takes is the wrong kind of...stimulation, and pow! They lose it. They can't take it. They go berserk, then they keel over dead. It could be a noise frequency they don't like, it could be their worst fear, or exposure to a certain chemical. Or as I prefer it, all three at once.”

“You're disgusting,” Shock accused. “You better sleep with both eyes open.”

“Try me, kid, and see what happens to your precious little girl. Like I said, it doesn't take much to set these abominations off. I can do it at any time—right now if I wanted. And just like that, poof!” Ace snapped his fingers. “The 'Angel' as you know her would be gone.” That grimy, stubbled poker face was easily the best one in the galaxy. There was no calling Ace's bluff. “See, either I get to have a superhuman on my team, free to go about takin' my restitutions from this awful government for the way it's treated me and my brothers, or there's gonna be one less superhuman out there to stop me!” Ace bellowed out a laugh.

Shock gritted his teeth. This wasn't going over without a fight. But now wasn't the time. When Ace was sober, he was no Chumpmunk.

“So I take it we got a deal? Great!” Ace clapped his hands together. “And by the way, if I was you all, I would keep this from her. The stress of the situation would be too much for her to take. If you all know what I'm sayin'.”

A prismatic ray of sun broke up Shock's mental squabble when it reflected off a marbled metal dome—the tallest and proudest pinnacle in the Empire's capital city of Triton Aurelia. Named for its ever-gilded atmosphere, the many proud, ornate architectural facades made a fitting home for the Throne's canon of law. And right at the center was the focal point, the heart of civilization, the embodiment of their dreams, the sole symbol of pride in everything they had built and stood for: the Intergalactic Imperial Treasury.

Spades whistled on the comms, “We'ah jackin' from dat place? Shee-yoo! Pinch me; I must be dreamin'.”

“Can it, Spades!” Ace nipped Spade's verbal spewing in the bud. “We're not goin' in there. If everything goes accordin' to plan, we should be dead and gone in 10, got it? Nobody better screw this up.”

“'Dead and gone?'” The phrase put Shock into a mild panic, and the words just spilled out.

“Yeah. Ya'know, like a ghost,” Ace explained casually enough, as he turned to look at Shock from the next rooftop over, the sun behind him throwing his crouching body mostly into black silhouette.

Angel tugged at the sleeve coming out from under Shock's processor vest. Anyone else could have easily forgotten she was there, even as close beside him as she was, but he was getting better at feeling her silent presence—when he wasn't distracted deep in thought. Though she used speech sparingly, her eyes could speak volumes.

“You want to know what a ghost is?”

Angel's inquisitive stare turned into a happy nod.

“Well, they're not actually real. A ghost is—“

“All units, I got eyes on the transport. First wave, yer up.”

Every time, Shock griped.

Phase 1 was stealth, which Shock could handle well enough. He never liked being the center of attention. Using plasma-cored synthread repel ropes was a nod to simplicity. So simple that no normal, stuck up Imperialites would notice four shadows running down the sides of their spires of ingenuity, because it would require them to exit the full immersion of the holoscreens perpetually bubbling up in front of their faces.

A couple more seconds and the first squad had descended beneath the bottom level of living quarters. Everyone used to live on equal ground in the capital, but self-status and the insatiable need for social gratification had turned this literally into the underground. Hence, an attack from below was all the more viable.

Two streets up the block from the Treasury, Shock, Angel and Spades climbed back up to the base tier streetside barrier and made contact with the convoy. Three armored hover trucks, looking like mutated, geometric Bayturtles with no eyes or legs, inched along dutifully. Though Ace had gone ahead to his station for Phase 2, his prediction was right on with the location of this transport, just as it was on the last shipping raid.

For the three of them, however, Phase 1 was still in progress. Shock waited, spying through the gap between the street and the transparent, hovering magnetic wall that kept travelers on it. Near the door of the third truck, its guard tread his last unlucky step of the day. Shock picked his ankle as it was about to make footfall, and sent his balance, along with his head, smashing into the side plating. Spades dragged the guard's body off the street and strung him up with an extra set of cables beneath the infrastructure. One of the many unusual talents possessed by Spades was his free-hanging, trapeze quick-change act.

