I gave Ebon a small twist before driving the grip to the right and the blade to the left. The top of the guard’s head came away and fell with a soft thud to the back of the cockpit. Inside his skull, I clearly saw the gray matter of a brain. The guard twitched once, and the tube he had been forming with his snout-thing slumped to one side. He was dead.
“Wow,” Skrew breathed as he approached from wherever he’d been hiding. “Such brains. Is probably gross for eating, yes?”
I ignored him, took a second to make sure there weren’t any other guards in sight, and inspected the mech closely.
“I think that’s the power distribution center there.” Beatrix pointed her hammer to the center of the mech’s abdomen.
“No, please,” Skrew whined, hopping onto the mech’s cockpit. “No break for dead,” he pleaded. “Skrew want! Make work. Look!” He waved all four of his arms. “Guard have four arms. Skrew have four arms. Skrew keep, yes? Make kaboom with golem, yes? Please? Smash enemy! Squash flat! Enemy pudding, yes?”
I had mixed feelings about turning Skrew loose with a mech.
Skrew gave me his best impression of puppy-dog eyes and stuck his thin bottom lip out with a frown, but he only managed to make his face a little uglier than usual. Images flashed through my mind of Skrew stomping cities to the ground, buildings on fire all around him, people running in fear, screaming. My brain felt like it had vapor-lock.
On one hand, Skrew had earned my trust over and over again. On the other hand, the machine lying on its back before me was a war machine. It was designed for one thing: destruction. I’d never given Skrew so much responsibility or power.
“I’m not even sure it’ll run again,” I said, hoping to nip the idea in the bud without having to forbid anyone anything.
“Here,” the priestess said as she marched forward and dug through her colorful backpack. “I can get it moving again. It won’t be right until we get somewhere safe, but it’ll be good enough for now.”
I facepalmed.
The priestess didn’t notice. She withdrew her hand from her bag, inspected a black and pointy cylindrica, device, and hopped onto the mech. She got down on her hands and knees and peered into tiny gaps.
“Ah, there it is,” she said after a moment.
She pressed her ear against a spot near the center of the mech’s chest and tapped her black tool against it. Then, she turned 180 degrees and did it again, facing away from me. I couldn't help but notice the shape of her ass against her heavy work pants, though I tried not to stare. I failed with a growing grin. Perhaps I wasn’t trying all that hard.
She opened a panel and tugged a big handful of wires loose. I stepped closer to try and see exactly what she was doing, but a moment later, there was a spark, the cockpit canopy swung open, and the mech hummed to life.
Skrew yipped with joy and began unbuckling the guard from a harness holding the creature in place. A few seconds later, he’d finished dragging the thing’s corpse free, including the separated piece of skull, and was strapping himself in.
“Skrew,” I said. “Be sure you keep the barrels, and any other weapons you find, pointed away from anything you don’t want to destroy. That includes me and anyone who is not absolutely certainly your enemy, okay?”
A faint beep and softly blinking lights drew my attention to the mech’s interior. I walked over to see. Although the outside of the mech looked like it had been cobbled together from leftover parts, the interior was advanced. There were rudimentary sensors, status lights—most of which shone red—and what appeared to be a comm system. If it was true, then Skrew would be the third team member who would be able to communicate with us.
In the back, there was what looked like an overland map of the nearby area. I recognized the location of Brazud, but I didn’t recognize the red, blinking symbol overlaid on it. Would that be good or bad?
“Oh, no, no,” Skrew said. “No shoot Jacob. No shoot Reaver. No shoot Beatrix. No shoot priestess.”
“Good,” I said. “Meet us back at Ish-Nul. We’ll get there as fast as we can, but I have a feeling—”
I was interrupted when Skrew found the self-righting button, and screeching rockets blasted the ground under his mech’s back, standing him upright.
“And take it easy,” I added. “The thing’s in pretty bad shape. If you push it too hard, we’ll have to cut you out of it.”
Skrew nodded, turned, and bounded away. Just moments later, he’d disappeared into the charred remains of the nearby woods, and almost immediately the heavy footfalls faded into the distance.
I turned to the priestess as she discarded her heavy clothes and revealed a petite woman in a close-fitting shirt and tights. Her hair was short and pulled into a tight ponytail near the crown of her head. She was slender, and her breasts were small but well proportioned. She had an air of confidence, bordering on arrogance, which I found charming for someone so unassuming.
She was busy checking me out as well. She started with my face, paused at my chest, then paused again at my groin. Although she had a look of innocence about her, I got the idea that she was anything but that. Her youthful appearance hid the fact that she was more than experienced. I had to remind myself that we weren’t out of danger yet, and reinforcements could be, and likely were, on the way.
Then, her eyes stopped and settled on Ebon, still in my hand. I was worried she might have felt threatened by it, but when I started to put it away, she touched my hand. Hers was
