Except she hated these two creeps soviolently, her only thought was to reduce them to smoldering heapsof mangled metal like they had done to her friends.
To Rem.
Tears of fury and grief streamed down herface, and she wanted to wipe them away, but didn’t dare remove herhands from her gloves even for an instant. She had to keep firing.Waving her arms. Running and sidestepping. Staying alive longenough to inflict new and crueler damage.
Finally they had her. The black skirmisherwas directly in front of her, ready to jump. The gold giant was infront of her too, but off to one side, not firing anymore.
He doesn’t want to hit his skirmisher,she realized unhappily. This is it, Zee. That creep is going totopple you and there’s nothing more you can do about it.
Then she saw movement behind the gold giant,and this time she really did take her hand from her glove and wipeher eyes, just to be sure they weren’t deceiving her.
It was the Quito skirmisher!
“Annyak?” she whispered, not daring tobelieve it.
The intercom crackled and hissed, as thoughthe transmitter in the red skirmisher was struggling to stay aliveas much as the combatants were.
Finally Zia was able to decipher a series ofmeaningless but wonderful words: “Zee—fire—not—yet—not—turn—”
Rem? She had no idea what he wastrying to tell her, but it didn’t matter. He was alive! He was inthe Quito skirmisher—the mech he had always been destined to pilot.Best of all, he was about to jump the gold Alluvan and topple himto the ground, then stomp him into the sand until he screamed formercy.
She loved that strategy, and she wasdefinitely going to help. So she leveled all her cannons at theblack skirmisher and fired, leaving herself wide open toretaliation by the gold giant in exchange for the precious gift ofhis undivided attention.
The black skirmisher jumped backward, stunnedby the unexpected ferocity of her assault, but wasn’t quick enoughto evade damage. Staggering a few paces, he fell to the ground,seemingly destroyed—this time for good.
It was the gold giant who retaliated on hisbehalf by firing twin cannons at Zia, rocking her wildly, slammingher back in her seat. Equipment dislodged from the walls andbattered her, with one strip of metal striking her collarbone,causing her to shriek from reverberating pain.
Keep your balance, she pleaded withher colossus, and right on cue, her jets fired. The giant mechstill buckled down onto one knee, but managed to right himself,just in time for her to see Rem make his jump.
It was the most glorious thing she had everwitnessed. The flash of red metal that was Rem Stone rose so highin the sky, it was more rocket than mech. Then it crashed down ontothe gold Alluvan, catching him completely off guard, sending himreeling to the ground, toppled and humiliated.
There was smoke everywhere. It was pouringfrom the gold mech and the black one. And from the Quitoskirmisher.
Zia was pretty sure it was pouring from hermech too. From the feel of her pounding head, it might have beencoming from inside her helmet for all she knew.
But she didn’t care. All she cared about wasRem. If he had somehow managed to survive that thunderouscollision, she would never need or want another thing in herlife.
But the Quito skirmisher wasn’t moving.Wasn’t firing. The door to its hatch wasn’t opening.
Zia yanked her hands from her gloves andstruggled with her harness, anxious to get out of that seat so shecould help him.
Then she froze as a mechanical voiceannounced ominously, “Alluva has called for a status check.”
* * * *
Rem wasn’t sure whether he had imagined thewords or had actually heard them. Alluva was admitting their mechswere out of commission. It was a miracle so unbelievably sweet, heactually ached with satisfaction at the thought of it.
The battle had ended in a draw. Yet still hewanted more. He wanted the win.
“Zee? Zee, can you hear me? Can you fire? Canyou hear me?”
He had seen her mech sway like a sapling in ahurricane, but she was still on her feet. Smoke was pouring fromher mech, but there were no flames. He had to believe she wasalive. After all of this, it would be too cruel—too impossible—notto be able to celebrate with her.
Reaching for his control stick, he tried tomake his skirmisher fire, even though he knew it could not. Still,he doggedly confirmed the fact that he could not be the one tobreak the draw, even if he could somehow get his mech back on itsfeet and moving.
His screens didn’t work, but he could see theQuito giant through his windshield, and he willed it to fire. Totake a step. To end this, once and for all.
And then it happened. One shaky step forward,then a second one. Then the magnificent silver giant lifted botharms and fired its cannons high into the air as it had done when itfirst emerged from the transport.
Rem started to whoop with glee, but the soundfroze in his throat as he realized the giant was swaying again. Thekickback from its cannons, coupled with the damage to its knee, hadbeen too much for the gleaming colossus, and as Rem watched inhorrified disbelief, the Quito giant crashed to the ground.
* * * *
“Zee! Zee, speak to me. Baby, wake up. Saysomething. Please?”
“Rem?” Zia curled her arms instinctivelyaround his neck, even though she suspected he wasn’t there at all.Not really. It was another romantic dream. She had had so many ofthem lately, starting on the day she first met him, and continuingeven in the suspension chambers on her trip to Malara.
But surely all that had come to an end in theearsplitting crash she was pretty sure had killed her.
“Zee!” He was dislodging her from herpiloting chair, and she wanted to remind him to take the helmet offher head first, then she realized he had already done that.Strange, because her head still felt confined by something. A viseperhaps? The grip of the gold Alluvan giant? Something awful, thatwas for sure.
“The hoverbot’s on its way, Zee. Just hangon.”
“A hoverbot? No, Rem. Too boring.”
He laughed. “Not to fight with. To rescue