Knowing her cue, Angel propelled herself up over the wall and assisted Shock under it. She then laid her hand on the door, striking up digital communications with the onboard computer via the encryption shield, employed to divert cyber attacks. Little did they expect one of their own secret weapons to be used against them. Success: the tristeel pressure bolts gave way, and they were inside. Spades wasn't far behind in taking the guard's escort position by the door. All Angel had to do now was switch the AI pilot off at just the right moment. First, Shock had to make sure this was the real deal by checking the cargo bed—he more right than he could ever imagine.

Stacks, rows, columns, piles upon piles of refined, pristine polynoble precious metals from the forge core of Qa'anus sat plainly in the bed. Right in front of Shock's eyes was unmistakably the highest quality of Naion obtainable in all the galaxy. These weren't one's traditional gold blocks that had more or less become a symbol of patriotism to the skies above Colonnade. These metal bars were a step above. White, almost colorless; no, every color at once; nay, transparent; actually, mirror-like—it depended on whom one asked. Whoever looked at them would see their own vision of true beauty. One truckload like this could buy out entire planets, entire systems—and they had three in a row just lumbering down the streets of Triton!

Why on Neo Earth does the Empire need this kind of wealth? Shock wondered, knowing for a fact that the government's pact between mandated planets was always that state's signature resources and services in exchange for protection and supplies. Sure, it took a lot to supply a planet, but it wasn't as if these supplies were coming right out of the Empire's pocket. The Minister of Commerce would simply import and redistribute provisions equally according to each one's needs. In this way, the Empire was nothing more than a delivery service. An upgrade to the military seemed unnecessary, considering it was an unstoppable force in the known reaches of the nearest civilized galaxies, and even if it wasn't a complete juggernaut, there hadn't been an outside disturbance of peace in almost 1000 kronos.

Shock started to see a tiny shred of logic behind Ace's reasons for his actions. Of course, it was possible that the Q'anians were content and comfortable, but Shock highly doubted that they were compensated this much for such a volume of their prized export. It took Shock great effort to shove that heavy conundrum to the side, but speaking of Ace, the ringleader was about to make his move.

Shock could only hope that the nutcase had been appeased enough by his performance up to this point that the next move was not going to involve harming Angel. Sadly, he never could have predicted what was about to unfold. To do that, he would have to have a mind like Destiny's: fearless, and cynical to the bitter end.

For Phase 2, Ace enlisted the help of a secondary squad that was supposed to regroup with him after they cleared the path ahead of potential witnesses. Most of those recruits were ecstatic being chosen for the job, and rightfully so. The more longtime lackeys, Blackjack, Queen, and the two brothers, were needed for Phase 3, so the crew here was made up of the rookies, energetic and eager to enrich their vapid rap sheets. Coming up on the checkpoint, Shock was keen enough to notice on the camera feed (that is, where an unarmored, manned vehicle would have its cockpit glass) the feisty young ones hiding in the crevices, porticoes, and shadows of the many tightly packed towers, itching for that signal to flash.

“This is Ace. Code green. Everyone on me!” The core of the plan was set in motion: a diversion, as any good magician should employ. In this case, a show of force great enough to make it clear that the shipment was in danger, thus firing the trucks' AI escape protocols. Normally, there would be nothing the lawbreakers could do to predict or intercept the actions of the automaton carriers. But with Angel, not only could they have the haul delivered right to them, but they could also switch the AI off completely at will, and forge their own path, confounding the Empire's emergency defense responders, and heading right for a predetermined vertical exit point, where Blaze would be waiting in the wings.

