Beatrix tried to get up but caught some sparks in her tentacles and ducked. Her tentacles curled in upon themselves, becoming a nest of writhing snakes. Reaver and Yaltu were shooting the mech, but Beatrix was pinned down. I had to trust Reaver and the others to handle the situation while I dealt with my own mech.
I still had the advantage because I hadn’t shown him what I could do. So far as he knew, I was a dangerous man with a sword. Also, I was just a human. I charged with all my strength, and the pilot continued firing, but wasn’t nearly fast enough to get me in his crosshairs. I jumped at the last second and slammed the energy shield with a two-handed swing.
When I hit, I staggered the machine, causing it to take several steps back and cartwheel its arms to keep from falling. I followed the hit with several quick slashes from Ebon and weakened the shield enough to break through it. Then, there was nothing between me and the mech but air and opportunity.
I sheathed Ebon and grabbed the mech’s leg just as a hidden panel in its chest opened up, revealing what looked like a flamethrower. I stuck out my right leg and leveraged the big machine over my hip, sending it crashing hard to the ground on its canopy.
I slashed again and shielded my eyes against a sudden shower of blue sparks.
A loud clang told me that Beatrix and Reaver were fighting back. Yaltu was providing cover fire while Skrew yelled obscenities at the pilot. They had their mech handled, it was time I ended mine.
I drew Ebon, climbed onto the back of my target, and thrust the blade deep into the mech’s back.
The armor was just as tough on its back, but after a couple of shoves, Ebon hit an open spot, and a scream from somewhere within told me I’d found the pilot.
I turned to see the others still struggling with their mech, so I grabbed the minigun from the defeated mech at my feet. I tore the weapon from the arm with a decisive tug, but the power inside the gun went out.
“A little help here!” Reaver yelled.
I turned the massive minigun over in my hands and almost discarded it. Without power, it was useless, but I did have something that could provide power. The Fex, the little marble-sized power source I’d taken from the Enforcer. It was how he’d powered his plasma shield the Enforcers used. I removed an oversized backup battery from the minigun and slipped the Fex into the slot. The marble power source was too small to fit, but it latched onto the weapon like a magnet. The minigun’s cables that had been attached to the mech’s arm wrapped around the Fex like a bundle of rubber bands.
Then the minigun whirred to life.
“Take cover!” I yelled. My friends looked at me in confusion before their eyes widened at my new weapon. It took them half a second to scatter behind boxes.
The surviving mech turned to face me, but I had it in the sights of my new weapon. I aimed the minigun and used my whole hand to pull the oversized trigger. The multi-barreled weapon spun so hard, I forced myself into a half-crouch to keep a stable stance. There was no recoil, but the blastwaves rattled the walls and made my bones shiver.
Energy lanced away from my weapon in a white torrent. It tore into the last surviving mech’s energy shield and shorted it out in seconds. I kept my hand squeezed on the minigun’s trigger as projectiles peppered the mech. A small explosion and a lot of sparks announced that it was destroyed and that its pilot was dead.
I removed the Fex from the minigun and dropped the smoking weapon to the ground. It was broken beyond repair, but the Fex didn’t look any different.
“Well, aren’t you a handy little thing,” I said to the Fex before I pocketed it again. “Everyone who can fly one of these things, grab a hoverbike,” I ordered the others. “Those who can’t, get on the back. We need to leave now!”
Reaver tossed me a matrix. “Right behind you, Paladin.”
“Don’t think you can leave me behind,” Beatrix said.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” I said as I dropped the matrix into a hoverbike’s panel. It powered up and lifted from the ground.
Chapter Thirty-Two
My stolen hoverbike accelerated smoothly once it warmed up. At first, it vibrated a bit, and I was reminded of old movies I’d watched when such modes of transportation never left the ground and relied on the explosions of flammable oils.
We moved of the barracks and through the streets, over, around, and, sometimes, through the stalls of vendors. The streets were chaos. Aliens screamed, dove for cover, and even threw things at us. I ducked under guylines and turned an entire food stall into splinters as I plowed through it.
Reaver had Yaltu and Skrew with her. She wouldn’t be able to maneuver as well, but that left Beatrix and me free to fight anyone who might get in her way.
The streets along the city’s edges appeared to be ad-hoc rather than planned. Sometimes, they ended in dead-ends. Other times, they snaked between permanent buildings, stalls, and what looked like a somewhat-recent wreckage of a starship. The green-metal hull was riddled with burn-throughs and carbon scoring. That one hadn’t gone down of its own accord. Someone had shot it down. Likely, it had also fought back.
“Danger close!” I called out as guards closed in from the side streets to block our progress.
Beatrix twisted her accelerator hard, and she narrowly avoided deadly bursts of red energy. The enemy fire burned a hole through a stall, a hapless customer,
