Alex looked over her shoulder, giddy with the fright of having almost been caught. “Hell, yeah!” she exclaimed. “Guess your plan went off without a hitch, Gill! Dude, you are a freakin’ miracle.”
Gill, who was flying beside Alex, smiled softly as he nodded. “Thank you. It is appreciated.”
Brath groaned loudly enough to be heard over the wind and without the comm. “You two could use a private channel, you know,” Brath suggested.
A laser beam shot past Alex, burning a little bit of her hair. “Holy crap!” she shouted as she turned.
A horde of drones was pouring out of the stables, heading for the riders. The drones were nearly the size of a gnome, but it wasn’t their size that worried her. It was the sheer number of them. There seemed to be dozens.
Jim’s voice crackled over his older comm system. He was laughing as he spoke. “Looks like Gill the Nerd brought a hell storm on us,” he chided.
Gill laughed too. “If you can’t deal with a couple of drones, maybe you shouldn’t be riding with Boundless.”
Over the comm, Brath muttered, “Gods, you two should just get a room already. Alex, what’s the plan?”
Alex pointed to a nearby mountain range. “We can lose them in the mountains. Maybe not Jim, though. Jim, can you keep up with us if we hit top speed?”
He answered, “There’s no way I’m going to be able to match your speed. The mech is too slow.”
“Jollies, you and I are going to run a distraction. The rest of you, cover Jim and head to the mountains.”
Jollies flashed Alex a smile as the two of them peeled off from the rest of the riders, who sped toward the mountain range, making sure to slow down for Jim’s hulking dragon mech.
Alex and Jollies went straight for the drones, using their superior speed to weave out of the way of the lasers. The drones seemed to take a long time to lock onto a target, especially if the target was moving. Alex didn’t need to say anything to Jollies. The pixie zipped and zoomed as fast as she could.
They were still a good distance from the drones, and the air was already beginning to thicken with heat from the lasers. “Do you think we’re going to get busted for this?” Jollies shouted.
Alex swerved to the left, barely avoiding a missile that had flown at her. “If we survive this, we might be in a little bit of trouble,” She laughed.
“You have a really bad habit of getting involved in suicide missions.”
Chine pulled up, absorbing one of the lasers with his chest piece before launching an ether fire ball at the drone that had made the mistake of hitting him. “You know, I’m pretty sure we’ve been on a suicide mission since we first got here,” Alex said. “At least we chose this one.”
Alex and Jollies dived farther into the exploding field of lasers and drones. They were close enough now so the drones were having an even harder time aiming. The drones had been built for long-range combat, and the closer the riders got, the less effective the devices became.
Heading toward the mountain range might not have been the best idea, in hindsight. It would give the drones the advantage. Further, it would funnel the drones into a tight space with the riders, making the range a shooting gallery for whoever got lucky.
Alex determined that it was going to be the riders. She just had to figure out how to ensure they had the advantage.
A drone larger than the rest broke away from the swarm. It was covered in multiple sensors and eyes. The drone did not attack, just popped out of the swarm and watched. “I don’t like the look of that thing,” Alex shouted. “Jollies, can you handle it?”
Jollies didn’t answer but surged forward, working her way around the other drones with a skill far beyond her years and stopping abruptly in front of the drone. She aimed her dragon anchor, and Timber let loose a crack of lightning that split the drone in half.
Alex was flying through the swarm now, the drones trying to figure out the best way to attack. There didn’t seem to be one. Chine was tearing through the drones, and Alex had pulled out her scythe to help cut them down. However, the drones kept coming.
Jollies and Alex pulled up out of the swarm, flying backward so they could keep an eye on the drones. The devices seemed to have lost interest in the other riders. That was good news.
Then the drones did something that alarmed Alex greatly. The drones all stopped together. It was as if they had all received the same order and responded to it at precisely the same time. The drones stayed perfectly still, their red eyes blinking like a stalling computer.
Alex leaned over Chine’s neck to get a better look. “This isn’t good. I’ve seen this happen before; I just don’t know where. But I’ve seen this. I know I have.”
Then it clicked. It was the same uniform movement Alex had seen with her dragon armor. The drones were starting to move like nanotech. That was a very bad thing.
As if the drones were reading Alex’s mind, they melded together, pressing against each other so tightly you couldn’t see where one drone ended and the next began. They formed a complex chain of robot bodies, taking the shape of a cobra.
The drone snake was easily twice the size of Chine. The only dragon on Team Boundless large enough to deal with the drone cobra was Furi, but he was too far ahead with Jim and the rest.
Alex didn’t need to tell Chine what to do. The dragon had already picked it up. He fired another fireball as he retreated, heading toward the mountain range, Jollies racing