A barbaric yell echoed across the boulevard. A firestorm of bullets rained down on the men and women sworn to duty. Soldiers of fortune swung from chords like primates asserting their dominance. And Ace was at the forefront forcing the guards onto the electron pavement, while cleaning up any resistance. “You all listen good and listen well,” he bellowed. “I get what I want, and nobody gets hur—”

Instantly, it became clear that fear and pain had been clouding Shock's thoughts. It was the only way he could have dismissed how little resistance there had been to the operation thus far—and how he didn't notice that there was other movement on the side of the road. Silhouettes were shifting in the late afternoon sun, climbing barricades, dropping from rooftops, and marching out of doorways, but not like any known humanoids. On spider-like limbs, they possessed creepy, mechanical gaits, with industrial-strength joints and muscles. Featureless square heads cocked side to side, scanning for hazards as they flooded onto the causeway. Biomechs!? Any operative familiar with biomechs knew that they didn't have the capacity to waste time with reason; they merely did their job. And that job was to kill.

It was over before Ace's plasma-pierced body had time to hit the ground. All those young lives were shot in cold steel. Panic fumed in Shock's lungs, his mind rushed recklessly over a million different options, he looked to Angel and was about to tell her to—

“Drive!” Spades ordered as he slid into the truck hatch and bolted it, like a serpent escaping a bird of prey.

Startled at first, Shock settled and holstered his pistol when he saw his teammate's drooping mohawk. “We can't,” he argued. “They haven't triggered the protocol yet. If we drive now, they'll know someone's taken manual control.”

“Dat's a hell of a lot bettah than bein' stuck in heah! Youse wanna end up like Ace an' dem?”

Analysis froze Shock. All the options and consequences slipped by him in the timestream, while a numb, pensive look petrified in his brows.

“Look at dis! Youse a joke! Why Ace neva' made me in charge, I don' have a single clue. By the way, they'ah swarmin' the truck now, genius. Move ovah, chickidee, I'm drivin'!” Spades stiff-armed Shock in passing, and trudged over to Angel at the helm. Before he could get two steps' worth of progress, Shock had already nabbed him by the back of his collar and slammed him on his butt.

“Angel, switch it over,” Shock spoke coolly, sliding in to take the controls. With another small smile, she turned it over to him, and he acknowledged his gratitude.

9 by 19 Northwest Avenue Tier 1 suddenly garnered a lot more attention than usual. The third vehicle in the convoy activated all its grounded thrusters at once. It burned out of the strip, sidewinding right around the lead transports and most of the ground crew by riding the wall of a skyscraper bordering the highway. Unable to calculate the possibility of such a trajectory, a big chunk of the biomech force was left dumbfounded—and in pieces.

“Captain Keiko to all units,” A muffled voice was picked up on the comm frequency. “Fedora has been compromised. Be advised, hostiles have boarded Heavy Armor Transport 0288. Deploy everything: cavalry and special weapons in the air now! I want every ounce of bullion and their sorry hides laid at my feet.”

Pressure was quickly mounting on Shock. Before Ace had fallen, he was second in command. Which now meant: “This is Shock. Ace is KIA. I'm ordering a full abort and retreat. Get yourselves to exfil any way you can.”

“What are you talkin' about full abort?” Whined Hicard. “What happened to the haul?”

“We're driving it!” Shock lashed back.

“If we already got the goods, why should we run now?” Locard echoed.

“Because the plan was a total T-wreck on site!” Shock explained frantically into the mouthpiece. “There's too much heat on us now to make a clean escape. Unless you plan on fighting the entire Collonade military police and the Emperor's personal task forces, I suggest you get the heck out of atmosphere right now.”

“Shows how much you know,” sassed Queen, the lass with all the classy piercings. “We don't take orders from dumb wusses like you. Blaze can make that hookup no matter how many pigs they can throw at us, right Blaze?”

“Yeah sure,” Blaze responded sarcastically. “Except even the best pilot in the galaxy couldn't fly a lump of cheese, which is what my machine is going to be if Kit can't do his job and get their missile grid down.”

“Aw maaan. I'm working on it, okayyy? Get off my back!” Kit cried.

“I don't need this crap right now!” Shock blew up the frequency with his sudden spike of frustration.

