“Scud,” I said. “Hurl?”
“Go. I’m almost reignited.”
I hit overburn, heading back toward the main battle.
“Guys?” Kimmalyn asked. “Guys?”
“I’m on you,” FM said. “I’m on you . . .”
FM managed to chase off the ships, but another looped around to get behind her. When she went into a dodge, one of the three original ships went back on Kimmalyn.
Kimmalyn dodged erratically, and I could imagine her panicking. She wasn’t picking a strategy and sticking to it; she basically just tried every dodging pattern, one after another.
I accelerated, but destructor fire flashed all around Kimmalyn, and her shield crackled, taking a hit. She went in and out of overburn.
I’m not going to catch her. Not in time.
“Quirk, hang on!” I said over the general line. “I’m going to try something. FM, everyone, if you can disengage and follow me—try to do so. Make a regular V with me on point.”
I turned toward the ship chasing FM—which was much closer to me than the ones on Kimmalyn. I didn’t fire, but instead swept around it in a loop, coming centimeters from the ground, sending up a cloud of dust. I then bolted upward and used my lightlance to grab a small chunk of space debris. In a hard turn, I pivoted and launched it up toward Kimmalyn’s chaser. It passed impressively close to one of the Krell.
I pulled out of my loop, and FM fell in behind me. Jorgen and Arturo broke off their engagement for a moment and did likewise.
“What is this for?” Jorgen asked over the line. “What are we doing?”
“Saving Quirk,” I said. Hopefully.
It depended on whether my theory was right. Tense, I turned upward and hit my overburn. For a brief moment, we held the formation.
Above, the Krell chasing Kimmalyn broke off and turned downward—toward me.
“Cobb warned that the Krell try to destroy our command structure,” I said. “They take out flightleaders first, if they can identify them, and—”
Destructor fire sprayed around me.
Right.
I pulled into the most complex set of dodging loops I knew, the Barrett sequence. An impressive four Krell found their way to chasing me. That protected Kimmalyn—but four was more than I could handle. Each time I tried to pull upward or break away, a ship or two managed to cut me off. My Poco rattled as I spun and dodged, and destructors hit my shields.
Scud. Scud. Scud!
“I’m coming, Spin,” Hurl said. “Hang on.”
I kept dodging, destructors narrowly missing me. A part of my brain registered Arturo downing a Krell ship. How long had we been fighting? Had we really only shot down two? Where were those reinforcements?
“More ships,” Jorgen said.
“Finally,” I said with a grunt as I banked.
“Not ours. Theirs.”
My turn took me straight into them—another flight of six Krell interceptors. I spun through them, and somehow avoided colliding with any. In the chaos, I finally managed to get some altitude.
My little trick must have really convinced them I was important, because three stuck on me—firing full out—as I screamed into the air. My proximity sensors blared, and my shields—
A shot hit me, causing my shield to crackle, then go out. Warning lights lit up all over my control panel.
I continued straight up, rotating my acclivity ring so it pointed down behind my ship. I just had to gain enough height—
An explosion flashed behind me. The shock wave rocked my unshielded Poco. I breathed a quiet prayer to whichever gunner was manning those AA guns when—in another enormous blast—a second Krell ship vanished from my proximity sensors.
The last Krell ship broke off, diving out of range. I leaned back against my seat, sweating, head pounding, lights flashing on my console. Alive. I was alive.
“Hurl!” FM said over the line. “What are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” Hurl said with a grunt. “I’m going to get this one. The shields are almost down.”
I quickly rotated my ship, tipping to see the battlefield alive with action beneath. Kimmalyn—I was pretty sure it was her—had flown upward after me, to get out of range. The rest of the battle was a mess of Krell ships and destructor fire.
There. I spotted Hurl chasing an enemy while being tailed by a swarm of three Krell. I’d been forced to leave her without a wingmate.
I ignored my blinking shield light—no time to reignite—and dove back down toward the battlefield. I unleashed destructor fire toward Hurl’s tails, but I was too far away and my shots were way off. The enemy didn’t break from their chase.
Hurl took a hit. And another.
“Hurl, pull up!” I said.
“I’ve almost got him. We’re never going to break any records by being cowards.” She fired, scoring the shields of the Krell in front of her.
I hit overburn, tearing after them. But dives were dangerous on the body, and as soon as my GravCaps cut, I felt the g-forces in my eyes, forcing the blood up into my head.
I gritted my teeth, vision going red as I reached the group of Krell. I hit my IMP by touch. It couldn’t take down my shield, after all. It was already gone.
I didn’t see how many of them I caught. I was too close to doing myself permanent harm. I leveled out, my head pounding, my eyes aching. As my vision returned, I started my shield reignition and craned my head, trying to search for Hurl. Was she safe?
“I’m taking heavy fire!” Arturo said. “I need help!”
“Reinforcements are here!” Jorgen said.
Everything was chaos. I could barely comprehend the mess, though for the moment—remarkably—nobody seemed to be targeting me.
An explosion flashed off to my right.
“Got him!” Hurl said.
There. Hurl had shot down her target—but two Krell ships were still tailing her.
“Pull up, Hurl!” I said. “You’ve still got tails. Get up into the range of the AA guns!”
She turned upward, listening—finally. Two ships chased her. I ignited my shield, then turned after her, trying to help, but I’d lost a lot of ground.
“Shields down,” Hurl said with a grunt.
“Quirk!” I said, desperate, flying—too far away—toward my friend. “Pick them off. I IMPed that group. Their shields are down too. Fire!”
“I . . .” Kimmalyn sounded rattled. “I . . .”
“You can do it, Quirk! Just like in the sims. Come on!”
A flash of light from a charged destructor sliced the air above us, firing toward the ships tailing Hurl.
And missed.
Hurl took a hit a second later, and her wing exploded, scattering pieces. The blue glow underneath her ship started to flash, the light flickering.
No . . .
Hurl’s ship plummeted. From a distance, she was like any other piece of debris.
“Hurl!” I screamed. “Eject! Get out!”
“I . . .” Her voice was soft; I could barely hear it through the warnings going off on her dash and mine. “I can control it . . . I can steer . . .”
“Your acclivity ring is damaged!” I said. “You’re losing altitude. Eject!”
“Not. A. Coward,” she said. “Brave to the—”