After the rather intense take off of our dragon coach, the actual flight was rather smooth. The dragon would gently flap its wings once in a while but for the most part it rode the air currents and thermal columns. Occasionally we would adjust course in order to hit a rising column of air to gain more lift and I wondered if the creature had an extra sense for being able to read the movements and temperatures of the air or if it was all simply instinctual.

I stood at one of the windows, looking out at the landscape. Far below, pastures and farmlands gave way to thick forest. Occasionally, the trees would part enough to see villages and cities poking out. According to Lena, travel by dragon was something that was generally reserved for the wealthy. There were a handful of dragons in the army that were used for rapidly getting small teams deployed but far too few to be used with any sort of regularity.

All in all, the trip looked like it would be peaceful and I was grateful for the flight. Grateful... and bored. Sergeant Pria, the cyclops, was reading a book on military spellcraft, maybe I could look at it later. Roy and Toadwart were playing a game with cards that involved throwing down cards from their hand and the winner punching the other in the arm. Priss was working on embroidering something, and Hide was flirting with Marybell.

Was I always such an obvious flirt? Come to think of it, Hide was pretty flirty with Marshoo and Ling’er as well. Marybell didn’t seem to mind though. She kept shooting glances over at the Sergeant but would still giggle at Hide’s jokes or flattery. Things would likely go sideways once she was unlocked, but I supposed there was no harm in it at the moment.

I was about to pull out a proxy action figure project I’d been toying with when I found myself suddenly floating within the cabin. I looked down at my feet dangling a foot from the floor. I glanced at the slender, red skinned fingers protruding from my armpits as I was pulled backward onto Lena’s lap.

“Look at me, not at them,” Lena commanded.

She set me down in the seat next to her and guided my head into her lap, physically adjusting me so that I laid on my back, looking up at her. Slowly, she traced my panel lines with the tip of a finger, teasingly covering some of my lights or tapping on my optics.

“You’re quite bold, Princess,” I remarked, attempting to look around at the other passengers.

“You call it boldness, I call it efficiency,” she said, shrugging. “I don’t believe in wasting time with relational jousting and games. If I want something I go after it. Oh! How cute! You’re embarrassed!”

“What?! Wha- what do you mean? I mean, how could you know that?” I stammered.

“All the little lights on your face turned from light blue to pink. It’s adorable. Oh! Now they’re red!”

“Have-- have they been doing this all this time?!”

“Oh I don’t know, maybe? I just noticed now since your face is so close and I have the chance to study it properly,” she said with a smug look on her face. “You’ve seen my embarrassed face several times, it’s only fair.”

“I didn’t... I didn’t think that I could emote at all. I don’t know how to process this new information.”

I felt like my whole world just changed. Were others around me already aware of this and it was just me thinking I was an unreadable machine, stoic and impassive? It wouldn’t have shocked me if Elita knew about it and just didn’t say anything. How... embarrassing. I could feel Ram and Rom laughing at me while working on Sentinel’s new body.

Without thinking, I slapped my hands to cover my face. Lena giggled and started running a finger down my chest, circling the light embedded in the center.

“Heh,” she chuckled, “the lights are turning pink as I trace further down.”

“Stop. Please stop,” I whined.

“I wonder if your whole body will turn red...” she mused, heading for my stomach.

“MaDAM!” I shouted, sitting upright.

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The other passengers that were conscious looked up in surprise. Hide looked embarrassed on my behalf. Lena just laughed like a highschool girl, covering her face and looking away.

“I’m... going for a walk,” I announced.

“Oh Prime, don’t be like that. Besides, where could you possibly go walking?” Lena pouted.

I headed over to the coach door and unlocked a thick deadbolt, pulling the heavy door inward.

“Um, Sir? Please step back and close the door sir. We can open a window if you need air sir,” Marybell tried.

“I’ll be back in a bit,” I said, turning my back to the open sky. “Lena, stay. I gave you boost jets but a fall from this height will kill you.”

I leaned backwards and tipped out of the coach, letting myself fall from the opening and out into the wind. Rapidly, the dragon pulled away from me as the air whipped around me. In my old life, I’d spent a short time in the military as a paratrooper and had jumped from airplanes several times. I couldn’t help but think of those experiences as the ground felt more like an abstract thing far away rather than an inevitable end to my skydive.

“[PowerExtreme(CloudBurst)],” I said, invoking the spell to summon the armor around me.

The CloudBurst armor snapped into place, locking into the anchor points that I’d installed along my frame. The wind turbines attached to my legs sparked to life, slowing my descent and pushing me back up into the sky. While the turbines alone were enough to keep me aloft and provide some flight capabilities, I wasn’t exactly aerodynamic and the dragon would easily leave me in its wake.

