“It’s a spaceship, but everyone tries to fly like they’re in a plane. There’s so much more possible if you’re willing to get creative,” Ellenton said, opening up with the Borrelly’s guns and targeting the right-most shuttle first. Its shields flashed to life beneath the attack, and whereas the shots the shuttles had fired earlier were mostly off target, Ellenton’s were all on the mark.
Both opposing shuttles returned fire, but only for a moment. The right-most shuttle’s shields went down, then its cockpit was ruptured a moment later as the Borrelly’s fire tore into it. The shuttle slowed, the pilot most certainly dead, and was out of the chase in moments.
“One down,” Ellenton said, face firm with concentration. “One to go.”
Shield Integrity: 81%
Shield Integrity: 75%
The other shuttle was still firing, but it seemed Ellenton had a plan for that too.
Decoupled mode deactivated.
Kaiden was thrown full off his feet as the engines snapped around back to their usual position and the afterburners kicked in. The Borrelly groaned like it was going to tear itself apart under the strain of stopping so suddenly. The pursuing shuttle wasn’t able to adjust quick enough and ended up shooting past them.
Ellenton let off the afterburners and spun around, now behind the last remaining enemy.
The shuttle didn’t hang around to find out how that would end. Instead, its afterburners flared to life as it rocketed away as fast as possible.
“Good decision,” Ellenton said, raising her fingers from the weapons’ trigger and smirking.
“Hell yeah!” Titus shouted, pumping a fist in the air, and Kaiden couldn’t blame him. Found himself cheering right along.
After the groans and blasts and roaring engines of the ship-to-ship fight, suddenly everything seemed too quiet. Kaiden’s pulse was still pounding in his ears, but the fight was done.
Ellenton watched the retreating opponent to make sure they weren’t going to circle back around, then laughed.
“Come back when you know what you’re doing.”
Chapter Thirty
Returning to the Veritas II had never felt so good. Aside from its thick hull, protective shielding, and guns big enough to deter most attackers, it also had a medbay. A medbay that Kaiden and Titus were putting to very good use after the beating they’d received in Boyd City.
“Note to self: buy stimpacks. We’ve been so busy we haven’t picked any up since I don’t know when. Could have cost us back there,” Titus said, raising a hand and staring at it as white light flooded around him.
The medbay had come equipped with two healing stations, which were a sort of bed that could fold up automatically to become chairs. Wrapped around each bed – and their occupants – was a series of smooth, metal rings, the underside of which was equipped with an array of sensors and lights and who knew what else. Kaiden certainly didn’t. Whatever the tech was, it did its job.
The rings were glowing and humming now, bathing Kaiden and Titus in soft white light that scanned back and forth over their bodies. With each second he spent under the light, Kaiden watched his health replenish. Normally, health in Nova recovered slowly over time when out of combat, or could be regenerated via a stimpack or a medic. The medbay was a mid-to-late-game unlock that provided any ship of adequate ability to serve as something of a mobile clinic. No one had used the medbay yet, but now, wrapped in its healing embrace, Kaiden was thankful Zelda’d had the foresight to acquire the upgrade back when they’d been on Bernstein’s scavenger hunt.
Kaiden was distracted as a big notification appeared in his vision.
**Full System Alert! Full System Alert!**
This is a Warden Corps All-Frequencies Broadcast. The Warden Corps is seeking the following fugitives currently believed to be in-game:
Player name: Kaiden
Player name: Zelda
Player name: Titus
Player name: Thorne
A bounty of 1,500,000 credits will be awarded to any player who provides information leading to the fugitives’ capture. An additional bounty of 700,000 credits will be awarded to any player who engages or delays the fugitives until a warden is able to Shackle them.
“Another one,” he said, seeing everyone else’s eyes go distant as they read the broadcast. “Apparently Werner isn’t happy about our escape.”
“So he was back, and on a different account? And a much stronger one, from the sound of it,” Thorne said. She cleared the top of a table, pushing the various medical supplies off to one side, then sat down on it, her expression a mixture of pondering and worried.
“Werner can’t stand Nova. For the short time I worked with him, he made it very clear the real world is the only place worth bothering with. If he’s in-game, it’s because he was ordered to be, and that’s telling.”
“Telling how?” Kaiden asked, trying to meet her eye but having to duck away as the white light scanned up his face and blinded him for a moment.
“It means the Party, and Moran specifically, are seriously concerned. They’re redirecting real-world resources into Nova. Pulling Werner off the streets? Forcing people to power-level accounts for him and the rest of Moran’s thugs?” She shook her head. “They’re feeling the heat. Can’t find us in the real world—”
“Shoutout to trusty ol’ swamp bunker,” Titus added. “You’re mildewy and smell a bit weird, but you’re doing a great job keeping us alive.”
“–so they’re focusing all of their attention on Nova,” Thorne finished, smiling a bit at Titus’ spur-of-the-moment ode to the swamp bunker.
“Careful,” Zelda said, giving Titus a look. “The less Ellenton knows of where we are, the better.”
“Look at this ship!” Ellenton slammed into the other side of the medbay window. It looked in from the
