“But they’re protecting it,” Reaver interrupted. “They know we know about the controllers. We can’t go around them, Jacob.”
“Yeah,” I said. “And they can’t go around us. Let’s go kick their asses.”
Chapter Fifteen
Thaz’red stood in the crosshairs of Xeno attack ships. I knew full well from my experience with these fuckers that the huge controller ship could aim with sufficient precision to shoot somewhere in the city, though they might not have been able to aim at specific neighborhoods or buildings. If we failed to destroy all twenty ships, the Ish-Nul and the people would be killed or enslaved. Not to mention Brazud and all the other cities, towns, and villages on Druma.
I focused my attention on our enemy. No mercy.
As we closed with the new group of ships, I took a little time to coach my team and help them mentally prepare for what was sure to be a tough battle.
“Remember,” I told them, “treat the little ones as targets of opportunity. Don’t waste your time chasing them if you have a bigger one in your sights.”
“They’re going to come in fast. They can’t have huge weapons, but there’s fifteen of them, so we’re not getting out of this one unscathed. Just remember—don’t give up. They won’t let you surrender peacefully. If they don’t kill you, you’ll end up as one of their zombie slaves. And I think we’d all be happy to never find out how exactly they turn their captives into… that.”
“Skrew is scary,” the vrak whined.
“We all are,” Nyna said.
It wasn’t true, but I didn’t want to argue. Shared experiences helped build camaraderie among troops. But I wasn’t frightened. I was angry, but I had it under control. I had no intention of showing these bastards any mercy. They hadn’t shown my crew any when my crew had been enslaved and pressed into attacking us. These creatures were ruthless, completely devoid of any sense of right and wrong, and unworthy of kindness.
I’d learned a valuable secret about the Xeno—the fact that they used a hive mind to control their troops. If I could get back to Mars, I could share the information with the government. They could use it to find a way to jam whatever signals the Xeno were using to communicate. Then, we could roll into a fleet of them, destroy the few ships with free-minded pilots, and take our time with the rest.
I checked my little screen. I’d figured out how to read most of the messages and icons during the last fight, though some of it was still a mystery to me.
“Contact in 30 seconds,” I said. “Don’t forget to lead your targets. Shoot far ahead of the little ones to catch their line of flight. Otherwise, focus on the big ones.”
“Here we go!” Nyna cried out, speeding up.
Mere moments later, a dark, swirling cloud appeared in the red sunset. It looked like a flock of birds, the way it swirled and flowed. A moment later, we were among them. They were silent blurs, indistinct shapes. The impacts from their weapons fire sounded like someone was smashing a hammer against an ancient steel trash can.
Our ship rattled and vibrated when we opened up with our guns. All we could do was fire into the cloud and hope for the best. Two small explosions followed by corkscrewing lines of fire told us we’d hit two of the little ones.
“Gah!” Skrew wailed.
He emerged from a belly-gun as a powerful breeze began to blow little bits of dust and debris around the cabin of the ship.
“Stupid bug make Skrew’s gun break! Did pop hole in ship! Is very win! Will kill ugly bug!”
“That’s the spirit!” I laughed.
A second later, the wind died down and stopped.
“I sealed the busted gun off,” Nyna said. “Shit, there’s another one. But we can’t lose any more. We don’t have any spares, and they’re all occupied now.”
She grunted and began to fly erratically.
“Steer if you need to,” I told her, “but stay on course. The little ones want you to try to outrun them. That’s their purpose. They’re going to try to scare you and ruin our attack so that they and the others can pick us apart. Don’t fall for it!”
Nyna growled and jerked the ship hard toward the triangular vessel, veered off-course, and put us back on course again.
I twisted my gun around as I searched for a target but didn’t find any besides the controller ship, which was still out of range. “Where are they?” I asked.
“They’re all behind us,” Nyna said. “Turn around and re-engage?”
“No, keep going. We’ll make a strafing run against the controller ship and see what it’s made of. With any luck, we’ll destroy it on the first pass.”
I didn’t think it would happen, of course, but my job wasn’t to play for the other team. It was to motivate my own.
“Here we go!” Nyna said.
A moment later, all four remaining guns opened up and began peppering the surface of the target. I shot at anything that drew my attention. Little bulges and divots along the top of the ship’s hull could be anything from a manufacturing flaw to a nerve center of the organic vessels. Rows of raised ridges could be just that—ridges—or they could be veins carrying vital nutrients and energy from one part of the vessel to another.
In a second, it was all over, and Nyna was turning to line us up for another pass. The Xeno, however, had other plans in mind.
“The little ones are coming back,” Nyna warned. “Crescents are right behind them.”
We turned and took several more small hits from the little ships as they flew past us. Two of the larger ones maneuvered directly into our path as our yellow hyphens split the darkening sky among them.
“They’re playing