“I'm like, so tired of talking to you, buzzkill,” Queen dismissed. “Where's Spades?”

“Right heah, sweetcheeks!”

“There's my big boy. Do me a favor, darling? Give this kid a road rash and take the wheel. I want my cash.”

“How long I've been waitin' for youse ta say dat!” said Spades, jumping at the chance to impress his Queen.

Well it was worth a try, thought Shock, sighing. “Take the wheel Angel. Get us as much distance as you can,” he ordered, standing and meeting the front of Spade's threat head on.

Spades swung for the fences, but Shock ducked it and came back into his ribs, folding him. Surprisingly, Spades still had a ton of fight left in him, and returned with a spree of hammerfists. Unsuccessful in blocking all of them, Shock did manage to hit back with a jab-cross to the body, followed by a double jab upstairs. Desperate, Spades dove in for a spearing tackle. Shock was more than ready for that tactic, and was about to sprawl on him, but the whole car rocked and sent both of them reeling. There went the back hatch of the cargo bed; the stowaways found themselves enjoying a brisk wind.

“Nice hits, Aurelius Seven. I'm going to flank around and see if I can knock out the stabilizer.” Police chatter inundated every working radio. Sirens blasted down the southbound lanes in droves, while dragon-tailed gunships clouded out the honey-gold skies. Traffic wasn't as heavy on the lower tiers, but it was still an obstacle. Or a speedbump, depending on whose vehicle was in question.

With the severity of their predicament now clearly on display through their new window, Shock and Spades shoved each other off, scrambling to their feet and drawing their weapons. The Naion blocks would serve as decent cover against the tidal wave of enforcer units. First Shock took shots at the ground coursers: windshields, ground thrusters and air flaps. All were impervious to bullets behind their full-frontal shields. Meanwhile, Spades found shooting at the aerial trackers to be even less practical. And this was all before they returned fire.

A scalding flash erupted inside the hauling bay, laying the two of them out like Flatfish. A stack of bars was left in a sad, jumbled heap, while sparks danced around. The blast left the walls and new doorway red hot. Something told Shock they weren't going to win making that trade. Another deep rumble shook the chassis to the core, sending one last lucky bar off the top of a stack and onto his foot. “Agh! Mother of Goddard that...hurt? That's it!”

----

As Spades came to, the first thing he did was regain his balance. The second thing he did was lose his mind. Here was Shock, ducking behind cover to avoid fire, then chucking a Naion bar overboard at their pursuers. The improvised projectile hit like—well, like a brick—unable to be deflected by mere magnetic fields that smaller vessels employed, and being massively dense, they may have well been state-of-the-art, anti-armor rounds. One copper's craft lost lateral control, smashing into its partner, causing that vehicle to flip and roll, sending another three slamming into a metal sandwich. On yet another toss, the misappropriated lump of capital bounced off the roof of a ground speeder, and was picked up by the wind, sailing straight into the intake of one sky predator.

“Whattah youse thinkin'!? Dat's our load!” And the fight was back on again. Caught unsuspecting with a brick still in hand, Shock took a swing with it. Easily dodging the unwieldy hunk, Spades flowed with the momentum and caught Shock in the face with a right hook, sending him stumbling.

It wouldn't be quite that easy for Spades to take the upper hand, as his opponent quickly regained his footing and floored Spades with a side kick. However, the psycho woman driving slammed the brakes, and swerved around several civilian roadgoers. The punk kid soon found himself flat on his face. Within seconds, Spades was on him pounding away. Between the cataclysmic firepower of the Empire and Angie's breakneck stunts, the combatants rolled around and traded the advantage several times, until Spades had enough and was able to get a mount position. Greed was rife in his heart as he hefted a prized bar from the pile and raised it over his head. “I'm gonna enjoy flattenin' ya stupid skull, kid. See you in Hel—ahrrghh!”

Big, bright red holes were bored though Spades's abdomen, and he lit up like a prismatic party ball, then crashed to the floor like one. He did still get one last hit in; the murder weapon released from his limp grip, and landed dead on Shock's chest. It took a minute for Shock to uncurl from the blow, but other than coughing up some blood on impact, he felt just dandy.