The large sections of armor shifted around me as my body contorted. Wings flipped around and spread out as the jet nose cone locked into place. Within seconds, I had converted into a small fighter jet. Gale force winds burst from my turbines, providing me a surge of thrust.

I had fallen pretty far behind and below the dragon but would easily be able to catch up using the [BlinkEngine] that I had access to in this form. I was just about to engage the drive when I spotted a brief flash below me at 5 o’clock. I barrel rolled to the left, narrowly avoiding a bolt of energy. Something had taken a magical shot at me!

I banked hard up and to the left, pulling up into a corkscrew loop. Sky gave way to forest as the horizon flipped. I straightened out my flaps as soon as I aligned with my attacker. A scruffy looking lizardman was riding a wyvern with an equally scruffy looking gnome strapped into the saddle behind him.

The gnome was powering up another spell to fire off at me but lost his concentration when I opened fire with a barrage of steel rounds. The steel tore through the wyvern’s wing, blowing apart the muscle and bones. Whatever threads of meat that held the wing on were severed as I shot past the animal.

A bolt of green energy glanced off of my hull but no damage was taken as more bolts of energy sailed past and around me. I pulled up, bringing my nose about. More wyverns with riders were headed for me, each with a mage providing firepower. Among them, I also saw dragonoids, harpies, and other flight capable species.

There weren’t many of them harassing me, and I couldn’t guess what their goal was until I saw the bulk of their force attacking the dragon coach. It made sense if only the wealthy could travel by dragon. These guys were the aerial equivalent of highwaymen robbing a stagecoach. It was time to channel my inner Skywarp and show these punks how a Seeker fights.

I shot forward using [Blink] to dodge incoming mage blasts, firing my steel rounds. My nearest target was a mage and wyvern rider pair. The mage had cast an aura shield and was blocking my shots, protecting their mount. Instead of veering off, I transformed back to bot mode and slammed into the shield. The green film of energy shattered under my weight and I crashed into the mage. Both the mage and the pilot screamed as I ripped them from their harnesses and tossed them off of the animal. I was reasonably sure that the forest canopy would break their fall.

More mage fire came my way, hitting the wyvern. I shifted back to jet mode and took off. A harpy looked confused, unsure of what she should be doing as a dragonoid yelled orders at her. Like a massive hawk, she tried to rake her talons across me as I passed near her. I shifted back to bot mode, grabbed one of her legs and spun her around, hurling her into the dragonoid issuing the orders.

A blast of some sort of energy hit me in the back and knocked me forward a bit but otherwise did zero damage. I spun to see a surprised angel-type species quickly recover and attempt another spell. Hovering in front of her, I calmly brought my cannon arm up and took aim. Her chanting increased in speed and took on a panicked tone. Before she could complete the spell, a clay round connected with her forehead sending her reeling backward end over end. She tumbled like a ragdoll in the wind, headed for the trees, but I didn’t bother to watch.

A crossbow bolt glanced off of my shoulder while a second one found a gap between my abdominal and side plating where kidneys would be, if I had any. The dragonoid had recovered but I didn’t see the harpy anywhere. Rather than string another bolt, he dropped the crossbow and pulled a short sword with a curved blade that reminded me of a fishhook. Probably pretty good for disemboweling or something.

He cast a [Wind] spell that pushed him forward with a burst of speed, filling his large, leathery wings. I [Blink]ed just to the side of him and slapped the sword from his hand with my left while converting my right to sword mode and holding it at his throat. My cannon arm switched to grapple and I shot out the chain claw, grabbing the sword and pulling it back. It, too, was then held to his throat in a scissor hold.

“Want to keep going?” I asked, casually.

The dragonoid panicked and yanked his head backward. Somehow, he managed to pull off the ‘scrambling and falling over yourself’ gag while in the air. I noticed that the sword and crossbow were actually attached to his harness by way of a lanyard. Made sense. As he fumbled to get away, the lanyard stretched and grew taut. He panicked more. I let go of the sword and it sprung back at him, slashing across a wing and tore the membrane. He screamed and fell sideways with only a single wing able to catch air. Opps.

I pulled my optics away from the sight of the dragonoid flailing and failing to stay aloft. The dragon coach was under siege as another dozen or so fliers swarmed around it. Blasts of energy shot out from the cabin as well as from on top of the dragon, hitting bandits and sending them falling. One managed to end up in the jaws of the dragon itself. Might as well lend a hand.