"It doesn't do well with spontaneity. Webs and long-term plans," Batavius said.
How spider-like. It was a weakness. Like I’d already discovered, plans were good, but you also needed to be able to work in the moment.
TWENTY MINUTES later the army arrived. It was time enough for us to set up some basic defenses. The Research deck had provided several portable shielding platforms, energized barriers that defenders could crouch behind. The Wolves had high-powered rifles with a better range than the acid guns, and we were bolstered by energy turrets.
A ramp gave us quick access back into the airship when we were ready for take-off—if, that is, we ever had the ability to get airborne.
I wasn’t trying to micromanage my human drones. They came prepared with their own abilities, although I wasn't entirely sure Diana would come out from cover without a push when the shooting started. The various factions worked together well, but I suppose they were accustomed to that. We were the new part of the equation.
When the enemies came out of the jungle they were overwhelming. The sky darkened with swarms of leather-winged flying serpents. Charging below them were massive, armored behemoths with tiny eyes and five huge horns.
The Wolves opened fire, but the intense barrage only slowed the advance.
Thrusters along the midpoint of the airship angled and blasts of withering fire incinerated large swaths of the enemy and set the jungle alight.
It still wasn't enough. One of the behemoths reached an energy shield and with a butt of its head caused the barrier to ripple and fade.
The Rats were close to getting their job done. I estimated perhaps another two minutes until they had the main engines operational, but that wasn't going to be enough.
"Pull back," I told Anna.
Anna squeezed off a shot and sent a serpent tumbling from the sky, before issuing the orders into her comm and our defenders fell back into the ship. The Bats set the shields to overload before withdrawing, rippling explosions of energy blasting back the swarms.
The Wolves lined the edges of the ramp, defending while the others boarded. It took us only thirty seconds to get inside, yet it didn't change the math elsewhere.
"I need a burn," I called to Doctor Batavius through her comm.
"How long do you need?" she asked.
"Upwards of ninety seconds airtime," I said.
We didn't have to be flying all that time—I didn't expect we would be. Besides, we'd fall a lot further the higher we went up.
The thrusters angled downward and on pillars of fire we were raised into the sky.
"I can't give you ninety," Batavius said.
I could already tell that she was right. We were rapidly losing system function.
"What if I bring Hot Stuff into the burn chamber?" I asked.
"You'll increase intensity, but we'll lose integrity fast," Batavius said. I could see her trying to do the math in her head. I was doing the same. I thought we'd be okay, but I wanted that second opinion.
"We'll trash the system, but we don't need it," Batavius said.
I teleported Hot Stuff into the main thruster ignition chamber.
I probably should have asked first, but really I just needed her to burn. Surrounded by fuel, that’s just what she did. The thrusters flared with greater intensity before the components began to melt under the increased temperature and they sputtered out.
I teleported Hot Stuff back out. She still needed to breathe after all.
Our upwards momentum quickly died out and we began to glide down towards the jungle.
The Rats got the engines back online five seconds earlier than anticipated—it was good that they did.
We were skimming far too close to the tree tops. Alive, but not safe, the story of our lives.
9
The airship’s ramp was still open, but it wasn't the worst thing happening. While it created some air-drag, the holes throughout the hull were having even more of an impact. The ship was shaking violently and the occasional screech of tearing metal punctuated the roar of the wind.
We'd barely been in the air for two minutes and hull integrity had already ticked down a point to twenty percent.
We couldn't stay airborne like this. We also couldn't go back down into the jungle.
I opened a ship-wide comm and advised them of the situation.
Baron Wolfson said, "You've gained enough distance to give us some time. Land the ship. I and my Wolves can buy you more." The old Wolf’s voice was rough, without accelerated healing his nose was still a ruin.
"We can start hull repairs at once," squeaked a Rat I didn't know. I expected it was their leader.
"Or we can divert all our focus to shield repair. We block the wind, we can repair the hull at our leisure," Doctor Batavius said.
"What about the dimensional drive?" Anna asked.
"Offline and a very difficult fix," Batavius said.
I'd seen the dimensional drive of these ships in action. They were what allowed these vessels to quickly travel vast distances between the shattered parts of the world. If we'd been able to engage ours, we might have simply left this jungle behind.
Of the remaining possibilities the shields seemed the best option. Otherwise, repairing a hull being torn apart seemed equivalent to bailing water back into a sinking ship.
"If you hadn't spent so much time uselessly in fighting, we would have the hull already repaired. Focus our efforts on shield repair. If the hull gets down to five percent I'm forcing a landing," I said.
Rats, Bats, Anna and Mechanites scrambled. The shielding equipment was on Engineering deck. With their combined effort they brought considerable expertise, but the Mist bombing had done considerable damage to those systems.
On the Espionage deck near the ramp the Wolves were reloading and getting themselves into shape should we have to land again. It was then the serpents began to hit us, flying through the holes in the hull and setting upon the repair crews with beak and talon.
"Wolves to deck four to repel fliers," Anna called, opening fire with her pistol, shifting from her own repair efforts to fight them off.
The sky was dark in the distance. So far only a few dozen of the winged snakes had made it aboard, but there were hundreds on the way.
The thrusters were still offline. Interfacing them with Hot Stuff earlier really had burned them out, otherwise I could try to use them for defense.
The shields might be up in time, but I couldn't rely on that. Relatively speaking the bottom of the airship was in the best shape. The Mist hadn't bombed their own section and did some repairs during the time we were crashed.
I told Batavius, "I'm going to need just a second of the thrusters. Although I'm certain all measure of thrusting is something you are intimately unfamiliar with."
"You are running low on insults. Sexuality? Truly? It's probably a side-effect of the mental instability caused by your core. So is thinking that I can eke any more life out of a system you destroyed," Batavius said.
"I understand the minds of older women often dwell on such things. Use one of the Powered. I'm sure one of them must be good for something," I said.
"Not every problem is solved by grinding up a human being or otherwise teleporting them into danger."
I had a pretty good record with just such solutions. But she was right, I wasn't seeing it in this case either.
"At the risk of your obsessive mind thinking about sex again, what about explosives? The Mist had a supply, as do the Wolves," I said.
"Maybe," Batavius said after a pause. "If we can direct the force. I may have shielding equipment to help. Where do you want the thrust?"
I gave her the location and she ran off taking her assistant with her.
I took the opportunity to steer the ship towards the approaching fliers. Even if we pulled this off it was going to damage the hull some more, but I didn't see a way around that.