Another cannon round thumped the fuselage. Miracles do happen, but the miracle here was that the truck had lasted this long. Deep bellowing moans and complaints creaked from the bowels of the beast. Angel screamed.

“Angel! Hold on, I'm coming!” Gravity started to shift in odd directions, and Shock had to dig his knife into the hull to prevent himself from being ejected. Spade's wasn't so fortunate.

“This is Aurelia One. Direct hit on stabilizer. Looks like she's hogtied. Now's your chance, Keiko.”

There was no controlling the hunk of armor at that point. It shifted into an unnatural sideways skid, straddling two lanes and plowing into outgoing and oncoming traffic alike, until it vaulted over the pileup it had caused, and slammed into the magnetic barrier. The interference shut off the magnetic turbine engine entirely, and glued the metal hull to the side of the road, as it was designed to do to prevent further damages in vehicle accidents. Though in this case, that so-called safety feature seemed almost laughable.

Stars became memories. Memories became home, friends, family, Angel...Angel! Shock bolted upright, and tried to regain his equilibrium in this new upside-down, mishmashed realm. Finally he found her, compressed between chunks of the mainboard console.

“I am okay,” she replied to the unasked question. Spidering her arms and legs against the metal deathtrap, she freed herself before Shock had a chance to offer, but he still helped her catch her step.

“Angel, listen to me,” Shock said. To be sure she understood, he pulled her eyes close to his, as she communicated a vast percentage more with them than her ears and mouth. “I have to go out there and face those officers. But you can't come with me, or you'll end up back in Stasis, or worse, which I know you don't want.”

Angel's lip quivered and her big amber eyes darted down at the mention of that word.

“Look at me, Angel.”

Her gaze returned.

“They can't know you're here. I need you to make them believe that, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Just follow the plan. If I don't come back, these will keep you safe,” Shock added, unhooking his prized belt with dual holsters. “This is Sara and Kara. We are one; my soul is in every rod, every pin, trigger and bullet.” Latching it around her waist was likely the closest thing to a hug she had ever felt. Lights danced in her eyes. “I'm keeping my promise. I won't let anything happen to you.”

----

Even from miles out of Triton Aurelia airspace, reporters could survey the aggravated Scourgeant hill that was the wreckage caused by these renegades. Smoke, fire, piles of parts and vehicles, hovering gunships, soldiers and backup were plastered all over the holocast. For Captain Keiko, it was time to do business. “You have no where to go. Come out and assume surrender, or we will shoot!”

Carefully, albeit awkwardly, with his hands raised high, the criminal limped out of the crater in the rear end of the truck, down a twisted gangway formed from the folded chunks of ruined metal. Keiko signaled the capture gesture, but it was more of a formality for the aggressive tactical force; they had already surrounded him and put him at gunpoint, times six. “You thought you were pretty smart, didn't you?” She questioned rhetorically, taking her time to soak up the victory in her strut toward her kneeling suspect, while he was being cuffed, searched and disarmed.

They tossed her the only weapon found on him: his plasma knife. Distinguished from her subordinates by her royal blue military police uniform, Keiko admired the piece beneath scattered black bangs and the bill of her Captain's cap. Coal-colored, leather-esque patches of armor adorned her joints and extremedies. Her gloved fingers polished the inlaid blade switch. “Military grade. Just like my old man's.”

“Wasting time on aesthetics again I see, Captain Keiko.” A voice hummed over the screech of turbines decelerating to a perch on the parkway.

“Speaking of old men,” Keiko muttered.

“I'll be sure to note on your review you have trouble adapting to orders. I shall see if we can't get you shipped back to your outworld to correct this frivolous habit of yours.” Clawed, violet hands touched down on her shoulder, too rough to be called friendly. “And who might this be? I pray the reports weren't mere slagwind?”

“Executive Warden, Sir!” Keiko saluted. “He matches the description of the arrest order, sir.”

