My God, they were never really afraid ofme, she realized angrily. They always knew I was anuntrained, undisciplined foghead. If I had shown up in the firstbattle, maybe they would have been concerned. But I wasn’t goodenough then, so five days later, they know I still can’t be goodenough.
The plan was falling apart. Rem and Carrakhad assumed that the Quito giant would impress the Alluvans, butunless Daniel Quito climbed out of his grave and showed up onJairqua, the giant was useless.
Except, it was possible Daniel Quitohad climbed out of his grave. Wasn’t it? Not into the bodyof Zia, but into Rem Stone. Wasn’t that what Carrak had said on thetransport?
All Rem needed was a little distraction, andif the Alluvans thought Zia incapable of that, they clearlyhadn’t been watching the right tabloid vids.
Focusing completely on the gold giant, whowas now barely within range, Zia fired her cannons again, hittinghim squarely in the head. He reeled, and while he wasn’t in dangerof toppling, he was visibly disoriented, right up to the momentwhen he reoriented himself in Zia’s direction.
That’s right, golden boy. The action’sover here if you’ve got the guts for it.
The Alluvan came at her so fast, it was as ifhe had a “run” mode on his mech, and Zia yelped as she dashed offto the side with him in pursuit. Still she managed to fire two moreshots, both to his torso, both dead center. Terrified, she dared toglance away from the main viewer for a second, just in time to seeAnnyak—in the Quito skirmisher—collide in midair with the blackAlluvan skirmisher, while the gunmetal giant fired mercilessly ather.
None of the Alluvans noticed Rem sneak intoposition behind the gray colossus. He jumped into the air, rainingfire down onto the huge mech, blinding him, then crashing into him,toppling him to the ground.
The gold giant whirled toward the disaster,but was too far away to effectively offer assistance. All he coulddo was stare at the rubble that had once been four gloriousmechs.
The Quito skirmisher lay in a motionlessheap.
The gunmetal giant? Never had a mech lookedso dead.
The black Alluvan skirmisher had been flungto the side and was twitching without really moving.
And Rem’s green Malaran skirmisher? It wasthe most mangled of them all.
“Rem!” Zia wailed. “Annyak! Are you okay? Oh,God . . .”
To Zia’s horror, the gold giant began to runtoward her friends, clearly intending to finish them off. Withoutthinking, she raced after him. When he was almost within range ofthe Quito skirmisher, Zia began firing—again and again andagain—with a fury she had never known she could muster.
He turned, seemingly incredulous again, thenpointed at her the way the black skirmisher had pointed at Annyakat the beginning of the battle.
He was going to kill Zia now.
And even worse, he had help. Because theblack Alluvan skirmisher was on its feet again, and while a littleshaky, it had clearly noted where a new onslaught was needed, andit was closing in fast behind its golden comrade, ready to put anend once and for all to the legendary Quito mystique.
Chapter18
Rem’s ears were clanging and his eyes wereseeing double, but at least he was alive. He couldn’t say as muchfor his green skirmisher, which was sparking and flaming all aroundhim. Debris and smoke filled the pilot compartment. Nothingworked—not the view screen, not the cannons, and certainly not themechanical limbs.
The intercom was gone too. Through thewindshield, Rem could see that Annyak was even worse off than hewas. In fact, she was almost certainly dead.
And Zia? She was going to be dead in a fewseconds, too, but for the moment, she was alive, firing like acrazy woman, running at the gold giant as if it had just murderedher entire family. Which he supposed in a sense was true.
He needed to help her, even though it seemedimpossible. Maybe if he ran over to her, he could climb inside theQuito giant and help her strategize. But could he get there intime?
The red skirmisher is a lot closer. MaybeAnnyak’s intercom is still functional, he decided as heunfastened his harness and began digging in the rubble, looking forhis flight bag, which contained his blaster and his oxygenator.You can help Zee strategize from there.
He finally spotted the bag, but it wascrushed under a mangled panel, completely inaccessible. Frustrated,Rem yanked open the mech’s emergency cabinet, but there was nooxygenator there.
Of course not. They love breathingthis foul air! But it’s gonna kill you if you dare go out init.
Reminding himself that he was dead anyway—andat least death-by-particulates was a slow one, allowing him to helpZia in the meantime—Rem grabbed a sheet of sterile cloth from themedical kit. Then he forced open the hatch door, took a deepbreath, plastered the cloth over his mouth and nose, and sprintedthe fifty yards between himself and the red Quito skirmisher.
* * * *
Zia could hear herself screaming in terrorand agony, but didn’t even try to get it under control. No onecould hear her anyway, and at least it was proof she was stillalive. That and the fact that she kept firing. And firing. Runningand then firing. Screaming and firing. It all blurred together in afrenzied free-for-all that she could only pray was making ashambles of the Alluvans’ strategy.
Through it all, her giant was performing likea true hero. Every shot connected with the Alluvan colossus or theblack skirmisher as if by magic. The colossus was firing back, butthe skirmisher seemed unable to fire anything. No cannons, noblasters. That was the good news.
But he could move, and he could jump. Sheknew, because he was doing both, circling her, trying to get intothe perfect position to nail her, while the gold giant assaultedher with massive bursts of cannon fire. For all that Zia and hergiant were agile—especially compared to the gold giant—they simplycouldn’t move like a skirmisher, and she was almost ready to stoptrying. She didn’t need to die in this