“A2016?”

“Sir, yes sir!”

“My my.” The humanoid ran his hands over his horns as though they were a slick hairdo, relishing the moment. “So I finally have them both. The 'harbingers of destruction,' as it were!” The chuckle that followed naturally bared both rows of vein-colored teeth. “He looks more disappointing than the female. Do tell me, son, are you familiar with who I am?”

The suspect gasped, too softly for the Warden to notice, but Keiko's training had attuned her to the most minute of humanoid reactions.

“Can I never simply have an intelligent conversation?” The interrogator scoffed. “Such rudeness. And to not even introduce your friend still in the truck to us all!? Why, I never.”

Again a tell from the prisoner: he bit his lip, but said nothing. Keiko wondered if her superior was getting desperate.

“Well at least one of us is going to be civilized here. I am the Executive Warden, the Minister of—”

“Punishment. I know who you are,” The captive interjected, sparing no amount of disdain.

“'Punishment' you say? You ignorant swine. I am the Minister of Justice to his Majesty's Throne, Throltar Ainok! I already possess your little blonde succubus. She turned herself in when she realized it was futile to run from the state. Because of that, we were already alerted to your presence the moment you cleared the planetary shield. And now you will join her. Yes, we shall stage a mass execution for all traitors. All those who witness will know the price of—erm, Captain, do you have fluffstock in your ears, or are you waiting until after your next tea break to apprehend the other suspect?”

“There's another, sir?” Keiko stuttered, surprised.

“Excuse you, woman! Assume your position at once, Captain; I did not speak the words 'at ease!'”

The Minister managed to retain his authoritative air, but the prisoner had hit him where it counted—Ainok was losing his proper, upright composure. “And maybe if you actually used that lump of inflated meat in your skull, you would be able to ascertain that there needed to be a driver for this young man to cause as much damage as he did.”

“Sir, permission to speak!” Keiko requested.

“If you must, you overpoised slout...”

“The driver was killed in the hits. The pilot specifically targeted the manual steering column with hyper concussive rounds. Our analytics read the collision with the wall as lethal impact force. I didn't want my men interfering with the forensics unit.”

“Are you quite finished babbling nonsense? Because there is another vagabond in there that you need to detain!”

“Yes, sir.” Keiko moved up with her squad and took point 10 meters from ground zero, barking orders through a voice amplifier, biologically implanted standard issue on military police officers. “Attention, suspect. We know you are in there. Come out and assume surrender!”

Don't do it, Angel, Shock silently pleaded. Hold on a bit longer.

“You really should tell your friend to give up,” The Minister taunted. “You'll soon learn that the one with the record holds all the power. Like my associate said, your accomplice was killed in the impact.”

No! They can't!

“No answer? Ah. You're the one-liner type, I see. Very well.” Even as he spoke calmly on the surface, the hate in Ainok's voice was bubbling to a head. “Executive Warden to Domitian squad. You are clear to roll in.”

Slow, grinding growls could be heard over the sirens and commotion, even from a city block south. From behind a cluster of buildings came three siege-grade tanks sporting five megaton-bored cannons each.

“Such a tragedy to see a criminal get to escape judgment in this life, don't you agree, boy?”

Any time now, Blaze...

----

Fists clenched, gaze focused on the cityscape horizon through his helmet's visor, Blaze waited, his fighter perched on an obsolete metal outpost past the modern Aurelian limits. He was not pleased. “Kit, they need us now! What's the deal with this damn grid?”

“Any time I decode a pillar core, it dismantles the proxy engine by rerouting the request server to—”

“Gah! I don't care! Just shut it down! I could have sprinted the gamut like six times by now.”

“Hey, man, have you ever tried tying your shoes in a double Windsor knot with your feet when they're already inside the shoe, while hanging upside-down by your pants? Cuz that's what this is like!” Kit proclaimed from the rear of his cockpit, hands flailing, typing, and pulling hair out all at once.

Blaze closed his eyes. How can you expect me to wait anymore? You know I hate waiting. You've always known ever since I met you.

…

Yeah, I know I know. I'm trying to keep my promise to finish our mission. I promised I'd give it my all. And that if we're supposed to meet again, it's going to be when fate decides.

…

You're right. But while it may be out of my hands, starting now, I'm forcing the hand of fate.

----

“Keiko, that's enough shouting,” Executive Warden Ainok reproached, physically trying to clean the shrill shrieks out of his ear holes. “Come away from there so we can wrap this up. We have a schedule to keep.”

“Yes, sir!” She didn't wait for Shock to get to his feet before starting to drag him.

“Fire at will, Domition One.” An evil grin accompanied The Minister's command.

Orchestras of explosions rang out in the sky, the percussion of pyrotechnics building to a crescendo. Shock cried out and struggled to break free—in his adrenaline-fueled rage, he was successful, but as soon as he was able to lift his head, he saw what the source of the explosions was. Overhead, an onyx meteor, with a fiery trail of ten Collonade suns, rocketed head-on toward his exact location. As it neared, Shock could pick out wings and guns, gyroscoping and dancing around missiles endlessly launched from deployed silos atop skyscrapers.

They don't call him Blaze for nothin'!

But despite his magnet claw being deployed, Blaze was coming in way too fast for a pickup. In a mere blink, the fighter blasted overhead with a jet-induced roar. Shock tracked it with his head, turning in time to witness Angel take a mighty leap and grab onto the large, three-pronged hook with her bare hands—well, one bare hand. The other was holding something that looked like a gun, and it was pointed right at him.

“Secure the prisoner!” Barked Keiko.

Angel fired. Shock flinched at the flash, but there was no plasma expelled. The officers dove for him. Something hit his processor vest with a clang, and Shock was able to trace a black line from it all the way up to Angel in the distance. That's when the whole planet ceased to exist as he knew it, and became a giant blur. G-forces tore his face from reality; vertigo filled his veins. This was a feeling he knew all too well: he was flying.

Angel cued the spooling mechanism, and it wasn't longer than 10 seconds before Shock was one meter of line away from her, still cuffed and dangling while Blaze tried to clock out of the capital city's airspace in record time.

“'You have nothing to be afraid of. I won't let anything happen to you,'” Angel quoted, with a sly look on her face Shock had never witnessed until now. She was proud of herself, but he was even more proud of her.

----

Captain Keiko began flinging orders and gestures at everyone in sight. “Scramble all fighters. Shields at max. Have SAMs calibrated on their heat signature; fire on my mark!”

“Everyone hold! So my assumptions were correct.” Minister Ainok wiped the exited spittle away from his face with sophistication, then turned to Keiko, who hoped her concern was hidden behind a practiced straight face. She would not speak without permission again. “You have something to add, Keiko?”

“Sir, you do not wish for us to secure the prisoner? Are you allowing them to escape?”

“For the moment, I am. She's survived without stasis for a remarkable amount of time. It would be a shame for her to be incinerated in a glorious fireball, now wouldn't it? You must learn patience, my dear. I've calculated every possible avenue they could take. We simply need to wait for them to decide which trap they prefer to spring. And in the meantime, we can prepare for the future. Now then, this goes without saying, but the Grand Minister is expecting this shipment to come through on time, so if you slackers like your heads on your shoulders, you will gather every last block and get it to the Treasury before sundown. Who knows? You may be rewarded.”

A riot broke out among the throng of officers as each tried to outperform his and her colleagues.

“Not a chance, Geezers! That cash is ours!” Echoed a woman's voice from atop the building bordering the west side of the highway. Pink hair swirled around a pierced face glowing in the twilight.

“Get 'em, guys!” A stately, black-headed male next to the regal woman rallied the remainder of the hedonistic squad around his battle cry. EMP grenades and rockets a-plenty rained down on the whole city block. The reckless bloodbath that followed, justified only by hate and greed, was indeed savage. But Keiko soon discovered the tragic events of that day only rippled out further in space time. The seeds of disorder had been sown.